Glenda the good witch dress up is a popular activity for kids who love the magical world of the Wizard of Oz. Glenda, also known as the Good Witch of the North, is a beloved character from the classic book and movie. Dressing up as Glenda allows children to step into her shoes and embrace her magical powers. The main idea is that Glenda the good witch dress up is a popular activity for kids who love the magical world of the Wizard of Oz..
The Glinda dress is iconic and would never have been recycled from a previous movie, and would not have gone on to be used again.
I ve had several people tell me that the fact that the dresses are the same is much more obvious when they ve viewed the film on television, or in one instance, someone wrote to me about having seen San Francisco on the big screen. There has been some suggestion that the gown has also been used on Jeanette MacDonald in Sweethearts 1938 on Miliza Korjus in The Great Waltz 1938 and on Lana Turner in Ziegfeld Girl 1941 , though I have yet to find any convincing photos or research to back this up.
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Glenda the good witch dress up
I don’t know if you will know but I have been so determined to locate the original Glinda The Good Witch costume, not to own or purchase but just to know if it still exists. Any information you would have would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. - Mary
I am going to go ahead and answer this e-mail publicly, because of every costume documented on this website, this is the dress I get the most e-mail , commentary and PMs about, and I suppose there really is a lot of interesting information to say about this dress. I’m going to go ahead and answer several questions I’ve gotten and answered privately about this dress over the last six years.
Where is the dress now?
The short answer is I don’t know.
The longer answer is that we can speculate about the fate of this dress.
One person commented that they had seen in a documentary that the dress had been destroyed in a fire, though I have been unable to locate the documentary or any other documentation to prove this. We do know there was a fire at vault 7 at MGM in 1965 or 1967 (there is speculation as to the date), which destroyed a good many silent films. To learn more about the fire, check out this great article at Classic Film Haven. TCM also has a listing of studio fires, though they focus on the destruction of film rather than sets, props or costumes. If the costume was destroyed in any of these fires, or if there is another fire that destroyed a part of the wardrobe department, I have been unable to find anything about it.
If the dress was not the victim of fire, it could just as easily have been the victim of age. It could have gone on to be reused for more MGM films after 1939 and eventually just worn out, as many costumes did. It could very easily have been tossed in to the garbage. It’s sad to think about, but this was the fate of many, many costumes that were simply beyond repair. In most instances, the person throwing the costume away probably had no idea where it originated.
Another possibility is that it was auctioned off in the 1970 MGM auction. I do not have access to the full auction catalog (the auction catalogs themselves often sell for $500 or more), so I cannot say for sure. We do know, however, that quite a few Wizard of Oz costumes were sold during this auction - so if it was sold off, this would have been when it happened. The auction saw the selling off of the costume of the Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch’s hat and dress (which were both used in another film), one copy of Dorothy’s famous costume, a pair of ruby slippers, and pair of unused “Arabian’ ruby slippers that were purchased by Debbie Reynolds. Were any other Oz costumes found and cataloged? A man by the name of Kent Warner was in charge of sorting through and cataloging MGM’s costumes to put up for sale. We know that he found a couple additional pairs of ruby slippers and Dorothy costumes which he kept for himself and sold privately later. He also happened to find Glinda’s shoes, which he gifted to Glenn Brown. These shoes recently went up for auction. Did Kent happen to find Glinda’s costume? Did he sell it or give it away to someone? If it is in private hands, we likely will not know about it unless someone comes forward, or if it some day comes up for auction. You can read more about the Wizard of Oz costumes sold at auction over at Silver Screen Modes. You can also see some interesting footage of the auction here.
Is there any record of the gown being used in other films other than San Francisco (1936) and The Wizard of Oz (1939)?
There has been some suggestion that the gown has also been used on Jeanette MacDonald in Sweethearts (1938) on Miliza Korjus in The Great Waltz (1938) and on Lana Turner in Ziegfeld Girl (1941), though I have yet to find any convincing photos or research to back this up. That being said, the odds that this gown went on to be pulled apart and used again are very high.
Are you sure it’s the same dress in San Francisco? / The actresses were different heights / The dresses are different styles / The dress in San Fransisco is white, and the dress from Oz is pink.
Glinda’s dress having been first used on Jeanette MacDonald in San Francisco has been a part of Wizard of Oz trivia for years and years. I actually recall reading about it in a book about the making of the film years and years ago when I was quite young. David J. Hogan, author of The Wizard of Oz FAQ also mentions the fact that the dress was reused, and states that Burke looked at her costume and joked that “I look like a refugee from a German opera!”
The actresses only had height differences of about one inch, which is not terribly significant. The dress was heavily made over. Fabric could have been added, removed and heavily altered. Basically the dress from San Francisco was used as a base to at least save Adrian time and money. While the film spared no expense, Adrian was incredibly busy designing for the film, as the film had a large cast that had to be outfitted in custom costumes. Citizens of Oz and Citizens of Munchkin land all had custom costumes, which was a massive undertaking. Adrian pulling an already extant gown to use as a base for Glinda is absolutely not something unheard of.
