From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Subject: Re: a)Oz hanging death b)Aluminum dust
Date: 29 Aug 1993 02:07:22 GMT

In response to someone bringing this damn thread back up
again, ak251@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Mitchel Harris, but 
really Beverly H.) writes:

  -Alright, has anyone else heard of this "hanging" during the 
  -filming of Oz? And if the scene was left in, which one was 
  -it? Sounds like urban folklore to me...

And it apparently is.  Popular story that made the rounds a
year or several again when "lost" footage was released and
hit such bastions of hardcore journalism like "A Current 
Affair" and "Hard Copy."

One post that has some interesting comment (though no reference)
follows:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cwvst+@pitt.edu (Charles W Van Keuren)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Wizard of Oz-Unnoticed Background Events
Message-ID: <6392@blue.cis.pitt.edu>
Date: 20 Mar 93 18:48:15 GMT
References: <1993Mar16.133126.612@antioc.antioch.edu>
Sender: news+@pitt.edu
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Lines: 81

In article <1993Mar16.133126.612@antioc.antioch.edu> mbaya@antioc.antioch.edu writes:
>A friend told me that in one scene of the Wizard of Oz you can see someone
>'hang' themselves from a tree in the background?
>
>Does anyone know about this? Can anyone verify this?
>Are there any other weird things in this movie that I havent noticed before?

Oh boy!  One of my favorite topics: cinematic errors.

Well, the "dead person hanging in the background" rumor is popular, but untrue.
What the "hanging person" actually is is a film crew person who got caught in
the shot and quickly ran off the set.  It's kinda hard to see, but it never
did get cut out.  I guess the hanging person legend has too much flare to die
down.

There were some strange things that happened on the set though.  The guy who
played Jed Clampett on the Beverly Hillbillies (I forget his name) was 
originally cast to play the Tin Woodsman, but during filming it was discovered
that he had pretty nasty skin reactions to the silver paint; thus, he was 
replaced.  Also, the woman who played the Wicked Witch of the West was in fact
burnt quite badly during the scene where Dorothy throws water on her.  I think
some film device used to create the smoke got out of hand.

Other neat stuff:  Look at see how often the length of Dorothy's hair changes
from scene to scene.  I guess her hair was cut several times during filming.
This is quite noticable.  In the beginning, B&W part of the film, notice how
Dorothy gets clean REAL quick after falling in the mud.  Also, there are 
a few counting errors in the beginning...I think when Aunt Em is counting 
chickens or something.  Another one I forget has to do with the set of the
house as it is carried by the tornado...something about objects in the room
not reacting properly to physics.  

Here's some more mistakes I've caught:
   [Lots of drivel about more interesting movies deleted.]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Terry "And Toto's real name was 'Terry'" Chan

From: pashley@netcom.com (Paul "Monty" Ashley)
Subject: Re: a)Oz hanging death b)Aluminum dust
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 08:35:36 GMT

twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan) writes:

>One post that has some interesting comment (though no reference)
>follows:

   [Stuff about the making of _The Wizard of Oz_ deleted]

One good reference on the making of _The Wizard of Oz_, which verifies
the "Margaret Hamilton catching on fire", the "Buddy Ebsen getting
sick from silver paint" and the "Buddy Ebsen cast as Tin Woodsman 
until that happened" stories iis _The Making of The Wizard of Oz_,
by Aljean Harmetz. ISBN 0-87910-000-1. 329 information-packed pages,
with bits from the first several versions of the scripts, interviews
with _everyone_, from Yip Harburg to Margaret Hamilton, and it even
includes a historical note on the typeface (a "modern" face known as
Number 21). Highly recommended.


>Terry "And Toto's real name was 'Terry'" Chan

Naw, it stood for "Terry out, Terry out".

 -Paul "Monty" Ashley
   (Which, since it says the same thing twice, gave rise to the
word "totology")