Evening star., 1941-01-09


swim!" where DR.. Goebbels' script
calls for three martial drum beats.
Now from the Libyan desert comes
word that Australian assault troops
marching through the night for the
final attack on Bardia, did so, not
to the air Of "Therell Always Be
an England" or even to that ribald
ballad of Gallipoli Australia Will
Be There" They sang instead
Were Of to See the Wizard, the
Wonderful Wizard of Oh"
The suggestion of this column is
that the Allies could do far worse
than adopt this rollicking tune as
an army marching song, without
worrying whether it contains the
proper doses Of patriotic fervor and
democratic determination.
My advice to Herr Goebbels and
Signor Virginio Gayda is that they
invest in few copies of Frank
Baum's fairy story, or take a look
at the film, If they want to under
stand why this tune is catching on
with the imperial forces in Libya.
1t would be wise to do so, since
Dorothy the tin woodman (an en-
bryonic tankD, the scarecroW (Joe
Stalin and the coWardly lion war
monge- ChurchilD we're at one time
in grave difficulties with winged
monkeys. This reference to Goer-
ings Luftvaffe and the Italian air
force must be counteracted Wig
orously If the axis is to hold up
against the decadent pluto-democ-
racies of the Nazi scriptures.
Wizard Used Nazi Device.
But the point about the Wizard
OF o. was that he was not a won
derful wizard at all. He made the
inhabitants of his capital believe
that theirs was an emerald city by
the simple Nazi device of compelling
everybody to wear green spectacles.
In the film the wizards power was
based on nothing but a mask.
loud-speaker and some electric
switches. When exposed. he con-
fessed that he was a humbur, a
combination Of medicine show man
and lllusionist who had only a few
simple tricks with which to compel
the inha bitants of the land of or
to pay him tribute.
So now we're of to see the Wizard
the wonderful Wizard of Berchtes-
gaden, the hun1bug whose loud
speakers have puffed him up as big
and as windy as thllnder-head.
It's songs that do the trick In war.
1t was John Downs Body" that
Warred down the valiant soldiers of
the Confederacy, whose exciting
Dixie" was one Of those tunes which
cannot be sung. 1t was "Tipperary"
that smashed the Hindenburg Line,
just as it was "Madelon" that held
at Verdun.
Lulu Tune Helps Marines Fight.
Mussolini could never have reached
Rome without "Giovanezza, and
without Pop Goes Horst Vessel"
Hitler might we'll have remained in
Munich. And we have the word of
a distinguished officer that the
United States Marines do their best
nghting, not to the tune of From
the Halls of Montezuma" but to q
1ar lowlier air known as Bang
Away. MY Lulu" Irving Berlin
turned out number of good ma
terial airs for the A. E. F., but the
one which caught hold Of the dough-
boys was The Long, Long Trail"
composed by couple of Yale under
graduates for fraternity initiation
at New Haven.
So now the world is on the march.
determined to see the Wizard and
MID out what makes the wheels 90
round In the Third Reich. Perhsps
to a nation of poker-players, it
would be more accurate to say that
we're OH to see the Wizard and
then to raise him" in a game of
table-stakes with the sky the limit,
stripped deck and a Joker.
For wars are not won 50 much bv
sense and logic and cataleptic de-
termination as they are won by
nonsense, sayety and adaptability.
Unll we have better candidate.
heres making "The Wizard of OF"
the marching song of democracy.
tReleased BY Consolidated News
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