Classic Entertainment Autographs

Cat. #0005241: RAY BOLGER

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Just great 8x10-inch black and white portrait as the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz (1939), boldly signed and inscribed in black felt-tip pen in the 1980s. In very good condition. After making his bones on the vaudeville and Broadway stages, rubber-legged Ray Bolger was signed by MGM in 1936 for a featured solo in The Great Ziegfeld.  Earning $3,000 per week by the late 1930s, he could land any part he wished and balked at the part of the Tin Man in the studio's Wizard of Oz (1939), saying it was too confining for his talents. He convinced the film's Scarecrow, Buddy Ebsen, to swap roles, and the rest is movie history. Bolger's Hollywood career pretty much took second place to his Broadway work after Oz, and he garnered great critical acclaim in the musicals "Where's Charley?" (1952) and "All American" (1962).