The Wizard of Oz and the Dark Side of Hollywood

i could comb away my trousers but all i have is stubble without a hat to wear i could use a brush for hours and clog the drains of showers if i only had some hair the national weather service has issued a downward spiral warning in your area please remain calm do not attempt to flee or seek shelter resistance oh boy i have a feeling we're not in florida anymore i am dr spiral the great and powerful welcome to green screen city hey i've seen you before you look just like that man behind the curtain pay no attention to the man behind the curtain you were brought here because you wished for your hair back wait i can tell where this is going are you really doing this again were the four other times not enough pay no attention to the four other ads i've done for this product i put a lot of work into this one just look at all these zany green screen effects wow you sold out man what happened to you you used to be cool you want to know what's cool having hair you should know considering that pathetic little song you were singing just two minutes ago wait i'm sorry i was just being bitter because i didn't discover keeps until it was too late silence i was prepared to grant you keepsa's 90 effectiveness at reducing and stopping the symptoms of hair loss i was prepared to connect you with an online doctor and have your order shipped right to your door but now your insolence has made me reconsider you don't deserve the most affordable fda approved hair loss product wait no please save my hair i'll do anything silence you had your chance to visit keeps.com emplemon for 50 off your first order but now you're doomed to lose all the rest of your hair and wind up like my cousin dr oz i command you to leave this place immediately oh what a world what a world the wizard of oz is one of the most iconic films in the history of cinema according to the library of congress it's the single most watched film of all time very few artistic works from the 1930s have managed to persist within the public consciousness but even now 82 years later most of you watching know exactly who these characters are far less known however are the people behind these characters principal photography for the wizard of oz lasted from october 1938 to march 1939. during these five months the stars of the movie were subject to some of the most horrendous conditions in the history of the american film industry when it was all said and done not a single character who set off down the yellow brick road left the land of oz unscathed that's not to say that things were much better back home in kansas the 1930s were a period of major turmoil and hardship for the american public the great depression ravaged almost every sector of the economy while most american industries were struggling the film industry was booming to escape from the dread of everyday life most americans sought refuge in the cinema nowadays about 1 in 10 americans have gone to the movies in the past week in the 30s however it was not uncommon for half of all americans to pay a weekly visit to the theater hollywood was in the midst of its golden age a period where studios had unparalleled influence over the industry during this time the top 8 studios controlled 95 percent of american cinema and no studio was more illustrious than mgm they were the studio widely considered to provide audiences with the biggest stars in the grandest spectacle mgm smoked the rest of hollywood with its unmatched financial and critical success across the 30s mgm films accounted for nearly a third of the nominees for best picture and nearly three-quarters of the total profits generated by all eight major studios mgm's dominance over hollywood was due in large part to the strong leadership of its chief executive lewis b mayer who in 1937 was the highest paid man in america 1937 also saw the release of one of the most groundbreaking films ever made and one of the most successful films of the time to not come out of the mgm system that year walt disney would release his first animated feature film snow white and the seven dwarves the film was an immersive fantasy unlike anything audiences had ever seen and by the following year had become the highest grossing film to date snow white's record-breaking success inspired mgm to produce a spectacular fantasy of their own in 1938 the studio bought out the rights to l frank braum's popular children's novel the wonderful wizard of oz and the rest was history a history that some members of the cast and crew wish they could forget unlike snow white the wizard of oz was entirely live action which presented a series of challenges while attempting to transform fantasy into reality one of the most iconic scenes in all of cinema is dorothy waking up in the land of oz and the film transitioning from sepia to color the official coloring method used to develop the film was technicolor which required heavy exposure due to the process of splitting the image into different colored channels as a result the oz set required an exorbitant amount of lighting so much so that the temperature on stage often surpassed 100 degrees fahrenheit the heat was suffocating and stagehands frequently had to be carried off stage after fainting the set lighting was so intense that some actors even claimed to suffer permanent vision damage the exhaustion suffered from the oppressive heat was only magnified by the arduous production schedule for six days a week the actors walked into the studio at 4am and didn't leave until 7pm a significant part of each actor's day was dedicated to the meticulous preparation and removal of their costumes the scarecrow tin man and cowardly lion are one of the most recognizable trios in fiction all three characters were brought to life by the skilled design of makeup artist jack dawn while the costumes presented an impeccable external appearance conditions weren't so pleasant on the inside every morning as the scarecrow ray bulger would have to spend an hour getting his latex and plastic mask painstakingly glued to his face and every evening he would spend an hour getting it removed the mask completely covered his facial pores meaning that he was physically unable to sweat while wearing it one could only imagine how it must have felt to wear that thing for 15 hours a day but ray bulger didn't have to imagine for 22 weeks it was his reality by the time filming was complete the repeated applications of the mask left bulger with permanent grooves around his mouth and chin but considering what happened to some of the other actors he may have gotten off easy the