The Man Who Put the Rainbow in ‘The Wizard of Oz’
by Amy Goodman

Thanksgiving is around the corner, and families will be gathering to share a meal and, perhaps, enjoy another annual telecast of "The Wizard of Oz." The 70-year-old film classic bears close watching this year, perhaps more than in any other, for the message woven into the lyrics, written during the Great Depression by Oscar-winning lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg. There's more to the Scarecrow and the Tin Man than meets the eye, and Harburg's message has renewed resonance today in the midst of the greatest financial collapse since the Depression.

Harburg grew up in New York's Lower East Side. In high school, he was seated alphabetically next to Ira Gershwin, and the two began a friendship that lasted a lifetime and helped shape 20th-century American song and culture. Ernie Harburg, Yip's son and co-author of the biography "Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz?," told me, "Yip knew poverty deeply ... it was the basis of Yip's understanding of life as struggle."

<snip>

The film, says Ernie Harburg, is about common people confronting and defeating seemingly insurmountable and violent oppression: The Scarecrow represented farmers, the Tin Man stood for the factory workers, and the Munchkins of the "Lollipop Guild" were the union members. Ernie recalled: "There was at least 30 percent unemployment at those times. And among blacks and minorities, it was 50, 60 percent. And there were bread lines, and the rich kept living their lifestyle."

"The Wizard of Oz" was to be "MGM's answer to ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' " Ernie recounts. It was initially a critical success, but a commercial flop. Yip Harburg went on to write "Finian's Rainbow" for Broadway. It addresses racial bigotry, hatred of immigrants, easy credit and mortgage foreclosures. In 1947, "Finian's Rainbow" was the first Broadway musical with an integrated cast. It was a hit, running for a year and a half. When Harburg's unabashed political expression made him a target during the McCarthy era, he was blacklisted, and was banned from TV and film work from 1951 to 1962. Ironically, in the middle of his blacklist period, CBS broadcast "The Wizard of Oz" on television. It broke all viewership records, and has been airing since, gaining global renown and adulation.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/1...