Opening the Curtain

            Let’s Make a Deal is back on the air with a new host, Wayne Brady instead of Monty Hall. But audience members still dress in idiotic costumes like aliens who don’t quite understand how to pass themselves off as natives of Earth. And contestants can still choose what’s in the box or what’s behind the curtain. Sometimes you get a prize and sometimes you get a zonk. Amazingly, many people are willing to risk losing a lot of money they’ve already won for a look at what’s behind the curtain.

            Every time there’s a curtain choice, I think of the Great and Powerful Oz. Until the curtain is pulled, he inspires adulation from the people of Munchkinland and other parts of that world over the rainbow. At first, he’s just a rumor but even the wise Glenda speaks his name in awe when she suggests that Dorothy seek his help to get home safely. Did good witch Glenda know what was behind the curtain already and was just wise enough to know that Dorothy had to take the journey or had she too fallen for the Wizard’s PR?

            The revelation scene did not amuse me. Don’t you remember? Behind his curtain, the Wonderful Wizard sent Dorothy on a mission that was certain to end in her death if not for the cleverness of the Scarecrow, the care of the Tin Man, and the courage of the Lion. “Bring back the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West!” he ordered. When she returned with it, he was clearly shocked at her success. Since she was not expected to return, he tried to flex his Wizard muscles to intimidate her so he wouldn’t have to fulfill his part of the contract. Dorothy and her friends stood there shaking, the Tin Man’s knees knocking, the Lion cowering in fear, as if they were contestants in silly costumes waiting for the MC to show them the prize. Meanwhile, the little dog Toto, of all the characters, causes the curtain to part, revealing the zonk waiting for them. Was Toto the only truly wise one in the bunch? Now that I think about it, he wore no silly costume like the others in the movie. Did Frank Baum dress his characters as foolish-looking in the book as they did in the movie?

            The song tells us that Oz gave nothing to the Tin Man that he didn’t already have. He was able to reach into his bag and find symbols for a brain, a heart, and courage but there was no home. The plan was for him to take Dorothy home but Toto put an end to that notion as well by escaping the Wizard’s box. Maybe that balloon was the prize it seemed to Dorothy that would give her everything for which she longed. But I’d like to think she was wise to escape with Toto. The Wizard was just a con man, after all, a carnival huckster. Who knows what would have happened had Dorothy taken off in that balloon with him? He was so inept, the balloon might not reach its destination nor land safely anywhere.

            Then along comes Glenda to tell Dorothy that, like her friends, she already had what it takes to get what she wanted for herself. She could get home on her own power but she had to learn it for herself. Doesn’t that make Glenda like the Wizard? Perhaps Dorothy’s journey to Oz was a learning experience, but she almost died a few times! Isn’t that child abuse?

            The ending is my least favorite part of The Wizard of Oz movie. It was even less satisfying in The Wiz, the movie more disappointing than the play.  Michael Jackson could pull off playing younger than himself but I knew that Diana Ross had a decade or more on me. Judy Garland, at least, was a teenager when she played Dorothy, and adolescents can be rather scatterbrained and oblivious when danger lurks. But Dorothy as old as Ross should have known better.

            Her journey mirrored Judy’s but with jazzier music and more dancing numbers. The Oz of The Wiz was less believable than the one in The Wonderful Wizard of. The Wizard himself also seemed crueler in The Wiz, his actions more intentional and less bungling. But maybe that’s because I knew too much about Richard Pryor and I’d learned not to trust drug addicts.

            But Toto was the same. Toto was the most stable of all the characters in both productions. He had the good sense to pull back the curtain. But Toto is a dog. Dogs lack imagination, I’ve read. They see straight to what is.

            In theater, the 4^th wall is the audience. The actors on stage treat them as not present. That’s called acting. Somebody pulls the curtain to reveal the play to the audience but the actors are not supposed to notice that people are watching them. They have a part to play and pulling the curtain starts the story.

            I wonder what happens to all those costumed contestants after Let’s Make a Deal goes off? Did they enjoy their prizes or was that Mediterranean cruise on a ship that was hijacked or sunk due to poor maintenance? Or maybe there was a plumbing failure. Was that car one of those recalled or one of the ones whose brakes failed, making them a statistic leading to a recall? Did the Lion get to be King of a Forest as he imagined? Did the Tin Man find love? Was the Scarecrow able to solve the problems in his corner of the world? Did Dorothy never leave home again?

            Maybe Toto should not have pulled back that curtain. What would the Wizard have done then? Would Dorothy have stayed in Oz? It was definitely a more interesting place than Kansas. With the two wicked witches no longer factors, Oz might have been a fun place to live. I’m sure Glenda could rig up something so that Dorothy could contact Auntie Em and say, “Hi. I’m having so much fun in Oz. Maybe you should come for a visit.” The Wizard may have been a bust but there was definitely magic there.

            Yeah. I like that. Who would choose Kansas over magic anyway? Don’t pull back that curtain. And if someone else does, just ignore the man standing there and play along. After all, you came to the show with nothing. So what if you lose it all.