Morbid - Episode 281: The Dark Secrets Behind The Wizard of Oz

Episode Date: November 25, 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 The Making of the Wizard of Oz By Aljean Harmetz (Be wary that this book is fascinating but uses some outdated language when referencing certain people) Paper referenced during the episode  As always, thank you to our sponsors: HelloFresh: Get up to fourteen free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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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of your home. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's ANGI.com. Hey weirdos, I'm Ash and I'm Alaina. And this actually morbid, but I was just watching a TikTok about growing your own Loofa and I really want to grow my own Loofa now. Ash got real invest. You know how semitik talks are one minute in summer, 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 I was gonna say, I think it's three, but it's long. It's being hyper-malk. But anyways, I just it's like the maxis three, but it was good to say. I think it's three, but it's beautiful. I'm just being hyperbolic. But anyways, I just saw one of those really long TikToks and this guy was growing his own Nufa. He grew a couple of them. And then he was like peeling it,

which looked really satisfying. Like I was like, I wanna 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.

So, would I say she had all of those thoughts, and she had them all out loud. I can vouch for that. Most of my thoughts happened out loud when I met only. 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, but I believe in you.

We had to start working. So I'll come to a conclusion later today and I guess I'll let you guys know next episode if I'm going to grow my own lupher or not. Cause what we've come down to, I think, is that you are concerned it wasn't gonna feel good. And then you said, on my skin. No, I said on my body. On my body.

I don't think it was gonna feel good on my body. Like, it looks rough. Like, it looks like I'd be like, it looks almost like a pumice stone. It does. Which feels good on your foot, but you're not gonna pumice stone your shoulder. Exfoliation. Exfoliation 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 a lufa. 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, fast and slow lufas. Are you on drugs right now? Are you all right? And I'm like, no, 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 fast. See us 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 gonna eat a lot of food. I'm excited. I'm gonna be cooking today like crazy. Yeah, Linus hosting. Doing Thanksgiving. I'm gonna eat a lot of food. I'm excited. I'm gonna be cooking today like crazy. Yeah, Linus hosting. Doing Thanksgiving.

I'm doing Thanksgiving. So it's gonna be, it's gonna be interesting. I'm particularly excited about your pumpkin and sage pasta. You're, are you making the pesto bread that I requested? Yes, I am. Because 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 streusel. The sweet potato, sweet potato. So, yeah, you're all invited to do there. And you know what, I'll post some recipes because they're all recipes I found on the interwebs.

So I can rum-didly- I'll post some recipes in case anybody thinks any of that sounds good. It does. But yeah, I'm excited. I love- 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 the-

I like ripping up a lot of things. I like 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. I thought you meant like it's your job because you're cooking. No, I mean,, I feel about my job. Oh, yeah. I thought you meant like it's your job because you're cool with your key.

No, I mean, like 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, but as well, it's a kind of, mine as well.

It's a turkey. It's easier, I think. Do you put, like, lemons or like, oh yeah, you got a, 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.

You got to put a little bouquet of herbs, maybe some times, 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 brine, some people don't brine at all. Do you really up to everybody? I, I, I've brined before. Do you even brine, bro? She doesn't even brine here. She's even brine, bro. Yeah, and you want to put

some like garlic and onion in there, like really get it going. Brian, bro? Yeah, and you want to put some 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 chalette. We love a gene chalette 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. Baste forever. It makes a difference. Even when I make like chicken breastesses, I based them. You gotta base that, yeah. It works, but you know, that's been Thanksgiving with us. Loose and Thanksgiving's with Ash and Alina.

So we're right on target here. I think we're right on Brent. True crime. True crime, you know? Loose and... True crime in turkeys. But yeah, today's also gonna 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've never 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 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, 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 I'm weird. And I watched a lot of shit that I was like, wow, I can't believe that didn't traumatize such as Laplace. But maybe it did. I don't know. The girls have watched Laplace and they love it. But was it a Vosino?

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

That's how I usually feel. I don't know. I always thought that they were a little bit scary, but then in watching it with the girls, I realized I've only seen it once. That's wild. Yeah. That's really wild. I only watched it one time, and then, it's not that I didn't think they are. In watching it with the girls, I realized, I've only seen it once. That's wild, okay. That's really wild. 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 fast. You either, 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. Yes, yeah, I watched Coyote Ugly when I was little

and I felt like that was my entire personality. That's who we are. And I still do. That is, you're the Wizard of Oz and I'm Coyote Ugly. 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? 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 you. Like, Labrins, I did this too. We talk about it a lot. Talk about like the plot. 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. I mean, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like,

I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like,

I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like that, I was like, let's do this. We had a, 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 LabBrent. It's, those are my favorite things about being a parent.

It's like showing them those things. Oh, yeah. Cause it's like, you relive your childhood. Like 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 adored it.

They adored watched it. How many times since? Probably a hundred times. And it's only been like two weeks. Like I feel like a terrible on, but yesterday, one of them was like, T.T, will you watch that with me? And I was like, oh, you want to watch anything else?

Yeah, I literally can. Meanwhile, I'm like, let's watch it again. 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 game, you know? Of course. And 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. And she loves lions. Oldest. I knew she was going to dig the scarecrow. I just had a but a lion. Not cowardly. And she loves lions. Oldest. I knew she was gonna dig the scarecrow. I just had a feeling. Yeah, kind of.

Yeah, and she likes that whole, that whole life. He had the leader of the pack. Oh, and they both love Dorothy. I think she's like, that just goes to me. That's what she wants to say. 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. And I think it's just now, it's because before I was like, you're little and you're like, I love the Tin Man, whatever. Yeah. You move on. You grow up. And little and you're like, I love the Tin 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 and I was like, no, I'm still like really attracted to the Tin Man. He's from our neck of the woods, he said, right? He is, a lot of them are from Boston. Hell yeah, brother.

The wicked witch. Margaret Hamilton, she was from Boston. Hell yeah. Like the the wicked witch Margaret Hamilton. She was from Boston. Oh, shit. I didn't. Yeah. Edit. Margaret Hamilton is not from Boston. I just wanted her to be. Sorry about that. Uh, Ray Bulger, the scarecrow Boston.

Um, I actually think I'm not sure if Bert, I think his name is Lairon. 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 Door Chester.

And the Tin Man, you said, was from Door Chester. And he has a thick Boston accent, and I think that's ingrained in my brain to just automatically connect to. That's the most attractive accent. Like when he says the Tin Man, the tin maker forgot to give me a hat. And they both go no hat, no hat. Just like yes, 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. I really had a journey, it was an eat prey love Man. It was a big realization week for me. Like, I really had like, 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, but 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 Tin Man attractive? And I realized that I find that I can Haley attractive. What makes a person a murderer?

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You should do one of those TikToks where it's like show your childhood crush. I then show who you married. Like just, is there any? Is there any resemblance? Like any. The ten minutes, the ten minutes pretty tall. He is. He's tall.

He's kind. He has a hat. He has no hat. But he has one of his hats. He has hat, you know? Yeah, and he's got, he's got various expressivize. I wonder if he has a nice jaw. You do love a nice jaw. He has a nice jaw. You do love a nice jaw.

He has a great jaw. I definitely have a type. I know. 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 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 all so 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, like, let's let that go on.

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 like feel that when I watch it. Yeah, I feel a lot. Darkness. Because I remember the first time I watched it, and I guess the only time until recently,

I was just like, oh, I'm so happy. I didn't feel good about it. Yeah, see, I felt great about it. So I, I apparently am not intuitive to the darkness, but now I'm like, wow, he's a lot of dark shit. It's my empathetic way. So what we're gonna do today is we're gonna 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 gotta do, you gotta do the weird stuff behind the Wizard of Oz. It's like the man behind the curtain. And actually, I think it was Michael from the Spooky's podcast.

I was like, you guys should cover that. And I was like, little do you. Got you, no, little do you know. Working on that now. So let's start. We're gonna go through some of these things. I'm just gonna go like list by list, but we're really gonna get into them.

Okay, let's go. So the first thing we're gonna talk about because it's the most important is the Tin Man makeup. Obviously. Jack Ely. There is a big long, very long standing, 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 Eustick, because when we were watching it, I mentioned how,

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, 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 his mom. Nothing happened to his mom, Mary. 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, as 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 swappity. 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 played better. He does. He does a great scarecrow and he like just really liked that part and he thought he'd played better. He does. He does a great scarecrow. And he is. Like it wouldn't have worked.

Switched. No. So we have Buddy Ebsen who is like in the Beverly Hillbilly. 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 Ebsen started rehearsals in 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 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. So yeah, everything's going fine. Everything's cool to me. 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's 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 13, 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 just completely cringing up. He could barely walk, he was 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. Oh. Dude, it wasn't 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. Wow.

