# data[].attributes.headline
2 brothers named as suspects in Brussels attacks - The Boston Globe

# data[].attributes.subject
2 brothers named as suspects in Brussels attacks - The Boston Globe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
BRUSSELS - As police hunted for the surviving Brussels bomber, evidence mounted Wednesday that the same Islamic State cell carried out the attacks in both Paris and Brussels, and that the militants may have launched this week's slaughter in haste because they feared authorities were closing in on them.

On a day of mourning across Belgium following Tuesday's bombings of the Brussels airport and subway that killed 31 people and wounded more than 270, new information emerged about the four attackers:

- European security officials said one of the suicide bombers was Najim Laachraoui, a Moroccan-born Belgian whom police have hunted as the suspected bombmaker in the Nov. 13 attacks on Paris by the Islamic State that killed 130 people.

- The other two suicide bombers were Belgian-born brothers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, and his younger brother, Khalid, both known to the police as common criminals, not anti-Western radicals.

- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ibrahim El Bakraoui was caught in June 2015 near Turkey's border with Syria and deported, at his own request, to the Netherlands, with Ankara warning Dutch and Belgian officials that he was a ''foreign terrorist fighter.'' But other Turkish officials said he was released from Dutch custody due to lack of evidence of involvement in extremism.

A look at some of the 34 victims of the Brussels attacks on Tuesday.

Details of the investigation from chief prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw pointed to a rising sense of panic among the three bombers who blew themselves up. An unidentified fourth man who was shown in airport video surveillance footage remains at large after Van Leeuw said his suitcase bomb failed to detonate properly. Authorities say he was the man in a light jacket and hat on the far right of the video footage.

Van Leeuw said the bomb did partially explode after police had already evacuated the terminal, injuring nobody.

The prosecutor said a laptop seized from a garbage can on a street outside the brothers' last known address contained a message purportedly from Ibrahim El Bakraoui that indicated he was expecting to be arrested imminently following Friday's capture in Brussels of the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam.

''I don't know what to do, I'm in a hurry, people are looking for me everywhere,'' Van Leeuw quoted the message as saying. ''If I give myself up I'll end up in a cell next to him,'' - an apparent reference to the just-arrested Abdeslam.

Police were drawn to the brothers' apartment Tuesday night thanks to a tip from a taxi driver who had unwittingly delivered them to the airport, Van Leeuw said. Inside the northeast Brussels residence they found an apparent bomb-making factory, including 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of homemade explosives and nails for use as shrapnel.

Neighbors told The Associated Press they had no idea of the brothers' activities and barely saw them until the taxi collected them and their visibly heavy bags Tuesday morning.

One neighbor, who was willing to give only his first name of Erdine, said he was about to drive his son to school when he saw the two men carrying their bags out of the building.

''The taxi driver tried to get the luggage. And the other guy reached for it like he was saying: No, I'll take it,'' the neighbor said.

At the core of the Belgian investigation is a photo taken from the airport's surveillance cameras showing three attackers walking side by side as they push luggage carts. Van Leeuw said the middle figure has been identified as Ibrahim El Bakraoui, while the two men flanking him remained unidentified.

But two security officials told the AP that Laachraoui's DNA was verified as that of one of Tuesday's suicide bombers after samples were taken from remains found at the airport. One European official and one French police official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to divulge details of the Belgian investigation. Both officials were briefed on the investigation.

Belgian officials have not publicly linked any of the remains to Laachraoui; nor have they said he was involved in the Brussels attack.

Since prosecutors said Khalid El Bakraoui was killed in the subway bombing, that would make Laachraoui the remaining unidentified figure on the far left of the airport video footage.

Belgian authorities have been looking for Laachraoui since last week, suspecting him of being an accomplice to Abdeslam, who was arrested Friday in the Brussels neighborhood where he grew up.

Laachraoui is believed to have made the suicide vests used in Paris, a French police official told the AP, adding that Laachraoui's DNA was found on all of the vests as well as in a Brussels apartment where they were made. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. Seven of the Paris attackers blew themselves up or were slain by police.

French and Belgian authorities have said the network behind the Paris attacks was much larger than initially thought - and developments this week suggest the same group could have staged the violence both in Paris and Brussels.

