Line #65 Trivia/TheWizardOfOz


1	!![[Film/TheWizardOfOz The film version]]:
2	* AccentDepundent: The Cowardly Lion's assertion that Courage "puts the ''ape'' in ''ap''ricot" only works if you pronounce it "APE-ri-cot" instead of "AP-ri-cot".
3	* AcclaimedFlop: Even in its initial unsuccessful theatrical release, critics adored the film. It just had the bad luck of having a combined production and promotion budget so big that audiences of the time simply couldn't get it in the black. It would be another decade before the film finally broke even.
4	* ActingForTwo:
5	** Frank Morgan plays Professor Marvel, the Gatekeeper, the Cabbie, the Guard, the voice of the disembodied Oz head, and the Wizard himself. This was done so that Morgan's screen time would balance out with the rest of the cast.
6	** 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 Emerald City Guard.
7	** A few of the little people in the Munchkinland sequence appeared twice: Fern Formica and Margaret Pellegrini played Munchkin Villagers and two of the "sleepyheads," and Karl "Karchy" Kosiczky (now [[http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/entertainment-movies/20111116/US.Obit.Munchkin.Actor/ Karl Slover]]) played a Munchkin Herald and a third sleepyhead.
8	** Some of the voice actors did double duty as well: Billy Bletcher as the Mayor of Munchkinland and the Lollipop Guild member, Lorraine Bridges as an Ozmite and a Lullabye League member, and Abe Dinovitch as an apple tree and one of the Munchkins.
9	* AdoredByTheNetwork:
10	** Creator/{{TBS}} frequently airs it during the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter season, despite it having nothing to do with any of those holidays. This is likely because it's a very family-friendly film that can be easily viewed or played in the background during holiday gatherings.
11	** The film was a long-time tradition at Creator/{{CBS}}, who did the first TV airing of the film in 1956 (as the finale of the anthology series ''Ford Star Jubilee'') and annually aired it from 1959 to 1967 (skipping 1963) and from 1976 to 1998 (skipping 1997; Creator/{{NBC}} aired it from 1968 to 1975) before it became TBS's own tradition. CBS even aired it in color from the start in an era where it was otherwise reluctant to do color broadcasting because the technology was patented by RCA, owner of rival NBC (the one exception was in 1961 because the sponsor that year did not want to pay extra for the color telecast). The 1959-67 airings had specially-produced wraparound segments where a CBS star (Red Skelton in 1959, [[Series/HaveGunWillTravel Richard Boone]] in 1960, Creator/DickVanDyke in 1961-62 and Creator/DannyKaye in 1964-67) introduced the film. NBC opted not to do these due to commercial time concerns, as did CBS when they got the rights back, though they did create a special slide for preemption/sponsor announcements and commercial bumpers.
12	* AllStarCast: This aspect of the film is obviously lost on modern-day audiences, but much of the cast--Creator/JudyGarland, Creator/BertLahr, Frank Morgan, Creator/JackHaley and Creator/MargaretHamilton in particular--were some of the foremost actors of their day. This being TheThirties, many of them were noted vaudeville and Broadway performers.
13	* BeamMeUpScotty:
14	** The Wicked Witch of the West is often misquoted as shouting, "Fly, my pretties!" as she sends out her army of flying monkeys, though she never refers to them as "my pretties."
15	** The line "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!" is a misquote of Dorothy's line in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''. The actual quote is "Toto...I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
16	** Dorothy (nor anyone else) does not say, "It's a twister, Auntie Em." One of the farm hands, Zeke (the "real life" counterpart of the Cowardly Lion) does say, "It's a twister! It's a twister!!!"
17	*** Although in ''Film/{{Airplane}}'', Stephen Stucker as Johnny says (while tangling himself in phone cords) "Auntie Em! Toto! It's a Twister! It's a Twister!"
18	** Speaking of the Scarecrow, some people think it was the Tin Man who misstated the Pythagorean Theorem instead of him. Also, when most people quote said line, they leave out the part where the Scarecrow says "Oh, joy! Rapture! I've got a brain! How can I ever thank you enough?"
19	** Nowhere in the script are the Winged Monkeys ever called the Flying Monkeys, although the advertisements have used the term since at least [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNugTWHnSfw 1949]].
20	** Glinda tells Dorothy to "tap" her heels together in the actual film, with "knock" being used in the actual book. ''Theatre/TheWiz'' popularized it to be "click your heels..."
