Post by La Princess on Nov 21, 2007 11:18:41 GMT -5
www.suntimes.com/entertainment/movies/661178,munchkins112107article (copy and paste link)
Munchkins get star on Walk of Fame
November 21, 2007
FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES -- Almost 70 years after ''The Wizard of Oz'' premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, a few of the film's Munchkins made a grand entrance there Tuesday to receive a collective star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Seven of the surviving actors who played the inhabitants of Munchkinland in the 1939 classic attended the ceremony, arriving in a horse-drawn carriage and trailed by a marching band.
A yellow carpet, resembling the film's yellow brick road, led them to the stage. One tap-danced, and another sang.
''We love you; you have touched our hearts,'' former Munchkin Mickey Carroll, 88, told the crowd.
Carroll was joined by former Munchkin colleagues Ruth Duccini, Jerry Maren, Margaret Pellegrini, Karl Slover, Clarence Swensen and Watertown, Wis., native Meinhardt Raabe.
''I'm as proud today as my mother would have been,'' said Joey Luft, the son of Judy Garland. Garland, who played the movie's wide-eyed orphan, Dorothy Gale, died of a drug overdose in 1969.
Carroll was one of more than a hundred adults and children who were recruited for ''Oz'' to play the natives of what author L. Frank Baum called Munchkin Country in his 1900 book ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.''
They only made $125 a week while filming, followed by decades of recognition, Carroll told The Associated Press by phone before the ceremony.
''I'm not a Munchkin, I'm an entertainer,'' Carroll noted. ''But the movie is great because we all grew up with it. ... It never dies.''
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
I'm sure many here are big Wizard of Oz fans. I am. I own dolls, the movie in both formats, photos, script and other items. I'm surprised they didn't get it sooner.
Munchkins get star on Walk of Fame
November 21, 2007
FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES -- Almost 70 years after ''The Wizard of Oz'' premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, a few of the film's Munchkins made a grand entrance there Tuesday to receive a collective star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Seven of the surviving actors who played the inhabitants of Munchkinland in the 1939 classic attended the ceremony, arriving in a horse-drawn carriage and trailed by a marching band.
A yellow carpet, resembling the film's yellow brick road, led them to the stage. One tap-danced, and another sang.
''We love you; you have touched our hearts,'' former Munchkin Mickey Carroll, 88, told the crowd.
Carroll was joined by former Munchkin colleagues Ruth Duccini, Jerry Maren, Margaret Pellegrini, Karl Slover, Clarence Swensen and Watertown, Wis., native Meinhardt Raabe.
''I'm as proud today as my mother would have been,'' said Joey Luft, the son of Judy Garland. Garland, who played the movie's wide-eyed orphan, Dorothy Gale, died of a drug overdose in 1969.
Carroll was one of more than a hundred adults and children who were recruited for ''Oz'' to play the natives of what author L. Frank Baum called Munchkin Country in his 1900 book ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.''
They only made $125 a week while filming, followed by decades of recognition, Carroll told The Associated Press by phone before the ceremony.
''I'm not a Munchkin, I'm an entertainer,'' Carroll noted. ''But the movie is great because we all grew up with it. ... It never dies.''
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
I'm sure many here are big Wizard of Oz fans. I am. I own dolls, the movie in both formats, photos, script and other items. I'm surprised they didn't get it sooner.