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Dorothy’s slippers were . At least, that how novelist L. Frank Baum wrote them in his 1900 fantasy, "." Film producers favored a glittering bright red, however, for that Technicolor wow.

It was juice. To achieve the desired effect of sparks or fire bursting from Dorothy’s coveted rubies when the Wicked Witch gets too close, the crew used a juice and sped it up on film.

Judy Garland wasn’t a shoo-in. , then 11, was the front-runner destined for a trip to Oz. Alas, the filmmakers decided she didn’t have the vocals necessary to carry the film’s interludes.

Written as a , Dorothy was played by a 16-year-old Judy Garland. The Wicked Witch of the West, depicted as old and mean, was played by Margaret Hamilton, 34 at the time. And Glinda the Good, young and beautiful, was played by Billie Burke at age 54.

But not only by our account. The backs us up. And now, thanks to the film being regularly broadcast on network television �� usually each year around Easter and Christmas �� and its , the classic is available for generations to come.

the Queen Mother told Judy Garland years later that "Over the Rainbow" brought a tear to her eye whenever she heard it. “Ma’am,�� Garland replied, “that song has plagued me all my life.��

The intricate makeup jobs of the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion . So the guys each ate their meals in their dressing rooms, rather than the MGM café.

Reports quote MGM securing the movie rights from L. Frank Baum for . Now, that’s big money during those times.

Forgive us for not fully believing this one, but the real-life MGM lion was the for the role of the Cowardly Lion. They were going to dub in his lines by an actor. Good thing Bert Lahr actually got the part and kept to solely roaring for the bumper of the film �� for the rest of the cast’s sake at least.

Glinda the Good Witch of the South’s poofy pink was indeed a hand-me-down. , who played Mary Blake in the 1936 film "San Francisco," donned the tulle garment first.

The female vocal you hear singing “Where for art thou Romeo�� in the Tin Man’s solo, “If I Only Had a Heart,�� belongs to Snow White. More specifically, Adriana Caselotti, who voiced Disney’s very first animated princess. Listen .

"The Wizard of Oz" was nominated for a grand total of , including Best Picture and Best Cinematography. It won two, but alas, it lost the top prize to the Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable’s antebellum wartime romance, "Gone with the Wind."

No one said scoring a doctorate in thinkology would make one a mathmetician. When he , the Scarecrow recites a mangled version of the Pythagorean Theorem: “The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side.�� the actor, Ray Bolger, couldn’t get the rule down, so the filmmakers went with their best take.

A pair of authenticated ruby slippers were stolen years after the film was released. There were four pairs used in the film. Three pairs have known whereabouts �� the Smithsonian Institute, the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, and a private collector. The fourth? Not even a could bring them back �� .

We now know what was really in the oil can: It was chocolate sauce! In "" Jack Haley said, “the oil Ray Bolger squirted at me to loosen up my joints was not oil but chocolate syrup. They squirted chocolate in my face, because the oil wouldn’t photograph right, but chocolate will.��

“Over the Rainbow�� was almost over on the cutting room floor. The execs said it made the movie too long, was too sad, and Garland had no business singing in a barnyard. They but kept it in thanks to rightful protests.

Or rather the actor who played him. Stick with us as we climb this family tree: Judy Garland’s daughter, , who’s the son of Jack Haley, who’s the vaudeville actor in the pseudo-metal suit in the beloved film.

"The Wizard of Oz" hit the : by becoming available on VHS. Meaning the had some stiff competition in keeping folks entertained.

Frank S. Nugent of had a few choice words for those critical of the film. “It is all so well-intentioned, so genial and so gay that any reviewer who would look down his nose at the fun-making should be spanked and sent off, supperless, to bed.�� Today, it’s rating on Rotten Tomatoes resides at a super-fresh 98 percent.

The Horse of a Different Color in Emerald City was actually done with . Don’t try this at home, but each horse was covered in a vibrant hue of Jell-O gelatin powder to achieve the colors of the rainbow.