Several times, Tin Man Jack Haley would fall down while in costume and had to lie helplessly, "like a turtle on its back", until someone would help him up.
As a child, L. Frank Baum had a reoccurring nightmare in which he was chased by a scarecrow.
When answering his fan mail, Scarecrow Ray Bolger would sometimes send admirers strands of straw from his original costume.
Books published by L. Frank Baum before Oz included The Art of Decorating Dry Goods Windows and Interiors and The Book of the Hamburgs – a book about raising chickens.
Look closely at the wallpaper in Dorothy’s bedroom. It features a poppy design.
She’s scared the daylights out of little children for well over 60 years, but before she began her acting career, Wicked Witch of the West Margaret Hamilton was a kindergarten teacher.
The MGM film was not the first movie to portray Oz in color and Kansas in black and white; in 1933, an early Technicolor cartoon version of Oz was the first to use this idea. Because of a dispute with Technicolor, however, the cartoon was never released.
The first time Judy Garland’s children, Lorna and Joey Luft, watched The Wizard of Oz, they were at home with a nanny while their mother was in New York. When the Winged Monkeys carried Dorothy away, the two children became hysterical, thinking the monkeys had carried their mother off to New York. Later, Garland called the children and assured them she was all right.
According to MGM press releases, "For every day [Tin Man] Jack Haley worked, fifty-cents worth of real silver went into his makeup."
The "horse of a different color" that pulls Dorothy and her friends through the Emerald City was played by two while palominos who were painted with Jell-O.
Toto was a common name for dogs in the nineteenth century.
In 1989, jeweler Harry Winston created a pair of ruby slippers out of real rubies. The shoes are reported to be worth $3 million – the entire cost of the 1939 movie.
Did you know that Dorothy’s farmhand friends had last names? According to the official Wizard of Oz web site, Ray Bolger’s character’s full name was Hunk Andrews, and Jack Haley’s was Hickory Twicker. Zeke, played by Bert Lahr, had just the one name.
Want more Oz trivia tidbits? Visit The Numbers of Production 1060, or check out Drunk Munchkins ... and Other Stories to learn more about Oz urban legends.
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