Question for 'Wizard Of Oz' Historians

[romantico]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 8:47pm

I am looking for some information about Margaret Hamilton while filming 'The Wizard Of Oz'.

I had heard that while filming she had some sort of allergic reaction to the make up. No, I am not thinking of Buddy Ebsen either. I can not seem to find any info about this anywhere. A friend of mine who is a make up artist told me this story a few years ago and I am trying to find more information out about it.

Apparently the make up had a copper base and under the intense Technicolor lights, it literally burnt her face. Has anyone heard this story or more know more details about it? Thanks!

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 8:52pm

From what I understand, during a take of her Muchkinland sequence (where she disappears), her hat caught on fire (with her broom too?) and she received severe burns both on her face and hands. The make-up comes into the story because it contained, as you said, a copper that had to come of before the burns could be treated.

Not sure how accurate that is, but it's the story I've heard.

[D2]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 8:53pm

I've never heard that story, but I do know that the copper based makeup ignited during a take while she was disappearing through the floor in the Munchkinland scene and the flames went off too soon. She was severely burned and was off the film for a good long time.

[artscallion]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 8:55pm

It wasn't an alergic reaction. What happened was that when she disappears in a ball of flames and cloud of smoke after her first appearance in Munchkinland (just before Galinda's "what a smell of sulfer" line) There was a malfunction in the trap door she is lowered down through. The flame was supposed to end and go to smoke before she was lowered. But the timing was off and the copper makeup on her face caught fire. She was badly burned and out of production for a while.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 8:55pm

Priest has it right. And think it also had something do with her getting stuck in the trap door or something?

[nmartin]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 8:56pm

The following comes from IMDB:

Margaret Hamilton suffered a serious injury on the set when her make-up heated up and nearly caught fire in the scene where she disappears in a cloud of orange smoke and fire. As it was, she suffered second- and third-degree burns to her hands and face. It was later discovered that one of the key components in her make-up was copper.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 8:57pm

So it was actually her make-up itself that caught fire, not her hat?

That's intense.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 8:59pm

OUCH!

[Yawper]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 9:02pm

.
Updated On: 6/22/08 at 09:02 PM

[romantico]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 9:09pm

Thanks!

What would be the purpose of copper in make up?

I would think after awhile the harsh lights or just like you aid, the heat from fire or the smoke would make the copper burn. Thanks again for the help!

[artscallion]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 9:11pm

Color, I would guess. Oxidized copper would be green.

[otis33]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 9:18pm

Back when I was a tour guide at Universal Studios, we had tons of trivia to learn as "Stall material" for those occasions the tram tour route was backed up, or if the tram broke down. One tidbit we told was how Margaret Hamilton's skin had a green tint to it for months after they finished filming.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 9:28pm

From what I've read, Magaret's hat did indeed catch on fire, as well as her face.

Posted: 6/22/08 at 9:29pm

The copper is what made it green. It's also toxic so when she was burned she had to have the makeup removed IMMEDIATELY- she says with Rubbing Alcohol directly on her burns. I cannot imagine that pain.

There was a book by Aljean Harmets about the making of "Oz" that told the story with plenty of interviews with Hamilton. Apparently not only was she seriously injured but MGM doubted her story and sent "spies" to check on her recovery.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 9:37pm

Yes, Hamilton's stand-in (her name escapes me) was literally blown of her broom when they were filming the "Surrender Dorothy" scene, which Hamilton refused to take part in when she learned it involved pyrotechnics.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 6/23/08 at 12:29am

I just read this seciton of Aljean's book!

Ok, Ebsen DID have an allergic reaction. At least that's the most logical conclusion.

What happened to both Betty Danko (The stand in) and Hamilton was Victor Flemming.

The first take of Hamilton's exit from Munchkinland was perfect. They broke for lunch and Flemming decided he wanted more takes. And they kept going bad, and finally he told them on no specific terms to get it right this time. When she went down she felt the warmth, and the stagehands knocked her hat and broom away from her and they started trying to get the makeup off. She ended up going home with her face and hands bandaged...and missing the skin on one hand and one eyebrow. The next day the studio called to ask how she was. Her doctor took the phone and told them it would be at least 6 weeks before she would return, and basically told them off. When she went back her hands hadn't totally healed, so she ended up wearing gloves for the rest of it.

This seques into the next big injury. When she returned it was to do the sky-writing. They asked her if she wanted her regualr costume or the fire proof one. To which she asked "Fire proof?" She went and battled so that she wouldn't be near fire (can you blame her?) and told them that if they wouldn't do it, they could find someone else to do the role. They wisely decided on the stunt-double. Well, they filmed with the smoke, and all was well until Flemming turned up (He'd been with the first unit working on a scene with Judy), who decided he wanted it to come from under her. So they moved the smoke pipe, and covered it iwth asbestos. Danko went up, pushed the button once, and it was fine. Twice, it was fine. Third and she was thrown, so she wrapped her leg around the broom and dangled upside down as they lowered her. Her hat flew into the flies and wasn't recovered for several days. She went to the ER with a 2 inch deep cut around most of one leg.

Years later, on another movie, they needed a flying effect in a barroom, and LeRoy was directing. When he asked who Danko was (she was an extra), someone looked at him and said "You should know, you almost blew her up on Wizard of Oz 10 years ago!" Later that day she felt a draft and discovered Flemming trying to lift her skirt to see the scars.

[gypsy4]

Posted: 6/23/08 at 12:38am

I had heard about this on a T.V special it happened when she was going down from the
lift.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/23/08 at 1:06am

I love that I'm not the only Oz geek around here!

Makes me proud to be among you.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 6/23/08 at 1:22am

And I to be considered an "Oz geek" by you.

