Margaret Hamilton
as The Wicked Witch
This image "reprinted by permission, The Official 50th Anniversary
Pictorial
History, The Wizard of Oz Warner Books NY,NY © 1989, all rights reserved."
Margaret Hamilton, as the wicked witch was possibly one of the scariest people I have ever known. When the Wizard of Oz, was released in 1939 I did not get to see it. The children who played in the film were not invited to the premiere and for whatever reason I did not get to see the movie until it was first shown on television. By that time I had several children of my own and it was a family event every year for us to crowd around the television set with bowls of popcorn and all lights were turned off. I spent a lot of the time during these showings watching the expressions on my kid's faces. The younger ones would hide their faces when the witch would cackle and tremble.
Margaret Hamilton died May 16, 1985 at the age of 82. In much of the material that I have read about Margaret Hamilton's life, there have been references to her concern about that aspect of her performance and how concerned she was that children understood that the character she played in OZ was just a make believe character and not real. Every chance she had to talk with children about the wicked witch she would bring up this topic. I can understand Hamilton's concerns but I also know from my own children that was a part of the fun of seeing the Wizard of Oz.
Margaret was a genuinely nice woman and involved with children on several levels. When she wanted to go into acting her parents told her that was fine but she first needed to get an education to be able to support herself. She did just that and became a primary school teacher.
Margaret was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1902 and was later married to a landscaper architect, Paul Meserve. They had a son, Hamiliton Meserve who is now the publisher of a chain of newspapers in Dutchess County, New York. He and three grandchildren were her survivors.
When Margaret Hamilton first was hired to play a part in a Broadway show it was really just a fluke. She had helped a friend try out for a part and ended up being hired herself. The play was a success. Over her lifetime she made over 70 pictures plus was on the legitimate stage in plays as many times. She was active in many projects that were geared for children and often at her own expense.
Though her role as the wicked witch in Oz will never be forgotten the generation of the 70's will never forget her in the warm and wonderful commercials for Maxwell House Coffee as Cora the owner of a small New England store who only sold that brand of coffee.
Ray Bolger said that Hamilton was one of the nicest and sweetest women he had ever known. She like the others who have gone before will be missed but that friendship can be renewed by putting the Wizard of Oz on our VCR or the DVD player. It is a true testament to Ms Hamilton's acting ability that she can still as the "wicked" witch scare today's generation of children but actually be a "good" witch in real life. There is no better way to teach children the conflict of good verses evil in its most blatant form than in a good old-fashioned Frank Baum story. And, that good will overcome the evil and all can be right with the world. Simplistic yes, but it is what the child in most of us would like to believe is possible.