I’ve had a thing for The Wizard of Oz for a long time. Seeing it once every year as a child was something I looked forward to. Family night with lots of popcorn and everyone glued to the TV set. Well, back then, they were all family nights. But The Wizard of Oz was extraordinary.
I loved everything about it. Still do. I even named my first cat after the Wicked Witch of the West. Hamilton, for Margaret Hamilton.
I don’t know that I had a favorite character, but I sure did love the Lion, probably more so as an adult than a child.
For some odd reason, when I was little, the Tin Man scared me a bit. Of course, the character was played by Jack Haley. Today is his birthday, August 10, 1897. His given name was John Joseph, but he went by Jack. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
He did many things — actor, comedian, dancer, radio host, singer, and vaudevillian. But everyone remembers him for his portrayal of the Tin Man and his farmhand counterpart Hickory in the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film.
Jack’s beginnings were not so easy. His father worked as a waiter most of his life and then shifted over to a job as a ship steward. But Dad Haley died in the wreck of the schooner called Charles A. Briggs. This happened at Nahant, Massachusetts, on February 1, 1898. Little baby Jack was not even six months old. He also had one older brother, William Anthony “Bill” Haley. Bill died of pneumonia in 1916 at the age of twenty-one.
For whatever reason, Haley decided the life of entertainment would be for him. Perhaps it was his singing voice. At any rate, Jack Haley headlined in vaudeville as a song-and-dance comedian.
He made a few phonograph records in 1923. Singing, I suppose. Then, in the early 1930s, Haley starred in comedy shorts for Vitaphone in Brooklyn, New York. And that got the ball rolling.
He had a good-natured expression. And this got him some supporting roles in many musical feature films.
Haley was not the first choice for the part of the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. That was Buddy Ebsen. Yep. Good old Beverly Hillbilly Jeb. Apparently, Ebsen suffered a severe reaction after inhaling aluminum powder from his silver face makeup. It was a whole big mess, which triggered a congenital bronchial condition. The silver dust settled in Ebsen’s lungs, and within a few days of the first filming, he could barely breathe.
They switched the makeup dust into a paste for Haley. But that caused problems too. Haley got an eye infection, and he had to have surgery to avoid long-term damage. The trials and tribulations of being the Tin Man. He had a heart all along.
Ironically, in 1979, Haley suffered a heart attack late in life. He died a few days later in a hospital in LA. He was 81.
His funeral. Wouldn’t you know? The eulogy was given by Ray Bolger, the Scarecrow, who concluded it by saying, “It’s going to be awfully lonely on that Yellow Brick Road now, Jack.”
Well. That Tin Man. That heart. A little reminder of how important it is to have a good heart, a kind heart. One filled with love and compassion. Tin on the outside, golden within.
There’s no place like home, and home is where the heart is.
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“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
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“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.”
― Blaise Pascal
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“A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.”
— ‘The Wizard Of Oz’
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Tin on the outside. Gold within.
