Sunday, April 11, 2010

WIZARD OF OZ OLDEST MUNCHKIN DIES AT 94


Hollywood said goodbye on Saturday to Meinhardt Raabe, one of the original Munchkins in the "Wizard of Oz."

Flowers were placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame star for the Munchkins, according to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Raabe, 94, was considered the oldest living Munchkin and died Friday in Florida.

Raabe was on hand with other cast members in 2007 when the Munchkin star was finally dedicated on the Walk of Fame.

Many considered the honor long overdue. In the movie, Raabe portrayed the coroner. At the unveiling, he delighted the crowd by reciting his memorable lines: "As coroner I must aver, I thoroughly examined her, And she's not only merely dead, She's really most sincerely dead."



In 2007, only seven Munchkins were still alive -- most in their 80s and 90s. They were the last of the 124 diminutive inhabitants of fictional Munchkinland who appeared with Judy Garland in the 1939 movie. They were mostly midgets, with a few children thrown in.

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