 The Cowardly Lion - Probably the most
famous lion in popular culture outside of the MGM Film mascot. The
Cowardly Lion was created by Lyman Frank Baum and featured in his
book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1900). As the story goes, the lion was a coward, and afraid of his own
shadow. He traveled to the Emerald Kingdom with the Scarecrow, Tin
Man and Dorothy Gale of Kansas to see if the Wizard of Oz could give him
courage. He battled the Wicked Witch and won the right to drink
courage from the Wizard's green bottle.
In the film adaptation The Wizard of Oz (1939), which has
been rerun on television over the years, actor Bert Lahr portrayed
the cowardly lion and sang his now famous rendition of "If I Were
the King of The For-r-r-r-est!" In the screen version, the lion was
awarded with a badge of courage that the Wizard pinned to his fur.
The Cowardly Lion returned to television in the Saturday morning
cartoon THE WIZARD OF OZ/ABC/1990-91, an animated adaptation of the
classic story.
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Dorothy Meets the Cowardly Lion - Oz
illustration by W. W. Denslow |
Cover of 1923 book "The Cowardly Lion"
by Ruth Plumly Thompson |
The Cowardly Lion with his friends - from the 1990 animated
TV series |
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