21	* BetterExportForYou: The 80th Anniversary Edition Ultra HD Blu-ray set only includes two discs in America: The 4K disc and a repressing of the 75th Anniversary Edition 2D Blu-ray. The UK also provided a four-disc option; disc three includes additional bonus features from past DVD and Blu-ray sets, and disc four consists of a soundtrack.
22	* BreakingNewsInterruption: This happened twice to the annual airings of the movie:
23	** The February 24, 1974 airing on NBC got interrupted by a special report on the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, delaying the movie by a half-hour.
24	** The February 24, 1988 airing on CBS was interrupted for a Special Report on a presidential conference, delaying the start time by an hour and a half.
25	* CameoProp: The MGM wardrobe department had trouble finding the right look for Professor Marvel, and eventually found an old, shabby frock coat from a local thrift store which fit Frank Morgan perfectly. One day on set, he happened to get a look at the name tag of its previous owner: L. Frank Baum, the author of ''The Wizard of Oz'' who died twenty years earlier.
26	* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/BuddyEbsen was originally cast as The Scarecrow, and Creator/RayBolger was to play the Tin Woodsman. However, Bolger convinced the studio that his style of dancing was completely wrong for that character (just try to picture the Woodsman dancing like the Scarecrow), so Ebsen agreed to switch roles with him. In an unforeseen complication, however, Ebsen had an extreme allergic reaction to the aluminum dust used in the Tin Man's makeup, and was forced to quit the film, spending six weeks in hospital afterwards. Ebsen also noted [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX6pjyEC9PU in an interview on the Jerry Springer Show]] many years later that he almost had his testicles cut off by the metal suit! Audio of his performance of "If I Only a Heart" has survived, and in the final film his singing voice is heard instead of Creator/JackHaley's during a reprise of "We're Off to See the Wizard."
27	* {{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. After ruining several takes, 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. Fleming felt so ashamed of himself that, as soon as they finished the take, he asked the rest of the cast to punch him in the face for "borish behaviour". Judy, however, planted a kiss on his nose.
28	* CreatorBacklash: While he never spoke ill of the film itself, Creator/JackHaley did ''not'' view making the film as a fond experience, describing it as "awful" and "not fun at all" throughout the rest of his career, primarily due to the hard work involved.
29	* CreatorKiller: Creator/VictorFleming suffered no ill effects when the film bombed domestically, but co-writers Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf were not so lucky, and they never had another major cinematic credit after ''The Wizard of Oz'' (Woolf's case was also due to his death 4 years after the film's theatrical release).
30	* CutSong:
31	** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-_Ph93j6l4 The Jitterbug]]" may be the most famous example of a movie musical Cut Song. The audio has survived, but the original footage has not, aside from a few short clips (a common fate for Cut Songs from old movie musicals). According to Creator/MargaretHamilton, the song was cut to avoid dating the film via reference to the "jitterbug" fad. Many stage versions, as well as an ice show tour in TheNineties, reinstated the number. It was also included as part of the bonus content on the 50th anniversary VHS in 1990. The scene and song would also be repurposed for ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryBackToOz''.
32	** There was also meant to be a DarkReprise of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_0Ir9P7xQQ 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.
33	** "Over the Rainbow" itself nearly became a cut song, since producers initially could not figure out why a child would be singing in a drab farmyard. They wisely chose to leave it in.
34	** There was a deleted RepriseMedley of "DingDongTheWitchIsDead" ("Hail Hail The Witch is Dead") and "The Merry Old Land of Oz" following the Wicked Witch of the West's death. Instead, the film cuts straight from the Witch's castle to the Wizard's throne room. Like The Jitterbug, the audio survived, but the only footage that survived is a few seconds that MGM would occasionally splice into trailers. "Hail Hail" and "Over the Rainbow (Reprise)" do appear in Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's 2011 stage adaptation, though.
35	** There were others cut early on. "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" was to be a full song, and both "If I Only Had the Nerve" and "If I Only Had a Brain" were longer. The longer footage of "Brain" does still exist and later became a bonus feature on various home video releases.
36	** 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 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.
37	* 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. Darryl F. Zanuck at Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox wanted Creator/ShirleyTemple for the role, but Fox lost the bid to MGM.[[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.
38	* DeletedScene: There are several known:
39	** There was one in Kansas with Hickory showing off his wind machine to Uncle Henry, telling 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.
