Thanks for stopping by, Solo Fam! Here's hoping you enjoyed this episode and learned something too! Which injury do you think was the WORST to go through? And what element of the Oz universe should we explore next? 👀
I remember hearing about the incident of Margaret Hamilton catching on fire and the reaction the first Tin Man had but never in this much detail. Just horrific.
Not really an accident, but the daughter of the Cowardly Lion mentions this in an interview: "My dad was really tortured by the costume. It weighed almost 100 pounds. It was real lion fur, and it was hot. He couldn’t eat. He had to drink his lunch through a straw." - Jane Lahr, Bert Lahr's daughter
@@benthomason3307 It's likely due to all the fur and other chemicals used to treat the entire hide so it doesn't fall apart. There was also probably some padding inside to make it look right when worn.
I would compare it today to Jim Carrey's experience as the Grinch. I can only imagine that the costume was quite claustrophobic and made him feel very oppressed. Its easy for some of us to assume that its just a costume and either one has no right to complain. But we weren't there and we aren't them.
Funny how people cling to this "Dorothy stole the witch's shoes" bit, when both in the book and the film she had no choice, the shoes were basically forced on her feet, and being magical, she couldn't take'em off even if she wanted to.
Oh she absolutely had a choice in the book. The text literally explains her thought process behind why she took them! But in that case the dead witch isn’t the sister of the West Side Witch so she doesn’t have the right to them anyway. In the movie they just appear on Dorothy’s feet but they would technically be the Wicked Witch of the West’s property since was the next of kin.
I have not read the series, just watched the movie. I thought I heard somewhere that the munchkins were glad she was killed the witch. The song "ding dong the witch is dead" was from the scene. As far as next of kin getting the shoes....I think Glenda is qualified as well, being Glenda and the witch of the west were sisters. I'm not sure if there was a witch from the south tho.
@@JonSolo Glinda just magicked those shoes onto Dorothy's feet just to spite the Wicked Witch of the West. Probably why she gave Dorothy the "kiss of protection" on her forehead before leaving so they couldn't be taken. Remember when the Wicked Witch tried to magick the shoes off of Dorothy when she was a prisoner in the witch's castle only to get a hell of a static electricity backlash. Glinda's doing. Same thing with Glinda creating the snowfall to destroy the deadly poppies. It's only when the Wicked Witch is dead and the Wizard is gone does Glinda appear and reveal the truth about the slippers. Glinda was using Dorothy this whole time! Good witch, indeed.
Man, sometimes I feel like the Wizard of Oz wasn’t worth it. Everything those poor actors suffered through and the unintentional aftermath on their health and lifespan. And all the bad things that happened on set.
Yes! And how it was a box office FLOP when released and only gained iconic status when it was shown on TV during the Xmas season years later and then on VHS release.
@@pastpatour Even now the only reason that any boss cares for H&S is, by law they have to have insurance and insurance companies will take that money out of the boss's hide a strip of flesh at a time if it was found to be in any way the boss's fault. ( So lawyers and insurance companies always win. )
There's a lost Sesame Street episode where The Wicked Witch Of The West visited the Street looking for her lost broom. She threatened to turn Big Bird into a feather duster if her broom wasn't returned. Oscar The Grouch developed a huge crush on the Witch.
I don't know what's worst, but Buddy Ebsen may have "won". Imagine having your lungs coated in aluminum dust and being unable to breathe until your whole body is purple, that sounds terrifying. Then getting fired over it.... and finally having trouble breathing the rest of your life. Although the idea of having your skin burned off and then poisonous paint removed with alcohol sounds excruciating. Black hats off to Margaret Hamilton for standing her ground. She was amazingly tough to endure that and come back to the set. Too bad for her stand-ins.
There kind of is. Its called "Under the Rainbow" and was released in 1981. That being said, that film is more of a fictionalized, comedic account. Also, the main focus is on the little people who played the Munchkins, and its about the hi-jinks they legendarily got up to.
It's pretty amazing how much the actors for this movie had to put up with during its production. I mean after all the trauma they suffered from, they could've just quit but they must've been getting paid major cash or something, if they felt compelled to stay. But if it were me, I would've quit money or not. Because as far as I'm concerned, There's no amount of money in the world with all that drama.
After WW1 just happened, and I’m assuming the Great Depression forced them to stay cause they were lucky enough to get paid, especially in bigger amounts, vs a lot of people. So if they quit they might have been worried of being blacklisted or not finding another job at all and be completely out of income at the worst time. This was released in 1939, right towards the end of the Great Depression and when WW2 started and was picking up steam, but that obviously means they’ve been working on the film beforehand to make sure it released in 1939. The GD was still pretty bad during the production of Oz, even if it was the tail end.
@@TheCommenterDragon trust me I agree but I think everyone was on edge from back to back tragedies- WW1 just happened and ended in 1918, Prohibition was from 1920 till 1933, the Great Depression from 1929 to 1939, the severe drought of Dust Bowls years lasted from 1930 to 1936, WW2 has already started but didn’t officially become a war until the tail end of 1939 in Sept 1939, but the war has been brewing since 1936 when Hitler was really taking advantage of his chancellor powers. It was one tragic event after another and some even happening at the same time and overlapping one another. That’s just the major events; that’s not even including “minor stuff” like WW1 veterans protesting for their benefits, Americans being refugees in their own country, etc. The OG Wizard of Oz wasn’t released until August 1939, which means the obviously had to work before that to make sure it releases on time. That means everyone on set was dealing with all this- some of the most infamous and devastating events in US and World History - prolly preparing for the worst by getting some cushion money. Some actors even agreed to take certain roles just to get drunk and have illegal alcohol- some even took pay cuts in their checks in place of alcohol. Ig some injuries that you can pay off or be paid for by the studio (for some actors) is better than being unemployed or with little money and dealing with everything else on top of that during America’s *real* crisis years. I mean shit, even in our times during the unemployment of Covid which economically was confirmed to not be as bad as 2008 or the Great Depression, people started doing OF (even well off celebs), and noticed that more “hardcore” painful stuff was giving them more money, so they were doing things they didn’t want just for a check. And even some weirder stuff than OF.
