I had first seen the movie in 1940 at the old Belmont Theater near Redwood City. It was new and something that everyone had to see. I don’t remember being scared or liking it. I was just three years old and only remember the magic of the black and white film turning to brilliant color when Dorothy and Toto land in Oz. That has to be one of the greatest moments of film because until then, movies were all filmed in black and white. I don’t remember very much at all about that first viewing except for that singular moment and her breathless comment, “Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.”
Provo had a real movie theater that was air conditioned. It had a picture of a thermometer with a coating of frost that said 15 degrees cooler inside. When it’s 95 degrees on a hot fall day, it really is wonderful sitting in a dark theater filled with people and no one smoking. I remember the announcement on the screen with the hokey music telling customers that smoking was only allowed in the loges. In Provo the announcement was unnecessary, so we sat in the loges and watched as Dorothy Gale and Toto came home from school to Aunt Em’s house.
Kansas seemed so like Topaz, especially with the gray dust driven by the relentless winds blowing across the plains. I could close my eyes and see myself there, except for the dog. No one had been allowed to bring pets when they were relocated and the Boston bulldog that had protected me when I was growing up in Redwood City belonged to our landlord, the Hendersons. When we left on the bus for Tanforan, they were the only people there to say goodbye. I remember hugging the dog, not realizing that this would be the last time.
I enjoyed the first part of the movie that introduces all of the characters most because of little Toto trotting around beside Dorothy, never questioning anything she said or did. I had begun reading by then and knew the story of The Wizard of Oz and even some of the sequels, like Glinda, the Good Witch of Oz. But the movie often surprised me with its twists and turns. I remembered the scene of Toto pulling the curtain away to reveal the Wizard trick differently in the book, but I was not disappointed by how the movie did it.
I did not know about the movie theater experience in Topaz or in Provo. The apples for the internees is a great story, much appreciated.
I love the comparison of the WofOz’s Kansas tornado to the Topaz dust storms!
The young girl in the Provo tent photo is my late cousin Leiko Joan Yamasaki. Leiko accompanied her father, Frank Taketo Yamasaki to the Provo tent city in the summer of 1943. The woman sitting next to Leiko is not her mother, Toshiko (Kitano) Yamasaki, who had to stay back in Topaz due to morning sickness; her 2nd daughter Taeko was born on February 17, 1944 in the Topaz Hospital.
The Topaz “movie theater” was the Rec Hall in Block 32, the Topaz High School block. Don’t know if movie shows were transferred to the newly built h.s. gym/auditorium in 1944