''It's the same team,'' said a French senator, Nathalie Goulet, who is co-leader of a parliamentary commission on studying jihadi networks.

She said Abdeslam should have had little difficulty organizing more recruits following his November escape from France.

''He probably had 10 more at hand who would be ready to do the same thing tomorrow morning,'' she said, describing his Brussels acolytes as ''like a scout troop ... a troop of death.''

A Belgian official working on the investigation told AP it is a ''plausible hypothesis'' that Abdeslam was helping to organize the Brussels attack. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation.

The comments by the Turkish president that Ibrahim El Bakraoui was determined by his country to be a militant fighter and then deported to Europe could raise embarrassing questions for Western security officials.

But a Turkish official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly said the bomber was allowed to go free because Belgian authorities could not establish any ties to extremism.

Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens said authorities would have no reason to have detained Ibrahim El Bakraoui last year as an Islamic State suspect because he was ''not known for terrorist acts but as a common law criminal who was on conditional release.''

Ibrahim El Bakraoui, 29, received a nine-year prison sentence in 2010 for shooting at police following an attempted robbery of a currency exchange, while Khalid El Bakraoui, 27, served a brief sentence for attempted carjacking.

Belgian state broadcaster RTBF, citing sources it did not identify, said Khalid El Bakraoui had rented an apartment that police raided last week in an operation that directly led to Abdeslam's arrest at another apartment just a few streets away from his parents' home.

Wednesday was the first of three official days of mourning, and thousands gathered at the Place de la Bourse, a central square in Brussels, to remember the victims.

''Long live Belgium!'' some declared.

The attacks badly rattled Brussels' transportation links. Several subway stations in the city center and at the airport remained closed. Officials at the airport, which typically handles 600 flights daily, said it would remain shut down until at least Saturday.

Many of the dead remained unidentified, partly because of the severity of devastation caused by the nail-packed bombs detonated in crowds. Eleven people were confirmed dead at the airport, 20 inside the Maelbeek subway station.

In a second claim of responsibility Wednesday, the Islamic State group warned of further attacks and what it called ''dark days'' for countries involved in attacking IS positions in Syria and Iraq.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said major cultural and sports events should not be postponed for fear of attack. He said that includes the monthlong European soccer tournament being staged throughout France in June.

A planned soccer match between Belgium and Portugal, originally scheduled for March 29 in Brussels, was moved to Portugal.

Associated Press reporters Raphael Satter, Danica Kirka and Lorne Cook in Brussels, Lori Hinnant and Elaine Ganley in Paris, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Jill Lawless in London and Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Paris bombmaker among dead in Brussels attack, officials say - The Boston Globe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
BRUSSELS - As police hunted for the surviving Brussels bomber, evidence mounted Wednesday that the same Islamic State cell carried out the attacks in both Paris and Brussels, and that the militants may have launched this week's slaughter in haste because they feared authorities were closing in on them.

# data[].attributes.headline
Fatal Back Bay fire was ‘perfect storm for tragedy,’ fire commissioner says - The Boston Globe

# data[].attributes.subject
Fatal Back Bay fire was ‘perfect storm for tragedy,’ fire commissioner says - The Boston Globe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The ferocious fire that killed two Boston firefighters in March 2014 was a "perfect storm for tragedy," an emotional Boston Fire Commissioner Joseph E. Finn said Thursday in response to a federal report that cited inadequate training and staffing as factors in the men's deaths.

The report also found that Boston firefighters failed to adequately assess the risks at the scene, as heat billowed and wind-driven fire engulfed the building and trapped Lieutenant Edward Walsh and firefighter Michael Kennedy in the basement.

Finn, the commander at the scene, said the Back Bay fire was a wake-up call for the department and has prompted a renewed focus on "back-to-basics" training, particularly in intense urban fires.

"We've done more training in the last 18 months than in the last 10 years prior," Finn said at a news conference from the department's headquarters.

In its report, officially released Thursday, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health identified a wide range of factors that led to the fire and its fatalities, including uncontrolled ventilation and a lack of nearby fire hydrants.

The federal findings raise troubling questions about tactics used to fight the 2014 Back Bay inferno that killed two firefighters.

