‘Mysteries of Oz’: Writer/Producer Randy Schmidt
by CHAD KENNERK
Images courtesy of AMS Pictures.
The legendary 1939 film, and now, the stage and movie musical Wicked — based on Gregory Maguire’s novel — have added to the legacy of Frank L. Baum’s magical American tale and inspired generations to dream. The making of The Wizard of Oz is legend in its own right. Over the years, the desire to know more about the behind-the-scenes magic has unleashed a mountain of myths and misconceptions, along with some remarkable truths. Randy Schmidt is the writer and producer of the new documentary Mysteries of Oz: 85 Questions Answered. In celebration of the 85th anniversary of the 1939 film, this fast-paced documentary series counts down 85 questions tackling the lore and legacy of The Wizard of Oz.
Among the interviewees are Jane Lahr (daughter of actor Bert Lahr), Joey Luft (the son of Judy Garland), and Oz’s surviving cast members — former child actors Valerie Lee, Elaine Merk, and Priscilla Montgomery, who all portrayed munchkins in the film. The diverse list of contributors also includes Oz experts and insiders such as The Road to Oz authors Jay Scarfone and William Stillman, the aforementioned Maguire, journalist and The Ruby Slippers of Oz author Rhys Thomas, slipper expert Randy Struthers, The Oz Vlog host Tori Calamito, @FollowTheYellowBrickGirl Tiffany Sutton, Tara Tagliaferro and Emily Kay Shrader of the Down the Yellow Brick Pod podcast, Hollywood Forever Cemetery tour guide Karie Bible, and many more. Whether you’re new to Oz or represent the lollipop guild, there’s something for everyone to enjoy in this enchanting look at the MGM classic. Mysteries of Oz: 85 Questions Answered is a journey down the yellow brick road to memory lane.
In conversation with writer/producer Randy Schmidt
Film Review (FR): When did the idea to frame the series with 85 questions come into play?
Randy Schmidt (RS): I was talking with our executive producer Andy Streitfeld about a way to do a Wizard of Oz documentary. We threw around several different ideas and around the time that we were talking about this, I had just watched one of AMS productions, which was about JFK. They had originally made it for the 50th anniversary of the assassination. It’s called Killing JFK: 50 Questions Answered. They were asked then by a network, I believe, to redo it and add some more to it at the 60th. So I was kind of familiar with that format at that point and was commenting to him that I had recently seen that. That's sort of what started it, but 85 was kind of a big number to jump into [laughs].
(FR): You found a great blend between things that Oz newbies are going to love and appreciate, but also things that tried and true Oz fans are going to find fascinating and perhaps even some surprises for everyone.
(RS): I hope so. There are the things that I think everybody knows will be in there; the things that the die-hards know, that they're annoyed having to answer so many times. Was there really this? Did this really happen on the set? We all have those questions that we encounter from time to time. But then there were things that even surprised us along the way, or topics that came up that we were like, ‘You know, that would make a really interesting question/answer segment.’
(FR): What were some of the questions where the answer surprised you?
(RS): One that just came up recently in The Hollywood Reporter was this idea that Over the Rainbow may have been plagiarised. That's a huge accusation to put out there. We had sort of a discrepancy between our interviewees too and what they felt: ‘Oh no, it wasn't.’ And then others saying, ‘Well, obviously it is. I mean, here, listen to this.’ So there were some questions that I feel like we didn't completely answer, but we gave varying opinions on it in that way. Some people are adamant that we know for sure that it was not plagiarised. Then a composer sits down at the piano and plays for us pretty much exactly the same melody. I don't know. When I first went into that question, I thought, ‘No, there’s no way.’ By the end, having watched it back, I think we convinced even me. As a musician, I know you get melodies and things kind of implanted in your head here and there, and sometimes they come out in various ways, or they inspire you in some way or another. That was pretty much note for note with a few changes to the rhythm.
(FR): It's fun watching the documentary and seeing if you know the answers before they're shared. It's almost a little bit of a game in that way. Did you know going into this what those questions were going to be? Did you figure them out in the edit? What was that process like?