I actually carry a Wizard of Oz lunchbox that I've had since the 50th Anniversary, to lunch at work daily...and I read Oz related books there.

It keeps the stupid at bay.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/23/08 at 1:32am

Go, husk! My hero!

You've all got bits and pieces of the story right, so I'll summarize (as President of the Maggie Hamilton Second Grade Pen Pal Club):

They initially planned on having Maggie's standby Betty Danko do the disappearing shot with fire and smoke, since Betty had done the entrance shot (with smoke only), when the witch is first seen in Munchkinland. But that was a longshot in a crowd, and it was unexpected. Victor Fleming insisted on having Maggie do the disappearance shot, because he wanted it to come right after her (famous) line of, "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!" He didn't want to cut away to a longshot of the stand-in at that key moment. So Maggie reluctantly agreed.

The first take is the one in the movie. They shot it just before lunch, because it took them the better part of the morning to get the trap door sequence right. The problem was that after the door was lowered with Maggie on it, a crew member had to slide a piece of "ground" over the hole very quickly with "invisible" wires from off camera and get it into position as the smoke shot up into the air. They rehearsed and rehearsed, and had many problems with the timing of the door before they finally got it right.

The way it was supposed to go:

1. Maggie steps onto the platform and pulls her elbows in close to her body, while laughing maniacally. The elbow tuck was to prevent her hitting her arms on the sides, as the platform was lowered quickly.

2. Smoke shoots up around her as she goes down below the floor level.

3. After she is below, a big fireball is shot up into the air, and the fake piece of floor is slid into position using the wires.

On the first take, it all went smoothly (it's the one in the movie), except that Fleming felt the smoke started just a bit too soon, before she had actually arrived in position. So he wanted another take. But it was lunchtime already, so they broke for lunch, and then started up with Take Two, which was the disastrous one.

Maggie hit the platform, tucked in her elbows, and the smoke started up around her. But the platform was late in going down, so as she was about halfway down, with her body from the waste up still exposed, the big fireball went up around her.

When she was below the ground, she actually didn't realize anything had gone wrong at first. The crew members jumped on her and pulled her hat and broom, both of which had caught fire, and she said something like, "well, that was a close one! I sure hope we don't have to do it again!" It was only then that she realized her skin had been badly burned. They moved in very quickly to try to get her help.

Yes, the makeup was green and had copper in it. And the burns were bad enough that they worried about the copper getting into her bloodstream through the exposed wounds. Her blood would have been poisoned (potentially fatally) if that had happened. So they removed the makeup quickly with alcohol and cotton balls on the exposed burns. And, as Joe says, I couldn't imagine the pain.

Maggie was in the hospital for six weeks, and they threatened to replace her. And there was a lot of yelling between her agent and MGM. She was encouraged to sue the studio, and everyone was sure she would win. But Maggie decided not to sue them, in the end. She said, "I would have ended up with a nice settlement, and I would have never worked again in Hollywood." And she wanted to work, so she played nice. MGM agreed not to replace her, and instead (at a lot of expense, boo-hoo) revised the entire shooting schedule to film the witch's remaining scenes toward the end of production. That required them to dismantle, build and tear down several major sets on the sound stages to make that happen.

In the end, Maggie had a great sense of humor about it, with a story she liked to tell... that she had almost been burned alive during filming, and nobody knew about it, except the people involved... and a few weeks later, Billie Burke had twisted her ankle on the set of Oz, and it had been written up in all the papers. Oh, well...

Updated On: 6/23/08 at 01:32 AM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/23/08 at 1:36am

I love all the misinformation. There never seems to be any one version of any oz tale. The Buddy Ebson story, as it was told to me, was not an allergic reaction, but rather his make up was made of aluminum powder so every day when it was applied he would breath it in until finally one day he could no longer breath and it was discovered at the hospital that his lungs were coated in aluminum. The make-up for Jack Haley was then quality changed from aluminum powder to aluminium paste. But, I supposes that too could be misinformation.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 6/23/08 at 1:40am

If any of you can find it, I highly recommend AlJean Harmetz's book "The Making of The Wizard of Oz: Star Wattage and Studio Power and the Miracle that was Production 1060" (I may have goofed on the sub-title).

It's from the 70s, and really goes into the studio system and what it was like.

My favorite part so far is the chapter on "Accidents." The first line is "Buddy Ebesn was the first to go." (or something like that). It's had tons of great info as well. It's not as thorough as John Fricke's book in some places, but on a whole it's better writing.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/23/08 at 1:43am

CATSNY--You're correct. It wasn't an allergy at all. He was literally "breathing silver." He got what the doctors considered the equivalent of "black lung," which some of the heavy-duty coalminers used to get, if they had breathed in too much coal.

He spent weeks in an iron lung, because his lungs had almost lost the ability to process oxygen.

But no, he wasn't allergic to the silver that went into his lungs, anymore than you or I would consider a cut from a knife an "allergic" reaction to the blade.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 6/23/08 at 1:46am

I have that book! Well, it's by Aljean Harmetz, anyway, with an introduction by Margaret Hamilton. But there's no subtitle. It's simply called THE MAKING OF THE WIZARD OF OZ. It's a 1989 edition.

BTW: I hate you, husk! I wanted that lunchbox as a kid, but my dad wouldn't get it for me. He said it was too girlie. Instead, I got a Peanuts one.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 6/23/08 at 1:52am

Besty-
According to the logic laid out by AlJean it seems to be allergic (although it was b/c he was breathing it in).

Consequently, Ebsen had a tendency for bronchitis.

I think after I finish AlJean, I'm going to start in on Munchkins of Oz. The only Oz refrence book that I'm missing (Far as I know) is Stephen Cox's Ruby Slippers of Oz.


SM2-
I <3 my lunchbox.