tin man was played by buddy epson for about nine days that's how long he lasted during filming until he was hospitalized from a severe reaction to the 10 minutes metallic makeup ebsen's silver face paint was made out of aluminum powder powder that would eventually coat the inside of his lungs nearly asphyxiating him as epson sat bedridden under an oxygen tent in the hospital the studio could not have given him less sympathy producer mervyn leroy repeatedly phoned the hospital angrily insisting that epson returned to the set after two weeks out of action the studio replaced epson with jack haley much like pete best getting cut from the beatles buddy epson would end up becoming one of the unluckiest men in show business not only was he unceremoniously fired from what would have been the biggest role of his career the incident left him with chronic bronchitis jack haley managed to avoid a catastrophic reaction to the aluminum makeup but it still gave him a severe eye infection that forced him out of work for days the rest of the suit was so stiff that it rendered haley unable to sit down or lie down during filming in order to rest in between takes he was forced to lean on a reclining board but despite all the complications it caused the tin man costume may have still been preferable to that of the cowardly lion burt lars lion suit was compared to carrying around a mattress the bulk of the costume consisted of a 60 pound line hide a real line hide combined with additional padding some estimates put the weight of the full costume at a hundred pounds bert lahr would become drenched in sweat after just a few minutes and he would frequently have to take off the suit between shots to avoid exhaustion the prosthetic mask covering his face didn't allow him to fully open his mouth forcing him to consume all of his onset meals through a straw halfway through production lara gave in and sacrificed an additional hour each day in the makeup chair so that he could eat solid food at lunch as someone who was known by his peers to be a hypochondriac bert lahr was in near constant agony but by far the worst costume related accident during the whole shoot happened to margaret hamilton better known as the wicked witch nowadays there are lots of ways to make someone look green but in 1938 the only tried and true method used by hollywood makeup artists was copper paint copper of course is toxic when ingested by humans this was known back then but the studio showed no restraint in applying the copper concoction directly to hamilton's face and hands towards the end of production hamilton realized that the constant application of the witch's makeup had tinted her skin green an effect that lingered for months after the job wearing the makeup on set was a constant struggle once it was on hamilton was unable to touch anything without staining it and required assistance to perform the most basic of tasks but the day-to-day struggles of the makeup would pale in comparison to the accident she suffered on december 23 1938 when departing munchkinland hamilton was scripted to exit the scene in a fiery cloud of smoke the first attempt at the stun went flawlessly but director victor fleming wanted to get a few extra takes for insurance on the fourth attempt the pyrotechnics were ignited too early causing hamilton to be engulfed in flames the accident resulted in second-degree burns on the whole right side of her face the skin on her right hand was entirely scalded off but before hamilton could even receive medical attention she had to slowly and excruciatingly have the copper makeup removed from her freshly burned skin with rubbing alcohol margaret hamilton would spend the next six weeks in the hospital before returning to the set on her very first day back she was scheduled for the sky writing scene another stunt involving pyrotechnics hamilton adamantly refused to put herself anywhere near fire again and threatened to walk out of the production right then and there since the project was nearing completion at that point the studio acquiesced and the scene was completed using hamilton's stunt double betty danko while filming that very scene the smoke pipe underneath the broomstick exploded and danko was violently flung from the installation the explosion was caused by the special effects crew coating the pipe with asbestos another toxic substance once thought to be an all-purpose wonder material asbestos was also used in ray bolger's scarecrow suit as well as the snow in the poppy field scene unusual weather will happen ain't it betty danko was hospitalized for 11 days with internal damage from the explosion as well as a 2-inch deep gash on her leg a wound that would never fully heal it was a hefty toll for a gig in which she earned just over 800 dollars the long-term health effects on margaret hamilton were far less known what is known is that she would go on to develop alzheimer's later in her life a condition that has been linked to copper poisoning in total six performers on the wizard of oz face some kind of serious physical trauma not even toto left the set intact however after enough time had passed many of the actors could look back on the whole ordeal as a bunch of amusing war stories most physical ailments are only temporary mental ailments on the other hand tend to stick with you for life and out of everyone in the land of oz perhaps none suffered a worse fate than the star of the show judy garland she was without a doubt one of the most talented performers of the 20th century her portrayal of dorothy and the wizard of oz has served as an enduring symbol of youth and innocence and even though she was never imprisoned by a brutal costume like the other actors the studio paid no less scrutiny to her appearance since the character of dorothy was envisioned as a prepubescent girl the then 17 year old garland had to constantly wear a tight corset to hide her more mature figure but that was merely one aspect of the studio's efforts to keep judy thin garland was placed on a shoestring diet one that would not provide her with enough energy to complete the arduous filming days to compensate the studio kept garland on a steady intake of amphetamines to keep her working long into the day the amphetamine subsequently necessitated the use of barbiturates to prevent garland from exhausting herself years later she claimed that during some periods she would only sleep four hours every three days the fact that she was able to perform as well as she did under these conditions is nothing short of astonishing by the end of production garland was addicted to both drugs and addiction that would last for the rest of her life it certainly didn't help that her time as a child star directly contributed to deep-rooted psychological problems despite her brilliance as a performer garland was always encumbered by major esteem issues the insecurities began when a 14 year old garland overheard the mgm executives referring to her as a fat little pig this moment completely devastated her self-image and manifested itself as an unobtainable standard of perfection that she spent her whole life chasing and even though she would wind up becoming one of the greatest performers ever in her mind it was never good enough in many ways judy garland was the first tragic child star an archetype that has sadly become much more common in modern times clinical psychiatrist john linden encountered many such patients while practicing in the los angeles area he observed that premature stardom resulted in many child actors forming severe identity issues they tended to report a feeling of profound emptiness when they weren't performing as if they were marionettes whose true selves lacked any sort of meaning the reason so many young stars end up on the downward spiral is that many fail to develop any sense of individual identity some attempt to fill this void with sex drugs and alcohol but it's often no match for the constant anxiety of never really understanding who you are there exists a tragic irony between judy garland and dorothy a character who wanted nothing more than to find joy and comfort in a wayward world unlike dorothy however judy garland never made it over the rainbow on june 22 1969 judy garland was found dead of an overdose on her bathroom floor she was just 47 years old in the years leading up to her death her increasingly erratic downfall was treated by the media as some sort of morbid spectacle the american public seemed unable to reconcile how she could have possibly been anyone other than the innocent farm girl from kansas hollywood has the remarkable ability to make the wildest parts of our imagination come to life but the magic of crafting immersive fantasies comes with a very real dark side often times it's easy for studios to lose sight of the real life human beings at their disposal and to end up treating them as well marionettes it would be easy to look back at all the trauma from the wizard of oz and chalk it up to a product of its time back then studios could just get away with all of it because if any actor fought back they would be blacklisted from the industry but still even after the studio's iron grip over the industry was broken and actors gained more leverage over their careers it would be naive to suggest that much has changed in hollywood the inner workings of the film industry have always been an enigma the history of hollywood is smeared with talented people guilty of terrible things very rarely do we ever get to discover what truly goes on behind the big green curtain out of every scandal that does come to light we can only imagine what remains in the dark in the business of telling the biggest stories possible the smaller stories often get left behind for 22 weeks in 1938 and 1939 six of hollywood's most talented actors were practically tortured with many of them experiencing long lasting and permanent damage to their bodies and minds the result was one of the single greatest artistic works of the 20th century the wizard of oz was the defining career achievement for every single person who worked on it their suffering had directly contributed to the most beloved film of a generation it's tempting to dismiss everything you've heard today as an exploitative cash grab from greedy media tyrants but for mgm it was never that simple in 1939 mgm released 41 films in total premiering a new movie once every nine days on average at this time the studio had no shortage of revenue what they coveted instead was prestige every year mgm would earmark one production as their prestige film a project that was never intended to turn a prophet but one that existed for the simple purpose of flexing the cinematic might of the studio from its very conception the wizard of oz was designed as a monument to the single most dominant empire in the history of the film industry 35 years after the film's release toy executive marty abrams was conducting market research on local children and found that 80 percent recognized the characters of oz today memorabilia attached to these characters now sell for millions at auction over the years the performers who brought these characters to life have gradually faded from public memory their sacrifices ultimately forgotten dorothy scarecrow tin man cowardly lion and the wicked witch have managed to outlive them such is the ultimate destiny of people in show business actors are tragically temporary eventually only the characters remain today it may seem unfathomable that our most popular and celebrated actors will inevitably meet the same fate but at the end of the day it is art not the artist which stands the test of time despite the turmoil suffered by the actors on the set of oz one has to wonder if any of them ever regretted it 4 500 years ago the ancient egyptians completed the great pyramid of giza a structure so remarkably ambitious that it would stand as the tallest building on earth until the middle ages for millennia archaeologists found it inconceivable that it could have been constructed by any other means than a massive workforce of slave labor the pyramid defied our expectations to such an extent that some people believe it had to have resulted from supernatural or extraterrestrial influence however recent archaeological studies have uncovered a truth that is somehow even more unbelievable the vast majority of people who built the great pyramid were volunteers the ancient egyptians risked life and limb to participate in something greater than themselves their reward for 20 years of deadly backbreaking labor is that we still talk about them today long after everything they knew and loved ceased to exist what would you be willing to sacrifice if it meant you could live forever since the dawn of civilization mankind has sought the secret to immortality we can only wonder if science or religion will ever help us achieve eternal life but at the very least art can get us pretty damn close you

Channel: EmpLemon

Views: 535,203

Rating: 4.9687386 out of 5

Keywords: EmpLemon, Wizard of Oz

Id: C4q3og9NP9E

Length: 21min 26sec (1286 seconds)

Published: Fri May 07 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Driver2900]

Das pretty good

[u/SwaggyDingo]

Wake up babe, new emplemon