In an internal analysis released Thursday, the Boston Fire Department reached many of the same conclusions about the fire, which was caused by unpermitted and improperly performed welding behind the Beacon Street building.

"These reports made us look introspectively," Finn said. "We can now begin the healing process and start moving forward."

Finn said he met with Walsh's and Kennedy's relatives and colleagues before the reports were released and began the news conference by reading statements on their families' behalf.

"While Ed would tell you he was just doing his job, to our family he will always be a hero," wrote his wife, Kristin. "We owe it to Ed, Michael Kennedy, and all the firefighters on scene that day to make sure the city never has to face a tragic fire like this again."

Kathy Crosby Bell, the mother of Kennedy, called for greater funding to adopt the federal recommendations.

"The ongoing lack of funding across the country for the fire service must be remedied in order to enable many of the [federal] suggestions," Crosby Bell wrote. "It is my hope that these findings can help ensure that something like this never happens again."

Among a host of recommendations, federal investigators urged the department to develop training and tactics for wind-driven fires and ensure adequate staffing for deploying firefighters in tightly populated areas.

At times wiping away tears, Finn recalled Walsh as one of the most qualified, impressive recruits he ever met and said Kennedy's reputation as a firefighter was impeccable. But the cruel circumstances of the fire, including several random occurrences, quickly overwhelmed them, he said.

Winds as strong as 60 miles per hour, an open basement door, flammable materials stored in a cabinet, and an unused utility duct fueled the fire's rapid spread.

At the same time, staffing issues meant the main water hose "could not be stretched to the hydrant" and teams of firefighters had to be split up, federal investigators found.

The department has been unable to increase staffing significantly, but Finn and union officials said they have had preliminary discussions with Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh about additional hiring.

The reports also found that security grates may have prevented the two firefighters from escaping the rear apartment, and a burned fire hose left them without enough water.

Finn said he did not fault Walsh and Kennedy for entering the apartment after receiving reports that civilians were trapped inside.

"It was the right decision," Finn stated. "They had no knowledge of how long the fire was burning ... or what would happen."

Within minutes, an explosion rocked the building after an open door allowed a flow of oxygen to feed the fire.

"People were literally blown off their feet," Finn said.

Finn blamed the administration of former mayor Thomas Menino and past fire officials for neglecting the department. As a result, training regimens fell below national standards and staffing levels lagged, he said.

Richard Paris, president of Boston Fire Fighters Local 718, also faulted Menino's administration and former fire commissioner Roderick J. Fraser Jr.

"The last administration did not care about the Boston Fire Department," Paris said. "We went to the last mayor and talked about staffing and training, and nothing was ever done."

Fraser, who resigned just weeks before the Back Bay fire, could not be reached for comment. On Thursday, Finn acknowledged that the department was in transition at the time.

Paris praised Walsh and Finn for being responsive to the union's concerns about staffing and implementing new training methods.

"You're only as good as your practice," Paris said.

Finn said Boston firefighters face unique challenges because of the city's old buildings and narrow streets. The city was "built to burn," he said.

Finn said that firefighters saved six residents from the fire and that the two reports vindicate his decision to have firefighters evacuate the building when they did.

"They would have been in that basement when that [blast] took place," Finn said. "We would have had more dead firefighters."

Meghan E. Irons and Travis Andersen of the Globe Staff contributed to this report. Astead W. Herndon can be reached at astead.herndon@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @AsteadWH

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
national institute for occupational safety and health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fatal Back Bay fire was 'perfect storm for tragedy,' fire commissioner says - The Boston Globe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The ferocious fire that killed two Boston firefighters in March 2014 was a "perfect storm for tragedy," an emotional Boston Fire Commissioner Joseph E. Finn said Thursday in response to a federal report that cited inadequate training and staffing as factors in the men's deaths.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Wizard of Oz was first performed as an on-stage musical in 1902-03 in Chicago and New York. It premiered at the Grand Opera House in Chicago on June 16, 1902, and made stars of vaudeville team members David Montgomery (the Tin Woodman) and Fred Stone (the Scarecrow).

