Random Strange Things You Definitely Didn't Know About 'Wizard of Oz' (15 items)

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  (#1) The Ruby Slippers Were Originally Silver

  In the book version of The Wizard of Oz, the magical slippers that transport Dorothy back home are known as The Silver Shoes. Silver shoes were used in stage productions of Oz, but for the 1939 version of the film, silver was deemed too nondescript for Technicolor.

  When it was discovered that red leather shoes showed up orange on film, costume designer Adrian decided to sew thousands of red sequins on the shoes. The result was the iconic footwear that has delighted and fascinated Oz fans ever since.  
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  (#2) Toto's Final Resting Place Is Beneath A Major Los Angeles Freeway

  At his Hollywood Dog Training School, Carl Spitz trained many animals who appeared in Hollywood films. His most famous was Terry, a female cairn terrier who would eventually be cast as Toto. The Wizard of Oz made Terry so popular that she was renamed Toto in real life and appeared in several other films until she passed in 1944. Spitz buried her on the school property near Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Studio City, CA.

  In 1958, Caltrans acquired the 10-acre parcel which stood directly in the path of the proposed Ventura Freeway. Toto's grave was consumed by the subsequent construction. As you pass by the Laurel Canyon exit on the 101 Freeway, you are literally passing over the former school and Toto's final resting place. 
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  (#3) L. Frank Baum Lived Only Blocks Away From The Film's Premiere Site

  In 1910, to explore business opportunities related to his books, The Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum moved to Los Angeles. He quickly built a four-bedroom mansion called "Ozcot" at the corner of Yucca and Cherokee streets in Hollywood.  

  He lived there until his end on May 6, 1919. The Wizard of Oz's Hollywood premiere was held on August 15, 1939, at Grauman's Chinese Theater, only three blocks away from Ozcot. The house was demolished in the late '50s and replaced with a drab apartment building that still stands today.
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  (#4) The Movie Went Through Four Different Directors

  When The Wizard of Oz went into production, Richard Thorpe was its director. Thorpe was quickly dismissed by producer Mervyn LeRoy for his inability to create the right fairy tale atmosphere. While Thorpe was director, Dorothy had blonde hair and was heavily made up. 

  George Cukor, director of The Philadelphia Story, My Fair Lady, and Gaslight, who famously slapped Katherine Hepburn for spilling ice cream on an expensive costume, was brought in as a temporary replacement for Thorpe. Later that year, Cukor was fired as director of Gone with the Wind, allegedly because he was gay and knew all about Clark Gable's secret gay past. Cukor made an immediate impact on Wizard by getting rid of Dorothy's heavy makeup and blonde hair. He also suggested Garland play the role as innocent and wide-eyed, not coy and knowing. 

  A week after he arrived, Cukor was out and off to direct Gone with the Wind. Victor Fleming took charge of production and got straight to work, slapping Judy Garland in the face for giggling during a take. After finishing about 80% of the movie, Fleming was called away to direct Gone with the Wind, from which Cukor was fired, marking the second time in a year Fleming took over for Cukor on one of the most famous movies ever made. 

  When Fleming left, King Vidor was brought in to finish Oz. Vidor had a tremendous career but remains largely unknown outside cinephile circles. He directed his first film in 1913 and his last in 1980; in 1979, he won an honorary Oscar for "his incomparable achievements as a cinematic creator and innovator." All that was left for Vidor to shoot were the Kansas scenes. 

  When Fleming came back to edit Oz after finishing Gone with the Wind, he found much of Vidor's work boring and cut "Over the Rainbow," worried it ruined the pacing at the beginning of the film. The song was restored when Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, who wrote it, argued vehemently that it was the most important song in the movie. 
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  (#5) The Set Was A Workplace Injury Nightmare

  Buddy Ebsen, AKA Jed Clampett of The Beverly Hillbillies, was originally cast as the Tin Man but had to leave the film when aluminum dust from his makeup put him in an iron lung. During the Munchkinland sequence, a faulty trap door was responsible for inflicting serious burns upon Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West. She missed six weeks of filming and subsequently insisted her stand-in handle any scenes involving fire.

  The stand-in, Betty Danko, was then asked to sit on a makeshift pipe that spewed smoke during the "Surrender Dorothy" scene. The pipe, fitted to look like a broomstick, exploded during filming, sending Danko to the hospital for 11 days and scarring her legs permanently. Additionally, Margaret Hamilton's copper-based makeup was so toxic and her green complexion took months to fade.  
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  (#6) Judy Garland Sassed The Queen Mother About 'Over The Rainbow'

  The many awful things Judy Garland went through on the set of Wizard of Oz, and in her career in Hollywood, are extensively documented. From forced abortions to breast binding, forced anorexia, and a substance abuse problem, Garland endured hell to live the dream. In her mind, Oz was to blame for all of this because it rocketed her to super stardom. 

  Years after Wizard of Oz came out, Garland met the Queen Mother, who told her "Over the Rainbow" made her teary whenever she heard it. Garland allegedly responded ,"Ma’am, that song has plagued me all my life."
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  (#7) A Mysterious Voice Actor Made An Uncredited Cameo

  During Jack Haley's rendition of "If I Only Had a Heart," a female voice offscreen interjects "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" This is the uncredited voice of Adriana Caselotti, who was the cartoon voice of Walt Disney's Snow White . Caselotti also had an uncredited voiceover in It's a Wonderful Life. She is heard singing "Vieni, Vieni" when a disconsolate Jimmy Stewart first enters Martini's bar. 

