The Wizard of Oz that Almost Woz

In 1937 Walt Disney produced and released the first full length cartoon feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which became a huge box office hit. Disney had intended for his second feature film to be The Wizard of Oz. But while in negotiations to buy the rights to the Oz books Disney was outbid by M.G.M. studios. M.G.M. became interested in buying the film rights to The Wizard of Oz because of the success of Snow White and decided they wanted to release their own adaption of a popular children's book. Unable to make an Oz cartoon Walt chose instead to do Pinocchio. While the world never got to see a Disney animated version of The Wizard of Oz what it did gain was the classic M.G.M. musical version. But what few people realize is how different a version of The Wizard of Oz M.G.M. almost produced.

Who could forget the powerful star making performance of Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale. Or Garland singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow? And yet the role of Dorothy nearly went to child star Shirley Temple. While the studio claims that they had always intended to cast Judy Garland in the role, evidence exists that they were in negotiations with 20th Century Fox who had Temple under contract. Apparently M.G.M. was offering to lend Clark Gable to Fox in trade of Temple which would have meant that he would not have been cast as Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind. At the time Shirley Temple was the worlds biggest child star, and at age 11 was about the same age as Dorothy Gale was in the Oz books. So why didn't Temple get the part? She blew her audition. After watching her sing and dance as Dorothy studio executives realized she was wrong for the part. At 16 Judy Garland was six years older than Dorothy was in the books, but the producers of the film wanted her enough to change the age of the character.

Buster Keaton was an early choice to play the Scarecrow. Keaton began working for M.G.M. in 1928 when his contract was sold to the studio. But in 1933 Keaton was fired from his contract, essentially because he had become an alcoholic, though Keaton claimed it was because he had refused to show up for a photo op. From there Keaton signed with Educational Films where he made short features until that studio closed in 1937. Keaton returned to M.G.M. where he was hired as a writer. With Keaton once again under contract M.G.M. did have the option to use him again as an actor, but inevitably decided against it fearing that Keaton could have a relapse in his alcoholism during the film's production. The part went to Buddy Ebsen. Meanwhile Ray Bolger had been cast as the Tin Woodsman. Not happy with his role Bolger convinced producer Mervyn LeRoy to let hi switch parts with Ebsen, so that now Ebsen would be playing the Tin Woodsman while Bolger would now be playing The Scarecrow. On the ninth day of production Buddy Ebsen collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. It turned out the silver makeup he was using was poisoning him and had coated the inside of his lungs. While in critical condition in a hospital bed M.G.M. recast his part to Jack Haley. In a bit of a coincident Haley had just finished shooting the movie Pick a Star which was a remake of the Buster Keaton movie Free and Easy and with Haley playing the same part as Keaton.

M.G.M. wanted W.C. Fields to play the Wizard. Fields declined because he felt he was not being offered enough money. Instead they cast Frank Morgan. The original concept for the Wicked Witch of the West was to make her glamorous like the wicked Queen from Snow White. The role went to Gale Sondergaard who was the first actress to ever win an Academy Award. But when the producers decided they wanted the Witch to be an old had Sondergaard decided to turn down the role. It would instead go to Margaret Hamilton.

Disney never gave up on making his own version of the Wizard of Oz. In the 1950's the rights to the books finally became available again and Disney made plans for a film featuring most of the Mouseketeers. The Oz film would have been a simi-sequel to the M.G.M. movie. But for reasons still unknown Disney cancelled the project and instead began work on a remake of Laurel and Hardy's Babes in Toyland. Disney's company held on to the rights to the Oz books for another three decades before they made the movie "Return to Oz" which was far darker than any movie Walt would have released.