# data[].attributes.headline
The Wizard of Oz | National Museum of American History

# data[].attributes.subject
The Wizard of Oz | National Museum of American History

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For generations, this 1939 MGM fantasy musical has held a cherished place in American popular culture. Based on the classic children's book by L. Frank Baum, it tells the story of Dorothy Gale, a Kansas farm girl transported to the magical Land of Oz.With its dazzling special effects, costumes, and sets rendered in vibrant Technicolor, The Wizard of Oz represents one of the greatest achievements in movie magic.

# data[].attributes.headline
8 Things You May Not Know About “The Wizard of Oz” - History Lists

# data[].attributes.subject
8 Things You May Not Know About “The Wizard of Oz” - History Lists

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Before he was famous, Baum worked as a poultry breeder, actor and traveling salesman.

Baum was 44 when "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was published and by then he'd tried his hand at a variety of jobs. As a young man in upstate New York, he bred prize-winning chickens, published a trade journal about poultry and was as an actor and playwright. One of his plays, "The Maid of Arran," toured a number of U.S. cities in the early 1880s, with Baum in a leading role. However, following some shady dealings by his bookkeeper, plus a fire that destroyed a theater owned by Baum, he tabled his show-business dreams and went to work as a salesman for a company that made lubricating oil. By the early 1890s, he'd moved to Chicago and was employed as a traveling salesman for a glassware firm. While away from home, he invented stories to tell his four sons, and when his mother-in-law heard some of these tales she encouraged him to try to publish them. The result was Baum's first children's book, "Mother Goose in Prose," which failed to sell well when released in 1897. Meanwhile, Baum had grown tired of life as a traveling salesman and founded a well-received trade magazine about window trimming (he got the idea after observing poorly organized store-window displays during his time on the road). In 1899, he published his second work for children, "Father Goose, His Book." An unexpected best-seller, it got his literary career rolling and helped generate interest in "Oz," which he was already working on.
The author and his "Oz" co-creator had a major falling-out.
When "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" debuted, it was praised for its lavish illustrations, created by Philadelphia-born artist William Wallace Denslow. Baum and Denslow met in Chicago in the 1890s and Denslow did some drawings for "The Show Window," Baum's trade magazine, before the two teamed up on "Father Goose," the surprise 1899 best-seller. Their next project, "Oz," for which they shared the copyright, quickly became a best-seller; however, the pair's relationship soured, with each man believing he deserved the credit for the book's success. Although they released one more children's book together, 1901's "Dot and Tot of Merryland," they never collaborated on another "Oz" book. After clashing over royalties from a popular 1902 musical production called "The Wizard of Oz" (the first time "wonderful" was deleted from the title), the men parted ways. Denslow continued to work as an illustrator (the Scarecrow and Tin Man characters from "Oz" showed up in some of his designs) but his career eventually went into decline after he developed a drinking problem. He died in 1915 in New York, four years before Baum.
The "Oz" series almost came to an early end.
The success of the first "Oz" book led Baum to produce sequels, but he grew tired of the magical place he'd devised and tried to end the series with his sixth book, "The Emerald City of Oz," in which Dorothy takes Aunt Em and Uncle Henry to reside permanently in Oz. However, by the time the book was published, in 1910, its author was facing serious financial problems due in part to his heavy investment in "The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays," an expensive, short-lived traveling show in which Baum narrated silent-film clips of his famous characters, while accompanied by an orchestra and stage actors. Baum filed for bankruptcy in 1911 and signed away the film rights to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" to help pay off his debts. Still in need of money, he resumed writing about the Land of Oz, and "The Patchwork Girl of Oz," his seventh novel in the series, debuted in 1913.
Baum used a series a pen names.
Baum (his first initial, "L," stood for Lyman, a name he disliked; in person, he went by Frank) also churned out dozens of books using various pen names. Among this work was a popular series for teenage girls, "Aunt Jane's Nieces," for which he used the nom de plume Edith van Dyne. The 14th and final "Oz" book written by Baum, "Glinda of Oz," was published in 1920, a year after his death. Children's author Ruth Plumly Thompson was hired to continue the series and penned 19 additional "Oz" books.
Baum championed women's voting rights.
In 1888, searching for new business opportunities, Baum moved with his family to the frontier town of Aberdeen in the Dakota Territory. There he opened a novelty-goods store called Baum's Bazaar; however, the area soon experienced a severe drought and the local economy cratered. After Baum was forced to shutter his store in early 1890, he became owner of a local newspaper, the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, for which he penned editorials that championed issues such as women's suffrage. Baum's views on the subject were influenced by his strong-willed wife, Maud, and mother-in-law, Matilda Gage, a leader in the women's rights movement who had collaborated with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Baum advocated for an 1890 referendum on women's suffrage in South Dakota, which was admitted to the Union in 1889, but the measure was defeated. When Baum later began writing children's books, many of his main characters were tenacious, self-reliant girls. In 1920, a year after Baum's death, American women gained the right to vote when the 19th Amendment was ratified.
Baum founded an early movie studio in Hollywood.

