Thelma Carpenter - He’s The Wizard
Dorothy (Diana Ross) meets The Munchkins’ main benefactress, Miss One, the Good Witch of the North (played by Thelma Carpenter), a magical “numbers runner” who gives Evermean’s powerful silver slippers to Dorothy. However, the frightened Dorothy desperately wants to get home. Miss One urges her to follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City and the find the mysterious “Wizard” who Miss One believes holds the power to send Dorothy back to Harlem.
The 1978 film The Wiz was directed by Sidney Lumet and written by Joel Shumacher with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls. The scene here depicting Munchkinland was the site of the decaying New York Sate Pavillion from the 1964 New York World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park located in Queens, New York.
Along with the Emerald City scene (see here) filmed entirely at the World Trade Center, this scene is one of my favorites from the movie.
