History Trivia / TheWizardofOz

* {{Corpsing}}: In the scene where the Lion is introduced, Dorothy covers her face with Toto. This is because Judy Garland could not contain her giggling while the scene was filmed. Director Victor Fleming took her aside and slapped her. He then told her to "go in there and work" and that just about did the trick.

** There was the original version of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YH1livd5T8 If I Only Had a Heart]]", sung by Creator/BuddyEbsen. [[TheOtherMarty He was originally cast as the Tin Man, and Ray Bolger was to play the Scarecrow, but they both switched roles due to Bolger being a dancer and felt that his footwork would not be as good if he was in a tin suit. Ebsen was allergic to the makeup he had to wear, so he had to be replaced.]] The audio has survived, as well as photos of Ebsen in his Tin Man Costume. This too was used as an extra on some home video releases such as the 50th anniversary VHS.

** There was the original version of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YH1livd5T8 If I Only Had a Heart]]", sung by Creator/BuddyEbsen. [[TheOtherMarty He was originally cast as the Tin Man, but he was allergic to the makeup he had to wear, so he had to be replaced.]] The audio has survived, as well as photos of Ebsen in his Tin Man Costume. This too was used as an extra on some home video releases such as the 50th anniversary VHS.

** A keen-eyed viewer may notice that the door being cut by the Tin Man's axe is ''not'' the door the four friends exit in the next scene. Originally, Dorothy's friends were to cut their way into a room, following the sound of familiar singing -- only for the trio to discover that they had been duped by the Wicked Witch. Planning to kill Dorothy, she roots the three to the spot, then constructs an illusory rainbow bridge between that spot and Dorothy's prison, going so far as to test it with one of her Winkie guards. The bridge starts out solid, but the center fades out, and, well, GravityIsAHarshMistress. She then magically forces Dorothy's friends to call out to her, luring Dorothy onto the bridge -- only to have the ruby slippers flare to life and carry Dorothy safely across! Sadly, as good as this scene sounds, the optical methods of the day weren't up to the rainbow bridge, so everything between cutting open the door and running away was, er, axed. However, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUFfj3eioIw/ this]] video uploaded onto YouTube in 2019 gives us a taste as to what the scene would have looked like.

** A keen-eyed viewer may notice that the door being cut by the Tin Man's axe is ''not'' the door the four friends exit in the next scene. Originally, Dorothy's friends were to cut their way into a room, following the sound of familiar singing -- only for the trio to discover that they had been duped by the Wicked Witch. Planning to kill Dorothy, she roots the three to the spot, then constructs an illusory rainbow bridge between that spot and Dorothy's prison, going so far as to test it with one of her Winkie guards. The bridge starts out solid, but the center fades out, and, well, GravityIsAHarshMistress. She then magically forces Dorothy's friends to call out to her, luring Dorothy onto the bridge -- only to have the ruby slippers flare to life and carry Dorothy safely across! Sadly, as good as this scene sounds, the optical methods of the day weren't up to the rainbow bridge, so everything between cutting open the door and running away was, er, axed. However, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUFfj3eioIw|this]] video uploaded onto YouTube in 2019 gives us a taste as to what the scene would have looked like.

** There was one in Kansas with Hickory showing off his wind machine to Dorothy, telling her that it was a machine with a "real heart," providing a bit of extra foreshadowing for his role as the Tin Man. The script survives, but no footage does.

** A keen-eyed viewer may notice that the door being cut by the Tin Man's axe is ''not'' the door the four friends exit in the next scene. Originally, Dorothy's friends were to cut their way into a room, following the sound of familiar singing -- only for the trio to discover that they had been duped by the Wicked Witch. Planning to kill Dorothy, she roots the three to the spot, then constructs an illusory rainbow bridge between that spot and Dorothy's prison, going so far as to test it with one of her Winkie guards. The bridge starts out solid, but the center fades out, and, well, GravityIsAHarshMistress. She then magically forces Dorothy's friends to call out to her, luring Dorothy onto the bridge -- only to have the ruby slippers flare to life and carry Dorothy safely across! Sadly, as good as this scene sounds, the optical methods of the day weren't up to the rainbow bridge, so everything between cutting open the door and running away was, er, axed.

* {{Corpsing}}: In the scene where the Lion is introduced, Dorothy covers her face with Toto. This is because Judy Garland could not contain her giggling while the scene was filmed. Director Victor Fleming took her aside and slapped her. He then sent her to the dressing room because she wouldn't stop laughing.

