People who participated in the O-Town Reading project had a real treat last week. Elizabeth Letts is the author of “Finding Dorothy” a story told of the classic movie the Wizard of Oz through the eyes of Maud Baum, wife of L. Frank Baum, author of the original story. During a program at Ottawa Memorial Auditorium,Letts talked about some influential movies:
Letts told about some secrets of the making of the movie, including the fact that in the scene where the wicked witch catches on fire, the studio used actual gas powered flames to simulate the fireball, which ended up burning Margaret Hamilton, who played the witch. Hamilton spent a number of weeks recovering from her burns before she could return to the movie set.