40	** 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 LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition since. When Fathom theatrically re-released ''The Wizard of Oz'' in 2022 (the year that would've marked Judy Garland's 100th birthday), this dance played after the end credits.
41	** 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. A vague reference to 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.
42	** There was a DarkReprise of "Over the Rainbow" with Dorothy singing while locked up in the Witch's castle. The audio survives, but the footage doesn't, other than some still photographs.
43	** 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.
44	** Many, many scenes of the Witch of the West were cut after they made children cry in test screenings, reducing her role to 12 minutes of screen time. All of this footage is completely lost.
45	** 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 outside the windo, then constructs an illusory rainbow bridge between that spot and the main chamber of the castle where Dorothy is held captive, 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 her 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 2021 gives us a taste as to what the scene would have looked like.
46	* DyeingForYourArt:
47	** Creator/JudyGarland's feet hurt so much in the ruby slippers that she could only wear them for shots when they would be visible on camera (this also cut down on the wear-and-tear the slippers had to endure). When her feet weren't shown, Garland wore booties or black shoes, which can be glimpsed briefly when she and the Scarecrow are backing away from the apple trees. In addition, Garland's breasts were tightly bound and corseted to make her look younger. She was also placed on a strict shoestring diet over the course of production that didn't nearly provide her with enough energy to survive the arduously long shooting days; to offset this, the studio kept Judy amped up on a mix of amphetamines and barbiturates, which sadly and tragically was the beginning of Garland's lifelong addiction to these drugs that would eventually cost her her life.
48	** Creator/JackHaley's Tin Man costume was so bulky that he couldn't sit down at any time, he could only lean. He also suffered a severe eye infection from his makeup - though that was mild compared to what Creator/BuddyEbsen had gone through before Haley replaced him.
49	** Creator/BertLahr's Cowardly Lion costume was so thick and heavy that he had to have two of them, due to constantly sweating in the costume under the hot studio lights. While one costume would be getting drenched in Lahr's perspiration, the other costume would be under an air dryer drying out. He also got fed up with a liquid diet, forcing him to go through extra make-up sessions to fix what would be ruined during lunch.
50	** Creator/RayBolger's Scarecrow makeup practically forced him onto a liquid diet out of fear that any solid food would ruin the makeup.
51	** 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.
52	* EditedForSyndication: Starting in 1968, TV airings had subtle edits done (no dialog or singing was cut) and were sometimes time-compressed to have the film clock in at two hours with commercials. This stopped in 1991 when the film gained protected status from the Library of Congress and the National Film Preservation Board; since then, it has always aired uncut at normal speed.
53	* ExecutiveMeddling:
54	** The movie is AllJustADream because the Creator/{{MGM}} executives thought moviegoers would be "[[FantasyGhetto too sophisticated]]" to accept a ''real'' fairyland.
55	** The only major requirement from the Hays office after reviewing the script was [[ThinkOfTheChildren not to make the witch too scary for kids.]]
56	* FandomLifeCycle: A Solid 5. Even if you haven't seen the film, there's a good chance you're still familiar with it due to how iconic it is. Indeed, it's often said that more people have seen this movie than any other, although that would be difficult to quantify.
57	* FollowTheLeader: The film was greenlit after the enormous success of Walt Disney's fairy-tale musical masterpiece ''WesternAnimation/{{Snow White\|AndTheSevenDwarfs}}'' (Walt was planning his own adaptation for what would become the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon before MGM's production convinced him to drop the idea).
58	* HostilityOnTheSet: Judy Garland was not treated well on set - her three co-leads felt she upstaged them and shunned her, and at least one director was outright abusive, slapping her for ruining a take and then apologizing for it. She felt perpetually lonely without friends on set and so mostly kept to herself. Ironically, the only member of the cast alleged to have treated her nicely was Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch. Ray Bolger turned out to like Judy in the end, reuniting with her on TV in later years.
59	* IronyAsSheIsCast: Creator/MargaretHamilton not only adored children all her life, but was also a kindergarten teacher prior to becoming an actress.
60	* KidsMealToy: UsefulNotes/McDonalds had two notable Happy Meal promotions; one in 2008 with 'Madame Alexander' dolls, and one in 2013 with SuperDeformed figures to honor the movie's 75th anniversary.
61	* MissingTrailerScene:
62	** The 1940 trailer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM77czQW9aE includes footage]] from costume tests.