Just lay in bed for weeks. Oh God. Oh, God. Now, this is what's nuts. Everyone at the MGM studio producing the film was just pissed. MGM pissed. I'm not 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, he's in an iron lung right now.

Yeah, and... 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 Loroi 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. 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 a pure aluminum dust was pretty fine. Wow. Like they would do it. 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 really good to fall asleep.

There was a period of time between about 1943 and 1979 where people who worked in mines, I almost just said miners, but I thought you guys would confuse that and be like, people under the age of what? Like, mine worker miners. You get it now. What are they? What are they? 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 silico cysts. 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 silico cysts 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. Miners who were diagnosed with this would at first just find themselves having this nasty cough all the time.

Someone's blackloin. I was just thinking they would have shortness of breath. And it really isn't diagnosed for 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 him, you've even done the fucking hand.

You've got to do that. It's so good. It is. Zoolander is the best. I tried not to like it when I was younger. But you can't. It's funny. But it would be found is the best. I tried not to like it when I was younger. But you can't. 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 Mac and Tire 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 and Ontario miners in the Mac and Tire powder aluminum inhalation program. Me as well. And it's by Janice Martell and Lee L you're daughter Sorry, sorry T. But yeah Too really smart people and I'll link this paper so you can go look at it because I'm sure you want to 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 Algonz Quark II 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 underground 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 doors shut at both ends, the ventilation fans 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 cloud of black dust filling the room. Obscuring Hobbs' vision of all that surrounded him as he took his first breaths of very finely 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 Hobbes and his shift partners were hurted 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 to get out of this? Because I thought I was going to stop silicosis. What? So yeah, that's how little concerns they were by aluminum partner, which is why they called the hospital and were're like, oh no He needs 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 and the doctors were like 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. But yeah, if we're even ignoring that, if that's, if he's not just being poisoned by an iron lawn, 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 Ebsen, because of course you're like, uh, Sue the studio. Because that was absolutely my first thought. That's not something that can happen. Now Buddy Ebsen, because of course you're like, ah, sue the studio.

Because that was absolutely my first thought. Well Buddy Ebsen 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 sure it's not that different than now. I was gonna 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 sue 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.

And was like, yeah, we don't need to call the police. We know where that we are the we are the investigators. Yeah, yeah, they were a power. Yeah, absolutely. After a few weeks of trying to get him back from like the brink of death, to then paint poison on him again and have him do it again. Like that was their plan. Like, let's go back in the makeup. We're making a 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, a Haley to take over as part of the Tin Man. Mm-hmm. Now, I wrote in my notes, now, Jack Haley is a babe. Literally has nothing to do with anything else I'm saying. I literally just wrote it in my notes, now Jack Haley is a babe. 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 to write myself little notes that like maybe. That was for me, 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 dad 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 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. OK.

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 didn't know saying it. I love that he was like, I fucking hated it. Yeah, he was like this sucked. His costume was crazy heavy. Part of it was like really metal. And probably so hot. 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. So lean again. When they couldn't sit down, they would just lean against this

to get any kind of relief. Oh my God. You would, they had one there and he would just lean on it. And actually, he would do this like between shots a lot, like just to get some relief because he literally couldn't sit back. Must have been killed. Yeah. And it was funny because the guy who played the cowardly lion Burke, he said that it pissed him off because he was his costume was so heavy, we'll get into his costume, don't worry. 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 into 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?

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 Ebsen was fired either. Yeah, he was. Like, in those days you went in and people got fired all the time for, like, everything. So he would just go and pound that film at Todd. At Felmetod. 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 a person 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. And then they used the paste that had aluminum dust in it to put that aluminum machine over him. So it wasn't dusted on. With white ray, it was literally dusted on. So it was

just like, yeah, like all this. Yeah, and 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 site. Oh my god. Like, he was going to lose sight. Did they like discard all aluminum based products after this? After this. After this. They my god. It was going to lose sight. Did they like discard all aluminum based products after this? I didn't. So while all this is going on by the way, Ray Bulger as the scarecrow was also 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 2000s, like we 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 10-minute makeup is like, 10-minute looks great too. Like the scarecrow looks like a burlap sack. Yeah.

