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.
