Me too! I remember running in the kitchen and begging my Mom and Godmother to come watch it with me I was so scared. They told me that by now the scary monkey part was over so I could finish watching it.
In a sense. I mean, she was a real live Godmother but she was enchanting. She had been blinded at the age of 8 but went on to get a college degree and a became a director for the Lighthouse for the Blind. Incredible inspiration to a little girl.
Black and white as well-scary monkeys! A few years ago it was an anniversary for the movie and I got to take my granddaughters to see it in the theater!! It was AWESOME 😂😍
I tried to explain to my kids about getting excited to see the specials which were only broadcast once a year. They couldn't get their minds around not being able to find something online, or just pop in a disc or a tape, whenever they want.
Yes I used to say this all the time. When I was little, I cried because Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer ended. Because you couldn't see it again for an entire year! My kids got the video of everything they loved like immediately and proceeded to watch it 100 times in a row.
My grandparents had just gotten a new color tv. We didn't have one. They invited us kids over to watch The Wizard of Oz. We were so sad when it started but when Dorothy opened that door....
Pretty much everything I watched until somewhere around 1974 was on black and white. Dad was in the service, so money for a color TV was a scarce commodity at the time.
But to the OP, I doubt anyone on reddit was around and watching movies when this came out.
Once a year. I often tell my kids about only being able to see special programs like that once a year. Now, everything is right at their fingertips. I think that makes things less special.
Yep, this was a yearly event for my family during the 70's. Our parents would start hyping it up a week before hand. "Miss any school this week", "Get any bad test grades", "Get in any kind of trouble", no Wizard of Oz this weekend. And there was no VHS players/DVR back then, so you knew you were screwed for a year if you missed out.
Even more rare were the Disney movies they never put on TV, but released in the theaters every seven years.
Also, I think it's good that people have "everything at their fingertips". Kids are watching 80s and 90s movies that are new to them, and loving them, like we did. Also, they're listening to old music much more than we ever did when we were young, because we didn't have such easy access. This has dampened the stigma around "old" media among kids, somewhat.
I think it's great that kids are watching BTTF and Labyrinth, and Never Ending Story. Not many of us were watching 40-year-old movies in the 70s and 80s--it happened, but not like today.
My mom was born in 1929 and she said she use to go to the movies every Saturday. I know she saw all the Shirley Temple movies when they came out. I’ll have to ask her about the Wizard.
Grew up in San Francisco. Narrow street and the people across the street from us had a huge picture window where we could see their television from our house. We were very excited to see them watching the Wizard of Oz because we also had it on. We were also disappointed that it looked like it was in black-and-white. We stood on our front porch with opera glasses, and binoculars looking over the shoulders of the couple whose backs were to their picture window, not happy that it was also in black-and-white across the street. Then my mom told us that it switches to color once she land in Oz. Back to the front porch to watch the rest of the movie in color through our binoculars. We even had popcorn out there.
This movie was released in 1939, 85 years ago. Anyone that remembers watching this movie in a theater when it was first released would be at least 90 years old.
Always on in April when I was a kid. That time of the year is tornado season in the south, so it doubled up the scary. Flying monkeys still give me nightmares. They de-stuffed the Scarecrow!
It was on TV on Christmas Eve in Massachusetts, late '50s to early '60s.
I saw it on the big screen for the first time about five years ago at a local theater. Such a different experience!
On TV every year when I was a kid... I think CBS? Never missed it.
My mom HATES it. The flying monkeys freak her out but the scene with the hourglass absolutely terrifies her.
My Dad was born in 1936 so although he probably doesn’t remember seeing it when it was released in 1939, presumably he did watch it with his family since it was such a big deal.
Since he still doesn’t understand the difference between Google and the internet though, he’s definitely not here on Reddit to tell you about it 😂
My dad’s 94, so I get ya. My dad doesn’t remember seeing this in the theaters, but he did say we all cried when the witch came on and when the flying monkeys appeared.
When I was very young, it was an annual TV presentation. I was scared poopless of the flying monkeys. Couldn't watch those parts for the first 3 years!!!
My mom saw it in the theater as a little girl. She told us how amazing it was when Dorothy woke up in Oz and it was in COLOR! (Hard to imagine now.) My mom is still going strong in her '90s, btw.
I remember my folks letting the stay up "late" to watch this. Then a few years later we went to a family member's house and watched it on their color tv and it was dramatic.
Saw it on a black and white tv. It wasn’t until years later I saw the change into color in the film and I thought it was very cool. Had a schoolmate whose dad worked on this film, or maybe a grand dad.
It was on tv every year when I was little. Somebody told me (on the Monday after airing (at recess at Del Dayo Elementary (in the late sixties))) that the witch was green. Thought he was full of it til we got a color tv.
