<P> The original producers thought that a 1939 audience was too sophisticated to accept Oz as a straight - ahead fantasy; therefore, it was reconceived as a lengthy, elaborate dream sequence . Because of a perceived need to attract a youthful audience through appealing to modern fads and styles, the score had featured a song called "The Jitterbug", and the script had featured a scene with a series of musical contests . A spoiled, selfish princess in Oz had outlawed all forms of music except classical and operetta, and went up against Dorothy in a singing contest in which her swing style enchanted listeners and won the grand prize . This part was initially written for Betty Jaynes . The plan was later dropped . </P> <P> Another scene, which was removed before final script approval and never filmed, was a concluding scene back in Kansas after Dorothy's return . Hunk (the Kansan counterpart to the Scarecrow) is leaving for agricultural college and extracts a promise from Dorothy to write to him . The implication of the scene is that romance will eventually develop between the two, which also may have been intended as an explanation for Dorothy's partiality for the Scarecrow over her other two companions . This plot idea was never totally dropped, but is especially noticeable in the final script when Dorothy, just before she is to leave Oz, tells the Scarecrow, "I think I'll miss you most of all ." </P> <P> In his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum describes Kansas as being "in shades of gray". Further, Dorothy lived inside a farmhouse which had its paint blistered and washed away by the weather, giving it an air of grayness . The house and property were situated in the middle of a sweeping prairie where the grass was burnt gray by harsh sun . Aunt Em and Uncle Henry were "gray with age". Effectively, the use of monochrome sepia tones for the Kansas sequences was a stylistic choice that evoked the dull and gray countryside . Much attention was given to the use of color in the production, with the MGM production crew favoring some hues over others . Consequently, it took the studio's art department almost a week to settle on the final shade of yellow used for the yellow brick road . </P> <P> LeRoy had always insisted that he wanted to cast Judy Garland to play Dorothy from the start; however, evidence suggests that negotiations occurred early in pre-production for Shirley Temple to be cast as Dorothy, on loan from 20th Century Fox . A persistent rumor also existed that Fox, in turn, was promised Clark Gable and Jean Harlow as a loan from MGM . The tale is almost certainly untrue, as Harlow died in 1937, before MGM had even purchased the rights to the story . Despite this, the story appears in many film biographies (including Temple's own autobiography). The documentary The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic states that Mervyn LeRoy was under pressure to cast Temple, then the most popular child star, but at an unofficial audition, MGM musical mainstay Roger Edens listened to her sing and felt that an actress with a different style was needed; a 50th anniversary documentary for the film suggested that Temple, then 10 - years - old, was slightly too young for the part . Newsreel footage is included in which Temple wisecracks, "There's no place like home", suggesting that she was being considered for the part at that time . A possibility is that this consideration did indeed take place, but that Gable and Harlow were not part of the proposed deal . </P>

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