Remakes Blogfest - One Song Remake I Was Surprised to Like: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

Remembering the song made famous by Judy Garland as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Every November, my husband and I would  camp in front of the tube with our two children to watch the antics of Dorothy, Toto, Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. Would the Wicked Witch win? Would Aunt Em find Dorothy? Who was the wizard? I lost track of how many times we watched this pre-Thanksgiving film. Everyone I knew, it seemed, looked forward to the television event.

Looking back, the evening must have spanned three hours or more. Watching the movie years later without commercials I somehow felt gypped. Was it really only  2hr 5m long? Unlike today, commercials of the past never bothered me. I'd run to the kitchen and get the popcorn ready or cut the dessert. Later during commercials, the kids would get their PJs on and brush their teeth, while I cleaned up the kitchen. It worked somehow. 

MGM released this film classic in 1939. It was based on the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum in 1900. Theater viewers liked the film well enough when it was first released, but it was only a modest success in the beginning. In the end, the movie and its music had a long lifespan. When it came to television years later, mostly during the period 1956 to 1980, its popularity soared.

Judy Garland's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is perhaps the most famous and known song from the movie. Music and lyrics were the creation of Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, and it won an Academy Award for Best Song that year. I knew all the lyrics and often sang the song, and it was a popular favorite with my family on road trips (kids weren't plugged into electronics back then). It was Judy Garland's trademark song, and whether she enjoyed singing it for the umpteenth time or not during performances, her fans  demanded it. 

Skip ahead to ..... 2010. I'm listening to NPR's 50 Great Voices Series on the radio. The host is describing a song by Izzy someone from Hawaii, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World." Izzy's full name is Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. NPR calls him "The Voice of Hawaii." I've already heard snippets of the song in commercials on TV, but never in full. I'm mesmerized when I hear it in full and surprised how much I like it. His performance on the ukulele gains recognition across the U.S. According to Wikipedia it had already passed the 2 million mark in downloads by 2009. By 2011 it had sold 3 million.

Judy Garland - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

Somewhere over the rainbow 

Way up high 

There's a place that I heard of

Once in a lullaby 

Somewhere over the rainbow 

Skies are blue

And the dreams that you dare to dream

Really do come true 

Some day I'll wish upon a star 

And wake up where the clouds are far behind me 

Where troubles melt like lemon drops 

Away above the chimney tops 

That's where you'll find me 

Somewhere over the rainbow 

Bluebirds fly 

Birds fly over the rainbow 

Why then oh why can't I? 

If happy little bluebirds fly 

Beyond the rainbow why 

Oh why can't I?

Izzy - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World"

Is this not the best remake of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" you have ever heard?

Eva Cassidy "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

Eva Cassidy's remake is a close second so I include both,

but Izzy's version is my favorite. 

What do think?

(This is a blog hop)

1. Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh	2. Heather M. Gardner	3. Diane Burton - Adventure & Romance
4. Christine Rains	5. Tamara Narayan	6. Juneta @ Writer's Gambit
7. CineMarvellous!	8. Tossing It Out	9. Stories I Found in the Closet
10. Spunk On A Stick - Diane	11. Pat Hatt	12. The Write Game
13. PepperWords	14. XmasDolly aka Marie Moody	15. Writing Off the Edge
16. Sharon M. Himsl - Shells, Tales and Sails	17. The Warrior Muse	18. Michelle Gregory at Dust Kittens in the Corners
19. Elizabeth Seckman. Author	20. Birgit	21. The ToiBox of Words
22. Shah Wharton	23. Spacerguy	24. Michael Abayomi
25. Stephen Tremp Breakthrough Blogs	26. Madly-in-Verse	27. Sandra Ulbrich Almazan
28. Patricia Lynne	29. RBPublishing	30. The Faux Fountain Pen
31. Just Jemi	32. Michelle Wallace	33. Birgit

Y is for Hazel Ying Lee - Pioneer Women in Aviation: A-Z Challege

Hazel Ying Lee (1912-1944)

Hazel Ying Lee grew up in a large family with seven brothers and sisters in Portland, Oregon. As the daughter of Chinese immigrants, to dream of flying an airplane was an unrealistic goal. For one, she was Chinese-American, and two, she was a girl. But dream she did, and when a friend treated her at 19 to a ride at an airshow, it seemed she might fly after all.

Saving her money for flight lessons, Hazel started training at an airfield on nearby Swan Island and joined the Portland Flying Club (one of two girls). Her mother was opposed to the lessons, but according to a sister, Hazel "enjoyed the danger and doing something that was new to Chinese girls." One year later (1932), Hazel became one of the first Chinese-American women to earn a pilot's license and was eager to put her flying skills to work.

