"orchestrated for a traditional pit orchestra instrumentation: woodwinds, brass, percussion, piano and strings, with a minimum of 22 musicians. Additional dance music is included, and the Wizard takes Dorothy home in a rocket ship instead of a hot air balloon. Revivals have featured Margaret Hamilton, Cass Daley, Mary Wickes and Phyllis Diller as the Wicked Witch of the West. Cathy Rigby has played Dorothy at The Muny. Among Gabrielson's many additions are a skeletal butler, ""Tibia"", serving the Wicked Witch. Other new characters include Joe, Banana Man, Queen of the Butterflies, Old Lady, Lord Growlie, the Wizard's daughter Gloria, and"
"Margaret Hamilton (actress) Margaret Brainard Hamilton (December 9, 1902 – May 16, 1985) was an American film character actress best known for her portrayal of Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's classic film ""The Wizard of Oz"" (1939). A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actress in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image. In later years, Hamilton made frequent cameo appearances on television sitcoms and commercials. She also gained recognition for her work as an advocate of causes designed to benefit children and animals, and"
"the role of the Wicked Witch of the West, at The Municipal Opera Association of St. Louis, in the first ever stage production of ""The Wizard of Oz"" to use the songs from the 1939 MGM film. Evelyn Wyckoff played Dorothy Gale, Donald Burr played the Tin Man, Edmund Dorsey played the Cowardly Lion, Lee Dixon played the Scarecrow, Patricia Bowman played the Sorceress of the North, aka Glinda, and John Cherry played the Wizard of Oz. Miss Raymond made her first motion picture in 1920. The feature, ""Dangerous To Men"", starred Viola Dana and Milton Sills. She next starred"
"(1922 version), Ronald Colman (1937 version), Stewart Granger (1952 version), and Peter Sellers (1979 version). An early and unusual example of double casting was the 1925 silent film ""Lady of the Night"", in which two women were portrayed by Norma Shearer to spotlight their very different social classes, and nobody took any notice of their identical appearance. In ""The Wizard of Oz"" (1939), the actors who played the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow also played farmhands in scenes set in Kansas. Margaret Hamilton played both the roles of Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West,"
"actress flourished during the 1930s, including a role with Paul Muni in ""The Life of Emile Zola"" (1937). During pre-production of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's classic ""The Wizard of Oz"" (1939), an early idea was to have the Wicked Witch of the West portrayed as a slinky, glamorous villainess in a black, sequined costume, inspired by the Evil Queen in Walt Disney's ""Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"" (1937). Sondergaard originally was cast as the witch and was photographed for two wardrobe tests, both of which survive. One was as a glamorous wicked witch, and another as a conventionally ugly wicked witch. After"
"Clara Blandick Clara Blandick (born Clara Blanchard Dickey; June 4, 1876 – April 15, 1962) was an American stage and screen actress best known for her role as Aunty Em in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's ""The Wizard of Oz"" (1939). As a character actress, she often played eccentric elderly matriarchs. She was born Clara Blanchard Dickey, the daughter of Isaac B. and Hattie (née Mudgett) Dickey, aboard the ""Willard Mudgett"" – an American ship captained by her father (named after one of her maternal relatives), and docked in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. She was delivered by Captain William H. Blanchard, whose ship, ""Wealthy"
"Billie Burke Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke (August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970) known professionally as Billie Burke, was an American actress who was famous on Broadway, on radio, early silent film, and subsequently in sound film. She is best known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the movie musical ""The Wizard of Oz"" (1939). Burke was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1938 for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in ""Merrily We Live"" and is also remembered for her appearances in the ""Topper"" film series. Her high-pitched, wavering,"
