Casting for the Role of Wizard of Oz Witch

Casting for the Role of Wizard of Oz Witch
Gale Sondergaard vs Margaret Hamilton.

A Tale of Two Wicked Witches of the West

Gale Sondergaard vs Margaret Hamilton. The decision of who should play the Wizard of Oz witch, came down to a choice between beauty or being scary.

The casting for the wizard of Oz witch in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz caused major headaches. Frank Baum‘s concept in his original book illustrated by WW Denslow wasn’t much help, resembling more a grumpy dwarf than a scary witch.

Gale-Sondergaard - the first choice for the Wizard of Oz witch
Gale Sondergaard – the first choice for the wicked witch of the west.

Wizard of Oz producer Mervyn Leroy finally had an idea. Since Disney’s Snow White witch had been so successful, why not make the wicked witch slinky and seductive?

Despite considerable protest to this idea, LeRoy’s mind was made up. On the MGM lot, he thought he had the perfect choice in actress Gale Sondergaard. The year before had won an Oscar for best supporting actress in Anthony Adverse, directed by none other than Mervyn Leroy.

Gale-Sondergaard---wizard-of-oz-witch-makeup-test
Gale-Sondergaard—wizard-of-oz-witch-makeup-test

Leroy persuaded Sondergaard to test for the role. Decked out in stylish black sequins with a shapely form filling wardrobe to match, Sondergaard was a knockout and the search as far as Leroy was concerned was over.

Others in the production team such as composer Arthur freed and Herbert Fields strongly disagreed, as did screenplay writer Herman Mankiewicz, who expanded the role of the wicked witch from book to screenplay, and had written several key scenes for her, including that immortal line “I’ll get you my pretty!”

“Witches should be ugly !” he insisted.

Gale-Sondergaard---wizard-of-oz-witch-makeup-test
Gale-Sondergaard—wizard-of-oz-witch-makeup-test

So Leroy ordered the makeup department to give Sondergaard the “ugly treatment”, but her striking features defied all makeup. The distinguished actress decided herself that she didn’t want the role.“In those days I was not about to make myself ugly!” she said many years later “I have no regrets”.

Margaret-Hamilton---wizard-of-oz-witch-makeup-test
Margaret-Hamilton—wizard-of-oz-witch-makeup-test

Margaret Hamilton – the Wizard of Oz witch

Enter former kindergarten teacher Margaret Hamilton, 36 years old and recently divorced. She had been supporting herself and three year old son as a hard working character actress.

Margaret-Hamilton - the Wizard of Oz witch
Margaret-Hamilton – the Wizard of Oz witch.

Many years later she displayed a great sense of humor when recalling how she manded the role.

“I had done about six pictures for MGM by that time when my agent called and said ‘Maggie, they’re interested in you!’
So I said ‘what for?’
He said ‘they’re interested in you for a part in the Wizard of Oz’.
I said ‘oh gosh I’ve loved that story from the time I was four years old, what is it?’
He said ‘well the witch’ and I said ‘the witch?’
and he said ‘ yes, what else!?’
I thought ‘well ..I guess that’s a kind of an exciting part … but jeez!’ “

During the course of the film production, both Hamilton and her stand in Betty Danko, were hospitalized with severe burns from the pyrotechnics used.  But in the end, Hamilton created Hollywood’s most enduring and iconic witch has terrified generations of movie goers and is sampled to this day.

That’s all
©Glamourdaze 

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