Judy Garland was forced to wear chest binding to make her appear younger than her sixteen years. Buddy Ebsen's voice can be heard in the "We're Off To See The Wizard" reprisals throughout the film.
Just the tip of the iceberg. Dont forget she was living on mainly a diet of coffee and cigarettes to stay skin for the roll and being forced to take uppers and downers to deal with the taping schedules. Thats also not including the physical, verbal, and sexual abuse she was dealing with from many of the higher ups at MGM. Her mom sold her daughters body and soul for fame and fortune.
Directors and producers talk to each other, don't put up with them and the actors and actresses get blacklisted or blackballed and find it harder to get cast
Basically, MGM treated Hamilton like crap all throughout the movie, like they actually thought she was the Wicked Witch, while they treated Burke like a queen. Of course, Burke was a major celebrity at the time and had been for thirty years.
17:04 this is painfully true. My dog Cookie is pretty effectively camouflaged when she’s laid on my living room carpet, so I have stepped on her a couple of times over the years. The noise she makes is not only heartbreaking, but also makes my ears bleed. 😂Then I’ll probably clumsily fall and hurt myself trying to avoid hurting her, and be wracked with guilt for hours after and she’s already forgotten about it before I hit the floor 😂
As a kid, the witch’s fiery entrance scared the crap outta me. I’d run and hide behind the couch when that explosion happened. Outside of that scene, I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen when watching.
My heart honestly goes out to all the people who suffered filming this. I absolutely adore the film itself. But on the other side of the coin, it'd be nasty to not watch what those people risked their lives to make. 😢
It’s crazy how this movie is about escapism to happier and colorful times, both for the characters in the story and for the actual people watching it as entertainment, but everyone in this movie went through straight hell and torture, especially the main cast. Jon didn’t even bring up the atrocities that Judy went through. I know everyone is saying the should have just quit but with historical context it wasn’t that easy. -WW1 just happened and ended -Cast line ups and productions were done as early as 1935 during the Great Depression. I’m assuming the Great Depression forced them to stay cause they were lucky enough to get paid, especially in bigger amounts of cash, vs a lot of people who were getting paid very little if they were lucky enough to even have a job still or straight up unemployed. So the fear of if they quit they might have been worried of being blacklisted or not finding another job at all and be completely out of income at the worst time. -This was released in 1939, right towards the end of the Great Depression and when WW2 started and was picking up steam, but that obviously means they’ve been working on the film beforehand to make sure it released in 1939. The GD was still pretty bad during the production of Oz, even if it was the tail end. Not to mention things are about to get worse. -The Prohibition was still in place so a lot of actors even signed up jobs they didn’t want because the Hollywood executives and other stars knew where to get alcohol from, among other things. So some people were signing on just for a confirmed and guaranteed drunk night. 3 of the biggest and most infamous tragic events in US and world history was all happening at once and/or back to back of each during this time. That’s not even including WW2 since it happened after the theatrical release of the movie so no one at the time of filming had the foresight to know how bad things were about to get; they just knew to do whatever to survive, stay secure, and thrive for as long as they can so they had money to fall back on if things weren’t gonna get better. All around everything was sad~ and that’s lightly putting it.
I'm sorry, but what were the bad things happening in America at the time of the ww2? America was never attacked... theathre of the war was Europe and eventually Japan.. in Pearl Harbor, 5k people died, and 2 days after, with 2 atomic bombs America killed in 20 seconds 300k people... in Europe 50 million people died... you Americans need to all do a reality check about what happened there.. the depression time of which you are talking about is not an effect of the ww2, for which America trough the war and selling weapons just got a lot of moneye. Depression was a direct consequence of the failure of capitalism... pick up some history books and start reading.
10:09 Actually talking from exp its quite common to not realize u're burned in burn victims. I remember when I was in HS (summer of going into Grade nine so I was 14) and I didn't realize I had been burned by the hot metal (scraped my wrist being pulled out after falling into the camp fire and landing on my pillow and sleeping bag which save me from worse burns) for a good 20 minutes despite it being obvious that I had been burned. This is because ur body goes basically into shock when burned badly as a defense mechanism so u wont realize it right away. This is why I say "If the kid's crying right away they're probably fine. Its when they're not crying but in shock that means they're really hurt. Use that shock moments wisely to get them ready and in the car."
In regards to the whole "suffering injury for a movie nobody remembers", Disney chewed up and spat out Bobby Driscoll. He gave them Peter Pan and they tossed him to the curb like the fortnightly trash.
Another thing I love hearing about the production of The Wizard of Oz is that Margaret Hamilton and Ray Bolger became best friends when meeting on that set. Only thing better than that is the fact that they both loved Judy Garland, and apparently Margaret was like a mother to Judy, and they stayed in touch with each other after Oz, too. Mad respect!
