The Emerald City

Just been to see the new prequal to the 'Wizard of Oz' called 'Oz, the Great and Powerful', starring James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachael Weisz and Michelle Willams and it was super, a worthy to the 1939 classic.

Did you know the Emerald City in the 'Wizard of Oz' is based on Edinburgh Castle.

One of the most memorable scenes in the film is the moment when Dorothy and her companions first see the Emerald City. This phosphorescently glowing city was home to the wonderful Wizard of Oz. Like most of the backdrops in the film it was painted on glass and sprung from the imagination of the scenic artists at MGM. These craftsmen had to get their ideas from somewhere, and it may be that this most evocative of painted backdrops owes as its genesis a view from a humble flat in the west end of Edinburgh.

George Gibson was born in the Scottish capital in 1904 and grew up in a small flat at the junction of Bread Street and Spittal Street, appropriately just down the way from the Edinburgh Filmhouse on Lothian Road. His daily view was to follow the tarmac road to the rocky inclines of the extinct volcano on top of which sits Edinburgh Castle.

Gibson studied at Glasgow School of Art and became apprentices as a scenic designer after studying. Two years later, in 1930, he emigrated to America where he found his way to Los Angeles. He was employed with several Hollywood studios before his appointment as an illustrator with MGM. By 1938 he had become head of the studio's scenic design department and was involved in a number of high-profile projects, not least of which was Oz.

It appears that Gibson took his inspiration for the Wizard of Oz from the view from his childhood home.

There is some thought to putting up a plaque advising people of this Hollywood link to one of the worlds most iconic films.

Without anything to signal the location of Gibson's first home, few people will know that they could be looking at the view that inspired the most famous of all celluloid cities. And if the castle was the inspiration for the Emerald City, then surely nearby Lothian Road could be considered to be Scotland's very own yellow brick road.