Actually, that's model Dorian Leigh and actor/singer/dancer Ray Bolger on this 1946 magazine cover. Bolger makes a rather scrawny St. Nick, don't you think? He could use a pillow under that outfit, or maybe just some...
...straw. Hey, it's worked in the past.
Halloween is not too far off, and what better symbol of the holiday than a witch? Here's one of cinema's scariest. If fact, she just might be the gold (or mold) standard for cinematic scary witches:
Did you notice how the Tin Man put out the fire with his oil can hat? That's because a fire needs oxygen or else it's likely to die out. Nice to know that even in a land of witches and talking scarecrows, the basic laws of science still apply.
By the time she died at age 82 in 1985, Cleveland native Margaret Hamilton had lived through decades of TV showings of 1939's The Wizard of Oz, and was well-aware that her Wicked Witch of the West character had become a cultural icon. It didn't seem to bother her any. Also, cultural icons often attract the attention of other cultural icons, which seems to be the case in this clip that pairs Hamilton with a man who was considered anything but wicked:
Betty White, bless her soul, got her wish.
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Now, let's look at a different witch. Well, I thought she was a witch at first because there's a black cat, and the lady herself is dressed in black, but that's where the similarity ends:
And I don't care if she's a witch or not. She's still magical.
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| Mitzi Gaynor 1931-2024 |
