Drunk Munchkins ... and Other Stories

When a movie is as famous as The Wizard of Oz, it’s only natural that strange stories will begin to circulate about behind-the-scenes events. Take this pop quiz to discover which stories are true and which ones were created by humbugs.

True or False: The Munchkins were drunken party animals.

False: Rumors of wild Munchkin parties have been circulating for over 60 years. An aging Judy Garland joked about the Munchkins on The Jack Paar Show, and the 1981 movie Under the Rainbow portrayed them as rowdy and unruly. While a few of the actors who played the Muchkins did drink and frequent the bars in Culver City, Calif., the majority of the 120 little people were well-behaved, hard working, and even a little star struck to be working in Hollywood for the first time.

In the introduction to Cooking in Oz, former Munchkin Margaret Pellegrini remembers one of the troublemakers.

“He was a drinker and caused problems … and a ruckus at the studio,” she wrote. “Eventually, he got kicked out of the movie for causing so much trouble. (He) was one of the rowdy ones who eventually gave us Munchkins a bad reputation.”

In the book The Making of The Wizard of Oz, author Aljean Harmetz also concluded that “memories are distorted because the activities of the few ... were applied to all the Munchkins.”

“There was, in actuality, very little trouble,” Harmetz wrote. “The Munchkins were timid more often than aggressive, shy more often than bold.”

True or False: The Scarecrow set himself on fire – with his own cigarettes.

True: Even though the Scarecrow wisely confided to Dorothy that his greatest fear was a lighted match, Ray Bolger, the actor who played him, smoked. The fact that his costume was made of straw didn’t keep him from lighting up between takes. Oh, if he only had a brain ...

According to the book Cooking in Oz, “He learned his lesson after twice setting himself on fire when a stray cigarette ash landed on his straw.”

Sound unbelievable? Get a copy of Cooking in Oz and turn to page 140. You’ll see a picture of Bolger in full costume, a cigarette dangling from his lips. How ‘bout a little fire, Scarecrow?

True or False: Clothing that once belonged to Oz author L. Frank Baum magically turned up on the movie set.

True: As the story of this amazing coincidence goes, Frank Morgan (the actor who played the Wizard and several other characters) looked inside the pocket of the coat he was to wear as Professor Marvel and discovered the name L. Frank Baum stitched in the fabric. Baum’s widow, Maud, verified that the coat had indeed belonged to her husband and that the secondhand dealer who supplied the coat to MGM had acquired the coat from a tailor who always made the Oz creator’s clothes.

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