The Wizard of Oz (1939 film) regrets about turning down the part, and would go on to play a glamorous villain in Fox's version of Maurice Maeterlinck's "The Blue Bird" in 1940; Margaret Hamilton played a role remarkably similar to the Wicked Witch in the Judy Garland film "Babes in Arms" (1939). According to Aljean Harmetz, the "gone-to-seed" coat worn by Morgan as the wizard was selected from a rack of coats purchased from a second-hand shop. According to legend, Morgan later discovered a label in the coat indicating it had once belonged to Baum, that Baum's widow confirmed this, and that the coat was eventually
The Wicked Witch of Oz & Lee cancelled the project, since the Oz books were no longer selling well. The book remained unpublished until the International Wizard of Oz Club brought out the first edition in 1993, with illustrations by Eric Shanower. The club declared it book 45 in the series. In the documentary, "", Payes states that she refused all requests to read her manuscript with "not 'til it's a book." The Wicked Witch of Oz is followed by The Emerald Wand of Oz, a 2005 book by Sherwood Smith which was commissioned by the Baum Family Trust. The title character is Singra, the