Josette's Music Box!
I also watched the broadcast of TWOOz and got every trivia question correct. I had the opportunity to meet Margaret Hamilton about a quarter-century ago when she was doing summer stock in Paint Your Wagon. A friend of mine was in the cast and got me backstage to I could shake hands with Elvira Gulch. She was the sweetest woman, a teeny, little thing, and we talked for about an hour. She told me of the many things that went wrong while making the film (such as Buddy Ebsen having to bow out when he became ill from the makeup, etc.), and then she proceeded to push back a tuff of her hair, revealing some scar tissue. As she related to me, in the scene where she departs Munchkinland in that blaze of fire and smoke, she had slightly mis-stepped on the platform. As it dropped, with her on it, she bumped her head on the side of the flooring, right where the gas jets were located. Picking herself up, she started to walk away when she felt something dripping off of her. Just as she noticed that it looked like little drops of liquid, colored flames, a stagehand called out: "Margaret! You're on fire!" When she bumped the floor, her head grazing against the gas jets, her green makeup caught fire. They got it out quickly, but not before she suffered small but severe burns, the scalp-line scars remaining forever.
She also told me how Judy Garland's mother would sit and talk with her on the set, at times very distraught, because of the prescription drugs the teenager was already compelled to take by the MGM moguls to control her weight. Mrs. Gumm (Garland's mother) felt the only one she could talk to was Margaret Hamilton, since Miss Hamilton was originally a school teacher before making her mark on Hollywood.
Gerard
