Frank Morgan Show and Guest Appearances in Old Time Radio

Frank Morgan
(1890 – 1949)

The Wizard of Oz (1939) has become much more than a film, it is a cultural icon. As such, there is little wonder about the number of incredible stories and rumors surrounding the production. One of the most curious is the story of L. Frank Baum's coat.

In one of the early scenes of the film, runaway Dorothy runs into the shady fortune teller Professor Marvel who uses his crystal ball to convince the teen that her Auntie Em is sick and needs her at home. The image that the costume department wanted to give Professor Marvel, played by longtime character actor Frank Morgan, was "grandeur gone to seed". In order to find just the right ratty old coat for the character, the wardrobe workers went to a used clothing store on Main St and selected a whole rack of used coats. Morgan and the wardrobe department tried all of the coats until selecting what they thought would be perfect, a black broadcloth Prince Albert coat with a velvet collar that had most of the nap worn off the velvet.

The coat was used for the test shots and eventually during actual shooting. The story of the coat turned fantastical one warm day on the set when Frank turned out a pocket and discovered the name "L. Frank Baum". Baum was the creator of the original Oz stories, and the tale of the coat is often dismissed as the ramblings of a studio publicity department's overactive imagination. The story is plausible. Baum spent his later years and died in Hollywood in 1919, so one of his old coats winding up in local second-hand clothing shop is not unreasonable. Supposedly, the tailor who made the coat and Baum's widow were contacted and confirmed that the coat had belonged to the author.

Frank Morgan, who played quadruple roles in The Wizard of Oz, was a long time character actor whose career stretched back to the silent picture era and the early days of Hollywood. Born Francis Phillip Wupperman in New York City, 1890, Frank was the youngest of eleven children in a family which had made a fortune distributing Angostura bitters. Frank followed his older brother, Ralph Morgan, into acting, and their brother Carlos Wupperman was a playwright who was killed in the Rhineland in 1919. Carlos' only play to reach Broadway was "The Triumph of X", which Frank starred in but only lasted for 30 performances in 1921.

Morgan's film career began with The Suspect (1916) and he followed it up with a supporting role in Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1917) in support of his friend John Barrymore. Frank easily made the transition into talkies, usually playing a good-hearted but often befuddled middle-aged man. By the mid-1930s, MGM had signed him to a lifetime contract.

News about MGM's plans to shoot a major production of The Wizard of Oz began circulating after Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs proved that adapting children's stories could make profitable films. The role of the Wizard (and Professor Marvel, the coach driver, and the guard at the gates of Oz) was to go to W.C. Fields, but noted tippler drug out negotiations over his fee, and the studio passed him over.

Producers may have thought without Fields on the set there would be no danger of someone "putting pineapple juice in my pineapple juice". Morgan was also known to imbibe in his dressing room and on the set. In fact, he carried an entire bar in a suitcase so that his friends would not need to go thirsty. He had a reputation of never letting his drinking interfere with his work. Apparently because The Wizard of Oz was a children's story, Morgan tried to cut back on the booze while shooting. This actually made him more difficult to work with, to the point of director Victor Fleming encouraging him to "get back on your champagne kick so we can all live together".

Morgan continued to work in front of the camera through the 1940's. he made several appearances on radio during the 1930's to help promote the films he appeared in, often on the MGM Good News of 19xx broadcasts. The Good News shows were sponsored by Maxwell House Coffee, and when the movie studio abandoned the radio spots, the new Maxwell House Coffee Time was co-hosted by Morgan.

Even though Frank Morgan will always be associated with The Wizard of Oz, he did not survive to see the film become an important cultural icon. Even though the picture got good reviews, the studio was not able to recoup its investment until the picture was re-released in 1949, the year Morgan died. Iconic status would not come until CBS began broadcasting the movie annually in 1956.

In 1949, Morgan was cast in the movie version of Annie Get Your Gun (1950) as Buffalo Bill Cody. After filming just the opening scene, Frank Morgan died of a heart attack in his sleep on September 18, 1949. Two Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame are dedicated honoring Frank Morgan, one at 1708 Vine St for his work in Motion Pictures, and one at 6700 Hollywood Blvd for his contributions to Radio.