Rumors and legends abound about The Wizard of Oz, one of the most famous productions in Hollywood history. Let us help you separate fact from fiction with a list of some of the most surprising things your parents never told you about The Wizard of Oz.
11. Over the years, careful viewers have noticed the suicide of a despondent cast member who played one of the Munchkins in the background of the final reprise of “We’re Off To See The Wizard.”
But what they may not known is that at least one cast member can be seen dying horribly in the background of every scene of the film. By the last two weeks of shooting, Judy Garland and Roy Bolger were the only survivors. Roy Bolger had to operate the cameras for the final Kansas sequences.
10. Originally, Shirley Temple played the role of the Wicked Witch of the West, but she was replaced by Margaret Hamilton after she was drafted. During her tenure in the Air Force, Temple flew over a dozen reconnaissance missions and brought down more than forty-seven Axis cargo planes.
9. The movie was based on a series of children’s fantasy books written by Frank L. Baum, most of which were actually thinly-veiled allegories for his strong Objectivist beliefs. The Yellow Brick Road was a tribute to William Jennings Bryan, who was crucified upon a cross of gold outside of a rally for Teddy Roosevelt in 1904.
8. The famous scene in which Dorothy steps out of the farmhouse and into Oz, marking the film’s transition from silent to sound, was a tribute to the Great Sound of 1936, when the entire world transitioned to talking. Previously, all human activity had been entirely silent.
7. After the Scarecrow gets his brain, he states the Pythagorean Theorem incorrectly. Isosceles triangles do not exist.
6. Buddy Ebsen, who was originally cast as the Tin Man, was forced to bow out of the production after it was discovered that he was allergic to Billie Burke. He remained on set for an additional three weeks, however, murdering any extra unlucky enough to wander through the lot alone. He would go on to murder the entire cast of The Beverly Hillbillies in 1967. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
5. Roy Bolger was actually transformed into a scarecrow for the duration of filming. It took over a year for all of his internal organs to return.
4. All of the animals used in the “horse of a different color” scene were poisoned immediately after shooting concluded, to protect MGM’s patented horse-coloring techniques.
3. The now famous song “Over the Rainbow” was almost cut from the movie, because studio executives did not believe that rainbows existed. It was not until 1947 that definitive proof of rainbows was presented by the scientific community.
2. Judy Garland’s ruby slippers in the film actually shot fire when Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch attempts to steal them. The slippers (designed by costuming legend Adrian) shot fire at such regular intervals that Margaret Hamilton eventually had to spend four months in a burn unit.
1. The actress playing the Wicked Witch of the East was actually killed by the house that fell on her during production, as executives felt modern audiences would not be taken in by special effects. She was later awarded a posthumous Oscar. Can you spot the cast member being viciously killed in the background of this scene?
Tags: ayn rand, frank l. baum, little-known facts, movies, triangles do not exist, william jennings bryan, wizard of oz
This reminds me so much of the time that my girlfriend convinced everybody at the party we were at that Liza Minnelli played one of the nuns in The Sound of Music. Debate raged over which one until someone asked her and she glibly said “Oh, you know, the one with all the makeup”.
I look forward to these facts popping up in the TIL section of Reddit for years to come.
-The infamous cut “Jitterbug” scene was later restored by MGM, who discovered that the original footage consisted of nothing but Victor Fleming personally dusting the residents of Munchkinland with de-lousing powder. This was due to a common misconception at the time that Dwarfism was caused by bedbugs.
-Fans of ‘Wicked’ will be delighted to learn how the show-stopping ballad ‘Defying Gravity’ pays homage to its ‘Wizard of Oz’ roots–composer Stephen Schwartz insisted that the song be written with notes of music, in the exact same manner as the iconic ballad, ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’
-Judy Garland’s original make-up for Dorothy involved heavy curls and rouged cheeks. However, director Victor Fleming disliked the look, asking for something more wholesome and fresh-faced. The now-iconic look was achieved by obtaining the fresh face of a Kansas farmgirl for Garland to wear.
-Margaret Hamilton often related humorous anecdotes of children of all ages recoiling in fright after discovering she played the Wicked Witch of the West. These children were correct to be frightened, as Hamilton was later outed as a prolific child-eater.
For maximum authenticity, Jack Haley’s heart was actually removed for the film. It was replaced by an early version of the pacemaker, which at the time of filming consisted of a hamster on a wheel implanted into Haley’s chest. Fourteen hamsters were used during the course of filming.
Early heart-hamsters were colored with Jello Powder, until it was discovered that this made them irresistible to Margaret Hamilton’s voracious appetite.
Upon discovering this, the catering crew made sure to keep a supply of Jello-coated hamsters available for Hamilton at the craft services table, to keep her from eating through the young extras playing the background Munchkins. This effort eventually proved unsuccessful.
