Ray Bolger was born in 1904 in a a small town in Massachusetts. His parents were involved with the arts and his father made his living painting houses. The first exposure to musical theater Ray had in his life was when he saw a production of Jack O’Lantern in Boston starring broadway legend Fred Stone (Ray Bolger, NYT). Bolger’s first performance in a musical production came in 1922 when he was hired to work with the Boston based Bob Ott Musical Company Repertory Company. He worked for years in the art of Vaudeville theater performances. In 1926 he was noticed for his talent and cast in his first big time Broadway show “A Merry World”. Ray Bolger developed a unique style of dancing that focused of loose dangly limbs and freestyle unrehearsed movements. The 1930’s Saw Bolger’s career on …show more content…
Frank Baum’s famous children’s fantasy novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Disney’s animated version of Snow-white and the severn dwarves showed the film industry that adaptations of children books were extremely profitable and MGM wanted greatly to hop on that train. Ray Bolger was initially cast as the Tin Man, a roll which would have required him to ware a bulky metallic costume. This costume would have greatly restricted his ability to demonstrate his greatest talent, his dancing abilities. Bolger was unhappy with this casting and fussed at studio to recast him as the straw crafted Scarecrow. In response to this casting as the Tin Man Bolger famously claimed "I'm not a tin performer; I'm fluid” (Harmetz 112). Bolger’s desire for the role of the Scarecrow was rooted in he's need to dance in the film but it was exacerbated by his love for the performer who inspired him to pursue a job in the show business in the first place, Fred Stone. Fred Stone was famous for playing the Scarecrow character in the broadway stage musical adaptation of the