MUNCHKIN BIOGRAPHIES

Recently I began to receive biographies from a Publicist named Dee Dunheim about the some of the Munchkins. I thought what a wonderful idea this was to create a page about the Munchkins that are still active and available to the public at functions around the country each year.

These are alphabetically:

Mickey Carroll
Ruth Duccini
Jerry Maren
Margaret Pelligrini
Meinhardt Raabe
Karl Slover
Donna Stewart-Hardway (child munchkin)
Clarence Swensen

So this will be the Munchkin Biographies page.
Now each viewer can really know all about his or her Munchkin friends from the Wizard of Oz.



MUNCHKIN JERRY MAREN - "THE LOLLIPOP KID"

This image "reprinted by permission, © all rights reserved."

By: Dee Dunheim

Jerry Maren, a member of the Lollipop Guild trio, will always be remembered as the munchkin who presented the enormous lollipop to Judy Garland as she was welcomed to Munchkinland in the MGM 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz.

Ever since the movie hit the big screen in 1939, Maren has held fast to his celebrity status - and every year he shows up in Chesterton, Indiana to reminisce and sign autographs for Oz fans.

It was sheer good fortune that landed him in professional show business. "I attended dancing school - probably because my mother wanted to get me out of the house," laughs the Boston born and raised Maren. As fate would have it, during a vaudeville act in Connecticut he explains how "a talent scout spotted me backstage and announced that MGM was shooting a film version of The Wizard of Oz in Los Angeles."

"They needed a lot of little people who could dance and sing. I was told my transportation, food and hotel expenses would be covered if I accepted the part, and I'd make $50 a week for six weeks of shooting." That was more than his father made back home as a shoemaker. "So, naturally, he grins, I accepted." But once the then 17-year old Maren set foot on the motion picture set, he was astounded. "I'd never seen a little person before in my life," he admits. "My family, my neighbors, my friends were all average size. Boy did I get all excited. Gee, I look like that? I'd wander around making new friends. It was incredible to be able to look people straight in the eye instead of straining to look up at them."

Maren and the other munchkins worked twelve hours a day, six days a week to make the film the best loved and most watched motion picture of all times. Their schedule was comprised of a week of choreography, a week of wardrobe, a week of makeup, followed by three weeks of shooting. "Even though she was already a star, Judy Garland was a lovely American teenager," recalls Maren. "She was compassionate and got a big kick out of being with us. Can you imagine how she felt when she got up every morning and looked out over 124 tiny adults?"

Maren's career has taken many strange curves since the curves of the Yellow Brick Road: During the War, Maren and a fellow munchkin teamed up for vaudevillian plays with USO Hospital Unit #14 . "We did shows for every veterans hospital in the United States," he says with great pride. He was also in movies including the all midget western entitled "Terror of Tiny Town" and contract to Edgar Bergen to do Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd in the movie "Here we Go Again."

In the Our Gang comedy "Tiny Troubles" he was Light-Fingered Lester, the little thief disguised in a baby carriage. In the Marx Brothers "At The Circus" he was Professor Atom. He was also Buster Brown for the famous shoe company. As a professional midget wrestler in the early 50's, Chicago billed him as "Baby Face Maren," In Tijuana he was simply known as "The Little Red Devil." Guess who threw the confetti at the end of each Gong Show?

The bulk of his work ever since has been as a spokesperson for several large corporations. Maren is of Italian decent. His real and legal name is Marenghi. "I chopped off the last three letters so as not to upset my father too much."

"I am what we call an MBM," says Elizabeth Maren's, Jerry's wife of 26 years. MBM stands for Munchkin By Marriage. Maren, a member of the Hollywood chapter of Little People of America (LPA) saw a picture of Elizabeth, asked for her address, wrote her a letter, then waited by the mailbox everyday for an answer. "Although she was in Jacksonville and I lived in the Hollywood Hills" he says, "we had a romance by mail for months. I married her and am the luckiest man in the world for it." By: Dee Dunheim

MUNCHKIN MARGARET PELLEGRINI - " FLOWER POT LADY"



By: Dee Dunheim

When asked if she has children, Margaret Pellegrini says "I have two-four-six." That means two children, four grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

Pellegrini held two roles in the 1939 Wizard of Oz classic. "I was one of the Sleepy Heads in the bird's nest, and also one of the gals who wore a flower pot hat. They put me right in the front row!" Ever since then, the flower pot hat has been her trademark.

When Alabama born and raised Pellegrini was 14 years old, she visited the Tennessee State Fair to help her brother in law pass out potato chip samples. "Some little people came down the walkway and asked if I'd like to join up with their midget show. I said no!" But at the same time the teenager didn't know she was going to be a little person. "I had no idea I was going to stay small, but I guess they saw something in me that made them know before I did. They said that I might change my mind and told me they'd keep in touch."

Soon she got a letter from a Hollywood agent asking if she'd like to be in a motion picture called the Wizard of Oz. "I was so excited. I would get room and board, transportation and $50 a week for six weeks of filming. We decided I could take the job!" Since she was only fifteen and on a to train to Hollywood all by herself they appointed another little person to be her guardian for the trip.

"Judy Garland was a sweet girl - a typical teenager and she loved the munchkins," recalls Pellegrini. "During film breaks, Judy would sit and chat with us on the Yellow Brick Road. We were all so amazed to be working with a star - but she was equally amazed to be working with all of us." Judy was so excited when she got her own personal dressing room on wheels, she opened the door and invited all 124 munchkins to go through. She gave me an 8 x 10 photo of herself and wrote on it "To Margaret from your pal Judy."

