What was it? Spring of 1964? 1965? It would have been a Kodak moment, that's for sure.
Mr Zigler was out on manuevers, and the Bubbas, well, there were too many of them and they were far too rowdy to ask over, and Allen, who was three or four years older than me, was probably too old and far too cool to sit and watch tv with the rest of us "little kids". I'm sure that there other kids there than Mary and Karl, my next door neighbors, maybe possibly even one of those damned foster kids my mom had living with us there for awhile just to help keep me from being bored.
The image in my mind of the Wisteria house living room that night feels far away and yet very expertly staged, with funky 60's coffee table lamps burning all around my parent's well appointed living room and the big new RCA console set expertly anchored in the middle of the living room floor. The reception was about as good as it could be thanks to the quiet efficiency of the high quality aluminum aerial up on the roof. Yup, it was quiet a picture: restless kids, shushing parents, aluminum clad popcorn, cane sugar sodas and the annual migration of one the finest fantasy films of all time all happening at once in the comfort of my living room.
I'm not sure what comes first in my memory file: the purchase of our first color television set or The Wizard of Oz. I don't think that that film rated remembrance before color. It would have been lacking the drama and wonder that the Land of Oz imported when it was displayed in Technicolor . It would have been one long black and white epic, totally missing the sepia and emerald green hues that made it so magical to watch on that behemoth wood encased RCA set.
I'm not sure exactly when my parents purchased that television, but it seemed to me like it was the only one in the world at the time. I'm sure that we musth have lagged behind the rest of the neighborhood, as My Pop was only a barber and laying out cash for a toy like that must have been one of those super secret parental money decisions that seriously impacted the bottom line of the household budget. When you're a kid things like that just show up, like brand new refrigerators or big used cars.
Yeah, back in those days big electronics meant big vacuum tubes, burley repairmen, cables running out the living room window and up onto the roof. You could always tell who had great reception back in those days just by looking up at the neighborhood skyline. I'm sure that I had no idea what kinds of televisions my buddies had and I didn't care. We had color and that changed the way that I looked at movies and the world. I don't remember what other movies I might have seen up to that point on tv that really left an imprint. I know that I had favorite television programs like Lassie. Mr Ed, Sky King and the Mickey Mouse Club. But it was the advent of color that made Saturday morning cartoons really pop, that made old Technicolor flicks like The Wizard of Oz something beyond special to watch and to look forward to.
I'm sure that the Dorothy and the gang had shown up somewhere along the line when I was younger but that posse didn't click wasn't until that RCA set showed up and the rest of the neighborhood plonked down in our living room to enjoy and appreciate the spectacle. I am sure that we kids were wild and jittery from too much sugar and preshow anticipation, that the adults were grooving and filled with anticipation, too. It would be nice to have a photo of that time, just to see what was being passed around, just to know what kinds of noshing and cocktails and cold heavy cans of beer were circulating about, all of it adding up to one big block party kind of event.
And while there is no way that I can possibly remember the particulars, I know that there must have been a sort of silence that settle in and hung about the room once Judy Garland warbled Over the Rainbow. Hell, I hear it now and it stops me cold. I know, buried someplace deep and golden in my childhood, that that first color viewing of the Wizard of Oz was truly some sort of magical moment, a touchstone and a very safe place to revisit now and again.
Truly, back in those days there was no place like home, home with a color television set, family and friends and the Wizard of Oz .
Action!
Wikipedia: The Wizard of Oz on television:
Internet Movie Database: The Wizard of Oz:
Website: The Color Television Revolution:
Television history, the first 75 years:
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