Jolson, Judy, and Jewish memory

Judaism, Fall, 2001 by Irving Saposnik

In the unsung verse to "Over the Rainbow," suggested by Dorothy's final spoken words, Harburg establishes the nature of her "trouble":

When all the world is a hopeless jumble

And the raindrops tumble all around

Heaven opens a magic lane.

When all the clouds darken up the skyway

There's a rainbow highway to be found,

Leading from your window pane

To a place behind the sun

Just a step beyond the rain. (28)

Dorothy is "troubled" because she longs to be free. As Harburg suggested in a latersong, "Free as the sun is free/That's how it's gotta be/ Whatever is right for bumble bee/ And river and eagle is right for me/ We gotta be free/ The eagle and me." (29) While the setting is a farm in Kansas, it could as well be a pasture in Eastern Europe, with Dorothy singing about her longing to leave the shtetl behind. Or a city-bound Dorothy sitting on her fire escape, watching the world through the elevated tracks as the subway train rattles past her window. Alone with her dreams, the orphaned Dorothy remembers a lullaby she heard as a child, and its hopefulness:

Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high,

There's a land that I heard of

Once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over the rainbow

Skies are blue,

And the dreams that you dare to dream

Really do come true.

Harburg's Dorothy is Kansas bred but Kasrilevke born. When Harburg and Arlen enter the picture, The Wizard of Oz is no longer Baum's territory; their words and music add Jewish longing to the American landscape. And, in time, as Dorothy's song becomes Judy's song, the longing becomes more intense. "Over the Rainbow" begins to sound more and more like "Eyli, Eyli." (30)

Harburg and Arlen, in fact, wrote" Over the Rainbow" with an "Eyli, Eyli" effect. Even as Dorothy dreams of a place where dreams may come true, the song emphasizes her physical limitations, her inability to transcend her reality:

Some day I'll wish upon a star

And wake up where the clouds are far behind me,

Where troubles melt like lemon drops

Away above the chimney tops,

That's where you'll find me.

Some time in the future perhaps her troubles may melt away, but not now; someday she may no longer be earthbound. Like young Itzik Manger smothered by mother love ("Oifen Veg Shteyt a Boym"), Dorothy is unable to fly away from her earthly self. Wanting to be free like a bird and soar, she can only spread her imaginary wings:

Somewhere over the rainbow

Blue birds fly,

Why then, oh why, can't I?

If happy little blue birds fly

Beyond the rainbow,

Why oh why can't I?

1939

By 1939, the film pioneers, who had forged empires out of fragments of dreams, had reached the peak of their powers. For over two decades, they had been creating an industry that, film by film, would offer an idealized version of their adopted country.... America had given them material success, and now they felt compelled to pay tribute to it. ... (31)

1939 was a good year for movies--Gunga Din, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Women, Babes in Arms; Ninotchka, Destry Rides Again, Gone With The Wind, and of course, The Wizard of Oz The moguls had come to the Golden Land at the turn of the century, and by 1939 had achieved a Golden Year in movie history. Never again would the results of their hard-won transformation be as successful. For Mayer especially it was a notable year, since several of the now-classic films were produced by the studio that he built into an empire.