The Man Who Put the Rainbow in ‘The Wizard of Oz’

[funkogre]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200911...e_wizard_of_oz/

[ghost of miles]

I've become a big fan of Harburg in recent years--highlighted several of his songs in the recent Afterglow show Popular Song on the Picket Lines. Great to see Finian's Rainbow having a succesful revival; there's quite a story behind the attempt to make an animated movie of it in the early 1950s (quashed by Walt Disney, among others. Some good music from the failed film that shows up on the Sinatra movie box-set.

[fasstrack]

You guys would enjoy They're playing Our Song by Max Wilk. I just finished it. Beside a piece on Harburg (and his connection to Arlen and other songwriters), there are great interviews with Berlin, Styne. Cahn, Dorothy Fields, Sondheim, et al. It's a must-read for anyone interested in the American Songbook---and that has to include jazz fans.

Edited November 15, 2009 by fasstrack

[JSngry]

I remember a nice 60 Minutes piece on Harburg, from the 70s.