Poor Judy Garland went through hell while filming the movie, too. She was forced to take drugs to keep her awake, forced to diet on strictly salads and soups to keep her thin, slapped by the director, and even apparently tripped up by some of the actors while they were dancing on the Yellow Brick Road. Oh, and I read somewhere that some of the guys playing the munchkins kept trying to touch her under her skirt (which, for the record I was skeptical about before someone commented where that came from since I read it from Quora). And keep in mind she was 16 or 17 during this.
Her mother was the one that got her started on the pills before she played Dorothy and the munchkin touching her is just a rumor. There is no recorded evidence that she had any ill experiences with them in any of her interviews or biographies.
0:42 This reminded me of The Wiz-there’s an entire scene in which the citizens of Emerald City sing songs and dance and vogue (seriously) while the colors change from red, green, and gold. It’s one of my favorite adaptations:)
I decided i wanted to copy and paste my comment from the last Oz video here, because I was 3 days late to the party and I fear my comment got buried-and I believe the ish I had to say had at least a little bit of value. Oh oOHhhh Man... knuckle crack... actually, lemme wait until I watch the whole thing. I'm halfway through, see you with the rest of this comment soon. So as our generous host JonSolo mentions L Frank Baum used to submit stories, as well as editorials to a newspaper in South Dakota. That paper was The Aberdeen American News. A paper which though now defunct was published in my home town. These editorials are the source for many of the rumors I'm sure at least a few of you have heard about The Wizard of Oz... though these rumors can't be verified directly by the text of his novel or play. Rumors like, the silver slippers representing Baum's view that the country should use a silver standard for US currency as opposed to a gold standard. Or that the flying monkeys represented his view of Native Americans. I grew up believing these at that surface level. But get this... There is a historical building in town that we call Eastman's Castle. It has a moat and a tower. Further rumors say that at one point it served as the meeting place and ritual center for a group of Theosophists, of which these rumors say Baum was a member. And that many of the Editorials which he would submit to the local paper were intended to be satirical in nature. If the internet has taught me anything, it's that Poe's law still applies if the satire was printed in a newspaper so the only part I'm certain can be verified is that he was a prolific writer of letters to the editor. Though one would likely need to find them via microfilm at our local library. Final edit... Jon, thank you for all your work... I'm a long time fan
For what it's worth, everyone involved in the making gave us what I would consider as close to perfect as a movie can get I loved it as a kid, a teenager, I still love now as an adult, and I'll probably still love it when I'm old I wish there hadn't been any issues to speak of, but we can't go back in time and stop it. All we can do is make sure their efforts weren't wasted
I find this info fascinating and the same time sad for these actors and actresses. I grew up loving the wizard of oz never imagining what they went through.
That was just ONE movie back then. The shit that studios got away with back then..... Who needs horror when you have things like these to look back on with horror? 😂
Yeah during Dr Seuss day they would serve Green eggs and ham for lunch at my old elementary School and it was halfway decent 😂😂 on a sadder note i feel bad for the cast of this movie
Awesome video dude. I'm always intrigued to hear these stories about the true terror Hollywood was actually built upon, lol. I watched a documentary about Baby Peggy some days ago. She was the first child star to work in silent films. She escaped death on the set of movies after stunts such as being thrown from a moving vehicle and narrowly escaping a fire that quickly grew out of control, blocking her exit. Nobody stepped in to save her. They just kept filming and she figured out how to get out on her own. She also worked more hours at three years old than I did as an adult at my factory job that required me to work mandatory overtime. Then there was the 1928 film Noah's Ark during which the extras filmed in the flood scene literally had to fight for their lives against 600,000 gallons of rushing water. Three people drowned, a dude lost his leg, and many others were injured. I'm fairly certain I read that the actual death footage was cut from the final film, because that was sufficient justice in the eyes of Hollywood executives back then. Welp.
Love the gingham shirt and little Gunther. Actors were treated as disposable back then why unions and contracts exist to protect actors now even though they are still mistreated and injured on set. Judy Garland was put on barbiturates and forced onto crash diets throughout her career why she turned to alcohol later in life.
I believe he didn't mention it because Judy Garland's mistreatment was not an accident but a terrible injustice and this video was about the accidents behind the scenes.
It's kinda crazy how much they were forcing this old mother to perform a stunt that may have cost her her life. Like bro, you fools almost burned her alive 💀
Dorothy did not steal the dead witch's shoes. She wouldn't have been aware of what they were. It was GLINDA who teleported the sparkly footwear onto Dorothy's feet, immediately turning her into the enraged, bereaved witch's prime target. (What? You thought Dorothy had the power to transport the shoes herself? The kid hadn't even recovered from her tornado-fueled trip from one world to another!) In fact, the REAL villain of the movie is Glinda all the way. She's the one who, under the pretense of protecting Dorothy brought the subject of the slippers up in the first place. She's the one who goaded the Wicked Witch of the West into a rage, targeting her against the innocent Dorothy. Glinda next nearly got Dorothy killed by setting her on the journey to ultimately murder the witch. Glinda knew that the witch of the West was nearly as powerful as she herself. She knew that the wizard was a fake. And finally, Glinda is the one who, under the flimsy excuse of not being believed, FAILED TO TELL DOROTHY RIGHT AWAY THAT THE SLIPPERS COULD TAKE HER HOME IMMEDIATELY! Once West and wizard were out of the way WHO WAS THE BIG CHEESE IN OZ?
Here's why I love videos like this because of my dream of becoming a anthologies I need to be able to sympathize with people and understand their pain and you and others like you help me do that by providing information and insight
Gotta say that many acclaimed and beloved movies like this one were really traumatising for those involved in the production. Studio execs were really scumbags back then and so many are still doing the same today, unfortunately, most of these weren't even reported.
