As a lifelong Oz fan, 1939’s The Wizard of Oz has been a throughline of positive memories for me. My parents called me “munchky” growing up, a nickname that would be apt when I made my stage debut as a Lullaby League munchkin in my school play at eight years old. My fondest memories of my late mother involve her reading L Frank Baum’s novel to me before bed. So, when I got to the AHC, I knew I had to sift through the historical material related to both Baum’s fantastical series and the 1939 classic film. And what better time to explore this story than the eve of the film’s 85th anniversary?

For kids like me who grew up with The Wizard of Oz as an American institution, it is hard to imagine that the film was anything but an overnight success, an immediate classic. But the truth is, there was no point during the film’s difficult production and unsuccessful release that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) thought their technicolor fantasy would become such a classic. Fortunately, much of Oz’s production has been documented in the AHC archives for us to explore now. Behind the film’s colorful beauty and joyful musical numbers are over a dozen screenwriters, four directors, multiple recasts, and several life-threatening on-set incidents. We’re off to learn the truth about the ruby slippers, green witches and wait…Gone with the Wind?

The Studio

I have often seen people discuss how horrific the production of The Wizard of Oz seemed. While most of the conspiracy theories about this film are simply not true, I will not downplay the horror that actually did play out on set. However, it is worth discussing the studio system at the time to provide some context for why production was the way it was. Which is to say, The Wizard of Oz was, unfortunately, not unique in having reckless production that did not care for its stars.

In the 1930s, movie studios operated with something called the “studio system.” This system contracted actors not to films, but rather to studios who assigned their actors to roles with very little input from the stars themselves. This meant that when MGM purchased the rights to The Wizard of Oz, they had to turn to their own 120 “featured contract players” for the casting. Contract players were paid well whether they were working on a picture or not, but at the expense of their freedom to accept or decline roles. Most of Oz’s actors had very little bargaining power with their bosses, be it for better pay, better safety measures or better treatment on set.

Hollywood was a very bleak place in 1938 when they were working on Oz. Filmmaking was, and still is, an extremely new artistic medium. This was less than ten years after the first ever Academy Awards, and studios were intent on trying to ensure that their films would be honored at the new ceremony. In the mid- to late 1930s most films were musicals so as to utilize the invention of “talkies,” or films with synchronized sound. Between the brewing tension of World War II and the Great Depression a decade earlier, films either directly reflected the anxieties of the time or tried to distract from them, but no studios were producing fantasy films.

That was until Walt Disney came on the scene with his first-ever feature length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. Samuel Goldwyn almost immediately purchased rights to L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to try to compete with Disney’s growing popularity. He enlisted Mervyn LeRoy to produce, Herman J. Mankiewicz to write, and Richard Thorpe to direct the picture. Yip Harburg, Harold Arlen and Herbert Stothart were working on music during this time as well. 

The Script

AHC writer Kathryn Billington did a deep dive into the multiple script treatments The Wizard of Oz received before the film was shot, so I will not go into it much here. The American Heritage Center is fortunate enough to own multiple copies of Oz scripts as written by Herman J. Mankiewicz and others such as Noel Langley. Mankiewicz was a contract writer for MGM, and he rarely received credit for his work at the studio. He was the first writer to be given The Wizard of Oz project.

Mankiewicz’s primary contribution would come in the form of the “Kansas sequence.” Baum’s original book spends just over seven hundred words in Kansas, but the Mankiewicz script spends a great deal of time there. MGM had also hired Noel Langley and Ogden Nash to work on their own versions of the script. In total, there would be ten screenwriters on The Wizard of Oz, with only three – Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf – receiving credit for their work on the film. I would not feel too bad for Herman J. Mankiewicz for getting the chop though because later that year he would meet Orson Welles, with whom he would co-write Citizen Kane (1941), a film that is now universally praised as the greatest film ever made.

