Mickey Carroll, Margaret Pellegrini, Meinhardt Raabe: These actors were all among those who portrayed the Munchkins in the 1939 production of The Wizard of Oz. When they and the other little people recruited for the parts were making their ways to California, they couldn’t have known that they’d end up being part of one of the most famous, and beloved, films of all time.
In the years since, some of them became quite successful as actors and others faded into obscurity. There are very few left alive, but in their later years, they left a rich legacy of first-hand accounts of being involved in the production and what it was like to be a little person and an actor at the time that’s endlessly fascinating. This book explores that, and more.
Learn about the production of The Wizard of Oz and how the little people who played the Munchkins were treated on set and off. Learn about their lives afterward and how they became the central focus of some of the largest Oz themed events in the world. The film lived on throughout the 20th Century—and still does today—on television, but there’s much more to the Oz story than what we see in the 1939 film and the world that L. Frank Baum created was much richer than people might believe.
The book also takes a look at films related to Oz and to the Munchkins themselves. From the unfair and untrue accounts of their off-set behavior that have been entered into urban legend to the films that took the Munchkins and allowed them another chance to shine on screen, you’ll find plenty of related cinematic material to explore. While The Wizard of Oz is a great film, the stories of the people involved in it are fascinating, as well, and the stories of the Munchkins haven’t been told as much as they deserve, but are related in detail here.
In the years since, some of them became quite successful as actors and others faded into obscurity. There are very few left alive, but in their later years, they left a rich legacy of first-hand accounts of being involved in the production and what it was like to be a little person and an actor at the time that’s endlessly fascinating. This book explores that, and more.
Learn about the production of The Wizard of Oz and how the little people who played the Munchkins were treated on set and off. Learn about their lives afterward and how they became the central focus of some of the largest Oz themed events in the world. The film lived on throughout the 20th Century—and still does today—on television, but there’s much more to the Oz story than what we see in the 1939 film and the world that L. Frank Baum created was much richer than people might believe.
The book also takes a look at films related to Oz and to the Munchkins themselves. From the unfair and untrue accounts of their off-set behavior that have been entered into urban legend to the films that took the Munchkins and allowed them another chance to shine on screen, you’ll find plenty of related cinematic material to explore. While The Wizard of Oz is a great film, the stories of the people involved in it are fascinating, as well, and the stories of the Munchkins haven’t been told as much as they deserve, but are related in detail here.
