5 Things About “The Wizard of Oz” You May Not Know

Sunday night at the Academy Awards, a tribute is planned to honor the 75th anniversary of "The Wizard of Oz". You've probably seen "The Wizard of Oz" (hasn't everybody?). But, after 75 years, "The Wizard" still has some secrets. Did you know:

• The Cowardly Lion's costume was made from two real lion skins? It weighed around 60 pounds, which is probably why Bert Lahr, playing the part of the Cowardly Lion, cried so much. One of the costumes used has been restored and was appraised several years ago at $1.5 million.

• The studio wanted the song "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" cut after the first test screening because they thought it "slowed down" the movie too much. It went on to win the 1939 Academy Award for "Best Song". And, was ranked #1 of the top 100 movie songs by the American Film Institute.

• The "horse of a different color" was made those different colors by covering him in various flavors of Jell-O.

• Toto's real name was Terry. And SHE made more than the Munchkin actors. Terry made $125 a week and the Munchkins got paid $100 a week.

• You know when the Scarecrow "got a brain" at the end of the movie and reeled off the Pythagorean Formula? Yeah, he got it wrong. So don't learn math from scarecrows from the 1930's. Here's what HE said. (I'm not going to give you the right answer - that's what Google is for.)

Banana Don and Stephanie McCoy amuse and thrill you every morning from 5:30 – 10AM on the radio at 100.7 WITL.

Banana Don can be reached via email at don.jefferson@townsquaremedia.com and on Twitter at @WITLBananaDon and @WITLFM. Also, Facebook friend Banana Don and Stephanie at Facebook.com/BananaStephanie and Facebook.com/WITLFM.