Bert Lahr, eight years before he donned that Cowardly Lion suit, is flanked by a bevy of “pretty blondes” in a publicity still from the 1931 MGM musical Flying High. Lahr had imported himself to Hollywood following a successful career on the New York stage.

Here’s the snipe: “Bert Lahr likes being ‘taken for a ride,’ if the job is done by pretty blondes. The charmers shown are all in ‘Flying High,’ Lahr’s first talkie, for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which Charles Reisner is directing.”