Now -in turn - just as Judy Garland autographed a picture for Pellegrini in Hollywood, Margaret Pellegrini does the same in Chesterton , Indiana during autograph sessions at the Wizard of Oz Festival.

After the MGM production, she continued a career including tap, hoola and fan dancing with several performance troupes. Later in Chicago. Pellegrini worked in a nightclub. She met her husband and got married in 1943. Even though she only knew him for six weeks before the wedding, their marriage lasted almost 40 years until he passed away in 1982.

Throughout her life, the beautiful lady of miniature proportions has spent most of her efforts, time and love raising her family, but she is also ever so proud of being a long-time member and having held all the offices within the Fraternal Order of Police Association (FOPA). Now residing near Phoenix, Arizona, Pellegrini recommends that others of small stature join their local chapter of Little People of America (LPA.)

It was in 1987, that Pellegrini found out about Jean Nelson, who conceived and established the Wizard of Oz Festival in Chesterton Indiana. "Now, the Duneland Chamber of Commerce's Festival is the largest and oldest event of its kind. It has become a highlight of my year and I've been a part of it ever since I found out about it. It was the start of my Oz family."

"The Oz story has such meaning," says Pellegrini. "If everyone would use their hearts, their minds and their courage, life would be so much better for all of us... and," she smiles, "there really IS no place like home."
Dee Dunheim

The Wizard of Oz Coroner - Meinhardt Raabe

"As Coroner I must aver,
I thoroughly examined her...
and she's not only merely dead,
but really most sincerely dead."


This image "reprinted by permission, © all rights reserved."

If you watch the 1939 movie classic, The Wizard of Oz with a stop watch, you'll find that one of its most famous one-liners - (the Munchkin Coroner officially confirming the demise of the Wicked Witch of the East) - took a mere 12 seconds to recite.

Yet it remains, 62 years later, the most repeatable, unbeatable death announcement ever recorded.

Meinhardt Raabe - nor its star Judy Garland- had any clue just how successful the film would be; how it would translate into dozens of languages; be watched in theaters, on television and on videotape by millions around the world year after year.

On the day of the MGM audition, Raabe was a shoe-in for the part. "I had done a considerable amount of public speaking which started by winning a declamatory contest in which I had to speak as loudly and forcefully as possible. After that I went on to study phonics, learning to pronounce each syllable clearly. Distinctly." The four foot tall 21 year old boldly walked up six steps and said: "As Coroner I must aver, I thoroughly examined her...and she's not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead." The casting director said: "OK! Meinhardt. It's you! You are the coroner!

"For the past 62 years, you can't believe how many people have asked me what 'I aver' means," laughs Raabe. "It is simply the legal equivalent of 'I swear.'"

Raabe, of German descent was raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm. "My pituitary gland which regulates growth, didn't work adequately, so each year, from the age of five to 20, I grew only 1/4 of an inch. Raabe remained four feet tall until the age of 35. Now at 85, Raabe stands four feet and seven inches tall. He not only survived - but thrived - in a world of taller folks.

The Chicago World's Fair of 1934 included among its attractions - a Midget Village. Raabe worked as a barker, calling out to get the attention of the crowds. "This was the first time in my life," he explains, "that I actually witnessed little people, with friends their own size, falling in love, marrying and raising families." He went on to work the 1935 San Diego Fair, followed by Cleveland's Great Lakes Exposition in 1936, and a host of others.

Then, opportunity of a lifetime knocked when MGM was on on the prowl for little people for the Wizard of Oz. In 1938, Raabe took the challenge - along with a two month leave from his full time job. During two months of a grueling production schedule, Raabe met 124 other little people - who were to be known and loved forever as the Munchkins.

Raabe's continuing education never ceases. Under his belt is a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting, a Masters of Science and Business Administration, along with a recently gained certification through the Florida Extension Service as a Master Gardener.

He's a volunteer teacher of math, German and horticulture and continues to gives motivational speeches. His advice as he lectures to children is "...study as hard as you can. Study every subject available to you."

While travelling during his full time job, Raabe met his wife Marie, at the time who was a cigarette girl in a large Akron, Ohio hotel. "She was all show business," smiles Raabe. "From the ages of 14 to 17 - even before high school, she travelled the vaudeville circuit, performing in a midget troupe." The two began dating. Their time together was interrupted, however, by World War II. Gas rationing made visits to Marie few and far between.

During that time, the young man wasted no time. Raabe earned his pilot's license and became the smallest licensed pilot to fly during World War II. "I served as a Ground Instructor for the Civil Air Patrol and flew every single engine plane that existed at that time."

After five years of long distance courtship, the two tied the knot - a knot which lasted for 50 years. Both continually worked: Marie for a discount chain. Meinhardt for a food corporation for which he did cooking shows, promotions and TV spots. In 1970 Raabe took mandatory retirement from the food company and began teaching German in Philadelphia schools. He was again forced to retire by the mandatory policy of the Board of Education.

In 1986, the Raabes became Floridians, residing at Penney Farms. Tragically, Marie lost her life in a car accident in October of 1997. "I dearly miss Marie," he says, "but I'm surrounded by beautiful friends. This is a wonderful place to live."

His advice to seniors is "...all I can say is you may run out of steam as time as time goes on, but never, never retire to a rocking chair!" #