63	** The trailers from 1939-1970 briefly show a Cut Song celebrating Dorothy's defeat of the Wicked Witch of the West.
64	* NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals: A large bird walked on to the set during the filming of one of the scenes. At one point, it's clearly visible extending its wing...however, it was a silhouette, and it was hard to tell it was a bird...and not the corpse of a Munchkin. This gave birth to the famous, yet totally bogus, "Munchkin Suicide" urban legend.
65	* OnSetInjury:
66	** 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.
67	** 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. Her stunt double, Betty Danko, was also burned during the shooting of the "SURRENDER DOROTHY" scene.
68	* OrphanedReference:
69	** There's a scene where the Witch of the West is giving instructions for her flying monkeys to intercept Dorothy's party, and she says, "They'll give you no trouble, I promise you that. I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them." This was in reference to a deleted scene where a bug called the Jitterbug stings the main characters, and they break into a dance number.
70	** In a cut Kansas scene, Hickory was working on a wind machine. A reference to it survives in the film.
71	--->'''Aunt Em:''' I saw you tinkering with that contraption, Hickory! Now, you and Hunk get back to that wagon!
72	*** It also adds context to his response "One day they're gonna erect [[{{Foreshadowing}} a statue]] outta me!" The wind machine is meant to be a weather-controlling device, designed to prevent tornadoes (a lifesaving miracle in the Midwest). During the twister scene, when Hunk and Zeke are setting the horses loose, Zeke is audibly heard yelling out "Where's Hickory?". A further cut showed he was desperately trying to complete the machine in order to disperse the twister.
73	* TheOtherMarty:
74	** Creator/JackHaley became the Tin Man after Creator/BuddyEbsen was hospitalized. The Tin Man's makeup originally consisted of aluminum powder, which coated the actor's lungs and nearly suffocated him. To avoid the same near-fatal mistake, the makeup was changed to aluminum paste. It goes further than that, as originally Creator/BuddyEbsen was supposed to play Scarecrow and Creator/RayBolger was supposed to play Tin Man. Bolger, however, longed to play the Scarecrow, as his childhood idol, Fred Stone, who had inspired him to do vaudeville in the first place, had performed the role on [[Theatre/TheWizardOfOz1902 stage]] in 1902. Because of this, he was unhappy with his role as the Tin Man, reportedly claiming "I'm not a tin performer; I'm fluid," and convinced producer Mervyn [=LeRoy=] to recast him in the part he so desired. Ebsen agreed to switch roles with Bolger.
75	** In addition, the Wicked Witch of the West was originally supposed to have been played by Gale Sondergaard and the character was originally supposed to be a glamorous witch inspired by the wicked Queen in ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''. However, when producer Mervyn [=LeRoy=] decided that having an attractive Wicked Witch created a plot hole, as it played against the notion that (as [[CompositeCharacter "Glinda, the Witch of the North"]] would eventually point out to Dorothy) only bad witches were ugly, the character was made into the familiar "ugly hag" and Sondergaard, looking hideous in the make-up (well, not [[https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ELxTY8GcL._AC_.jpg that]] hideous), left the production and was replaced by Margaret Hamilton. To the end of her days (she lived to 1985, more than long enough to have seen the film become iconic), Sondergaard insisted that she had no regrets about quitting the production, because playing ugly simply was not in her wheelhouse.
76	* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/BillieBurke was mostly known for her roles as spoiled, dimwitted society types. Playing Glinda, the movie's BigGood, was certainly a departure from the norm for her.
77	* PopCultureUrbanLegends:
78	** There is one scene, just after meeting the Tin Man, where you can see an odd bit of movement in the far background; rumors say this is either a stagehand or one of the Munchkin actors [[DrivenToSuicide hanging himself]] because he was rejected by the woman he loved. [[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hanging-munchkin/ In reality, it's was just a large bird that was rented from Los Angeles Zoo]].
79	** The Music/PinkFloyd ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'' soundtrack synching legend. Vigorously denied by the band, who have pointed out that the audio technology necessary to make the film soundtrack and rock album synch this precisely with each other didn't exist in 1973. The soundtrack synching legend was later referenced as an EasterEgg[=/=]ShoutOut parody by WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd in his review of the videogame adaptation; but unlike Pink Floyd, who have said the synching with the film was unintentional, the creators of the episode at Cinemassacre did the synching of the album and the episode as intentional and [[ThrowItIn placed in a few bits and clues, like a plane,]] to make the synching work, as described [[https://web.archive.org/web/20101002133252/http://cinemassacre.com/2008/08/04/dark-side-of-the-nerd/ in their blog]].
