Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Off To See The Wizard This fall, Upper School students will be performing The Wizard of Oz in The Ahuja Auditorium at Hathaway Brown, the alma mater of Margaret Hamilton ’21, who immortalized the role of the Wicked Witch of the West in 1939.
what they call an actor’s actor. I would come home and literally trip over the bodies on the floor of all the actors she had taken in.”
You can catch the classic musical on the HB stage on Friday, November 14, and Saturday, November 15, at 7:30 p.m., and on Sunday, November 16, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults; $6 for students and seniors. Contact Theatre Director Molly Cornwell at mcornwell@hb.edu or 216.320.8796 ext. 7125 for more info, or visit www.hb.edu/tickets to reserve your seats.
Hamilton would go on to appear in a multitude of films and on television shows such as Patty Duke and The Addams Family in addition to playing the role of Cora, a spokesperson for Maxwell House coffee. But her greatest fame came as the witch whose evil laughter once blew out the sound equipment circuits on the set of The Wizard of Oz. “When it was shown on TV in the 1960s is when the legend starts,” says Meserve. “It didn’t really become popular until the kids could handle it and the parents began to see the virtue of the film. Then it was handed down from generation to generation. When Andy Warhol included Wicked Witch screen prints in his work, that sort of cemented the character.” Hamilton passed away in 1985 at the age of 82. “She was very gracious with fans and was always dressed to the nines,” says Meserve. “She signed stacks of photos right up until she died. She would always sign WWW for Wicked Witch of the West.” During an appearance on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Hamilton said of the witch “She does enjoy everything that she does. Whether it’s good or bad, she enjoys it.” And generations of fans continue to enjoy the work of Margaret Hamilton. The 75th anniversary Blu-ray edition of The Wizard of Oz is available from Warner Home Video on October 1, 2014.
Margaret Hamilton ’21 with her son, Hamilton Meserve, and grandson, Chris, in Seoul, Korea in 1967.