It's An Umbrella, Not A Broom

Because everyone instantly thinks of the MGM movie when you say “Wizard of Oz” I had told myself that I had to be careful with how I was constructing the story for Say Goodbye Toto. The safest thing to do would be to stick solely to the book. If an element is in the movie, and not in the book, then I can’t use it. Which is why there will be no ruby slippers running around Say Goodbye Toto. The shoes are silver in the book. Not sure if they’ll be silver in the play, but they’re definitely not going to be red.

This link has been my most valuable resource. Those are W.W. Denslow’s original illustrations going along with the text. As you can see, the Wicked Witch is a very strange looking woman, but what is she carrying? An umbrella. Not a broom. In fact, she never carries a broom, or flies on a broom, even though she’s entitled to do so because she’s a witch, and that’s what witches do, right?

The broom was added for the movie. I suppose very technically, I could get away with having a broom for the Wicked Witch in Say Goodbye Toto, as long as she didn’t skywrite Surrender Dorothy (which would be difficult to do in a theater anyway.)

But it’s a little weird for a Wicked Witch to be carrying around an umbrella, right? Until you realize the genius of W.W. Denslow’s illustrations. Because we all know what happens to the Wicked Witch, right? She gets melted from what? A bucket of water. So it’s absolutely logical that the witch would carry around an umbrella, not a broom (even if it doesn’t save her in the end.)

The umbrella is never mentioned in the text, W.W. Denslow thought it up all on his own. These little discoveries make the whole researching process worthwhile.

- Amy Heidish