Name your favorite film of all time. What era does the film take place in? What else was happening in the world during the time frame of the film?

It’s hard to choose, and maybe it's on my mind due to my last blog, but I’d have to say The Wizard of Oz is my favorite. It’s full of childhood nostalgia for me, and it’s such a timeless, classic film--40 years later, my daughters loved the movie just as much as I did.

I don’t know anyone who isn’t familiar with all the characters and who can’t quote at least a couple of lines from the movie.  The phrases “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” and “there’s no place like home” strike a familiar chord with almost everybody. After moving to the South, I’ve been known to joke, “Toto, I have a feeling we aren’t in Kansas anymore” on more than one occasion! Or when my daughters were acting up, I’ve playfully threatened, “Don’t make me call in the flying monkeys!”

Besides the unforgettable characters and lines, the music was catchy too. Of course, most people know the songs “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.” But in addition, I’ll always be able to hum the tune that played during the attack of the flying monkeys. Just hearing that music struck fear in my childhood heart!

Who can resist a film where the main characters receive gifts they so desperately need:  a brain, a heart,  courage, and finding a way to get home? And I swear, if I had my wedding to do over again, I’d definitely wear ruby slippers on my feet.

As for the film’s era, The Wizard of Oz was released in the late 1930s, at a time when the effects of the Great Depression were still lingering, and the Hindenberg, the Lindbergh baby, and Hitler’s rise to power were all in the news--a stressful era indeed. Perhaps this is why the entertaining fantasy of The Wizard of Oz provided such a delightful escape and held so much appeal.