With the Japanese invasion of northern China (1932-1933), Hazel joined other Chinese-Americans in the fight. Thinking she would join the Chinese Air Force, she was promptly turned down (twice) in 1933. Female pilots were not allowed. Instead, she accepted an office job with the military and briefly flew for a private airline. [An interesting aside is Korean Kwon Ki-ok's experience in 1925 as China's first female pilot; see K post]. In 1938, the Japanese launched a full scale attack, and after witnessing the deaths of hundreds of civilians, Hazel was forced to return to the United States.  

World War II and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed the playing field for female pilots in the U.S. The demand for male pilots was impossible to meet, and although support by the military command and the media was mixed (opposition was high), the Women Airforce Service Pilots (known as WASP) was formed in 1943. Hazel was among the recruits accepted and became the first Chinese-American woman to fly for the U.S. military. More than one-thousand women would join the WASP. Although under military command in every way, the WASP were classified as civilians and did not receive military benefits. That said, military assignments were less than desirable. Their missions as transport pilots often meant flying in open cockpits in bad weather.
 

Hazel (on rt) with other WASP receiving training. 
She flew P-51s, P-47s and P-39s, one of 132
female pilots, selected to "fly pursuit."

Hazel was assigned to the third Ferrying Group at Romulus, Michigan. Automobile factories had been converted into full scale aircraft factories and it was her group's job to deliver new aircraft to designated sites for shipping to war fronts in Europe and the Pacific. Work schedules were full, a "7-day workweek, with little time off," Hazel's sister later described in an interview.

Lifelong friendships were forged. Hazel was known for her sense of humor.

Proud to serve. Fellow pilots described her as "calm and fearless."
One story told was of Hazel's forced landing in a Kansas wheat field.
A farmer was certain the Japanese had landed. Frightened, he held a pitchfork in hand and yelled for his neighbors. Hazel calmly convinced him she was not the enemy.

 Older than most of the WASP, Hazel was considered a leader

Unfortunately, a second forced landing November 1944 in Great Falls, Montana took Hazel's life. More than 5000 fighters had been delivered to the Great Falls airfield at that juncture in time. It was not an unfamiliar setting. Hazel was in the process of delivering a P-63 (a large group had also arrived to land), but due to radio failure in a second P-63, the control tower directed both planes to land on the same runway simultaneously. The planes collided and Hazel died from burns in the collision two days later.  

Thirty-eight women would die before 

the disbanding of WASP in December 1944. 

Hazel, the first Chinese-American woman 

to fly for the U.S. military, was the last to die. 

 

Source:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_Ying_Lee; http://www.flygirlstheseries.com/blogpage/2016/1/21/114-tbt-throwbackthursdayhttp://www.azquotes.com/author/23671-Hazel_Ying_Lee; http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/lee_hazel_ying/

 

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing

W is for Nancy Bird Walton - Pioneer Women in Aviation: A-Z Challenge

Nancy Bird Walton (1915-2009)

Nancy Bird Walton was born in the timber town of Kew, New South Wales (Australia) in 1915 as one of six children. At 13 she left private school (not her favorite pastime) to work in her father's store. Her biggest passion in life and ambition was to fly someday. She remembered as a kid standing on the fence or climbing a tree, and waving her arms, pretending to be an airplane---an "eppyplane." 

Nancy  understood full well if she was ever going to fly, she would need to save every penny she could. The global depression had spread to Australia and money was tight. Working hard in her father's country store, she could only squeeze out 30 shillings a week, but a flight lesson would cost two pounds an hour and to solo, another 30 shillings.
 
She already knew how terrific it was to fly. She had paid to go up in a gorgeous blue and yellow Gipsy Moth with a barnstormer pilot when an airshow came to town. She even paid the pilot an extra pound to do aerobatics. 

"From then on, learning to fly was the ruling passion of my life," Nancy later said. 

One by one, Nancy checked off the items needed to fly: a book on flying, a helmet and goggles, and a leather jacket for sitting in the open cockpit of the plane. On August 11, 1933, she was ready for her first lesson and eagerly walked a mile to meet with her instructor, a pioneer aviator she deeply admired, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, who was famous for crossing the Pacific from America to Australia in 1928. 

At five feet tall, Nancy had to sit on cushions to reach the controls, and preferred wearing dresses. "Because everyone thought I would look like a grease monkey and be masculine," she once explained. "I went the opposite way and I wore the most unsuitable clothes - floral dresses, mostly hand-me-downs from my sister." Although in some photos, she did indeed where pants (knickers), and as practical, wore shorts in the Australian summer heat, which raised a few eyebrows. 