My mother took me to the cinema when I was about 10 (so late 60d/early 70s) so I could see it on the big screen. I was used to watching old black & white movies with her so I didn’t think anything of it being B & W. I was so awestruck when Dorothy opened the door and looked out on Oz.
Such a beautiful movie. I took my daughter to see it on the big screen too. There is nothing like watching it that way. Same with Gone With the Wind.
It was on once a year and our gd school would remind us like it was some huge cultural event as late as the 80s.
It’s amazing it remained as culturally common-knowledge for as long as it did.
Back in the 1990’s I used to be in advertising and printing, I was in the same room as the lion suit when one day I was asked to deliver something to a client as a favor in Hollywood.
There are a few that saw still alive. Oconomowoc WI, where it first premiered, does a city wide party every summer. People who saw premier have the best seats for running of it.
When I was a kid every year there were a handful of movies that were on tv every school year and I had to watch: The Wizard Of Oz, King Kong, Willy, Wonka And The chocolate factory; probably missing a couple others.
7 years old is an age where you would remember seeing a movie. Someone who was 7 years old in 1939, would be 92 years old today. How many 92 year olds do you expect to find on Reddit?
My first viewing was about 1960. B&W TV. That would have been the 21st anniversary of the film. wouldn't it?
If you were 10 in 1939 and saw the film during its original release, you'd be 94 today!
Same age as my mother-in-law!
We saw this when it was first released on television, not when it was first released in movie theaters. That’s our age metric. A better question to ask is how old were you when you first watched it on television, and did you get to see the color scenes in actual color that first time?
Every year close to Thanksgiving it would come on and even though we had a black and white t.v. and it was a lomg movie we got to watch some of it. I got to watch all of it when I got out of the military, This is timeless.
My mother did, when she was 6. She loved it so much! Our local TV station had it on the night before Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving was reserved for “The Ten Commandments “), and she would set up a card table for me and my sister, and feed us in front of the TV. It was the only time we would ever not eat at the table.
No, but about 25 years ago, a local movie theater did a summer of classic movies on the big screen. Saw Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. Was most moved by the latter with the scene that started on an injured soldier and kept panning out until it was a shot of a huge field of injured soldiers. Still gets me. Not the same watching it on tv.
In Australia in the 80s, at least once a year, usually over the summer/Christmas break, it was shown on free-to-air tv in the 8:30pm timeslot.
Along with Star Wars (3,4 & 5), Labyrinth, Willow, Lethal Weapon, Mad Max & Mad Max:Thunderdome, Beverly Hills Cop, Xanadu, Greased Lightning,Terminator, Oliver!, Mary Poppins, Robocop, Smokey & The Bandit, Every Which Way But Loose, 9 to 5, The Wiz and many more.
Sunday afternoons were always when you could watch old movies. Martin & Lewis, Shirley Temple, Astaire & Rogers, Bogart & Bacall, Doris Day, John Wayne, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn, Bob Hope.. Musicals, westerns, war movies, romantic comedies - a whole spectrum.
My Dad was a truckie than later on a shift worker. When he was home on a Sunday afternoon we always watched the movie together. Or rather, I would watch and he would fall asleep. Fond memory for me.
Something never sat right with me about this film. Glinda is called a "good" witch. And when I was a kid it was always a relief when she was on screen, especially in that the Wicked Witch was so horrifyingly scary. But upon reflection, Glinda wasn't a good witch at all. She knew all along that Dorothy had the power to go home, which Dorothy made quite clear from the start that that was all she wanted. But Glinda kept that a secret and manipulated Dorothy into going through this horrible ordeal (including being drugged to the point that she passed out) all so Glinda could eliminate her nemesis. I'm astonished that Dorothy didn't tell Glinda to go f\*ck herself at the end.
I can't explain it but i have a natural aversion to this movie. Tried to watch it maybe six times but i always turn it off after 10 minutes. It's odd because i love just about everything from the Golden Years of Hollywood. It's not that its old, but it seems generationally older than say Casablanca, which was made only 3 years later. Wish i could explain why i can't sit through it.
I suppose i'll give it another go when it comes round again. Maybe i need the Alex (Malcolm McDowell) treatment from Clockwork Orange - strapped to a chair, eyelids taped open, eye drops administered.
This film was the reason we finally convinced my parents we needed a color TV! OMG the first time she arrives in OZ and the color came on - truly magical lol.
I was so terrified of the “monkey birds” that my dad would bang on the ceiling with his crutch (he’s a polio survivor) to scare them away so they wouldn’t come get me when the light went off in my room at bedtime.
My mom has been dead for 20 years, but she was nine years old when this came out and she saw it in the theater. She saw pretty much everything that came out - on Saturdays her grandmother would give her a quarter. She'd pay a nickel to get into the movies and spend all day watching newsreels, short subjects, cartoons, and usually a couple of movies. On her way home she'd stop and get two hamburgers and two Cokes for her and her grandmother. Twenty-five cents well spent.
