Although movies have been a passion for me since childhood, I've always been a reader as well. Books, thank you, not Kindles.

And when I was a boy my mother gave me a boxful of classics she had kept from her own childhood, including six or seven illustrated "Wizard of Oz" novels by L. Frank Baum. Later, I got some of the others from our local library. (Baum wrote 14 between 1900 and 1920, and after his death many more followed by other authors.)

These books quickly became favorites — but I was only vaguely aware of the 1939 movie, which aired on television for the first time when I was 8. As soon as it was announced as an upcoming TV event the movie became "appointment television" for our family, and my parents shared memories of seeing it in theaters when they were kids.

So in November 1956, we gathered around the black-and-white TV console in our living room and watched as "The Wizard of Oz" aired under the "Ford Star Jubilee" banner. It was in black and white on our very small screen and had commercial interruptions. And I was entranced.

The differences between the movie and Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" were evident and we talked about them. But my parents' disappointment was that in black and white it seemed to be lacking something.

I didn't know the difference and it completely won me over.

Three years passed before the film was shown on TV again, around Christmas 1959, after which it became an (almost) annual event for nearly two decades.

Then, when I was in high school, we read that it was going to be shown in a local theater — so my parents packed up my brother and me, and we were off to see the "Wizard." And I discovered my parents had been right ... When the movie kicked into color it knocked my socks off.

The fact that we were seeing it on that 40-foot screen in an auditorium with a crowd of strangers only enhanced the experience. It was a whole new movie.

In the early 1980s, "The Wizard of Oz" was released on VHS for the first time, followed by laser disc and DVD sets and all kinds of reissues. The latest being this week — "The 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition" (Warner, 1939, G, four discs, $69.92).

Included are all the bonus features from previous sets, new featurettes and several other "Oz" films (from 1910, 1914, 1925 and 1933, plus a 1990 TV special starring John Ritter as Baum). There is also a digital copy of the film, and the box contains a watch, a replica of the original budget, a 52-page coffee-table book and a reproduction of the original 1939 campaign book.

A simultaneously released Blu-ray "70th Anniversary" edition ($84.99) includes all of the above, plus the six-hour documentary "MGM: When the Lion Roars." There is also a two-disc DVD version without all the exterior bells and whistles ($24.98).

Each of these sets was cast from a newly remastered print. On the DVD version, "The Wizard of Oz" seems quite dazzling. And Warner Bros. promises the Blu-ray edition is even more eye-popping, if that's possible.

While nothing can top first-time discoveries, there are some classic movies you just can't see too many times. And even on DVD, "The Wizard of Oz" is right up there.

e-mail: hicks@desnews.com