** Creator/MargaretHamilton suffered serious burns beneath her copper-based face paint after being too close to the pyrotechnics that accompanied the Wicked Witch of the West's departure from Munchkinland.

** The "Jitterbug" dance number. Cut for pacing, and out of fear that the song and dance would quickly date the film (The "Jitterbug" being a popular dance craze in the late 1930s/early 1940s). The song survives, but the actual footage does not, outside of 16mm home movie recordings of some dance rehearsals. Part of it still exists in the film, with the Witch telling the Flying Monkeys that she sent an insect ahead to slow Dorothy and her friends down.

** A keen-eyed viewer may notice that the door being cut by the Tin Man's axe is ''not'' the door the four friends exit in the next scene. Originally, Dorothy's friends were to cut their way into a room, following the sound of familiar singing -- only to have been duped by the Wicked Witch. Planning to kill Dorothy, she roots the three to the spot, then constructs an illusory rainbow bridge between that spot and Dorothy's prison, going so far as to test it with one of her Winkie guards. The bridge starts out solid, but the center fades out, and, well, GravityIsAHarshMistress. She then magically forces Dorothy's friends to call out to her, luring Dorothy onto the bridge -- only to have the ruby slippers flare to life and carry Dorothy safely across! Sadly, as good as this scene sounds, the optical methods of the day weren't up to the rainbow bridge, so everything between cutting open the door and running away was, er, axed.

** Since most of the other major characters have Kansas counterparts, we can also count Creator/RayBolger as Hunk and the Scarecrow, Creator/BertLahr as Zeke and the Cowardly Lion, Creator/JackHaley as Hickory and the Tin Man, and Creator/MargaretHamilton as Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West.
*** Some stage versions go further by having Auntie Em double for Glinda and Uncle Henry double for the Head Winkie.

** Creator/BillieBurk was 54 years old when she portrayed Glinda the Witch of the North.

** There was also meant to be a DarkReprise of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAI40Md7Wfk Over the Rainbow]]" sung when Dorothy is trapped in the witch's castle. It had to be recorded live on set and reduced the cast and crew to tears.

** Also, in addition to the DawsonCasting example, Creator/WCFields was originally asked to play the Wizard, but he demanded a salary that MGM considered to be too exorbitant. Creator/EdWynn was also considered.

** Noel Langley also purportedly wrote the final full screenplay of what would be closest to the actual finished script; but this included a number of differences. Dorothy's Uncle Henry would have gotten an Oz-counterpart as the Wicked Witch's son, it would have been the Cowardly Lion who killed the Witch instead of Dorothy, the Tin Man would have had a love interest in the movie (which might have been an explanation as to why he needed a Heart, to love her back), and Dorothy would have just returned to Kansas at the end of the movie without much explanation other than her adventure was over. A great deal of rewrites were obviously ordered to retool this final screenplay, and it is said when the movie premiered Langley bawled in the theater because they had destroyed his work. It wasn't until after WW2 that Langley could finally admit the movie was decent for what it was.

** The trouble began with the script. Three writers were ultimately credited (Florence Ryderson, Edgar Allen Woolf, and Noel Langley); however, these were merely the three who did the most work on it, as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_(1939_film) the laundry list below the three credited writers will show.]]. And Langley, the studio's favored writer, took a massive step away from the story, introducing slews of new characters (including Prince Florizel, a handsome prince given a BalefulPolymorph into the Cowardly Lion), pushing Dorothy completely to the periphery of the plot, and turning Auntie Em into a cruel, heartless caretaker that was, in the first drafts, the one trying to get rid of Toto. Woolf and Ryderson mostly applied damage control, cutting away the more bizarre elements of Langley's scripts while keeping the majority of his dialogue.

** As explained in the film's 75th-anniversary tribute, the original actor to play the Tin Man was Creator/BuddyEbsen. His costume included aluminum powder dusted on his face to give him a "metallic" look; however, only a few weeks into shooting, the powder caused him severe lung issues. "One night I took a breath and nothing happened." He was rushed to the hospital and spent months recovering, while Creator/JackHaley was hired to replace him — and given aluminum paste on his face rather than powder. And while he didn't suffer as badly as Ebsen, the makeup did give him a nasty eye infection.

* CreatorChosenCasting: Creator/JudyGarland was Creator/{{MGM}}'s only choice for Dorothy Gale.

** The only one that actually survives is an extended dance number with the Scarecrow following "If I Only Had a Brain." It was choreographed by Creator/BusbyBerkeley. However it was thought to slow the film down, and the cornfield sequence was partially reshot to smooth over the changes. The footage for this original sequence was discovered by 1984, appearing in the compilation film ''That's Dancing'' and on every major home media release since.