Baum moved to Hollywood in 1910, just as the film industry was getting started there. He went on to co-found the Oz Film Manufacturing Company to make movies based on his books for which he still held the film rights. He and his partners built a studio and in 1914 turned out a handful of silent films, but the elaborate productions were ahead of their time and failed to find a wide audience. The company shut down the following year.
One of Baum's sons co-wrote a "Wizard of Oz" adaptation that made it to the big screen in 1925. The cast included Oliver Hardy (who became half of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy) as the Tin Man; however, the film was panned by critics. It wasn't until MGM's 1939 production that "Oz" found cinematic success. Baum's widow, Maud, attended the film's Hollywood premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre that August.
The now-classic movie wasn't a blockbuster when first released.

MGM was inspired to make a silver-screen adaptation of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" following the box-office success of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the world's first animated feature film, which was released by Walt Disney in 1937. A 16-year-old Judy Garland starred as Dorothy in the 1939 movie, which debuted to mostly favorable reviews and earned six Academy Award nominations. It won two Oscars, for best song-"Over the Rainbow"-and best score, but lost the best picture category to "Gone with the Wind." (Five different directors worked on "Oz," although the credit went to Victor Fleming, who also helmed "GWTW.") The big-budget production, which included some 600 actors and nearly a thousand costumes, cost $2.8 million to make. However, it initially brought in about $3 million at the box office, and when distribution costs and other expenses were tabulated, "The Wizard of Oz" wasn't considered profitable. Television is what transformed the movie into an American classic. "The Wizard of Oz" aired on national TV for the first time in November 1956, and beginning in 1959 was shown once a year until 1991. Watching the annual screenings became a tradition for many families.
In the original book, Dorothy's magical slippers were silver.
Dorothy wore silver shoes in Baum's story, but for the Technicolor film Judy Garland sported ruby red slippers because it was believed they'd stand out better against the yellow brick road. Several pairs of the now-legendary pumps were used during the 1939 production; after filming wrapped they went into storage on MGM's Culver City, California, lot and were forgotten. The shoes were unearthed in 1970 during preparations for an auction of MGM costumes and props. Four authentic pairs are known to exist today: One pair was auctioned off then donated to the Smithsonian in 1979, while another pair sold at auction in 2000 for $666,000. In 2012, actor Leonardo DiCaprio was the main benefactor behind the purchase of a pair for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
Also in the movie but not the original book: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." One of the most famous quotes associated with the Land of Oz, it was dreamed up by Hollywood screenwriter Noel Langley, not Baum.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
8 Things You May Not Know About "The Wizard of Oz"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Baum was 44 when "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was published and by then he'd tried his hand at a variety of jobs. As a young man in upstate New York, he bred prize-winning chickens, published a trade journal about poultry and was as an actor and playwright.

# data[].attributes.headline
Wizard of Oz - Behind The Scenes - YouTube

# data[].attributes.subject
Wizard of Oz - Behind The Scenes - YouTube

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When the 'Wizard of Oz' had it's last network broadcast on CBS (May 8th, 1998), the bumpers around the commercial breaks had interesting behind the scenes trivia and interview clips about the classic movie. 1. Cut 'Over the Rainbow'? 2. Special Effects (News promo ran over a bit) 3.