  Caselotti was uncredited because Disney had her under exclusive contract and did not want her voice to appear prominently in any other film for fear of it conflicting with Snow White's success. Walt Disney said, "I'm sorry, but that voice can't be used anywhere. I don't want to spoil the illusion of Snow White." Snow White was Caselotti's only credited role in her career.
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  (#8) There Was A $1 Million Reward For A Pair Of Stolen Ruby Slippers

  There are four authenticated pairs of Ruby Slippers that were used in the making of Wizard of Oz. One pair is in the Smithsonian Institute, one pair is owned by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and another pair is owned by a private collector. 

  Yet another pair was on display at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, MN, until they were stolen on August 27, 2005. An anonymous benefactor put up a $1 million reward for the return of the shoes but set a 10-year deadline. In August 2015, the deadline expired without the return of the missing Oz memorabilia. 
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  (#9) There's A Continuity Error Involving The Wicked Witch And A Winged Monkey

  After Dorothy and her companions are rescued by Glinda in the poppy fields of Oz, the Wicked Witch is handed a cap by a Winged Monkey. The witch angrily tosses the cap aside and shrieks "Why does somebody always help that girl?!" before exiting in preparation for the "Surrender Dorothy" scene.  

  The cap came from the book version of the story in which the possessor of the Golden Cap controlled the Winged Monkeys. In an early version of the film, the Monkeys were to go to the poppy field and retrieve the slippers, but this was edited out, thus rendering the appearance of the cap meaningless. The film's creators figured that most of the viewers would not notice this continuity lapse, and they were correct. 
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  (#10) Glinda's Dress Was A Hand-Me-Down

  Many of the costumes worn in The Wizard of Oz are still regarded as astonishing and beautiful. Their creation was the high point of the career of Adrian Adolph Greenburg, known simply as Adrian. Credited as the designer of the iconic ruby slippers, Adrian also resourcefully recycled previously used materials.

  The spectacular gown worn by Glinda was altered slightly after its use by Jeanette MacDonald in the 1936 film San Francisco. Adrian left MGM to start his own clothing line in 1941. Though openly gay, he married actor Janet Gaynor in 1939. They remained together until he passed from a stroke in 1959.
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  (#11) Dark Side Of The Rainbow

  In the mid-'90s, underground rumors of a bizarre, uncanny connection between Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz began to appear in mainstream media. With the sound of the film muted and the Floyd CD activated at the conclusion of the MGM lion's third roar, viewers will see dozens of visual and lyrical coincidences that seem deliberately coordinated.

  Members of Pink Floyd have denied any connection. Only the CD - not the LP version - can be coordinated to "sync up" with the film, but whole websites have been devoted to this phenomenon.
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  (#12) Judy Garland And Mickey Rooney Promoted The Movie With Live Song-And-Dance Routines

  MGM put Judy Garland through a brutal publicity campaign upon the release of Wizard of Oz, sending her back and forth between the East and West Coasts to appear in person at screenings in various cities. The most bizarre aspect to this marketing blitz was a three-week-long series of live routines performed before screenings in New York City. 

  During the film's initial run at Loew's Capitol Theater in Manhattan, Garland and fellow child star Mickey Rooney introduced each screening with a song-and-dance routine. This is incredibly strange for a number of reasons, among which is the fact that Rooney had nothing to do with the film.

  Garland was so exhausted from promoting Oz she eventually collapsed and required medical attention. 
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  (#13) The Munchkins Led Depraved Lives Offscreen

  MGM insisted that it wanted adult dwarfs to play the inhabitants of Munchkinland. They contracted with a man named Leo Singer who ran a vaudeville troupe known as Singer's Midgets. Singer put up most of this contingent in the Culver Hotel in Culver City, right down the street from MGM, and pocketed most of the dwarves' wages.

  Angry and bored, they reportedly engaged in orgies at the hotel, routinely pulled knives on and propositioned studio employees and starlets, and got so intoxicated that the police would sometimes have to scoop them up with butterfly nets. The Munchkins were paid less than anyone else on set Toto received better pay. 

  Jerry Maren (Lollipop Guild) was the last surviving Munchkin. He passed in May 2018 at the age of 98.
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  (#14) Terry The Dog Got A Rave Review In 'American Girl Magazine'

  Animal actors don't often get reviews, let alone raves. This is (probably) because they're animals and aren't aware they're acting.

  Yet American Girl Magazine, a publication you might not expect to contain movie reviews at all, gave Terry, who played Toto in Wizard of Oz, glowing commendation in a piece published in March 1940: 

  The hardest thing this little dog ever had to do was during the drawbridge scene in the Wizard of Oz, when she was chased by the huge Winkie guards of the Wicked Witch. Toto had to come running out of the castle and was trying to cross the drawbridge. She had almost reached the middle when the drawbridge was pulled straight up. The only safety Toto had was by clutching the edge of the bridge with her little paws and balancing herself thirty feet in the air. One of a dog’s greatest fears is the fear of falling, so it took a great deal of courage to follow her master’s orders that time.

  Terry allegedly had regular nervous breakdowns on set because of the stressful working conditions. Hopefully, American Girl Magazine's reverent ode to the dog's bravery helped ease that pain just a bit. 
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  (#15) Who Is Nikko?

  The cast members listed in the end titles of The Wizard of Oz are straightforward until you get to someone named Nikko, credited to the actor Pat Walshe. Walshe was an experienced Broadway, vaudeville, and circus performer who worked with and imitated monkeys and apes.

  Because he was 3'10" and the role required an individual with experience in mimicking a large ape, Walshe was cast as the Wicked Witch's chief assistant and the leader of the Winged Monkeys. Dubbed "Nikko" by the filmmakers, Walshe had no lines and his character name was never mentioned in the film. He still received screen credit, probably because of his extensive industry experience. Like most of the Oz monkey performers, his makeup consisted of prosthetics glued to his face and a fur bodysuit, both of which caused extreme discomfort.  

  Walshe lived until 1991 at age 91. 

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