Facts

These are some Wonka facts I think you'll enjoy. Please e-mail me if you can add one or correct me.

When the movie came out on its 25th anniversary the movie "Matilda" also opened on the same day. This is strange since Roald Dahl wrote both Matilda and Wonka!
The movie was filmed in Munich, Germany in October of 1970.
The movie was first shown on June 30th 1971, in select cities.
Gene Wilder was at the premier with the Wonka Mobile and he gave icecream and chocolate to all that were there.
The Oompa Loompas in Roald Dahl's book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", are described as being "Pygmies" which were "imported directly from Africa. They belong to a small tribe of miniature pygmies known as the Oompa Loompas." I guess the question at this point becomes - was this an anti-racist statement on Mr. Dahl's part?

Or just the opposite? I think the "enslavement" implications are quite clear. Kind of puts a new spin on the story, doesn't it? In some versions of the book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa Loompas look like pygmies but in 1973 a version was released in which the Oompa Loompas were described as "short white hippies." I have a scanned picture from publications of the book which shows the different type of Oompa Loompas. I believe this picture is from Jeremy Tregleown's book on Roald Dahl.

Peter Capell or the Tinker that scares Charlie outside the gates of the Wonka factory quotes from the poem "The Fairies" by Will Allingham. "Up the airy mountain, Down the rushing glen...."

Sammy davis Jr. made a re-make of the Candyman song and it was his only #1 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1972.

There is a Wonka soundtrack and they re-released it along with the 25th year anniversery video.

Milton Hershey was born September 13th in 1857. Founder of the Hershey Corporation in Hershey, PA. In addition Roald Dahl, author of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", was also born on this day in 1916. How weird!

The Scrumdidilyumptious Bar and Oompa Loompas (candies) are no longer made. The Srumdidilyumptious bar was a large chocolate bar and Oompa Loompas were very similar to peanut butter M & Ms, Both made during the 1970s.

Roald Dahl hated the movie. There is actually some doubt as to whether he actually wrote the screenplay. Either he was taking his time or didn't please the the producers so another "ghost" screenwriter filled in the details including numerous literary references. This information was all found in Jeremy Treglown's book,Roald Dahl : A Biography. Not only did Roald Dahl hate the movie but rumor has it that Gene Wilder hates it as the script was almost identical to the book so alot of it was thrown out and the script was rewritten (without credit) by David Seltzer. Robert Kaufman was also another anonymous(un-credited)contributor to the script.

Roald Dahl was born September 13, 1916 in Llandaff, Wales, and died on November 23, 1990 near his home in Buckinghamshire, England. He wrote 19 childrens books some of which were made into films such as "James and the Giant Peach", "Matilda", and of course "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."

Willy Wonka fans might also be interested in taking a look at the fairly new book called Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes. Compiled by Felicia Dahl (Roald Dahl's second wife) and illustrated by a long time Dahl collaborator, Quentin Blake, this book is a collection of recipes on how to make various food items mentioned in Dahl's books. You can learn to make lickable wallpaper and other candies from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. There was a hard-cover version released in 1994 and then a reprint in 1997 (paper-back). Note: Many of the recipes in the book are not designed for children to make. They are too difficult or require impossible to get ingredients. Both copies of the book are readily availible and still in print.

In springtime, the only pretty ring time.." from Shakespeare's "As You Like It" Act 5 Scene 3 "It was a lover and his lass,With a hey,and a ho,and a hey nonino, That o`er the green corn field did pass In springtime ,the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing,hey ding a ding ,ding"

Bob Roe who played the boy in the classroom scenes named Peter Goffe who opened "about 100" wonka bars was Charlie's (Peter Ostrum's) stand-in for the entire shoot. You can see a picture of Bob Roe on my Wonka Reunion '98 page.

Willy Wonka's line "The suspense is terrible, I hope it lasts" is from Oscar Wilde's play, "The Importance of Being Ernest".

Willy wonka MUST have known that the children would disappear one by one. You know why? Well the scene where they travel on the Wonka-Mobile, their is only room for four people! That of Charlie, Joe, Mike and his mom! And if you look back at the boat ride through the chocolate river, you see that there would be no room for Augustus and his mom!

