Wizard Of Oz Myths – True Or False?

Hollywood classic ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ was released on 25 August, 1939 – incredibly that’s 75 years ago. To celebrate this anniversary, here is the real story behind the most infamous legends surrounding the L. Frank Baum adaptation.

Hanging Munchkin

Just like the ghost in ‘Three Men And A Baby’, this rumour comes from what people think they’ve seen in the background of a scene. At the end of the Tin Man scene before they head off down the Yellow Brick Road, some viewers say you can see a Munchkin actor who committed suicide on-set after being rebuffed by a female actress.

Read more: The Movies That Ended Marriages

Read more: The Best Movie Star Lookalikes

The shape could certainly be interpreted that way, though the truth is less depressing. In fact, there are multiple explanations – it was a bird which was hired to populate the scene, a crew member accidentally walked into shot or most likely, a crane was left in front of the camera and no-one noticed.

The Wicked Witch Could Have Died In Real Life On-Set

Unfortunately for Margaret Hamilton, who played the green-faced harpy, this is true. While shooting a scene in which she disappeared in a puff of smoke, the crew delayed opening the trap door just a little bit, meaning that she suffered dangerous burns on her face and hand, necessitating recuperation in hospital.

Read more: Marvel’s Movie Villains Ranked

Not only that, but the green make-up was toxic and if she had swallowed it, it could have been fatal. As a result, she had a liquid-only diet while in costume.

The Tin Man Might Have Kicked The Bucket Too

Ray Bolger played the Scarecrow in the actual movie, but he was originally cast as the Tin Man. He swapped roles with Buddy Ebsen, who suffered through a host of make-up and costume tests to make him look authentically silver on-screen. The result looked great, but ended up being extremely poisonous, sending Ebsen to hospital with cramps and severe respiratory problems. Despite having recorded his songs for the soundtrack and gone through rehearsals, the actor was replaced by Jack Haley. The latter’s make-up was changed – although it still gave him an unpleasant eye infection which forced him to miss four days of filming.

‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ And Oz

There’s even a name for the myth that Pink Floyd’s seminal album was recorded to deliberately be in sync with ‘Oz’ – ‘Dark Side Of The Rainbow’. The members of the band have always contested the idea it was timed specially, but that hasn’t put off a legion of believers, some of whom, to be fair, are sometimes a bit, ahem, confused. As to when is the perfect time to start the record and the film? There are conflicting opinions, but after the first roar of the MGM lion is often mentioned as ideal.

Communist Propaganda

In Baum’s original book, the slippers that Dorothy wears are silver. But for the movie, they were turned to red. According to conspiracy theorists, the red symbolizes Communism and shows how left-wing movie people are. It was a blatant attempt by Hollywood to show their sympathies with the Russkies. The truth, however, is more decorative. The consensus from the filmmakers is that red was a better colour against the Yellow Brick Road, as well as looking more luxuriant in Technicolour.

Professor Marvel’s Coat

Professor Marvel is the man Dorothy meets at the carnival and is played by Frank Morgan, who also played the Wizard himself later in the film.

Read more: 8 Famous Movies With Huge Behind-The-Scenes Problems

There has always been talk that when the costume department gave Morgan Marvel’s coat to wear, which was bought for the production in a second-hand shop, the actor dug in the pocket to find a tag saying “L. Frank Baum”. In other words, by complete fluke they had bought the original author’s coat that he’d given away. Lie, co-incidence, or good omen? It happened – so you decide which you prefer from the latter two.

Little Person Sex Fest

It’s actually unsurprising that tales of drunken parties and promiscuous behaviour by the actors who played the Munchkins has sprung up. A lot of them were foreigners who were brought together for the movie and there are stories about them being exploited by their management and the production. If you’re a big group of like-minded people living together in a hotel and getting paid to be there, why not have fun? Judy Garland called them drunks and producer Mervyn Le Roy said, “They had sex orgies in the hotel and we had to have police on just about every floor.” The truth is that some of the German dwarves did like a drink and certainly there was some on-set attractions. But which film doesn’t?

Photos: Moviestore/Rex