Wizard of Oz Wraps Filming March 1939

# March 18, 1939: The Wizard of Oz Completes Principal Photography

On March 18, 1939, the cast and crew of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's most ambitious project wrapped principal photography on a film that would become arguably the most beloved motion picture in American cinema history: **The Wizard of Oz**.

After five grueling months of production that began in October 1938, director Victor Fleming finally called "cut" for the last time on the Technicolor fantasy that had become one of the most troubled—and expensive—productions in Hollywood history. The journey to this moment had been anything but smooth, much like Dorothy's own trek down the Yellow Brick Road.

The production had cycled through multiple directors (Richard Thorpe was fired after two weeks, George Cukor worked briefly before leaving for Gone with the Wind, and Fleming himself would depart temporarily to also work on GWTW, with King Vidor stepping in to shoot the Kansas sequences). The film had endured countless script rewrites, with over a dozen writers contributing to the screenplay. The original Tin Man, Buddy Ebsen, had suffered a severe allergic reaction to the aluminum dust makeup and was replaced by Jack Haley. Margaret Hamilton, playing the Wicked Witch, suffered second-degree burns during the Munchkinland scene when her fiery exit malfunctioned.

Sixteen-year-old Judy Garland had been put through a physically demanding shooting schedule while studio executives kept her on a diet of cigarettes, coffee, and appetite suppressants. The iconic ruby slippers (changed from silver in L. Frank Baum's book to take advantage of Technicolor) had proven uncomfortable, and the elaborate costumes and makeup of the Munchkins, flying monkeys, and other inhabitants of Oz had made the soundstages sweltering under the intense lights required for the three-strip Technicolor process.

Yet somehow, through all the chaos, a masterpiece emerged. Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg's songs—including "Over the Rainbow," which studio executives nearly cut from the film—would become standards. The innovative special effects, from the tornado to the flying monkeys to the melting witch, would set new benchmarks for fantasy filmmaking.

When *The Wizard of Oz* premiered on August 15, 1939, it received positive reviews but was only a modest box office success, actually losing money in its initial release due to its enormous $2.7 million budget. However, its 1949 re-release proved profitable, and its annual television broadcasts beginning in 1956 transformed it into a cultural phenomenon that has never faded.

That March day in 1939, as the crew packed up the Emerald City set for the last time, they couldn't have known they'd created a film that would be watched by billions across generations, spawn countless adaptations and references, and prove that there really is no place like home—or no film quite like *The Wizard of Oz*.

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