Creating the Yellow Brick Road

MGM finally had a full roster to bring Oz to life. In its principal cast, they had Judy Garland as Dorothy, and Buddy Ebsen, Ray Bolger, and Bert Lahr as the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion, respectively. Billie Burke and Margaret Hamilton joined on as the witches of Oz. Casting was not easy as many of their original picks had turned the film down, like Shirley Temple who rejected the role of Dorothy and Gale Sondergaard who rejected the role of the Wicked Witch of the West. Sondergaard got all the way to the costuming stage, believing that the role would be a sexy, sly witch to emulate Snow White’s evil queen, but once they dressed her as the ugly witch we all remember, she backed out.

In fact, they had originally cast Ray Bolger to play the Tin Man and Buddy Ebsen to play the Scarecrow. Bolger, however, was unhappy with this casting, saying: “It wasn’t my cup of tea. I’m just not a tin performer. I’m fluid.” As a boy, he had seen Fred Stone’s portrayal of the original Scarecrow from the 1902 musical. Bolger says that seeing Stone perform live was life changing for him, inspiring him to become a stage performer. After several demands from Bolger, he and Ebsen switched parts. Ebsen did not protest; he did not care who he played, he just wanted to be in the picture. It is through Ebsen’s involvement that the AHC houses numerous Oz materials. His papers feature hundreds of pages of Oz items and several books he helped to advise about the film.

Richard Thorpe – 12 Days

Richard Thorpe broke ground on The Wizard of Oz on October 12, 1938. Thorpe was not known for his whimsy and fantastical directing. He was hired mostly because he reliably turned out quality work for MGM, but Oz was certainly a new frontier for him. Thorpe began with the third act of the film, with most of his footage being at the Witch’s castle. There is no remaining footage of Thorpe’s Oz, but there are some photographs. These images will look unfamiliar to most Oz fans. In Thorpe’s version, Judy Garland was put in a full face of heavy makeup and a long blonde wig.

Ten days into filming, Buddy Ebsen became extremely ill. To create the Tin Man’s shiny skin, they painted Ebsen’s face white and powdered over it with aluminum dust. Every time he got his makeup applied or touched up, he was inhaling fine grains of aluminum. This coated the inside of his lungs, stopping oxygen from getting to his blood.

Little remains of Ebsen’s Tin Man. If you listen to the “We’re Off to See the Wizard” musical sequences in the film, you will hear his voice as the Tin Man, as they did not re-record it to cut costs. Ebsen would later star as Jed Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies, a role that would make him a millionaire and solidify him as a household name.

Ebsen’s medical emergency brought production to a screeching halt. During this break, Mervyn LeRoy and other MGM executives watched the footage of the film so far and were enraged with what they saw. Now they had a Tin Man and a director to replace.

George Cukor – 4 Days

George Cukor was the director of The Wizard of Oz for just four days. They needed a director in the interim, and Cukor was great at character work. Specifically, he was great at working with actresses. Despite being on the film for just four days, he would have a major impact on the final film.

First, he took Judy Garland out of the blonde wig, instead using her natural reddish-brown hair for Dorothy. He then toned down her makeup, giving her instead simple eyebrows, blush and mascara. He would direct her to “stop acting so fancy shmancy” and to just act like a normal girl.

He also was able to get vaudeville comedian Jack Haley on loan from Fox to replace Ebsen’s Tin Man. Haley was told that Ebsen was ill, but not how or why. Haley was unaware of the makeup’s contents. But under Cukor’s direction, they mixed the aluminum with the white paint into a paste, so Haley would not inhale any of it.

Cukor left the set better than he had found it. He was off to work on another MGM picture based on a famous novel, Gone with the Wind.

Victor Fleming – 4 months

Prior to The Wizard of Oz, Victor Fleming was known for films that were notably adult. The women were sexy, the men were masculine swashbucklers, and he had a very adventurous style of filmmaking. Fleming was also described as a womanizing, brute playboy according to Aljean Harmetz. Nothing would indicate that Fleming was the right director for The Wizard of Oz.

