"The Early Years" (Part 1 of 5)
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New  - "The Wizard of Oz / Judy's Films" (Part 2 of 5)
 

 

If you have questions for John Fricke that can be answered for our next installment of the series, please contact myself
(AARON PACENTINE) at aaronpacentine@gmail.com. 
 

 We will do our best to get your question answered on the next installment!
 

 John Fricke

 

Widely acknowledged as the preeminent Wizard of Oz and Judy Garland author/historian, John Fricke received a 2004 Emmy Award as co-producer of the two-hour, PBS-TV "American Masters" program, Judy Garland: By Myself.  This was his second recognition by The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences; he won similar honors in 1997 as co-producer and cowriter of the A&E "Biography" special, Judy: Beyond the Rainbow, based on his book, Judy Garland: World's Greatest Entertainer (Henry Holt, 1992).

 

             

 

His newest book, coauthored with Jonathan Shirshekan, is The Wizard of Oz: An Illustrated Companion to the Timeless Movie Classic, was published in September 2009 by Fall River Press and is exclusively available at Barnes & Noble bookstores or via bn.com.  At the same time, Warner Home Video released its deluxe 70th anniversary Oz Blu-ray and High Def DVD packages, each including a 52-page Fricke booklet and a number of documentaries in which he was featured or on which he worked.
 

Fricke's previous book, Judy Garland: A Portrait in Art and Anecdote, was published in 2003 by Bulfinch Press and includes a foreword by Lorna Luft. This was the first such participation in any author's treatise on their mother by one of Judy's children. Fricke is also the author of the acclaimed centennial summation of the entire Oz phenomenon, 100 Years of Oz (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1999) and the 1989 The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History, most recently reissued in 1998 by Warner Books. Total sales figures for Fricke's first four books now approaches two hundred f ifty thousand copies.
Fricke has discussed Oz, Garland, and Oz author L. Frank Baum on literally hundreds of international, national, and local media outlets, including three stints on the NBC-TV "Today" Show (2006, 1992, 1989), as well as in appearances on the A&E cable network "Breakfast With the Arts," the syndicated "Entertainment Tonight," CNN, and on National Public Radio. He's worked everywhere from the Deauville Film Festival in France to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Los Angeles as Oz and Garland spokesman for Warner Bros., Turner Entertainment, Rhino Records, Capitol Records, and/or MGM/UA Home Video, as well as participating as lecturer/moderator and/or master of ceremonies at all the major Oz, Garland, and Baum festivals, celebrations, and conventions throughout the United States.

He was a major participant in the autum 2007 deluxe DVD release of the musicals Judy Garland made with Mickey Rooney; Fricke worked as well on two other 2007 new-to-DVD Garland motion picture projects. He offers full-length audio commentary tracks on three of these Warner Home Video titles (Babes in Arms, Girl Crazy, and The Pirate); he also appears in two "making of..." documentaries and wrote the copy for both the 52-page book included in the lavish Garland/Rooney packaging as well as the text for Mickey Rooney's on-camera introductions to four films. These assignments were, in effect, a continuation of his ongoing association with all of Warner Bros. Oz and Garland home video productions. In autumn 2005, Fricke served as creative consultant for their expansive DVD set(s) of M-G-M's The Wizard of Oz. The discs include his on-camera appearance or behind-the-scenes participation in six of the eight accompanying Oz-related documentaries, as well as his narration and hosting of the alternate audio track commentary heard throughout the film itself. The Oz set won highest honors in numerous critical and popular polls as "best of 2005." In 2006, Fricke appeared in the documentaries accompanying the first appearance on DVD of the Garland films Summer Stock, Ziegfeld Follies, and Till the Clouds Roll By. Two years earlier, he served as the on-camera DVD host for Warner Home Video, writing and delivering introductions to three other classic Garland films (Love Finds Andy Hardy, Ziegfeld Girl, In the Good Old Summertime); he also recorded complete historical commentary for the alternate audio tracks of three Garl and titles making their DVD debut: Meet Me in St. Louis, For Me and My Gal, and (in 2005) Easter Parade. Earlier, he worked as coproducer of the award-winning MGM/UA laser disc box sets, The Ultimate Oz (1993) and Judy Garland: The Golden Years at M-G-M (1995).
Fricke was, respectively, associate producer and creative consultant for the CBS-TV documentary, The Wizard of Oz: The Making of A Movie Classic (1990) and the PBS-TV "Great Performances" program, Judy Garland: The Concert Years (1985), both of which received Emmy Award nominations. He was consultant to virtually all production departments for Life With Judy Garland/Me and My Shadows (2001), the top-rated, multiple Emmy Award-winning ABC television motion picture. Fricke also wrote, hosted, and codirected the Telly Award-winning home video documentary, We're Off to See the Munchkins in 1993.

