Thursday marks 80 years since the Aug. 15, 1939, Hollywood premiere of the film classic The Wizard of Oz, the story of a tornado that hits Kansas and transports a young girl named Dorothy, played by Judy Garland, to a magical place called Oz, where she embarks on a journey to track down the wizard who can help her go home.
The Hollywood studio MGM had pulled out all of the stops for the movie, spending $3 million (about $55 million today), desperate to match the commercial success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.