Nancy with her instructor Sir Charles Kingsford Smith

Kingsford Smith did not take her seriously at first, but Nancy proved to be a skilled pilot and earned his respect. After satisfying the 25-hour solo flight time requirement to carry passengers, Nancy obtained an advanced license. The commercial license was more of a challenge. It required 100 hours of solo flying. She had to pass flying tests and written examinations in Navigation, Engines, Air Frames and Meteorology, which meant applying math skills (something she'd neglected in school). 

She struggled for months to complete the course, working overtime to understand confusing aviation terminology and procedures, like angles of incidence, thrust, drag, camshafts and tappet clearances. She learned about cloud formations, studied velocity and speed, and practiced how to maintain an aircraft engine. Two years later (1935) at 19, she became the first woman to earn a commercial pilot's license. Bursting with pride of accomplishment, she received a nice letter of congratulations from the controller of Civil Aviation, who then informed her she would not find work in commercial aviation as a woman. 

Her only recourse was to seek charter work as a self-employed pilot. Nancy's father Edward Bird, who initially had been against her flying, talked the family's great-aunt Annie into paying Nancy her inheritance early. He added to amount so Nancy could buy a plane. Overjoyed, Nancy found a downed De Havilland Gipsy Moth that had been damaged in a crash and had the plane rebuilt. 

Nancy in the Gipsy Moth.

Needing a way to pay back the mechanics for the plane's repairs, Nancy orchestrated a barnstorming tour of the countryside with another female pilot. Money would come from those willing to take joy rides in their planes. Local papers and radio stations helped publicize the events and the crowds arrived. Nancy discovered she was quite good at talking people into risking their lives in her plane, with a woman no doubt! But then the Gipsy Moth developed serious engine problems and the tour ended.

Tom Perry, a wealthy philanthropist interested in aviation, liked Nancy and noticed her easy manner talking with people in the crowd. He suggested a larger plane would bring in charter business and offered to help her buy a new Leopard Moth on credit, a plane that in addition to the pilot's seat had a cabin with two passenger seats. After worrying about how she would ever make payments, she accepted his offer, a decision that would change her life for the next four years. 

Nancy with her new Leopard Moth

It really started with the tragic death of her instructor Kingsford Smith in 1935 when his plane disappeared at sea. Deeply saddened by the loss, Nancy left Sydney and moved to Dubbo, where she hoped to drum up business in her Leopard Moth. It was there she met Reverend Stanley Drummond, a Methodist minister who had started the Far West Children's Health Scheme, a medical service that treated children in Australia's remote outback. He convinced Nancy to join the team. 

Children suffering from trachoma (a disease that caused blindness) and malnutrition (among the aboriginals) were among the conditions the medical team treated. Nancy's job was to transport nurses and their equipment to remote locations and patients to clinics as needed. Some areas had not yet been reached by the royal flying Doctor Service. She also helped a nurse set up a clinic, using both a car and her plane.  Over a four year period the medical service and Nancy's air ambulance saved hundreds of lives.  

Flying over the outback was lonely business and could be dangerous, she later told people. For long stretches of land, only tough mulga trees grew below, which could easily damage a small plane if forced to land. Nancy experienced nature's worst---violent rains, flooding, dust storms, dehydration in summer, flying insects, and airsickness, to name a few.

"It was rewarding but lonely work," she said.

In 1938, she left flying, sold her plane, and did some promotional work in Europe and Java for a Dutch airline company. With the outbreak of World War II, and while traveling home by ship, she happened to meet Charles Walton, the love of her life. She was 24. They married shortly after and raised two children together. Nancy took up flying again after a twenty-year break and was an active spokesperson for flying and aviation for the remainder of her long life. 
 

Other:
--1936--Ladies' Trophy for air race, Adelaide to Brisbane
--WWII--set up training courses for women pilots as backup for men in air force
--1950--founded Australian Women Pilots Association
--1958--competed in U.S. Powder Puff Derby, first woman from overseas
--1990--published book: My God! It's a Woman
--1997--declared 'Australian Living Treasure' by National Trust of Australia
--2008--Qantas A380 is named after her

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Bird_Walton
http://nancybird-walton.weebly.com/contribution-achievements-and-legacy.html
http://www.janesoceania.com/australia_great_women_nancybirdwalton/index.htm
http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargarve/nancy_bird_walton_bio.html  

O is for Phoebe Omlie - Pioneer Women in Aviation: A-Z Challenge

Phoebe Omlie would never forget her first air show in 1920. 

Phoebe Omlie (1902-1975)

President Woodrow Wilson had visited Minneapolis and there had been a huge flyover in his honor and air show at the local airfield. The next day, Phoebe graduated from high school, but all she could think about was the amazing air show she had seen.

Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1902. Her parents later divorced, but Andrew Fairgrave adopted Phoebe and her brother when her mother remarried. The family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota when Phoebe turned 12. There she completed grades at Madison School and Mechanic Arts High School. After graduation, she worked as a secretary, but found the job  was boring. 

She began daydreaming about the air show she'd seen awhile back and decided to visit the airfield. Fascinated, she returned again and again, constantly pestering the airfield's manager for an airplane ride each time. The manager finally agreed. He told one of the pilots to give her a ride she’d never forget. Give her “the works,” Phoebe recalled the manager telling the pilot, claiming he only wanted to scare her off. The pilot gave her a hair-raising ride she’d never forget, complete with loops and nosedives, the kind of ride that most might have begged off flying forever afterwards, but Phoebe loved it.

Meanwhile, Phoebe received a small inheritance from her grandfather. She was 17. It was just enough to buy an airplane, and that's exactly what she did. She bought a Curtis Jenny for $3,500. But worried her parents would object, she convinced the Fox Moving Picture Co. to hire her (for $3,500) as an aerial stunt woman in the "Perils of Pauline" movie serial. 
 
Phoebe hired Vernon Omlie, a 25-year-old stunt pilot, to teach her how to fly. The two hit it off, and after some intensive practice, began barnstorming all over the Midwest, performing at airshows for cash. Phoebe played her part well as the petite dare-devil teen, dressed in her silk shirt, riding breeches, and leather helmet with goggles. She dazzled crowds where ever they flew, walking on the wings of the plane (she wore shoes with suction cups). She called her business the Phoebe Fairgrave Flying Circus.

Some of the dangerous "wing-walking" stunts Phoebe performed were:
--Headstands on the wing
--Dancing the Charleston on the wing
 (both while Vernon flew the plane in loops!)
--Hanging by her ankles or her teeth (she had a special mouth piece attached to a rope) 
-- A double parachute drop: she would drop in one parachute, cut the strings and do a free fall; and then as the crowd held their breath below, release a second parachute just in time.

Phoebe wing walking

Phoebe and Vernon married in 1922. The flying circus continued until 1927, when Phoebe decided to try piloting instead.  She loved air racing and entered a number of races. She and Vernon purchased an airport in Memphis and started a flying school. Phoebe also had a job with the Mono Aircraft Corp, and flew around the U.S. and South America promoting their Monocoupe.  

After one of Phoebe's air races

Vernon and Phoebe

Phoebe's Monocoupe

Eleanor Roosevelt took notice and asked if she'd be willing to promote Franklin in his presidential campaign. Phoebe said she would and logged 5000 miles and crossed 20 states during the campaign. Later, Franklin rewarded Phoebe for her service,  appointing her as Special Advisor for Air Intelligence to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. She was the first woman to hold such a position. One of her best known achievements in this position was to conceive the Air Marking Program. Phoebe hired female pilots all over the country to mark runways, rooftops, water tanks , factories, barns, etc., with directional arrows and names of airports in large black and orange letters. She also partnered with her good friend Amelia Earhart to create what would one day become the National Airspace System.  

Phoebe on left; the campaign for Franklin D. Roosevelt

 
Sadly, Vernon was killed in a commercial airliner crash in 1936. Phoebe never fully recovered from the shock. She resigned from her government position. However, she did participate at a state level in 1937, co-authoring Tennessee's new aviation act and introducing the first vocational course in aviation into public schools. In 1941, she assisted the federal government in setting up 66 flying schools. After the war, she assisted with research in flight training methods. 

In 1952, when President Truman started assigning non-aviation people to Civil Aeronautics Administration positions, Phoebe quit for good--irritated aviation had become over regulated. A downhill slide from there, she withdrew from friends, started drinking in excess, and moved away. Much later, in 1970, she was found living in poverty in what has been described as a "fleabag" hotel in  Indianapolis.  

A list of Phoebe's many accomplishments:
--1920, First flying circus owned by a woman 
--1921, First woman to perform double parachute drop
--1922, Set women's world record for high altitude parachute jump; 15,200 feet
--1925, With Vernon established first airport in Tennessee (Memphis) 
--1927, First woman to earn a transport pilot's license
--1927, First woman to earn an airplane mechanics license. 
--1928, First woman to fly across the Rockies in light aircraft
--1929, Set altitude record for women over Iowa City; 25,400 feet 
--1929, 1930, 1931, Won awards in national women's air races
--1933, First woman appointed to a federal aviation position 

[A nice tribute to Phoebe Omlie]

sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Omlie; http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi2438.htm
http://www.historynet.com/phoebe-and-vernon-omlie-from-barnstormers-to-aviation-innovators.htm
http://womanpilot.com/?p=13; http://data.desmoinesregister.com/famous-iowans/phoebe-fairgrave-omlie