(RS): I probably came up with maybe 50 or so questions of my own, and some of those were guided by what's out there on the internet; what people are talking about, the topics that get thrown around. ‘Was The Wizard of Oz a cursed production? Here’s the reasons why…’ Things like that. I really tried to compare a lot of those lists that are already out there and see what the most commonly asked questions were. Then there were a few that came up in the actual editing room. If something was getting maybe a little too long, we were like, ‘You know, that could really be divided into two questions. That's its own thing.’ So there were some things that were definitely influenced by the editorial process too.
(FR): Were there any questions or stories that didn't make the final cut?
(RS): There are some; I know there was one that I had written talking about the influence of the 1903 Broadway musical of The Wizard of Oz and what influence it had on the movie. We had a similar question about the 1925 silent film and how it influenced the 1939 movie. When you're working on something like this, you're kind of working by committee, and sometimes people are like, ‘Oh, that's a fantastic one,’ or ‘That one's not really gelling with me for whatever reason.’ That was one that sort of went away in the end. People were like, ‘I don't know if people want to hear about a 1902 musical and vaudeville.’ And of course I'm like, ‘Of course they do!’ [Laughs.] At first it was like, ‘How are we going to come up with 85 questions?’ And then very quickly you realise, ‘How are we going to narrow it down to just 85 questions?’
(FR): There's so much mythology behind the creation of this film. The documentary title sequence really sets the tone for what you're about to watch. What was the genesis of that and the song?
(RS): Our director, Brad [Osborne] really came up with, not only the visual idea for that, but the song as well. We had been talking with Todrick Hall – Todrick has an entirely Oz-inspired album. We had talked about maybe using one of his songs, but it kind of all stopped around the time we needed them to say yes or no, and so we ended up going with something on our own. Brad just came up with this mini-song and found an artist who cut the recording for it. They did a really nice job. We wanted that kind of mystical, mysterious feel for it. I think that the singer did a great job of doing that, but that was really Brad’s vision. It was just something mysterious and mystical.
He brought in an actress who sort of looked like Judy Garland to dance and do this sort of slow motion thing. It was fun to watch all that happen with the blowing leaves. We had interns with the leaf blower and then we had to pick them all up and start again. I think that makes it unique from most other Oz documentaries, to have its own title sequence in that way. One thing I should mention, the designer who did the title and really all the fonts and everything you see throughout, is a young man named Raphael Geroni, who has designed a number of book covers and things relating to Oz, and numerous other subjects too. He created this entire font and everything that you see leading into each of the sequences. He created those completely unique for this particular documentary, and I think it really shows the effort that he put into that. He's such a huge Oz fan, he wanted to personalise every tiny detail.
(FR): It really adds to the doc and pulls it all together. What was the research process like, in terms of assembling this list of interviewees?
(RS): I've been an Oz fan since I was a kid. I think the first book that I ever got about the making of Oz was, well that's the title, The Making of The Wizard of Oz by Aljean Harmetz. Shortly after that, the 50th anniversary book came out by John Fricke, Jay Scarfone and William Stillman. I befriended Jay and William probably close to 10 years ago. Now they didn't like it when I said to them, ‘Oh, I had your book when I was a kid!’ They were very, very young when they published that book. We had a little laugh over that. I was kind of nervous laughing. Those two guys have just done such an amazing job at continuously digging into the behind-the-scenes and the making of that movie. I don't think that their research ever stops. It's a constant endeavour and they really are the leading experts. I think their book, The Road to Oz, really takes the work that Aljean Harmetz did in the beginning, the work that they did with John Fricke, and then [combines it with the work] they did in a book for the 75th anniversary, the official companion book. They weren't able to put everything into that they wanted to, because I think Warner Brothers came forward and basically said, ‘Oh, we want this to be a souvenir kind of book. We don't want it to get too in the weeds with anything.’ Well, they're the type of researchers that do get into the weeds. There's lots of weeds, and it's interesting. So they were really able to take a lot of that research and put it into this book The Road to Oz. That was really my main source, as far as fact checking and things like that.
