[Film]

Munchkins 70 Year Reunion Video

Meinhardt Raabe, the noble Munchkin mortician

by Scott Marks, via emulsioncompulsion.com

Below; Meinhardt Raabe catches 40 winks during filming.

Meinhardt Raabe, the noble Munchkin mortician, has gone over the rainbow to join Judy and Toto in the Oz plot at Potter’s Field. The little feller died from a heart attack at the Penney Retirement Community, Penney Farms, Florida.

Raabe was also the last surviving “Wizard of Oz” cast member with any dialogue in the film and he spent a lifetime milking it for whatever it was worth. While other Munchkins, most notably Jerry Maren, found lucrative careers in Hollywood, “Oz” was Meinhardt’s only big screen appearance. For decades Meinhardt appeared at supermarket openings as Oscar Mayer’s “Little Oscar, The World’s Smallest Chef” and was on-board the Weinermobile when it first appeared in 1936.

We’re not sure if the 4′ 7″ Raabe was able to reach the gas pedal of the phallic sedan, but he did pilot a station wagon on what turned out to be the most tragic day of his life. Marie Raabe, his wife of 50 years, died on October 22, 1997 one day after a car driven by her husband backed into a van near their retirement community. Menihardt and a fellow passenger were critically injured. The coroner examined Mrs. Raabe and determined that she was not merely dead, but really most sincerely dead.

Meinhardt was the first Munchkin to become a card carrying member of the The International Wizard of Oz Club, Inc. In spite of his age and ill health, Raabe continued to pick up a few buck here and there at personal appearances. He was 94 which is 483 in big people years.

Watch the Munchkins 70 year reunion video here.

Memories of meeting the Munchkins here.

Who knew that Meinhardt was into DP?


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