And Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley, and on and on.

WSJ: Nowhere Near the Rainbow

After he moved to California in the late 1970s to attend Pepperdine University, he met and befriended Jack Haley (the Tin Man) and Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow).

FORBES: Swept Up

The first successful reboot was Broadway's all-African-American "The Wiz" in 1975 (the basis for the 1978 movie, with Michael Jackson as the most sympathetic scarecrow since Ray Bolger in 1939).

WSJ: The Road Well-Traveled: Oz the Great and Powerful