‘King Kong’ set destruction

The large gate that was built for ‘King Kong’ was set on fire and destroyed for the burning of the Atlanta Depot scene in ‘Gone with the Wind’.

1

Old Hollywood drugs

Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland were forced to take ‘pep pills’ in order to work 72 hours at a time. When they would finish filming, the actors were sent to the studio hospital and given sleeping pills. After a few hours, they’d be woken up to do it all over again.

2

Lon Chaney as a makeup artist

Lon Chaney played big roles in ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. He wasn’t just an actor though, Chaney did all of his own crazy makeup for the roles.

3

Superman’ salty snow

Before the days of CGI, weather had to be physically made for all film scenes. The crew used actual salt on the set of ‘Superman’.

4

‘The Wizard of Oz’ stunt gone wrong

Margaret Hamilton got more than she bargained for while playing the Wicked Witch. A trap door didn’t open quickly enough while filming a stunt and she suffered second-degree burns on her face and third-degree burns on her hand. The actress spent six weeks recovering before returning to set.

5

‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ summer weather

The whole Christmas movie was actually filmed in the summer of 1946. It would get so hot that production had to be shut down for days at a time.

6

The ‘Pyscho’ toilet

Alfred Hitchcock’s horror film was the very first to show a toilet on screen. Movie sensors almost didn’t let it happen.

7

‘The Wizard of Oz’ lion hair

The Cowardly Lion costume was made with real lion hair.

8

‘Singin’ in the Rain’ insults

Actor Gene Kelly insulted Debbie Reynolds’ dancing so much during filming that she once hid from everyone under a piano and cried.

9

‘Dracula’ spider webs

The spider webs we see in Dracula’s castle were made by shooting rubber cement out of a rotary gun.

10

‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ tears

When child actress Margaret O’Brien needed to cry during scenes, her mother would tell her other young actresses on the MGM lot were better cryers than her. She wanted to be the best so badly that this got her every time.

11

‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?’ feud

During a scene, actress Bette Davis kicked Joan Crawford so hard that she ended up needing stitches. To retaliate Crawford put weights in her pocket to make it harder for Davis to drag her lifeless body during the above scene, which strained her back.

12

Child actor punishments

When a young actor would misbehave on set, they were sometimes sent to ‘the black box’ which was a block of ice they were forced to sit on. Shirley Temple has spoken about the punishment as something she dealt with as a young star.

13

‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ snow

Writer and director Frank Capra helped create a new type of artificial snow to be used for movies. Before this, painted cornflakes were used as fake snow, but this was very loud on camera.

14

‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ controversy

The 1966 film was so dark that it underwent legal battles just to be released. It was the first film released in the U.S. to be forbidden to anyone under 18 years old.

15

‘Cleopatra’ was seriously expensive

The film originally had a budget of $5 million and was one of the most expensive movies to ever be made at that point in time. After two years, they still weren’t finished filming and had to put more money into the project. The movie would cost over $370 million by today’s standards.

16

Real horror on ‘The Birds’ set

In the Hitchcock film, actress Tippi Hedren had real birds tied to her and thrown at her during the attic scene. Hendren was told that the birds were going to be fake originally, but that there was a mechanical issue.

17

‘Casablanca’ height difference

Actor Humphrey Bogart was two inches shorter than leading lady Ingrid Bergman, so he had to stand on boxes to appear taller than her.

18

‘Sherlock Jr.’ injury

While performing this stunt in ‘Sherlock Jr.’ Buster Keaton fractured his neck and didn’t realize until years after.

19

‘Frankenstein’ drama

The 1931 film was banned in Kansas because of its ‘cruelty’ and lack of a moral base.

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