Interestingly enough, the fact that Glinda’s gown is pink is actually one of the best clues that we have that these gowns are the same. Before color films became a common reality, designers had to deal with the fact that the colors from their costumes often translated differently on film. The most well known example of this is the fact that Bette Davis famous ‘red dress’ in Jezebel was, in fact, brown. Red simply did not photograph properly in black and white. The color white also did not always photograph properly either, and if a designer wanted to feature a white dress on screen, they very often made the dress a pale blue or a pale pink (the same rule applied for linens as well!). Norma Shearer’s famous white gown from Marie Antoinette was actually a pale blue, and so the idea of Jeanette MacDonald’s “white” dress being pulled from MGM costume stock actually being pink is very likely.
I’ve had several people tell me that the fact that the dresses are the same is much more obvious when they’ve viewed the film on television, or in one instance, someone wrote to me about having seen San Francisco on the big screen. You can see the scene in which the gown appears here, and though the video has been “colorized” from its original black and white, seeing the gown as it moves gives one a much better sense that the dresses are the same. Photos just do not do the dress justice.
There are notes that refer to Adrian designing this costume.
Absolutely! And he did design this gown. He had to re-work it heavily, and so you can absolutely say he designed it. But often designers would create a dress and then be given notes about what already existed in stock that could be altered to fit their vision. Such notes exist on several of Edith Head’s sketches. Just because the base of the dress was reused does not invalidate any notes that may discuss Adrian designing Glinda’s gown. Just because a costume is recycled does not always mean that great care and thought did not go into its design and alteration.
The Glinda dress is iconic and would never have been recycled from a previous movie, and would not have gone on to be used again.
I get this comment about this dress the most, but have received it for several other gowns as well. Admittedly, it is difficult to sometimes comprehend that something so iconic to us was seen as ultimately disposable when it was first created. There are a few things to remember when it comes to a costume having been recycled.
The first is that in order for a gown to become iconic, there has to be a passing of time. Time determines what becomes iconic and what does not. There are thousands of incredible costumes from wonderful movies that, for one reason or another, are not considered iconic in the public mind. There are plenty of examples of iconic costumes being reused, from Scarlett O’Hara’s drapery gown, to Marilyn Monroe’s white Travilla gown from The Seven Year Itch. There is simply no way that when filming for Oz was completed that Adrian would have any idea that the pink gown worn by Glinda would be remembered by audiences for years.
The second item to remember is that when recycling costumes, nobody intended for people to remember costumes, much less spot their reuse. Before the advent of the VCR, people saw a film once, maybe twice in theatres. If it was a very special movie (and in the case of Oz, it was), the movie would be re-released in theatres a few years later. But most films didn’t get re-released. People saw the movie once and that was it. If a recycled costume showed up in another movie that they saw, it would be very difficult to remember or spot it as having been the same. Today when watching the same DVD over and over, it’s much easier to spot costumes that have been used again.
Note: If anyone has any further information about where this costume may be, please do e-mail me.
Absolutely! And he did design this gown. He had to re-work it heavily, and so you can absolutely say he designed it. But often designers would create a dress and then be given notes about what already existed in stock that could be altered to fit their vision. Such notes exist on several of Edith Head’s sketches. Just because the base of the dress was reused does not invalidate any notes that may discuss Adrian designing Glinda’s gown. Just because a costume is recycled does not always mean that great care and thought did not go into its design and alteration.
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Reviews for "Glenda the Good Witch: A Fashion Icon of the Fantasy Genre"
1. John - 2 stars
I was really excited to play Glenda the good witch dress up, but I was quite disappointed with the game. The graphics were really basic and outdated, and the dresses and accessories were limited and not very fashionable. The gameplay was also quite repetitive and didn't offer much excitement. Overall, I felt like the game was lacking creativity and innovation, and I wouldn't recommend it.
2. Emily - 1 star
I found Glenda the good witch dress up to be incredibly boring and dull. The options for dresses and accessories were extremely limited, and they all looked very similar. There was no variety or imagination in the game, and it quickly became repetitive and uninteresting. The graphics were also quite poor, and the game lacked any sound effects or music to make it more engaging. I would not recommend wasting your time on this game.
3. Sarah - 2 stars
Glenda the good witch dress up was a letdown for me. The clothing options were outdated and not at all appealing. There were no options for customization or personalization, and everything felt very generic. The gameplay was also quite monotonous, and after dressing up Glenda a couple of times, I lost interest. I was expecting a more creative and enjoyable dress-up game, but unfortunately, this one fell short.
4. Alex - 1 star
I cannot believe I wasted my time on Glenda the good witch dress up. The game was incredibly basic, with limited options for clothes, hairstyles, and accessories. The graphics were poorly designed, and the entire game felt like something from the early 2000s. There was no excitement or creativity involved, and it quickly became repetitive. I would not recommend this game to anyone looking for an enjoyable dress-up experience.