"role as the Wicked Witch of the West in ""The Wizard of Oz"" (1939). At the end of the film, Buck says to Elaine, ""You really are a witch, aren't you?"", to which she replies, ""Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies."" When occultist uncle Dr. Plato Zorba wills a huge ramshackle house to his nephew Cyrus and his impoverished family, they are shocked to find the house is haunted. Their new furnished residence comes complete with a creepy housekeeper, Elaine, plus a fortune in buried treasure and 12 horrifying ghosts. His family soon discovers that these"
"television movies and comedy shows, and such feature films as ""The Wiz"" and ""The Cotton Club"". Carpenter suffered cardiac arrest and died in New York on May 14, 1997. She was cremated and left no immediate survivors. Thelma Carpenter Thelma Carpenter (January 15, 1922 – May 14, 1997) was a jazz singer and actress, best known as ""Miss One"", the Good Witch of the North in the movie ""The Wiz"". As a child performer, Carpenter had her own radio show on WNYC in New York and won an amateur night at the Apollo Theatre in 1938, where she would be"
"Margaret Pellegrini Margaret Pellegrini (née Williams; September 23, 1923 – August 7, 2013) was an American actress, vaudeville performer and dancer, best known for playing one of the Munchkins from the 1939 film ""The Wizard of Oz."" Until her death in 2013, she was one of the three surviving munchkins, the other two being Jerry Maren and Ruth Robinson Duccini. She was born Margaret Williams in Alaska. When she was helping a relative in a potato chip booth at the Tennessee State Fair, a group of little people came by and asked if she wanted to join their show, Henry"
"Margaret Pellegrini Margaret Pellegrini (née Williams; September 23, 1923 – August 7, 2013) was an American actress, vaudeville performer and dancer, best known for playing one of the Munchkins from the 1939 film ""The Wizard of Oz."" Until her death in 2013, she was one of the three surviving munchkins, the other two being Jerry Maren and Ruth Robinson Duccini. She was born Margaret Williams in Alaska. When she was helping a relative in a potato chip booth at the Tennessee State Fair, a group of little people came by and asked if she wanted to join their show, Henry"
"Thelma Carpenter Thelma Carpenter (January 15, 1922 – May 14, 1997) was a jazz singer and actress, best known as ""Miss One"", the Good Witch of the North in the movie ""The Wiz"". As a child performer, Carpenter had her own radio show on WNYC in New York and won an amateur night at the Apollo Theatre in 1938, where she would be honored and perform nearly 60 years later on the 1993 all-star NBC-TV special ""Apollo Theater Hall of Fame, hosted by Bill Cosby. She played such clubs as Kelly's Stables and the Famous Door on legendary 52nd Street,"
"Joseph L. Mankiewicz's ""People Will Talk"" (1951) as Sarah Pickett. In 1960, producer/director William Castle cast Hamilton as a housekeeper in his ""13 Ghosts"" horror film, in which 12-year-old lead Charles Herbert taunts her about being a witch, including one scene in which she is holding a broom in her hand. In 1939, Hamilton played the role of the Wicked Witch, opposite Judy Garland's Dorothy Gale in ""The Wizard of Oz"", creating not only her most famous role, but also one of the screen's most memorable villains. Hamilton was cast after Gale Sondergaard, who was first considered for the role,"
"the West and Ken Page, Lara Teeter and Michael Gruber as the Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man. This production was repeated in May 1998 at Madison Square Garden. It featured Mickey Rooney as the Wizard and Eartha Kitt as the Wicked Witch of the West. She was later replaced by Jo Anne Worley. Most of the 1997 cast returned, and it was this cast that made the cast recording associated with this version. This engagement was part of a US tour that ended in 1999. From November 2001 to February 2002, a production directed by Nancye Hayes was staged"
"played Dorothy Gale, Donald Burr played the Tin Man, Edmund Dorsey played the Cowardly Lion, Helen Raymond played the Wicked Witch of the West, Patricia Bowman played the Sorceress of the North, aka Glinda, and John Cherry played the Wizard of Oz. Lee Dixon (actor) Lee Dixon (January 22, 1914 – January 8, 1953) was an actor in 1930s and 1940s. He appeared in Hollywood musicals and other films, as well as on the Broadway stage. Lee Dixon is best remembered for creating the role of Will Parker in the original Broadway production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical ""Oklahoma!"""