Even in recent years i have heard stories about the higher ups in entertainment not caring about their actors health at all, it is like making all your money off farming but when your tractor is breaking down you yell at it to do better rather than help fix it
Thanks for posting, love a good history lesson. Congratulations on your wife's pregnancy! You're my favorite RUclipsr, and my husband and I are trying too, so good luck to you both and Im so happy for you!
Thank you for actually doing your research for these videos, I do want to say in the first video where you mentioned asbestos it was supposedly gypsum salt, but nobody knows for sure which one it was.
Hi Jon, I just wanted to say that today, my teacher brought up Lego masters. THE first thing I thought of was the time you yelled "LEGO MASTERS" in the video where your wife was doing your makeup. That clip is so funny to me and that reminded me of it. 😂😂
It's a good thing the movie wasn't made a hundred years before, when Scheele's green was popular. Scheele's green was a very popular green at the time but was banned in 1830 because of the toxic arsenic in the pigment. (rare books bound with the arsenic pigment on the cover are still around in rare book archives, protected by librarians who take precautions when showing them.)
I’m honestly really happy you didn’t bring up the fake incidents that people love to spread rumors about. Like, enough terrible stuff happened on the set already, you don’t have to make up more terrible stuff to cause drama.
Margret is the only person who was ever nice to Judy which must've mean so much to Judy who was treated very poorly by everyone around her even her own family
I heard on NPR that the guy who played the scarecrow was injured as well, because they had to glue the mask to him. I had already heard an interview from the guy, saying that it was very hot and uncomfortable because the mask was rubber.
Pretty good video. I kept waiting to want to tag TheOzBlog in this for gross misinformation, but I think enough research went into this. If only Tori (of the OzVlog) gave out stamps of approval for well researched Oz videos beforehand, instead of having to whip out her Disproved fan for response videos afterwards XD
Thanks for stopping by, Solo Fam! Here's hoping you enjoyed this episode and learned something too! Which injury do you think was the WORST to go through? And what element of the Oz universe should we explore next? 👀
What about journey to the West part 2
Can you do videos of the Oz books sequels
Omg the burning and the tin man
Oz did the detached heads thing almost a century before Futurama, so there's that
Please make a part 2 there are a lot more horrible accidents that happened during the filming of this movie.
I remember hearing about the incident of Margaret Hamilton catching on fire and the reaction the first Tin Man had but never in this much detail. Just horrific.
It's all on IMDB.
Not really an accident, but the daughter of the Cowardly Lion mentions this in an interview:
"My dad was really tortured by the costume. It weighed almost 100 pounds. It was real lion fur, and it was hot. He couldn’t eat. He had to drink his lunch through a straw."
- Jane Lahr, Bert Lahr's daughter
why would that be the case? skin's not that heave, and the costume didn't cover his mouth at all.
@@benthomason3307 It's likely due to all the fur and other chemicals used to treat the entire hide so it doesn't fall apart. There was also probably some padding inside to make it look right when worn.
Actors today should be thankful they weren't performing in the 30s
I would compare it today to Jim Carrey's experience as the Grinch. I can only imagine that the costume was quite claustrophobic and made him feel very oppressed. Its easy for some of us to assume that its just a costume and either one has no right to complain. But we weren't there and we aren't them.
@@slytheringingerwitch And, in Jim Carrey's case, he also had the contact lenses to boot, he said in an interview they were quite unconfortable!
Funny how people cling to this "Dorothy stole the witch's shoes" bit, when both in the book and the film she had no choice, the shoes were basically forced on her feet, and being magical, she couldn't take'em off even if she wanted to.
Oh she absolutely had a choice in the book. The text literally explains her thought process behind why she took them! But in that case the dead witch isn’t the sister of the West Side Witch so she doesn’t have the right to them anyway.
In the movie they just appear on Dorothy’s feet but they would technically be the Wicked Witch of the West’s property since was the next of kin.
and she took them from *the wicked witch of the east* anyways, so its not like anyone was going to complain anyways
To add to all this "spoils to the victor" has always been a thing.
I have not read the series, just watched the movie. I thought I heard somewhere that the munchkins were glad she was killed the witch. The song "ding dong the witch is dead" was from the scene. As far as next of kin getting the shoes....I think Glenda is qualified as well, being Glenda and the witch of the west were sisters. I'm not sure if there was a witch from the south tho.
@@JonSolo Glinda just magicked those shoes onto Dorothy's feet just to spite the Wicked Witch of the West. Probably why she gave Dorothy the "kiss of protection" on her forehead before leaving so they couldn't be taken. Remember when the Wicked Witch tried to magick the shoes off of Dorothy when she was a prisoner in the witch's castle only to get a hell of a static electricity backlash. Glinda's doing. Same thing with Glinda creating the snowfall to destroy the deadly poppies. It's only when the Wicked Witch is dead and the Wizard is gone does Glinda appear and reveal the truth about the slippers. Glinda was using Dorothy this whole time! Good witch, indeed.
Man, sometimes I feel like the Wizard of Oz wasn’t worth it. Everything those poor actors suffered through and the unintentional aftermath on their health and lifespan. And all the bad things that happened on set.
Yes! And how it was a box office FLOP when released and only gained iconic status when it was shown on TV during the Xmas season years later and then on VHS release.
Talk about priorities.
This film crew didn't give a shit about safety and health.