Have you guys ever noticed that all 5 of the winners of the Wonka Contest were children? What are the odds of that happening? During the film, we are shown adults buying the bars (The queen, the ransom scene lady, etc...)But no adults win... isn't that weird?

Most people believe that "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" was a disaster at the box office. Actually, the movie was #53 on the box-office chart that year, with total domestic rentals being $2,000,000 (which means an actual gross about double of that figure). Compare it with the #64 movie "The Abominable Dr. Phibes", which had rentals of $1,500,000, yet still earned enough to warrant a sequel. Of course "Phibes" cost less than "Wonka". It's safe to say that "Wonka" was a disappointment - but it was not a disaster at the box-office.

The quote "All I ask is a tall ship and a star to sail her by", spoken by Willy Wonka before they get on the Wonkatania is from the poem "Sea Fever" by John Masefield.

The man who plays Mr. Salt was also in the Beatles film "Help!." He was the assistant to the mad scientist who wanted the ring to "dare I say it, Rule the World."

For the song "I've Got a Golden Ticket" in which Charlie and Grandpa Joe run and dance around the shack, creative forces on the movie wanted it to be done like Oliver, with Charlie and his grandfather running out into the street, and the village joining in the song. As we know, it didn't happen the way they wanted it to.

They paid the assistant director's son to fall down the bad egg chute first to make sure it was safe for Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt) before she attempted it. She said in a 1997 interview that "I had to jump onto a bunch of mattresses where there were two guys to help catch me or keep me from bouncing back up again. It was quite a bit of a drop. You had to clear head height so it was quite a jump."

The picture of the guy that they show as the fraudulent golden ticket holder in Paraguay, was actually, in real life the last man known to have contact with Hitler. His name was Martin Bormann, one of Hitler's many henchmen. They wanted to use a picture of Hitler, but used Bormann's instead. Don't ask me why they did this. Maybe to show that a horrible man "stole" Charlie's hopes and dreams.I know it sounds weird but it has been confirmed. Mel Stuart (the director) told about it in an interview on Saturday April 19th, 1998.

Hit actress and TV talk show host Rosie O'Donnell is a huge fan of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She's always talking about the "blueberry girl."

You know how everything in Willy Wonka's office is cut in half. Well, someone put a coffee pot in the scene and the prop guy started sawing it in half until he realized that it was full of coffee!

Paris Themmen says that the most difficult parts of the movie for him was when he had to be picked up by giant fingers in the WonkaVision scene and when he ate the exploding candy. He had to yell and then be pulled back into the pots and pans by wires. He enjoyed it because it seemed as if he was doing a stunt.

The "Golden Goose" scene in which Julie Dawn Cole sings took 38 takes! Everything had to be perfect. She had to kick the boxes just right and time everything just right.

Julie Dawn Cole was wearing a real mink coat in the movie! It was specially made for her because it is not often that mink coats are made for children. She got in a bunch of trouble when she left it on the back of a chair.

The building used for the front of the chocolate factory was Munich Gas Works. Peter Goff made the doorway and the inside, of course, was all filmed on a set.

All the children in the classroom, running from the school, and in the candy shop were local extras from Munich except for two of them who were Mel Stuart's son and Daughter. The girl in the classroom who says "I opened one hundred Wonka Bars" was Mel's daughter. He gave her the part as a treat for comming up with the idea to have the book made into the movie.

During the filming Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt) had a secret crush on Peter Ostrum (Charlie Bucket)!! Peter never knew this. Peter had asked her to a dinner party and she got all excited so she wrote home and asked her mother if it was OK. By the time her mother wrote back it was too late. Peter had changed his mind and he asked Denise Nickerson to go with him.

None of the Oompa Loompa songs were sang by the Oompa Loompas! I bet you didn't know that. They hired separate singers to sing their songs and then dubbed in their voices. What a disappointment this was for me!

What where the ages of the kids when the movie was being shot? Well, Peter Ostrum was 12, Denise Nickerson was 11, Paris Themmen was 11, Julie Dawn Cole was 13, Michael Bollner was 12.

"Where is fancy bred In the heart or in the head" and "So shines a good deed in a weary world" are taken from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

"We are the music makers and We are the dreamers of dreams" was a quote fro

Email: kevinhart1@hotmail.com