80	** Urban-legend accounts of zany hijinks engaged in by the little people who had been recruited from all over the country to play the Munchkins provided inspiration for the 1981 Creator/ChevyChase comedy ''Film/UnderTheRainbow''.
81	** There are legends of two different alternate endings that show that Oz [[OrWasItADream was real]] after all. One ending shows the Ruby Slippers still on Dorothy's feet as she lies in bed, while the other has Dorothy saying "There's no place like home," with the camera panning down to show the Ruby Slippers under her bed. These endings are often mentioned to have only been shown once or twice on television reruns in the mid-to-late 20th century. Neither ending has been confirmed to exist, although the first inspired the ColdOpen of ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryBackToOz''.
82	* TheProductionCurse:
83	** Creator/BuddyEbsen, the first actor cast as the Tin Man, was hospitalized after inhaling the [[NoOSHACompliance aluminum powder]] that was used for his make-up, forcing the role to be recast (with safer metallic greasepaint).
84	** Both Creator/MargaretHamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West, and her stunt double Betty Danko, were seriously injured in separate accidents involving the pyrotechnics used for the Witch's appearances and disappearances.
85	** Four months after the movie was released, Frank Morgan, who played the Wizard, was involved in a serious car accident. His chauffeur/house servant William Martin was killed in the December 20, 1939 smash in New Mexico and Frank's wife Alma suffered a fractured leg. Frank and his son George escaped unharmed.
86	** Creator/JudyGarland's post-child star life was [[BreakTheCutie plagued with depression, mental illness, and other calamities]], eventually leading to her premature death from a drug overdose in 1969. Some have said the Curse even encompassed her daughter, Creator/LizaMinnelli.
87	* PromotedFanboy: Creator/MargaretHamilton said that the original novel "has been my favorite book since I was four," so the role coming when she also needed the work was easy to accept (although she admitted to not being ''thrilled'' that her agent thought her an obvious choice to play a ''Wicked Witch'' of all characters). Creator/RayBolger also changed roles with the eventually replaced Creator/BuddyEbsen because his childhood hero, Fred Stone, played the Scarecrow in a 1902 stage adaptation of the story.
88	* StarMakingRole: For Creator/JudyGarland.
89	* TroubledProduction: Legendarily so:
90	** 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 ForcedTransformation 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.
91	** Casting was another problem. Creator/MargaretHamilton was cast as the Wicked Witch of the West after the original choice, Gale Sondergaard, left the film due to CreativeDifferences over the Witch's makeup [[note]]The Witch was originally envisioned as a glamorous villainess until the producers realized the PlotHole this would cause due to Glinda's "[[BeautyEqualsGoodness only bad witches are ugly]]" line[[/note]]. Hamilton, a single mother, got into an argument with the studio over guaranteed time to work, only agreeing to take the role three days before filming. Ironically, although she finally got an agreement for five weeks of work, she ended up working on the film for three ''months''. Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Scarecrow, while Creator/RayBolger was the Tin Man. Bolger, whose childhood hero was Fred Stone (who had played the Scarecrow in a 1902 stage adaptation of the story), worked out a deal with Ebsen and switched roles with him. During filming, Ebsen suffered from near-asphyxiation to his Tin Man makeup coating his lungs and was forced to quit, being replaced by Creator/JackHaley. He remained plagued by respiratory issues for the rest of his long life, bitterly calling it "that damned movie."
92	** The film went through no fewer than five directors. The first, Norman Taurog, oversaw initial casting and set construction, but left before shooting began. Actual filming began under Richard Thorpe, who lasted a little over a week before being fired, after the footage he shot looked like absolute crap; Judy Garland in particular was made to wear ridiculous-looking "baby doll" make-up when playing Dorothy. Creator/GeorgeCukor then came aboard for a few days to help re-tool the film's look before being sent off to work on ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' and replaced by Creator/VictorFleming. Fleming oversaw the vast majority of filming, but was ironically sent away to replace Cukor on ''Gone with the Wind'', leaving King Vidor to handle filming of the Kansas scenes. In the end, Fleming was the only one of the five directors to be credited.
