DadDarrenN06: I have heard that Ray Bolger befriended Judy not long after filming and they remained lifelong friends. He was one of the only people who worked on the film to attend her funeral, but it is true that Margaret Hamilton was initially the only actress on the set to be kind to Judy. In real life, Margaret Hamilton was a lovely human being.
I_are_facepalm: Judy Garland’s life was so tragic it makes the film much sadder.
*Somewhere Over The Rainbow* is a tear-jerker in the context of Garland’s early life.
sephrinx: Everything you will ever read about that movie and that actress is absolute epitome of awful, the most depressing shit.
id_faker: That’s a really sad story. Never realized how unglamorous it was for those contract actors.
Edit: spelling unglamorous corrected.
americanto: [She was also sexually harassed by the munchkins](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/08/judy-garland-allegedly-sexually-harassed-by-munchkins-on-wizard-of-oz-set)
satanicpuppy: The reason the screen actors guild is so strong is because of how nasty it was in Hollywood, in the early days. Look at the shit they *still* do! And imagine how much worse it was when most of them got pocket change.
Judy Garland…As the *star*…Got $500 a week for filming (about $7,285 in today’s money). ~~They filmed the whole thing in about 10 days.~~
Totally wrong:
Production on the bulk of the Technicolor sequences was a long and cumbersome process that ran for over six months, from October 1938 to March 1939. Most of the cast worked six days a week and had to arrive as early as 4:00 a.m. to be fitted with makeup and costumes, and often did not leave until 7 pm or later. Cumbersome makeup and costumes were made even more uncomfortable by the daylight-bright lighting the early Technicolor process required, which could heat the set to over 100 °F (38 °C).
So 6 months.
BlindingRain: They all probably really wanted to play Dorothy
koriyan: They also forced Judy Garland to lose a ton of weight really fast so she would look younger.
cptbryan: Margaret Hamilton was a class act. Look up the episode of Mr. Roger’s neighborhood she was in.
Mintgiver: I’ve mentioned it on Reddit before, but my grandmother was a dress model for the munchkin costumes when she was little. She said Margaret Hamilton was super nice, but the munchkins were a total handful, and cost tons of trouble.
What’s funny is that Judy Garland’s daughter Liza went on to marry the tin Man’s son, jack Haley, jr.
Payton2332: I feel like with each TIL I see about Wizard of Oz it only gets worse.
grimskull1: She also went though horrible harassment
JohnH550: Were the male actors who played Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion going to put on a blue dress and play Dorothy?
I mean, it seems like a stupid thing to be jealous of. They were the male leads while she was the female lead.
Natryn: So they really were missing a heart, a brain, and courage. Haters gonna hate, at least she had all her organs.
AUWarEagle82: Hollywood has been “Hollywood” for a long time even before Harvey.
sanguiniuswept: And that’s why no one even remembers your names, while Judy will be a legend for as long as there’s film.
apekillape: I bring this up all the time, but (rather eponymously) [the *You Must Remember This* podcast did an amazing episode about MGM’s treatment of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney](http://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/episodes/youmustrememberthispodcastblog/2015/10/26/mgm-stories-part-seven-mgms-children-mickey-rooney-and-judy-garland). I had never heard this series before someone recommended it to me here during a similar conversation, but I was an instant fan almost immediately. It’s really worth listening to if you have the occasion.
TooShiftyForYou: We already knew the Tin Man had no heart but that’s pretty low for the other two.
daniyellidaniyelli: WTF?!?! She was legit married and they made her have an abortion to keep up a “good girl” image?
All of those adults were just cruel.
RaeBee: Working on that movie must’ve been awful for Judy Garland. She was constantly told she was too fat, so she was forced to smoke 80 cigarettes a day to stifle her appetite. Most of the cast treated her like dirt, she was given adrenaline shots and “pep pills” to keep her awake and then when she couldn’t sleep she’d be given barbiturates. All of this led to her becoming addicted to pills, a habit she never shook. On top of that, she had to deal with sexual harassment from one of the producers. All that and she was only a teenager. 🙁
cos_caustic: What kind of grown ass man shuns a child like that. Buncha assholes.
richloz93: “There’s no place like…I wanna be a witch!”
danmickla: Yeah, that’s the worst part of that story, the shunning. O_o
benitocheetolini: There’s that movie ruined.
RocketPawnch: Yes but why the jealousy?
kalesandwiches: Margaret Hamilton has a pretty awesome backstory. I encourage anyone to learn about her.
stefonio: This post and everything mentioned in this thread is why I can’t enjoy the movie anymore. Yeah, it was the first B&W->Color movie, but knowing what Judy had to go through ruins it.