The Scarecrow
and Diana Ross
The first solo step and movie beginning
Unfortunately his first solo steps were failure. According to the allmichaeljackson.com
site: “In October 1978, Michael’s first motion picture was released, called “The Wiz”.
The Wiz was a Motown and Universal motion picture soul adaptation of the book “The
Wizard of Oz”. Michael auditioned for and gained the role of the scarecrow in the film
and moved to New York with his sister LaToya in October 1977 for filming. Michael’s
good friend Diana Ross starred as Dorothy in the film.
The Wiz cost approximately $24 million to make and was directed by Sidney Lumet. It
featured hundreds of dancers, spectacular costumes, elaborate makeup and special
effects. It was one of the most expensive films ever made and took over a year in pro-
duction. Michael’s makeup for the scarecrow took five hours to apply each day.
When the film was released, it was unfortunately a box office failure. However, Mi-
chael’s performance in the film was critically praised and the film received four Acad-
emy Award nominations, including: Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best
Original Music Score and Best Cinematography. The film was released on home video
in 1980 and today it has a large cult following.
Michael sang in 6 of the movie soundtrack’s songs, including “You Can’t Win” and
“Ease on Down the Road”, both of which were released as singles in 1979. “You Can’t
Win” was Michael’s first solo single for Epic records and it remained in the charts in
the US for three weeks. The Soundtrack for The Wiz would mark the first time Michael
would work with producer Quincy Jones.”
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