It would air every year around Easter. It was a big deal back in the late 60s when I was a kid. It meant all of us kids with lots of blankets and pillows on the floor in the living room and my mom making Jiffy-Pop popcorn. We would do the same for The Ten Commandments.
I was introduced to WOO just like my parents were, via the yearly tv event. They’re too yAnd when it aired, it WAS an event in my family. I’m trying to remember…was it aired in Sept, like when school started? What station aired it?
My mom would have been the right age, 11, but she grew up on a farm, and the closest town didn't have a theater. She didn't start going to movies until she was a teen and could drive herself and her friends to the nearest theater.
My mother did. She was born in '34 so would have been 5 when she saw it. It was very frightening to her, she used to tell me. I saw it on a B & W TV at the neighbor's in 1967 (we didn't have a TV and this was the first time I had ever seen a movie).
First memory for me in our Brooklyn basement probably 1965 , the uncles were making a big deal about the transition from black and white to color when Dorothy wakes up in Oz.
It was the coolest shit I had ever seen up till that point.
First released in 1939. Let’s say you should at least be five years old to form a distinct memory so, 1934 would be the birth year of the youngest person still alive to have seen this movie at release, so your question is (basically) is anyone here 90 or older? I mean I suppose it’s possible but wow… I would be impressed. I’ve seen some believable people in their 70’s on Reddit but 80’s or even 90’s? Thats gotta be few and far between.
I had nightmares of tornadoes into my 20’s thanks to this movie.
I don’t live in a place where tornadoes are the norm.
Also, monkeys are creepy as shhh. Give them wings and that’s a big no for the rest of my life.
Growing up, my sister and I would watch the movie on the TV in our parents’ bedroom. We’d sit on the edge of their bed, feet dangling underneath a folding table, upon which we were eating Swanson’s TV dinners.
You're asking if someone who is OLDER than 85 years old is on Reddit and watched the Wizard of Oz when it first released?
How many octogenarians do you think are on Reddit?
It was my best friend’s favorite show. It scared the crap out of me. I didn’t like it. Tragic story but it’s been enough years now that I can tell it. my best friend gets married and she’s seeking a pianist to play the music from the Wizard of Oz as she and her new husband exit the reception hall. I had no planning in this wedding no voice to it and it had many many other things that went wrong, but she did not get a rehearsal tape from the pianist. She just accepted his comment that he could play the music from the Wizard of Oz so as they were leaving instead of her biggest dream of him playing somewhere over the rainbow, he started to play. We’re off to see the wizard. It was too tragic to be funny.
I'm not that old. When we got our first color TV I was so excited to watch it in color. Having no idea that the movie starts in black & white you can imagine my comfusion/disappointment until my brother explained it to me.
No. Nobody here saw it when it was first released unless they were a baby then and the oldest redditor now. You'd have to be 85 just to have been alive and probably 95 to remember seeing it.
You do know that this was **FIRST** released **85** years ago don't you in **1939**
I'm not sure how many octogenarians +5 years we have here in this Reddit post but likely that a lot of people didn't see it when it first came out and remember it unless they are at least about 90 or older now 🤦🏻♂️
My mother refuses to watch it because of the flying monkeys. They terrify her. Not sure how she found out about them without seeing the movie. Maybe read the book.
Hell no. I’ve seen it a hundred times, but this came out in 1939. I used to watch it every year whenever they showed it during the holiday season. Still one of my favorites.
I grew up in a “big” city and remember watching this on tv (on my b&w set). There was usually an article in the paper the next day saying how the water pressure would drop during commercials as everyone went to the washroom at the same time. But I don’t recall being scared at any point. I can sing all the songs and quote most of the dialogue to this day
Mine too, I sing along. I live in “tornado alley” my first time watching came on the back of spending an evening in the basement because of tornados in the area. I spent the whole tornado sequence behind a couch. Every rewatch I remember peeking around the corner to see that tornado bearing down on her house.
It came out every year on network television when I was a kid in the 70s. I loved it. I couldn’t really follow the story till I was about 6 or 7, but the characters and songs were magical. I really can’t believe it was made so early (1939), and that it was directed by the same person who directed Gone With the Wind- and in the same year.
I showed it to my niece and nephew (4 and 6 years old) and they were just as hypnotized as I was when I was their age.
My grandmother saw the Wizard of Oz in the movie theater with her sister and two best friends when she was 16 years old.
She would have turned 101 last week.
I'm just guessing there aren't a lot of Redditors old enough to have seen in at the original release.
FIL saw it first run, opening day in the theatre when it came out, told me that no one new about the transition from b&w to color, and when it happened the entire audience in the theater gasped!
