“This much I do know. I’m to do ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ I’m looking forward to this because I feel it can be a highly amusing and successful picture. I’m not sure whether I will play the Scarecrow or the Tin Woodsman. Both are swell parts and if they keep it in a light vein, sticking to fantasy, I think it will be a big hit. Judy Garland is to play Dorothy, the little girl blown from Kansas to the Land of Oz. There are some marvelous songs in it, so she should be perfect.” — Ray Bolger in an interview he gave in September 1938.
Source: Robert McIlwaine (1938)
“There were no antagonisms. We kidded each other a lot. Judy Garland we adore, all of us. I read a few years ago that she’d said we tried to upstage her. I’ve never had anything but warmth and love for Judy and love for her. I think somebody tried to make something out of nothing.” — Ray Bolger
Source: Tom Shales (1976)
Photo: The Wizard of Oz (1939)
“You don’t accept success as a zenith. You know there will always be other disappointments. You always know that success is temporary. Success is like life. It comes and it goes.” — Ray Bolger
Source: 1980
“It’s a great American classic, and after I’m gone it will be and I will be remembered. And very few people can say they were remembered for anything in life.” — Ray Bolger
Source: Tom Shales (1976)
“I was hired as a comedian in my first show and I’m still a comedian. I became a dancer in self-defense. I was doing a comedy monologue and didn’t know how else to get off, so I danced off. I’ve been dancing ever since – but I’m still a comedian.” — Ray Bolger
Source: Charles Mercer (1957)
Photo: Sunny (1941)
