Wizard of Oz - Special Effects

The twister scene from "The Wizard of Oz" was perhaps one of the most stunning special effects creations of its day. Re-creating the Kansas cyclone that transports Dorothy to the land of Oz was no easy feat. The effect was achieved through the construction of a thirty-five-foot muslin stocking affixed to a gantry crane traveling the length of the stage. The tornado-shaped cone was rotated by a speed-controlled motor. The dust and thick clouds were created using Fuller's earth, and dangerous chemicals such as carbon and sulfur with of course, little or no proper ventilation. The ferocious sounding winds were produced through the use of compressed air and wind machines. Creating the realistic sound effects was no simple task, according to the following MGM press release:

"Delicate mathematical calculations were conducted by the man Albert Einstein pronounces one of America's five greatest mathematicians, to work out a formula for the sound of a cyclone in terms of decimals and electrical requencies. The object was to reproduce the noise of such a story for The Wizard of Oz......As sending sound apparatus in search of unpredictable cyclones was impossible, O.O. Ceccarini, mathematician, was put to work. From scientific weather figures he obtained the pressure, velocity, air density and electrical characteristics of cyclones. From these facts he calculated volume and pitch of the sounds that would naturally accompany these phenomena. These calculations completed, he worked out practical methods of creating the sounds; 4,698,271 separate figures and algebraic symbols had gone into 200 pages of calculations before the task was completed."

The result was a remarkably realistic tornado sequence. In fact, various takes of the Oz tornado sequence were used for the climactic scenes of Cabin in the Sky in 1943 and in High Barbaree in 1947.

Another interesting special effect was the witch's skywriting sequence. The mastermind behind this effect was a man named Jack McMaster. He describes how the effect was accomplished: "I had a glass tank six foot square, the bottom of the tank was glass. The sides were wood. The tank was only three inches deep; and the bottom was covered with an inch and a half of water mixed witgh calla oil. That was supposed to be the sky. The camera was beneath the tank, shooting up. The water and oil mixture was opaque, so it hid me. The miniature Which who did the skywriting was three eiths of an inch high, and the broom she was riding was a hypodermic needle. I filled the hypodermic with a combination of canned mild and nigrosine dye. I wrote SURRENDER DOROTHY OR DIE upside down and backward in the fluid in the tank, using the needle in place of a pen. I practiced for two months before I did it. My hand wasn't in the tank, but the Witch and the broom needle were. The skywriting seemed to come out of the tail of the Witch's broom. To give the writing the appearance of smoke that was drifting, I had a fifty-gallon drum of water feeding into the tank. I had tinted the water the same milky color as the liquid in the glass tank. The water current was a stream like an air stream-blowing the letters apart." A neat and clever special effect!

Another neat special effect is when Billie Burke makes her appearance and disappearance in a giant bubble. The bubble that the Good Witch traveled in was actually an 8 inch silver ball. It was kind of like a Christmas ornament only bigger. When they were fillming the ball, the ball didnt move at all. Instead, the ball was mounted in front of a natural background and the camera moved towards the ball giving it the illusion of it getting bigger. MGM had plotted the course of the ball so that it would land in the right place in Munchkinland. Cameramen had to tie the cameras to the floor so that there would be absolutely no movement of the cameras at all. Then they filmed the Munchkinland backgrounds. After the scenes were shot they were double-printed; they put one piece of film over the other so the ball would look transparent. Then, still with the same tied down cameras they placed Billie Burke in the proper spot and filmed her. They then lab-dissolved the ball out and Billie Burke was there. This procedure was considered to be incredible in 1939!

The model of the Gale farmhouse that was used in the cyclone sequence was three feet tall. First, the house was photographed falling onto a floor painted to look like the sky. Then, to give the impression of the cyclone picking up the house, the film was run backward.

Just after Dorothy and the scarecrow meet the Tin Man, the Wicked Witch tosses a ball of fire from the rooftop of the Tin Man's cottage. The fireball-throwing illusion was accomplished by simple double exposure. The moving ball of fire printed over the live-action footage was made by using a gas torch fastened to a car traveling a track laid out for the desired path. With the track assembly painted black, the torch was photographed at night against a black backing. Fire photographed especially brilliant in Technicolor, and was used as frequently as possible throughout the movie.

For comic relief, the Cowardly Lion's tail was given a life of its own. When the tail was swinging loose from the costume, it was supported by a fishing line from the catwalk above the stage. If you look closely, you can actually see the fishing line in several of the scenes. For dancing, running, and posing for publicity stills, the line was attached to a small ring on the back of the costume. The tail was also flexible enough for Bert Lahr to wring it in his paws, or wipe away his tears with its tip. But a separate, rigid tail was waved above the rocks for the scene where the Cowardly Lion and his friends are assaulted by the Winkies.

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