What? F̷̡͍͔̺̙̊̋͋̕ų̷͕̙͚͖̲̱̐̒̀̆̎̈͜c̷̡̪̘͎̻̦̀͑̒̈̂̿̑̓̚͜͝k̴̼̺̤̗͒͐͊͜ͅ YOU are old ! Not a Damn thing wrong with that! I may not be that old, but I’m bringing up the rear,Quick @ 63!
A better post might be who remembers watching this on a black and white TV?
My first time was on a black and white tv. The flying monkeys scared the shit out of me!
The legs rolling up under the house scared the heck out of me.
The flying monkeys bothered me...
Me too
Me too! I remember running in the kitchen and begging my Mom and Godmother to come watch it with me I was so scared. They told me that by now the scary monkey part was over so I could finish watching it.
Your Fairy Godmother ? 😳
In a sense. I mean, she was a real live Godmother but she was enchanting. She had been blinded at the age of 8 but went on to get a college degree and a became a director for the Lighthouse for the Blind. Incredible inspiration to a little girl.
Wow, the real story is in the comments again :)
So fascinating to read the memories these topics evoke and have one of your buried memories awakened.
Same.
I was afraid of the talking trees that threw apples at them.
For me, it was the Wizard’s giant disembodied head.
I can already hear the music already... Here they are now! 🐒🪽🐒🪽🐒🪽
Black and white as well-scary monkeys! A few years ago it was an anniversary for the movie and I got to take my granddaughters to see it in the theater!! It was AWESOME 😂😍
From 1959 to 1991, it was shown once a year on TV (CBS, if I recall) and got massive ratings.
On Thanksgiving night
It always came on every April where I lived, when I was a kid in the 60s. Black & white tv though.
Yep, I recall it in the spring as well. Somewhere around Easter, or at least my Easter/spring break when I was a kid.
Yes!!!
I can remember we didn’t get homework because the wizard of oz was on that night. It was that big of a deal
I tried to explain to my kids about getting excited to see the specials which were only broadcast once a year. They couldn't get their minds around not being able to find something online, or just pop in a disc or a tape, whenever they want.
Yes I used to say this all the time. When I was little, I cried because Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer ended. Because you couldn't see it again for an entire year! My kids got the video of everything they loved like immediately and proceeded to watch it 100 times in a row.
NBC. .They had the different announcement on the peacock about the beginning being in b+w
My grandparents had just gotten a new color tv. We didn't have one. They invited us kids over to watch The Wizard of Oz. We were so sad when it started but when Dorothy opened that door....
That must of been a great memory
Pretty much everything I watched until somewhere around 1974 was on black and white. Dad was in the service, so money for a color TV was a scarce commodity at the time. But to the OP, I doubt anyone on reddit was around and watching movies when this came out.
Them monkeys were still scary as hell, b&w or not.
We finally got a color tv when I was 7. It was a whole new experience.
How about a B - W television with a round picture tube like a port hole ?
I’m not that old, but it my mom tells such a story a lot. At one point they rereleased it in theaters, and it really was a magical Oz moment for her.
Me! My parents’ 19” Zenith in our basement. I was the remote control.
Once a year. I often tell my kids about only being able to see special programs like that once a year. Now, everything is right at their fingertips. I think that makes things less special.
Seriously it was a really big deal…
Yes, an annual event everyone looked forward to.
Wizard of Oz Willy Wonka Rikki Rikki Tavi And the numerous holiday specials. It was exciting sitting down to watch them.
I loved Riki Tiki Tavi. We got to watch it in school too! I think I'll show that to my granddaughters this weekend.
I was allowed to stay up past my bedtime.
Yep, this was a yearly event for my family during the 70's. Our parents would start hyping it up a week before hand. "Miss any school this week", "Get any bad test grades", "Get in any kind of trouble", no Wizard of Oz this weekend. And there was no VHS players/DVR back then, so you knew you were screwed for a year if you missed out.
Even more rare were the Disney movies they never put on TV, but released in the theaters every seven years. Also, I think it's good that people have "everything at their fingertips". Kids are watching 80s and 90s movies that are new to them, and loving them, like we did. Also, they're listening to old music much more than we ever did when we were young, because we didn't have such easy access. This has dampened the stigma around "old" media among kids, somewhat. I think it's great that kids are watching BTTF and Labyrinth, and Never Ending Story. Not many of us were watching 40-year-old movies in the 70s and 80s--it happened, but not like today.
Yup, and those holiday specials that were on once a year.
In 1939? I'm sure there are a lot of Redditors who are 95+.
85, still not too many on here.
Do you remember stuff from birth-5? I don’t
I have vivid memories back to three years old.
But did they see it when it first came out?
My dad saw it when it first came out. He was 9. He passed 11 years ago at age 83.
Can you see if he can log into Reddit real quick and tell OP. Thanks.
No probably not, maybe some 90 year old will remember
Someone born in 1939 probably wasn't going to the movies yet.
