Chamblee54

PG read “The Making of The Wizard of Oz” by Aljean Harmetz. The book is copyrighted in 1977, which means a lot more of the players were alive when it was written. As is often the case, the behind the camera story is as interesting as what the public saw at the movies. At this writing the finished movie is 70 years old.
Margaret Hamilton, the wicked witch of the west, writes a foreword. It turns out she saw the makeup department, the soundstage, and the hospital ( She was badly burned in one scene, as was her stand in later). She had no part in the writing, financing, or producing of the film.
MGM was the tiffany studio in the thirties. It was also a place where the producer ran the movie. Auteurs need not apply. The producer of TWOO was Mervyn Leroy, assisted by Arthur Freed. You could write a book just about the role those two played, and someone probably has. The producer was yet another part in the overall machine of the studio.
The entire land of Oz was created on a sound stage. The cost was over two million dollars, which in 1938 was enormous. TWOO was one of the first movies in color,  still an experimental process.
There are many legends about TWOO, some of which the book agrees with. It seems the munchkins were not quite as wild as Judy Garland recalls. In fact, the actors in this book have very different memories than Miss Gumm. They recall her as a happy girl, although  sad about her lost childhood.
TWOO was not successful at first. In it’s first release, it lost an estimated million dollars. It did not become a national institution until it was shown on TV every year. It seems that CBS was bidding on “Gone with the Wind”, and was sold TWOO as a consolation prize. CBS got an option to screen the film annually, and a legend was created.
The book is a gold mine of stories, but we will close this post with one. When making the costume for the Wizard, the staff went to a thrift store, and found the perfect coat. One afternoon, Frank Morgan turned the pocket inside out, and found the words ” L Frank Baum”. Mr. Baum had written the book “The Wizard of Oz”, and the coat had been made for him by a tailor in Chicago.