But that did not matter because the picture was already in production. Fleming did not have to tinker with costumes, the set, the script, or the casting in any significant way. (Although, strangely, Fleming insisted on the inclusion of a crane from the Los Angeles Zoo in several shots.) He made some insignificant changes to the script, and allowed Bolger, Haley and Lahr to improvise their lines.

He was, for the most part, a pretty forgiving director for most of the actors. Despite being sarcastic and ungentle, all of the principal cast had a positive relationship with Fleming until his death in 1949. This is probably because he did not direct their performances. Margaret Hamilton told Aljean Harmetz: “I think Mr. Fleming had a very good firm hand on things. Although I don’t have any consciousness of his changing anything really for any of us…If he did make changes, he did it so gracefully and so diplomatically that you didn’t even know it was being done.”

Even if the actors did not remember him as unkind, there are several instances of Fleming’s demanding behavior on set. Perhaps the most notable and upsetting is the treatment of Betty Danko, Margaret Hamilton’s stunt double. The Wicked Witch’s epic first entrance into the film resulted in injuries for both Hamilton and Danko. For Danko, a crew member fell into the trap door she was supposed to enter through, injuring her shoulder. Since she was injured, Hamilton had to finish the stunt herself. After delivering the iconic line, “I’ll get you my pretty! And your little dog too!” Hamilton was supposed to exit with flames and red smoke, just as she had entered. But because of the copper-based makeup she was wearing, her skin immediately lit on fire. She sustained second and third degree burns. Hamilton refused to film any further stunts.

Once Danko recovered, she shot the skywriting scene. Fleming insisted that the witch’s cape fly in the wind while writing “Surrender, Dorothy!” in the air, so the crew placed a pipe underneath the broom. While rehearsing, the pipe exploded from under Danko. She sustained deep burns to her inner thighs, and severely damaged her reproductive organs. Danko would need a full hysterectomy. In another instance, Victor Fleming slapped Judy Garland, who was just sixteen, across the face for laughing during a shoot.

After all of the Oz scenes were filmed, Fleming left the set to direct Gone with the Wind… Wait, wasn’t George Cukor working on Gone with the Wind? As it turns out, Gone with the Wind was also having a troubled production on the other end of the MGM lot. After three weeks of shooting, Clark Gable threatened to quit if Cukor was not replaced with his friend Victor Fleming. The most common reason cited was that Cukor, largely considered to be a “woman’s director,” was not giving Gable enough direction. Whatever the reason, Fleming jumped ship to complete Gone with the Wind.

King Vidor – 10 days

King Vidor knew he had to pick up direction on a picture already in production. Except he thought he was going to be taking over – surprise! – Gone with the Wind. He was relieved to learn that he would just be filming the Kansas sequences of The Wizard of Oz. Vidor was an incredibly talented filmmaker, but that does not exactly come through in the Kansas sequence as he had a pretty easy task to complete there. Aside from the tornado, which Vidor expertly shot using miniature mock-ups of the set and a windsock, he did not have to mess around with technicolor technology or the bulk of the actors’ performances. This simplicity was an asset though in the “Over the Rainbow”sequence. Vidor’s camera simply follows Garland around the farm while she sings the iconic tune. This scene was so simple that Fleming wanted to cut it during post-production because he thought it made the first act too long, but the studio insisted that Garland have a solo song.

Ultimately, Victor Fleming was the only director to get credit on the film.

Release

The Wizard of Oz premiered at the Orpheum Theatre in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on August 10, 1939. The film opened nationwide a few weeks later to… mild reception. The film only earned $3 million dollars (about $70,000,000 today) upon its original release, just barely recouping $1.8 million in production costs. Fortunately, Gone with the Wind was a smash hit making approximately $3 billion in today’s dollars, making it the highest grossing film ever at the time. So, MGM was certainly not strapped for cash.

