Raymond Wallace Bolger (;[ "Bolger". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.] January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987)[ was an American actor, dancer, singer, vaudevillian, and stage performer (particularly musical theater) who started his movie career in the silent-film era. Bolger was a major Broadway performer in the 1930s and beyond. He is best known for his roles in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie The Wizard of Oz (1939) as Hunk and the Scarecrow and in Walt Disney's holiday musical fantasy Babes in Toyland in 1961 as the villainous Barnaby.
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Bolger was the host of The Ray Bolger Show on TV from 1953 to 1955, originally titled Where's Raymond?
Early life
Raymond Wallace Bolger was born at 598 Second St., South Boston, Massachusetts, into a Catholic family of Irish descent. He was the son of James Edward Bolger and Anne C. (née Wallace).[Van ĪÉLeuven, Holly. Ray Bolger: More than a Scarecrow, Chapter 1, Oxford University Press, 2019, , p. 7]
Bolger grew up and attended school in the Codman Square section of the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.[ Mayor’s Mural Crew creates homage to Ray Bolger, OFD]
Interviewed in 1940 about his post-high-school years, Bolger reported having worked in Boston for the city's First National Bank, and then trying insurance sales and even door-to-door vacuum selling in New England. He was a student at O'Brien's Dancing Academy and was later a manager-instructor at Russakoff's School of Dance.[Francis, Robert. "Candid Close-Ups." Brooklyn Eagle, 9 June 1940.]
Career
Early career
His entertainment aspirations evolved from the vaudeville shows of his youth. He began his career in a vaudeville tap show, creating the act "Sanford & Bolger" with his dance partner. In 1926, he danced at New York City's legendary Palace Theatre, the premier vaudeville theater in the United States. His limber body and improvisational dance movements won him many leading roles on Broadway in the 1930s. Eventually, his career also encompassed film, television, and nightclub work.
After starring in Richard Rodgers' first stage production of On Your Toes in 1936, in which he played the male lead Junior, as well as the hero of the Slaughter on Tenth Avenue ballet within the musical, Bolger signed his first cinema contract with MGM in 1936, and although The Wizard of Oz was early in his film career, he appeared in other movies of note. His best-known pre-Oz appearance was The Great Ziegfeld (1936), in which he portrayed himself. He also appeared in Sweethearts (1938), the first MGM film in Technicolor, starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. He also appeared in the Eleanor Powell vehicle Rosalie (1937), which also starred Eddy and Frank Morgan.
The Wizard of Oz
Bolger's MGM contract stipulated that he would play any part the studio chose. However, he was unhappy when he was originally cast as the Tin Woodman in the studio's 1939 feature-film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. The role of the Scarecrow had already been assigned to another dancing, studio-contract player, Buddy Ebsen. In time, the roles were shuffled around. Bolger's face was permanently lined by wearing the Scarecrow's makeup.
Post-Oz film career
Following The Wizard of Oz, Bolger moved to RKO Pictures. In 1941, he was a featured act at the Paramount Theatre in New York, working with the Harry James Band. He would do tap dance routines, sometimes in a mock-challenge dance with the band's pianist, Al Lerner.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Bolger's performance was interrupted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's announcement of the news of the attack.[ "Ray Bolger" masterworksbroadway.com, accessed August 26, 2019][ "Ray Bolger Bio" allmusic.com, accessed August 26, 2019] and appeared in the United Artists wartime film Stage Door Canteen (1943).[ Stage Door Canteen tcm.com, accessed August 26, 2019]
In 1946, he returned to MGM for a featured role in The Harvey Girls. Also that year, he recorded a children's album, The Churkendoose, featuring the story of a misfit fowl ("part chicken, turkey, duck, and goose"), which teaches children that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it "all depends on how you look at things".
Broadway
Bolger's Broadway credits included (1934), On Your Toes (1936), By Jupiter (1942), All American (1962) and Where's Charley? (1948), for which he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical and in which he introduced "Once in Love with Amy", the song often connected with him. He repeated his stage role in the 1952 film version of the musical.
