W. C. Fields was originally chosen for the title role of the Wizard (after Ed Wynn turned it down, considering the part "too small"), but the studio couldn't meet Fields' fee. Wallace Beery lobbied for the role, but the studio refused to spare him during the long shooting schedule.
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.
Who almost got the role of Dorothy in Wizard of Oz?
At the time, Shirley Temple seemed like a shoe in for the role. of Dorothy in a film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, but in 1937, Shirley Temple was under contract at 20th Century Fox. Legend has it that a deal was almost made between MGM.
Who was originally supposed to play the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz?
Buddy Ebsen, who would later on be known for hits like The Beverly Hillbillies, was originally cast as the Scarecrow, but he swapped roles with Ray Bolger.
The Chaos Behind The Wizard of Oz (and why it turned out ok anyway)
Who almost played Wicked Witch of the West?
Ironically, Hamilton almost didn't get cast in her best-known role, despite having played the Wicked Witch in a Cleveland stage version of "The Wizard of Oz." Producer Mervyn LeRoy had originally wanted Gale Sondergaard for the part but her makeup and costume tests made her look too glamorous.
What happened to the actor who played the Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz?
Death and legacy
Bolger was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1986, and at the end of that year, his health deteriorated and he left his Beverly Hills home to live at a nursing home in Los Angeles, where he died on January 15, 1987, five days after his 83rd birthday.
The original casting choice for the Wizard of Oz had been comedian W.C. Fields (actually he was second — Ed Wynn rejected the role as being too small), but after negotiations dragged on, they dropped the idea and took on contract player Frank Morgan.
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".
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.
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.
Glinda the Good stepped down from her ruby throne to give the little girl a good-bye kiss, and Dorothy thanked her for all the kindness she had shown to her friends and herself.
Who was the second choice for Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz?
When Judy Garland was cast in the role of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, she was not their first choice. Producers Arthur Freed and Mervyn LeRoy indeed wanted her cast from the beginning, but the studio chief wanted Shirley Temple from 20th Century Fox.
What was the official cause of death for Judy Garland?
Garland died from an accidental barbiturate overdose in London on June 22, 1969, less than two weeks after her 47th birthday. Her exceptional talents and vulnerabilities had made her one of the most enduringly popular Hollywood icons of the 20th century, and her funeral in New York City drew some 22,000 mourners.
Mayer habitually referred to his newly acquired adolescent star as “our little hunchback.”1 Her biographers tell us that Garland was afflicted with scoliosis, a hereditary curvature of the spine more common in women than in men, and that it gave her some- thing of a “dowager's hump” by her teenage years.
In The Wizard of Oz, characters like Glinda the Good Witch represent the mother archetype because she looks out for Dorothy, and Toto represent the trickster, because he is always creating problems.
As conceived and written by Lyman Frank Baum in 1900, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was a political allegory of turn-of-the-century America. Written in the waning days of the Populist movement of the late 1800s, it was the story of the sad collapse of Populism and the issues upon which the movement was based.
What happened to the cast of Wizard of Oz while filming?
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 highly toxic and her green complexion took months to fade.
To achieve the silver, metallic look, Buddy Ebsen, the original Tin Man, was painted with pure aluminum. Frequent lung ingestion of the aluminum sent Buddy Ebsen to the hospital after waking up one night with severe cramping in his hands, arms, and legs and difficulty breathing.
