Son of the Cowardly Lion

John Lahr’s 1998 piece on his father, who played the Lion in “The Wizard of Oz.” View in browser | Update your preferences Personal History The Lion and Me The meaning of “The Wizard of Oz” and one of its enduring comic characters hits close to home. By John Lahr For the better part of a century, American kids have grown up with “The Wizard of Oz.” John Lahr—the longtime New Yorker theatre critic—grew up with the Lion from “The Wizard of Oz.” In 1998, Lahr wrote about his relationship with his father, Bert, a vaudeville and Broadway veteran whose stage career would be forever overshadowed by his turn as one of Dorothy’s companions on the Yellow Brick Road. The younger Lahr recalled his father changing the channel during a family viewing of the film in the early sixties, still ambivalent about the movie’s impact on his career, and still sensitive about his own performance in it. “I’m older now,” the senior Lahr tells his wife. “There’s stuff I coulda done better.” To get to know the distant but “friendly absence who answered to the name of Dad,” the younger Lahr had begun working on a biography, which he would finish on the day of his father’s death and publish under the title “Notes on a Cowardly Lion.” His reminiscence in The New Yorker conveys the unique aspects of having a famous parent, but also the common complexities of the father-child relationship. “I’m pushing sixty now, but I find that the conversation with one’s parents doesn’t end with the grave,” Lahr writes. “I want Dad back to finish the discussion—to answer some questions, to talk theatre, to see me now.” Read the story Also from the Archive Personal History Abandoning a Cat From 2019: Memories of my father. By Haruki Murakami Personal History My Three Fathers From 2020: My problems were never ones of scarcity. I suffered from abundance. By Ann Patchett More from The New Yorker Under Review The Upper West Side Cult That Hid in Plain Sight In the sixties and seventies, the Sullivanian Institute had a winning sales pitch for young New Yorkers: parties, sex, low rent, and affordable therapy. By Jessica Winter Postscript Remembering Robert Gottlieb, Editor Extraordinaire At Knopf and The New Yorker, Gottlieb was an editor of unexampled accomplishment—someone who seemed to have read everything worth reading and to have published a fair amount of it, too. By David Remnick Today’s newsletter was written by Nathan Burstein. Thanks for Reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the New Yorker Classics newsletter. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from the products and services that are purchased through links in our newsletters as part of our affiliate partnerships with retailers. Copyright © Condé Nast 2023. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.