It was the 30s, nobody gave a shit about safety
@@pastpatour Even now the only reason that any boss cares for H&S is, by law they have to have insurance and insurance companies will take that money out of the boss's hide a strip of flesh at a time if it was found to be in any way the boss's fault. ( So lawyers and insurance companies always win. )
@@pastpatour
Neither do most dipshits today.
For a film considered the most whimsically iconic and famous film of all time, this production was hell
I love that Gunther always looks indifferent no matter what is going on.
He just wants all the gold bling he can carry 😂
There's a lost Sesame Street episode where The Wicked Witch Of The West visited the Street looking for her lost broom. She threatened to turn Big Bird into a feather duster if her broom wasn't returned. Oscar The Grouch developed a huge crush on the Witch.
I remember that. 😂😂😂
This should have never been lost media.
It's been found for months now. What are you talking about?
That is a riot, and I want to see it
@@Tea_laBlue it's on RUclips
I don't know what's worst, but Buddy Ebsen may have "won". Imagine having your lungs coated in aluminum dust and being unable to breathe until your whole body is purple, that sounds terrifying. Then getting fired over it.... and finally having trouble breathing the rest of your life. Although the idea of having your skin burned off and then poisonous paint removed with alcohol sounds excruciating. Black hats off to Margaret Hamilton for standing her ground. She was amazingly tough to endure that and come back to the set. Too bad for her stand-ins.
There should be a movie about making of this movie in the similar vibe as The Disaster Artist.
That would be awesome
There kind of is. Its called "Under the Rainbow" and was released in 1981. That being said, that film is more of a fictionalized, comedic account. Also, the main focus is on the little people who played the Munchkins, and its about the hi-jinks they legendarily got up to.
It's pretty amazing how much the actors for this movie had to put up with during its production. I mean after all the trauma they suffered from, they could've just quit but they must've been getting paid major cash or something, if they felt compelled to stay.
But if it were me, I would've quit money or not. Because as far as I'm concerned, There's no amount of money in the world with all that drama.
After WW1 just happened, and I’m assuming the Great Depression forced them to stay cause they were lucky enough to get paid, especially in bigger amounts, vs a lot of people. So if they quit they might have been worried of being blacklisted or not finding another job at all and be completely out of income at the worst time.
This was released in 1939, right towards the end of the Great Depression and when WW2 started and was picking up steam, but that obviously means they’ve been working on the film beforehand to make sure it released in 1939. The GD was still pretty bad during the production of Oz, even if it was the tail end.
@AdamIshak01 All of that may be true, but even back then no amount of money should've been worth getting hurt or traumatized.
@@TheCommenterDragonit was a different time back then
@@TheCommenterDragon trust me I agree but I think everyone was on edge from back to back tragedies- WW1 just happened and ended in 1918, Prohibition was from 1920 till 1933, the Great Depression from 1929 to 1939, the severe drought of Dust Bowls years lasted from 1930 to 1936, WW2 has already started but didn’t officially become a war until the tail end of 1939 in Sept 1939, but the war has been brewing since 1936 when Hitler was really taking advantage of his chancellor powers. It was one tragic event after another and some even happening at the same time and overlapping one another. That’s just the major events; that’s not even including “minor stuff” like WW1 veterans protesting for their benefits, Americans being refugees in their own country, etc.
The OG Wizard of Oz wasn’t released until August 1939, which means the obviously had to work before that to make sure it releases on time. That means everyone on set was dealing with all this- some of the most infamous and devastating events in US and World History - prolly preparing for the worst by getting some cushion money. Some actors even agreed to take certain roles just to get drunk and have illegal alcohol- some even took pay cuts in their checks in place of alcohol. Ig some injuries that you can pay off or be paid for by the studio (for some actors) is better than being unemployed or with little money and dealing with everything else on top of that during America’s *real* crisis years.
I mean shit, even in our times during the unemployment of Covid which economically was confirmed to not be as bad as 2008 or the Great Depression, people started doing OF (even well off celebs), and noticed that more “hardcore” painful stuff was giving them more money, so they were doing things they didn’t want just for a check. And even some weirder stuff than OF.
You didn't just quit. You were under contract. The studio OWNED you.
The Wizard of Oz movie: 🙂
The Behind the Scenes and Production of the movie: 💀
Judy Garland was forced to wear chest binding to make her appear younger than her sixteen years.
Buddy Ebsen's voice can be heard in the "We're Off To See The Wizard" reprisals throughout the film.
Yeah, she was treated horribly during filming, as well.
She was also forced to take growth suppressing drugs
@@Artretha
I hate how Hollywood treated Garland.
Just the tip of the iceberg. Dont forget she was living on mainly a diet of coffee and cigarettes to stay skin for the roll and being forced to take uppers and downers to deal with the taping schedules. Thats also not including the physical, verbal, and sexual abuse she was dealing with from many of the higher ups at MGM. Her mom sold her daughters body and soul for fame and fortune.
😢😢😢😢😢
The actors and actresses must have really loved their jobs to put up with all these shenanigans.
They either loved their jobs or loved their pocket books.
Probably the second one
@@whtiequillBj Given that the movie was filmed during The Great Depression, I'd wager it was the pocket book.
To be fair, this was during the Great Depression. If they lost their job, they might not get another.