* BoxOfficeBomb: Believe it or not, this classic film was a bust. Budget, $2.8 million (not counting marketing costs), $4.2 million (counting them). Box office, $2,048,000 (domestic), $3,017,000 (worldwide). It couldn't make up the budget domestically and got MGM hit with a $1,145,000 loss over the film. The fact that UsefulNotes/WorldWarII started mere days after the film hit theaters likely didn't help (WWII is partially responsible for derailing Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'' a few months later). Thankfully, the studio and director Victor Fleming had the distribution rights to ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'', which Fleming also directed, to fall back on. It has since recovered. The film was reissued in 1949 and started to make a profit from that point on, but the original box office performance may explain why MGM made no additional films based on the Oz books.

** As explained in the film's 75th-anniversary tribute, the original actor to play the Tin Man was Creator/BuddyEbsen. His costume included aluminum powder dusted on his face to give him a "metallic" look; however, only a few weeks into shooting, the powder caused him severe lung issues. "One night I took a breath and nothing happened." He was rushed to the hospital and spent months recovering, while Creator/JackHaley was hired to replace him — and given aluminum paste on his face rather than powder.

* DawsonCasting: Here it's a sixteen year old Creator/JudyGarland playing a vaguely-aged but still younger Dorothy Gale. This is largely unnoticed unless the viewer has read the book. Creator/ShirleyTemple was originally considered for the role, but the plan fell through.[[note]]Temple would have been aged 10 during principal photography. She would star in her own Technicolor picture based on a popular children's book in 1939, ''Film/TheLittlePrincess1939''. This was to be her last big hit.[[/note]] Nowhere in either the book or the movie is Dorothy's exact age mentioned, though the book describes her as a "little girl." Some sources suggest Dorothy was meant to be twelve in the film while others assume (from the casting of Fairuza Balk in ''Film/ReturnToOz'') that in the book she is around eight.

** The triumphant reprise of "Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead" in the Emerald City that follows Dorothy and the gang back to Oz after melting the Wicked Witch. The song survives, and a few seconds of the original footage exists in the sneak preview, but is lost outside of that.

** Even Creator/MargaretHamilton was affected. While filming the Wicked Witch's fiery exit from Munchkinland, she suffered second and third degree burns, forcing her to take six weeks off to recover, and the green makeup she wore tinted her skin for weeks after filming concluded.

** As explained in the film's 75th anniversary tribute, the original actor to play the Tin Man was Creator/BuddyEbsen. His costume included aluminum powder dusted on his face to give him a "metallic" look; however, only a few weeks into shooting, the powder caused him severe lung issues. "One night I took a breath and nothing happened." He was rushed to the hospital and spent months recovering, while Creator/JackHaley was hired to replace him — and given aluminum paste on his face rather than powder.

** The only element that went relatively peacefully was the music...and even then several songs were conceived and dropped, and one, the famous "Jitterbug" sequence, was cut entirely after early test screenings found the audience unreceptive. This ended up being quite serendipitous,however, as with the reference to such a '30s-centric dance craze gone, the film is far more timeless.

** Also, in addition to the DawsonCasting example, Creator/WCFields was originally asked to play the Wizard, but he demanded a salary which MGM considered to be too exorbitant. Creator/EdWynn was also considered.

** Early on in the film's development, MGM discovered that Creator/WaltDisney was working on his own version of the Oz story at the same time. [[DuelingMovies Rather than going head-to-head]], both studios actually held discussions of possibly combining the two projects into a [[RogerRabbitEffect live action/animation hybrid]] movie, with MGM doing the live action and {{Creator/Disney}} doing the animation. Scheduling issues ultimately ended the collaboration, and Disney shortly after cancelled his own version of the film in favor of other projects so as not to compete with MGM's version.
** Creator/ShirleyTemple was wanted for the role of Dorothy and there were negotiations to loan her out from Fox. Deanna Durbin was also considered before Judy Garland was cast. Durbin was also considered for a role as an opera-singing princess of Oz, counterpart to the jazz-singing Dorothy. Accounts vary as to the Shirley Temple story, however, as her singing talents, while impressive for her age, weren't quite up to a musical of this caliber.

** A later script has the Wicked Witch of the West out to get the Wizard of Oz with 200 winged monkeys, 4,000 wolves, and 10,000 men, because she wants the Emerald City throne for her dim-witted son Bulbo.