Almost seven decades after they welcomed a twister-tossed Dorothy to the magical land of Oz, the diminutive Munchkins were welcomed to the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a presentation of their own star commerating their part in the classic The Wizard of Oz.
The ceremony was held Tuesday in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the same place that the film first premiered in 1939. Attending the ceremony were seven of the original 124 actors who portrayed the Munchkins, several of whom are familar faces to Wizard Of Oz fans.
“We love you. You have touched our hearts,” former Munchkin Mickey Carroll,who played the the Town Crier of Munchkinland, told the crowd. Carroll was joined by Clarence Swensen, a Munchkin soldier; Jerry Maren, part of the Lollipop Guild; Karl Slover, the Main Trumpeter; Ruth Duccini, a Munchkin villager; Margaret Pelligrini, the “sleepyhead” Munchkin and Meinhardt Raabe, the coroner.
The seven arrived at the ceremony in a horse-drawn carriage. Instead of the traditonal red carpet, there was a yellow one, recalling the film’s yellow brick road.
The actors who portrayed the Munchkins came from all across the United States and even Europe. Some were members of a German midget troupe who used to film as a way of escaping from the Nazis. Each actor earned $125.00 a week for their work.
