- Title: 'Wizard of Oz' draft scripts head for auction block
- Date: 8th November 2018
- Summary: CALABASAS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 7, 2018) (REUTERS) WIDE OF ORIGINAL 'WIZARD OF OZ' FILM DRAFT SCRIPTS DISPLAYED (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRIAN CHANES, HEAD OF ACQUISITIONS/CONSIGNMENT RELATIONS FOR AUCTION HOUSE PROFILES IN HISTORY, SAYING: "What you see behind me is the single most important manuscript in Hollywood history. It's the genesis of the 'Wizard of Oz' starting with the written word, all of the different drafts, we have with over 150 pages of handwritten manuscript notes and manuscript pages for the original script that developed into the final shooting script." CLOSE-UP OF MGM INTEROFFICE CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE WIZARD OF OZ VARIOUS OF COVER OF ORIGINAL WIZARD OF OZ SCRIPT (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRIAN CHANES, HEAD OF ACQUISITIONS/CONSIGNMENT RELATIONS FOR AUCTION HOUSE PROFILES IN HISTORY, SAYING: "It went through many writers, there were over ten writers in all but there was one, Noel Langley was the one who was actually responsible for the main focus of the film and made the - he's the one that's the most credited. At one point in time, there were silver slippers, and he, they changed it to ruby slippers because they wanted to take advantage of Technicolor, you know, in the early days of color film. And, Frank Baum, originally wrote it as being silver but that wouldn't have looked too spectacular." VARIOUS OF FIRST PAGE OF ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRIAN CHANES, HEAD OF ACQUISITIONS/CONSIGNMENT RELATIONS FOR AUCTION HOUSE PROFILES IN HISTORY, SAYING: "Well we have an estimate of 800,000 - to 1.2 million dollars but by far it is the most exclusive and important manuscript in movie history. I mean, it trumps them all." CHANES PLACING ONTO SCREENPLAY PAGES A STILL BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO OF DOROTHY'S KANSAS HOUSE BEING LIFTED UP BY TORNADO THAT WAS USED FOR SPECIAL EFFECTS
- Embargoed: 22nd November 2018 01:15
- Keywords: "The Wizard of Oz auction script draft script L. Frank Baum Noel Langley manuscript screenplay
- Location: CALABASAS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- City: CALABASAS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA00195N9IE1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A collection of draft scripts for "The Wizard of Oz" and other material from the archives of the 1939 film are going up for auction in December and could fetch up to $1.2 million.
Los Angeles auctioneers Profiles in History said on Thursday (November 8) four handwritten draft screenplays by Noel Langley were being sold.
Langley, who died in 1980, was one of about a dozen screenwriters who worked on the big screen adaptation of L. Frank Baum's children's book that catapulted Judy Garland to fame and became an enduring movie classic.
Langley's first three original drafts, dated between April 5 and May 14, 1938, are being sold alongside a fourth draft of the screenplay, written by Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf, and a fifth draft from August 1938 by Langley.
"It is the single most important manuscript in Hollywood history," Brian Chanes, head of consignment at Profiles in History, told Reuters.
Chanes said the more than 150 pages of handwritten manuscript notes and pages were "the genesis of 'The Wizard of Oz,'" tracing its development and changes from first draft to the final version.
Some 16 photos of special effects, including the tornado sequence that transports Garland's Dorothy from Kansas to the magical land of Oz, will be included in the single lot.
The archive is being sold by an anonymous private collector who bought it years ago from the late Los Angeles memorabilia collector, Forrest J. Ackerman, Chanes said.
Profiles in History put an estimated sale value of $800,000 - $1.2 million on the archival material, which will be auctioned during its Hollywood memorabilia sale in Los Angeles from Dec. 11-14.
Langley, Ryerson and Woolf all received credits for the screenplay when the movie was released in 1939, but several others also made uncredited revisions and contributions.
"The studio assigned a number of script writers and each scriptwriter did not know the other was working on it. The others kind of fizzled out," Chanes said. "Noel Langley is the one that really set the stage."
"The Wizard of Oz" won just two Oscars - for its music - after it was released in 1939 but went on to become one of the best-known musicals in Hollywood history. In 1989, it was among the first to be preserved by the National Film Registry. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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