The Wonderful Wizard
of Oz
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
The Wizard of Oz, 1949
Color lithograph poster
Lester Glassner Collection of Movie Posters
Prints & Photographs Division (154.10b)
Digital ID # ppmsca-09889
Thomas A. Johnstone, Comic Art Studio
M.G.M.
Presents the Wizard of Oz
Photomechanical print with ink and graphite, ca. July 27, 1939
Prints & Photographs Division
Copyright deposit, 1939 (187.4)
Digital ID# ppmsca-12394
|
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released their Oscar winning film version
of L. Frank Baum's celebrated 1900 children's book The Wonderful
Wizard of Oz in 1939. Victor Fleming is credited with directing
the film, which introduced Judy Garland (as Dorothy) and made her
a star. The film, totaling three million dollars to make, was nominated
for six Academy Awards. Judy Garland was presented with a special
award for her "outstanding performance as a screen juvenile." The
first run in theaters did not quite cover production costs, so
it was re-released in 1949 and was a great success at the box office.
As part of its $250,000 promotional campaign for the 1939 film
of The Wizard of Oz, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) ran full-page, color
advertisements in the Sunday comic sections of newspapers to generate
excitement in advance of the opening of The Wizard of Oz. These
drawings, showing principal scenes from the movie, are believed
to be the preliminary artwork for the campaign. By placing the
ads in an estimated twenty-nine newspapers in twenty-one large
cities in August 1939, publicists reached an audience in the millions.
In addition to the newspaper campaign, MGM placed advertisements
in large-circulation national magazines.
|