Ray Bolger

Kim Basinger, when she was with Alec Baldwin, they were on an episode of The Simpsons.

and homer becomes like their best friend and it's just total contrived weirdness and like he meets uh and he becomes like their best friend and he does like everything for them and but then he does something really terrible and stupid and they get mad at him and he gets hurt and and he has this whole thing where he's yelling at the two of them and um And I can't remember who he's yelling about, but he's like, do you think Ray Bolger is going to come over to your house and clean like I did? No.

And you know why? Because Ray Bolger is looking out for Ray Bolger.

What did Ray Bolger do? Be the perfect choice for that joke.

I guess so.

Ray Bolger is looking out for Ray Bolger.

And the only thing that has to do with Kim Basinger is that she's the one being yelled at.

Wow.

Hmm.

And then, of course, in 1939, we finally get the most iconic adaptation of The Wizard of Oz in Victor Fleming's masterpiece for MGM with Ray Bolger playing the Scarecrow.

Uh, this, as we discussed in our episode on Return to Oz, not a, you know, runaway hit at the time, and really only achieved its long-lasting status, uh, when it came to TV later on.

It became, like, a regular staple of, uh, special event television.

ha.

Our double feature this week were two movies that I got to pick, and the first one up is The Wizard of Oz from 1939, starring Judy Garland, Frank Morgan and Ray Bolger.

Young Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical land of Oz.

and embark on a quest with three new friends to see the wizard, who can return her to her home and fulfill the others' wishes.

Wow.

Oh, okay.

So there was a gentleman by the name of Ray Bolger who was originally cast to play the Tin Man.

Right.

Many gay men regarded her as a symbol of survival, someone who had been mocked, rejected and repeatedly knocked down, but someone who had continued to stand before the world and demand love.

Her former co-star Ray Bolger, the scarecrow who had travelled with Dorothy to Oz, offered one of the simplest and saddest explanations of her death.

Judy, he said, had just plain worn out.

It's difficult to argue with that.

The industry that created Judy and damaged her is long gone, but Judy Garland remains.

She remains in Dorothy's first glimpse in Oz.

She remains in Dorothy's first glimpse of Oz in Esther Smith's aching Christmas song, In Vicky Lester's defiant performance of the man that got away, and in the roar that greeted her at Carnegie Hall, Ray Bolger was probably right.

Judy simply wore out.

Mm-hmm

... you know, a little bit like, um- Uh, the, the, the Scarecrow, Ray Bolger in, um, Wizard of Oz.

He did kind of a response

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

And that is...

The husband and wife couple of Ray Bolger, the scarecrow from Wizard of Oz, and the great Harriet Nelson from Ozzie and Harriet fame.

Hell, even before their TV show, Ozzie and Harriet.

Ozzie and Harriet, did you guys know? Harriet was the band singer for Ozzie's jazz band in the 30s.

Mm-hmm.

Yes, you're right about that.

And, of course, famously, Ray Bolger was lucky to get through all the scarecrow because originally it was going to be Buddy Epson from Jed Clampett from Beverly Hillbillies.

But he was allergic to the silver dye that they put on or paint, makeup.

First one in 78, I guess.

First one in 79 was the last appearance of Ray Bolger.

well

which i know you're

I forget his name right now.

Oh, yeah, Ray Bolger.

Yeah, I feel like he had so much respect for early Hollywood.

And when he saw these people not doing much, maybe he would