Doll-A-Day 2019 #348: Wizard of Oz Kelly and Tommy Dolls: Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion

  As I said before,I've been remiss in not posting more Wizard of Oz dolls this year,because 2019 marks quite a milestone for the movie. Since it was made in 1939, The Wizard of Oz is turning 80 years old this year! Can you name another 80 year old movie that's still watched regularly by children? So today we're looking at this little group.

They are obviously the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Dorothy,(and Toto!),and the Lion, from The Wizard of Oz. A note about their background, which you may have seen the yellow brick road to in the last couple of previous posts.  It is from the 2000 Barbie Wizard of Oz Emerald City Playset.

This set is from 2003.I think Mattel did a really good job on the costumes.

They came with this certificate of authenticity.

The faces are still the regular Kelly faces, but they really did really well with the face paint. The Scarecrow even has his pointy eyebrows.

Not everybody has a tag, but the Lion has tags that let you know he's a 'Barbie Collectibles' doll.

Trivia: The Wizard of Oz was made by MGM studios, and yet this tag says copyright Turner Entertainment. That's because Ted Turner bought the MGM catalog of films in the 1980's. (That's when he came under fire for colourizing old black and white films. "In Living Color" did a sketch where Jim Carrey played Ted Turner, hosting colorized movies, with the slogan, "I'm Ted Turner, doing whatever I like to more classic films." In 1996 Warner Brothers bought Turner Entertainment. Now, "The Wizard of Oz" is owned by and copyright Warner Brothers. The irony of that! When the movie was made there was a huge rivalry between the studios, with MGM and Warner Brothers being the top two studios. I imagine Louis B. Mayer,(the 'Mayer' of Metro Goldwyn Mayer,which is what 'MGM' stands for.),turning over in his grave to know that Warner Brothers now owns his films.

The Dorothy Kelly has big brown eyes ,like Judy Garland,who played her.

The set also included Toto.

Trivia: MGM desperately wanted Shirley Temple to play Dorothy. When the movie started being planned,Shirley was still a big box office draw. MGM tried to borrow Shirley from her studio, 20th Century Fox. Fox and MGM negotiated for a while. Fox didn't want to let rival MGM use their biggest star. MGM agreed to trade use of their two biggest stars,Clark Gable and Jean Harlow,for Shirley for The Wizard of Oz. The deal fell through after Jean Harlow's untimely death in 1937. MGM 'settled' for using a contract player,(an actor under contract with the studio), Judy Garland. By the time the movie came out in 1939, Shirley's box office popularity had dropped. I think Shirley, as much as I love her childhood films, would have been a terrible Dorothy. I can't imagine her, with her limited singing ability, singing a song like "Over the Rainbow".  In 1940, in an effort to capture the success of  The Wizard of Oz, Fox released the Shirley Temple film, "The Bluebird". Shot in Technicolor, it was a much darker fantasy than Oz, adapted from the stage play by Maurice Maeterlinck. Shirley played a mean, grouchy girl, and the experiences in the film included a raging forest fire meant to kill Shirley and her brother, a visit to dead grandparents who live in their old home, sleeping except when someone thinks of them, and a visit to the Land of the Unborn, where Shirley meets her future little sister, who tells her that she'll 'only be with (you) a little while'. Ah! It sounds horrible, but as a kid, and even now, I really like it! You can watch "The Blue Bird" in it's entirety HERE. The film was unsuccessful when released. It was remade in the early 1970's,with an international all star cast that included Elizabeth Taylor, and that was also a box office failure.

Toto is made of rubber.

Dorothy also came with a plastic basket, and a blue and white gingham napkin, which, unfortunately, I found after the photos were taken.

                                                                               Found it!

As with most Dorothy dolls, this one also has the wrong hair style. Dorothy had two curled ponytails at the beginning of the movie, and long, curled hair after her makeover in Emerald City. She never had full  braids.

She's missing the light blue hair ribbons she came with.

Dorothy Kelly's costume is pretty accurate though. The high collar with rick rack trim, the gathered sleeves, and the way the gingham is pieced on her dress, are all screen accurate.

