The harsh reality behind America’s most well-known movie.
We always hear about the horrors of Hollywood and secrets behind the film industry. It isn’t a recent occurrence for people in the film industry to have reckless behavior or for bad incidents to fly under the radar. The Wizard of Oz is one of the most iconic films in cinema, being the most single watched film of all time. Many people know the characters in The Wizard of Oz but don’t know the people behind these characters.
During the five months of filming, these people were subject to some of the most horrendous conditions in the history of the American film industry. When it was all done not a single character who traveled down the yellow brick road left the land of Oz undamaged, not to say that things were much better back in Kansas during the 1930s.
While most of Americans were struggling during the Great Depression, the film industry was booming, this was because Americans found comfort in the movies as a distraction. During this time, it was not uncommon for half of all Americans to go to the cinema weekly. The top eight studios-controlled ninety-five percent of American cinema as Hollywood was in its golden age. MGM, the one we all know by its roaring lion, was the largest studio with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood accounting for one-third of the nominees for best picture. MGM’s dominance was largely due to the great leadership of its chief executive Louis B. Mayer.
Although Louis B. Meyer was the highest paid man in America during 1937, the year was also the release of another one of the most groundbreaking films ever made and one of the most successful for its time to not come from the MGM studios. That year Walt Disney would release his first animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and by the next year it became the highest grossing film the world had seen. Because of its record-breaking success, MGM was inspired to create a successful fantasy film of their own.
In 1938, the studio purchased the rights to the well-known children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by Frank Braum. From here they went on to produce the movie. Unlike Snow White, the film was live action so trying to turn reality into fantasy was a challenge. What really brought the film to life was the iconic scene of Dorothy waking up in the Land of Oz, where the film transitioned from black and white to color.
The coloring method used called technicolor needed heavy exposure to light, because of this, the temperature on stage often went past one-hundred degrees Fahrenheit. People frequently had to be carried off stage after fainting and the set lighting was so bright that some actors claimed they suffered permanent vision damage. These actors came to work six days a week at 4 a.m. and didn’t leave until 7 p.m. Much of their workday was dedicated to the application of their makeup and costumes. The recognizable makeup was done by the design of makeup artist Jack Dawn. Although these costumes looked great, the conditions were far from that.
Every morning the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) would have to get a latex and plastic mask painfully glued to his face for an hour. This would cover his pores, making him physically unable to sweat while in costume, which I can’t even imagine how that must have felt to wear for fifteen hours a day. Unfortunately for Bolger, after filming he was left with permanent grooves around his mouth and chin. Sadly, this wasn’t nearly as bad compared to other actors.
The Tin man was originally played by Buddy Ebsen, who only lasted nine days before he was hospitalized from a severe reaction to the metallic makeup, which was made of aluminum powder, which would eventually coat the inside of his lungs nearly suffocating him. He then had to be bedridden under an oxygen tent in the hospital. The studio didn’t show an ounce of sympathy. Producer Mervyn LeRoy would call the hospital multiple times while very angry, demanding that Ebsen come back to the set. Ebsen not only got fired, but he was left with chronic bronchitis. MGM continued filming by replacing Ebsen with Jack Haley. Luckily, Haley did not have the same reaction that Ebsen had from the makeup, but he still got a severe eye infection that made him not able to work for days. Because of the suit he was wearing, he was also not able to sit down or lie down during filming.
Although the Tin Man suit seemed uncomfortable, it seemed preferable compared to the Cowardly Lion costume. The costume that Bert Lahr wore consisted of a sixty-pound real lion hide, not to mention extra padding. Some estimate that the entire costume weighed roughly one-hundred pounds. Lahr would become drenched in sweat after only minutes after putting it on. He also wore a mask covering his face that made him unable to fully open his mouth, this forced him to need a stray to consume meals.
The worst costume related accident during the filming happened to Margaret Hamiliton who played the Wicked Witch of the West. To make Hamilitons skin green, makeup artists would use copper paint, which is toxic when ingested. Back then they knew this already, but the studio went with it anyways. The copper paint was applied to her entire face and hands every day. This tinted her skin green for months after filming. She was also unable to touch anything without staining it and she needed help to do even the smallest things.
The makeup incident was nothing compared to what happened during the scene of departing munchkin land. Hamilton would exit the scene in a fiery cloud of smoke. The first take was perfect, but the director wanted a few more shots. On the fourth take the pyrotechnics were ignited too early, which caused Hamilton to be engulfed in flames. She suffered second degree burns on the entire right side of her face. The skin on her right hand was entirely scalded off. Before she could even get medical attention, she had to have the copper makeup removed from her burned skin using rubbing alcohol. She then had to spend six weeks in the hospital before returning to set where her very first scene had to be the sky writing scene, another scene involving pyrotechnics.
Hamiliton refused to be near fire again, so they used a stunt double, Betty Danko, instead. During the scene, the smoke pipe underneath the broomstick exploded and Danko was violently flung. The explosion was caused by the special effects crew coating the pipe with asbestos, another toxic substance, which people thought was safe at the time. Asbestos was also used in the Scarecrow suit and the falling snow in the poppy field scene. Dankos was hospitalized for eleven days with internal damage and a two-inch deep gash on her leg that would never fully heal, not only this but Danko was only ever paid $800 on set. Later, Hamilton went on to develop Alzheimer’s which is linked to copper poisoning.
Considering all the suffering the cast endured, perhaps no one suffered a worse fate than the star of the film, Judy Garland. Garland was continually molested by male actors playing munchkins, according to her ex-husband. Because the character Dorothy was seen as a prepubescent girl, the then seventeen-year-old Garland had to constantly wear a tight corset to hide her curves. She was also put on a strict diet that wouldn’t give her enough energy to properly function through the long filming days. To compensate, the studio kept her on a steady intake of amphetamines to keep her working. Garland later said she would only sleep four hours every three days sometimes.
By the end of filming, Garland was addicted to drugs which continued until the end of her life. It didn’t help that her time as a child star resulted in deep psychological issues involving her self-esteem. She constantly reached for perfection her entire life never feeling good enough despite her success. This feeling of emptiness and not knowing who you are is a common theme among child stars according to psychologists. There exists a tragic irony between Judy Garland and Dorothy, a character who wanted nothing more than to find happiness and comfort in an erratic world. Unlike Dorothy however, Garland didn’t have a happy ending. On June 22, 1969, Garland was found dead from an overdose on her bathroom floor at only forty-seven years old. In the years leading up to her death, her erratic downfall, the media couldn’t process how she would be anyone other than the innocent farm girl from Kansas.
Hollywood has always had the abilities to make fantasy and imagination come to life, but the magic of creating fantasies comes with very real consequences. It’s almost easy for the studios to forget that it’s real-life people they’re affecting and end up treating them as puppets. It’s safe to say that with the power industries held if any one of these people spoke up they’d be hushed and blacklisted from the industry. It’s hard to say much has changed as actors still face struggles in their careers by the people in charge. The history of Hollywood has had several talented people guilty of terrible things, and very rarely do we ever truly get to know what happens behind the big green curtain. Knowing every scandal that is revealed, we can only imagine what remains in the dark. Although what happened in the Wizard of Oz was told, we can only imagine all the stories in smaller productions that weren’t. In 1939, MGM released forty-one films in total, that’s a new movie once every nine days on average. It’s sad to see all the suffering and sacrifice what was made all for the purpose of a two hour film. Sorry if I ruined this movie for you.
