Production # 1060 page 2

Production # 1060 page 2 by ric gustafson


On February 28 1938, Herman Mankiewicz was assigned to write a screenplay for the Wizard of Oz. He was one of ten screenwriters selected by MGM for this task. By 1928, he had received credit for seventeen pictures. Mankiewicz had a compulsive gambling addiction and was fired by Mayer in 1939 for unpaid gambling debts. In 1940, he wrote Citizen Kane which won an Academy Award in 1941. Mankiewicz came up with the idea of having the Kansas sequence in black and white and then OZ in color. On March 22 1938, Noel Langley turned in a forty three page screenwrite for the Wizard of Oz. Langley's screenwrite became the framework for the finished film. Langley's screenwrite introduced Miss Gulch who became the Wicked Witch of the West and the two farmhands who became the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman. The farmhand Zeke who became the Cowardly Lion did not show up until the final script. Things such as the Cowardly Lion pulling on his tail and talking apple trees were in the final script. By the time Langley was removed from the project, four more writers were assigned to the project. Herbert Fields worked on the project from April 19 to April 1938 and Samuel Hoffenstein from May 31 to June 3 1938. On June 3 1938, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf were assigned to the project. Jack Mintz worked on the project from August 3 to September 2 1938. Sid Silvers was assigned to the film from October 17 to October 22 1938. The last writer for the Wizard of Oz was John Lee Mahin who worked on the film from October 27 1938 to Jan 10 1939.


research help: ' The Making of the Wizard of Oz' by Aljean Harmetz


Peace and God's blessings. Love Ric