What are the best Wizard of Oz urban legends you have heard?!
Question: Things like playing the movie with the sound off to Pink Floyd, to a stage hand being seen falling off a set in a scene background to the face makeup making some of the cast sick? Love to hear 'em all to this American classic.
Answers: Things like playing the movie with the sound off to Pink Floyd, to a stage hand being seen falling off a set in a scene background to the face makeup making some of the cast sick? Love to hear 'em all to this American classic.
I heard there were Munchkin Orgies (when they weren't filming?)
Some amusing variants of this story have surfaced:
-The hanging man was one of the Munchkin actors — which is unlikely, as the forest scenes were actually shot before the Munchkinland scenes, and the little people playing the Munchkins hadn't arrived in town at that point. Many of the surviving Munchkin actors have also stated that this is false.
-A Munchkin actor hanged himself after being rejected by one of the Munchkin actresses — see above.
-The man hanging himself is the director's son, upset that he didn't get a part in The Movie or on the crew — which is impossible, as Victor Fleming only had two young daughters at the time.
-MGM was forced to leave the shot in, as they couldn't afford to reshoot the scene — which is extremely unlikely, as MGM was the biggest studio of the day, and could well afford another take.
-The man who hanged himself was the grandfather of the boy who became the ghost in Three Men and a Baby, another popular Hollywood urban legend. Since the "ghost" is actually a cardboard cutout of actor Ted Danson, this is not terribly likely.
-The "hanging" was actually a technician who got entangled in some cables or ropes and accidentally fell into the scene, strangling himself — I think somebody is confusing the stagehand and hanging legends.
-The bird was added in later to mask the hanging — well, then, couldn't they have made the bird clearer? Or erased the hanging man entirely?
-The hanging person was a young, unknown actress who was upset that she didn't get the part of Dorothy — the only actresses ever seriously considered for the part were Judy Garland and, for a brief time, Shirley Temple
-The hanging was still in the original videotape release of The Movie, but replaced by the bird in the 1989 fiftieth anniversary rerelease — the only change made from the early '80s release and the 1989 one was to finally change the Kansas scenes back to their original sepia tones. Furthermore, I can personally attest to seeing the bird in a film print in 1979, before The Movie was ever released on home video.
-The hanging is really somewhere else in the scene, or the next one — look, if people can't even figure out where the hanging is, could it possibly be that it isn't really there?
-I'm just part of some conspiracy to cover up the truth — if I am, I wish someone would let me in on the secret! I have no reason to hide the truth, I am in no one's employ or thralls, and I don't see what good it would do me or anyone else to hide it now. The truth is, there is no hanging.
-"I know who the hanged man was" — yet every time someone has told me this, they clam up when I ask for a name or details. If there is truly a hanging in The Movie, I and Oz and film researchers around the world are going to need a lot more evidence than "It looks like a hanging man" or a man with no name.
Were there drunken Munchkin orgies and parties during filming of The Wizard of Oz?
What are the Winkies chanting in the Witch's Castle
Is there synchronicity between Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and M-G-M's The Wizard of Oz?:
Where does 'the red brick road' go?:Most folks believe that 'the red brick road' is an L. Frank Baum book convention that made it into MGM's 1939 classic film. In his books, the Land of Oz was divided into four quadrants and each was designated a particular color: Winkie Country = Yellow, Gillikin Country = Purple, Munchkin Country = Blue, and Quadling Country = Red. Glinda the Good was the ruler of the Quadlings in L. Frank Baum's Oz series. As her bubble floats away from Munchkinland in the 1939 film, it appears to be following the red brick road. Therefore, the red brick road most likely leads back to her homeland, Quadling Country.
i've only heard the first 2 you mentioned
http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/ozsui...
The suicide is FALSE
there's a munchkin hanging himself in one of the scenes. we actually looked for it in my history class, and it's really there. look it up on youtube.
Apparently In the opening scene, when the wicked witch disappears in a ball of flames, she was badly burned.
the suicide of a little person by hanging in the forest scene when they meet the lion they say on some older versions you can see it! I have never have so all is very unbelievable to me.
Supposedly some Munchkin hanged themselves on the set, debunked here:
http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/ozsui...
The face makeup story is true; Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Tin Man, but the aluminum makeup made him sick.
Margaret Hamilton was burned by her "I'm melting" exit. (True.)
She wasn't burned in her "I'm melting" exit. It's the scene in munchkinland where she disappears in a cloud of smoke. She was supposed to go through a trap door in the floor but didn't go down smoothly. As a result, her face was badly burned buy the special effects used to create the smoke.
there really was a man who died on the set it was a stage hand who comited suicide. you can see it in an older version the new ones were changed. u see a man climb up a ladder in the backround then swing across and back.this all happens while the tinman,dorothy,and the scarecrow skip into the woods singing "were off to see the wizard".
I heard that the tin man fisted the lion...but I cant say if it really happened or not....he definately abused Toto with his oil can, that is fact!