As we began to assemble the interviewees, certain people rose to the top, for instance, Tori, who does The Oz Vlog on TikTok. She has just surpassed over 200,000 followers there, and does these sort of question/answer formats on a daily basis. There's a lot of interest there from young people. I think not only does this documentary bring together the people who are long-standing authorities on The Wizard of Oz, but it also brings this younger voice, this new crowd of Oz enthusiasts. We have the podcasters Tara and EmKay, who just like to sit around and talk and laugh about Oz. They dig into things. They could spend an hour on a podcast on some little topic that you would think, ‘Oh, there wouldn't be more than, you know, 10 or 15 minutes about that.’ They just dig in and thoroughly explore some of these topics.
I wanted it to be a diverse group too, because there is quite a bit of diversity in the Oz world, whether people realise it or not. Bringing in Ginger Minj was part of that. We brought her in and sort of staged this stand-up comedy show based on a number of the myths and the rumours that get tossed around, because some of them are pretty funny. She had basically mapped out what she wanted to do, but she came in and riffed on these various topics and the audience just loved it. I think it works nicely to keep the mood light from time to time. We'll be in some serious discussion, and then all at once, we come back out of it with something that makes you go, ‘Okay, this is kind of silly that people have been saying this or believing this for all these years.’
(FR): It's a really nice touch. You also have the personal aspect too, with Jane Lahr and Joey Luft talking about their parents.
(RS): Yeah, absolutely. Jane was fantastic. We interviewed her in her apartment in New York City. She brought out some artwork that her father Burt had done. He got into painting later in his life, and so we got to see that, but she also told us, ‘Oh, well, his toupee is over there in the closet, but I’d have to dig for it.’ And I was kind of like, ‘We’ll wait.’ But we didn't make her do that. The interview with Joe Luft was sort of an impromptu thing. We were at an event celebrating Judy back in June, and he was there and agreed to visit with us. So that was sort of impromptu and last minute, but we were grateful to have his contributions. He was able to share some memories that really helped to fill in some of the gaps we had in stories.
(FR): Then there are the former child actors. You have interviewees who were physically on the set during the making of the movie.
(RS): Yeah, we have what we think are the last three surviving cast members, one of Judy Garland's stand-ins is also still alive and I think is around 104 years old or something now. These were three of the child actors who portrayed munchkins, alongside the 124 little people. It's not often, especially nowadays, that you have these first-hand accounts of something like Margaret Hamilton's accident on the Munchkinland set and how she suffered these burns. Here you have people who remember hearing her screams and the sirens as they rushed to that soundstage. That's really something that's just unheard of at this point, so long after the movie was made.
(FR): I think the most surprising question for me was exploring stuntwoman Betty Danko and going into that side of the on set incidents.
(RS): A lot of that has been really glossed over, over the years. I knew that there was some other accident, but it took, I think, Tori, William and Jay digging into that a little further to realise just how serious it was. This woman was scarred for life. Yeah, that's a really shocking addendum to the already terrible story about Margaret Hamilton suffering those second and third-degree burns.
(FR): Many of these questions, answers and developments have surprisingly happened in recent years. A lot of what you discuss have been headlines in the past five years or so.
(RS): The pair of ruby slippers have been making headlines off and on for 15 years now, since they disappeared from the [Judy Garland] Museum. Then they were found and now they're going to be auctioned here in just another month or so. Oz is constantly making headlines. Whether it's always in the news or just in our vernacular and the way that people talk. You hear somebody every day saying something about ‘no place like home’ or ‘I'll get you my pretty.’ These lines are so much a part of our world. Then to see, like you said, the headlines. The [Dorothy] dress that recently was found at the Catholic University, some of those things. It's just shocking that there's so much newsmaking that this movie is still doing 85 years later.
(FR): Because there were so many hands involved, from screenwriters to directors, it's something of a miracle that the movie came to fruition.
