There were many special effects in the making of the Wizard of Oz. The Gale farmhouse in the tornado was a 3 foot tall model. First the house was photographed falling onto a floor painted to look like the sky. Then, to give the impression of the cyclone picking up the house, the film was run backwards. The witch's crystal ball was a great big glass bowl, not solid although it looked solid. They used a process projector which projected into the ball from the side with a mirror on a 45 degree angle. Then the picture hit the mirror and came up on a translucent screen. When the live characters looked into the ball they saw the film that was being projected onto the screen. For the wicked witch's entrances and exits they used an improved version of a trap door. The stage floor door was on a hydraulic elevator which whisked Margaret quickly out of sight as jets in the floor pumped smoke into the air. For the melting scene the Wicked Witch's costume was nailed to the floor and dry ice was fastened to the inside of her cloak. This time the elevator lowered slowly while she "melted" before your very eyes. The famous Ruby slippers were originally silver shoes, but with the use of Technicolor, it was determined that ruby red would look much better on screen then silver. The red also contrasted wonderfully agaisnt the Yellow Brick Road. Altough the road did pose a challenge to the Ruby slippers because footsteps sounded terribly loud on film. To minimize the noise, felt was applied to the shoe's soles. The rest of the exterior was made of real satin with more than 2,000 crimson sequins attached. The leather bow on each shoe held 46 rhinestones, interior was lined with cream-colored kid leather.
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