![]() ![]() No matter what reviewers said, I felt it was a good picture, the kind my mother would have approved of. “Reviews were mixed, with some important critics saying things like ‘a stinkeroo,’ ‘displays no trace of imagination, good taste or ingenuity’ and ‘weighs like a pound of fruitcake soaking wet,'” he recalled. When the movie first came out, Bolger said that reviews were not positive. Eventually, Buddy Ebsen said he’d just as soon play the Tin Woodman. “So strong was the feeling within me, however, that I should play the Scarecrow that I couldn’t give up. MGM had several ways of enforcing discipline if you got too rebellious they could suspend you without pay,” he said. However, Bolger wanted to play The Scarecrow. At the time, Bolger was under contract with MGM and was approached about playing the Tin Woodman in their upcoming adaptation of THE WIZARD OF OZ. We were married three years later, and she has been my inspiration ever since.”Īfter performing solo shows, Bolger received some Broadway roles. She had come from Montana to Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theater, where I was appearing, to sell some songs. “And I believe God often led me to the right place at the right time, as when I met Gwen Rickard in 1926. ![]() I learned that if I gave love in my acting and dancing it was returned in kind from those on the other side of the footlights,” he said. “Rewards came, though not financial ones. While working as a vacuum cleaner salesman, Bolger earned enough money to create his own costumes and started performing four or five homemade shows a day. “But then suddenly words from one of the Psalms came to me as if written in letters of fire: ‘Let them praise His name with dancing, making melody to him…’ (Psalm 149:3, RSV) And it seemed to me, as I looked deep inside myself, that this was the road God wanted me to travel.” What were mine? Certainly not any real talent for business,” he added. And I remembered her words about God’s true gifts being within us. “Light flickered from the candles on the altar, and I thought of Mother and the home we once had. The church was empty, and for a long time I knelt there in the quiet, praying,” he said. I came finally to the cathedral I had attended ever since I was christened there. “I remember trudging along one cold, gray afternoon wondering what lay ahead. On top of this, I lost my job,” he said.īut Bolger returned to the one thing that he had always had, faith. ![]() Still in my teens, I had no real home anymore. “My mother died, and my whole world seemed to collapse around me. However, Bolger confessed that he did not fully understand what his mother meant until she died. Remember what the Bible says: ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’ Keep those words with you always, Raymond.” And so we roam the world searching for them when we have them within us all the time. The trouble is,” she added softly, “God has given each of us these gifts, but we don’t believe it. “It tells how we all need wisdom, love, courage and a home. “This book has a marvelous philosophy, Raymond,” Mother said. Despite their circumstances, Bolger said that his mother taught their family the importance of trusting in God’s word. “She lifted our eyes above the grimy streets and the shrieking elevated trains to beautiful things, by taking us to the ballet, the Boston symphony, art museums, and, most of all, by giving us books.īolger remembers one of his mother’s prized books was the Bible. And Mother was in very poor health, but she took time to scrub our souls as well as our faces,” he continued. “There was never much money in our family my father worked at a variety of jobs. Let me tell you how it came about,” Bolger wrote in an article in 1982. “When I was a little boy growing up in the old Irish section of Boston, it never occurred to me that some day I would find myself skipping down a yellow-brick road with a Cowardly Lion, a Tin Woodman and a little girl, searching for a brain, for courage, for a heart and a home. For similar stories, click here.Īctor Ray Bolger, best known for his role as The Scarecrow in the 1939 classic THE WIZARD OF OZ, recounted how his family grew up with little money but lots of faith. Note: This story is part of our Faith in Hollywood series. THE WIZARD OF OZ’s Ray Bolger on God’s Provision ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |