In 1939, one of history’s most iconic movies, The Wizard of Oz, made headlines all over the country. Starring the famous Judy Garland, the movie follows Dorothy Gale, a young girl who gets sucked inside a tornado that transports her from Kansas to Oz. While the movie has been a family favorite for years, many wicked problems happened behind the scenes. 

MGM Helped Get Garland Addicted to Pills

Judy Garland first became addicted to pills before the age of ten. According to Biography, her mother forced her to perform at a young age, and gave her the pills in order to maintain energy and help her sleep. Unfortunately, her addiction got worse when she began starring in movies for MGM. They forced her to take the “pep pills,” or barbiturates, in order to keep her thin and give her energy for long hours of filming. In an interview with author Paul Donnelley, Garland told him that MGM would give her and her co-star Mickey Rooney “pills to keep [them] on [their] feet…then after four hours they’d wake [them] up and give [them] the pep pills again so [they] could work 72 hours in a row.” She goes on and says “it was a way of life for us” which some argue eventually lead to her death in 1967, from an overdose on the same pills MGM helped her become addicted to.

The Tin Man and His Poisonous Makeup

Buddy Ebsen, the man who played the first Tin Man, had been hospitalized after his wife found him “screaming from violent cramping in his hands, arms, and legs,” in the middle of the night, as said by the Sun Sentinel. According to Vanity Fair, “He remained in an oxygen tent for two weeks, recovering from the pure aluminum he had ingested into his lungs.” Supposedly his makeup from playing his role as the Tin Man had been toxic, which resulted in him being forced to not only go to the hospital, but to be replaced in the movie. Instead of MGM being concerned for his welfare. After changing the type of makeup they used, MGM hired the Tin Man the world knows, Jack Haley, who, while never hospitalized, did suffer from a serious eye infection as a result of the makeup. 

The Wicked Witch of the West Burns, Not Melts

The main antagonist of The Wizard of Oz, The Wicked Witch of the West, played by Margaret Hamilton, also suffered severe injuries while performing dangerous stunts on the set. According to The Vintage News, Hamilton “suffered a second-degree burn on her face as well as a third-degree burn on her hand,” while shooting the scene of the witch fleeing Munchkinland. In the scene, they used fireworks, which caught fire when making contact with her broom and ignited the witch’s green makeup that consisted of highly flammable copper monoxide. Despite her extensive injuries, Hamilton did decide to come and reprise her role as the Wicked Witch, but she said she would only return if they agreed to use no more fireworks.

Judy Garland Gets Assaulted by Munchkins

The Munchkins may have helped Dorothy get to the Wizard, but there have been countless rumors of them molesting Judy Garland on set. Sid Luft, the husband of Garland from 1952-1965 released a memoir about his life with Garland called Judy and I. In the memoir, he claims that the Munchkins made  “Judy's life miserable on set.” He goes on to say the Munchkins  “thought they could get away with anything because they were so small.”  Although no official allegations have been made, many sources have come to the conclusion that Judy Garland had been a victim of sexual harassment by the Munchkins on set.