The endearing musical is considered the most influential in the history of Hollywood
Nearly 80 years after its stage debut, The Wizard of Oz continues to captivate audiences. A new global survey revealed that it is the most influential music in Hollywood history, surpassing other major masterpieces.
Historians and collectors Jay Scarfone and William Stillman, who have written several books on The Wizard of Oz, released earlier this year The Road to Oz, a documentary that features interviews with various people involved in the production of the 1939 film and some surprising anecdotes from his personal files.
Oz experts spoke to Fox News about the most shocking findings from this American classic that has brought generations together.
Shirley Temple was the public's favorite to play Dorothy
Although Judy Garland turned out to be the perfect choice to play Dorothy Gale, child star Shirley Temple was the one most fans of the original book wanted to see in the role.
"Judy did not win the popular vote among fans of the book," Scarfone said. "She was 15 years old, so she was considered too old for the role. She was too vivacious. Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz has a very different personality than what we saw in the film. But Judy Garland was always considered the main choice to play paper".
Judy Garlan had a competition
When Judy Garland was cast in The Wizard of Oz, MGM also cast a 12-year-old rookie named, Janice Chambers, with a powerful voice like Garland's and a dancer herself. “The studio was preparing her… she even did some tests with the costumes and with the other actors of 'The Wizard of Oz,' Stillman explained.” It was a time when MGM was very controlling…. They had lesser-known actors who looked like their stars and used them as a subtle way to threaten their stars if they got too cocky."
The original director left the film
Fortunately for Judy Garland - who was in love with him - Victor Fleming was hired to direct The Wizard of Oz. However, Fleming left the film to direct "Gone with the Wind." "The decision infuriated Garland and apparently you couldn't even mention Vivien Leigh's (Gone with the Wind) name in her presence," Scarfone joked in the interview.
Over the rainbow
Although Over the Rainbow is known to be one of Garland's iconic hits, the song was not written specifically for her nor was it an original song. The emotional ballad was inspired by a 1915 children's operetta titled "Over the Rainbow."
The song that they had planned for Garland is called "The Jitterbug", a high-energy dance song. "They recorded the song and filmed it but then discarded it during the editing process," Scarfone explained. "That song was more of a Judy Garland kind of thing… but the press saw it and basically said, 'See, we're anticipating it – this is going to be completely different from The Wizard of Oz that we know.' One reviewer even went so far as to say, ' Maybe they'll change the title from The Wizard of Oz to The Wizard of Jazz.' The production team ultimately decided to have Garland sing Over the Rainbow, a smart move that contributed to the film's success at the time."
A forced diet
Although Garland was just 15 when she accepted the role of Dorothy, the studio wanted the actress to lose weight. "They strongly suggested that she go on a diet," Scarfone said. "They also assigned him a personal trainer who was his stunt double in the film, a woman named Barbara Bobbie Koshay. That person also spied after hours. MGM was known for hiring people to follow their top stars and they had a behavior clause in their contract. At the end of filming the film, Judy was 16 years old while the woman was approximately 30."
MGM Abuses
There has been a myth for years that MGM supplied Garland with medication and injections to help her with grueling shooting days, a rumor that Scarfone and Stillman have denied. Historians explained that as a minor, Garland was only allowed to work four hours a day. The studio even sent the hair and makeup team over to her house to take advantage of every available moment to film. "Particularly it is said that she was prescribed Dextroamphetamine," Scarfone said.
"This information was given to us by an extra from the city of Esmeralda. She was a cousin of one of the film's producers. 'It was the way they had to give her more energy to help her lose weight,' said the woman according to Scarfone, and added that they also allegedly gave her pills to help her sleep at night due to the effects of Dextroamphetamine."These drugs were new to the market at the time, very little information was available about their side effects and much less about their long-term effects." added the author.
Billie Burk got a facelift for the movie
"Before plastic surgery was commonplace, an easy way to do a facelift was to glue pieces of gauze in front of an actress's ears and then pull them up with string," Scarfone explained. This was done to Billie Burke, who played Glinda the Good Witch so that she would appear eternally young on screen. The actress was 54 years old. Before embodying the Good Witch of the North, Burke was already considered one of the most prominent stars of the time, having achieved success on stage on Broadway and with her participation in various silent films. "Billie Burke also built her career playing very wacky and motherly characters," Stillman noted. "Before The Wizard of Oz, she played the mother of Judy Garland in Everybody Sing" from 1938.
The infamous urban legend
A rumor circulated for decades about an alleged suicide on the set of a Munchkin movie or a disgruntled employee who was inadvertently caught on camera and ended up on the big screen. However, Scarfone and Stillman say no one committed suicide during the filming of "The Wizard of Oz." What actually happened is far less interesting, the writers say. "In the original book, the author talks about birds with unusual plumage that populated the countryside," Scarfone explained. "So MGM hired some exotic birds from the Los Angeles Zoo for the scene. Among them was a crane, which can be seen in the footage as the characters dance in the yellow road scene. As they were passing by, I think one of the actors startled one of the cranes which then opened and closed its wings rapidly. That's the movement you see... If you look closely you can see the crane walking on the set," Scarfone said.
