When I was a small child in New Jersey both of my parents worked and I was often left in the care of my maternal grandmother Anna Gordon Knoll.
My grandmother always called me Jancsi (pronounced Yan-chee), which is an endearing variation of Janos - the Hungarian name for John.
I can still hear that name, lingering softly and gently in an echo of distant memories.
My maternal grandmother Anna
when she was young
(unfortunately the photo has some damage)
My grandmother sang when she worked around the house. It was an automatic habit that she did effortlessly - resurrecting old songs that I'd never heard before. She had a remarkably beautiful singing voice.
I remember one spring when I was four years old. It was right before Easter. We were in the attic of the house and Grandmom was sorting through some things that had been packed away.
The window was wide open and, along with warm sunlight, the heavenly scent of blossoms and flowers filled the air.
My grandmother started singing Over the Rainbow. I'd never heard the song before, but was overwhelmed by the beauty of it. Even at my young age, I sensed a pang of sweet sadness in the melody and a gentle nostalgic yearning in the words.
Ever since then, every time I hear the song I think of that moment.
The window in my grandmother's attic
It's incredibly ironic that the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow was almost omitted from the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz.
Producer Mervyn Leroy thought it slowed down the film. He also said that the song was much more suited for a refined singer like Jeanette MacDonald.
And, such a song would never have been sung by a young girl in a Kansas barnyard.
Judy Garland's incomparable rendition not only made the song a classic, it was also awarded an Oscar for Best Original Song (written by Harold Arlen).
In my humble (and biased) opinion, I've always felt that the Over the Rainbow scene in The Wizard of Oz is one of the most perfect scenes ever filmed in cinematic history. There is something extremely satisfying about it.
Some trivia:
Victor Fleming and George Cukor are credited for directing The Wizard of Oz - but all the opening Kansas scenes including the Over the Rainbow scene were directed by King Vidor, who received no on-screen credit at all (Vidor directed some classic silent films, such as The Big Parade and The Crowd).
And some unrelated (boring?) notes:
I saw the original antique sewing machine that was used to make Judy Garland's outfits for The Wizard of Oz. It is on display at the Har-Ber Village Museum in Grove, Oklahoma.
When I lived in Hollywood, I saw several old movie sets from the Wizard of Oz, including the set from the poppy scene (where the characters fall asleep in a poppy field on their way to Oz).
An actor "close friend" of mine took me to see some of the ancient MGM back lot sets.
That was long ago. I don't know if any of the sets still exist.
The video clip of Over the Rainbow isn't mine. I lifted it from YouTube. It's best viewed full-screen.
