From Oz to E.T.

by Charles Ziarko

Published 12 June 1997
As the career of Worsley Senior languished amid studio politics, young Wally began his own odyssey through the Hollywood legacy of the twentieth century, spending almost two decades at MGM with such actors as Greta Garbo, Jeanette MacDonald and Gene Kelly, on pictures like The Wizard of Oz and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. Wally left during the turbulent 1950s and went to New York City, Singapore, and Europe. When he returned to Hollywood in 1960, he spent another two decades in the new, television-dominated Hollywood. Here, he worked for Universal City Studios, the MGM of the television age. His credits in later life include such Universal hits as Earthquake, Coal Miner's Daughter and Steven Spielberg's E.T. He also worked on Deliverance at Warner Brothers and Shogun at Paramount. When Wally died in 1991, four days short of his 83rd birthday, his widow, Sue Dwiggins Worsley, completed the autobiography he had begun to assemble from his voluminous business diaries. As edited by Charles Ziarko, a long time friend and co-worker, this chronicle captures a fascinating picture of Hollywood at work. Contains 16 pages of black and white photographs.