November 13, 2007–Six of the remaining Munchkins, who starred alongside Judy Garland in the all time movie classic, The Wizard of Oz, filmed in 1939, will be honored with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star on Tues. Nov. 20, it was announced by Midwest theater owner and Oz buff, Ted Bulthaup, who championed their cause and engaged the support of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Ted Turner, among others, to secure the honor.
On Monday, November 19, all six Munchkins, Mickey Carroll, Myrna and Carl Swensen, Karl Slover, Margaret Pellegrini and Meinhardt Raabe, will also attend a special 8PM screening of The Wizard of Oz, benefiting the Hollywood Heritage Museum, at Graumans Chinese Theater, where the film originally premiered and in front of which they will receive their long-awaited star on Tuesday morning (11:30am).
The Munchkins originally numbered 122 members and comprised the basis for a very famous, European-born vaudeville act founded by Leo Singer, Singers Midgets, who were thought to have escaped Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
For the duration of Oz filming at MGM, the Singer Troupe stayed at the newly-restored Culver Hotel, once owned by film star John Wayne and located at the hub of a recently re-popularized downtown Culver City. Over the years, many Munchkin alumni remained in show business and regularly gathered at annual reunions.