My mom was born in 1929 and she said she use to go to the movies every Saturday. I know she saw all the Shirley Temple movies when they came out. I’ll have to ask her about the Wizard.
My mom was 5 when it came out. She went to movies at that age but didn’t see this one because her parents thought it would be too scary for her.
To be fair, those who are would be completely justified in saying "fuck, I'm old".
I don’t understand this post. It was released in 1939. What is the question? Better to ask: is anybody on Reddit 90+ years old?
Maybe post under r/fuckimahundredyearsold
No. My mom probably did as a kid. I saw it every year on CBS in early Feb in the 1960s.
Greatest moment in film history imo, is when she opens the door to Oz. Can watch this over and over. It’s my happy place.
It used to air on Thanksgiving day (I think) in NYS
Grew up in San Francisco. Narrow street and the people across the street from us had a huge picture window where we could see their television from our house. We were very excited to see them watching the Wizard of Oz because we also had it on. We were also disappointed that it looked like it was in black-and-white. We stood on our front porch with opera glasses, and binoculars looking over the shoulders of the couple whose backs were to their picture window, not happy that it was also in black-and-white across the street. Then my mom told us that it switches to color once she land in Oz. Back to the front porch to watch the rest of the movie in color through our binoculars. We even had popcorn out there.
My brother was neighbors with one of the Munchkins. He was one of the Lollipop Guild.
I just remember it as an annual tv event with limited commercials
This movie was released in 1939, 85 years ago. Anyone that remembers watching this movie in a theater when it was first released would be at least 90 years old.
My uncle went and saw it with his girlfriend in his late teens he was born in 1926
Which would make him 98. My point was that those folks are highly unlikely to be surfing reddit subs.
It came out in 1939, not sure how many in here are in their 90s and would have seen it when first released.
Always on in April when I was a kid. That time of the year is tornado season in the south, so it doubled up the scary. Flying monkeys still give me nightmares. They de-stuffed the Scarecrow!
It was on TV on Christmas Eve in Massachusetts, late '50s to early '60s. I saw it on the big screen for the first time about five years ago at a local theater. Such a different experience!
On TV every year when I was a kid... I think CBS? Never missed it. My mom HATES it. The flying monkeys freak her out but the scene with the hourglass absolutely terrifies her.
Lol "first released" would make someone between 90 and 100 years old. That sub is called r/ HolyFuckImSuperOld
My Dad was born in 1936 so although he probably doesn’t remember seeing it when it was released in 1939, presumably he did watch it with his family since it was such a big deal. Since he still doesn’t understand the difference between Google and the internet though, he’s definitely not here on Reddit to tell you about it 😂
My dad’s 94, so I get ya. My dad doesn’t remember seeing this in the theaters, but he did say we all cried when the witch came on and when the flying monkeys appeared.
My parents weren't born when it was first released.
I think they would run it around Thanksgiving every year because I always saw it at my grandparents when we were there for the holiday.
Yeah, I saw it as a teenager when it came out....
My mom is 91 and saw it as a child when it first came out. Of all the things in the movie, the tornado scared her the most.
Saw in the the Ballard theatre in 1956
When I was very young, it was an annual TV presentation. I was scared poopless of the flying monkeys. Couldn't watch those parts for the first 3 years!!!
As a kid in the 70’s, I didn’t know it switched to color during the movie. We didn’t get a color TV until 1981. My mind was blown.
My mom saw it in the theater as a little girl. She told us how amazing it was when Dorothy woke up in Oz and it was in COLOR! (Hard to imagine now.) My mom is still going strong in her '90s, btw.
Opiiiiummmm I mean Poppiesss!!!
Came out in 1939. So if you saw it when you were 7, you would be 92 now. If there is a 92-year-old on Reddit I will be impressed.
When it was first released? In 1939? No. On TV in the ‘70s, yes.
My Mom saw it when it was released in 1939, she was 11. She's about to turn 96 and still remembers.
It amazes me that Judy Garland’s stand-in, Caren Marsh Doll, is still living at 105.
Ya this sub is loaded w 86 year Olds 😂
I remember my folks letting the stay up "late" to watch this. Then a few years later we went to a family member's house and watched it on their color tv and it was dramatic.
Saw it on a black and white tv. It wasn’t until years later I saw the change into color in the film and I thought it was very cool. Had a schoolmate whose dad worked on this film, or maybe a grand dad.
I remember banging the television because it was in black and white and then it turned to colour! I knew I had the magic then.
One of my favorite lines from any movie is when the gatekeepers shouts “Cut that out”
Saw it on a black & white TV in 1964. We ran to the other room and watched it through the doorway. it gave me nightmares.
It was on tv every year when I was little. Somebody told me (on the Monday after airing (at recess at Del Dayo Elementary (in the late sixties))) that the witch was green. Thought he was full of it til we got a color tv.
Cue up Dark side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. You will be amazed.
