Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Munchkin coroner in "The Wizard of Oz" as well as proclaimed in the film which the Wicked Witch of the East was "really many unequivocally dead," has died. He was 94.
His caregiver, Cindy Bosnyak, conspicuous Raabe — conspicuous RAH'-bee — died Friday morning during the sanatorium in Orange Park, Fla. He was the single of the few flourishing Munchkins from the 1939 film.
Bosnyak conspicuous he complained of the bruise twist grip during his early retirement village before collapsing as well as starting into cardiac arrest. He was taken to Orange Park Medical Center, where he later died, she said.
"He had the headful of hair during 94 as well as he ... remembered all everyday," she said. "To me he was the walking story book, very alert."
Raabe was the single of the 124 Munchkins in the film classical as well as the single of only nine who had speaking parts. He was 22 years aged as well as the show commercial operation veteran, earning money for college as the "midget" performer, as they were called then, when the film was shot in 1938.
Raabe portrayed the petite Munchkin central who solemnly pronounces the magician passed after Dorothy's farmhouse lands upon her: "As coroner we contingency aver, we thoroughly carefully thought about her, And she's not only merely dead, she's unequivocally many unequivocally dead."
His dress included the huge shawl with the rolled brim, as well as painted yak hair was used for his handlebar mustache as well as prolonged beard.
In the 1988 Associated Press interview, he conspicuous he had no thought the film would turn the classic, since during the time of its release, it was overshadowed by "Gone With the Wind."
"It was only after CBS g! ot the f ilm in 1956 as well as used it for their promotions which it became as well known," he said.
"There is nothing in the design which dates it," he said. "There have been no aged vintage cars or aged vintage streetcars. ... It's the anticipation design which will be anticipation for generations to come."
Raabe was about 3 1/2 feet tall when the film was made. He in the future grew to about 4 1/2 feet. He toured the nation for thirty years in the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, promoting hot dogs as "Little Oscar, the World's Smallest Chef."
He additionally enjoyed starting to Oz nostalgia events as well as removing fan mail.
"It's an ego trip," he said. "This is the reward, the nostalgia."
In 2005, his book "Memories of the Munchkin: An Illustrated Walk Down the Yellow Brick Road," co-written by Daniel Kinske, was published. In later years, he lived in the early retirement village in Penney Farms, Fla.
In 2007, Raabe was the single of seven flourishing Munchkins upon hand when the Munchkins were respected in Los Angeles with the star upon the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Raabe conspicuous he couldn't remember what he was paid for his role in the movie, though which it was very low.
"By today's standards, people would say we were crazy to work for that," he said.
Raabe, born in Watertown, Wis., in 1915, was the member of the Midget City expel during the Chicago World's Fair in 1934. He additionally performed during other fairs, together with the San Diego Exposition in 1935.
"By working during these world's fairs as the midget, we was able to work my way through the university," Raabe said. He warranted the bachelor's grade in accounting from the University of Wisconsin and, years later, the master's grade in commercial operation administra! tion from Drexel University. Raabe married Marie Hartline, who worked for the vaudeville uncover called Rose's Royal Midget Troupe, in 1946. She died in the car pile-up in 1997. Raabe conspicuous some small people resented the word "midget," though which was the description at large used when he was in show business. "My mother as well as we were both in uncover business, were both midgets. My mother worked from 1929 to 1932 as the member of Rose's Royal Midgets, the largest small person troupe in vaudeville," he said. Raabe became the regular visitor to the annual OzFest in Chittenango, N.Y., the hearth of "Oz" author L. Frank Baum, after celebration of the mass about it in the repository in the late 1980s. "Meinhardt wrote us the letter as well as said, `You know I'm the Munchkin. we was in this movie. Would we ever be interested in having me come.' Of course, after we stopped screaming ...," organizer Barbara Evans conspicuous in 1998. "Things didn't begin to get unequivocally big until Meinhardt first came as well as we started removing the Munchkins to come," conspicuous Evans. ____ Associated Press bard Daniel Yee in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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