Legend
The Wizard Oz
The 1956 broadcast television premiere of the film on CBS reintroduced the film to the wider public and eventually made the presentation an annual tradition, making it one of the best known films in movie history.[3] The film was named the most-viewed motion picture on television syndication by the Library of Congress, which also included the film in its National Film Registry in its inaugural year in 1989. Designation on the registry calls for efforts to preserve it for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant".[7] It is also one of the few films on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.[8]
Over the years, The Wizard of Oz has been subjected to the kind of scrutiny reserved for only the greatest of motion pictures. Volumes have been written about it, analyzing everything from its look to the urban legends that have sprung up around it. (The best known, that there's an electrocuted stage hand in the background of a forest scene, has been thoroughly debunked.) Ultimately, however, it doesn't take a lengthy study to understand why multiple generations find the movie so compelling. Not only is it wonderfully entertaining, but the issues it addresses, and the way it presents them, are both universal and deeply personal. And therein lies The Wizard of Oz's true magic.