Oz and Ends

In 1962, as described yesterday, Starlight Musical Theatre of San Diego held tryouts for a production of The Wizard of Oz, using music from the MGM movie.
To play the Tin Woodman the company chose a local television personality: Johnny Downs!
Downs brought decades of experience as performer, starting with acting in Our Gang comedies in the mid-1920s. In fact, he had sung and danced alongside MGM’s Tin Man, Jack Haley, in such movies as Coronado and Pigskin Parade, which also featured fourteen...

The San Diego Civic Light Opera Association was founded in 1945. Its first show was Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado in the Wegeforth Bowl at the San Diego Zoo.
Because of San Diego’s ideal weather, the organization staged its shows outside. It soon took on the name of the Starlight Opera....

I mentioned Our Gang cast member Johnny Downs in this posting on Elmer “Scooter” Lowry going into vaudeville.
Johnny Downs was born in 1913, son of a naval officer, and spent his first years in San Diego. After he showed interest in performing, his mother gave him a Jackie Coogan haircut and brought him to Hollywood....

In late 1929, Elmer “Scooter” Lowry finished his vaudeville tour with fellow Our Gang veterans Mary Kornman and Johnny Downs. They had been on the road together for well over a year.
Then in October “Scooter” went back out, now teamed with thirteen-year-old Joe Cobb, whose long tenure at the Hal Roach Studio had ended that spring. Their act was called “Two Kids Kidding,” and it lasted into the first weeks of 1930....