We reveal ‘Wizard of Oz’ scandals and shockers amid the success of Wicked
Find out how the cast suffered during the filming of the 1939 classic ‘The Wizard of Oz’.
December 9, 2024, published at 8:30 PM ET
Child star Shirley Temple was the first choice to play and sing Dorothy Somewhere above the rainbow in the classic film The Wizard of Oz.
RadarOnline.com can reveal that the original actress tapped to play the iconic role is just one of many shocking secrets about the beloved 1939 film.
Authors Jay Scarfone and William Stillman’s book, The Wizard of Oz, the official 75th anniversary companionblows the lid on the shocking behind-the-scenes scandals, including torture, poisoning and torment of the cast.
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The cast of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ suffered immensely to bring the classic book to life on the big screen.
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Besides Temple, legendary child-hater WC Fields was the original choice to play the wizard, The Wicked Witch of the West would have been hyper-sexualized – and ToTo would have been a man in a dog costume.
It turns out that dangerous costumes could have killed much of the cast, including future TV superstar Buddy Ebsen, who was originally tapped to play the Tin Man but had to be replaced after suffering a near-fatal poisoning from the aluminum power . used for his makeup.
After deciding to adapt L. Frank Baum’s best-selling 1900 book, MGM desperately wanted to cast Temple, but she was under contract with 20th Century Fox, which had other plans for her.
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Judy Garland said MGM bosses tortured her with makeup to make her look as much like Shirley Temple as possible.
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So the studio settled for Judy Garland, who initially did not want the role either. At 17, she was on the hunt for more advanced roles and didn’t want to play a child.
But she changed her mind after learning that the Technicolor film had an all-star cast of vaudevillian actors and songs written to showcase her singing talents. She said, “I knew my entire future depended on my ability to play Dorothy convincingly.”
It was physical torture for Garland, who said Shirley-smitten MGM bosses “tried to make me look as much like Shirley as possible.”
Garland continued: “I was fat, had crooked teeth, straight black hair and the wrong kind of nose. They made me wear a corset and a wig, capped my teeth and stuffed horrible things up my nose to make it look like Shirley’s. That photo almost killed me.”
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Dorothy’s iconic slippers were silver in the book, but studio execs chose to make them ruby red for the Technicolor process.
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Garland was also instructed to lose 12 pounds and the studio assigned her a personal trainer and body double: Bobbie Koshay, the 1928 Olympic swimmer.
In Baum’s book, Dorothy’s slippers were silver and jingled. The studio decided that the shoes should be ruby red and sparkling to contrast the Yellow Brick Road and take advantage of the new Technicolor process. Garland’s feet were not used for close-ups. She had a stand-in.
As a youngster, Garland was only allowed to work four hours a day and Koshay appeared in all shots when Garland’s face was not visible.
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Ray Bolger said his face was so hot in the Scarecrow costume that it felt like “it’s going to explode.”
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Actor and dancer Ray Bolger also suffered in his Scarecrow costume.
He revealed: “My face gets so hot it looks like it’s going to explode.
“I had no ears. There were bunches of straw in their places… I couldn’t hear anything – and my own voice sounded like someone talking in a big, empty hall.”
The Tin Man had the worst of them all. Jack Haley took over the role when Ebsen nearly died from inhaling the toxic aluminum powder used as makeup to turn his face silver. The deadly stuff was also applied to Haley, who had makeup men wipe away all the perspiration to prevent the aluminum from getting into his eyes.
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His outfit was so cumbersome that he couldn’t sit down in it – and in all the close-ups, Haley took off his torturous pants.
Bert Lahr had few physical problems playing the Cowardly Lion, but the role ruined his career. He said: “Na The Wizard of Oz, I was typecast as a lion and there aren’t that many parts to a lion.”
At first, the evil witch was sneaky and glamorous, played by actress Gale Sondergaard. But she didn’t like the image it projected and she fell away. Margaret Hamilton was hired in her place – and the witch turned out to be downright scary.
The witch’s 28 slaves, the Winkies, wore costumes made of felt so heavy that they nearly died of heatstroke as they worked under the heavy arc lights. The Winged Monkeys were small men who wore suits of hair, monkey-like facial devices, and motorized wings to make them fly in the air. They too almost had heat stroke.
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The Wicked Witch of the West was originally supposed to be sexy and glamorous.
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Meanwhile, the 124 people playing the Munchkins faced their own major problems, as chairs, dressing tables and bathroom fixtures were all too tall for them and had to be reconfigured. One crew member, dubbed “the Midget Elevator”, was hired for the sole purpose of picking up the Munchkins and dropping them off at designated spots.
After Fields was ruled out of playing the Wizard, Frank Morgan was tapped for the role. He had a portable cabinet filled with liquor and “snorted a little bit,” Garland said.
Producer Mervyn LeRoy added, “To make a movie like The Wizard of Oz, everyone had to be a little drunk on imagination.”
