1939 ‘Wizard of Oz’ Myths and trivia

• Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Tin Man but had to relinquish the role to Jack Haley because of an allergic reaction to the silver dust makeup.

• It’s long been reported that Shirley Temple was supposed to play Dorothy but an expert on the MGM movie, John Fricke, said the Oz property was specifically purchased by MGM as a Garland showcase vehicle. Temple was considered only when the budget passed the $2 million mark, but when MGM’s musical director went to hear Temple sing, he returned to report that the child’s “vocal limitations were insurmountable.”

• The word “Oz” was reportedly derived from the alphabetical letters O-Z on L. Frank Baum’s bottom fil

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ST. MARY-OF-THE-WOODS — In partnership with the Saint Mary-of-the Woods Colleges Sustainability Club, the Department of Text & Image is bringing awareness of what is thrown into the Wabash River, with an art installation on campus from April 20 until May 5.

The Sustainability Club recently staged Operation: Wabashiki to clean up the area along the west bank of the Wabash River between Terre Haute and West Terre Haute. Art & Design students will use the trash to create Catch of the River, an art installation in front of the Rooney Library on the SMWC campus.

The project will represent a fish, literally surrounded with trash, as fish often are in their natural habitat. V

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Danielle de Niese as Cleopatra in Handel’s “Giulio Cesare” at the Metropolitan Opera on April 9, 2013.

NEW YORK—When the Metropolitan Opera’s general manager Peter Gelb came out on stage before the April 9th performance of “Giulio Cesare,” there was a collective groan from the audience. He started by saying he had some bad news but a positive note as well. Soprano Natalie Dessay, who had appeared at the first performance as the female lead, Cleopatra, to rave reviews, had to cancel because of illness.

On the plus side, Danielle de Niese was in town with her husband and was supposed to sit in Gelb’s box that evening. Instead, he ask

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INDIANAPOLIS — Unlike Jackie Robinson’s daring base-running style, the new film “42” takes few risks with the storyline of his life’s pivotal moment.

That’s because it doesn’t have to; the legends and well-known incidents surrounding Robinson’s historic step across professional baseball’s color line are compelling enough, without Hollywood embellishment.

The tale starts slowly, like a pitcher called from the bullpen too quickly, as crafty Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey (played with accuracy by Harrison Ford) slowly reveals his plan to introduce an African-American player into the majors in 1945. But once the seet

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Madonna leaves Malawi after visits to schoolsApril 7, 2013, 1:26 PM ESTBy RAPHAEL TENTHANI , Associated Press

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — Madonna has left Malawi after visiting the projects she has helped support through her Raising Malawi charity.

The pop diva and her four children arrived in the southern African country Monday and left Saturday. Madonna visited the 10 school blocks that her charity has helped build or renovate in collaboration with BuildOn.

The singer also visited a hospital’s pediatric ward and several orphanages, including the Home of Hope, where she adopted David Banda in 2006. S

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TERRE HAUTE — Terre Haute native Darrell Staggs never thought of himself as an artist, but always liked the idea of photography.

In the later stages of his career as an engineer with Eli Lilly and Co., and after raising his family, Staggs started taking photographs while traveling. He paid close attention to the textures and perspective in natural scenery, especially rock formations found in regions of Americas southwest.

Staggs, a 1974 graduate of Terre Haute South Vigo High School who went on to earn a chemical engineering degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1978, gets his artistic inspiration from Henry David Thoreaus statement: Its not what you look at, but what you see.

Nineteen of Staggs dazzling photographs are featured in Rose-Hulmans spring exhibition on the second floor of Moench Hall through May 27. T

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