Photo via Woman's World - womansworld.com
Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton (right) and Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of West (left) in the 'Wizard of Oz.'
The actors who brought Dorothy Gale, Professor Marvel and Almira Gulch to life were among those who appeared here over a 70-year span. Their shows were at the Davidson, Pabst, Majestic, Alhambra and the Melody Top theaters
Garland Sisters at Club Silver
An advertisement for the Garland Sisters' performance at Club Silver
Judy Garland (the former Frances “Baby” Gumm) was the youngest member of the singing Gumm Sisters. In 1934, the trio, rebranded as the Garland Sisters, performed at the Riverside theater and the Silver Club in the Oriental theater basement. The following year, Judy, 13, Judy left the Garland Sisters to make movies at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. After The Wizard of Oz, Garland became a world-famous singer until her untimely death in 1969.
Frank Morgan, a teenage vaudeville comedian, was only 17 when he played a supporting role in Seven Chances at the Davidson. He returned a decade later in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. In Oz, Morgan played five roles: the Wizard, the carnival huckster Professor Marvel, the “bust my buttons” gatekeeper who refuses to let Dorothy and her friends into Emerald City, the “horse of a different color” carriage driver and the Palace Guard (who bars Dorothy from seeing the Wizard). In 1949, Morgan was playing Buffalo Bill Cody in Annie, Get Your Gun when he died of a heart attack. He was replaced by veteran actor Louis Calhern (who also performed at the Davidson).
Emerald City
On her journey to the Emerald City, Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), a brainless Scarecrow, and a rusty Tin Man (Jack Haley). All three characters were played by seasoned singers, comedians and dancers who appeared at the Palace theater as early as 1925. Dancer Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Tin Man but lost the role because of an allergy to the silver makeup. But Ebsen made it into the film by dubbing all of Jack Haley’s singing.
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Mary William Ethelbert Appleton “Billie” Burke was 55 when she played Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Burke was a superstar of stage and silent films who earned more than Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford. She performed at the Davidson in 1909, making her the first Wizard cast member to come to town.
Charley Grapewin (Uncle Henry) was an acrobat in the Barnum & Bailey Circus and a Broadway performer by the time he stepped onstage at the Majestic theater in 1911. Three decades before the film, Grapewin acted in the 1903 stage production of The Wizard. He was in The Grapes of Wrath and more than 100 other films before his death in 1956.
Clara Blandick (Aunt Em) played at the Alhambra theater in 1910. She acted in five stage shows between 1919 and 1925 at the Davidson and Majestic theaters. Blandick was at her best playing elderly, eccentric matriarchs and appeared in 25 stage productions and nearly 200 films by the time of her death in 1956.
Many Munchkins
Singer's Midgets at the Riverside Ad
An advertisement for Singer's Midgets performance at the Riverside Theatre
The Munchkins were played by actors in a popular vaudeville troupe named Singer’s Midgets. The show often played the Riverside and other Downtown theaters. When The Wizard of Oz opened here, Meinhardt Rabbe, the Munchkin coroner, appeared in person. The 24-year-old was a bundle of energy and delighted audiences before each showing of the film. Raabe was born in Watertown and attended UW-Madison before joining the Singer show.
Fifty years later, Avalon theater operator Eric Levin brought Rabbe and several other Munchkin actors to spend an afternoon with enthusiastic fans. One of Levin’s guests was actress Fern Formica, who was 13 when she worked in the film. “I didn’t have a speaking part,” she said, “but I danced on the Yellow Brick Road.”
Years before she scared the bejesus out of kids, Margaret Hamilton was an up-and-coming Broadway actress who competed with Katharine Hepburn for roles. Hamilton’s performance as the Wicked Witch of the West led the American Film Institute to name her the greatest female villain in film history. Hamilton appeared Show Boat at the Melody top Theatre in 1979, making her the last Wizard cast member to perform in Milwaukee.
Fans of the film may have been unaware of how much time and hard work went into perfecting their art before being cast in the iconic roles that defined their careers.
Afterword
Photo courtesy of Eric Levin
Sue Levin and Wizard of Oz Actors
Sue Levin with (left to right) Karl Slover, Margaret Pellegrini, Jerry Maren, and Meinhardt Raabe at the Avalon Theatre.
At the site of the old Strand theater in Oconomowoc, a plaque says The Wizard of Oz played here before any other theater in the state. Unfortunately, that’s not true.
The early showings of the 1939 film in Wisconsin were as follows:
August 10: Green Bay.
August 11: Kenosha, Neenah and Appleton.
August 12: Oconomowoc.
August 13: Racine, Rhinelander and Sheboygan.
It might be time to remove the historical marker.