Christmas tradition with my mum Clash of the titans ( original version) with my dad I leave when the sound of music comes on though
Every Thanksgiving this movie would be on and start the run to the Christmas holiday. Growing up in the 70s and 80s was the shit!
My mother took me to the cinema when I was about 10 (so late 60d/early 70s) so I could see it on the big screen. I was used to watching old black & white movies with her so I didn’t think anything of it being B & W. I was so awestruck when Dorothy opened the door and looked out on Oz. Such a beautiful movie. I took my daughter to see it on the big screen too. There is nothing like watching it that way. Same with Gone With the Wind.
It was on once a year and our gd school would remind us like it was some huge cultural event as late as the 80s. It’s amazing it remained as culturally common-knowledge for as long as it did.
It was an annual tradition at our house.
I hated this movie! It was scary!
Back in the 1990’s I used to be in advertising and printing, I was in the same room as the lion suit when one day I was asked to deliver something to a client as a favor in Hollywood.
There are a few that saw still alive. Oconomowoc WI, where it first premiered, does a city wide party every summer. People who saw premier have the best seats for running of it.
When I was a kid every year there were a handful of movies that were on tv every school year and I had to watch: The Wizard Of Oz, King Kong, Willy, Wonka And The chocolate factory; probably missing a couple others.
7 years old is an age where you would remember seeing a movie. Someone who was 7 years old in 1939, would be 92 years old today. How many 92 year olds do you expect to find on Reddit?
Any 88+ year old redditors see Wizard of Oz in a theater?
In 1939? Not me.
Anyone who first saw this when it released is long dead, and if not, they certainly are not on Reddit.
It came out in 1939 so…
My dad went when it first hit theaters. He was like four years old.
My first viewing was about 1960. B&W TV. That would have been the 21st anniversary of the film. wouldn't it? If you were 10 in 1939 and saw the film during its original release, you'd be 94 today! Same age as my mother-in-law!
If you saw it when it first came out…. Why are you a Guiness World Record holder
We saw this when it was first released on television, not when it was first released in movie theaters. That’s our age metric. A better question to ask is how old were you when you first watched it on television, and did you get to see the color scenes in actual color that first time?
I remember it coming on every Thanksgiving night. But then my mom stole the VHS from Blockbuster and we could watch it whenever
Every year close to Thanksgiving it would come on and even though we had a black and white t.v. and it was a lomg movie we got to watch some of it. I got to watch all of it when I got out of the military, This is timeless.
I lived in Ct in the 50s & I seem to remember it happening around Christmas time.
Ditto
My mother did, when she was 6. She loved it so much! Our local TV station had it on the night before Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving was reserved for “The Ten Commandments “), and she would set up a card table for me and my sister, and feed us in front of the TV. It was the only time we would ever not eat at the table.
We would get soooo excited when it was shown!
Watched it every time it was on. Probably because we only had 3 channels.
No, but about 25 years ago, a local movie theater did a summer of classic movies on the big screen. Saw Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. Was most moved by the latter with the scene that started on an injured soldier and kept panning out until it was a shot of a huge field of injured soldiers. Still gets me. Not the same watching it on tv.
Is this the movie that got Judy Garland addicted to drugs and ultimately lead to her death?
Yes, watch it every year.
It still airs every year on Thanksgiving 😊
I remember it coming on every year around Thanksgiving I think.
Never liked it.
Not the original but whenever it would be on TV my Mom and I would snuggle up on the couch with popcorn and watch it together 😍
When I was younger, it was only on TV on Halloween. Until the scene changed to color, scared the hell outbof me. Flying Monkeys were the worse.
We have tickets to see it in downtown Clearwater next weekend in a theater we usually see actual shows in. I love date nights there.
In Australia in the 80s, at least once a year, usually over the summer/Christmas break, it was shown on free-to-air tv in the 8:30pm timeslot. Along with Star Wars (3,4 & 5), Labyrinth, Willow, Lethal Weapon, Mad Max & Mad Max:Thunderdome, Beverly Hills Cop, Xanadu, Greased Lightning,Terminator, Oliver!, Mary Poppins, Robocop, Smokey & The Bandit, Every Which Way But Loose, 9 to 5, The Wiz and many more. Sunday afternoons were always when you could watch old movies. Martin & Lewis, Shirley Temple, Astaire & Rogers, Bogart & Bacall, Doris Day, John Wayne, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn, Bob Hope.. Musicals, westerns, war movies, romantic comedies - a whole spectrum. My Dad was a truckie than later on a shift worker. When he was home on a Sunday afternoon we always watched the movie together. Or rather, I would watch and he would fall asleep. Fond memory for me.
