Happy Ray Bolger's Birthday!

We celebrate Ray Bolger's birthday with a look at his performance as The Pieman in Rankin/Bass' The Daydreamer (1966).

 *The full un-cropped still seen here, is published full page in the RARE FINDS section of the hardcover book THE ARTHUR RANKIN, JR. SCRAPBOOK:  The Birth of Animagic.  The RARE FINDS section that we added to the book is really something!

*art by Al Hirscfeld

I think it is the closest performance he came to his Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. The Bass/Laws' song "Who Can Tell," is very close to "If I only had a Brain" in style and he reunites with his Wizard of Oz Co-star Margaret Hamilton in this star-studded feature film! Rankin/Bass Produced The Tales of the Wizard of Oz series and the television special Return to Oz prior, so it was well known they were Oz fans. I do see many similarities in the story telling of The Daydreamer and The Wizard of Oz. In 1985, the last Animagic special Rankin/Bass would produce was Frank L. Baum's The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus. With any orders that come in tonight at www.miserbros.com, I will include a dvd disc of The Daydreamer complete with the bonus features. C. 2017 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives #raybolger #thewizardofoz #thedaydreamer #rankinbass #animagic #dvd #scarecrow #oz