It's 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. Gently, too, and gently. They would just tear that shit up. 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. Well, they were just like, they were just trucking through. And when you hear what they did to keep Dorothy on task, 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,

Jordy Garland had it like easier in the costume sense, but she did, she didn't this essence, but she had it bad in a different way. Yeah, she had it like, but they had, yeah, a different way. Yeah, she had it like real fucking bad. Yeah, they had these gnarly costumes. They were spending like literally like 13 hour days in, they couldn't take them off. Right.

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 he said, it took months and months for them to even fade. Oh my God. Like his corners of his mouth were like head 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 spirit gum. Like spirit gum. What was the thing that you used for? Prozade. Prozade. Yeah. But this was probably just like glue. On your skin.

This fucking like gorilla glue. It probably is. It's like let me super go this to your face and rip it off every day. Well, and when Hailey says that Bert Larr had it worst of all, Bert Larr 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 lion's costume was made of real lion skin, real lion fur, real lion hide. It was 90 pounds, and it smelled, they said. You, of course it did. Yeah. And they said it literally smelled and they was 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, uh, yeah, I can't even, 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. It's supposed to look like a cat. So if they made it, so his mouth couldn't open that wide. So he couldn't eat. And for 13 hours a day, he was literally 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, get em full too.

And he said that, because if he tried to chew, he would break the prosthesis and they didn't want to redo it. They would. So he literally couldn't eat and he would get pissed, I guess, like 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 sandwich and just like bust through his makeup.

I don't blame him. Hungary 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, it's insane.

Well then think about your lugging around a 90 pound costume all day. Literally like 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 super hot of all of these sets.

And so it is a billion degrees. And so they would literally between shots, like run over to the doors and open the doors and just get fresh air and breathe. 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 grace. This is a little too much. This is a little too much. Yeah.

But yeah, so the cowardly lion had a tough, pure, 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. And that's 90 pounds. Really wild, so.

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. She loves 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 witches 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 wanna talk about that. So in the scene where the Wicked Witch of the West leaves Munchkinland 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. 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, wait a minute 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. Things were so thoughtful, guys. Then weirdly, those are the concerns. They're worried about her breaking her arms or like her legs. But we have like whole last 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. When off without a hitch. Victor In fact, the first time they did this whole shot, it was perfect. When off without a hitch, Victor Fleming, the director was like psyched. He was like, that was perfect, but he said, as always, we're gonna do one more shot

just to have it in the game. 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 Glenda, 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 gonna be right in the middle of it. Yeah, right. She was like, ah shit, look 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 heard at first, but it was like warning signs. 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 fucked out. Science from the universe saying, you already got your shot. Take that shot. You got the shot. We got the shot. Fleming, let's just let it go. Now, she said, quote, and this is crazy.

This is how much Victor Fleming, the director, did not give a shit about these people. So she said, quote, and then 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

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 littering chock. 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. That was the worst part. The skin on her right hand was completely gone. It was just raw flesh.

Goodbye. Just raw flesh. Oh. Now remember that makeup, the toxic green makeup thing? Did it not burn into her skeleton at that point? Well, when the flesh on her hands literally pealed 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 and the swell. Everyone in the Wizard of Oz has the right to say.

I did, they can. They're like, I had my hands cleaned with alcohol after suffering from your degree burns and like peeling my skin back. Mm-hmm. 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 she's an idiot if she doesn't sue your ass. She'll get back when she's good and ready. Like, flip her head. Oh, good for him.

I love that. No, probably like, yeah. Watch her. They were like, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Now, again, she said the only reason she didn't sue is because she wanted to work again.

She never would have if she was sued. So did they have to pause filming that? They did, yeah. And she did refuse to work with fire ever again in the movie. She was a figure now, I'm not working with fire. Now in fact, when she got back to set, she was due to do that sky writing scene. That's a render Dorothy scene.

I love that. There's a band called surrender door The 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 She was doing the close-ups because there's close-ups of her like on the broom like laughing and their smoke behind her like yell I'm a door yeah, just screaming and screeching. But it required her to sit on a steel saddle on her broom. And it was raised up. And then smoke would pour out of the back

from a pipe under the saddle. Oh god. That's how they rig 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 it was a high kind of explode on your mind, but don't get down. But they mentioned, you know, if you'd like, we did make you a fireproof costume. And she was like, why? Why'd 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 this single thing you say. So she was like, no. So she said she wouldn't do it with the smoke in the fire. She's like, no. She said she would do the close-ups. like why would I I don't trust a single thing you say so she was like no so she said she wouldn't do it with the smoke in the fire she's like no she said she would do the close-ups she was like 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 blammer her stunt double Betty Danko said she would do the rest now she was a

young girl at this point and she was probably trying to like be like a not-a-after so she's like I'll do anything oh yeah and she's a young girl at this point. And she was probably trying to be like, an oboe-coming actress. So she's like, I'll do anything. Oh yeah, and she's a stunt girl. So she's like, she's done a few things like this. And she's like, oh yeah, I'll take a lot of time 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 gonna happen. You're gonna get hurt. And she's like, 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. You were gonna 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 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 it where her dress had become fused. Cause it was burned into this giant hole in her leg. What the fuck? Wanna 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 mother fucking 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. You, what? I'd be like, you can take the hat when you find it and shove it right up your arm.

I am brooney the fire spirit from Frozen 2 right now. And you are asking me where that hat is? Can you, you're laying the first of all face stars? Because I can't even have the nicety to put you on your back. And then she's like, I need to hand in that hat. I need to turn that in, you know. It's like you're gonna get in trouble today, okay?

You're gonna 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. Had literally exploded. She had permanent scars 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. The fuck, Victor? Yeah. I'd be like, Victor, get away from me. You bad news. You bad news, okay? Now, Victor Fleming speaking of him,

I'll skip ahead to something with him because. Please do. 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,

and then she whacks him on the nose. Yeah. I guess she kept breaking into giggles. Cause that's funny. And I guess Bert Larr was really funny cause he was like, like just like coming at her. So she kept laughing. And she was like,

I was gonna 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. Slap turn the face, then ordered her to 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 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. Like, kiss her. Please punch me. And I guess Judy 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. Of course you 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 when 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 bunch 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,

oh, Kiddo. And I guess she said, I won't do that, but I'll kiss your nose and she did. Oh, what a cutie. Like what did, what did they did Judy so wrong? Yeah, they did her dirty.

They did her so wrong. Yeah, I would punch Victor Fleming straight in the kisser. Yeah, like that's your time, just kid. But like what Yeah, I would punch Victor Fleming straight in the case here. Like that's your time, just kidding. But like what a pure and wholesome human. What a strange way. Who was like led into such a shitty path of life.

Oh yeah, watching the drama. Judging the mother. Yeah, it's all wrong with me. I mean, her real name is Frances Gumm. Huh, yeah. Now, speaking of Dorothy and the horrific thing, so we're 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. In the head of the studio, Louis B. Meyer, I don't know if it's Louis or Louis, but get ready for this.

We civilize that. My guy. But he's a piece of shit, so I literally don't care what his real name is. Good. He would call her quote, fat little pig in pigtails. Wow. So I don't care if it's Lewis or Lewis.

Yeah, I don't care. No. Asshole said that I'm going to try out. And when he tell you, Mr. Glass House should have kept his rocks to himself. Go ahead and Google what he looks like. Yeah. Name again.

Excuse me, glasshouse. Louis B. Mayor. I think it's Louis. But yeah, like, go away Mr. Glasshouse. We're loaded. This is when she started the fuck out of me. Exactly. Like, was there a mirror on set that day, sir? Like, please, turn. 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 this point.

She's like turning into like that time when you're getting her boobs. Women have boobs. And now Dorothy was supposed to be like a younger girl when she was supposed to be like, I think in the book she's supposed to be like a younger girl. When she was supposed to be like, I think in the book she's supposed to be like 12. 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. That's so cool. Like the studio execs are documenting a young girl's food intake for months leading up to shooting. Wow, that's so cool. 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.

Oh, 100%. If you start eating like that. This stuff was the reason she died the way she did. And like developing that 100% food is so dangerous. Oh, so dangerous. And 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 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 day 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. Jesus. 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. 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, like, I 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 a medicine before, where like, I broke my pelvis, and they had to put me on morphine.

Yeah. And 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 at the time. Like when I had 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 what wow. I could not handle that because I'm just usually I have like a pretty good pain tolerance like 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. Oh, my God, never again. I was like, no, this is not worth 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. I just see I was like, they just gave me motor and 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 like sexually assaulting her on set. Good. Yeah. And her husband, one of her husband's 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, just really messed up. And I do, from what I read though, I guess the three guys, like the Lion, Tin Man, and Scarcro, were like super protective of her. Thank you, boss. And they were all like good dudes,

and none of them did anything like that. And they were like really tight. It was 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 nice to know at least 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 counter spell 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. Yeah. That'll, no one on them. That'll wake you up.

That'll wake you up and also put you to sleep. I was gonna say that for only a little while, but that just snowing. 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 live in it. And it's funny because I read 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. 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 us. And a last little, 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 on a sad note. I'm sorry. All right. But I'll give you a couple things after this. But the woman who played on TM, who on TM and Uncle Henry, you're just like, I love you. I love you so much. Her name was Clara Blandick 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. She was the victim of severely painful arthritis all over her body and they couldn't get it on control back then.

Just real quick, too, this is like a suicide trigger. So just, this is gonna be a minute where I'm gonna talk about it. So April 15th, 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 a 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, the take-a-men.

Oh, apparently. That is so sad. She is buried very close to Charlie Grapewin, who played Uncle Henry, her husband. Oh my gosh, the way. She like yards away. They're all right next to each other. It's not just like a weird person.

I don't know if it was like men too, but it's like a nice little like. Well thought, here. 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. She was in control of it. That was what she wanted to do. But like how sad that she had no other option. Like, it's such a bummer that like medical stuff has kind of gone 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 there's nothing to help. Our loneliness, like, just watching people go, I obviously have never really gone through that but 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's having body. Yeah, I hope she did have a great adventure I hope she's excuse me. I hope she's having a real adventure. I don't have in that great adventure go off She's over the rainbow having a blast all that one really I know thanks. I know. I'm sorry I 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 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 on the Yellowbrook Road now. That's how close they were. And just to leave you unlike not the saddest of notes, but more like, wow wow Margaret Hamilton get it. Okay.

The Wicked Witch's 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 all out. Like some Margaret Evelts and just scared the shit out of everybody. That's what I was hired for. She was only on screen for like 15 minutes in the film, but she had tons more.

Oh, that sucks. And it was all really scary. Like she was terrified. I wish they had like, uh, dinner version, like where they could have released that version. I know. I'm like, can we have her deleted scenes? Yeah. I'm gonna see her scary scenes.

For real. But I wonder if they could ever uncover them someday. I know. I wonder. I think that there's a way to do that. Who knows how they, I'm not even sure. I should look at it. I think that there's a lot. Who knows, have they? I'm not even sure. I should look at it. I know, let's find out. But that is some of the dark secrets I found

about the Yelbert Road. The Yelbert Road. It was about the Yelbert Road. But about the Wizard of Oz and how fucked up the filming was. Wow. That was really entertaining. It seems quite true. It's a bit...

It definitely is, Carson, I feel. I feel like I'm, it's a lot. I feel like I'm never gonna watch that movie the same with your children. You watch it and you're like, you watch it with the different. You exploded. You had to go to the hospital.

You almost went blind. 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 paint it. To put makeup on.

So she had to wear gloves on her hand. Oh, wow. And I want to look for it the next time I want to do that. 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.

Yeah, it looks pretty, but it's not as thick enough to do anything. And like that's how nasty it was. The picture filming sounds like the worst. And I just said everybody had asked to punch him in the face. Actually did punch him in the face. I know, that would have been nice. 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, like hung themselves in a tree on the side. Oh yeah. That's not true. You can see it in the original part of the film. Yeah. That was completely untrue. Just 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 say? Yeah, there's no, I mean, there's absolutely no evidence or no police reports.

And I was gonna say, we know all the other horrific things about what we want to do. I do want to leak 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, yeah, 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. People really believe that. And I did, I did for a while. Whenever that 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 bit like. Yeah, I remember remember definitely hearing that I never looked for it though yeah that didn't happen though at least not that that you can find anywhere well that's uh settling that it didn't happen but yeah but everything else happened in this so thanks for that yeah it's a fucked up movie but I thought it might you know it's a holiday week We're just gonna 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 wanna do something a little different. Yeah, I like that. I hope you guys dug it. It's your show, go off. Yeah, it's my show, man. Yeah.

Well, we hope that you keep listening. And we hope you keep it. Weeeeee! But that's where they decided to direct a movie and do any of the things that were done on this movie. So thank you and good night. Bye! Follow the Yellow Book Road.

Follow the Yellow Book Road or don't. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to morbid, early, and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wundery.com slash survey.