The Jitterbug

"The Jitterbug" was a song cut from the soundtrack of the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz.

The song is a play on words. The Wicked Witch of the West had sent "a little insect... to take the fight out of them", a line which was left in the film and is perhaps the most obvious continuity error in the film. The insect was supposed to bite each member of the group of four and make them dance the Jitterbug until they were exhausted and could easily be subdued by the witch's army of flying monkeys.

Viewers who are familiar with the book might assume that the "little insect" was a reference to the swarm of black bees sent by the witch for a similar purpose in chapter 12.

History

According to Aljean Harmetz in his book "The Making of The Wizard of Oz", "The Jitterbug" was an artifact left over from premises made in early drafts of the script. The original producers thought that a 1939 audience was too sophisticated to accept Oz as a straight-ahead fantasy; that was why it was reconceived as a lengthy, elaborate dream. Because of a perceived need to attract a youthful audience through appealing to modern fads and styles, the script originally featured Dorothy's journey as a series of musical contests. A spoiled, selfish princess in Oz (a part originally written for Betty Jaynes) had outlawed all forms of music except classical and operetta, and went up against Dorothy in a singing contest in which Dorothy's jitterbug style enchanted listeners and won the grand prize. The only remnant of this contrivance was "The Jitterbug."

Cutting room floor

The song was recorded in the studio but was evidently cut from the final release print. It was the most famous of a number of cuts that were made to scenes and musical numbers from the film. The conventional reason for its being cut was fear that it would "date" the film too much and/or that the upbeat number was out of place juxtaposed with the group's harrowing experiences in the forest. A more prosaic reason could have been the same argument that was supposedly once made against "Over the Rainbow", that it was a show-stopper that took too much time, or simply that it made the characters appear too silly by having them suddenly break out into a jitterbug dance after all the fantasy that preceded it.

The only film footage that exists is a grainy home movie, taken during dress rehearsal, which is included in the DVD special section. It shows the characters, in full costume, doing the dance.

Revival

Despite its absence from the film, it was included in an early contemporary version of an original cast record album. Modern stage renditions of the film have often included the song.