Glinda the Good Witch’s Crazy Youthful Makeup Effects in ‘The Wizard Of Oz’

Lori Acken August 21, 4:13 pm

THE WIZARD OF OZ, from left: Judy Garland, Billie Burke, 1939 — Everett Collection

Glamorous stage and screen star Billie Burke, who played Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz, was a blend of the book’s Good Witch of the North and its beautiful sorceress Glinda. Already renowned for her auburn waves, warbling soprano voice and marriage to Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., Burke was just 3 inches taller than her counterpart Margaret Hamilton, though she towered over her nemesis onscreen, gliding about in a bedazzled ballgown and tall crown. Plus, no broomstick for Glinda — she popped in and out in a bubble-like orb, which was really a small glass ball shot separately and given the Technicolor treatment.

Still, Burke’s ethereal appearance required some sorcery on behalf of the makeup crew. To make the 54-year-old Burke seem youthful — please don’t try this at home — staffers glued bits of chiffon to the skin near her ears, threaded them tight with string to lift her jowls and sagging neckline, then covered the makeshift facelift with a luxurious wig.

THE WIZARD OF OZ, from left: Margaret Hamilton, Judy Garland, Billie Burke, 1939

Everett Collection

The only magic Glinda herself needed was confidence and words. She reminds the Wicked Witch that her cruel deeds are what really make her ugly, thus she wields no power in Glinda’s plot of Oz. And when all seems lost for a homesick Dorothy (Judy Garland), Glinda reassures her that she’s no longer just a restless farm girl whose only pal is her pooch: “You’ve always had the power, my dear. You just had to learn it yourself.”

In 1939, the same year Oz was released Everett Collection

The same could be said for Burke. Though her fortunes seemed charmed both onscreen and off, she grew up in the circus traveling with her father, who performed as a Barnum & Bailey clown. And though Burke married into Broadway royalty and became a sought-after actress, when the stock market crash of 1929 and her free-spending husband’s death drained her riches, Burke continuously reinvented herself as a performer, working well into her 70s.

Because as a wise wizard once said, “A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.”