Why can I only upvote this comment series once?!
12. Margaret Hamilton is actually a witch. She did not die in 1985. She is only waiting.
I once tried to argue with my brother that water can’t boil twice.
It can, but it shouldn’t. Re-boiling water releases a toxic gas that has been known to kill birds and small lizards.
My older brother once convinced me that there was secretly a true treasure map/code in the third Indiana Jones movie. He went so far as to pause and slo-mo shots of Dr. Jones’s notebook and copy down his own version for future reference. His commitment to the lie was very impressive.
unattractively snort-laughing over here.
Buzzfeed’s lists like this are almost exclusively things everyone already knows or things that are too uninteresting to have bothered knowing
There is actually no clear consensus within the scientific community about the existence of rainbows. Teach the controversy!!!
Things you didn’t know about “Oz, the Great and Powerful”: the movie was so bad I stopped watching it on an airplane when my only other entertainment options were “The Internship” and a bastardized version of “Monster’s Ball” with the Halle Berry nudity edited out and Billy Bob Thornton nudity doubled.
I want so badly to send this to the cast and crew of the community theatre production of “The Wizard of Oz” that I’m stage-managing, except that 95% of them will take it very seriously and not think it’s funny and then I’ll have to be sad about that.
I super love this but it’s RAY Bolger
/wore a home-made “Dorothy” dress for three years of her childhood
Common misconception. Until 1954, the name Ray was spelled R-O-Y.
this explains that old color wheel in our attic marked “RAY G BIV”
It’s also L. Frank Baum. As recompense, I demand that Mallory provide 12 additional facts, one of which will be about the the flying monkeys (I will accept 3 if they are all about the flying monkeys)
Another common misconception. The “L” in his name wandered throughout his life. Some days it was Frank Baum L. Other days it was Frank Baulm. After he died, the L wandered throughout the Midwest for another 14 years.
The “L” in his name stood for Lagavulin, a fine scotch, of which his body was 20% composed. Oziana often incorrectly suggests that his blood was 20% scotch. In fact, one of his limbs was just a shell of hollow chitin filled with Lagavulin. No one knows which limb.
The character of Ron Swanson is thinly veiled tribute to the Wizard of Oz. Lagavulin is his favorite scotch. His mustache is, of course, a tribute to the witch’s broom.
I always thought that the suicide on stage rumor was true. Thanks to this piece inspiring me to look it up on snopes, I now know it was just a large bird (!). And I also now know that Judy Garland spread rumors of “munchkin lechery and drunken misbehavior” when she went on TV interviews. Fascinating.
Re: #8, the scene marks the film’s transition from B&W to color film. It always had sound; the “Over the Rainbow” scene was in B&W, after all.
(Sorry, I’m a nerd, couldn’t help myself. Love the list nonetheless.)
But the rest of the list checks out?
Yep. Everything else is 100% accurate.
oh my god honey
I’m sorry, I thought you were trying to mix bits of actual fact with a heaping helping of nonsense. I missed the point. *sigh* I do that a lot.
I agree. I also thought the sound versus color thing was a mistake – everything else references real characters, scenes and songs and then adds the nonsense for the intended effect. This was the only fact that deviated from the baseline of reality before punching the joke- so it stood out. Great list, though, love it!
I entered this expecting to learn new things about the children’s classic film I sometimes love. Sadly, like so many of these lists, I already knew all this shite.
it’s true it is common knowledge that buddy ebsen is a dangerous still-alive murderer i will try harder
You absolutely should. What about the lesser known fact that Margaret Hamilton played Dorothy in all of the scenes in which you only see Dorothy from behind?
Also, I’m pretty sure that Buddy Ebsen was recently spotted in Newfoundland on a salmon farm, holding the salmon hostage.
That last sentence is the funniest thing I’ve read all week.
Aw, that just made my day!
i find these lists both wonderful and confusing!!!!!!!
For some reason it was the simple, yet beautiful, “Isosceles triangles do not exist” that made me laugh the hardest.
Additional fun facts:
To show off the new technocolor process the silver slippers from the original book were replaced with the now much better known “ruby” slippers. Because of the outbreak of WWII there was a global shortage of rubies, and the studio was forced to improvise with yellow-cake uranium ore painted with the blood of slain cast members. This unfortunate choice led to Judy Garland’s lifelong battle with toenail cancer and contributed significantly to Margaret Hamilton’s burns.
The poppies scene was an early example of ‘method’ acting, using real poppies and the the cast members ingesting black tar before going on set. The snow from that scene was real heroin that was swept up after the shot was completed and reused at the wrap party.
The wizard was kind of a jerk.