In the Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland plays Dorothy Gale as very much your standard damsel in distress. She is always being thrown about, captured, and in need of help. In the book, blonde Dorothy with her silver slippers is very different. Oz, as a real land rather than a dream, is a world where Dorothy finds she fits in as a strong and self-assured character.
In the novel, it is Dorothy who saves other characters, rather than depending on them to come to her aid. Baum has actually admitted to writing Dorothy as a strong role model for his young female readers.
The Movie Is Always Different From The Book
Movies that are adapted from novels will always contain changes and edits. However, lovers of the Frank Baum original were not expecting to find quite so many changes from their beloved book in the beloved MGM film. Some changes were small, like names. In the book, Glinda is the Good Witch of the South, rather than the Good Witch of the North, as she is in the movie. But some changes were much larger than that. For instance, in the book, Oz is a real place. In the film the story, and Oz itself, is portrayed as a dream Dorothy had.
The most well known change has to do with one of the film's most well known symbols. In The Wizard of Oz on screen, Dorothy has red ruby slippers. In the Frank Baum original, Dorothy has silver slippers. It was studio head Louis B. Mayer, who insisted on the change. Wanting to test out the company's new Technicolor technology, he insisted that they use a brighter and more vibrant color than silver, as described in the book. In other fun Technicolor facts, Dorothy's dress on set was not white and blue, but pink and blue, so it would be easier to shoot with the Technicolor cameras.
Don't Scare The Crew!
Ray Bolder, who played the Scarecrow, Bert Lahr, who played the Lion, and Jack Haley, who played the Tin Man, wore costumes that were both very lifelike, and very hard to get on and off. Between takes, and during lunchtime, they often had to rest and eat in costume. In the 1930's cast, crew, and other employees on the MGM lot were not particularly used to horror movies or realistic special effects.
This meant that the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man were banned from eating in the regular MGM lunchroom, reportedly, so they wouldn't scare other staff members. They had to eat alone, something that is all but unimaginable in today's selfie and celebrity obsessed culture.
Consistently Inconsistent
Working with Technicolor meant the crew had to work with a crazy amount of lighting on set. All those lights kept the set at nearly 100 degrees. If you watch very carefully you can even see reflections from all of the lights on set pieces throughout the film. Just watch the floor of Emerald City as it rolls by.
That's not the only thing to watch in the 1939 masterpiece. Dorothy's hair can be seen to change lengths throughout the picture. Props come and go as if by magic including the Tin Man's spear that turned into an ax, and the bouquet the munchkins give Dorothy upon her arrival in Oz that subsequently disappears. Logically we should also question a witch who can be killed by water living in a castle surrounded by a mote. Honestly, why does she keep buckets of water around at all?
L. Frank Baum’s Coat Made An Appearance In The Movie
Frank Morgan was cast not only as the Wizard of Oz but also as Professor Marvel, who Dorothy runs into when running away in Kansas. Costume designers worked very hard to find the actor, just the right coat for his two characters. They wanted Morgan to look fashionable, but also modest. They went searching through local thrift stores for the perfect style. They found it.
When they passed off the coat to Morgan he examined it before putting it on and found a label, stitched to the coat's interior that read, "L. Frank Baum." It was indeed the original author's coat, and had, back in the day, been tailored to fit him perfectly. After production on the film was complete, the producers gave the coat to L. Frank Baum's widow to keep.