What a Smell of Sulfer

Who doesn’t count The Wizard of Oz as one of their favorite movies? It is a movie that is timeless in many respects. For seven decades, children have been enamored by its magic, with good reason. The story draws you in. The fascinating adventure Dorothy and Toto find in Oz one no child can ever forget. There is nothing complicated about it. You don’t have to think, just enjoy. The acting is great. The sets are phenomenal. The make up was incredibly realistic. The Wicked Witch was a great villain. She was evil and mean but, still safe enough even for timid children. Munchkin land and The Emerald city are typical of the fantasy world all kids go to in their imagination. Each and every character was so defined that kids could feel as if they knew each and every one of them. There was the bumbling “Wizard”, the comforting Glenda, the witch, and of coarse Dorothy and her companions.
What many people don’t know is the political aspect the book was originally written around. As you are aware, our dollars are each worth one dollar’s worth of gold. That is to say in theory, you could take a dollar bill to Fort Knox in Kentucky and trade it in for one dollar’s worth of gold. In actuality you can’t do that because they are now backed by faith, but that’s another story. When The Wizard of Oz was written, America was considering changing to the “silver standard”. With this change, your dollars would be worth silver not gold. Frank Baum was keen on this idea. He felt that staying on the gold standard, or “following the yellow brick road” would let down the American people, just as Dorothy was let down by the false wizard. The whole journey Dorothy was following the yellow brick to Oz. Oz, which is the abbreviation for ounces, represents gold, which is measured in ounces. Dorothy is the average American. Most Americans didn’t know about the gold standard, let alone know weather or not the silver standard would be better. That parallels Dorothy knowledge of what to expect on the yellow brick road. In the book Dorothy was wearing silver slippers. In the end, it was the silver slippers that were her salvation. Toto represented the children of America. Toto had to go along with Dorothy no matter which path she took. He would share in her fate although he had no means of controlling that fate. The Scarecrow represented the farmers who were under educated. The Tin Man was the blue collar workers, who acted as if they didn’t care. And the Lion represented the silent majority who was afraid to speak up. The Wicked Witch represented the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who would use congress, (flying monkeys) to thwart Dorothy’s best interests so she could personally profit.
If all this is interesting to you, dig this. Get a copy of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. It must be a C.D. If you burn it then there must be no time between the tracks. Play the movie and turn the sound off. At the start of the MGM lion’s third roar begin the C.D. I will go no further. You must experience that for yourself. I cannot do it justice from a keyboard. If you have access, eat some psilocybin mushrooms prior to the movie.
After the Witch throws a fireball at the Scarecrow that the Tin Man puts out with his hat, that’s rumored to be a man committing suicide in the far background. It’s just before the fade, center screen.
The Scarecrow is the only character to carry a gun. He carries in the Haunted Forest.