# data[].attributes.headline
75 Weird, Wonderful Facts About The Wizard of Oz

# data[].attributes.subject
75 Weird, Wonderful Facts About The Wizard of Oz

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In honor of The Wizard of Oz 's 77th anniversary, we present 75 fascinating, surprising and sometimes a little unsettling, facts about the beloved film. Find more little-known facts about the making of the movie, as well as rare test frames, film stills, and illustrations, in The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion.

1. The studio, Metro-Goldwyn Meyer, outbid 20th Century Fox for the movie rights. Fox had wanted Shirley Temple to star.

2. Mervyn LeRoy considered having a man play Toto.

3. The cowardly lion's costume was made of a real lion skin.

4. The snow in the poppy scene was made of asbestos.

5. Judy Garland had to wear a super-tight corset to make her figure seem younger.

6. The Tin Man's oil was actually chocolate syrup.

7. Judy Garland's daughter, Liza Minelli, was married to Jack Haley Jr., the son of the actor who played the Tin Man.

8. Toto reportedly earned $125 per week of filming-but each Munchkin actor just $50.

9. The horses in the Emerald City were colored with Jell-O, which they kept trying to lick off.

10. Dorothy's slippers in the book were silver.

11. Toto was played by a female dog named Terry.

12. Four sets of ruby slippers were used during filming.

13. Margaret Hamilton 's copper-based green makeup could not be ingested, so she survived entirely on liquids during filming.

14. Billie Burke, who played Glinda the Good Witch, was 54 during filming, while Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch, was 36.

15. Judy Garland originally wore a blonde wig and heavy makeup for filming, but producers soon opted for a more natural look.

16. "Over the Rainbow" was almost cut from the film for length reasons.

17. The actress who voiced Disney's Snow White made a voice cameo during the Tin Man's "If I Only Had a Heart" (She's the one who says, 'Wherefore art thou, Romeo?')

18. The ruby slippers were a size 5.

19. The 1939 New York Times review of the film read, in part: "It is all so well-intentioned, so genial and so gay that any reviewer who would look down his nose at the fun-making should be spanked and sent off, supperless, to bed."

20. Margaret Hamilton was a kindergarten teacher before becoming an actress.

21. The film was nominated for six Oscars, but lost Best Picture to Gone with the Wind.

22. The cowardly lion's costume weighed around 100 pounds.

23. Temperatures on set often soared about 100 degrees due to the lighting needed to shoot in early Technicolor.

24. Buddy Ebsen of The Beverly Hillbillies fame was cast as the Tin Man, but he had to bow out when he developed a severe allergic reaction to his silver paint. He had originally been offered the part of the Scarecrow.

25. The tornado in the film was actually a 35-foot-long muslin stocking spun around with dust and dirt.

26. In the movie, Dorothy clicks her ruby slippers and says, "There's no place like home." In the book, she says to her magic silver shoes, "Take me home to Aunt Em!"

27. The white in Dorothy's dress was actually pale pink because it showed up better as white in Technicolor.

28. The Wicked Witch's crystal ball was used as a prop in Boris Karloff's The Mask of Fu Manchu.

29. The Wicked Witch's death certificate is dated May 6, 1938, the 20 th anniversary of L. Frank Baum 's death.

30. Producers ended up cutting many of the Wicked Witch's scenes because they deemed them too scary for children.

31. The 'L' in L. Frank Baum stands for Lyman.

32. Baum published 17 sequels to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, three of them posthumously.

33. Two decades before making it big with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum was a breeder of fancy chickens.

34. The film won Oscars for best original score and best original song.

35. Baum apparently invented the name 'Oz' when looking at an alphabetical filing cabinet label, 'O-Z.'

36. The Munchkins have a collective star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

37. Garland won an Oscar Juvenile Award for her role, which she later called the Munchkin Award.

38. The Smithsonian exhibit housing Dorothy's red slippers is so popular, the carpet in front of the slippers has been replaced numerous times due to wear and tear.

39. Judy Garland fell in love with Terry, the dog who played Toto, and wanted to adopt her, but Terry's owner wouldn't give her up.

40. The Munchkins were played by a troupe called the Singer Midgets, named for their manager Leo Singer. They were from Europe, and "a number of the Munchkins took advantage of the trip to immigrate and escape the Nazis," according to the Internet Movie Database. Their voices were dubbed because many of them couldn't speak English very well.

