At Last an Our Gang/Wizard of Oz Crossover
In 1962, as described yesterday, Starlight Musical Theatre of San Diego held tryouts for a production of The Wizard of Oz, using music from the MGM movie.
To play the Tin Woodman the company chose a local television personality: Johnny Downs!
Downs brought decades of experience as performer, starting with acting in Our Gang comedies in the mid-1920s. In fact, he had sung and danced alongside MGM’s Tin Man, Jack Haley, in such movies as Coronado and Pigskin Parade, which also featured fourteen-year-old Judy Garland.
The director was Charlie Cannon, a co-founder of Starlight Musical Theatre (San Diego Civic Light Opera Company) years before. In 1978 the San Diego Evening Tribune reported:
Cannon is most proud of his “Wizard of Oz” production in 1962 featuring Johnny Downs, a TV personality, as the tin man. “We put close to 5,000 in the bowl for that one,” he said. “We even had people sitting in the aisles, and Downs would stay after the show for an hour signing autographs.”That number may be an exaggeration since on 10 Aug 1964 the San Diego Union reported that 3,800 people was “a record crowd” at the Starlight Bowl. However, that record was set by the 1964 production of The Wizard of Oz—the show was so popular that the company brought it back after only two years.
In the revival Johnny Downs once again played the Tin Woodman, and was often listed first in newspaper notices. Cammy Wesson, now a college student, returned as Dorothy. Ole Kittleon played the Scarecrow and Forest Gantz the Cowardly Lion.
A new director reblocked the action for that run. In an interview with a high-school classmate for the 12 Aug 1964 Coronado Eagle and Journal, Wesson described having trouble at first knowing which way to turn. She added: “Johnny Downs, who plays the Tin Woodsman [sic], has adapted very well, but he’s a professional.”
Cammy Wesson went on to careers as an elementary school teacher, realtor, and financial advisor. As a sexagenarian back in Coronado, she took up marathon running.
4 comments:
There are other Oz connections to Our Gang. James Morton, who played Tik-Tok for most of the run of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, appeared in at least two Our Gang shorts. One of them is where the kids invade a radio station during a contest and Morton is one of three men connected with the radio station. Another is when the kids are performing on stage and Morton plays the piano. I think it's one of Alfalfa's earliest appearances, maybe the first. It's been a while since I've seen these, so I may have some details incorrect, but I think anyone more familiar with Our Gang than I am ought to be able to identify them from those descriptions. Also, Carmencita Johnson is listed as being in an early Our Gang short, one that's lost, I believe. The Johnson family became acquainted with L. Frank Baum in April 1917.
The radio station short is “Mike Fright,” the talent contest with Alfalfa and his brother making their film debuts is “Beginner’s Luck.”
Carmencita Johnson was an extra in four Our Gang films, the earliest as an infant, verified by studio payrolls.
If the tradition that Hal Roach and Harold Lloyd met as extras on the Oz Film Manufacturing Company’s The Patchwork Girl of Oz is reliable, then that’s the oldest Oz/Our Gang connection. They worked together on comedy shorts that established the Rolin/Hal Roach Studio. By the time Roach launched Our Gang in 1922, Lloyd was working somewhat independently, and he’d soon go off on his own, but not before he and the gang traded cameos in some pictures.
Carmencita Johnson’s earliest Our Gang movie was “Cradle Robbers,” a silent movie from 1924. It can be viewed on YouTube. Cross-dressing, baby impersonation, multiple criminals—true family entertainment!
James Morton also played a police officer in three Our Gang shorts: “A Lad an’ a Lamp,” “Washee Ironee,” and “The Lucky Corner.”
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