ABSTRACT
One of the many memorable images in the film The Wizard of Oz is the horse whose coat changed from green to pink, to blue, to yellow.… The Wizard countered Dorothy’s surprise by explaining: “That’s a horse of a different color!” As was only to be expected, however, his explanation was bogus. Like the wizardly activities in the Palace, this equine inhabitant of the Emerald City was something of a cheat. Normally (that is, outside the Land of Oz), “a horse of a different color” distinguishes one thing from another, very different, thing—chalk and cheese, perhaps. But the pretty creature in the film was visibly the same horse, changing color as it trotted along. Moreover, the change was not one of essence but of accident: an effect of the lighting.
