“I was in a need of money at the time, I had done about six pictures for MGM at the time and my agent called. I said, ‘Yes?’ and he said, ‘Maggie, they want you to play a part on the Wizard.’ I said to myself, ‘Oh boy, ‘The Wizard of Oz’! That has been my favorite book since I was four.’ And I asked him what part, and he said, ‘The Witch’ and I said ‘The Witch?!’ and he said, ‘What else?'”
It is ironic that Margaret Hamilton’s performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) was so scary to children, because her first job was as a kindergarten teacher. She loved and doted upon children all her life.
“Almost always they want me to laugh like the Witch. And sometimes when I go to schools, if we’re in an auditorium, I’ll do it. And there’s always a funny reaction, like Ye gods, they wish they hadn’t asked. They’re scared. They’re really scared for a second. Even adolescents. I guess for a minute they get the feeling they got when they watched the picture. They like to hear it but they don’t like to hear it. And then they go, “Oh…” The picture made a terrible impression of some kind on them, sometimes a ghastly impression, but most of them got over it, I guess… Because when I talk like the Witch and when I laugh, there is a hesitation, and then they clap. They’re clapping at hearing the sound again.”
Until the day Hamilton died, she had children recognizing her and coming up to her to ask why she was so mean to Dorothy. She became very concerned about the role’s effect on children, and finally did a guest spot on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” to explain that the Witch was just a character in the film, and not herself.
During filming, Hamilton was accidentally burned during a special effects sequence. The impressive special effect was achieved by her stepping onto a trap door (obscured by rising smoke) that dropped beneath her, and then a burst of real fire came up. On one take, the fire came too early, and her costume caught fire. She was off the film for more than a month. After she recuperated, she said “I won’t sue, because I know how this business works, and I would never work again. I will return to work on one condition – no more fire work!”
Happy Birthday, Margaret Hamilton!
Patrick English added:
I’ve posted about this before, but it’s worth repeating … Margaret Hamilton, one of the great character actresses at MGM, married Paul Meserve in 1931; their son, Hamilton (“Ham”) Wadsworth, was born in 1936. And while the marriage dissolved two years later, Hamilton’s devotion to her son would last a lifetime; she worked tirelessly in film, stage and later television to make sure he was well-fed, well-clothed, well-educated and (especially) well-loved.
As every WIZARD OF OZ devotee knows, Hamilton received second and third degree burns on her face and right hand after a filming mishap in Munchkinland. A doctor covered her with salve and bandages, leaving slit holes for her eyes, mouth and nostrils; as Hamilton later recalled, “I looked like a mummy.” But before she was taken home from the studio that day, she called her housekeeper. “I didn’t want my son to see me. He was only three years old, and I knew he’d be terribly frightened. So I told her to keep him in his room and to tell him I was working late and would kiss him good night after he was asleep and would see him in the morning.”
Even though she was experiencing a level of pain she’d never known before (or since), at that moment all Margaret Hamilton cared about was her son.