Munchkin Suicide?
I'm a big urban legend freak. Whenever I hear about one I have to hear more. So, the other day I heard about this urban legend: In the Wizard of Oz, in a forest scene, you can see a Munchkin hanging himself. So, fortunately, tbs was playing the Wizard of Oz like nine times a night so I watched it. And I saw it. It's creepy. But is it true?
The evidence against it: The biggest piece of evidence that it probably wasn't an actual Munchkin Suicide is that the forest scenes were filmed before the Munchkin scenes so no Munchkins would be at the MGM Studios.
What it could've also been: Possibly a stagehand falling out of tree, which tickles me because he wouldn't be dead and it's funny that someone falling out of tree wasn't caught by editors, producers, directors, actors, or other stagehands. I like to think that as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the TinMan were dancing out of the forest the guy fell out of the tree and Judy Garland started cracking up.
But more likely it was just a bird - a crane, a stork, or probably an emu. You see, for this scene they borrowed a bunch of birds from the Los Angelos Zoo to give the set a more outdoorsy feel. If you watch closely, which I did dozens of times, you'll realize that it's probably just an emu spreading it's wings.
Expansions on the myth: Some people have said that he hanged himself because he didn't get to be in the Lollipop Guild. But more commonly, it's stated that he hanged himself because of a broken heart... ? People have said that a stagehand hanged himself, not a munchkin. People have said that a stork hanged himself. As you can see, myths often get blown out of proportion.
As interesting as this urban legend is, it's not true.
