MARY BRASWELL: Looking back at ‘The Wizard of Oz’

Each week Albany Herald researcher Mary Braswell looks for interesting events, places and people from the past. You can contact her at (229) 888-9371 or [email protected].

It was 60 years ago this week that “The Wizard of Oz” first aired on television. Here is a look at all things “Oz.”

The Basics

— “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is a children’s book written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow originally published on May 17, 1900.

— Under the name “The Wizard of Oz,” a popular Broadway musical was created from the story in 1902. In 1939, the film version of the story was released.

— “The Wizard of Oz” was a modest success in theaters yet was chosen as the first Hollywood film to be shown uncut in one evening on the entire CBS television network.

— CBS paid MGM $225,000 for the rights to broadcast “The Wizard of Oz” on its entire network.

— On Saturday, Nov. 3, 1956, the film was shown as the last program on the Ford Star Jubilee program, which by that time had been canceled. An estimated 44 million people watched the show.

— The main characters were Dorothy (Judy Garland), Professor Marvel/the Wizard of Oz/the Gatekeeper/the Carriage Driver and the Guard (Frank Morgan), the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), the Tin Man (Jack Haley), Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (Billie Burke), Miss Gulch/the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) and Toto (Terry).

— Dorothy and Toto were blown away in a tornado (a cyclone in the book), and the film follows her adventures during her quest to return home to Kansas.

All things “Oz”

— Garland had to wear a corset-like device to appear younger and flat-chested. She was 16 at the time, playing a character several years younger.

— The scarecrow’s face makeup consisted, in part, of a rubber prosthetic with a woven pattern to suggest burlap. Ray Bolger had a pattern on his face that took more than a year to finally disappear after the film was completed.

— The costume for the Cowardly Lion was made from real lion skin and weighed 90 pounds. Bert Lahr spent each day sweating profusely, completely soaking the suit by day’s end. It was the job of two people to spend the night drying the costume for the next day’s filming.

— Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Scarecrow but switched to the Tin Man so Bolger could have the role. The makeup for the Tin Man contained aluminum dust, which ended up coating Ebsen’s lungs and, unable to breath, he was rushed to the hospital and replaced by Jack Haley. The makeup was changed, making it safe. It is Ebsen’s voice that is heard in all the songs, not Haley’s.

— While not a flop nor a grand success in its first U.S. run, the film did exceptionally well in the initial 1939-40 release in Great Britain, Scandinavia, Mexico, Brazil and Australia.

— The shot of Dorothy’s house falling from the sky was actually a miniature house being dropped on a sky painting on the stage floor.The film was then reversed to make the house appear to fall toward the camera.

— Dorothy’s ruby slippers were silver in the book and started out that color on screen. The crew soon realized that the new Technicolor would benefit from a color change. The size 5 shoes hurt Garland’s feet and were only worn in scenes where her feet would show.

— Bert Lahr was paid $2,500 per week, and he had his contract written to guarantee a minimum of five weeks of work. As it turned out, the shoot ended up lasting 26 weeks. Haley and Bolger made closer to $3,000 per week. Garland was paid $500 per week.

— The Munchkins were played by the Singer Midgets, named so because of their manager, Leo Singer. The 124 little people, who ranged in height from 2-foot-3 to 4-foot-8, were each paid $100 a week. Many of them stayed in the United States to escape the Nazis.

— Terry, a female Cairn terrier, earned $125 per week. After the movie, Terry’s name was permanently changed to Toto. Over her lifetime, she appeared in 17 movies.

— Before she became an actress, Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch) once worked as a kindergarten teacher. She was known to quip that she hoped newspapers would someday print the words “Ding, dong, the witch is dead!” above her death notice. After she passed away in 1985, some newspapers followed through on her request and used that as the headline of her obituary.

— Only two shots, the clouds in the opening and end credits, were filmed outside. The rest was filmed on 65 sets constructed over six sound stages in Culver City, Calif.

— In the film, the Witch wrote “Surrender Dorothy” with her broom in the sky. It was actually written by a production designer with a hypodermic needle filled with dye in a tank of cloudy water. He had to write the words backwards in order to be filmed.

— The tears shed by the Tin Man were chocolate syrup.

— Four (some say five) sets of slippers were used in the film, one pair of which was stolen from a museum in Minnesota in 2005. They were insured for $1 million. The Smithsonian exhibit housing Dorothy’s slippers, which are mismatched, is so popular, the carpet in front of the display has been replaced numerous times due to wear and tear.

— The snow in the poppy scene was made of 100 percent industrial-grade asbestos, even though the health hazards of the material had been known for several years.

— “Over the Rainbow” was nearly cut from the film. MGM thought it made the Kansas scene too long. A reprise was made for Dorothy to sing while imprisoned in the Witch’s castle.

QUIK QUIZ answer: d) 72 percent