MGM believed that, while Oz was not a massive hit, they would surely get praise at the Academy Awards for the advances in makeup, technology and children’s entertainment. The 12th Academy Awards would be a historic night for MGM, but not quite for their work on Oz. The film was nominated for six awards, but only won three – Best Original Song for “Over the Rainbow,” Best Score and an honorary Juvenile Oscar for Judy Garland. Victor Fleming, who historically directed two films that year, did win Best Director after all, for (you guessed it!) Gone with the Wind, which was nominated for a record-setting thirteen awards, winning 10, including Best Picture. Notably, Hattie McDaniel became the first-ever Black Oscar winner for the role of Mammy in the film.

In the end, The Wizard of Oz was considered a critical and commercial failure.

Legacy

The Wizard of Oz would get a second chance at life when MGM sold its television rights to CBS in 1955, after the film was re-released. From 1956 to 1999, CBS would show the film once a year to homes across America. This became a tradition for many families, who would look forward to this screening every year. These annual showings were often paired with cast reunions, usually Bert Lahr, Margaret Hamilton and Ray Bolger, that would air alongside the telecast. These yearly viewings turned Oz from a modest failure to an overwhelming success. Oz is now featured on nearly every film reviewer’s “Greatest Movies of All Time” list, garnering praise for the music, performances and the technicolor technology.

The film successfully catapulted Judy Garland into superstar status. “Over the Rainbow” became sacred for her fans; a battle cry for the difficult life she lived. It was one of the last songs she performed before her untimely death at age 47 in 1969. Garland lived an extremely difficult life and, unfortunately, I do not have time to get into that in this post. What I can tell you is: Despite her many hardships, Judy Garland was also a loving mother, an activist and, in my opinion, the greatest performer who ever lived. Liza Minnelli, Garland’s daughter, has said many times that her mother did not want to be seen as a tragic figure, so I will honor that and refrain from making her one.

The Wizard of Oz would gain fame elsewhere: in the gay community. Judy Garland was one of the few stars who not only accepted her gay audience but relished it. The Stonewall Riots happened the night of Garland’s funeral; many of the rioters were mourners. The phrase “friend of Dorothy” was a safe way for gay people to identify each other. The pride flag is, famously, a Rainbow. To learn more, Queer Oz by Tison Pugh explores the story’s significance to the gay community.

Further adaptations have been based not on Baum’s novel, but on this film. The Broadway musical by Stephen Schwarz and Winnie Holzman, and the novel by Gregory MacGuire, Wicked, tell the story of the witches of Oz before the events of the film. The first part of the film adaptation starring Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba comes out in November of 2024. The opening credits of The Wizard of Oz, “…this story has given faithful service to the Young in Heart; and Time has been powerless to put its kindly philosophy out of fashion. To those of you who have been faithful to it in return … and to the Young in Heart … we dedicate this picture.” At 85 years old, The Wizard of Oz still electrifies audiences. No matter how you feel about this film, I hope this blog, and the American Heritage Center’s collections, can give you a greater appreciation for the film and its production as it celebrates this milestone anniversary.

Special thanks to Aljean Harmentz, for The Making of The Wizard of Oz, Oz historian Victoria Calamito (@theozvlog on social media) for her “Oz Myths Series,” which helped me source some material, and YouTuber Be Kind Rewind for providing me a clear guide for this research. I also used several Judy Garland biographies to inform this research: Get Happy by Gerald Clarke, Judy: Portrait of an American Legend by Thomas Watson and Bill Chapman, and Me and My Shadows by Judy’s daughter, Lorna Luft.

A posthumous thank you to the incomparable Buddy Ebsen, the first Tin Man, who, despite not appearing in the final film, provided ample material about the film and his life to the American Heritage Center.

And to my mother, for taking me to Oz for the very first time.

Post contributed by AHC Archives Aide Rhiannon Skye McLean.

Discover More About Buddy Ebsen’s Legacy

Want to learn more about Buddy Ebsen beyond his brief but significant role as the original Tin Man? Explore our online exhibit “The Entertaining Life of Buddy Ebsen” on Virmuze, which showcases the remarkable 70-year career of this versatile entertainer.