93	** The elaborate nature of the makeup caused a great deal of agony for all actors involved, but particularly Creator/BertLahr and Hamilton. Lahr could only eat through a straw (if he decided to eat anything more elaborate, he had to spend an extra hour in makeup to repair his face appliances), and due to the massive amounts of hot stage lighting needed for Technicolor, had to remove his entire costume and stand in front of a fan between shots to avoid heat stroke.[[note]] Lahr later compared wearing the 90 lb. costume to being inside a big wet mattress.[[/note]] Hamilton, meanwhile, couldn't eat at all due to the copper in her makeup! Ray Bolger was at least able to eat with his Scarecrow makeup on, but the rubber mask cut off air and moisture to his face; his skin would regularly crack and bleed when he removed the mask. When filming finished, the mask had left a pattern of lines on his face that took over a year to fade. A change in the Tin Man makeup from aluminum powder to aluminum paste meant that Jack Haley didn't have the same problems Ebsen had experienced, but the rigidity of the costume left him unable to sit down while resting between takes, and he had to lie on a reclining ironing board instead.
94	** Hamilton suffered a serious burn during the filming of her exit from Munchkinland, which was aggravated by her copper makeup making treatment difficult. Once she recovered, she refused to film the "SURRENDER DOROTHY" scene on hearing they'd made her a fireproof costume, despite the studio's insistence that the scene involved no pyrotechnics; her stand-in did the scene...and was seriously burned herself!
95	** Because of the Munchkinland burn (which put Hamilton in the hospital for weeks) and her subsequent refusal to do any more fire stunts, the studio was stuck with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Leb83bRkXDg the first take]] of the scene, in which [[SpecialEffectsFailure the smoke comes on too early and the trapdoor can be seen being opened]].
96	** Filming in general was an uphill struggle, with the cast's call time being 4 AM and their departure being at 7 or 8 PM at the ''earliest''.
97	** 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.
98	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
99	** In 1933, Creator/SamuelGoldwyn arranged to buy the film rights to Creator/LFrankBaum's first and most famous Oz book from the author's eldest son Frank Joslyn Baum. The younger Baum had to prove he controlled the rights legitimately though, so their deal was not formalized until January 26th, 1934 at the price of $40,000. Despite this, The Film Daily reported he was making a special musical production of the story on October 3rd, 1933. It was also in a list that same month entitled "picture for every taste planned" by the Motion Picture Herald with no release date. Goldwyn considered making a movie of the book, and through the mid-30s there were reports and rumors of an impending production, with various actors cited as possible cast members. Creator/EddieCantor was mentioned for the role of the Scarecrow, Creator/WCFields or Creator/EdWynn for the Wizard, and an unknown actress for Dorothy Gale as were adults such as Creator/MaryPickford and Creator/HelenHayes. No film materialized in those years, however nor are any pre-production notes known to exist. According to the April 10th, 1934 edition of ''The Film Daily'' suggested that ''The Wizard of Oz'' was on his filming schedule. Motion Picture Herald suggested between then and 1935 before noting on July 28th that it had been "withdrawn from the shelf with another attempt to develop a treatment that will appeal to the adult and juvenile". Earlier that month on the 19th, Motion Picture Daily noted that he planned on making it later that year and that "tests of key players" were underway. However, the onslaught of TheGreatDepression canceled those plans.
100	** The script originally included an end scene that was never filmed, in which Hunk (the real-world counterpart to the Scarecrow) was going away to agricultural college and Dorothy promised to write to him. The implications were heavy that this would result in a [[ShipTease romance between them]], which would account for Dorothy's particular affection for the Scarecrow during her time in Oz, including one line left in the script in which she singles the Scarecrow out as the one companion she'd "miss most of all."
101	** "The Jitterbug" scene and dance number, even though the finished film still has a line leading into it from the Wicked Witch ("I've sent a little insect ahead to take the fight out of them!") and most stage productions of ''The Wizard of Oz'' include it.
102	** "Over The Rainbow"[[note]]This title specifically. The "Somewhere" part wasn't originally a part of the title.[[/note]] was very nearly cut from the film because the producers thought it was disrespectful to have Judy Garland sing in a barnyard (and because it was thought that it would slow the movie down). Cutting that song would have changed her entire career.
103	*** There was also originally meant to be a DarkReprise of the song when Dorothy is trapped in the Witch's castle. As Judy Garland would have had to incorporate a lot of acting into the song, it had to be recorded live during the take. Reportedly it reduced the entire crew to tears. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urLDbg3m3Sk Here's the audio.]] Unlike in the above scene, however, the song was cut at this point.