He is the recipient of a 1996 Grammy Award nomination for "Best Album Notes" for the compact disc, Judy Garland: 25th Anniversary Retrospective (1996), which he produced for Capitol Records. Between 1995 and 2002, he wrote the extensive booklets for the Turner Classic Movie Music/Rhino Movie Music series of Garland Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer soundtrack compact discs, thus providing detailed histories of The Wizard of Oz, Babes in Arms, Strike Up the Band, Babes on Broadway, For Me and My Gal, Girl Crazy, The Harvey Girls, The Pirate, Easter Parade, In the Good Old Summertime, and Summer Stock, as well as the back story for Judy Garland: Collector's Gems from the M-G-M Films. Fricke provided similar notes for the 2004 Sony compact disc of Garland's A Star is Born and the 2006 compact disc of Liza Minnelli's Liza With A "Z."

In June 2008, Fricke was part of the production team that produced the sold-out, rapturously-received Boston Pops event, Judy Garland In Concert, at Symphony Hall; the show will tour internationally beginning in late 2009. In June 2006, Fricke produced the "launch" event for the United States Postal Service and their Judy Garland/"Legends of Hollywood" first-class stamp at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City. That evening's capacity crowd enjoyed film and video clips of Garland in action; reminiscences by actress Jane Powell, television host Dick Cavett, and award-winning playwright Terrence McNally; and musical performances by Michael Feinstein, Diane Schuur, Rufus Wainwright, and Lorna Luft. To coincide with the stamp's debut, Savoy Jazz issued the third compact disc of material Fricke compiled and annotated from Garland's 1963-64 TV series: Great Day!/Rare Recordings from "The Judy Garland Show."  In August 2007, Fricke provided the same service for the fourth Savoy CD, Judy Garland Greatest Hits Live; in May 2008, Savoy released Fricke's fifth Garland disc, Judy Takes Broadway! With Friends. The sixth, Judy Garland/Love Songs, appeared in January 2009, and the seventh was released on September 15, 2009: Judy Goes Hollywood! Music from the Movies. (He first launched that series in 2005 with the Savoy CDs, "That Old Feeling"/Classic Ballads from "The Judy Garland Show" and Judy Garland and Friends: Duets.)


In 1998, Fricke served as associate producer and writer for New York City's two sold-out concerts, Carnegie Hall Celebrates the Music of Judy Garland. For those productions, he oversaw much of the casting and repertoire assignments for both shows, as well as selecting and helping to edit the various Garland film and video clips that were part of the performances.  He also coproduced the 1992 Garland exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, and that ten-week run of Judy Garland: A Celebration drew the largest crowds for any such retrospective in the history of the venue.  In 2006, Fricke scripted the acclaimed "Lyrics & Lyricists" evening, With Mabel Mercer, The Lyrics Came First; he has been associated with the work of The Mabel Mercer Foundation since its inception in 1985.

His 6500-word profile attendant to the career association of Garland and Oz/A Star Is Born composer Harold Arlen appeared in the April 2005 issue of The Cue Sheet/Quarterly Journal of The Film Music Society. Earlier, Fricke's articles were seen in TV Guide, People, and Memories magazines among many other periodicals.


For The International Wizard of Oz Club, Fricke worked over many years as president and vice-president; as a member of the Board of Directors; and as editor-in-chief and contributing editor of its magazine, The Baum Bugle. He has also served as consultant to both The Land of Oz Preservation Company in Syracuse, NY, and The Judy Garland Heirs Trust.

As an entertainer, Fricke sang on many of Cunard's premier liners, including the Queen Elizabeth 2. His performance career also encompasses appearances at the Rainbow Room, Town Hall, and many cabaret venues in New York City; at the M-G-M Grand Hotel in Las Vegas; and in countless one-man pops concerts across the country.

Fricke has made his home in New York City since 1974. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he attended college in Illinois and is a McCormick Scholarship graduate of the famed Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.