Today, Hollywood has the special effects to launch Brad Pitt into space, the sophisticated safety standards to minimize harm on set, and (finally) the motivation to push for more equality in front of and behind the camera. But in 1939, when The Wizard of Oz was being filmed at MGM, the industry was a much more primitive place. According to Aljean Harmetz’s fascinating 1977 book, The Making of The Wizard of Oz, Frank Morgan—the actor playing the title character—came to set with a minibar in his briefcase. Of the film’s 10 main cast members, 16-year-old star Judy Garland got the second-lowest salary—making more than only her canine companion, Terry, who played Toto. And myriad injuries and miseries were suffered on set that sound, frankly, horrifying in light of modern technology and H.R. policies.
In honor of the film’s 80th anniversary, here’s a look back at a few shocking behind-the-scenes anecdotes that have not aged nearly as well as the film itself.
The Cowardly Lion Costume Was Constructed From Actual Lion Hair
Before the days of synthetic fur, there was only one option for making an authentic-looking lion costume: using the hair of a real lion. Because of continuity concerns, and the fact it was impossible to find duplicate lion hides with identical colorations and patterns, Cowardly Lion actor Bert Lahr wore one costume primarily through filming. Given the costume’s weight—and the fact that Lahr was filming under intensely hot Technicolor lights that had even the lesser-costumed actors “fainting and being carried off the set,” according to cinematographer Harold Rosson—the actor thoroughly sweated through his costume each day...so much that the costume had to be put into an industrial drying bin each night to dry the perspiration.
Even so, the costume sold at auction in 2014 for $3 million.
The Original Tin Man Was Hospitalized After a Makeup Disaster
From the Everett Collection.
One night during the rehearsal period, Buddy Ebsen woke up in bed, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, “screaming from violent cramping in his hands, arms, and legs. When he had difficulty breathing, his wife called an ambulance and rushed him to the hospital. He remained in an oxygen tent for two weeks, recovering from the pure aluminum he had ingested into his lungs” from his days in makeup as the Tin Man.
Rather than being sympathetic to this severe reaction, the studio was furious. “They told me to get the hell back to work,” Ebsen said. When the studio was told that Ebsen—whose skin had turned blue during his reaction—could not immediately return, production replaced him with Jack Haley. Though the aluminum makeup was changed, it still caused Haley a serious eye infection.
In lesser makeup horror stories, actor Ray Bolger—who played the Scarecrow—removed the rubber prosthetics mask from his face the last day of filming to discover he had burlap scars around his mouth and chin. (At least he was finally free from the mask, which “wasn’t porous, so you couldn’t sweat. You couldn’t breathe through your skin.... We felt like we were suffocating.”) Meanwhile, Margaret Hamilton’s friend alerted her, about a month and a half before filming ended, that she looked “so odd.” When she looked in the mirror, the actor realized the friend was right: Her Wicked Witch of the West makeup had “sunk into my skin. It must have been months before my face was really normal again.”
