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 Making of The Wizard of Oz The Making of The Wizard of Oz The Making of the Wizard Of Oz, written by film historian Aljean Harmetz, is a book about the production of the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz". It was the second book ever published documenting the making of this film, released a year after Doug McClelland's 1976 work "Down the Yellow Brick Road". The book was published in November 1977, after the film had been telecast a total of nineteen times. With 93 photos, the book tells readers how the film was made and describes the Golden Era of moviemaking in the 1930s