If you're like most Americans, you've seen "The Wizard of Oz" a dozen times.
If you're like a subset of "Oz" fanatics, you've seen it scores of times—even hundreds.
You've heard every "inside" story and urban legend: how "Over the Rainbow" was nearly cut from the film (true), how Shirley Temple was nearly cast as Dorothy instead of Judy Garland (not so true), how the Munchkins misbehaved on set (exaggerated), how you can see a Munchkinactor hang himself on camera (nonsense), how the film syncs up perfectly with Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" (debatable).
So in the year of "The Wizard of Oz's" 80th birthday — it was released Aug. 25, 1939 — you might think, what is there left to say?
More than you think,perhaps. Because however many times you've watched "The Wizard of Oz," there's more to see.
Here are 10 things you probably never noticed about "The Wizard of Oz."
1. The missing line."Think you didn't have any brains at all," saysthe Kansas counterpart of the Scarecrow. "Have a little courage," saysthe Kansas counterpart of the Lion. And the Kansas counterpart of the Tin Mansays … bupkis. Obviously he should have had a " heart" line. What happened to it? See item 2.
2. The contraption. "I saw you tinkering with that contraption," Aunt Em scolds Hickory. What contraption? Cut from the film is a scene whereHickory is shown working on a "wind machine" to prevent cyclones (spoiler alert: it doesn't work).It's here that his line occurred: "Now this is a machine with real heart."
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3. Words fail. "The house began to pitch, the kitchen took a slitch," chirrup the Munchkins, as they celebrate Dorothy's lethal, witch-crushing arrival in the land of Oz.Only what is a "slitch"? We looked it up online, we rifled through the dictionary.Theword appears not to exist. The closest we got is the obscure "slicht," a Scottish regionalism for "slight." However, since "The Wizard of Oz" was made, the word "slitch" has come into use in the hip-hop community. It's a mashup word, a combination of "slu*t" and … never mind.
4, Off to see the Wizzid. Most of us pronounce the word "wizard" as if it had an "a" and an "r" in it —because it does. So why dothe characters in "The Wizard of Oz" refer repeatedly — indialogue and song — to "The Wizzid"?Could it be because Ray Bolger, who plays the Scarecrow, and Jack Haley, who plays the Tin Man, were both from the Boston area?Perhapsthe Wizzid doesn't live fah from Hahvad Yahd.
5. Hats off. When her dastardly poppy scheme fails, the Wicked Witch can be seen throwinga gold-colored something-or-otheracross the room. What is it?The movienever explains. Only readers of the book will recognize the magic golden cap with which the Witch summons her flying monkeys.
6. "I've sent a little insect on ahead, to help take the fight out of them." That line, from the Wicked Witch of the West, makes absolutely no sense. Unless, that is, you know that it referredto the Jitterbug, the stinging insect that sends Dorothy and her friends jiving and trucking in what was supposed to be the film's big"jazz" number,"The Jitterbug." It was cut after previews.
7. "The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side." Thus the Scarecrow, after receiving his brains, triumphantly recites the Pythagorean theorem — wrongly. The actual theorem holds thatthe sum of the squares on the legs of a right triangle is equal to the square ofthe hypotenuse. Well, the Wizard didn't say they were good brains.
8. "I your wizard, per adua ad alta…" The actual Latin phrase is "Per ardua ad astra" ("through difficulties to the stars"),the motto of Royal Air Force. Even the Wizard's Latin is fake.
9. "I think I'll miss you most of all." Thus Dorothy says goodbye to the Scarecrow. Why the strange partiality? Because, in an earlier draft of the script, Dorothy and the Kansas counterpart of the Scarecrow are sweet on each other.
10. What happened to Miss Gulch? Dorothy wakes up in Kansas, exclaiming that there's "no place like home!" But what happened to Miss Gulch — the mean neighbor lady who tried to snatch Dorothy's dog? Won't she be back for him? A weird loose end.
Email: beckerman@northjersey.com;Twitter: @jimbeckerman1
