The horror story of the Wizard of Oz
By: Cecilia Fountain
The story of Oz has been brought to life in many different ways. From a book, then a movie, to a musical and more movies, the magical land of Oz has been developed through and through. The most recent story we got was the newly released Wicked: For Good movie that follows the Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba) and Glinda the Good Witch. However, the first to be able to bring a book to life was The Wizard of Oz, an adaptation of one of L. Frank Baum’s books. It follows a girl named Dorothy who got swept up by a tornado and transported to an enchanted place known as Oz. She needs to find a way home, and to do so, she gets pointed in the direction to find the wizard on a yellow brick road. This magical place has just a magical ending that results in Dorothy being able to get home all safe and sound. However, the process of making this movie was not magical at all. This movie left almost every cast member shaken. Some were even severely hurt.
Let’s start with the Wizard of Oz movie. As I said before, the movie follows a young girl named Dorothy who finds herself in a new world and has to find a way back to her home, Kansas. The girl meets some friends as she travels: a tin man, a scarecrow, and a lion. All four continue along the yellow brick road to the wizard, to hopefully get a wish. But that is not what is important; what’s important is what actually happened, not what happened in this magical world.
During the shooting of the movie, the original actor for the Tin Man, Buddy Ebsen, was poisoned by his makeup. In the first 9 days of shooting, the makeup team used a powder made from aluminum dust to get the glow that Tin usually had. They attached it to parts of his body, including most of his face. And this resulted in him getting very sick and needing to be hospitalized. Since he was not getting better fast enough, he was replaced by Jack Haley, who was once again injured from the same makeup that had hospitalized Buddy Ebsen.
Next is the Wicked Witch of the West. Margaret Hamilton got burned during a scene of her flying on a broom and had to be rushed so they could remove her makeup. Because her green makeup was made from copper, they needed to wipe it off as fast as possible so that it wouldn’t leak into the burn and turn them extremely toxic. The third-degree burns she got kept her out of filming for 3 months, yet she was not replaced.
Another event that happened was when the Tin Man, Dorothy, the Lion, and the Scarecrow all met in a field, and white dust fell on them. That white dust was made from 100% industrial-grade chrysotile asbestos. A toxic chemical used in place of snow in many 1920-30s movies. It stopped being used when people realized how toxic it was. This exposed everyone on set and everyone behind the scenes to this toxic chemical.
Then there was the scarecrow, who had permanent scarring on his cheeks because of the straw placed in his costume.
Even the dog that played Toto got kicked multiple times on set.
Finally, there was Dorothy herself. While filming, Judy Garland (who plays Dorothy) was only 16. On set, there was intense drinking from the writing staff and director, which made her feel very uncomfortable. Along with feeling uneasy, she was also under immense stress. She felt that she was always being rushed and was never enough on the stage. This led to her having intense depression and a very bad eating disorder. She was even given sleeping pills to stay on schedule. These events kept building on her as she lived. She struggled with suicidation and addiction for the rest of her life and attempted multiple times, eventually dying from an overdose at 47.
There was definitely harm while filming this movie, and the impacts were long-lasting and very dangerous. Although the actors fought through and the movie went on to win many awards, like Oscars, was it really worth it? These actors are scarred for life, some literally, and it may not make sense to remember it as such a classic.
https://time.com/5647491/wizard-of-oz-curse/