As a real and deadly tornado hit Kansas yesterday (05/28/19), consider how the fake one in The Wizard of Oz was created. Jack Gillespie’s special effects team wrapped a 35-foot-long muslin stocking around a conical frame of chicken wire. The base of the tornado was fastened to a car, which traveled below the sound stage, propelled by a gantry crane rotated by a motor. Wind machines and dust completed the stormy picture. When the Weather Channel produced a miniseries about the 100 most memorable weather events in history, The Wizard of Oz tornado ranked #55. Read more about the making of the movie in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).
