Fairyland's Munchkins

By C.J. Hirschfield

Last month, the last remaining Munchkin – of the more than 100 little people who performed in the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz – died.

He was Jerry Maren, the leader of the Lollipop Guild, and he was 98.

Most of the Munchkins, who sang “We’re Off to See the Wizard” and “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead,” went on to lead non-Hollywood lives. Maren, however, spent his life as a performer – in television, in movies and even as an Oscar Meyer spokesman in the 1950s.

You may not know that another Munchkin from the Oz movie — Victor Wetter – was, with his wife Edna, Children’s Fairyland’s very first “Ambassadors of Goodwill.” In that role they gave tours to thousands of delighted youngsters during Fairyland’s first two years of operation, 1950 to 1952. They ultimately left the park amid a political controversy that was taken all the way to the mayor’s office.

Victor and Edna were born in New Jersey and met at the Texas Centennial Exposition , in Dallas, in 1936. Both of them worked for Singer’s Midgets, a popular vaudeville group in the first half of the 20^th century that also helped cast many performers in The Wizard of Oz.

Married in Hollywood, they later settled in Oakland, just in time for the 1950 opening of the first storybook theme park in America: Children’s Fairyland.

Victor and Edna Wetter being fitted for their Fairyland costumes, 1950.

Victor and Edna were part of an opening-day staff of just five – amazing, given the hordes of early visitors. Other staff members included a senior guide (director Dorothy Manes, who was later hired by Walt Disney to open Disneyland in 1955), an animal keeper and a gardener. 

At the time, Fairyland was operated by the City of Oakland and did not enjoy our current nonprofit status. All of our jobs were civil service, with strict guidelines regarding apparel and behavior.

According to the written requirements, Guide Host positions had to be filled by persons of “small stature.” When an employee of standard height wanted to advance to that position, a political firestorm ensued. Manes temporarily left. Fairyland creator and Oakland Parks Superintendent William Penn Mott, Jr. threatened to quit.

The Wetters pose with a mock-up of the Shoe at Fairyland's entrance.

After an investigation by the Oakland Civil Service Board and the Oakland Municipal Civil Service Employees, the involvement of the mayor, and even the accusation of a romance between the aggrieved employee and a member of the parks board, the offending “small stature” language was removed.

The Wetters left soon thereafter.

The Wetters escort Fairyland's first visitors, Steven and Diane Russo, into Fairyland on opening day, September 2, 1950.

Victor Wetter died in 1990 at 88. Edna died in 2006 in her home state of New Jersey.

Not long before she died, Edna attended the 39^th Munchkin Convention, a three-day event in New Jersey celebrating the 150^th birthday of L. Frank Baum, the author of the Oz books. There she connected with Meinhardt Frank Raabe, who played the coroner in The Wizard of Oz, who gave her a copy of his autobiography, Memories of a Munchkin: An Illustrated Walk Down the Yellow Brick Road.

Today, although all of the Munchkins are not only merely dead – they’re really, most sincerely dead — their stories live on.

To learn more about Fairyland’s history, swing by the park and pick up our Creating a Fairyland book, by our own Randal Metz. After all, our storybook park is all about the stories!
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C.J. Hirschfield has served for 16 years as executive director of Children's Fairyland, where she is charged with the overall operation of the nation's oldest storybook theme park.