104	** 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 canceled his own version of the film in favor of other projects so as not to compete with MGM's version.
105	** Before MGM bought the rights, Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox wanted Creator/ShirleyTemple for the role of Dorothy and there were negotiations to loan her out from Fox. Creator/{{Universal}} wanted Creator/DeannaDurbin before MGM outbid both Universal and Fox. 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.
106	** MGM considered using Leo the Lion (the lion who appears roaring on the studio's logo) as the Cowardly Lion. An actor would have dubbed the character's lines in. The insurance company refused to sign off on it, of course.
107	** Noel Langley, a South African playwright, wrote a version of the script in which the Winged Monkeys are on Dorothy's side. He also invented new characters - Lizzie Smithers the soda jerk, a prince, a princess, and a dragon.
108	** 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. Miss Gulch had a son named Walter who would have gotten an Oz-counterpart as the Wicked Witch's son, Bulbo, 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 World War II that Langley could finally admit the movie was decent for what it was.
109	** 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.
110	** Mervyn [=LeRoy=] and William Cannon wanted to do a dark, "realistic" retelling of the Oz tale. In their version, the Oz Scarecrow was a flesh-and-bone human who was so stupid that he could only get a job standing in a field and chasing off birds, while the Tin Man was a "heartless" man sentenced to be locked in a tin suit of armor for all eternity. Dorothy was only supposed to meet him many years into his sentence, after he had softened and become kind.
111	** Dorothy was originally going to be blonde (as in John R. Neill's illustrations for the Oz books) and wear an even frumpier dress.
112	** In one draft of the screenplay, rather than Glinda sending snow to break the spell of the poppy field, Dorothy would have been awakened by [[SwissArmyTears the Tin Man's tears]] [[WaterWakeup falling onto her.]] This idea was later reused in ''Film/TheWiz''.
113	** According to the commentary, Frank Morgan was also going to appear in the Wash & Brush Co. scene in {{blackface}}. Needless to say, the movie would have aged horribly.
114	** There was no real plan for the transition to color. Before they began shooting the now iconic sepia-to-color scene, they considered decolorizing the first part of the scene frame by frame, before deciding to color the scenery and actors in sepia-tone paint.
115	* YouLookFamiliar: Frank Morgan plays four different roles in Oz--the doorman at the gate, the coachman who drives the Horse of a Different Color, the guard outside the Wizard's chamber, and the Wizard himself. This was done to balance out Morgan's screen time with the rest of the cast. It also unintentionally gives the viewer a clue that all is not as it seems in the vast, graceful Emerald City.
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117
118	!![[Anime/TheWizardOfOz The 1982 anime film]]
119	* ChildrenVoicingChildren: In the English version of the movie: Dorothy was voiced by 11-year-old Creator/AileenQuinn. Averted in the Japanese version, where Dorothy was voiced by Mari Okamoto.
120	* DigitalDestruction:
121	** The VHS English release of the movie has a VERY faded and bleak picture. The Japanese version has much better resolution.
122	** Someone on Website/YouTube decided to splice the two together by making a combined video of the two versions. This video contains the Japanese video quality, but keeps the English audio.
123	* HeAlsoDid:
124	** The film's writer, Yoshimitsu Banno is best known for writing and directing ''Film/GodzillaVsHedorah''.
125	** The film's score was composed by Music/JoeHisaishi. Best known for composing the music for [[Creator/HayaoMiyazaki Hayao Miyazaki's]] films.
126	** The film was directed by Fumihiko Takayama. His best known directorial credit is ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'', a harrowing tale of the exhilaration and horrors of war as seen through the eyes of a young boy. It also has a character named Dorothy, which may or may not be a ShoutOut to Takayama's earlier work.
127	* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The VHS tapes for the 1982 film have since been out of print. Currently, there are no plans for a DVD release.
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129
130	%%[[WesternAnimation/TheWizardOfOz The animated series]]
131
132	!![[Pinball/TheWizardOfOz The 2013 pinball machine]]
133	* DescendedCreator: Played with; many of the playfield toys were sculpted by longtime pinball designer Creator/DennisNordman, such as the spinning house. Makes sense, given that Dennis [[RealMenWearPink designs custom dollhouses in his free time.]]
134

Context Trivia / TheWizardOfOz