I recently received an email from John Eremic (aka Pliny) from the company Endcrawl, which provides motion pictures with scrolling end credits.
Pliny pointed me to end credits his company created (“for fun”) for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The original credits for the film were limited to just a handful of cast members. The Endcrawl credits reinstate the credits as they might look if the film were released today — including the names of twelve stand-ins who purportedly worked on the production.
Have a look!
Some interesting facts about the stand-ins on The Wizard of Oz (considered part of the “minor cast” for the production) appear on The Wonderful Wiki of Oz. Of note, Betty Danko, the stand-in for the Wicked Witch of the West, also worked as a stunt performer. As a stand-in, Ms. Danko made $11 a day, which went up to $35 a day when she worked as a stunt player. In total she made nearly $800 as a stand-in on The Wizard of Oz.
Do you know any other tidbits about the stand-ins on the 1939 film? Have you seen any special references to stand-ins in the scrolling credits of another film? If so, share below!
Amazing! And yet, even though stand-ins are typically brought in through casting (unless directly booked through 1st A.D.’s) and their wages & working conditions are set forth by the actors union, they are still considered to be “crew” as they are under the notion of being “below the line”, not above the line, even back in Wiz days!