"Caren Marsh Doll Caren Marsh Doll (born April 6, 1919), born as Caren Morris, and credited also as Caren Marsh, is an American stage and screen actress and dancer, specialising in modern dance and tap, who was Judy Garland's dance stand-in for ""The Wizard of Oz"" (1939) and a ""Ziegfeld Girl"" in 1941. For over two decades, she appeared in motion pictures with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film Studios. Her younger sister was television and film actress Dorothy Morris. Although not a credited cast member, she is one of a few known surviving personnel to have worked on the MGM film ""The Wizard"
"recording careers, awards, critical praise, and her ability to fill concert halls worldwide, and she required constant reassurance she was talented and attractive. Rooney, however, denied their childhood studio was responsible for her addiction: ""Judy Garland was never given any drugs by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Mr. Mayer didn't sanction anything for Judy. No one on that lot was responsible for Judy Garland's death. Unfortunately, Judy chose that path."" In 1938, she was cast in her most memorable role, as the young Dorothy Gale in ""The Wizard of Oz"" (1939), a film based on the 1900 children's book by L. Frank Baum. In"
"2003. Margaret Raia Margaret Raia (1929 – August 17, 2003), also known as Margie Raia, was an American actress with dwarfism, best known for her role as one of the Munchkin villagers in the 1939 film ""The Wizard of Oz"". During production, MGM officials discovered that Raia was underage and as a result she was expelled from the set half way through filming. Her brother, Matthew, also appeared as a munchkin in the film. Raia was born in Long Island, New York in 1929. She died at the age of 74 from a brain seizure in Port Richey, Florida in"
"the first of the ""Topper"" films, about a man haunted by two socialite ghosts (played by Cary Grant and Constance Bennett), in which she played the twittering and daffy Clara Topper. Her performance as Emily Kilbourne in ""Merrily We Live"" (1938) resulted in her only Oscar nomination. In 1938 she was chosen to play Glinda the Good Witch of the North, in the musical ""The Wizard of Oz"" (1939), directed by Victor Fleming, which starred Judy Garland. She had previously worked with Garland in the film, ""Everybody Sing"", in which she played Judy's histrionically hysterical actress-mother. Director George Cukor offered"
"Wicked Witch of the East The Wicked Witch of the East is a fictional character created by American author L. Frank Baum. She is a crucial character but appears only briefly in Baum's classic children's series of ""Oz"" novels, most notably ""The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"" (1900). The Wicked Witch was a middle aged, malevolent woman who conquered and tyrannized the Munchkin Country in Oz's eastern quadrant, forcing the native Munchkins to slave for her night and day. Her charmed Silver Shoes (famously changed to magic ruby slippers in the 1939 film musical) held many mysterious powers and were her"
"Margaret Raia Margaret Raia (1929 – August 17, 2003), also known as Margie Raia, was an American actress with dwarfism, best known for her role as one of the Munchkin villagers in the 1939 film ""The Wizard of Oz"". During production, MGM officials discovered that Raia was underage and as a result she was expelled from the set half way through filming. Her brother, Matthew, also appeared as a munchkin in the film. Raia was born in Long Island, New York in 1929. She died at the age of 74 from a brain seizure in Port Richey, Florida in August"
"Nurmi's inspiration for her character of Vampira came from Nurmi being fascinated by the Queen after watching Disney's ""Snow White"" at the age of 14. When she was cast for the 1939's ""The Wizard of Oz"" as the Wicked Witch of the West, Gale Sondergaard (who herself has earlier served as one of inspirations for Disney) insisted on playing a glamorous vision of the character, similar to the Disney's interpretation of the Queen from ""Snow White""; when Sondergaard's idea was rejected by producers Mervyn LeRoy and Arthur Freed in favor of making the Wicked Witch ugly, she withdrew from the"
"Josefine Balluck Josefine Balluck was an Austrian-born American actress with dwarfism, best known for her role as one of the Munchkins in the 1939 film ""The Wizard of Oz"". Her dwarf brother Franz Balluck also appeared as a Munchkin in the same film. Coincidentally, their ""Oz"" co-star Jakob ""Jackie"" Gerlich was also originally from Vienna. While Balluck's role in Oz was uncredited, subsequent books list her as a Munchkin actor. Leopold von Singer signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to provide 124 proportionately-sized little people to play Munchkins in ""Oz"". Gerlich was recruited because of her dwarfism, and was paid $125"
"at auction with the rest of her collections by owner actress Debbie Reynolds for $510,000 (not including the buyer's premium) in June 2011. The Wizard of Oz (1939 film) The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Widely considered to be one of the greatest films in cinema history, it is the best-known and most commercially successful adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's book ""The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."" It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming (who left production to take over direction on the troubled ""Gone with the Wind"" production). It stars"
