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34) To show Dorothy's house falling from the sky, a miniature house was dropped onto a sky painting on the stage floor, then the film reversed to make it appear the film was falling towards the camera.
35) Jack Haley's Tin Woodsman costume was so stiff that he had to lean against a board if he wanted a rest.
36) The film is meant to be one of the most watched in the western world, partly because of its heavy presence on TV schedules.
37) The head winged monkey is called Nikko – also the name of the Japanese town home to the shrine featuring the Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil monkeys.
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38) In 2007, the Munchkins were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Seven of them attended the ceremony: Mickey Carroll, Ruth L Robinson, Margaret Pellegrini, Meinhardt Raabe, Karl "Karchy" Kosiczky and August Clarence Swenson.
39) Baum thought up the name for Oz when looking at his filing cabinets, organised A-N and O-Z.
40) Jack Haley regularly claimed that making the film was far from enjoyable. "Like Hell, it was; it was work!", he was say.
41) Judy Garland couldn't stop giggling while filming the scene in which Dorothy slaps the Cowardly Lion. So the director, Victor Fleming, took her aside and slapped her. She returned to the set and filmed the scene in one take.
42) The line "What makes the dawn come up like thunder?" in the Cowardly Lion's speech about courage is a reference to a line in Rudyard Kipling's Mandalay: "An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!"
43) The tornado was a 35-foot-long muslin stocking, spun around among miniatures of a Kansas farm and fields in a dusty atmosphere.
44) Lux Radio Theater broadcast a 60-minute CBS Radio adaptation of the movie on Christmas Day 1950 with Judy Garland reprising her film role as Dorothy.
45) In 1985 Disney made a sequel to Wizard of Oz named Return to Oz. It has since become a cult classic.
46) The musical Wicked is based on Gregory Maguire's Wicked: The Life and
Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It's essentially a back story to The Wizard of Oz, and shows the Wicked Witch of the West is a positive light.
47) The stage version of The Wizard of Oz returns to London's West End in February 2011. The role of Dorothy was decided by BBC talent show Over the Rainbow, which aired in spring 2010.
48) Four sets of slippers were used in the film, one pair of which was stolen from a museum in Minnesota in 2005. They were insured for $1m.
49) The film won two Oscars for best original score and best original song, and was nominated for best art direction, best cinematography and best effects.
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50) A Cairn terrier called Terry played the role of the dog Toto.
51) Spotlights and shadows from camera equipment are visible on the grass as Dorothy and the Scarecrow dance off singing "We're off to see the Wizard".
52) Hamilton was hospitalised with severe burns after a botched explosion in a take of the moment in which she disappears into a cloud of smoke.
53) In the final version of this scene Hamilton is clearly visible making her exit through a trap door.
54) In the original novel, the gift given to the Tin Man is not a heart clock but a stuffed satin heart put into the Woodsman's chest and then patched over with tin.
55) When George Cukor started as the director, Garland wore a blond wig and heavy, "baby-doll" makeup. Cukor changed Judy Garland's and Margaret Hamilton's makeup and costumes and instructed Garland to act more naturally, necessitating wholescale reshoots.
56) Most actors on the five-month shoot worked six days a week and had to arrive at the studio at four and five in the morning to be fitted with makeup and costumes. They would then work till seven or eight at night.
57) The early Technicolor process required a huge amount of lighting, which would often heat the set to over 100 degrees.
58) Jack Haley's aluminium paste makeup gave the actor a severe eye infection.
59) Margaret Hamilton's mak