The main character in The Wizard of Oz, as we know so well, is not in fact the wizard, who is actually from Omaha, but a sweet girl who wishes to escape her tiny Kansas town. Aside from its occasional tornadoes, Kansas really isn’t such a bad place; you can be content to farm, to raise livestock, to keep house there. In your spare time, you can visit your neighbours or sing with the local fellas. As long as your pup doesn’t nip the meanest old maid in the neighbourhood, you can live in peace. But the girl, Dorothy, isn’t happy. Our Dorothy is played by a pigtailed Judy Garland. She gazes longingly at a point off-camera, past us, the audience, to a place far away, somewhere over the rainbow.
– The Wandering