In your opinion, which costume was the biggest pain in the ass to wear, or move around in? Alternatively, which do you think would be the worst to wear? Some things to consider: a lot of the makeup was toxic, and the stage they filmed on would be upwards of 90-100 degrees from the extremely bright lights needed to film with the Technicolor cameras. Most costumes also took several hours to put on, and the actors could not always eat without needing to get back into makeup. They also worked very, very long days since no one knew what rights were back then.
Scarecrow was covered in highly flammable straw, and the film had a lot of fire in it, if you think about it. He even gets set on fire right before Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch of the West. Other than Dorothy, his costume was probably the least of a pain.
Tin Man had to wear a toxic aluminum based face paint, and got an eye infection. The original actor was fired after two weeks, and filming had to restart since he got very sick from the makeup, and ended up having breathing problems for the rest of his life.
The Cowardly Lion's costume weighed 90lbs., and was made from real lion pelts (it was the 1930s babyyyy!). It had to be cleaned every day, and probably smelled terrible.
The Wicked Witch of the West's makeup was also made from toxic metals, in this case, some form of copper. She was also horribly burned from a stage effect gone wrong, but this is more to do with the effect than the costume. She also could only drink things through a straw while in makeup. (same for the lion too, actually)
And then we have Dorothy, probably the "simplest" costume. It's just a dress, some ribbons, and those red shoes. But, in the one scene where she opens the door to Oz, and it switches to color, she had to be dressed in a sepia toned costume, and also have sepia colored makeup on a sepia toned set. We're going to assume this makeup was probably toxic.
All the actors were also exposed to asbestos when Galinda the Good Witch sends in snow to wake them from the poppy fields.
My vote goes to the lion, with the tin man being a close second.
Thoughts?