Directors and producers talk to each other, don't put up with them and the actors and actresses get blacklisted or blackballed and find it harder to get cast
Poor Margaret Hamilton! That's what you call suffering for the art
Imagine if this film was just completely forgotten. She'd have suffered for nothing
Basically, MGM treated Hamilton like crap all throughout the movie, like they actually thought she was the Wicked Witch, while they treated Burke like a queen. Of course, Burke was a major celebrity at the time and had been for thirty years.
sounds like they treated everyone like crap😢
@@Wolfy39565 Well, everyone that they could get away with treating like crap anyway.
Companies really took advantage of workers who feared the depression and didn't have strong unions
17:04 this is painfully true. My dog Cookie is pretty effectively camouflaged when she’s laid on my living room carpet, so I have stepped on her a couple of times over the years. The noise she makes is not only heartbreaking, but also makes my ears bleed. 😂Then I’ll probably clumsily fall and hurt myself trying to avoid hurting her, and be wracked with guilt for hours after and she’s already forgotten about it before I hit the floor 😂
Trivia: Just Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli married Jack Haley's son Jack Haley, Junior.
Really?
Every time I watch this, I ALWAYS applaud to the applauding pause to Hamilton’s doctor. I’m glad someone stood up for her💚
The pyrotechnics guy for the Wizard of Oz. Was the same Pyrotechnics guy from Tropic Thunder!
As a kid, the witch’s fiery entrance scared the crap outta me. I’d run and hide behind the couch when that explosion happened. Outside of that scene, I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen when watching.
My heart honestly goes out to all the people who suffered filming this. I absolutely adore the film itself. But on the other side of the coin, it'd be nasty to not watch what those people risked their lives to make. 😢
It’s crazy how this movie is about escapism to happier and colorful times, both for the characters in the story and for the actual people watching it as entertainment, but everyone in this movie went through straight hell and torture, especially the main cast. Jon didn’t even bring up the atrocities that Judy went through.
I know everyone is saying the should have just quit but with historical context it wasn’t that easy.
-WW1 just happened and ended
-Cast line ups and productions were done as early as 1935 during the Great Depression. I’m assuming the Great Depression forced them to stay cause they were lucky enough to get paid, especially in bigger amounts of cash, vs a lot of people who were getting paid very little if they were lucky enough to even have a job still or straight up unemployed. So the fear of if they quit they might have been worried of being blacklisted or not finding another job at all and be completely out of income at the worst time.
-This was released in 1939, right towards the end of the Great Depression and when WW2 started and was picking up steam, but that obviously means they’ve been working on the film beforehand to make sure it released in 1939. The GD was still pretty bad during the production of Oz, even if it was the tail end. Not to mention things are about to get worse.
-The Prohibition was still in place so a lot of actors even signed up jobs they didn’t want because the Hollywood executives and other stars knew where to get alcohol from, among other things. So some people were signing on just for a confirmed and guaranteed drunk night.
3 of the biggest and most infamous tragic events in US and world history was all happening at once and/or back to back of each during this time. That’s not even including WW2 since it happened after the theatrical release of the movie so no one at the time of filming had the foresight to know how bad things were about to get; they just knew to do whatever to survive, stay secure, and thrive for as long as they can so they had money to fall back on if things weren’t gonna get better.
All around everything was sad~ and that’s lightly putting it.
I'm sorry, but what were the bad things happening in America at the time of the ww2? America was never attacked... theathre of the war was Europe and eventually Japan.. in Pearl Harbor, 5k people died, and 2 days after, with 2 atomic bombs America killed in 20 seconds 300k people... in Europe 50 million people died... you Americans need to all do a reality check about what happened there.. the depression time of which you are talking about is not an effect of the ww2, for which America trough the war and selling weapons just got a lot of moneye. Depression was a direct consequence of the failure of capitalism... pick up some history books and start reading.
10:09 Actually talking from exp its quite common to not realize u're burned in burn victims. I remember when I was in HS (summer of going into Grade nine so I was 14) and I didn't realize I had been burned by the hot metal (scraped my wrist being pulled out after falling into the camp fire and landing on my pillow and sleeping bag which save me from worse burns) for a good 20 minutes despite it being obvious that I had been burned. This is because ur body goes basically into shock when burned badly as a defense mechanism so u wont realize it right away. This is why I say "If the kid's crying right away they're probably fine. Its when they're not crying but in shock that means they're really hurt. Use that shock moments wisely to get them ready and in the car."
In regards to the whole "suffering injury for a movie nobody remembers", Disney chewed up and spat out Bobby Driscoll. He gave them Peter Pan and they tossed him to the curb like the fortnightly trash.
Another thing I love hearing about the production of The Wizard of Oz is that Margaret Hamilton and Ray Bolger became best friends when meeting on that set. Only thing better than that is the fact that they both loved Judy Garland, and apparently Margaret was like a mother to Judy, and they stayed in touch with each other after Oz, too. Mad respect!
Poor Judy Garland went through hell while filming the movie, too. She was forced to take drugs to keep her awake, forced to diet on strictly salads and soups to keep her thin, slapped by the director, and even apparently tripped up by some of the actors while they were dancing on the Yellow Brick Road. Oh, and I read somewhere that some of the guys playing the munchkins kept trying to touch her under her skirt (which, for the record I was skeptical about before someone commented where that came from since I read it from Quora). And keep in mind she was 16 or 17 during this.
Hope that'll be a topic covered in the next episode! I mean, the director slapped Judy in the face! That's a crime!
Poor Judy went through so much, and her mistreatment was encouraged by her own mother. How awful.
@@Hinatachan360 God, imagine if that was going on today...
@@VioletFeatherWind Right? I mean, holy forking shirt!
