The hot property

I put in a reservation for The Wizard of Oz from the library in time for us to watch it at Christmastime.

Three weeks ago, my reservation finally came in.

Three weeks later, I have to return it unwatched because there are two more pending reservations for it.

That’s a lot of interest in a movie that turns 80 years old this year.

I don’t know whether it’s because the library has too few copies of it, or because indeed people are seeing the 80^th anniversary as an occasion to revisit the movie and show their kids, but this movie is just a damn hot property in the Melbourne Public Library system. We’re showing our kids, but the 80^th has nothing to do with it, given that I first tried to reserve it last year. It’s a BluRay, but I figure that probably has little effect on its popularity.

Now, I strongly suspect my attempt to reserve it was not delayed because there were 20 people ahead of me on the reservation list – you can check that and I believe it was four or five at the most – but rather because somebody lost it behind their couch. I believe this copy, possibly the only copy, of The Wizard of Oz was caught in some kind of purgatory that went beyond the normal rental-renewal-reservation cycle. It had to be. And the person who lost it would have owed the library tens of dollars upon returning it, though among the other saintly things the Melbourne libraries do is randomly wave off fees now and again, especially if they become excessively large.

The movie is due on Friday, and that means I won’t have another Sunday night – the time we traditionally watch movies as a family – before it’s due. So, back to my spot in the queue, to starting that six-month cycle all over again.

And then I thought: Why not just return it late? They will probably wave off the fee anyway.

And if they don’t, well, 35 cents will have been a worthy cost to show my kids one of the all-time family classics.

Why it’s so popular – I mean, so much more popular than all the other popular cinematic classics – I may never know. You’d think it would be pretty available elsewhere. I only hope it’s as popular with my kids on Sunday as it seems to be with the citizens of Melbourne at large.