Bolger opened up about the difficulties of the costume, saying "I had a rubber mask. It sort of closed the pores in my face, and when the lights got real hot and ate up all the oxygen I couldn't breathe." In fact, the costumes were so unbearable for all three men on set that Judy Garland remembered how "each one was making bets as to which makeup was the most difficult all the way through the picture."

The physical and verbal abuse that Garland went through on and off set was absolutely wild. Louis B. Meyer, the co-founder of MGM, often referred to Judy Garland as "my little hunchback." Her weight was consistently monitored too.

Louis B. Meyer hired people to constantly watch over Judy Garland to make sure she was following her diet. If he ever found out that she ventured from what he wanted (like when he'd catch her sneaking in a milkshake), he'd give her "diet pills to speed her up and reduce her appetite."

Sidney Luft, Judy's ex-husband, wrote in his memoir that Garland, "unlike other actresses, could not successfully camouflage extra weight, especially because she was dancing and singing in revealing costumes. Just 4 feet 11.5 inches, she could be underweight and still appear heavy or out of proportion on screen.”

Jack Young, one of the film's makeup artists, revealed that the green makeup contained copper oxide, which made it toxic. The toxicity of her makeup actually prevented Hamilton from getting faster medical attention during the fiery stunt gone wrong: "It would have been another matter if she had not been wearing green makeup: makeup man Jack Young would have gently blotted off the greasepaint, and Dr. Jones, the MGM doctor, would have covered the burns with salve. But green makeup was toxic."

In that time, the two makeup colors that studios had to be careful of were gold (because it was a concealer and closed the pores) and green (because of the copper). Young was always extra careful when taking off Hamilton's makeup "because you don't take chances with green." They ended up using alcohol to remove it, and it was such a painful process for Hamilton that "I stood it as long as I could. And then I said, 'I'm going to have to scream.'"

The studio rightfully ruled that it would be unacceptable to use real paint on the horses during the Emerald City scene. They tried several different alternatives, including food coloring, but "the colors were not subtle enough." Ultimately, they sponged colorful Jell-O powders onto the horses to get the right color and effect. They had to work fast between each take, though, because "the horses invariably managed to lick off most of the Jell-O between shots."

And if you're curious, one of the costumes for the Cowardly Lion sold for over $3 million at a New York auction a few years ago.

There's a skywriting sequence in the movie when smoke is supposed to come out of the Wicked Witch of the West's broomstick. To make this happen, a pipe was attached to the bicycle seat saddle on the broomstick. However, during one of the test runs, the pipe exploded.

According to Danko, it "felt as though my scalp was coming off. The explosion blew me off the broomstick." Among other injuries, there was a "two-inch-deep wound that nearly circled Danko's leg, which was full of bits of her costume." Danko made only $35 for completing the broomstick stunt and $790 for everything else she did in the movie.

Ebsen was hospitalized and forced out of The Wizard of Oz's production because of the costuming and makeup. When Jack Haley replaced him, the studio started using a safer aluminum paste as makeup. Ebsen claimed to have breathing problems for the rest of his life because of "that damned movie."

That equals $2,246 per week in the year 2021...or a yearly salary of $116,792.

Throughout the next few years, MGM started prescribing Garland even more pills to "control both her weight and her energy levels."

Garland told biographer Paul Donnelly that they'd give her and Mickey Rooney, with whom she made several movies, the pills to "keep us on our feet long after we were exhausted...then knock us out with sleeping pills…then after four hours they’d wake us up and give us the pep pills again so we could work 72 hours in a row. Half of the time we were hanging from the ceiling, but it was a way of life for us.”

Billy Curtis, one of the Munchkin actors, remembered the event, saying, "They had to clean him off like he was a baby." In regards to having bathroom attendants, Margaret Pellegrini, one of the last surviving Munchkin actors, added that it was "the first time I'd ever had anybody help me go to the bathroom. But the costumes were so unhandy."