The Hanging Munchkin

Everyone knows the classic, "The Wizard of Oz" which was first released as a movie in the year 1939.
In 1989 the movie was released for its 50th anniversary on VHS.
If you happen to find this original VHS tape or you already own it then you may already be familiar with a particular scene which had a lot of controversy.
In the scene where Dorothy, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow begin walking along the yellow brick road after surpassing a wood cabin, in the back by the trees there is a small figure that appears to be hanging. The few people who had noticed this all came to the assumption that it is a munchkin who is hanging from one of the branches on the tree.
Everyone was told time after time that it was simply a bird because they had filmed it at a zoo and it made it seem more natural. Warner Bros. re-released the film in 1998 where they had restored and remastered it all.
This is the tape that is most commonly found and is what is played on television. In this version, since it is a lot clearer, you can clearly see that it is in fact a bird in that scene. However, if you manage to find a clip of the original and play the two scenes right next to each other, it is very clear that something is off.
The bird in the renewed version is not in the exact same place as the "bird" in the original. Also, if you look closely, you can see that in the original there is some kind of rope connected to one of the branches.
And yet, after the 1998 version overpowered the original in popularity, people completely decided that it was in fact a bird, not even glimpsing at the very original. Of course it is possible that it was a bird but it is just as possible that there was in fact, a hanging munchkin.
People have said that those trees are much smaller than they appear and that they wouldn't let something like that slip up in a movie.
But the munchkins were small and so it is very possible that a munchkin or rather one of the actors playing a munchkin had hanged himself. Also, there have been many movies which have let things like that slip such as the "ghost" in Three Men and a Baby. That "ghost" was actually a poster someone accidentally left there and even though it was clearly seen, it was left in the film.
Not to mention that there were many rumors of the munchkin actors being treated very badly on set which could've driven one of them to do this.
Another "hanging munchkin" rumor is that the munchkin had lost his love and was so devastated that he took his life.
Whether or not you believe in "the hanging munchkin" it is something that brings the whole movie down in to a darker light than what it is usually portrayed as.
Goes to show, not everything is as it seems and even the brightest of things have hidden darkness.
Category:Historical Archive