Toto Was Paid $125 A Week For The Wizard Of Oz The cairn terrier, Terry, worked on the production of The Wizard of Oz with her trainer, Carl Spitz. She was paid $125 per week for her role of Toto, which when adjusted for inflation, translates to $2,729.38 today.
But how do Terry's earnings compare to the other performers on set? Ultimately debunking a common misconception, Toto was not paid more than Dorothy, played by Judy Garland. Garland was paid $500 per week on set, which would be the equivalent of almost $11,000 in 2023 — definitely more than Terry.
In the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, Toto was played by a female brindle Cairn Terrier named Terry. She was paid a $125 salary each week, which was more than some of the human actors (the Singer Midgets who played the Munchkins reportedly received $50 to $100 a week).
While the film was sufficiently popular at the box office, it failed to make a profit for MGM until its 1949 re-release, earning only $3 million on a $2.7 million budget, making it MGM's most expensive production at the time.
The Wizard Of Oz Actors Who Got Paid Less Than Toto
How much did it cost to see The Wizard of Oz in 1939?
“But with the average national ticket prices at 25 cents (more than half of its audiences were juvenile patrons who paid a dime or 15 cents), it was not expected to recoup its $3 million in production and promotion costs.”
How much did it cost to make The Wizard of Oz back in 1939?
Budgeted at an immense $2 million - the average big budget M-G-M movie cost $1.5 million in 1939 - ''The Wizard of Oz'' actually cost $2,777,000. It didn't make its money back for nearly 20 years.
A Daily Variety news story from 17 August 1938, stated 124 dwarves had been signed to play Munchkins; modern sources place the number either at 122 or 124. An additional dozen or so child actors were hired to make up for the shortage of dwarves.
Boq becomes the Tin Man. Fiyero is changed (to the scarecrow) in the end to protect him. Boq and Nessa have a connection. Their father is in charge of Munchkinland (instead of their mother).
At that point, she casts a spell on him from Elphaba's spell book, the Grimmrie, but mispronounces it. This causes Boq's heart to shrink until it is completely gone. In a desperate attempt to save Boq's life, Elphaba turns Boq into the Tin Woodman.
Terry the dog, who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz, was paid $125 a week, more than some human actors on set. While Terry's earnings surpassed some actors, Judy Garland, who played Dorothy, made more at $500 a week. The Munchkin actors, despite singing, dancing, and taking on multiple roles, earned less than Toto.
Toto Wolff is a former racing car driver that dropped out of Vienna University to start a venture capital firm. He made several good investments and even founded a publicly traded technology company.
Since she was sixteen years old at the time of filming, Garland's maturing figure was bound into a figure-hiding corset. Since fantasy films generally were unsuccessful at that time, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer portrayed Oz as a head-trauma-induced delirium, instead of a real place.
Apparently, Toto bit Gulch on the leg, resulting in her going to the sheriff and getting an order to put him to sleep (Toto, not the sheriff). Dorothy is beside herself, and she exclaims, “Uncle Henry, you won't let her, will you?”
Miss Gulch arrives and announces that she will have Toto destroyed because Toto bit her on one of her legs and she got the sheriff to give her an order for it. She takes Toto away in a basket on her bike, but Toto escapes and runs back to Dorothy.
Boq is the romantic interest of Elphaba's younger sister Nessarose (who later becomes the Wicked Witch of the East). But he only asks her out to impress Glinda, his true love.
In the musical, Glinda and Fiyero get married. Sarima, her sisters and children, and Nanny aren't in the novel. Neither are Mother Yackle, Liir, Turtle Heart or Shell.
Originally, Ray Bolger was cast to play the role of Tin Man, despite his desire to play the Scarecrow. Buddy Ebsen was, at the time, cast as Scarecrow, and was convinced to swap roles with Bolger. While this pleased Bolger, it led to medical problems for Ebsen.
Why did Shirley Temple turn down The Wizard of Oz?
Shirley Temple was the favourite to play Dorothy, but her singing skills were not strong enough. The role was ultimately a big break for Garland, then a contract player at MGM. The film originally featured the Wizard as the central character, and both W.C. Fields and Bert Lahr turned down the part.
In 1938, when Garland was sixteen, she was cast as the young Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939), a film based on the 1900 children's book by L. Frank Baum. In the film, she sang the song with which she would be constantly identified afterward, "Over the Rainbow".
Jack Haley was a movie and vaudeville actor who is always remembered as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (1939). The Tin Man role was originally was going to Buddy Ebsen, but due to allergic reaction from the aluminum powder makeup, Ebsen was taken out of the casting and Haley replaced him.
The Wizard of Oz was filmed entirely on stages at MGM's Culver City studio at 10202 Washington Boulevard. The studio still stands today and offers visitors a look behind the curtains to see where the magic happened, as part of the Sony Pictures Studio Tour.
