“Forgotten Hollywood”- Munchkin Coroner has Died…
Manny P. here…
One of the last surviving Munchkins, Meinhardt Raabe, passed away on Friday. He was one of the little actors who actually had lines in The Wizard Of Oz. As coroner of Munchkinland, he was the character officially declaring the death of The Wicked Witch of the East. He tells Dorothy:
As coroner, I must aver I thoroughly examined her And she’s not only merely dead She’s really, most sincerely dead!
Raabe later gained noteriety as he became a spokesperson for Oscar Meyer, as Little Oscar, World’s Smallest Chef. He traveled the countryside in the first Weinermobile for decades.
Throughout his later life, he attended Wizard Of Oz conventions and celebrations that annually took place all over the country. The Munchkin actors were honored in 2007 with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Seven surviving actors attended the event including Raabe. In 2008, he was honored by the International Wizard of Oz Club with the L. Frank Baum Memorial Award. Raabe also published his autobiography entitled – Memories of a Munchkin: An Illustrated Walk Down the Yellow Brick Road.
Meinhardt Raabe was living in a retirement community in Florida when he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 94.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Sunday, April 11th, 2010 at 5:47 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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