When The Wizard of Oz came out, Ariana Grande’s grandmother was thirteen years old! Eighty-five years later, she saw her granddaughter as Glinda
‘Wicked’ was recently shown in theaters by Ariana Grande, her boyfriend Ethan Slater, and Ariana’s family to her grandma Marjorie, who turned 99 in October.
Marjorie Grande, Ariana Grande’s grandma, has literally seen every film set in the land of Oz.
In Wicked, Ariana plays the role of Glinda, the well-known «good witch» who was first portrayed on screen in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. She recently posted a video and several pictures to Instagram from her hometown of Boca Raton, Florida, where she grew up, along with her family, including Marjorie.
As the family clasped hands throughout Glinda’s memorable song, «Popular,» the film captured her granny grinning.
When The Wizard of Oz debuted in theaters in August 1939, Marjorie was just 13 years old. She turned 99 in October, and Ariana’s brother Frankie sent a birthday tribute to her on Instagram on October 13. The Grande family grandmother has thus experienced every on-screen version of Glinda, culminating in her own granddaughter costarring with Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba in Wicked.
The Wizard of Oz character Glinda was played by Billie Burke, who passed away in 1970 at the age of 85. Between the debut of The Wizard of Oz and the release of Wicked, more than a dozen adaptations of Frank L. Baum’s Oz novels were filmed, making Grande one of many performers to play the legendary witch on screen, whether large or tiny.
