American Icons--The Wizard of Oz: How a Young Girl and a Big Dream Sent Us All over the Rainbow

“I can’t think of anything that has had a greater cultural effect in the twentieth century,” said Nora Ephron of her favorite story. “I see it everywhere.” Ephron was speaking, of course, of “The Wizard of Oz,” which influenced every one of her films, from “Heartburn” to “Julie and Julia.” For her—and all of us—“The Wizard of Oz” was a touchstone. We can’t hear a bar of the movie’s famous music without feeling a jolt of childhood delight and anxiety (the flying monkeys are coming!). But the real story of Oz goes way beyond the beloved 1939 Judy Garland film. Based on the “American Icons” series, from PRI’s celebrated radio show “Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen,” this e-book follows the many ripples that "The Wizard of Oz" has sent across the world, from the American Midwest to the Russian steppes. What began as a series of bestselling books by L. Frank Baum, a dreamer and failed businessman who was urged to put his stories on paper by his proto-feminist mother-in-law (a model for Dorothy), morphed into a cultural juggernaut that has inspired stage plays, songs, toys, and even college courses. It’s a story so rich that it serves as a metaphor for everything from the gold standard to repressed sexuality. This rollicking e-book features interviews with Oz lovers Salman Rushdie (who watched the movie as a boy growing up in Bombay), singer Bobby McFerrin, and director Walter Murch, as well as the four-foot-tall Margaret Pellegrini, who was one of the original Munchkins and spent years working the “Wizard of Oz” convention circuit. The range of voices, and images in this e-book is vivid proof that, more than a century after America first traveled the yellow brick road, Oz is still everywhere. ABOUT KURT ANDERSEN Kurt Andersen, the former editor of “New York” and “Spy,” has been a columnist for “The New Yorker” and is the author of the novel “Heyday.” Ten years ago, Kurt Andersen and Studio 360 began the “American Icons” series, produced by PRI with WNYC. Each show explored the deep historical and cultural impact of an iconic piece of American art, architecture, literature, or entertainment. ABOUT PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL AND STUDIO 360 Public Radio International’s mission is to serve audiences as a distinctive content source for information, insights, and cultural experiences essential to living in our diverse, interconnected world. Studio 360® is a coproduction of PRI® and New York Public Radio. ABOUT BYLINER Byliner is a subscription reading service and digital publisher of award-winning short fiction and nonfiction.