 |
The Wizard of Oz: The
Official 75th Anniversary Companion
by William Stillman and Jay Scarfone - HarperCollins
Publisher
|
One of
my fondest memories of childhood was when my parents would dress my brother
Chris and me in our pajamas, pile us in the family station wagon and head out
to spend a delightful evening at the local drive-in theatre. It was like a giant adventure that would find
my brother and I struggling to stay awake throughout an entire Planet of the
Apes triple feature. These experiences
helped form my love of movies
.
Once a
mainstay of American culture drive-ins have largely become a thing of the past.
I suppose with all of the changes in the way we experience movies today,
drive-ins just don’t have a place in our society.
I still
movies. They are such a wonderful art form. Movies combine so many disparate
and yet similar elements all together to tell a story. There are movies I have
seen countless times and will continue to do so. I especially love old movies.
To me they represent a window into our past. They may not accurately represent
how life was at the time, but they help us know how Americans wanted their life
to be. And there is just something about
those old movies that seems to be lost in movies of today.
The art
of making motion pictures began in the 1890's, but the decades of the 1930’s and
1940's are considered the “Golden Age of Hollywood.” I for one agree with that
label.
“The decade marked by the Great
Depression and leading into World War II is remembered as Hollywood’s Golden
Age. During this period, new genres were formed, new stars were born, and the
studio system rose to mammoth status. The eight major studios, each known for
its distinctive style and stars, collectively produced 95% of all American
films. More than 7,500 features were released by the studios between 1930 and
1945 to eager audiences. More than 80 million people took in a least one film
per week at the height of the cinema’s popularity. This period also saw the
introduction of the Production Code, B-Films, and the first animated feature of
Snow White. Hollywood’s Golden Age began to decline in the late 1940’s due to
the introduction of television, Hollywood blacklisting, and the ability of
actors to become ‘free agents.’ A final blow to the industry occurred in 1948,
when antitrust suits were filed against the major studios.” [1]
As I
began to work on this entry into the blog I thought what would be the best
image to accompany it. I usually find the picture and then write the text. In
this case I had the story and needed an image that would go with it. It was
then I remembered an image that I saw some years back of Judy Garland during
the filming of The Wizard of Oz. I thought it would be perfect. I had thousands
of classic Hollywood images to choose from that might have fit, but this is
just a personal favorite. I can olny assume it was taken by a staff photographer working for MGM at the time.
I love
this image for so many reasons. Not the least of which is the wonderful
juxtaposition and the fantastic narrative it tells. I think you would be hard
pressed to find a person in this country that has not seen this The Wizard of
Oz at least once. It is a timeless American classic.
A great
photo is not always one that is well known in and of itself. I can also be one
that gives you another perspective on something near and dear to your heart.
Great blog site Mike, very artistic and easy to follow. You sir, do paint a vivid narrative of each photo. I will continue to view your site to see how you narrate the next one.
ReplyDelete