(RS): We had several people talk about how it was really a movie made by committee, and usually you wouldn't have that kind of a product or that kind of an outcome. It’s just so perfect in so many ways, for it to have had so many different people involved at different times. You really can't tell unless you know what to look for.
(FR): I want to ask you one of the 85 questions; what is the enduring appeal of The Wizard of Oz for you?
(RS): I really don't remember a time in my life where The Wizard of Oz wasn't there. I think that I probably saw it when I was either three or four years old, and because it was still during that time that it was being shown just once a year on television, anything that I would see Oz related throughout the year, was that much more special and important. If you saw a book, or if you saw, in my case, a colouring book – it didn't even have to be related to the MGM movie – but if it was Wizard of Oz related, it was this tiny glimpse into Oz during that time where you had to wait another year to see it again. So for me, it goes back to childhood and I think the message of the film resonated with me and I didn't even realise it. A boy growing up on a farm in Oklahoma and knowing that there was something more colourful and magical out there. I don't know, I always identified with Dorothy in that way. Now I realised why and we explore that in one of the questions too, where we talk about sort of leaving the farm and going off and finding your Emerald City, whatever that might be.
For me, I think that's why it still resonates on such a deep level. There was a period of time in my early 20s when I kind of put away all my Oz books and all my Oz stuff, thinking, ‘Oh, okay, it's time to grow up. It's time to man up and put these childhood things away.’ It took me coming out, years later, around the time I was 30, to go, ‘You know, that was important to me, and it is important to me. I want to reclaim that.’ I found that kid again, before I became someone that everybody expected me to be. I went back and reclaimed that Oz fascination again. It's always been there. It's such a comfort to me in so many ways and I think that's what's enduring. People have such great memories attached to it.
(FR): How did this journey perhaps deepen your appreciation of the film and/or the creative hearts and minds behind it?
(RS): I think that we all have our own Oz stories and journeys. [It was important] for us to be able to come together and share those things, where they're all [coming from] different approaches, different backgrounds. Now, to see people that come to it through Wicked and then discover the 1939 film. That's hard for me to wrap my mind around, but I think that it's interesting, because we all find it in some form or another, in different ways. It still resonates in very similar ways deep inside. The film, when you dig into it, you're exploring all these flaws here and there, the continuity errors and things, but no matter how many things like that you point out or discover, it doesn't do anything to take away from the magic of the film.
We talk about the way that the tornado was created and the different special effects. When you know all that behind-the-scenes stuff, it doesn't make it any less magical. In fact, I think it maybe adds to it; that they were able to do these things without the technology that we have today. I still think the tornado in The Wizard of Oz is far better than anything CGI has ever come up with. Growing up in Oklahoma, I've seen my share of tornadoes in person, and I'll tell you, they look much more like the one in The Wizard of Oz than other things I've seen in more recent movies.
(FR): I remember pouring over a matte painting of the Emerald City in the USC library and looking at all of the fine detail work in that. It's amazing to think about all of the techniques that were used in creating the film.
(RS): You look at that and it totally fooled me as a kid. I'm an elementary music teacher and every few years, I'll show The Wizard of Oz to my students, kind of alternating with The Sound of Music and other things that are the must-sees. I've had several kids say, ‘Well, that's so fake.’ I think seeing it with eyes that are used to CGI, they're used to something that's more manufactured technology-wise, but I think that the magic is still there. It's just a totally different style of filmmaking [today] from my eyes growing up as a kid. I thought that everything was absolutely real. I thought that was a real place you could go to. I had no idea it was created on a sound stage, for quite a while [laughs.]
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Watch Mysteries of Oz: 85 Questions Answered
RANDY SCHMIDT is the author of the acclaimed bestselling biography Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter and the editor of Judy Garland on Judy Garland: Interviews and Encounters, Dolly on Dolly: Interviews and Encounters, and Yesterday Once More: The Carpenters Reader. He has also contributed articles to The Advocate and The Observer. As a child, Randy was a card-carrying member of the International Wizard of Oz Club and remains a lifelong Oz enthusiast. He teaches music in Denton, Texas, where he continues to share his passion for music and its history.
