Like most kids who grew up in the 1960s, watching 1939’s The Wizard of Oz on our small screen black and white television set was an annual ritual. I mean, sure, it was missing something when one didn’t get to watch the transition from sepia to color but hey, what did I know? I was born 20 years after its initial release and it was, like everything else I saw on TV before 1968, always black and white to me.
I adored the movie, naturally, and Judy, of course, and Toto! There was one part that gave me nightmares, though, and no, it wasn’t the Wicked Witch of the West. Well, it sort of was. It was Miss Gulch, pedaling away on her bike through the twister.
I knew she was just an actress and, like several of the other actors in the movie, simply playing a dual role, but that woman gave a very realistic portrayal of a very real world type of villain and she scared the heck out of me!
That woman turned out to be Margaret Hamilton, an actress I had seen in other old movies and would later come to know as Cora, the wise, softspoken Maxwell House Coffee spokesperson in TV commercials.
For decades that was pretty much all I knew about her, too. From time to time, I’d read something on Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, or Ray Bolger and, after her tragically early death, I came to learn a lot about poor Judy Garland.
It wasn’t until I met Peg Lynch at the Cincinnati Old-Time Radio Conventions beginning in the late 1990s that I heard much more about Margaret Hamilton, then already passed. Peg had not only co-starred with her on early television but they became lifelong friends and Peg spoke of her in glowing terms every year.
Cut to 2024. There have been hundreds of books and documentaries about Judy and more than a few about the making of the classic movie that put her on the map, but what about Margaret? Her full story was still missing. Writer Don Billie decided that needed remedying.
Let me say here that Billie’s book, Margaret Hamilton: From Cleveland, Ohio to the Land of Oz, is a perfect example of a celebrity biography without an agenda. The author starts with a striking cover, uses just the right amount of well laid-out pages, extensive and rare photos and clippings, good-sized, and easily readable fonts. He tells Margaret’s story from beginning to end (with a little necessary backtracking here and there), giving details, anecdotes, and quotes from her and others. There are ups and downs, as in everyone’s life, but no gossipy scandal-mongering here.
The reader does learn lots of trivia such as the fact that she didn’t actually care for Maxwell House Coffee, nor did she get along with one of her Oz co-stars. Rumors about her life and career are cleared up and extensive acknowledgements are made as to sources for all the book’s info.
I also have to congratulate Don Billie on another score. Apparently, Margaret Hamilton was a self-published project. Speaking as an editor/proofreader, I spotted exactly one minor error in the very readable text. That’s in the entire book! I’ve read New York Times bestsellers with more errors than that! It’s an impressive book all around, in every possible way.
It’s been a long time since Miss Gulch gave me nightmares but the fact that here I am in my sixties still remembering them should tell you what kind of impact they had on me at an impressionable age. After reading Margaret Hamilton: From Cleveland, Ohio to the Land of Oz, though, she doesn’t scare me anymore. I feel like I really know Margaret Hamilton now. I wish more celebrity bios were like this.
Booksteve recommends.
https://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Hamilton-Cleveland-Ohio-Land/dp/B0DHH39DBN?ref_=ast_author_dp
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