The depiction of the tornado in the 1939 film was intense and remarkably well-executed, even by modern standards. I found a relevant Instagram post (which I don't know how to embed) that describes the basic technology used.
The tornado isalso discussed at some length in an article at the Oz Museum. English majors and other wordsmiths will appreciate this aspect:
“Cyclone” is the word L. Frank Baum chose to describe the Kansas storm in his story, although he clearly meant “tornado.” Shortly after THE WIZARD OF OZ book first appeared in 1900, Professor Willis L. Moore, then Chief of the United States Weather Bureau, wrote Baum’s publishers to urge them to correct the inaccurate usage. He received a response from Frank K. Reilly of The George M. Hill Company, offering that the change would be made in the next edition. This, however, was never done, and any who purchase a copy of THE WIZARD OF OZ reprinting Baum’s original language will find that “cyclone” remains, again and again – as colloquial and as factually incorrect as ever. (MGM got around the issue in the movie by having Bert Lahr exclaim, in idiomatic fright, “It’s a twister! It’s a twister!” Later on, however, the screenwriters were loyal to Baum, and Judy Garland’s Dorothy explains to Toto, “We must be up inside the cyclone!”)
The article goes on to discuss the various static artistic depictions of the tornado in different publications of The Wizard of Oz, including this one -
- in which the tornado is still present in Munchkinland. The Oz Museum article is nicely illustrated, but for explication of the movie technique, see the Instagram account.
My mother (born 1924) grew up in the panhandle of Texas, near the Oklahoma state line. She always used the term cyclone in reference to tornadoes. I have very vivid memories of the times she would usher my siblings and I into the basement whenever big storms rolled into our area. Once, it wasn’t even raining or windy but she was adamant because she said the sky “looked green”.
ReplyDelete