Cowardly Lion

The Cowardly Lion
The Wizard of Oz character
The Cowardly Lion as illustrated by William Wallace Denslow (1900)
First appearance	The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Created by	L. Frank Baum
Portrayed by	Bert Lahr et al.
Information
Aliases	Dandy Lion
Species	lion
Gender	male
Occupation	King of the Forest of Wild Beasts; Ozma's chariot puller
Title	King of the Forest
Nationality	Munchkin

The Cowardly Lion is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum.^[1] He is a Lion, but he talks and interacts with humans.

Since lions are supposed to be "The Kings of Beasts," the Cowardly Lion believes that his fear makes him inadequate. He does not understand that courage means acting in the face of fear, which he does frequently. Only during the aftereffects of the Wizard's gift, when he is under the influence of an unknown liquid substance that the Wizard orders him to drink (perhaps gin) is he not filled with fear. He argues that the courage from the Wizard is only temporary, although he continues to do brave deeds while openly and embarrassedly fearful.

Books

Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion, from the first edition.

The Cowardly Lion makes his first appearance in the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He is the last of the companions Dorothy befriends on her way to the Emerald City where he ambushes her, Toto, Scarecrow, and Tin Woodman. When he tries to bite Toto, Dorothy slaps him for trying to attack Toto where she discovers that the Lion is actually a coward which he admits that he is. The Cowardly Lion joins her so that he can ask The Wizard for courage, being ashamed that, in his cultural role as the King of the Beasts, he is not indeed brave.^[2] Despite outward evidence that he is unreasonably fearful, The Cowardly Lion displays great bravery along the way. During the journey, he leaps across a chasm on the road of yellow brick multiple times, each time with a companion on his back, and the leap back to get the next one. When they come into another, wider chasm, the Cowardly Lion holds off two Kalidahs while the Tin Woodman cuts a tall tree to cross it. In spite of his fears, he still goes off to hunt for his food, and he even offers to kill a deer for Dorothy to eat, but the idea makes her uncomfortable.

The Wizard gives him a dish of unknown liquid, telling him it is "courage" to drink. In the remainder of the book, the Lion becomes almost like a bully and ready to fight. He accompanies Dorothy on her journey to see Glinda, and allows his friends to stand on his back in order to escape the Dainty China Country, where he damages the only church mentioned in an Oz book until Handy Mandy in Oz (1937).

His favored companion is the Hungry Tiger. This may well be the "Biggest of the Tigers" he and his friends encounter in the Forest of Wild Beasts in the Quadling Country^[3] In this forest, all of the lions and many of the other animals have been eaten by a Giant Spider. The Lion finds the Giant Spider asleep and decapitates it. The Tiger and the other animals bow to him and ask him to be their king, and he promises to do so upon his return from accompanying Dorothy to Glinda. Glinda orders the Winged Monkeys to carry him back to the Forest once Dorothy has returned home.

In the rest of Baum's Oz series, the Lion never again played a major role. In later books, The Cowardly Lion often accompanies Dorothy on her adventures. He is Princess Ozma's chief guardian on state occasions, and he and the Hungry Tiger pull Ozma's chariot. In subsequent Oz books by Baum, the Lion was shown to have continued being courageous and loyal, although still considering himself a coward and regularly frightened, even by Aunt Em. He befriended the Hungry Tiger in Ozma of Oz, if this was not the earlier Tiger (which The Patchwork Girl of Oz implies that it is by calling both Lion and Tiger "largest of their kind"), and the two have become Ozma's personal guards. In Glinda of Oz he is on Ozma's board of advisers.

In "The Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger" in Little Wizard Stories of Oz, the Lion begins with cowardly bravado, intending to find a man to tear apart, and the Tiger a fat baby to devour. Instead, they find a small child (bigger than a baby) and return it to its mother.

In his titular novel by Ruth Plumly Thompson, Mustafa of Mudge, a wealthy sultan at the southern tip of the Munchkin Country, kidnaps the Cowardly Lion for his large collection of lions that he feels would be incomplete without Oz's most famous lion. He was turned to stone by the giant Crunch, but rescued by American circus clown Notta Bit More and orphan Bobbie Downs, whom the clown prefers to call by the more optimistic-sounding Bob Up.

