Special effects secrets from the Wizard of Oz
1939 wasn't a great year for special effects.
#1 Margaret Hamilton's Makeup
Margaret Hamilton's makeup was toxic. To keep from accidentally ingesting it, she had to stick to a liquid diet for the whole filming of the movie. That's not really surprising. Anything that green can't be good for you. Still, that's a long time to go without food. The movie took between 5 to 6 months to shoot. Shoots lasted most of the day. That's commitment. At least her character was supposed to be grumpy.
#2 The Wizard Had Many Roles
Frank Morgan -- the character who played the Wizard of Oz -- played a number of other roles. He shows up again on screen as Professor Marvel, the Gatekeeper, the cab driver for the "horse of a different color" and one of the Wizard's guards. That's a lot of characters. Why? Executives wanted to attract a big star to the role. So they created many parts for the Wizard's character to give him more screen time. Only, no big stars were willing to star in it. So they got Frank Morgan. And now he rivals Eddie Murphy for most characters ever played in one movie.
#3 This is Jack Haley. He Wasn't the Original Tin Man
The original Tin Man was played by Ray Bolger. Jack Haley replaced him when Bolger was rushed to the hospital after an allergic reaction to the makeup. That was a tough break for Bolger who really wanted to play the Tin Man. And poor Jack Haley had no idea why Bolger had to quit the role. The producers never told him. Haley survived though. They switched the aluminum powder allergen in his makeup with aluminum paste. And buddy sort of got to play the tin man -- it's his vocals you hear when they sing "We're off to See the Wizard".
#4 That's Not the Pythagorean Theorem
When Scarecrow gets a brain he recites The Pythagorean Theorem. But it's wrong -- Ray Bolger couldn't get it right after numerous takes so they just used the best one. They thought no one would notice. But we did. What Scarecrow says is "The sum of the square roots of any 2 sides of an isoceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side." That's not right. The Pythagorean Theorem deals with right triangles, not isosceles. And the square of it's two legs is equal to the square of the length of the hypotenuse. Someone should tell Scarecrow that his Doctorate of Thinkology is fake.
#5 Special Effects Hiccups
1939 wasn't a great year for special effects. You can totally see the trap door opening. Silly 1939. They had no idea we'd one day invent gifs. And have the time to analyze old movies. But all of that analysis can backfire. Bet you can't watch this movie again without looking for the special effects holes. There are quite a few of those. Try not to let them ruin the magic of the movie for you.
#6 It's A Tangled Web
A few complicated relationships evolved from the Wizard of Oz set. Liza Minneli is Judy Garland's daughter and she was married to Jack Haley Jr, the son of the actor who played the Tin Man. Liza Minneli wasn't even born when they were filming the movie. They got married later in 1974. They didn't stay married for long. The couple broke up in 1978. They cited "irreconcilable differences", Liza went on to get married two more times. Jack never got married again.
#7 The Cowardly Lion
They were originally going to cast Jackie the MGM (real) Lion as The Cowardly Lion. His lines would have been dubbed in by an actor. Luckily they found a human being for the part. Bert Lahr eventually played the cowardly lion. Think this sad-looking lion could have pulled off that much stage presence? Jackie the Lion went on to star in over 100 movies in his career.
#8 The Wicked Witch Was Too Wicked
Margaret Hamilton was so good as the wicked witch, she was declared to be too scary. They cut or heavily edited most of her scenes to keep children from wetting themselves. Anyone who had the pants scared off by her as a kid supports that decision. It was all fun and games until she poofed onto the screen. We heard that cackle in our sleep. As is she was almost too scary for kids. Although, we wish there were a few of those scenes saved from the cutting room floor. We could do without scarier flying monkeys though.
#9 Makeup Trouble
Ray Bolger's makeup left a permanent impression. The lines from the prosthetic's took more than a year to go away. Ray Bolger didn't star in another movie until years later and that one didn't require any makeup. But we're still not sure how permanent prosthetic marks happen. What kind of glue were they using? Did they staple them to his face? Scarecrow's costume wasn't even that elaborate. Things sure were dangerous on the special effects frontier.
#10 Slap for Slap
Judy Garland couldn't stop giggling in this scene where she had to slap the Cowardly Lion. The director eventually took her aside and slapped her, then she nailed it in one take. You can see her giggling in this gif. Looks like she's trying to rein it in. But she just couldn't. Times were certainly different back then. Do you think anyone's ever slapped Jennifer Lawrence on set? Probably not. But it sounds like an effective way to combat the giggles.
#11 Apple Juice and Fire
That's not fire or sparks coming out of Dorothy's shoes: it's apple juice. They squirted it out of her shoes and sped it up to make it look like fire. That's really pretty ingenious when you think about it. We could think of a lot of ways to make low-tech special effects fire bu apple juice would not be one of those. But it turned out pretty well, right? Those guys were clever. They could work on our 30's-era movie set any day. If they're still around, that is.
That's not fire or sparks coming out of Dorothy's shoes: it's apple juice. They squirted it out of her shoes and sped it up to make it look like fire. That's really pretty ingenious when you think about it. We could think of a lot of ways to make low-tech special effects fire bu apple juice would not be one of those. But it turned out pretty well, right? Those guys were clever. They could work on our 30's-era movie set any day. If they're still around, that is.
#12 It's One of the Most Quotable Movies
#13 Monkey Trouble
The special effects on set were sometimes dangerous. Several of the actors playing Winged Monkeys were hurt when the piano wire holding them up snapped. "Several" seems like quite a lot. But it's apparently one less than it takes to put Winged Monkey actors on strike. How many actors do you have to see fall from the ceiling before you hand in your furry costume? It's a little weird that they don't have an exact number. We think we'd remember exactly how many actors were maimed on a set. But that's just us. Maybe MGM injures so many extras on any given day that it's hard to keep count.
#14 The Munchkins' Tough Break
Each one of The Munchkins got $50 per day. The dog that played Toto got $125 per day.
That's rough. That's less than half the salary of an actor who can't even talk. He didn't even walk much. Dorothy carried him half the time.
But The Munchkins finally got their due. In 2007, they were collectively awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Unfortunately, only seven were still alive and well enough to attend.
#15 A Sequel
It's called Return to Oz. It was filmed by Disney in 1985. It didn't do well in the box office, but it has since become a cult classic. That means that only a handful of people watched it. But they watched it over and over again. The movie stars Fairuza Balk as adorable little-girl Dorothy. This time Dorothy is an escapee from a mental institution and not a wide-eyed farm girl. She has to go back and defeat the Nome King who wants to destroy Oz because...he's just a bad dude. Or something.
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