Cowardly Lion - The 1939 Movie

The 1939 Movie

In the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly Lion was a humanoid biped and played by Bert Lahr, a popular vaudeville and Broadway star, with many of Lahr's trademark mannerisms deliberately worked into the film. In this version, the liquid courage given to him by the Wizard is replaced with a medal marked "Courage." Bert Lahr's biography, written by his son John Lahr, is entitled Notes on a Cowardly Lion.

The movie was made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which uses a lion as its mascot. In fact, MGM even considered using their mascot for the role of the Cowardly Lion.

In the movie, the Lion walks on his hind legs instead of all four, except when he is first seen bounding out of the forest to attack Dorothy's friends. After roaring fiercely at them on all fours, he does stand up on his hind legs.

Lahr also portrayed the Lion's Kansan counterpart, Zeke (one of Aunt Em and Uncle Henry's farmhands). He helps Hickory (Tin Man's alter ego) lower a bed into its place on a wagon at the farm. He then moves the hogs into the pig pen and pours feed into their trough and later rescues Dorothy when she falls off the railing that encircles the pen. Zeke wears his hat throughout the entire film because he does not struggle to pry open the cellar when the tornado approaches the farm. Hunk (Scarecrow's alter ego) closes and locks the cellar with him when Dorothy arrives at the farmhouse. Zeke and Professor Marvel (The Wizard's alter ego) are the only men wearing hats when Dorothy awakens from being unconscious.

The original Courage Medal prop from the 1939 film has been recently rediscovered. The cross-shaped medal is made of poly-chromed metal and measures 7.5 × 7.5" (19.1 × 19.1 cm) It features a lion in profile above a crown and a knight's helmet, and the word "Courage" in raised blue scroll lettering. In the late 1950s, Mal Caplan, the head of the costume department at MGM was in a life-threatening automobile accident, and spent months in the hospital before returning to work. For some time he was unable to sit upright and had to work from a chaise lounge. In recognition of his courage, his colleagues and the management at MGM presented him with the Cowardly Lion’s Courage Medal. He was also given the Tin Man's "heart", but he gave that to "someone who needed it", a man in the same hospital who was having open heart surgery. The current whereabouts of the heart clock are unknown. The Courage Medal remained in the Caplan family until it was consigned to a Sotheby’s Entertainment Memorabilia auction in May 1997.