On This Day: The day Oz came into our homes

Dorothy’s ruby slippers, the Yellow Brick Road, a scary witch and those terrifying flying monkeys. Seventy years ago today, a Hollywood favourite made its television debut, beginning a new chapter in the story of one of cinema’s best-loved films.

If you grew up watching The Wizard of Oz, there’s a fair chance you can still remember the moment the Wicked Witch appeared in a cloud of smoke.

Or the Scarecrow stumbling along the Yellow Brick Road, the Tin Man searching for a heart and the Cowardly Lion trying to find his courage.

The film had been enchanting cinema audiences since 1939, but on November 3, 1956, it reached American television screens for the first time. CBS broadcast The Wizard of Oz as the final instalment of its Ford Star Jubilee series, introducing Judy Garland’s Dorothy and her companions to families watching at home.

A little girl, a lion and a television first

The special broadcast came with a delightful surprise.

Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion, introduced the film alongside Garland’s 10-year-old daughter, Liza Minnelli.

Garland was appearing on Broadway at the time and couldn’t host the programme herself.

The broadcast proved enormously popular, and when CBS screened the film again in 1959, it helped establish a tradition of regular television showings.

Australian audiences would come to know the film through cinema screenings, television and, eventually, home video.

There was Ray Bolger’s wonderfully floppy Scarecrow, Jack Haley’s Tin Man and Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch, whose flying monkeys frightened generations of children.

And then there was Garland singing Over the Rainbow, a performance that has lost none of its charm.

The little dog who went into space

On November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, carrying a stray dog from Moscow named Laika.

She became the first animal to orbit Earth, just one month after the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite.

Her journey was an important milestone in the space race, but it came at a terrible cost.

There was no plan to bring Laika home, and she died within hours of launch from overheating and stress.

Born on this day

Scottish singer Lulu turns 78 today.

She burst onto the music scene as a teenager with Shout and later recorded To Sir, with Love, the title song from the 1967 film starring Sidney Poitier.

Comedian and actress Roseanne Barr, whose sitcom Roseanne became an international hit, celebrates her 74th birthday.

Hollywood star Charles Bronson, remembered for The Great Escape and Death Wish, was born on November 3, 1921. He died in 2003.

Do you remember?

What frightened you most when you first watched The Wizard of Oz? Was it the Wicked Witch, those flying monkeys or something else entirely?