Television
Bolger appeared in his own ABC television sitcom with a variety show theme, Where's Raymond? (1953–1954), renamed the second year as The Ray Bolger Show (1954–55). He continued to star in several films, including Walt Disney's remake of Babes in Toyland (1961) and smaller cameos throughout the 1960s and 1970.
Bolger made frequent guest appearances on television, including the episode "Rich Man, Poor Man" of the short-lived The Jean Arthur Show in 1966. In the 1970s, he had a recurring role as Fred Renfrew, the father of Shirley Partridge (Shirley Jones) on The Partridge Family, and appeared in Little House on the Prairie as Toby Noe and also guest-starred on other television series, such as Battlestar Galactica, Fantasy Island, and The Love Boat. In the late 1970s, Bolger played in a commercial for Safeway Supermarket's "Scotch Buy" brand, in which he popularized the jingle, "Scotch Buy – 'taint fancy, but it shore is good."[Archived at Ghostarchive and the
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target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Wayback Machine: His last television appearance was on Diff'rent Strokes in 1984, three years before his death.
In 1976 Bolger performed the opening number for the 48th Academy Awards ceremony.
In his later years, he danced in a Dr Pepper television commercial, and in 1985, he and Liza Minnelli, the daughter of his Oz costar Judy Garland, starred in That's Dancing!, a film written by Jack Haley Jr., the son of Jack Haley, who portrayed the Tin Woodman in The Wizard of Oz.
Honors
In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.[, palmspringswalkofstars.com; accessed September 26, 2014.]
In 2016, the City of Boston commissioned a mural in Ray Bolger's honor in the Codman Square section of the Dorchester neighborhood.[
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Personal life
Bolger was married to Gwendolyn Rickard for more than 57 years. They had no children.
Bolger was a lifelong Republican who campaigned for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election,
Bolger had 11 nieces and nephews.
Death and legacy
Bolger was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1986. His health deteriorated and by the end of that year, he left his Beverly Hills home to live at a nursing home in Los Angeles. He died there on January 15, 1987, five days after his 83rd birthday.[
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At the time of his death, Bolger was the last surviving main-credited cast member of The Wizard of Oz.
Whenever asked whether he had received any residuals from telecasts of The Wizard of Oz, Bolger would reply: "No, just immortality. I'll settle for that."
For his contributions to the film industry, Bolger received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. It is located at 6788 Hollywood Boulevard.
In 2019, the first comprehensive biography of Bolger, More Than a Scarecrow by Holly Van Leuven, was published.
Filmography
| +Theatrical films
! Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes |
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| (scenes deleted) |
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| (scenes deleted) |
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| Uncredited |
| Documentary film |
| +Television
! Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes |
| Lead role (61 episodes) |
| |
| 2 episodes |
| Episode: "The Mayor of Central Park" |
| Television film |
| 1963 | The Judy Garland Show | guest star | Garland's weekly tv series |
| Episode: "Rich Man, Poor Man" |
| Recurring role (3 episodes) |
| Episode: "South Sea Island Sweetheart" |
| Television film |
| Television miniseries (Chapter I) |
| 2 episodes |
| Episode: "Just for Laughs" |
| Television film |
| 2 episodes |
| 2 episodes |
| Television pilot |
| Episode: "Greetings from Earth" |
| Episode: "Best of Friends/Success/Nine Karats" |
| Television film |
| Voice, Television special |
| Episode: "A Haunting We Will Go", (final appearance) |
Stage work
| +Broadway productions
! Year !! Title !! Role !! Theatre |
| Imperial Theatre |
| 44th Street Theatre |
| Alvin Theatre |
| Apollo Theatre |
| Winter Garden Theatre |
| Imperial Theatre |
| Broadhurst Theatre |
| Shubert Theatre |
| Adelphi Theatre |
| St. James Theatre |
| Broadway Theatre |
| Winter Garden Theatre |
| Lunt-Fontanne Theatre |
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| +Additional stage work
! Year !! Title !! Role !! Theatre !! Ref. |
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External links