Her mother was the one that got her started on the pills before she played Dorothy and the munchkin touching her is just a rumor. There is no recorded evidence that she had any ill experiences with them in any of her interviews or biographies.
Thank you for covering this! This movie had a LOT of problems
0:42 This reminded me of The Wiz-there’s an entire scene in which the citizens of Emerald City sing songs and dance and vogue (seriously) while the colors change from red, green, and gold. It’s one of my favorite adaptations:)
I knew about the two actors being injured, but I didn't know about the dog or the stuntman Gunther is becoming a butterball nice story, Jon
It's amazing MGM didn't get sued by Hamilton or Ebsen
I decided i wanted to copy and paste my comment from the last Oz video here, because I was 3 days late to the party and I fear my comment got buried-and I believe the ish I had to say had at least a little bit of value.
Oh oOHhhh Man... knuckle crack... actually, lemme wait until I watch the whole thing. I'm halfway through, see you with the rest of this comment soon.
So as our generous host JonSolo mentions L Frank Baum used to submit stories, as well as editorials to a newspaper in South Dakota. That paper was The Aberdeen American News. A paper which though now defunct was published in my home town.
These editorials are the source for many of the rumors I'm sure at least a few of you have heard about The Wizard of Oz... though these rumors can't be verified directly by the text of his novel or play.
Rumors like, the silver slippers representing Baum's view that the country should use a silver standard for US currency as opposed to a gold standard. Or that the flying monkeys represented his view of Native Americans.
I grew up believing these at that surface level. But get this...
There is a historical building in town that we call Eastman's Castle. It has a moat and a tower.
Further rumors say that at one point it served as the meeting place and ritual center for a group of Theosophists, of which these rumors say Baum was a member.
And that many of the Editorials which he would submit to the local paper were intended to be satirical in nature.
If the internet has taught me anything, it's that Poe's law still applies if the satire was printed in a newspaper so the only part I'm certain can be verified is that he was a prolific writer of letters to the editor. Though one would likely need to find them via microfilm at our local library.
Final edit... Jon, thank you for all your work... I'm a long time fan
Good to see Jon "ease on down the road" with this series.
The Wiz
Somewhere, a drum set has fallen off a cliff
For what it's worth, everyone involved in the making gave us what I would consider as close to perfect as a movie can get
I loved it as a kid, a teenager, I still love now as an adult, and I'll probably still love it when I'm old
I wish there hadn't been any issues to speak of, but we can't go back in time and stop it. All we can do is make sure their efforts weren't wasted
Happy Thanksgiving to you Jon solo and your family remember to be safe to eat lots of food
Mad respect for margaret Hamiltons doctor 🫡
Your videos are so creative and you're a great narrator! More people really need to watch your videos
I remember talking to Buddy Ebsen about his career. He was dancing with his sisters before getting ill .
I find this info fascinating and the same time sad for these actors and actresses. I grew up loving the wizard of oz never imagining what they went through.
A friend of mine described the Wizard of Oz as "cursed" and, judging by what the actors went through, he had a point
The man clapping his hands is classic
That was just ONE movie back then.
The shit that studios got away with back then.....
Who needs horror when you have things like these to look back on with horror? 😂
Yeah during Dr Seuss day they would serve Green eggs and ham for lunch at my old elementary School and it was halfway decent 😂😂 on a sadder note i feel bad for the cast of this movie
Awesome video dude. I'm always intrigued to hear these stories about the true terror Hollywood was actually built upon, lol. I watched a documentary about Baby Peggy some days ago. She was the first child star to work in silent films. She escaped death on the set of movies after stunts such as being thrown from a moving vehicle and narrowly escaping a fire that quickly grew out of control, blocking her exit. Nobody stepped in to save her. They just kept filming and she figured out how to get out on her own. She also worked more hours at three years old than I did as an adult at my factory job that required me to work mandatory overtime.
Then there was the 1928 film Noah's Ark during which the extras filmed in the flood scene literally had to fight for their lives against 600,000 gallons of rushing water. Three people drowned, a dude lost his leg, and many others were injured. I'm fairly certain I read that the actual death footage was cut from the final film, because that was sufficient justice in the eyes of Hollywood executives back then. Welp.
Love the gingham shirt and little Gunther. Actors were treated as disposable back then why unions and contracts exist to protect actors now even though they are still mistreated and injured on set. Judy Garland was put on barbiturates and forced onto crash diets throughout her career why she turned to alcohol later in life.
Glinda stole the shoes, Dorothy can only be done for receiving stolen goods.
That seems to be the main reason for the blacklist. To clear studios of any liability they know they can get sued for
Terry shouldn't be an honorable mention. What they did to Terry should've been a war crime
I really liked how you worded your script. The Salem witch trials transition was pretty smooth
i remember the green ketchup. i told my little brother he was eating Shrek's snot😂
That’s a good one 😂
Brilliant show, Jon! I knew of these incidences but not in this much depth. Now, it's time to watch our yearly viewing during Christmas break.
When a company cares more about a movie being out on time then those in it. Then they might need to have their heads checked.
I really want a return to oz video! It’s so underrated
i’ve never been this early! excited for the video 🥹
I NEVER knew that shot of the witch in the broom was not Margaret Hamilton! Such interesting little details!
You failed to mention Judy Garland and how this movie (and all the horrible adults in her life) messed her up.
Even the director. He literally slapped her in the face because she was laughing.
@@Ghostvine18
That’s so messed up.
Poor girl.
I believe he didn't mention it because Judy Garland's mistreatment was not an accident but a terrible injustice and this video was about the accidents behind the scenes.
