Who Put the Rainbow in the “Wizard of Oz?”

If you read the original book by L. Frank Baum, you may notice that something is missing. That thing is the rainbow. In addition to the shoes going from silver to ruby in the MGM film, one major addition is the mention of the Rainbow. Today, you can hardly find a single image of Oz without a rainbow. Yet, this did not occur in the text so where did it come from?

The short answer is from the mind of E.Y. “Yip” Harburg. His son, Ernie Harburg, wrote the book “Who Put the Rainbow in the Wizard of Oz” and notes his father’s other contributions to Oz and the American songbook more generally. There are many theories about how Yip came up with the image of a rainbow, but ultimately, we can safely say he is the one who did. Combined with Harold Arlen’s semi-somber melody, the soaring octave leap lands on the colorful image and is immortalized by the performance of Judy Garland in a sepia barnyard.