Morbid - The Dark Secrets Behind The Wizard of Oz

Episode Date: November 24, 2021

For this Holiday week, we wanted to bring you a lighter (?) episode, although it’s really not so light at all! Alaina’s kids have gotten super into the Wizard of Oz and so she decided to do dive into the dark happenings during filming. All kinds of atrocities went down and we are pretty confident that you’ll never watch this movie the same! Sorry…. we mean you’re welcome! The Making of the Wizard of Oz By Aljean Harmetz (Be wary that this book is fascinating but uses some outdated language when referencing certain people) Paper referenced during the episode  As always, thank you to our sponsors: HelloFresh: Get up to fourteen free meals—plus, three free gifts!—with code morbid14 at HelloFresh.com/morbid14 Skylight Frame: Now, as a special offer, you can get $10 off your purchase of a Skylight Frame when you go SkylightFrame.com and enter code MATCP Good Rx: For simple smart savings on your prescriptions, go to GoodRX.com/morbid Amazon Music: For a limited time, new customers can try Amazon Music Unlimited FREE for THREE months. No credit card required! Just go to Amazon.com/morbid BetterHelp: Special offer for Morbid listeners: get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/Morbid Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is growing your own loophis. I'm kidding. It's actually morbid. It is. But I was just watching a TikTok about growing your own lufa. And I really want to grow my own lufa now.

Ash got real investing. You know how some TikToks are one minute and some are like 45 minutes and a half? Yeah. I was on one of those ones that's 45 and a half minutes. Not actually. I think it's like the max is three. But it feels long. I was going to say, I think it's three.

But it feels long. Just being hyperbolic. But anyways, I just saw one of those really long TikToks, and this guy was growing his own lufa. He grew a couple of them. And then he was like peeling it, which looked really satisfying. Like, I was like, I want to do that. And then he took the whole thing out. And it was like gigantic.

I was like, you could cut that in half, put one in your kitchen sink, put one in your shower. And I was really thinking about that. But then I was like, kind of looks like it would hurt on your body. When I say she had all of those thoughts and she had them all out loud. I can vouch for that. Most of my thoughts happen out loud when I met Alina. It was a fun little process to watch. I always love someone like having an argument with themselves and then like coming to a conclusion with both sides of their brain.

Like both sides of the argument that happened in their brain come together. I don't know if I even came to a conclusion yet though. You didn't come to a conclusion yet, but I believe in you. We had to start working. Yeah. So I'll come to a conclusion later today and I guess I'll let you guys know next episode. Yeah. If I'm going to grow my own lufar or not.

Because what we've come down to, I think, is that you are concerned it wasn't going to feel good. And then you said, on my skin. No, he said on my body. On my body. I don't think it was feel good on my body. Like, it looks rough. Like, it looks like I'd be like, it looks almost like, like a pumice stone.

It does. Which feels good on your foot, but you're not going to pumice stone your shoulder. Exholiation station is where we are. But like these days, I guess you're not even supposed to exfoliate as much as I used to think. I feel like everything's stupid. Yeah, me as well. But anyways, I don't even know the climate in which you're supposed to grow aloofa, so I guess we can just move on. Yeah, we'll move on from this. We'll figure it out. Don't worry. We'll update you let you know. Everybody is like, are you on drugs right now? Are you all right?

And I'm like, no, I'm on life. And the answer is no. We are not. They know to drugs. But, you know, it's just, it's the holiday week. It's the holiday season. It's almost Thanksgiving. I'm going to eat a lot of food. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm going to to be cooking today like crazy. Yeah, Elaine is hosting. Doing Thanksgiving. I'm doing Thanksgiving. So it's going to be, it's going to be interesting.

I'm particularly excited about your pumpkin and sage pasta. Are you making the pesto bread that I requested? Yes, I am. I got all the stuff to make it. Excited about that. And I'm honestly, two more things. I'm also really excited about the sausage stuffing. Oh, yeah.

And the strusel. The sweet potato. Sweet potato. Casserol. Yeah, you're all invited to you there. And you know what? I'll post some recipes because they're all recipes I found on like the interwebs. So I can.

I'll post some recipes in case anybody thinks any of that sounds good. It does. But yeah, I'm excited. I like cooking a turkey. I like doing a little herb butter rub underneath the skin all up in there. How do you feel about ripping up the guts? Like ripping up the cavity. Oh, I mean, that's my job.

It is, but how do you feel about it? The same I feel about my job. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I thought you meant like it's your job because you're cooking the turkey. It literally is my job to go into like cavities that no one else wants to go into. Yeah, describe your job in a really weird way. You go first, I guess. Yeah, there it is. I'll go first. I cut dead things off of people. Yeah. So it's just kind of might as well. It's a turkey. It's easier, I think. Do you put like lemons or like oranges in there? Let me let you let you all know in case you're.

wondering. You got to put a little citrus in there. That's what I saw. Put a little bouquet of herbs, maybe some times, some rosemary, some parsley. Yeah, you got to, you got to really get the aromatics in there. And you also rub it in salt, right? Yeah, that's a brining process. Some people dry brines. Some people don't brine at all. Do you brown? It's really up to everybody. I, I've brined before. Do you even brine, bro? She doesn't even brine here. Did she even brine bro? Yeah. And you want to put some like garlic and onion in there like really get it going. Do you ever, do you put a shallot in there? Yeah. Oh, we love a chalet. We love a jean shallot. We love a jean shallot in there. And the really

important thing is basting my dudes. Baste that gosh darn bird. That's important even if you cook like a chicken. Yeah. Baste the hell out of it. Baced forever. It makes a difference. Even when I make like chicken breastesses. Yeah. You got to base that you. Yeah. It works. But you know, that's been a Thanksgiving with us. Lufus and Thanksgivings with Ash and Elena. So we're right on Target here. I think we're right on brand. True crime. True crime.

You know? Lufus and... True crime. And turkeys. But yeah, today's also going to be kind of like a different episode a little bit. It's like we're in the dark spookiness. But this is like a different one, I feel. We don't have really done anything like this.

Particularly, I'm very excited. I'm pretty excited. So let me... We'll start this off the proper way. Yeah. So I, Elena. That's you. That's me.

I have been obsessed with The Wizard of Oz since I was a little little girl. I used to literally have to dress up like Dorothy every time I watched it. I had the ruby red slippers. Yeah. Had the outfit. My mom would braid my hair. I know every line of that movie I watched 100,000 times. It's adorable.

So that was like my jam when I was little. And I was always wondering when I should allow the girls to get into it because like I'm weird. And like I watched a lot of shit that I was. like, wow, I can't believe that didn't traumatize me. Such as labyrinths. But maybe it did. I don't know. The girls have watched labyrinths and they love it.

But Wizard of Oz, you know, some people, I remember Drew was saying the flying monkeys freaked him out. And I remember John was like, no, the flying monkeys are like scary. And I was like, I don't know, guys. Yeah, it's funny because I thought. I don't know men. That they were. I don't know.

That's how I usually feel. I don't know. I always thought that like they were a little bit scary. But then in watching it with the girls, I don't know. realized, I've only seen it once. That's wild. Yeah. That's really wild to me.

I only watched it one time and then it's not that I didn't like it. I think I just like didn't really get that fascinated with that. You vibe with it or you don't. Yeah. Like it's, I think it's like one of those things you watch it and you're either like, wow, this is my entire personality now or you're like, eh, maybe I'll watch it again someday. Yeah, see, I watched Coyote Ugly when I was little and I felt like that was my entire personality.

And I still do. That is. You're the Wizard of Oz and I'm Coyote Yucle. Yeah. I think those honestly describe us pretty well. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I was worried.

I didn't know. I was like, it's five good. And then this past Halloween, a couple of people in their dance class and their school had Dorothy costumes. And I was like, oh. And they were like, what's that about? Oh, people are watching Wizard of Oz. But I was like, I don't know.

And they came home one day and were like, I really liked that outfit. Yeah. Who's Dorothy? Can you? So I started explaining it to them. And this is how I usually introduce movies that I'm not quite sure if they're ready for yet. like, labyrinth, I did this too.

We talk about it a lot. Talk about, like, the plot. We talk about it. We talk about the story. And then what I'll do is I'll show them little clips of it every now and I'll be like, oh, look at this fun clip of them in the scary forest with the winged monkeys. And I'm like, do you like that? And they're like, that's cool.

And I was like, all right, we're here. So after a few days of that, I was like, let's do this. We had to like, they were so excited. We sat down as a family. We watched the Wizard of Oz. I was in my glory, like I was when we watched Labyrinth. Labyrinth. Those are my favorite things about being a parent is like showing them those things. Oh, yeah. Because you're like, oh, I want you to love it. Because it's like, you relive your

childhood. Oh, it's so fun. The happiness and like, like, memories from your childhood. You see it through their eyes. And so we sat down, we watched it. They adored it. They have watched it how many times since then? Probably a hundred times. And it's only been like two weeks. Like I feel like a terrible aunt but yesterday, one of them was like, T.T. Will you watch that with me? And I was like, ooh, you want to watch like anything else? Yeah, you're like, I literally can. Meanwhile, I'm like, let's watch it gang. But and of course while we're watching it, I immediately was like, guys, who's your favorite? Like, you got to have a favorite of the gang, you know? So, and I knew it. I knew that my little feral middle child was going to love the cowardly lion. Yep. Because she herself is a lion. She loves

lions. Not cowardly, but a lion. Not cowardly at all. And she loves lions. Oldest, I knew she was going to dig the scarecrow. I just had a feeling. Yeah, kind vibes. Yeah. She likes that whole, that whole, that He had the leader of the pack. And they both love Dorothy. They think she's like, that just goes what I'm saying. And my littlest one just loved the whole thing. She didn't know what to do.

But so we got in the discussion of, I was like, you know, when I was little, I was literally in love with the tin man. Yeah. Like in love with the tin man. My mom can tell you, I used to be like, can I marry the tin man? And mom was like, you can't. But like, that's a nice thought. And I don't know what it is.

And I've never really like fully thought about. it? Like, and I think it's just now it's, because before it was like, you're little and you're like, I love the Tim Man, whatever. You move on. You grow up. And all of a sudden, watching it with the girls again, I'm like, suddenly like, you don't move on or grow up. I didn't move on from that. Because I still think the Tin Man's hot. What's that about me? Like I was watching it. I was like, no, I'm still like really attracted to the Tin Man. He's from our neck of the woods, you said, right? He is. A lot of them are from Boston. Hell yeah, brother. Like the wicked witch, Margaret Hamilton, She was from Boston.

Oh, shit, I didn't know that. Edit. Margaret Hamilton is not from Boston. I just wanted her to be. Sorry about that. Ray Bulger, the scarecrow, Boston. I actually think, I'm not sure if Bert, I think his name is Lair. I'm not really sure I'll get to it in a second.

But the guy who played the Cowardly Lion, he might have been from around here, too. A lot of them are from here. And the Tin Man, you said was from Dorchester? Tin Man is from Dorchester. I love that. And he has like a thick. Boston accent. And I think that's like ingrained in my brain to just automatically like connect to. That's the most attractive accent. Like when he says like the tin man forgot to get the tin maker forgot to give me a

hot. A hot. And they both go no hot, no hot. Just like yes. I love you. You're like swoon. And then I realized that not only do I love the tin man, but I love Jack Haley, the man who played the tin man. It was a big realization week for me. Like I really had like a I was, it was, it was, it was, it was, It was a journey. It was an eat, pray, love situation. I just, like, had to go through it. God, that movie. I never saw that movie or read that book. Literally don't. I feel like it's a journey of sorts. It's a journey watching the movie because it's 42 years long.

Yeah, this was my, like, my journey through why do I find the Tintman attractive? And I realized that I find Jack Haley attractive. You should do one of those TikToks where it's like, show your childhood crush and then show who you married. And like just, is there any? Is there any resemblance? Like, any. Is the 10 men? The 10 men's pretty tall.

He is. He's tall. He's kind. He's kind eyes. He has a hat. He has no hat. But he has one at the ends. You know?

Yeah. And he's got various expressive eyes. I wonder if he has a nice jaw. You do love a nice jaw. He does. He has a great jaw. I definitely have a type. I know.

For sure. We all know that. But so this is what brought me, this big long story that I just like feel like you all needed to know. Because I also had like a really fun conversation. on Twitter with a bunch of listeners about this. And they were saying a ton of them were into the tin man. And they were like, oh, my God, I thought it was alone.

And then a lot of people were like, I was a scarecrow girl. So like we got, or like I was a scarecrow guy. And we got like this big discussion of like, why the hell do we find these? Yeah. And it was really fun. So like, thanks for getting into that discussion with me. And it made me think about the fact that, wait, I remember coming upon all these weird, dark, like fucked up things.

that happened during the making of this movie, which is funny that, like, we're also in love with, like, those of us who are, like, into this movie and find it beloved, like, you can just be like, well, that was the 1930s. I don't know. Let's let that go. But when you really look into it, you're like, damn, the making of this movie was, like, a harrowing adventure.

Do you know what? I feel like, it's not that I don't like the Wizard of Oz, but I feel like I feel like I feel that when I watch it. Yeah, there's a lot of darkness. Because I remember the darkness. Yeah, the first time I watched it, and like, I guess, the only time until recently, I was just like, oh, like, it didn't feel good about it. Yeah, see, I felt great about it.

So I apparently am not intuitive to the darkness. But now I'm like, wow, it's a lot of dark shit. It's my empathetic way. So what we're going to do today is we're going to go through all the fucked up dark secrets behind the Wizard of Oz. Because some people have actually asked us to do this in the past. And recently, when I mentioned the girls were watching it, somebody was like, you've got to do, you've got to do the weird stuff behind the Wizard of Oz. Behind, it's like the man behind the curtain.

And actually, I think it was Michael from the Spookies podcast. I was like, you guys should cover that. And I was like, little do you know. Little do you know. Working on that now. So let's start. We're going to go through some of these things. I'm just going to go like list by list, but we're really going to get into them.

Okay. So the first thing we're going to talk about because it's the most important is the tin man makeup. Obviously. Jack Haley. There is a big long, very longstanding, like, legend, myth, rumor that is untrue that John even thought was true, that the tin man, the original tin man who played him died because of the makeup they put on him. That's a big

long legend of this movie that people are like, well, the original tin man died from the makeup and they'd replace him. No, that didn't happen. In fact, John used it because when we were watching it, I mentioned how like, I was like, oh my God, swooned tin man. And he was like, too bad what happened to him, huh? Like you made a joke like, that's too bad. And I was like, nothing happened to him. And he was like, what do you mean? Nothing happened to my man.

Nothing happened. So something did happen to the original tin man, but it's not what we think. So Jack Haley was not the original tin man. Buddy Ebson was originally cast as the, actually not even the tin man, the scarecrow. Oh. And Ray Bulger, who is the scarecrow in the movie, was originally cast as the Tin Man. So like Swippity Swoppity. So at some point they decided to switch roles. Because I think Ray came out and he said that he really felt he was better suited for the role of

Scarecrow and he like just really liked that part and he thought he'd play it better. He does. He does a great scarecrow. Like it wouldn't have worked switched. No. So we have Buddy Ebson who is like in the Beverly Hillbillies. He was like a very well-known comedic actor, all that good stuff. Like everybody knew who he was at the time. He was cast as the Tin Man. So Ebson started rehearsed and the wardrobe fittings for his new role. And everything was going fine with wardrobe, everything. He said, in fact, he said, quote, I was a guinea pig. They didn't know how to simulate the tin man's garments.

So I found myself doing tests with clothes made of real tin and clothes made of silver paper and clothes made out of cardboard covered with silver cloth. The makeup was just as bad. Try this, try that. In the end, they glued a cap on my head and covered it with glued on, and covered it and glued on a rubber nose and a rubber nose and a rubber chin and then covered the whole thing with clown white makeup and then powdered aluminum dust onto my face and head. Oh. So yeah, everything's going fine. No problems here. I don't see anything

in there that could go awry. No. So everything was fine. He was covered with aluminum dust every day and that was fine. He had recorded every line of the Tin Man songs and when they began filming. So he was already, he had all the songs recorded. Everything was ready to go. Things went well until October 13th, 1938, which was only nine days after they started filming. Ebson suddenly said, I'm feeling horrific. And he was having labored breathing. He was having chest pains. His arms and legs were cramping and like just like completely cringing up.

He could barely walk. He was like passing out. And he said, he was quoted as saying, quote, one night after dinner, I took a breath and nothing happened. They got an ambulance and had me go down to Good Samaritan for a couple of weeks. My lungs were coated with that aluminum dust they had been powdering on my face. Oh my God. He was blue and barely breathing when he arrived. That's so scary.

His lungs were coated with aluminum powder. Yes. He was put in an iron lung. Dude was in an iron lung and spent weeks in the hospital recovering. Then after that, he had to spend more than a month recovering at the Coronado Hotel in San Diego. We had to, like, just lay in bed for weeks. Oh, God. Now, this is what's nuts.

Everyone at the MGM studio producing the film was just pissed. MGM got pissed about, like, a lot of things back in the day that were actually their fault. Like, I'm sorry, what? They were furious that he was missing filming and literally demanded him back on set. That's cute. He was literally dying of respiratory failure in an iron lung, and they were calling the hospital saying he needs to be back on set. Yeah, well, um, he's in an iron lung right now.

Yeah. He can't come to the phone right now. He's in an iron lung. Like, I'm sorry. Like Taylor Swift remix. It's wild. And he was quoted as saying, it seemed they couldn't understand

that an actor could get sick. They were furious. Mervyn Leroy kept, and he was like the head of the studio, kept calling the hospital and saying, he can't be in bed. He's due on set. And Jack Don called me to tell me

I couldn't possibly be sick because he had used aluminum dust, pure aluminum dust on my face. So they're saying, you can't, no, it's not, they're trying to cover their ass too, but they're like, no, no, it can't be the aluminum dust because it's pure. You're like, that's actually exactly why I'm so sick right now. Well, and that's, what's crazy is at the time, they did think pure aluminum dust was pretty fine. Wow. Like they would, in fact, I found a paper published in the Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy. You know it, right? Yeah, I read that at night. Yeah, it's a really good one. To fall asleep. There was a period of time between about 1914. in 1979, where people who worked in mines, I almost just said minors, but I thought you guys

would confuse that and be like, people under the age of what? Like mine workers, miners. You get it now. They were literally forced. This is wild to me. This is such a dark thing in history. They were literally forced to inhale aluminum dust as an experimental medical treatment and a preventative measure to stop a disease of the lungs called silicosis. So not only were they like breathing in the fumes

from like, you know, mining. Mining. But also they were like, hey, can you sniff some of this? It's an experiment. Oh, wait until you hear how they did it. So silicosis is a lung disease that's caused by long-term inhalation of crystalline silica dust or the particles. And these are found in a lot of environmental structures like stone, rock, clay, things that miners are working with. minors who were diagnosed with this would at first just find themselves having this like nasty cough all the time. Like it sounds like black lung kind of thing. And they would have shortness of breath. And it really isn't diagnosed for like years usually.

All I'm thinking of right now is Zoolander. Right. When he says like, I think I've got the black love pop. You just like looked like have you even did the fucking hand. You got it to death. It's so good. It is. Boolin is the best.

I tried not to like it when I was younger. But you can't. But it's funny. But it would be found on chest x-rays, like years later. So what would happen was these employers would blow this finely powdered version of aluminum dust called McIntyre powder into the changing rooms of the miners. And they did this through the fucking air systems. So they would just be in their changing area.

And there's aluminum dust particles being blown in through all the air ducts for experimental purposes. Now, in this paper in that journal, this paper is called Trading One Risk for Another, Consequences of the Unauthenticated Treatment and Prevention of Silicosis in Ontario Miners in the McIntyre Powder Aluminum Inhalation Program. Me as well. And it's by Janice Martell and Lee L. Giudotti. Sorry, sorry, T. But yeah, two really smart people. And I'll link this paper so you can go look at it because I'm sure you want to. Yeah, I'm going to read it. In this, they talk about a guy named Jim Hobbs, and they said he was 37 years old for the first time that he tasted aluminum dust.

It was March 1978. Whoa. And it was his first day going underground at Rio Algam's Quark 2 uranium mine. Now, after changing from street clothes into his mining gear, Hobbs followed the other miners into a tunnel-like building that led to the cage that would transport them under. ground for their eight-hour shift of drilling, mucking, and blasting. The building, dubbed the gas chamber by those who entered it, was lined with benches, and Hobbs followed the routine of the others, taking a seat and waiting for the cage call. Before that call came, and after the last man entered the building, the door shut at both ends, the ventilation fan stop, and the supervisor yelled

what would become a familiar phase to a surreal phrase in a surreal ritual that Hobbs, would experience prior to every shift for the next year and a half. Oh my God. Breathe deep, boys. That's what they would yell. What? In 1978? Yep.

The hiss of compressed airlines was quickly followed by a cloud of black dust filling the room, obscuring Hobbs' vision of all that surrounded him as he took his first breaths of very finally ground aluminum powder, swirling rapidly from punctured canisters attached to the airlines. His chest felt heavy. His exposed skin enclosed were blackened, a metallic taste formed in his mouth, and he soon joined the choir of coughing and gasping arising from the others. Oh my God. After 10 minutes, the doors opened and Hobbs and his shift partners were herded into the cage. His first industrial medical treatment was over. And he had to do that? Every day for a year and a half. What? Like why were they trying this? What were they trying? Because they

I thought it was going to stop silicosis. What? So, yeah, that's how little concerned they were by aluminum parter, which is why they called the hospital and we're like, no. You need to get back here. Nobody. You're fine. It was pure aluminum dust.

We're not worried about it. Thank you. And the doctors were like, well. And even the doctors were like, okay, we're not like vibing with that aluminum dust thing. Like all of us kind of feel like it's probably going to become a problem in a few years. Yeah. If we're even ignoring that, if he's not just being poisoned by it, he's still having an allergic reaction to it.

So like something's happening back here. And so, yeah, so they were like, yeah, no, he can't come back. Like, I'm sorry. That's not something that can happen. Now, Buddy Ebson, because of course you're like, uh, sue the studio. That was absolutely my first thought. Well, Buddy Ebson said he didn't sue the studio because it was a very different time. And all of the studio execs were in each other's pockets, which, I'm just, I'm just,

sure it's not that different than now. I was going to say. But if he had sued MGM, he would have been blacklisted by all other studios. Yeah, because you're a difficult actor at that point. He said, quote, you didn't just sue lightly. You didn't just lightly sue MGM because it was a power. And there was a certain cohesion between the moguls. They all used to play poker together on Saturday nights and decide who were the good actors

and who were the bad. I mean, look at Jean Harlow. MGM showed up to her husband's like time, death scene. Yeah. And was like, yeah, we don't know. need to call the police. We know what happened. Yeah, it's fine. We are the, we are the investigators here. Yeah, they were a power. Yeah, absolutely. So after a few weeks of trying to get him back from like the brink of death, um, to then paint poison on him again and have him do it again, like that was their

plan. Like, let's just put you back in the makeup. They're like, we're making a fucking movie guy. Yeah. So finally they gave up because they were like, we can't wait any longer. And he was really, really sick. Yeah. So they were like, we can't wait for you. So the head of the studio, Mervyn LaRoy decided to just fire Ebson. And he grabbed Jack Haley to take over as part of the Tin Man. Now, I wrote in my notes, now Jack Haley is a babe. It literally has nothing to do with anything else I'm saying. I literally just wrote it in my notes and I just realized that.

I love that. I love to write myself little notes that maybe I'll say. That was for me. Yeah. But like, I'm giving it to you guys. I do that sometimes too. And I wrote, I just need to clear that up for myself. I literally wrote that next.

So whatever. He also had the weirdest contract that wasn't very, weird then, but sounds weird now. What is said? Basically, and this was something that, like I said, wasn't weird then. A lot of actors and actresses had this. Basically, he could be forced to play any role in these studios because his contract basically put him on loan to them. Oh.

Like, they could just call him and be like, we got a role for you. Get in here now. You have no say in it. Oh, wow. So they called him up and they didn't offer him the role. They called him and said, hey, you're the tin man. Get in here. You have no choice. Okay. So he had to. And he said, quote, the type of contract I had, I had to respond to their commands. I had no choice. I was under contract and they could lend me to any studio. It was the most awful work, the most horrendous job in the world with those cumbersome uniforms and the hours of makeup, but I had no choice. Wow. Like you had

no say in it. I love that he was like, I fucking hated it. Yeah, he was like this sucked. Uh, his costume was crazy heavy. Part of it was like really metal. And probably so hot like he said. caught. He couldn't sit, so he would lean against this thing. Like, it was like a board that was like specifically made for actresses and huge gowns and corsets. When they couldn't sit down, they would just lean against this to get any kind of relief. Oh my God. So he would, they had one there and he would just lean on it. And actually, uh, he would do this like between shots a lot, like just to get some relief because he literally couldn't sit. His back must have been killing him. Oh, yeah. And it was funny because, uh, the guy who played the cowardly lion, Burke, he,

He said that it pissed him off because he was, his costume was so heavy. We'll get into his costume. Don't worry. Uh-huh. Because his costume has some dark shit too. But he said it used to piss him off because he also was like an insomniac in real life. So he said he would walk by Jack Haley just leaning against a board in full costume, out colds between shots.

Like he was like, that dude could fall asleep next to a board. And he's like, he used to piss me off. I was like, fuck that guy. Like, why can he sleep like that? Oh, my God. I can't even sleep in my bed. That's hilarious. I just like, I'll link the book I found on this.

It's really interesting. There's a lot of like behind the scenes stuff. Yeah, I love that. But so he just stepped in. He wasn't told shit about why Buddy Epson was fired either. Yikes. Like, you just, like, in those days you went in and people got fired all the time for like anything.

So you would just go in. Exactly. At Thelma Todd. So you go in and you didn't ask questions. Right. You just, okay, this is mine. I guess luckily for him, they did change the way they did the makeup, which shows that they definitely knew it was, of course, and in the first place. They made it into an aluminum paste

instead of a dust. So he wouldn't be inhaling the dust. But you're still inhaling aluminum to some degree. To some degree, I'm sure he never had any problems after it afterwards. But what they did was they painted white grease paint on him, like clown makeup. Yeah. And then they used the paste that had aluminum dust in it to put that aluminum sheen over him. So it wasn't dusted on. Like with Roy, Ray, it was literally dusted on. So it was just like, like all this. Yeah.

It makes me think of like translucent powder. That's exactly what it is. Yeah. And you're just like, ugh. Yeah, because it just gets like all over you. But unfortunately,

this paste did get into his eye and it caused a bad infection in his right eye. And he was gone for four days while they had to save his sight. Oh my God. Like they were worried he was going to lose sight. Did they like discard all aluminum based products after this? No. They didn't. So while all this is going on, by the way,

Ray Bulger as the scarecrow was all. dealing with the horror of the makeup he had to wear every day too because we're not in like the you know you know the Tom Savini kind of makeup here like we're not in like the 2000 yeah you know what we're doing we're in 1930s they're doing what they can exactly and when you actually look at the scarecrow makeup in that you're like that's pretty good and the tin man makeup is like the tin man's great too like the scarecrow looks like a burlap sack yeah is his head but it was gnarly it's not like now they have like you know, the really, like they have certain brushes and stuff that they're using, like, substances that can take the makeup off really nicely too and gently.

They would just tear that shit off. Yeah. And what Ray Bulger, the scarecrow, said was, quote, I came home exhausted and had two bourbon old fashions. The drinks were therapeutic. I needed the alcohol to let me down. And they had enough sugar to kind of give me a lift so I could manage to eat my dinner and fall into bed.

Oh, man. That's how they felt at the end of these days. Now, he remembers nothing else about this, like these months, he said, but quote, going to bed and getting up and going to work. And half the time, I don't even remember that. So they were just like, they were just trucking through. And when you hear what they did to keep Dorothy on task, the filming days were insane. And they were in these, like, a lot of people like think that Dorothy, you know, or Dorothy, Judy Garland had it like easier in the costume sense. but she did, she did in this essence, but she had it bad in a different way.

Yeah, she had it like real fucking bad. Yeah, they had these gnarly costumes that they were spending like literally like 13 hour days in they couldn't take them off because they weren't willing to redo the makeup. So if you broke for lunch, you either tried to eat lunch in that makeup, if you couldn't, too bad. Oh my God, the lion costume. I can't imagine being in that for like 13 hours a day. Oh, yeah. And what both Ray and Jack Haley said was, quote,

the mask wasn't porous, so you couldn't sweat. You couldn't breathe through your skin. You don't realize how much you breathe through your skin until you can't do it. We felt like we were suffocating. Oh my God. Yeah. He also discovered after the last take of the film that the corners of his mouth and his chin were permanently lined from his makeup. What? Yeah. Like they, he said it took months and months for them to even fade. Oh my God. The corners of his mouths were like had like lines like a Joker makeup. Oh my God. Yeah. And I know, it's insane. And Jack Haley said that his costume was, quote, no less awful. They pulled my hair back as flat as they could and put some sort of rubber skin over my head and glued it down behind my ears. They covered my face with cold cream. Then they took a white

chalk-like solve and painted my face white. The idea of the white stuff was to close my pores. So the silver paste that made me look like I was made of tin wouldn't damage my skin. They painted my face silver and glued on a silver nose. They glued a strip of rubber that was supposed to be tin under my chin and glued each individual rubber ribbit onto my face. Then they painted my lips black because painting my face silver made my mouth look too red. Oh my God. Coloring my lips black made my gums and tongue duller. I couldn't breathe through my face. None of us could. And Bert Larr had it worst of all. And then like think of God only knows what they were using for glue. Like nowadays you use like liquid latex or spirit gum. What was the thing that you

used for prosaid. Perusade, yeah. But this was like gentle on your skin. This fucking like gorilla glue. It probably is. Like let me super glue this to your face and rip it off every day. Well, and when Haley says that Bert Larr had it worst of all, Bert Lahr played the Cowardly Lion.

Yeah. That was real lion hide. Yeah, you told me that the other day and I'm still not over it. The Cowardly Lions costume was made of real lion's skin. Real lion fur. That's fucked. That's fucked. It was 90 pounds and it smelled, they said.

Of course it did. Yeah. And they said it literally smelled and they were so heavy to walk around in, so heavy to move in. They said that he would take it off at the end of the day and literally be dripping with sweat. Oh, like, um, yeah. I can't eat. I just couldn't even talk. I'm like, yeah.

And then his face, he had like a lot of prosthesis on his face. Like he had a lot of, you know, the like mouth area that's supposed to look like a cat. So they made it. So his mouth couldn't open that wide. So he couldn't eat. And for 13 hours. a day who's just like sitting there. Literally. And they said he would literally have to eat, drink only like a milkshake or soup or something. You could suck through a straw basically.

And he said that because if he tried to chew, he would break the prosthesis and they didn't want to redo it. And they'd be pissed. So he literally couldn't eat. And he would get pissed, I guess, at Jack and Ray for like gnawing in between shots whenever they could because he literally couldn't. And every once in a while he would just like get pissed and just like grab a sense. sandwich and just like bust through his makeup. I don't blame him. Hangary is a real thing. Because these people, all of these actors were literally like starved on set.

Like they were not given food. Like if they were given food, they were like told that they were fat. And like out of, it's insane. Well, and then think about your lugging around in 90 pound costume all day where you literally like can't your body can't even cool itself down. So you're sweating. You're super hot. And then you can't eat.

I wonder how much weight that guy lost. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm sure. And they said that they had to use a ton of arc lighting from different studios to get the effect of all of these sets. And, you know, and so it is a billion degrees. And so they would literally between shots, like, run over to the doors and, like, open the doors and just get fresh air and, like, breathe. Like, all of those, all the main four actors would literally, they said would just be like gasping for breath outside the door between shots, like trying to get any kind of. What a great fun movie. Orchure is like, me. Yay. But yeah, so the cowardly lion had a tough, just only based on the fact that he's wearing real lion fur. Yeah, fuck that. And then you can't eat.

It's like insane. That's 90 pounds. Really wild. So 13 hours a day. Now let's get on to some of the other makeup issues and some of the accidents that happened on this set. Yeah. So the Wicked Witch of the West was played by Margaret Hamilton. She's phenomenal.

We love her. We love her. Now let's talk about her makeup. Obviously, if you've seen the movie, she's green from head to toe. Yes. Green makeup back then was made with copper oxide. It was made with copper, which is toxic. Yeah.

So the makeup people said that they had to be completely thorough when removing her makeup every night before she left, because if they left any, it could literally be fatal. Like, it could poison her. How did it not poison her throughout the 13-hour day? Don't know. So they said, quote, every night when I was taking, this was like a makeup person. Every night when I was taking off the witch's makeup,

I would make sure that her face was thoroughly clean, spotlessly clean, because you don't take chances with green. So when she was burned, spoiler alert, I remember that I didn't want to take any chances. I knew that makeup had to be cleaned off. So we're going to talk about that burn situation. Right now. And how they just said even when she was burned,

we had to clean the makeup off. Remember that. Oh no, I don't want to talk about. So in the scene where the Wicked Witch of the West leaves Munchkin land in like a puff of smoke in the beginning, and there's like fire and smoke, there was an accident. So it was December 23rd, 1938. They had put a false piece of yellow brick road where she had to exit. Okay.

So she was to back up onto this and it was rigged with an elevator to bring her down and out of the shot. While she was lowering down, the smoke and fire would come up and obscure her going down. Now, they practiced this a ton because, she had to go backwards and hit the spot just right. Because if the elevator went down and only one of her feet was on it, she could like break her legs. Yeah. So I guess the opening of that elevator shaft there was really narrow too.

So Margaret Hamilton was instructed and practiced a million times to bring her elbows in tight as soon as it started going down because if she didn't, she would literally break her arms or her shoulders. And they were literally, they weren't like, let's figure out a way to make that not happen. they were just like, do your best. Hold your elbows in because if not, you're going to break both of your shoulders. They're like, wing it, bitch. Like what? And there was also two guys waiting below in case she broke her legs coming down.

They could carry her. Awesome. So those were the concerns. Thanks for being so thoughtful, guys. And weirdly, those are the concerns. They're worried about her breaking her arms or like her legs. We have like a whole ass fire going on. But weirdly, nothing like that happened.

She didn't break a leg or an arm or anything. Legs and arms were fine. In fact, the first time they did this whole shot, it was perfect. Went off without a hitch. Victor Fleming, the director, was like psyched. He was like, that was perfect. But he said, as always, we're going to do one more shot just to have it in the can. Just in case.

Oh, no. That's when you know, too. That's when you know. And this is when the shit hit the fan. So Margaret Hamilton actually recalled something that Billy Burke said. She's the one who plays Glinda, Billy Burke. Okay. She actually said, quote, we were about 40 feet away from the fire.

and Miss Burke shook her head and said, oh, I'm not going to stand here. And I said, why not Miss Burke? And she said, oh, my dear, it's much too hot. And I thought, you're 40 feet away, but I'm going to be right in the middle of it. Yeah, right? She was like, shit. Like, what? So they had taken a break.

And when they came back to do this second shot, just the insurance shot, a bunch of mishaps happened. Nothing that got anybody hurt at first. But it was things like, you know, she wasn't hidden by the smoke. the fire happened too late, the fire didn't go off at all. It was just like everything was fucking up. Signs from the universe saying you already got your shot. Take that job.

We got the shot. We got the shot, Fleming. Let's just let it go. Now, she said, quote, and this is crazy, that this is how much Victor Fleming, the director, did not give a shit about these people. So she said, quote, and then we got to, we got the full tilt of Mr. Fleming's impatience and anxiety. In no uncertain language, she told us to pull ourselves together and get the shot done.

He said, there's no excuse for this. The minute she gets her foot on, I want, and I said, Mr. Fleming, I want to get both feet on. And he said, yes, yes, of course, but I want the shot done right and right now. Uh-huh. Well, it went wrong. The fire went way too early while Margaret Hamilton was not under the stage yet. So the broom got caught fire, the broom that she was holding, and it caught her face on fire. She said, quote, I felt warmth on my face, that's all.

It's still unbelievable. There was a whole lot of running and hullabaloo and shouting. And my hat and my broom were on fire and I didn't even know it. She was literally in shock. Of course. She ended up with first degree burns on her face, mainly her chin, nose, cheek, and forehead. Her eyebrows and lashes were completely burned off. Oh my God.

She had second and almost third degree burns on her hands. Oh. That was the worst part. The skin on her right hand was completely gone. Goodbye. It was just raw flesh. Goodbye. Just raw.

flesh. Now remember that makeup, the toxic green makeup thing? Did it not like burn into her skeleton at that point? Well, when the flesh on her hands literally peeled off from the burns, they still had to remove the makeup. And the only way to do that was alcohol. No. So they had to use alcohol to scrub the toxic copper oxide filled green makeup off the hands of Margaret Hamilton after she burned the flesh clean off of them and her face. You know how like when older people are like, I used to have to walk backwards up a hill to school in the snow. Everyone in the Wizard of Oz has the right to sit. I did. They can. They're like, I had my hands cleaned with alcohol after suffering third degree burns and like peeling my skin back. She said it was the most horrific

pain she's ever felt in her life. She was out for six weeks healing. And I bet they were pissed. Oh, they were on her ass. In fact, her doctor answered the phone once while they called her at home. And he was like, you're, she's an idiot. If she doesn't sue your ass, like, you're not. She'll get back when she's good and ready, like, flipped out. Oh, good for him. I love that. And they were probably like, yeah, watch her. They were like, mm-hmm. Now, again, she said the only reason she didn't sue is because she wanted to work again. And she never would have if she was sued. So did they have to pause filming them? They did, yeah. And she did refuse to work with fire ever again in the movie. She was like figured out. I'm not working with fire.

Now, in fact, when she got back to set, she was due to do that skywriting scene, that surrender door. scene, which there's a band called Surrender Dorothy, I remember, like from high school. Yeah. Great band name. Surrender Dorothy. So good. I want to call it. I can't.

But good job, guys. Yeah, seriously. That's a good one. She was doing the close-ups because there's close-up shots of her, like, on the broom, like laughing and there's smoke behind her. And, like, yelling at Dorothy. Yeah, just screaming and screeching. But it required her to sit on a steel saddle on her broom.

Uh-huh. And it was raised up. And then smoke would pour out of the back. from a pipe under the saddle. That's how they rigged this whole thing. I feel like I don't want to do that. Now, she was told by everyone, no, this is completely safe. Don't worry about it.

You're good. Like, when have we ever put you in danger before, you know? I feel like, is this pipe going to explode under my bodonka don't. But they mentioned, you know, if you'd like, we did make you a fireproof costume. And she was like, why? Why did you make me a fireproof costume if this is completely safe? And it's probably not even fireproof. Like, why would I?

I don't trust a single thing you say. So she was. she was like, no. So she said she wouldn't do it with the smoke and the fire. She's like, no. She said she would do the close ups of my face, add shit in afterwards. And she was like, I don't know what to tell you with everything else. So her stunt double, Betty Danko, said she would do the rest. No, she was a young girl at this point. And she was probably trying to like be like an up and coming actress. So she's like, I'll do anything. Oh yeah. And she's a stunt girl. So she's like, she's like, she's done a few things like this. And she's like, oh yeah. And you got to be done for anything.

But Margaret actually told her before she left set that day. She was like, I'm really worried for you. I don't want you to do it. Like, I'm worried something's going to happen. You're going to get hurt. What a speed lady? No, I need the money. I don't want them to think I'm hard to work with.

Well, turns out they did two good takes on the broomstick. And the third time, the pipe literally exploded under her. I knew you were going to say that. She said, quote, I felt as though my scalp was coming off. I guess that's because my hat and my black wig were literally torn loose. They found them days later at the top of the top of the top of the top of the top of the top. of the stage. Oh my God. The explosion blew me off the broomstick. I managed to grab it with both hands and throw my leg over it. I hung upside down while the men handling the wires lowered the

broomstick to the floor and put me face down on the stage. She was completely burned and her left leg had a giant hole in it where her dress had become fused because it was burned into this giant hole in her leg. What the fuck? I want to hear what's even better? I don't. Quote, while I lay there on the floor waiting for the ambulance, the wardrobe woman came running in and she said, what did you do with the hat? I have to turn it in, you know.

I'd be like, there's a motherfucking hole in my leg, and I suggest you get the fuck away from me unless you'd like a matching one. I was just lit a flame. What? I'd be like, you can take the hat when you find it and shove it right up your arm. Like, I am Bruni the fire spirit from Frozen 2 right now. And you are asking me where that hat is? Can you what?

You're laying? First of all, face first. Because I can't even have like the nicety to put you on your back. Like what? And then she's like, I need to hand in that hat. I need to turn that in, you know? I feel like, well, you're going to get in trouble today, okay? You're going to have some explaining.

You know what? You should cite explosion for why you didn't turn that in. Person was exploded in the hat. I don't know. Hat literally exploded. She had permanent scar. on her legs from it, I guess. And I guess later at some like some kind of Hollywood thing, I don't know if it was like,

it was like years later, she ran into Victor Fleming. And he tried to look under her skirt to see the scars because he said he felt so bad. What? He tried to see her leg scars because he wanted to see how bad it was. I'd be like, well, my leg exploded. So that's how bad it was. That's how bad it was. What the fuck, Victor?

Yeah. I'd be like, Victor, get away from me. me. You bad news. You bad news. Okay. Now, Victor Fleming, speaking of him, I'll skip ahead to something with him because he, so he actually wrote and admitted to this incident. He said, quote, when Judy Garland couldn't stop breaking into giggles at the pseudo menacing advance of Bert Lars Cowardly Lion. So when they first meet the Cowardly Lion and he runs after Toto. Yeah. And then she waxed him on the nose. Yeah. I guess she kept breaking into giggles because that's funny. And I guess Bert Lar was really funny because he was like, like, just like coming at her. So she kept laughing.

And she was 17. I was going to say she was literally young. And so he said, quote, he escorted her off the yellow brick road and said, now darling, this is serious, slapped her in the face, then ordered her, now go in there and work. And she said it. Yep, happened. And everyone around the set said, I saw it happen. He literally slapped a 17 year old girl in the face and was like, get back to work and stop laughing. Wow. They weren't kidding when they said things were different back then. And then he, I guess, immediately felt bad. So he started going around to the crew and asking people in the crew to punch him in the face. Good. And so they were all like, no, because they're like, I'm going to lose my job. I don't know. I can't. It's a really weird way to handle that situation instead of just like going to her and saying, I feel really bad. And also, how many of the crew, you know he hadn't met any of the crew. So he's literally walking up to them and they're like, hi, I'm Joe, Mr.

Fleming, nice to meet you. Like, no, I won't punch you in the face. Please punch me. Like, what? And I guess Judy, like, saw this happening because she immediately went back into the scene. Of course she did. The scene you see in the movie is exactly what happened right after she got slapped. The first take she did was the one in the movie.

Oh, wow. So one you see in the movie is right after she just got slapped in the face by Victor fucking Fleming. She was so abused. It's really sad. Oh, it's horrific. So she actually heard all this, like that he was walking around like asking crew members to punch himself. And I guess she like overheard this and she went over to him and said, because he was like,

you should just punch me in the face to her. To which I would say, okay do. And I guess she said, I won't do that, but I'll kiss your nose. And she did. Oh, what a cutey. Like what a, what they did Judy so wrong. Yeah, they did her dirty. They did her so wrong. Yeah, I would have punched Victor Fleming streamed. Like that's your time. Just kidding. But like what a, what a pure and wholesome human. What a strange way. Who was like led into such a shitty path of life. Oh yeah. Watching Judy the mother, ruin me. Yeah, it's awful. I mean, her real name is Francis Gum. Huh. Yeah. Now, speaking of Dorothy and the horrific things that were done to her, Judy Garland had the saddest life. At 14, she was working on her first real movie called

Pigskin Parade. It was about like a football coach. Sounds horrible. Sure does. And the head of the studio Louis, Lewis B. Meyer. I don't know if it's Louis or Lewis, but get ready for the tweets about that, my guy. But he's a piece of shit, so I literally don't care what his real name is. He would call her quote, fat little pig in pigtails. Wow. So I don't care if it's Lewis or Louis. Don't care. Asshole. Said that about a child. And let me tell you, Mr. Glasshouse should have kept his rocks to himself. Go ahead and Google what he looks like. Name again. Excuse me, Glass House. Louis Be mayor. Okay.

I think it's Louis. But yeah. Like, go away, Mr. Glasshouse. We're loading. This is when she started. Oh, come the fuck on. Exactly. Exactly.

Like, I'm sorry. Was there a mirror on set that day, sir? Like, please. Now, this is when she started being placed on these crazy diets of only like soup and cigarettes and all that shit. Seriously. Now, for Oz, the studio execs focused heavily on her weight and basically made her feel like shit that she even had boobs.

Because she was 17 at the. this point. She's like turning into like that time when you're getting the chest. Women have boobs. And now Dorothy was supposed to be like a younger girl. Like she was supposed to be like, I think in the book she's supposed to be like 12. Oh. But I think in the movie they have her more around like 15. So cast a 15 year old if that's what you want. Well and so they were like we want you to look younger than 17. So obviously she's not. So they were literally documenting her food intake for months leading up to shooting. Wow. Like the execs studio execs are. documenting a young girl's food intake for months. And that is like and obviously did, but will affect you

for the rest of your life. If you start eating like that, this stuff was the reason she died the way she did. And like developing that relationship with food is so dangerous. Oh, it's so dangerous. It's so sad. They also kept her on a steady pill schedule at this point as well. They would force her to take what they called pet pills to stay awake, aka meth. And downers to sleep and chill out. So she would sleep for like four hours and then they would just like shake her awake, force some pet pills down her throat, and make her work for like days straight before she would crash again. Oh my God. Yeah. Now during filming of Oz, she was on a diet of soup, dozens of cigarettes a day, and black coffee. That's it. Can you imagine her stomach? And on top of it, they made her wear crazy corsets under that

dress and strapped down her chest as tight as they could to make it so she didn't look like she had a chest. Wow. So she was, and that's like against her will. Like, and she's sitting there having to, like, and it's painful. And she's having to like pretend to be this like peppy yay, like, I'm just the young girl. And yeah. Like, I just can't imagine what like condition her stomach was in with all those cigarettes, coffee on like an empty stomach and then pills. Yeah. My God. Like, can you imagine how sick she felt all the time? No, because I've had to go on like medicine before where like I've like, like I broke my pelvis and they had to put me on morphine. Yeah.

And like you couldn't eat. And I was the sickest I have ever been. Yeah. I can't imagine having to be in that state while doing a movie where I was also just being treated like shit all the time. Like when I had, um, whatever pain pill they gave me after like my first C-section, I took one of them and I was like so ill. So sick.

I was like, I'm never taking that. Like, wow. I could not handle that because I'm just usually, I have like a pretty good pain tolerance. a fairly good one. And so I usually can get, like, if something hurts, I'll take like an Advil. Yeah. And it's like, that usually is fine for me. So, but this I was like, oh, I just got cut open. Maybe I should take this. Yeah. I mean. Oh my God, never again. I was like, no, this is not worse than the sickness, I feel. We had to go back to the doctors when I was like that. And we were like, yeah, like, I can't take this. I can't handle it. They had me take a half and even a half.

I was still like horrible. See, I was like, they just gave me motrin afterwards. And I was like, that's all I can do. Yeah. But on top of all of this with, Judy Garland, some of the actors who played some of the characters in Munchkin Land, they were sexually assaulting her on set. Good. Yeah. And her husband, one of her husbands later said, quote, they would make Judy's life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress.

My God. The men were more than 40 years old at that point. And she's 17. Yeah. And she, like, is just turning 17. Gross. And she's, like, made to look like a child in that, like, way younger. What the fuck, guys.

Yeah. It's just really messed up. And I do, from what I read, though, I guess the three guys, like the lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow were, like, super protective of her. And they were all, like, good dudes and none of them did anything like that. And they were, like, really tight as, like, a little unit. Like a squad. Yeah. I love that.

So that's nice to know at least she had, like, she had the comfort of that. Some kind of protection there. But another thing that's really crazy about this is if you've seen, if you remember the poppy scene. Yeah. Where the Wicked Witch of the West causes them to fall asleep in the poppies. Poppies. Well, lucky for them, Glinda casts a counterspell during that that causes snow to fall and they all wake up. Unfortunately, Glinda was like kind of that maybe she was the bad guy here because the snow that fell was 100% asbestos.

Oh. Yeah. Just snowing on them. That'll wake you up. That'll wake you up. and also put you to sleep. I was going to say for only a little while, but that just snowing them. Now, this was the 1930s and asbestos was actually used in Christmas decorations then, like fake

snow. What the fuck? But still, this is wild to know now. Yes. Especially when you watch it and you're just like, oh, that's just straight up asbestos. And it's all over their faces, all over everything. They're literally like in their mouths. Like, it's just like, they're just like living in it.

And it's funny because I read a, uh, one. One of the articles I read was on Atlas Obscura, and they put it best by saying the Wizard of Oz, quote, literally douses its main characters and carcinogens. Correct. That's literally what it does. And when you watch the scene, you're just sitting there being like, poison. Yeah, all over your body. You're all being doused in poison.

Wow. All of them. And a last little thing, well, last big thing that I'll touch upon, which is like kind of the saddest thing to me. But I'll leave you on like, well, no, I'm going to leave you. you on a sad note. I'm sorry. All right. But I'll give you a couple things after this. But the woman who played Auntie M. Auntie M and Uncle Henry, you're just like, I love you. I love you so much. Her name was Clara Blandic and she was famous. She was like on Broadway and tons of movies. Yeah. This was actually

one of her like smallest roles, but like she took it because she just loved the movie and they loved having her name on it. Now she after the Wizard of Oz was in like failing health, it was like through the 1950s. And she was going blind. mind. She was the victim of severely painful arthritis all over her body, and they couldn't get it under control back then. Just real quick, too, this is like a suicide trigger. So just, this is going to be a minute where I'm going to talk about it. So April 15, 1962, she returned to her home after church. She placed photos and letters and mementos from her career all around her. She surrounded herself with newspaper clippings of her career, her awards, movie credits. She got dressed in

royal blue gown, she did her hair, and she took sleeping pills. And she laid on the couch with a gold blanket over her and placed a plastic bag over her head. Oh, wow. She passed away that way, and she left a note that said, quote, I am now about to make the great adventure. I cannot endure this in agonizing pain any longer. It's all over my body. Neither can I face the impending blindness. I pray the Lord my soul to take amen. Oh, apparently she is so sad. She is buried very close to Charlie Grapewin who played Uncle Henry, her husband. Oh my gosh, no way. Like yards away.

Wow. Right next to each other. Is that just like a weird coincidence? I don't know if it was like meant to, but it's like a nice little like, but how sad is that? Like she had this beautiful, amazing career. Yeah. Can I say something weird?

It's like beautifully sad. Like the way that she did it. I'm like, I'm glad that she was able to like take control of the way she wanted to do it. She was in control of it. That was what she wanted to do. But like how sad that she had no other of. option. Yeah. It's such a bummer that like medical stuff has kind of so far and it hadn't come that far to relieve her of any of that pain. That is really sad. Because I can't imagine being in chronic pain and

there's nothing. No. Because nothing to help you. Like just watching people go. I obviously have never like gone through that. Yeah. Watching people go through that, I can't imagine. Yeah. I really can. And to have it all over your body. Yeah. I hope she did have a great adventure. I hope she did. Excuse me. I hope she's having a great adventure. I hope she's still having that great adventure. Go off. She's over the Rainbow having a blast. Oh, that one really, yeah. I know. Thanks.

I know, I'm sorry. Do you have anything good in there? I guess this just shows you how close like the three main character, like the Ray Bulger and Bert Larr and Jack Haley were when I think Ray was the last one to pass away out of all of them. And when Jack Haley died, he gave a eulogy at his funeral and he said, Jack, it's going to be a very lonesome, it's going to be very lonesome on the Yellow Brick Road now. That's how close they were. And just to leave you on like not the saddest of notes, but more like, wow, Margaret Hamilton, get it.

Okay. The Wicked Witches lines, most of them were cut and a lot of her scenes were cut from the final film because execs and focus groups said the performance was way too terrifying. They said kids literally couldn't handle it. Go off sister. So Margaret Hamilton just scared the shit. She was like, that's what I was hired for. She's only on screen for like 15 minutes in the film, but she had tons more.

Oh, that sucks. And it was all like really scary. Like she was terrified. I wish they had like did a version like where they could have released that version. I know. I'm like, can we have her deleted scenes? I'll see her scary-ass scenes. For real.

I wonder if they could ever uncover them someday. I know, I wonder. I would think that there's a way to do that. Who knows, have they? I'm not even sure. I should look at. I know. Let's find out.

But that is some of the dark secrets I found about the yellow, the yellow brick road. It was about the Yellowberg Road. But about the Wizard of Oz and how fucked up the filming was. Wow. That was really entertaining. It seems question mark. It definitely is cursed, I feel. I feel like I'm, it's a lot.

I feel like I'm never going to watch that movie the same with your children. You watch it again. And you're like, wow. You watch it with a different. You exploded. Yeah. You had to go to the hospital. You almost went blind.

Yeah. You did this. And for the second half of the film, I haven't looked to see this. But Margaret Hamilton's wearing green gloves instead of green makeup because she could even when she came back, it hadn't healed enough that she could put makeup on. So she had to wear it. gloves on her hands. Oh, wow. And I want to look for it the next time. I do too. Yeah, because I guess she also said that like Victor Fleming grabbed her hand when she came back and was like, it looks good.

And she was like, no, that's like freshly healed skin. Like it's not. It's not thick enough to do anything. And like that's how nasty. Wow, Victor Fleming sounds like the worst. And I wish that everybody he had asked to punch him in the face. Actually did punch him in the face. I know. That would have been nice. Yeah. But yeah. That's the dark shit about the Wizard of Oz. Oh, and just like, because I, people might be wondering, because there's this big legend that one of the actors who played one of the munchkins hung themselves in a tree on set. Oh, yeah. That's not true. And that you can see it in the original part of the film. That was completely untrue. What people were seeing was a bird that they had on set that like puts its wings up and kind of looks like it. And people have photoshopped,

like an actual hanging person in there. It's not true. It didn't happen. Or is that what they want you to Yeah, there's no, I mean, there's absolutely no evidence or no police reports and I was going to say, we know all the other horrific things about what went down. Yeah, it would have leaked out. But it's still in a very enduring rumor because everything I was reading, every time I would like peek over at comments of it, like any like, you know, little movies about it or books or anything. There was always a million people being like, well, someone hung themselves on the set. Like that is an enduring rumor. Wow.

People really believe that. And I did. I did for a while. When that really first came out, I was young, and I remember trying to see it. I was like, what is, like, and you could see the bird. And I remember being like, is that? But it's not. It's a great.

Yeah. Yeah, I remember definitely hearing that. I never looked for it, though. Yeah, that didn't happen, though. At least not that you can find anywhere. Well, that's settling that it didn't happen. Yeah. But everything else happened in this, so thanks for that.

Yeah. It's a fucked up movie. But I thought it might be, you know, it's a holiday week. We're just going to give you this weird, weird off episode. that's still spooky, but like in a different way. Yeah. Humans are weird. They certainly are.

You know? I really enjoyed that. That was a cool episode. Yeah, I just wanted to do something a little different. Yeah, I like that. Hope you guys dug it. It's your show, go off. Yeah, it's my show, man.

Well, we hope that you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. Why not sure that you decide to direct a movie and do any of the things that were done on this movie set. Thank you and good night. Bye. Follow the Yellow Brick Road. Follow the Yellow Brick Road. Ha ha ha ha