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A rumor has circulated for years that one of the munchkins committed suicide during filming of the Wizard of Oz. In fact, the rumor states that the suicide was caught on film and placed in the movie without anyone noticing. If you look closely in the video below, you’ll see a dark shadowy figure moving amongst the trees as Dorothy, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow go skipping down the yellow brick road.
There is no doubt, however, that something is in the film; something that obviously shouldn’t be there. What it is, however, remains to be seen. The likelihood that it was in fact one of the munchkins committing suicide would seem rather doubtful. If someone had committed suicide on the set, the crew may not have been aware of it at the time of the incident, (which is very unlikely) but they would have been alerted to the fact that someone had died on the set. The news would have spread, and a report would have been filed. Since there is no death report of someone dying on the set of the Wizard of Oz, it is highly unlikely that the ‘Wizard of Oz’ hanging scene is true.
There were many birds that were brought onto the Wizard of Oz scene, and over the years it has been decided that most likely, what is seen is a large bird. There are other possibilities, however. There may have been a stagehand walking across the set at that moment, unbeknownst to the producer, director, or cast.
Since MGM studios used approximately 300 large birds from Zoo Park in Los Angeles, California and the birds were flying freely through much of the filming (as they would escape from their cages) the most probable explanation is that the figure in the back is a large bird, and not a munchkin committing suicide by hanging.
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