For the most part in later Oz books, though, the Cowardly Lion is a presence rather than a major character. His other significant appearances include Ojo in Oz, where he is turned into a clock by Mooj and saved by Ozma and the Wizard. He assisted against the Stratovanians in Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz, Terp the Terrible in The Hidden Valley of Oz, and accompanied Dorothy and Prince Gules of Halidom in Merry Go Round in Oz. John R. Neill played him primarily as a beast of burden in his three Oz books. In all, the only three books in which the Cowardly Lion does not rate at least a mention are The Tin Woodman of Oz, Grampa in Oz, and The Silver Princess in Oz. (In The Marvelous Land of Oz he receives a bare mention in the eleventh chapter.)

Film portrayals

The Wizard of Oz

Cowardly Lion's Courage Medal

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 Kansas 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.^[4][5][6]

Cowardly Lion costumes

An original Cowardly Lion costume from The Wizard of Oz was packed away after filming and forgotten for decades.^[7] It was found barely in time to be included in the landmark 1970 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer auction, where it sold for $2400 to a California chiropractor.^[7] In 1985, sculptor Bill Mack acquired it;^[7] he could not recall the exact price, but stated, "It was several thousand dollars, instead of several hundred thousand".^[8] He had it restored by a taxidermist and "recreated the headpiece with a lifelike sculpture of Lahr".^[7] In December 2006, he sold it for $826,000.^[8]

Another costume currently resides in the Comisar Collection, the largest collection of television artifacts in the world.^[9][10] Curator James Comisar acquired the costume, after verifying to his satisfaction that it had been worn in the film, and set about restoring it.^[11] The major challenge was the weight of the tail caused rips across the back of the costume that needed to be patched, which was done by Cara Varnell, a textile conservation expert at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.^[12] The Cowardly Lion’s original facial appliances had been glued directly to Bert Lahr’s face and did not survive the production,^[12] so Comisar asked Lahr’s son, Herbert, to model for another face cast, as he had an uncanny resemblance to his father.^[12] Herbert Lahr remarked:

The Lion’s suit was very interesting. It was a real lion skin, and it weighed 60 lbs. My dad had to be in it all day, he couldn’t eat because of the way the mask was, so he had to eat his lunch through a straw.^[12]

The Cowardly Lion’s mane was re-created from human hair imported from Italy at a cost of $22,000, and more than twenty-one artisans worked for two years completing the conservation.^[11]

Comisar's Cowardly Lion costume has been featured in the national media, including on The Oprah Winfrey Show, when it was then valued at $1.5 million.^[13] The costume is thought to be among the most valuable and iconic Hollywood objects in existence.^{[citation needed]} “Most of us cannot relate to not having a brain or a heart; we can all relate to not having enough courage, and it is for this reason I believe the Cowardly Lion is the character we respond to the most,” said Comisar.^[11] Many potential buyers have expressed interest in buying the costume, but so far he has rejected all offers.

William Stillman, a noted historian and co-author of several books about the film, featured a full-page photograph of this Cowardly Lion costume in his book, The Wizardry of Oz: The Artistry and the Magic of the M.G.M. 1939 Classic. The accompanying text states, "While Bert Lahr appears to wear the same costume throughout the picture, others were available for dress rehearsals or for the stunt double to bound onto the Yellow Brick Road, leap through a window in the Emerald City, or scale the cliffs outside the Witch’s castle."^[14] In 1998, both Comisar and auctioneering company Profiles in History, on behalf of Mack, insisted they had Lahr's costume.^[15]

Return to Oz

In the 1985 spiritual sequel to The Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly Lion is briefly seen at the end of the film. Unlike the 1939 film, this version walks on fours.^{[citation needed]} He also growls rather than speaking.

Oz the Great and Powerful

In the 2013 prequel to The Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly Lion is encountered by Oscar Diggs on the Yellow Brick Road, being driven away in fear when Oscar uses a pyrotechnic to drive him away from a winged monkey he was attempting to help.^[16] Like Return to Oz, this version stands on fours and growls as well as roaring rather than speaking.

Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return

The Cowardly Lion will appear in Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (based off Dorothy of Oz) voiced by Jim Belushi.

Recent works and parodies

The Cowardly Lion is a minor character in author Gregory Maguire's 1995 revisionist novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and its 2003 Broadway musical adaptation. In both works, he is first seen as a Lion Cub (lion with human attributes) who has been torn from his mother and used as an experiment (in the book by Doctor Dillamond's replacement, Doctor Nikidik, and in the musical an agent of the Wizard) on the nature of Animals. Elphaba (the future Wicked Witch of the West) saves the Lion Cub that in the end of both adaptations attempts to kill her. He also appears in Maguire's 2005 sequel Son of a Witch, also in a minor role. The Cowardly Lion is the central character in the third book of the series, A Lion Among Men, where he is given the name of Brrr, which was the name given to him in Wicked. Doctor Nikidik mentions that he intended to give the Lion Cub the name of Prrr, but since "it shivers more than it purrs," he names it Brrr.

He appears in the The Wizard of Oz cartoon voiced by Charlie Adler. The Cowardly Lion has his brave/cowardly persona intact, and even gets to wear the Ruby Slippers for a short while in one episode.

Nathan Lane performs as this character in the 1995 television special The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True. In his version of If I Were King of the Forest, he has an addition into the lyrics "Not queen, not duke, not prince...or the Artist Formerly known as Prince".

In the ABC television film The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, Fozzie Bear plays the role of the Lion. Fozzie's other role is himself. He shows up at the end of this film in the Muppets' show.

In the VeggieTales episode The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's, he is renamed the "Hungry Lion" who was played by Pa Grape. His Kansas counterpart from the 1939 film also appeared in this Christian cartoon.

In the 2007 Sci Fi television miniseries Tin Man, the Lion is re-imagined as a character named Raw, a member of the race of Viewers - half-man, half-lion beings with telekinetic and empathic abilities. He is played by Raoul Trujillo

The Cowardly Lion appears in Dorothy and the Witches of Oz played by Barry Ratcliffe. He appears on Earth in the form of Dorothy Gale's lawyer Bryan Jennings.

He is voiced by Todd Stashwick in the direct-to-DVD animated film Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz, a midquel/parallel of the classic 1939 film featuring Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse with Droopy.

Speculated origins

In the original Oz books, the Lion's origins were never explicitly stated. However, many works since then have either hinted at or revealed elements of backstory for the Cowardly Lion. Partly due to the large amount of written material about Oz, many of these stories are contradictory to each other or to the "Famous Forty" Oz books, and many fans do not accept them as canonical. The canonical books give no indication the Lion did not originate in Oz, essentially as a normal, if unique, lion.

A skittish and fearful lion cub is seen at Shiz University in Gregory Maguire's novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The cub had been the result of cruel experiments by Dr. Dillamond's replacement teacher (in the musical, it was an agent of the Wizard) and was saved by Elphaba and some other students. This is heavily hinted to be a younger form of the Cowardly Lion. The Tin Woodman confirms this in the Broadway musical adaptation Wicked, in the song "March of the Witch Hunters": "And the lion also has a grievance to repay! If she'd let him fight his own battles when he was young, he wouldn't be a coward today!"

The book Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage and its accompanying animated feature, Lion of Oz, show the Lion as having grown up in a circus in America. His caretaker, Oscar Diggs, was the man who would become the Wizard of Oz; this man took the Lion on a balloon ride one night, which resulted in the two becoming stranded in Oz.

Gregory Maguire's most recent book, A Lion Among Men, is told primarily from the Lion's viewpoint, and its plot is centered around Brrr's account of his own origins, or lack thereof (he is unsure, as his narration begins, of the whereabouts of his parents, herd, etc.).

Political interpretations

Some historians, such as Henry M. Littlefield in American Quarterly,^[17] have suggested that Baum modeled the Cowardly Lion after politician William Jennings Bryan, or politicians in general.

References

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