Janie Boschma

Dear Ask Anything,

A member of the Lolly Pop Guild at heart

Dear Lolly Pop Guild,

Let me tell you the story about a man named Alfred Vohimity. Alfred grew up in the great state of Rhode Island. The state, being as small as it was, could not contain the ambition that young Alfred had. From an early age, Alfred had been interested in sound. Ever since he heard the sound of a dodgeball bouncing off the side of his face he couldn’t get enough of the sound.

Alfred quickly became very good at replicating sounds and doing impressions. Rhode Island grew increasingly smaller as the boy got older, until finally he had had enough with the small time lifestyle that only allowed him to hear one to three things on any given day.

The boy decided to leave his parents behind and make his way towards Hollywood, where he heard of the filming of what was to become one of the most overrated movies of all time – “The Wizard of Oz.”

This movie was especially intriguing to Alfred because most of it was fantasy based, meaning he could challenge his sound creating and try his hand at being a sound technician. With the great sound technician strike of 1939 looming, “The Wizard of Oz” director Victor Fleming decided to hire Alfred after hearing him make a honking noise at a car that had just honked at him as he was crossing the street.

Filming began on “The Wizard of Oz” early in 1939, and Alfred was on the set every day, replicating sounds, making sure things went smoothly. He even had to sing a song while Judy Garland lip synced because she was suffering from a hangover – a result of the previous night’s festivities with the munchkins who had just come to town.

On the 54th day of filming, things got a little troubling for our young sound technician. Fleming wanted a shot of Dorothy and the gang with the entire forest in the background.

Fleming liked symbolism, and felt that this would symbolize to the audience how minuscule this whole movie and plot were in the grand scheme of things. Now there are birds in the forest, so in order to get bird sounds coming from the trees, Fleming decided to send his favorite sound technician, Alfred, up on a ladder to hide in the trees and make the convincing noises.

What ended up happening was when Fleming yelled action, a thought popped into Alfred’s head. As we know he wants the big time, and he figured what kind of exposure would he really get out of this movie? Alfred purposefully stuck his body out so you could clearly see him in a tree, with the hopes of getting another job thereafter.

Unfortunately this was the last of Alfred anyone ever saw. No he did not die in those trees, so to answer your questions, no there is not a dead body in “The Wizard of Oz,” it was just our good friend Alfred attempting to get some face time.