Producer Samuel Goldwyn buys the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum on this day in 1934.

The book had been published in 1900, and though Baum died in 1919 his widow and publisher agreed to allow another writer to continue the "Oz" series. Goldwyn had intended for Shirley Temple to play Dorothy in the film, but 17-year-old Judy Garland got the part instead. The film, released in 1939, made Garland an international star and earned her a special Oscar that year for Best Juvenile Performer.

The 101-minute-long film remained a classic for decades. In the story, a little girl leaves the Kansas home she shares with her aunt and uncle to take a trip over the rainbow and along the Yellow Brick Road with her terrier, Toto. On her journey, she encounters a series of colorful characters in the land of Oz, including the Tin Woodman, who needed a heart; the Cowardly Lion, who needed courage (and whose costume was made of two real lion skins); and the Scarecrow, who needed a brain. Other key characters were the Munchkins, Glinda the Good Witch of the North, and the Wicked Witch of the West. The Kansas scenes were filmed in black and white, but the rest of the film was made in Technicolor, a relatively new process at the time.

In 1956, an estimated 45 million people tuned in to watch the movie debut on television as part of the Ford Star Jubilee. The movie spawned two sequels, including Journey Back to Oz (1974), an animated film featuring the voice of Liza Minnelli, Judy Garland's daughter, and Return to Oz (1985). An all-African-American remake, The Wiz (1978), starred Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, with music arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones.

The movie is still one of America's top-selling videocassettes, and one of the first 25 films to be put on the National Film Registry, which is reserved for culturally or historically significant movies. It ranked sixth in the American Film Institute's 1998 poll of America's 100 Greatest Movies. Wizard of Oz fan clubs still exist today, a century after the book's first publication.