Trivia: Dorothy's blue and white gingham dress was NOT blue and white. White didn't photograph properly in the early Technicolor, and pink had to be used for white. There is at least one Dorothy dress on public display. For the opening sepia scenes, a black and white gingham dress was used.
  Dorothy Kelly's shirt is actually a body suit, which closes in the back with a snap. The dress has no opening at all. They really aren't meant to ever be removed. I found a piece here and a piece there in Ivy's room, and when I tried to get them back on Dorothy I could see why Ivy had never done it. The shirt was almost impossible to get on her. The hands wouldn't go through the sleeves. Once I finally did get the shirt on, the dress would hardly go over it. It was a lot of work to redress her!

Dorothy's ruby slippers are the usual Kelly 'Mary Jane' style shoes, with glitter inside the rubber. Trivia: In the original book, Dorothy wears silver slippers. It was changed to ruby for the movie to take full advantage of the Technicolor film.

Trivia: There were many different pairs of ruby slippers made for the movie, including a curly toed pair referred to as the 'Aladdin shoes', which were tried out early on, and rejected. You can see a pair of the ruby slippers at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C..

The Scarecrow is a cute little guy. they got his pointy eyebrows, red nose, and burlap cheeks just about right. His costume is very well done too.

The original Scarecrow costume is also on display at the Smithsonian. It was preserved for years by Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow, and donated after his death by his widow.

Trivia: Ray Bolger was originally cast as the Tin Man, with the Scarecrow being played by Buddy Ebsen. Bolger was very unhappy with his casting, feeling the role of the Scarecrow would be a much better fit for his loose limbed dancing style. He finally convinced the studio, who switched the actors' roles. Buddy Ebsen became the Tin Man. The make-up for the Tin Man was aluminum powder over greasepaint. The powder eventually coated Ebsen's lungs, and he was taken to the hospital, unable to breathe. Rather than wait on Ebsen to recover, the studio recast his role. It went to Jack Haley. The make-up was changed to aluminum paste, to avoid the same catastrophe, but Haley still managed to get a terrible eye infection which kept him  home for a while. Years later his son remembered his father sitting in a room where the lamps were all covered with red cloths, because of his eye infection.

The hat is felt, with a raggedy band and raffia trim.

The boots are the usual Kelly/Tommy boots, in brown this time.

Ebsen's dancing style was even more loose limbed than Bolger's, as you can see in the 'Codfish Ball' dance he does with Shirley Temple in "Captain January". (You can watch that HERE.) As it was, Ebsen got cheated out of his chance at Oz immortality. He did ok for himself though, later becoming known as Jed Clampett in "The Beverly Hillbillies", and as the title character in the TV series "Barnaby Jones".
Trivia: The rubber mask Bolger wore as the Scarecrow scarred his face.

The little Tin Man has another really well done costume. The funnel is attached to his hood, which doesn't come off.

He came with his oil can.

He's made in silver rubber,(his head), and plastic,(arms).

He has tiny 'rivets' down the front of his costume. Trivia: The real Tin Man costume was made of buckram and leather. It was so stiff that Haley couldn't sit down and had to rest on a reclining board  between takes.

He has the Kelly/Tommy ankle boots, in silver.

As you can see, his legs are not silver.

He also has 'rivets' in the hood  of his costume.

The dot on his nose and the blue lips are screen accurate.

Trivia: Jack Haley's son, Jack Jr., grew up to marry Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland. The two were married for 5 years, from 1974 to 1979.
The Lion has a cute face, but doesn't look as much like his character as the other two guys.

His tail is sewn to the front of his costume.

He has unruly hair and a big tag coming out of his back.

He's the only character that can't stand unaided. It's because of his costume covered feet.

Trivia: The real Lion costume was made of an actual lion skin. It was very heavy, somewhere around 50 to 70 pounds. It was extremely hot, and actor Bert Lahr, who portrayed the Lion, sweated in it so much every day of filming, that the costume had to be aired out and dried on a special rack. Lahr was miserable, and was frustrated that Jack Haley was able to sleep standing on his reclining board between takes. He used to complain that, "That son of a ----- could sleep hung up on a meat hook!"

There is an interesting article about the recent whereabouts of the original Wizard of Oz costumes which you can read HERE
 Those are today's dolls. See you again tomorrow for another one.