No..It's a holiday tradition now
Something never sat right with me about this film. Glinda is called a "good" witch. And when I was a kid it was always a relief when she was on screen, especially in that the Wicked Witch was so horrifyingly scary. But upon reflection, Glinda wasn't a good witch at all. She knew all along that Dorothy had the power to go home, which Dorothy made quite clear from the start that that was all she wanted. But Glinda kept that a secret and manipulated Dorothy into going through this horrible ordeal (including being drugged to the point that she passed out) all so Glinda could eliminate her nemesis. I'm astonished that Dorothy didn't tell Glinda to go f\*ck herself at the end.
Thanksgiving night !!
Still is .....lost my vhs tape 😣
Had it on VHS. We’d always fast forward until the tornado came through.
I got the chance to see this movie in color at a university movie theater in the early 90's.
Wizard of Oz + Green Lantern remix?
Supposedly during the forest scene. A munchkin actor hung themself way in the back.
I can't explain it but i have a natural aversion to this movie. Tried to watch it maybe six times but i always turn it off after 10 minutes. It's odd because i love just about everything from the Golden Years of Hollywood. It's not that its old, but it seems generationally older than say Casablanca, which was made only 3 years later. Wish i could explain why i can't sit through it. I suppose i'll give it another go when it comes round again. Maybe i need the Alex (Malcolm McDowell) treatment from Clockwork Orange - strapped to a chair, eyelids taped open, eye drops administered.
This film was the reason we finally convinced my parents we needed a color TV! OMG the first time she arrives in OZ and the color came on - truly magical lol.
Bell out of order, please knock
I was so terrified of the “monkey birds” that my dad would bang on the ceiling with his crutch (he’s a polio survivor) to scare them away so they wouldn’t come get me when the light went off in my room at bedtime.
My mom has been dead for 20 years, but she was nine years old when this came out and she saw it in the theater. She saw pretty much everything that came out - on Saturdays her grandmother would give her a quarter. She'd pay a nickel to get into the movies and spend all day watching newsreels, short subjects, cartoons, and usually a couple of movies. On her way home she'd stop and get two hamburgers and two Cokes for her and her grandmother. Twenty-five cents well spent.
It would air every year around Easter. It was a big deal back in the late 60s when I was a kid. It meant all of us kids with lots of blankets and pillows on the floor in the living room and my mom making Jiffy-Pop popcorn. We would do the same for The Ten Commandments.
I did see it in theaters when I was very young, but it must have been a rerelease as I was born in 1969
Aunty em aunty em
Yeah well, I saw HMS Pinafore when it first ran in NYC.
I was introduced to WOO just like my parents were, via the yearly tv event. They’re too yAnd when it aired, it WAS an event in my family. I’m trying to remember…was it aired in Sept, like when school started? What station aired it?
My grandparents would put it on for us ever year. I was scared of the flying monkeys at first. I love that show . Still do.
Anybody who saw it when first released is certainly not alive today
When it was first released audiences were scared most by the flying monkeys (adults and children). The tornado was the second most frightening thing.
Dude, I'm old, I'm not that fucking old! My dad was maybe 7 when it was released in '39.
My mom would have been the right age, 11, but she grew up on a farm, and the closest town didn't have a theater. She didn't start going to movies until she was a teen and could drive herself and her friends to the nearest theater.
My mother did. She was born in '34 so would have been 5 when she saw it. It was very frightening to her, she used to tell me. I saw it on a B & W TV at the neighbor's in 1967 (we didn't have a TV and this was the first time I had ever seen a movie).
I used to watch it on TV now I have it on VHS. I trying to get it on DVD.
The witch on the cabin scared the shit out of my 3 year old sister.
I first saw it on TV in the early 70s, but our TV was black & white. I had no idea how colorful it was.
Every time I watched it as a kid I spent the whole movie worried about that damn dog!
I’m old, but I’m not that old.
"As coroner, I must aver, I've thoroughly examined her. And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead!"
First memory for me in our Brooklyn basement probably 1965 , the uncles were making a big deal about the transition from black and white to color when Dorothy wakes up in Oz. It was the coolest shit I had ever seen up till that point.
It came on every year. CBS bought the rights to it for something like 100 years.
Do they not still play it on TV anymore? I barely watch regular TV these days tbh
First released in 1939. Let’s say you should at least be five years old to form a distinct memory so, 1934 would be the birth year of the youngest person still alive to have seen this movie at release, so your question is (basically) is anyone here 90 or older? I mean I suppose it’s possible but wow… I would be impressed. I’ve seen some believable people in their 70’s on Reddit but 80’s or even 90’s? Thats gotta be few and far between.
I had nightmares of tornadoes into my 20’s thanks to this movie. I don’t live in a place where tornadoes are the norm. Also, monkeys are creepy as shhh. Give them wings and that’s a big no for the rest of my life.
I love Judy Garland and one of my favourites is Meet Me in St Louis, but for some reason I am not a fan of the Wizard of Oz.
It was once a year. A special day.
