Throughout Hollywood history, there have only been a handful of films that have truly gone on to be considered all-time classics. If there is one film that everyone agrees has to be included on that list, it is The Wizard of Oz. As a result of the movie’s longevity, The Wizard of Oz remains relevant enough that it is set to be remade in the coming years. Of course, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that some The Wizard of Oz fans are dreading the remake fearing it will tarnish the original film’s legacy.
Since almost everyone agrees that The Wizard of Oz is a masterpiece, most of the people who starred in the film were happy to be associated with it. However, that doesn’t mean that the people who worked on The Wizard of Oz had a fun time on set. In fact, the exact opposite is true since behind the scene stories about The Wizard of Oz make it seem like the film’s production was an absolute nightmare.
Innocent Mistakes During The Wizard Of Oz’s Production That Had Serious Consequences
As anyone who has seen The Wizard of Oz will already know, the movie tells a story of good versus evil. After all, Dorothy Gale and her friends represent everything sweet and innocent in the world while The Wicked Witch of the West is cartoonishly evil. In real life, however, things rarely are so simple. With that in mind, it makes sense that some of the very negative things that happened during the production of The Wizard of Oz happened due to the kind of on-set accident that is far too common.
Unfortunately for the people in charge of The Wizard of Oz’s costumes and make-up, they made some decisions that had some unforeseen negative consequences for the film’s stars. For example, when they made the Cowardly Lion’s costume, they made it out of real lion fur and skin which meant actor Bert Lahr quickly overheated during filming. Worse yet, when original Tin Man actor Buddy Ebsen had his skin painted to look like his character, he had a severe allergic reaction that was so bad that he thought he was dying. Additionally, Scarecrow actor Ray Bolger said his makeup left his face scarred. Finally, the Wicked Witch of the West’s makeup was so toxic that Margeret Hamilton had to get by on a liquid diet on set for fear of it rubbing off on any food she consumed.
On two separate occasions, mechanical errors led to serious injuries on the set of The Wizard of Oz. First off, when the Wicked Witch of the West stunt double Betty Danko was filming a scene, the broomstick she was on exploded launching her into the air and causing a two-inch gash to her leg. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Wicked Witch of the West actor Margaret Hamilton suffered burns to her face and skin during a scene where her character disappeared in the fire. The reason for the accident is that the actor was supposed to escape harm by disappearing through a trap door but the fireball was released before Hamilton could exit. Hamilton’s burns were so severe she took three months to recover.
Of all of the innocent mistakes that happened during The Wizard of Oz’s production, the most disturbing has to be the fact that the film’s stars were exposed to a lethal substance. By the time The Wizard of Oz was produced, snow machines hadn’t been invented yet. As a result, when film productions needed snow on demand, they would use asbestos since it looked white and fluffy on camera. At that time, nobody knew how toxic asbestos is so there was no malice behind the decision to drop it on The Wizard of Oz’s stars during a memorable scene. To this day, there is no way to know if the asbestos affected Oz actors Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, or Bert Lahr’s health.
Much More Egregious Behavior Took Place On The Wizard Of Oz’s Set
Given all of the things that innocently went wrong behind the scenes of The Wizard of Oz, you’d think that everyone involved in making the film would do their best to make things nice otherwise. Sadly, however, that simply wasn’t the case.
Unfortunately for her, most of the intentionally nasty things that happened on the set of The Wizard of Oz were directed at Judy Garland. For example, MGM executives decided that Garland needed to lose weight so they viciously insulted her with studio head Louis B. Mayer calling Judy “a fat little pig with pigtails”. Nobody should have to put up with treatment like that. On top of that, Garland was forced to go on a strict chicken soup, black coffee and cigarettes diet and she was instructed to take “pep pills” that were amphetamines.
During the filming of The Wizard of Oz, many of the actors who played the munchkins infamously drank a lot and had to be bailed out of jail repeatedly. Unfortunately for Judy Garland, her ex-husband claims that some of the munchkin actors also made her “life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress”. In addition to being left to dodge some of her co-stars, when Garland couldn’t stop ruining takes by laughing one day, The Wizard of Oz’s director Viktor Fleming responded by slapping her in the face.