41. Professor Marvel never returned Dorothy's photo of Auntie Em.

42. The fire that blazes out from Dorothy's shoes when the Witch tries to touch them was actually apple juice spraying out of them, sped up on film.

43. The Cowardly Lion was originally going to be played by the real-life MGM lion.

44. The Scarecrow's face prosthetics left deep groves in actor Ray Bolger 's face that reportedly took more than a year to disappear.

45. Terry the dog was scared of the steam that came out of the Tin Man's hat.

46. In an oft-told story from the set, Judy Garland couldn't stop giggling during the scene where Dorothy slaps the Cowardly Lion. Director Victor Fleming apparently took Garland aside and slapped her, after which she nailed the scene in one take.

47. The yellow brick road originally showed up green in Technicolor, so it had to be repainted.

48. Charley Grapewin, the actor who played Uncle Henry, began his career in the late 19 th century as a circus trapeze artist, and also appeared as Grandpa Joad in 1940's The Grapes of Wrath.

49. Disney wanted to make The Wizard of Oz, but MGM owned the rights to the book.

50. Several actors playing Winged Monkeys in the forest were injured when the wires suspending them above the sound stage snapped, sending them falling several feet.

51. Contrary to popular myth that she was dubbed, Billie Burke (Glinda the Good Witch) did her own singing for the film.

52. Glinda's gown was actually recycled from the 1936 movie San Francisco.

53. L. Frank Baum drew inspiration for the story from his difficult childhood during a drought in South Dakota.

54. Baum strongly supported women's suffrage.

55. MGM paid $75,000 for the film rights to Baum's book, an astronomical amount at the time.

56. The Flying Monkeys and the Witch's castle guards wore the same uniforms.

57. Judy Garland's hair changes length throughout the film.

58. Humorist Ogden Nash wrote a screenplay for the film that was never used.

59. Dorothy was named after Dorothy Louise Gage, a niece of L. Frank Baum who died as a baby.

60. Director Victor Fleming was reportedly pro-Nazi and opposed America entering World War II.

61. Margaret Hamilton suffered severe burns during the scene in which she vanishes in a cloud of smoke (her skin makeup ignited).

62. Hamilton recovered, though refused to do any more scenes involving fire.

63. Besides fiction, L. Frank Baum wrote widely on various non-fiction topics, including stamp collecting and store decoration guides.

64. Production costs for the film were around $2,777,000, an incredibly high sum at the time.

65. A pair of real ruby slippers was made in 1989 to commemorate the film's 50 th anniversary. They're reportedly worth around $3 million.

66. A guard accidentally stepped on Terry the dog during filming and broke her foot.

67. During filming, most of the actors arrived on set at 4 or 5 a.m. and finished at 7 or 8 p.m.

68. The Tin Man's aluminum-based makeup gave actor Jack Haley a severe eye infection.

69. The actress who played Auntie Em, Clara Blandick, committed suicide in 1962 after battling debilitating arthritis and impending blindness.

70. The film has a 99 percent positive critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

71. There were two people on set whose sole job it was to dry out to the Cowardly Lion costume every night. It apparently "reeked" because Bert Lahr sweated so much in the 90- or 100-pound costume under the 100 degree lights.

72. The actor who played the Coroner of Munchkinland was once the shortest licensed pilot during World War II.

73. The Wizard of Oz was the first MGM film to be televised on a national network.

74. An early design of Dorothy's ruby slippers had curled-up toes.

75. The ruby slippers on display in the Smithsonian are mismatched.
Thanks to the following trivia sources: Flavorwire, Buzzfeed, The Guardian, HarperCollins, IMDB, Listverse, Backstage at the Globe Sept. 15, 2014: This post was updated with a clarification to number 24. Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Scarecrow, and then was offered the part of the Tin Man.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
75 Weird, Wonderful Facts About The Wizard of Oz

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Last updated August 25, 2016.In honor of The Wizard of Oz's 77th anniversary, we present 75 fascinating, surprising and sometimes a little unsettling, facts about the beloved film. Find more little-known facts about the making of the movie, as well as rare test frames, film stills, and illustrations, in The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion.1.