This video is specifically about on-set accidents.
Love seeing your channel having grown so much!!!!!
Love how Jon's shirts match his videos... so much thought put in. Thanks SOLO
It's kinda crazy how much they were forcing this old mother to perform a stunt that may have cost her her life. Like bro, you fools almost burned her alive 💀
Dorothy did not steal the dead witch's shoes. She wouldn't have been aware of what they were. It was GLINDA who teleported the sparkly footwear onto Dorothy's feet, immediately turning her into the enraged, bereaved witch's prime target. (What? You thought Dorothy had the power to transport the shoes herself? The kid hadn't even recovered from her tornado-fueled trip from one world to another!) In fact, the REAL villain of the movie is Glinda all the way. She's the one who, under the pretense of protecting Dorothy brought the subject of the slippers up in the first place. She's the one who goaded the Wicked Witch of the West into a rage, targeting her against the innocent Dorothy. Glinda next nearly got Dorothy killed by setting her on the journey to ultimately murder the witch. Glinda knew that the witch of the West was nearly as powerful as she herself. She knew that the wizard was a fake. And finally, Glinda is the one who, under the flimsy excuse of not being believed, FAILED TO TELL DOROTHY RIGHT AWAY THAT THE SLIPPERS COULD TAKE HER HOME IMMEDIATELY!
Once West and wizard were out of the way WHO WAS THE BIG CHEESE IN OZ?
This was a good one and neat keep it up man.
Here's why I love videos like this because of my dream of becoming a anthologies I need to be able to sympathize with people and understand their pain and you and others like you help me do that by providing information and insight
The actors from the Birds went through disastrous production too.
Gotta say that many acclaimed and beloved movies like this one were really traumatising for those involved in the production. Studio execs were really scumbags back then and so many are still doing the same today, unfortunately, most of these weren't even reported.
Ahhh I want more of this Oz content! Please make some videos for the sequels please rarely anyone ever does! 😭🙏
Even in recent years i have heard stories about the higher ups in entertainment not caring about their actors health at all, it is like making all your money off farming but when your tractor is breaking down you yell at it to do better rather than help fix it
Thanks for posting, love a good history lesson. Congratulations on your wife's pregnancy! You're my favorite RUclipsr, and my husband and I are trying too, so good luck to you both and Im so happy for you!
I feel like WoO was cursed or something.
Any chicken poop squeezers out there😮
Thank you for actually doing your research for these videos, I do want to say in the first video where you mentioned asbestos it was supposedly gypsum salt, but nobody knows for sure which one it was.
Hi Jon, I just wanted to say that today, my teacher brought up Lego masters. THE first thing I thought of was the time you yelled "LEGO MASTERS" in the video where your wife was doing your makeup. That clip is so funny to me and that reminded me of it. 😂😂
Thanks Jon And Gunther.👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Let's face it, Hollywood was always a mess derserving of Pompeii. Just look up Patricia Douglas. It's...depressing...
I just watched the first video in this series like an hour ago
perfect timing!
I'm surprised you didn't mention the "suicide munchkin" that didn't actually happen
Maybe he actually did his research, and thus decided not to repeat lies.
I'm pretty sure the fact that it didn't actually happen is the very reason he didn't mention it.
Again, wonderful bit of entertainment. Ya don't disappoint.
It's a good thing the movie wasn't made a hundred years before, when Scheele's green was popular. Scheele's green was a very popular green at the time but was banned in 1830 because of the toxic arsenic in the pigment. (rare books bound with the arsenic pigment on the cover are still around in rare book archives, protected by librarians who take precautions when showing them.)
great video jon! i love your oz videos!
This needs to be a series
I’m honestly really happy you didn’t bring up the fake incidents that people love to spread rumors about. Like, enough terrible stuff happened on the set already, you don’t have to make up more terrible stuff to cause drama.
16:55 😭😭😭 poor thing😭😭😭 my dog bella is literally crying when I accidentally step on her
Yooo my dog is also named Bella 😂
Awesome as always thanks ❤
Margret is the only person who was ever nice to Judy which must've mean so much to Judy who was treated very poorly by everyone around her even her own family
4 minutes ago feels like a crime 💀
If you can, can you please present The Messed Up Origins of the film "The Wiz"?
You gotta put them on and say “there’s no place like home”
I heard on NPR that the guy who played the scarecrow was injured as well, because they had to glue the mask to him. I had already heard an interview from the guy, saying that it was very hot and uncomfortable because the mask was rubber.
You can tell there are no thoughts behind Gunther's eyes and I love it
What about the color changing horse? They have those in Emerald City, don’t they?
This the best video so far Solo !! Haha😂
I love your Dorothy shirt! .....btw.GUNTHER!
A RUclipsr called Jessi Vee already made a video about this, but its nice to see another Popular RUclipsr talk about it again.
OMG, I am on the wrong side of 40 years old, and I just realized that the original Tin Man was Paw from the Beverly Hillbillies 🤯 !!
I hope next week is about WICKED 💚💖
u dodged taxes by buying ur dog a gold diamond chain and filming it? good on ya
Pretty good video. I kept waiting to want to tag TheOzBlog in this for gross misinformation, but I think enough research went into this. If only Tori (of the OzVlog) gave out stamps of approval for well researched Oz videos beforehand, instead of having to whip out her Disproved fan for response videos afterwards XD
This is a pretty backhanded compliment 😬
@@bukkeki I don't see why ... ??
Crazy, thanks for the lesson
I love the Dorothy gingham you're sporting