Wizard of Oz Original Script Pages to be Auctioned

Posted on November 12, 2018 at 8:00 am

Profiles in History is auctioning off some of Hollywood’s greatest treasures, including handwritten pages from the original script for “The Wizard of Oz,” by Noel Langley. The full catalogue has an astonishing collection of Hollywood memorabilia, including:

Greta Garbo Adrian-designed coronation cape from Queen Christina.
Irving Thalberg’s “Best Picture” Academy Award from Mutiny on the Bounty.
Groucho Marx “S. Quentin Quale” tailcoat worn in Go West.
Margaret Hamilton “Wicked Witch of the West” witch’s hat from The Wizard of Oz.
Charlie Chaplin “Hynkel” military dress uniform jacket from The Great Dictator.
Lady Oona Chaplin vintage couture Christian Dior “Palmyre” evening gown & shoes worn on opening night of A King in New York.
Clark Gable “Mike Brannan” miniature effects race car from To Please a Lady.
Gloria Swanson “Norma Desmond” evening jacket and “Best Actress” Golden Globe from Sunset Boulevard.
Hero Nautilus crewman “baldy style” dive helmet from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Screen used “Lawgiver” statue from Dr. Zaius’ office in The Planet of the Apes.
Sean Connery “James Bond 007” signature suit from You Only Live Twice.
Barbra Streisand “Dolly Levi” costume from Hello, Dolly!
William Shatner “Captain Kirk” Starfleet tunic with insignia and rank braid from Star Trek: The Original Series.
Type-2 Phaser pistol from Star Trek: The Original Series.
Mark Hamill “Luke Skywalker” production used lightsaber from the first Star Wars from the collection of set decorator Roger Christian.
Screen used Stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars: The Force Awakens signed by Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and other cast members, with Lucasfilm letter of authenticity.
Sigourney Weaver “Ripley” signature combat costume ensemble from Aliens.
Original Sylvester Stallone “Rambo” survival knives from First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Part II.
Robin Wright “Princess Buttercup” signature red dress from The Princess Bride.
Arnold Schwarzenegger “Terminator” hero modified Winchester shotgun from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Hero metal rocket pack and costume ensemble from The Rocketeer with Disney documentation.

To quote Humphrey Bogart in “The Maltese Falcon,” “This is the stuff that dreams are made of.” Place your bids!

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Noel Langley and the Original Script for “The Wizard of Oz”

Posted on July 19, 2014 at 3:47 pm

Wicked author Gregory Maguire has a wonderful essay on the Smithsonian website about the original screenplay for what is probably the greatest family movie of all time, The Wizard of Oz.

By coincidence, I just finished a book by the author of that screenplay, Noel Langley. The book is The Land of Green Ginger and it has a lot of the charm and whimsy Langley brought to his adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s novel. Maguire writes:

The differences between this version and the final shooting script? Hardly a page escapes without crossed-out speeches and handwritten substitutions. Plot points abound that are later abandoned (the Wicked Witch of the West has a son named Bulbo?). Only a couple of scenes refer to singing, and none of the famous lyrics appear. What would become “Over the Rainbow,” which I call America’s unofficial national anthem, is referred to as “the Kansas song.”

What this draft achieves is the compression of choice elements from a best-selling, although rambling, children’s book. In the original novel, the Wicked Witch of the West dies on Page 155, but Dorothy doesn’t leave Oz until 100 pages on. If Langley stuffs in extraneous characters for ballast (a Kansas farmhand and his sweetheart among them), he also abbreviates the trajectory of the story so that the demise of the Wicked Witch of the West kick-starts Dorothy’s return to Kansas.

The American author-illustrator Maurice Sendak believed that The Wizard of Oz film was a rare example of a movie that improves on the original book. I agree with him. Langley consolidates two good witches into one. He eliminates distracting sequences involving populations Dorothy encounters after the Wizard has left in his balloon—the china people (porcelain figures) and the Hammer-Heads (a hard-noggined race).

No one has engaged more deeply with the Oz story than Maguire, whose book about the Wicked Witch of the West inspired the Broadway smash hit. What I thought most interesting were his thoughts on Langley’s choice to make the visit to Oz a dream. Well worth a read. Here’s “Frozen’s” Idina Menzel singing “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g4ekwTd6Ig

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