"1939 film version. In the original novel ""The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"", the Good Witch of the North is summoned to the Munchkin Country when Dorothy Gale's falling house kills the Wicked Witch of the East. She arrives at the site of the Wicked Witch's death with three Munchkins and is the only one brave enough to speak to Dorothy, who, having killed the Witch of the East, is believed to be a powerful sorceress. She welcomes Dorothy to the Land of the Munchkins, points out the body of the dead witch and then introduces herself as the Witch of"
"of her recording sessions. Describing her own performance as Shakespearean, Carroll perceived Ursula as an ""ex-Shakespearean actress who now sold cars"", which inspired her dry, theatrical interpretation. Carroll also deepened her own voice for the role. When Carroll watched the completed film for the first time, she was frightened by her own performance, comparing it to actress Margaret Hamilton's performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in the film ""The Wizard of Oz"" (1939). Actress Jodi Benson, who voices Ariel, briefly provides the voice of ""Vanessa"", Ursula's beautiful human alter-ego, in lieu of Carroll. With the writing and recording"
"appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and toured internationally with her semi-autobiographical shows ""On the Boulevard"" and ""Back on the Boulevard"". Her solo album ""On the Boulevard"" is available from Jay Records. She is featured in the recording of the 1985 concert version of ""Follies"" staged at Avery Fisher Hall, and she also has starred in musicals such as ""Irma La Douce"", ""Gigi"" and ""Hello Dolly!"". In 1999, she replaced Eartha Kitt as The Wicked Witch of The West in Radio City Entertainment's touring production of ""The Wizard of Oz"" co-starring Mickey Rooney as The Wizard and"
"Meinhardt Raabe Meinhardt Frank Raabe (September 2, 1915 – April 9, 2010) was an American actor. He was one of the last surviving Munchkin-actors in ""The Wizard of Oz"", and was also the last surviving cast member with any dialogue in the film. He portrayed the coroner who certified the death of the Wicked Witch of the East. Raabe was born in Watertown, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1937, with a bachelor's degree in accounting. He later went on to get his MBA at Drexel University. Raabe did not hear the words ""midget"" or ""dwarf"" until"
"toiling in obscurity for a couple of years, into an overnight sensation, leading eventually to her being cast in ""The Wizard of Oz"" (1939) as Dorothy. Young horse trainer Sally (Eleanor Powell) befriends Sonny (George Murphy) and Peter (Buddy Ebsen), who have been hired to look after a horse her family once owned. Concerned for the horse's well-being, she sneaks aboard a train taking the horse and its caretakers to New York City. En route she meets talent agent Steve Raleigh (Robert Taylor) who, impressed with her dancing and singing, sets her on the road to stardom and romance blossoms"
"way. Duccini died of natural causes in Las Vegas, aged 95, on January 16, 2014. Ruth Duccini Ruth Leone Duccini (née Robinson; July 23, 1918 – January 16, 2014) was an American actress. Ruth is best known as the penultimate surviving Munchkin from the 1939 film ""The Wizard of Oz"". Her role in the film as a Munchkin villager was not credited. Her most recent appearances were when she and the other surviving Munchkins were presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 21, 2007, and attending the premiere of the film's 75th anniversary at the"
"East), but becomes close to her after Elphaba leaves Shiz, and enchants the Silver Shoes that enable Nessarose to walk without any assistance. As in the original Oz books, she is revered as a powerful sorceress. Maguire follows the 1939 movie in having Glinda ultimately become the Witch of the North, not the South. Glinda also appears in ""Son of a Witch"", Maguire's sequel to ""Wicked"", now widowed from Sir Chuffrey. In the 1939 film version of ""The Wizard of Oz"", Glinda is the Good Witch of the North. She is played in the film by Billie Burke. Glinda performs"
"and ""Strange Bedfellows"". In ""Harriet"", Helen Hayes was Harriet Beecher Stowe. Colin Clements died in 1948. Ryerson retired to Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, in 1951, where she continued to write plays, some for the local high school. Florence Ryerson Clements died in Mexico City of cardiac insufficiency in 1965. Her remains were cremated in Mexico and given to her son, Harold Swayne Ryerson Jr. Florence Ryerson Florence Ryerson (September 20, 1892 – June 8, 1965) was a playwright, screenwriter, and co-author of the script for the 1939 film ""The Wizard of Oz"". Florence Ryerson was born in Glendale, California. She"
"Miss Gulch Returns! Miss Gulch Returns! is a one-man musical comedy written and originally performed by Fred Barton. It is a loose parody of the character of Almira Gulch from the 1939 MGM film ""The Wizard of Oz"" as portrayed by Margaret Hamilton. Although the script alludes to the character of the Wicked Witch of the West (also portrayed by Hamilton in the film) it focuses primarily on Gulch. Blurring the line between fiction and reality, the show builds on the premise that Almira Gulch was an actress—rather than a character ""portrayed"" by an actress—who appeared in ""The Wizard of"