What happens when an actor becomes so inexplicably connected to, defined by, and identified with his or her portrayal of a character in film? In the case of the 1939 MGM classic, The Wizard of Oz (known as Production #1060 on set), complete submersion.
The monologues of Production 1060 imagine the lives of Oz’s famous actors — Frank Morgan, Clara Blandick, Margaret Hamilton, Jack Haley, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, and, Judy Garland — and their alternate selves both on and off the set, and, in the process, make it difficult to tell when the performance ends. (Read “The Straw Man” in Taddle Creek about vaudeville great, Ray Bolger.)
The poems of Production 1060 were inspired by more than the movie in which it refers. Books like Aljean Harmetz’s The Making of The Wizard of Oz, Salman Rushdie’s The Wizard of Oz, John Lahr’s Notes On A Cowardly Lion, and Jack Haley’s Heart of the Tin Man were enormously illuminating on both the history of the movie’s production as well as the actors and their subsequent endeavours on television and in theatre.
Finding a copy of Jack Haley’s book was not easy. Eventually, a copy was located from an online bookseller, and it was surprising to find, when the book arrived, this lovely inscription from Haley’s daughter, Gloria Parnassus:
To purchase a copy of Production 1060, please visit Junction Books.
Adrienne Weiss, Writer 