Hospital dashes, explosions and poison – inside the real curse of the Wizard of Oz
FANS of the musical Wicked have been waiting over a decade for it to be turned into a film for the silver screens and now it’s finally out.
The musical, which is closely based on the 1939 film Wizard of Oz has been the only thing any of us have been speaking about all month, and while we may have fond memories of the original film, some believe it is cursed.
Watching the film, you’re transported into a magical land where good conquers evil but behind the scenes it was a completely different story.
From cast members being set on fire to being poisoned by make-up and starved on set, here’s the real story of the Wizard of Oz and why it was cursed from the get-go.
Shine Bright
The original Tin Man from the film was played by Buddy Ebsen however we don’t see him on the screen.
MGM media company tested several ways to make him appear silvery including white face paint coated with aluminum dust, but there was one small problem, it was extremely toxic.
Nine days into filming, Buddy was hospitalised with shortness of breath and cramping.
The aluminum dust had got into his lungs causing them to fail, he was treated for two weeks because of it.
While going through treatment, the film’s producer hired actor Jack Haley to replace him.
Jack was unaware of what happened to the previous actor, but MGM thought it would be fine as they switched the powder for a paste.
But yet again, it caused issues when it accidentally got in Jack’s eye causing him to have an emergency operation to deal with the infection from the toxic solution.
Fortunately, he also survived and was able to continue filming the film.
Green With Envy
Margaret Hamilton was cast as the Wicked Witch of the East (also known as Elphaba in Wicked) but it didn’t go well for her.
To begin with, the green paint that she was covered in was made with copper, and you guessed it, it was also toxic.
The actress was forced to not eat for hours as ingestion of the paint could have poisoned her, and her luck didn’t seem to get better.
While filming the iconic Munchkinland scene, she jumped into a trap door to disappear.
But she was left with severe third-degree burns on her body and face from the stunt as the fire and smoke were let out before she was safely under the set.
To top it off, she had to have her body washed down with acetone because of the copper paint.
She once said of the incident: “I’ll never, as long as I live, have anything that [takes] my breath away like that pain.”
After the ordeal, she refused to film any more scenes involving fire – leaving it to her stunt double, Betty Danko who also didn’t have much luck staying safe on set.
While filling in, Betty’s broomstick had a smoking pipe attached to the bottom of the seat when it exploded and she was flung off the broom, she then spent 11 days in hospital.
She recalled: “I felt as though my scalp was coming off. I guess that’s because my hat and my black wig were torn loose.
“They found them, days later, at the top of the stage. The explosion blew me off the broomstick. I managed to grab it with both hands and throw my leg over it.
“I hung upside down while the men handling the wires lowered the broomstick to the floor and put me face down on the stage … While I lay there on the floor, waiting for the ambulance, the wardrobe woman came running in, and she said, ‘What did you do with the hat? I have to turn it in, you know.'”
Let It Snow
One of the most beautiful scenes in The Wizard of Oz is when Dorothy and her trio of men (the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion) all make their way through the poppy fields to Emerald City to meet the great Wizard himself.
They end up falling asleep due to a spell cast by the Wicked Witch, but of course, Glinda the good witch comes to the rescue just in time.
She sprinkles snow over the poppies to lift the spell and wake them up – but the snow used in the scene was in fact made from 100% asbestos.
In the scene, you can see the asbestos fall on top of the actors and into their mouths.
While there is no confirmed link., Bert Lahr, who played the Lion, and Ray Bolger who played the Scarecrow, did eventually pass away from cancer, something asbestos can cause.
Starved and Drugged
Judy Garland was just 16 at the time she landed the lead role of Dorothy in the film and while she didn’t have any accidents on set, she sure did get the worst of it.
The first feature film she stared in for MGM media, producers tormented her when she was fourteen, “MGM told her she looked like a ‘fat little pig with pigtails’ on screen and she was put on her first of many diets. B
“Because her calories were so restricted—executives would go so far as to remove a plateful of food when she was about to eat it—she was permanently hungry.”
She was forced to wear a corset under her checkered dress to make her appear smaller and was given tobacco to chew to suppress her appetite.
It has also been reported that she was given a cocktail of drugs, biographer, Lauren Becall states: “From childhood, Judy was placed on drugs – to lose weight or to go to sleep or to wake up. And once you get hooked on pills… it obviously affected her.”
Garland told biographer Pail Donnelley: “They’d give us pills to keep us on our feet long after we were exhausted.
Then they’d take us to the studio hospital and knock us out with sleeping pills.
“Then after four hours they’d wake us up and give us the pep pills again so we could work 72 hours in a row. Half of the time we were hanging from the ceiling but it was a way of life for us.”
According to her third husband Sidney Luft, she was also harassed by actors and executives on set.
He recalled: “They thought they could get away with anything because they were so small.
“They would make Judy’s life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress.
“The men were 40 or more years old.”
In a biography, it was revealed that the teenage starlet was repeatedly propositioned for sex by executives at the film studio, MGM.
Studio boss Louis B. Mayer would compliment Garland’s voice by putting his hand on her left breast pretending to touch her heart, which is where he said she sang from.
She eventually told him to stop his creepy advances and, according to the biography, Mayer cried and said he loved her.
Monkey Around
The flying monkey soldiers who follow the Wicked Witch in the film were actually played by actors of short stature.
They were hoisted up on wires to make it look like they were flying in the films but many of the wires broke leading them to fall at least seven feet from the air.
While many did suffer injuries none of them died thankfully.