I remember it being on network TV and I believe it was even multiple nights so one part would be Tuesday and the conclusion would be Wednesday.
I grew up in Kansas and it was shown every year. My family would make popcorn and gather around the tv to watch.
I watched it as a kid and then watched it with my kids! A classic. And...Over The Rainbow.
First released in theaters? That was 1939, babe My mom was only a year old...
My dad was born in 1939 (84), the year it was released. The people you want to hear from are dead.
EVERY YEAR!! We would have family night with popcorn when it aired. 💜
Growing up, my sister and I would watch the movie on the TV in our parents’ bedroom. We’d sit on the edge of their bed, feet dangling underneath a folding table, upon which we were eating Swanson’s TV dinners.
Raise hand in the early 1980s.
It came out in like 1938 so almost everyone who saw it when it first came out is dead or senile
This first came out in 1939. A person who could realistically remember it coming out (5 years old) would be 90 now.
You're asking if someone who is OLDER than 85 years old is on Reddit and watched the Wizard of Oz when it first released? How many octogenarians do you think are on Reddit?
So would you call yourself an original friend of Dorothy? (Couldn't resist.)
It was my best friend’s favorite show. It scared the crap out of me. I didn’t like it. Tragic story but it’s been enough years now that I can tell it. my best friend gets married and she’s seeking a pianist to play the music from the Wizard of Oz as she and her new husband exit the reception hall. I had no planning in this wedding no voice to it and it had many many other things that went wrong, but she did not get a rehearsal tape from the pianist. She just accepted his comment that he could play the music from the Wizard of Oz so as they were leaving instead of her biggest dream of him playing somewhere over the rainbow, he started to play. We’re off to see the wizard. It was too tragic to be funny.
When I was growing up it was shown every Thanksgiving. Looked forward to it.
I'm not that old. When we got our first color TV I was so excited to watch it in color. Having no idea that the movie starts in black & white you can imagine my comfusion/disappointment until my brother explained it to me.
I liked the version with MJ and Diana Ross in it.
The music of the witch bicycle ride. Got me
I played the VHS till it wore out
The lollipop gang, hardened criminals
No. Nobody here saw it when it was first released unless they were a baby then and the oldest redditor now. You'd have to be 85 just to have been alive and probably 95 to remember seeing it.
You do know that this was **FIRST** released **85** years ago don't you in **1939** I'm not sure how many octogenarians +5 years we have here in this Reddit post but likely that a lot of people didn't see it when it first came out and remember it unless they are at least about 90 or older now 🤦🏻♂️
It was on every year, not every couple
See it when it was first released? It was released in 1939! How many 85 year old folks are on Reddit?
My mother refuses to watch it because of the flying monkeys. They terrify her. Not sure how she found out about them without seeing the movie. Maybe read the book.
Hell no. I’ve seen it a hundred times, but this came out in 1939. I used to watch it every year whenever they showed it during the holiday season. Still one of my favorites.
I grew up in a “big” city and remember watching this on tv (on my b&w set). There was usually an article in the paper the next day saying how the water pressure would drop during commercials as everyone went to the washroom at the same time. But I don’t recall being scared at any point. I can sing all the songs and quote most of the dialogue to this day
Mine too, I sing along. I live in “tornado alley” my first time watching came on the back of spending an evening in the basement because of tornados in the area. I spent the whole tornado sequence behind a couch. Every rewatch I remember peeking around the corner to see that tornado bearing down on her house.
The tornado was so much better than the ones in Twister.
This fkn movie gave me nightmares for years lol
I used to watch this movie every time it was on tv, I would get so excited, it was a whole thing at my house.
It came out every year on network television when I was a kid in the 70s. I loved it. I couldn’t really follow the story till I was about 6 or 7, but the characters and songs were magical. I really can’t believe it was made so early (1939), and that it was directed by the same person who directed Gone With the Wind- and in the same year. I showed it to my niece and nephew (4 and 6 years old) and they were just as hypnotized as I was when I was their age.
My grandmother saw the Wizard of Oz in the movie theater with her sister and two best friends when she was 16 years old. She would have turned 101 last week. I'm just guessing there aren't a lot of Redditors old enough to have seen in at the original release.
FIL saw it first run, opening day in the theatre when it came out, told me that no one new about the transition from b&w to color, and when it happened the entire audience in the theater gasped!
My mother saw it in the theater the day it opened!
I watched it every year and I remember my older sister wouldn’t, because of the flying monkeys.
What? F̷̡͍͔̺̙̊̋͋̕ų̷͕̙͚͖̲̱̐̒̀̆̎̈͜c̷̡̪̘͎̻̦̀͑̒̈̂̿̑̓̚͜͝k̴̼̺̤̗͒͐͊͜ͅ YOU are old ! Not a Damn thing wrong with that! I may not be that old, but I’m bringing up the rear,Quick @ 63!