Showing posts with label Wizard of Oz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wizard of Oz. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Our Kansas trip (Wizard of Oz) videos to share with you...

 

Old Dutch windmill in Wamego, Kansas

Wizard of Oz. Meet the Tin Man on the yellow brick road.

Videos recorded by Steve Martin in Wamego, Kansas, 
about two hours west of Kansas City. Aug. 23, 2025

#WizardofOz #KansasCity #Kansas #Wamego #TinMan #MuseumofOz

Sunday, August 24, 2025

Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas. Follow the yellow brick road. (6 short videos). Walk With Me, Steve Martin


Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas. Follow the yellow brick road. (6 short videos). 

Walk With Me, Steve Martin

Did you know that the song, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", voted the #1 song of the 20th century, was written by two Jewish men. They were actually writing about their homeland of Israel, that was yet to be.

Walk the yellow brick road with me. Videos by Steve Martin, Love For His People Ministry in Charlotte, North Carolina.






From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Over the Rainbow"
Judy Garland singing "Over the Rainbow" in The Wizard of Oz
Song by Judy Garland
from the album The Wizard of Oz (1956)
Published1939 by Leo Feist, Inc.
StudioMGM soundstages[1]
Composer(s)Harold Arlen
Lyricist(s)E.Y. Harburg

"Over the Rainbow", also known as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", is a ballad by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg.[2] It was written for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, in which it was sung by actress Judy Garland[3] in her starring role as Dorothy Gale.[2]

About five minutes into the film, Dorothy sings the song after failing to get Aunt EmUncle Henry, and the farmhands to listen to her story of an unpleasant incident involving her dog, Toto, and the town spinster, Miss Gulch (Margaret Hamilton). Aunt Em tells her to "find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble". This prompts her to walk off by herself, musing to Toto, "Someplace where there isn't any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It's not a place you can get to by a boat, or a train. It's far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain", at which point she begins singing.

"Over the Rainbow" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became Garland's signature song. It has been included in several all-time lists, and has been covered by several artists in varying languages. In 2017, it was selected for induction into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Background

Composer Harold Arlen and lyricist Yip Harburg often worked in tandem, Harburg generally suggesting an idea or title for Arlen to set to music, before Harburg contributed the lyrics.[4] For their work together on The Wizard of Oz, Harburg claimed his inspiration was "a ballad for a little girl who... was in trouble and... wanted to get away from... Kansas. A dry, arid, colorless place. She had never seen anything colorful in her life except the rainbow". Arlen decided the idea needed "a melody with a long broad line".[5]

By the time all the other songs for the film had been written, Arlen was feeling the pressure of not having the song for the Kansas scene. He often carried blank pieces of music manuscript in his pockets to jot down short melodic ideas. Arlen described how the inspiration for the melody to "Over the Rainbow" came to him suddenly while his wife Anya drove:

"I said to Mrs. Arlen... 'let's go to Grauman's Chinese ... You drive the car, I don't feel too well right now.' I wasn't thinking of work. I wasn't consciously thinking of work, I just wanted to relax. And as we drove by Schwab's Drug Store on Sunset I said, 'Pull over, please.' ... And we stopped and I really don't know why—bless the muses—and I took out my little bit of manuscript and put down what you know now as 'Over the Rainbow.'"[6]

The song was originally sung in A-flat major.[7] Arlen later wrote the contrasting bridge section based on the idea of "a child's piano exercise".[8] In the movie, a renowned Stradivarius violin was used in the accompaniment.[9]

Italian newspaper Il Messaggero has noted a resemblance, both harmonic and melodic, between Over the Rainbow and the theme of the intermezzo (known as Ratcliff's Dream) of Pietro Mascagni's 1895 opera Guglielmo Ratcliff.[10]

#OzMuseum #Wamego #Kansas #Followtheyellowbrickroad #shortvideos #WalkWithMe #SteveMartin #WizardofOz #SomewhereOvertheRainbow #FrankBaum #JudyGarland #OvertheRainbow #HaroldArlen #YipHarburg

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Ahava Love Letter - "Hope. Gotta Have It." (Steve Martin)

                  

        “Hope. Gotta Have It.” 

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Prov. 13:12 (Complete Jewish Bible CJB)

“Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around. (The Message)

Dear family of friends,

The conference audience perked up and started to carefully listen with attentive ears. The speaker was talking about hope, and I could tell people wanted it. We like to hear about hope. It does something to our soul, especially when it appears that there is not much of it surrounding us.

He went on to say how he spent the past election reading about American prisoners, held during the Vietnam War. Many survived. Many did not. Those who held onto the idea that they were getting out by the next holiday, or by the end of the year, or the next special event that came and then went, didn’t make it. With their hope based on a specific time, which then ended with a disappointing result, they gave up. They perished.

The ones who had the longer perspective, who held onto something more substantial and eternal, saw the release finish line. Their hope was not based on an event. It was founded on the belief that no matter what, they were someday getting out - to once again be home with their family.

Scripture says that “hope deferred makes the heart sick.” You have known it. I have known it. We are waiting and wanting for that “something” or “someone” to come along and rescue us. To deliver us. Just to change our current life situation, and take us to the grass on the other side, or be the hot air balloon that will fly us home from Oz.

Many times when I put my expectancy in a temporal being – be it an event or a person, and it doesn’t meet my expectations, I feel the loss in my soul. It is like a piece of me is left on the pathway, and it will take a little more next time to hope for something more.

When I put my trust and hope in the One I have come to know, Who can and will meet the desires of my heart, I am not disappointed. For He is Faithful and True. What He says He will do. He just does. I can count on Him.

Today I again ask Him to keep my heart resting in His goodness and His eternal purposes, so that any disappointments, which are yet to come while in this temporal world we live in, may be overcome with certain hope. I am committed to keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus (Yeshua), the Author and Finisher of my faith.

He is our Solid Foundation. He is our Eternal Hope. May you too know that certainty in your daily walk.

Ahava to my family of friends,

Steve Martin

Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA organization. Fed. ID#27-1633858.

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Todah rabah! (Hebrew - Thank you very much.)
Be sure to get my two books The Promise (CreateSpace/Amazon 2013) and Ahava Love Letters (Xulon Press, 2013). Both available through Amazon.com Xulon Press.com , plus other website book stores.
You can also order both books, The Promise (on Amazon.com for $7.19 plus $3.95 S/H) and Ahava Love Letters Xulon Press for $14.90, plus $3.80) or you can get both from our office for $29. Send check to the address above. I will autograph all copies ordered through our office. (Hey, and please include a contribution for Israel too!)
Please share this Ahava Love Letter with your friends.

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Ahava Love Letter #82   “Hope”  ©2013 Steve Martin 
Date: In the year of our Lord 2013 (10/26/13 Saturday at 7:45 am in Charlotte, NC)

All previous editions of Ahava Love Letter can be found on this Blog: