The Wizard of Oz Movie

by Aisha Gilani

Home > Different Forms of Oz > The Wizard of Oz Movie

In the early days of talking pictures, Hollywood rarely made fantasy movies because movie studio executives thought the public would not accept them, and the few they made usually did not do well. But in 1937 Walt Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and it became the all-time biggest money-making film up to that time. The other Hollywood studios took notice, and scrambled to make their own fantasy projects. MGM songwriter Arthur Freed, who wanted to break into producing, was looking for a vehicle for Judy Garland. A fan of the Oz books, Freed found out that independent producer Samuel Goldwyn owned the film rights to The Wizard of Oz and convinced MGM to buy those rights, beating out four other studios. MGM paid $75,000 to Samuel Goldwyn for the rights. This was an unusually large amount for the day. By comparison, David O. Selznick paid Margaret Mitchell $50,000 for the film rights to her book Gone with the Wind, also a larger-than-usual sum for its day.

Mervyn LeRoy was a producer that MGM had just hired away from Warner Bros., and he, too, was interested in making The Wizard of Oz. As a studio, MGM also wanted to make The Wizard of Oz a full-color, special effects spectacular so that they could show off what the studio could do; it was a "prestige" project. Since Oz was felt to be too big a project for a first-time producer like Arthur Freed to manage, Mervyn LeRoy was named producer, with Freed as his assistant. Freed received no onscreen credit in the finished movie, but the experience he gained would lead to his becoming a producer in his won right who would oversee some of MGM's biggest musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, including Meet Me in St. Louis and Singin' in the Rain. Even though Victor Fleming is given the sole screen credit for the direction of this film, he did not complete it. With three weeks left to wrap the film up, Fleming was called back to MGM to complete Gone With the Wind. King Vidor completed the filming of the film. The film however, was quite different than the original novel.

The film had a two million dollar budget. It won an Academy Award for Best Song ("Over the Rainbow") and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, and was nominated for Best Picture (lost to Gone with the Wind), Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects. Judy won a special miniature Oscar for "most outstanding performance by a juvenile." It was the only Academy Award Judy ever received, though she was nominated on two other occasions. She referred to the miniature statuette as her "Munchkin Award."

Speaking of Munchkins; they were played by midgets. Off screen these midgets were nothing like the darling little people they played as Munchkins. Mervyn LeRoy, the producer, said that, "We had a hell of a time with those little guys." Reportedly these midget actors were involved in sex orgies. Police had to be stationed on every floor of the hotel to stop this lewd behavior. Noel Langley, one of the screenwriters, described these actors as being so raunchy that the studio was forced to provide armed guards for the showgirls. In her later years Judy Garland stated that these Munchkin actors were drunks who drank every night and later had to be picked up by the police in butterfly nets. Hugh Fordin, in his book on Arthur Freed, describes the Munchkins as "The most deformed, unpleasant bunch of adults imaginable". Fordin went on to say, "This unholy assemblage of pimps, hookers, and gamblers infested the Metro lot and all of the community." It must be stated that there were a few Munchkin actors who did not participate in this debauchery. However, this goes to show that appearances, especially in films, can be very deceiving. On screen, these actors brought to their roles a touch of fantasy and vulnerability, which led audiences to believe that the Munchkins were adorable innocent characters.

Home | About Baum | Different Forms of Oz | Various Interpretations of Oz | References