How Sesame Street Made The Wicked Witch’s Worst Nightmare Come True
Her greatest fear was scaring kids. Mr. Rogers helped defuse that fear until Sesame Street came along and made it all worse.
Margaret Hamilton loved kids and animals more than anything. She’d been a kindergarten teacher for ten years before the stage called her name.
She spent her life working with animal charities and urging pet owners to spay and neuter their pets, which was pretty radical in the mid 1900s. She was on the local school board and became a significant sponsor of PBS public broadcasting for children for most of her life.
She’d only had a few parts when her agent called and said MGM was interested in her auditioning for The Wizard of Oz. She was so excited. Oh my gosh, she said. I’ve loved that book since I was four years old!
“Which part?” she asked.
“Well. The witch. Of course!” he replied.
Later, she laughed about it. She knew she didn’t have classic “leading lady” looks. She was no Katherine Hepburn, but she figured she could make a decent living playing character parts.
