Remember That Legend About Someone Killing Themselves On The Set Of The Wizard of Oz?

[LockardTheGOAT]

I'm sure we've all heard that one, right? That one of the munchkins in The Wizard Of Oz actually hung themselves and it was caught on tape? The explanation has always been that it was a crane bird spreading its wings, and if you watch the colorized version, that seems the logical explanation.

However, many are claiming that footage of the old VHS version tells a different story and that the bird may have been edited in in later versions. And if you compare the two, they seem to be right:

Newer Version:


Original VHS Version:


What do you think? There's clearly no bird visible in the original print and that definitely looks like a person (a fully grown one at that, most certainly not a munchkin) that's swinging back and forth from a noose. Even if we assume it isn't a live one, it still has the figure of one and MGM must have edited it over with a bird for some reason, right? It's an interesting find nonetheless.

 

[Horse Style]

That must have been a very long rope and very small stool.

 

[Aegon Spengler]

Murdahhh

 

[SamSchmidt]

If you look closely scarecrow stumbles cuz he sees that shit

 

[Fluffernutter]

What does snopes say?

 

[Medical Marijuana Man]

It was 80 years ago

 

[Tone C]

They probably got fed up waiting for their scene. All that hanging around.

 

[SSgt Dickweed]

Reports say that the Wicked Witch of the West witnessed it first hand.

 

[Deleted member 347815]

How have I never heard of this?

lol if true

 

[Pliny Pete]

So were supposed to believe that no one noticed a dead person hanging 10 feet away from them all day long?
Yea I thinks dumb and unpossible

 

[ToxicShocker]

What does snopes say?

To give the indoor set used in this Oz sequence a more “outdoors” feel, several birds of various sizes were borrowed from the Los Angeles Zoo and allowed to roam the set. (A peacock, for example, can be seen wandering around just outside the Tin Woodsman’s shack while Dorothy and the Scarecrow attempt to revive him with oil.) At the very end of this sequence, as the three main characters move down the road and away from the camera, one of the larger birds (often said to be an emu, but more probably a crane) standing at the back of the set moves around and spreads its wings. No munchkin, no hanging — just a big bird.

The unusual movement in the background of the scene described above was noticed years ago, and it was often attributed to a stagehand’s accidentally being caught on the set after the cameras started rolling (or, more spectacularly, a stagehand’s falling out of a prop tree into the scene). With the advent of home video, viewing audiences were able to rewind and replay the scene in question, view it in slow-motion, and look at individual frames in the sequence (all on screens smaller and less distinct than those of theaters), and imaginations ran wild.​

 

[bowened]

Would be crazy if that dead munchkin’s ghost was the ghost in 3 Men and a Baby.

 

[Happy Man]

So were supposed to believe that no one noticed a dead person hanging 10 feet away from them all day long?
Yea I thinks dumb and unpossible

This story has been gospel for everyone 25 years old And older. Maybe the scene was just where they yelled "action" and the midget hung humself

 

[Happy Man]

What does snopes say?

Oh good lord no, what's is this forum? MSNBC?

 

[LockardTheGOAT]

Would be crazy if that dead munchkin’s ghost was the ghost in 3 Men and a Baby.

That was a cardboard cutout of Ted Danson himself...

 

[Cool Hand Luke]

there is a clear difference in the videos. one resembles a man swinging, presumably hanging from his neck and the other a bird walking around and unfolding its wings.

they must be two different videos or teo different takes because there is no way they had the technology back then to superimpose one or the other.

 

[LockardTheGOAT]

It was 80 years ago

Your point?

 

[blaseblah]

Speaking of the Wizard of Oz, did anyone else not realize that Scarecrow has a gun?

 

[Cool Hand Luke]

or when they released to movie on VHS they realized there was a hanging person in the background and 'fixed' the video and created the cover story of the bird

 

[LockardTheGOAT]

there is a clear difference in the videos. one resembles a man swinging, presumably hanging from his neck and the other a bird walking around and unfolding its wings.

they must be two different videos or teo different takes because there is no way they had the technology back then to superimpose one or the other.

Well, folks are claiming that the remastered version is the one with the bird in it and that came out several years later (in 1998, I believe), so they would have had the technology by then.