Hollywood may be built on make-believe, but these unsettling stories from its past are very real.
A fire destroyed much of The Exorcist set, except Regan’s bedroom
While filming The Exorcist (1973), there was a massive fire that burned down much of the set that was used to portray the MacNeil family home. Reportedly, the fire was caused by an electrical short caused by a bird, which resulted in production being delayed for weeks.
Oddly enough, the set of Regan’s bedroom suffered little damage. Due to the activities occurring in that room being the focal point of the film’s fictional possession, the incident became one of many that have given rise to rumors of the film being cursed.
The snow in The Wizard of Oz contained asbestos
During The Wizard of Oz’s (1939) iconic scene set among a field of poppies, fake snow falls over Dorothy and her friends. The substance used as snow during the scene included chrysotile asbestos, which could legally be sold for theater/commercial and decorative uses at the time.
This meant that while filming this scene, all of the actors were exposed to asbestos. Public knowledge of asbestos’s health risks wouldn’t become widespread for many decades.
The Twilight Zone tragedy changed Hollywood safety practices
Actor Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le, age 7, and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, age 6, died filming Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1982. During a scene involving large pyrotechnic blasts, a low-flying helicopter spiraled out of control and crashed into them.
The children had been working nighttime hours contrary to California child-labor laws. The incident resulted in criminal prosecutions and much tighter scrutiny of child performers, helicopters, pyrotechnics, and safety on movie sets in general.
An unusually high number of people from The Conqueror later developed cancer
The 1956 John Wayne movie The Conqueror was filmed near St. George, Utah, downwind of fallout from above-ground nuclear testing explosions conducted in Nevada. It was reported in 1980 that 91 of about 220 people in the film’s cast and crew developed cancer and 46 died of it.
John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and the director Dick Powell all fell ill with cancer. However, no study has statistically demonstrated that radioactive fallout from the filming site caused cancers among those who worked on The Conqueror.
Real human skeletons were used in Poltergeist
JoBeth Williams was filmed surrounded by skeletons during the swimming- pool sequence in Poltergeist (1982). But the skeletons were not just realistic models. According to special- effects artist Craig Reardon, actual human skeletons purchased from medical suppliers were utilized during filming.
In 1982, acquiring anatomically correct skeletons was easier and less expensive than creating realistic fake ones. This later became one of the most infamous stories about the alleged “Poltergeist curse”.
Judy Garland was put on a punishing studio-controlled routine
Garland was still a child when MGM transformed her into a star. Garland claimed that she was fed stimulants to function during the day and sleeping pills at night, while the studio monitored her diet and constantly denigrated her weight and appearance.
She was just 16 years old during the filming of The Wizard of Oz. The pressures Garland faced are among the best-known examples of Hollywood studio system abuses on young talents.
The Hays Code explicitly restricted Black-white relationships on screen
Between the 1930s and late 1960s, Hollywood studio films abided by The Motion Picture Production Code. Otherwise known as the Hays Code, this set of rules included one banning “miscegenation,” defined as sex between Black and white people. In practice, this spelled strict limitations for depictions of interracial couples and relationships in popular American film.
The Production Code’s influence steadily declined in the 1960s, replaced by the modern film-rating system in 1968.
Dozens of people were injured while making Roar
The 1981 adventure film Roar, directed by Noel Marshall and starring Tippi Hedren, was shot with dozens of actual lions, tigers, leopards, and other wild cats, many of which were untrained. There were numerous attacks and injuries during production.
Hedren was seriously injured during filming. Cinematographer Jan de Bont required close to 120 stitches after having his scalp ripped open by a lion. Melanie Griffith also needed medical attention after being mauled on and around the face.
Silent-film star Martha Mansfield died after her costume suddenly caught fire
Actress Martha Mansfield died in a fire that occurred while she was filming The Warrens of Virginia. On November 19, 1923, Mansfield was on a break from filming at a San Antonio location, seated inside a car, when her Civil War-era costume caught fire.
Witnesses claim someone tossed a lit match into the car just before the fire ignited; however, authorities were never able to confirm who tossed the match or if it had come from outside the car. Mansfield received fatal burns and died in hospital one day later. She was 24.
Bela Lugosi was buried wearing his Dracula cape
Bela Lugosi is best remembered for his iconic portrayal of Count Dracula, made famous in his performance of Universal’s Dracula in 1931. Lugosi experienced financial difficulties and an oft-documented addiction to morphine in his later years, but he was never able to divorce his legacy from that of Dracula.
Upon Lugosi’s death in 1956, his family elected to bury him in his Dracula costume and cape at Holy Cross Cemetery in California.
Peg Entwistle died after jumping from the Hollywoodland sign
On September 19th, 1932, Peg Entwistle, an unemployed actress of 24 years old, scaled the iconic Hollywoodland sign and leapt to her death from the letter H. A hiker stumbled upon her belongings and a written suicide note shortly thereafter.
Entwistle had starred in productions on Broadway, but failed to find success in Hollywood. Her death became associated with the Hollywood Sign forever.
Brandon Lee was killed by a prop gun on a movie set
Brandon Lee was filming a scene for The Crow in 1993 when he was shot and killed with a gun that was supposed to only contain blanks. Pieces of dummy rounds were not fully cleared from inside of the gun’s barrel beforehand.
Once someone fired a blank round into the barrel, the piece was shot out at deadly speed. Lee’s death proves that guns loaded with blanks can kill if basic safety protocol is not followed.
A silent-film era filmmaker died after a mysterious night on William Randolph Hearst’s yacht
Film producer Thomas H. Ince fell ill after spending the weekend aboard media mogul William Randolph Hearst’s yacht in 1924. He died of heart disease soon thereafter, but rumors persisted that Hearst had accidentally shot him during an argument that had broken out between Charlie Chaplin and Marion Davies.
Although no credible proof has ever surfaced to support murder, the incident remains one of Hollywood’s biggest mysteries.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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