Today's Vintage Oz Comic

I'm pretty sure I can nail this edition of Nest Heads down to 2009. How can I do that? Because that's when Clarence Swensen, who was a Munchkin soldier in The Movie, passed away.

Oz in Jeopardy!

The next two games with Oz clues have one thing in common: Both rounds featured another category where one would expect (or at least hope) an Oz clue to be, but Oz shows up somewhere else instead. For example, in the Jeopardy! round of the May 30 game, one category was Female Book Characters. If there was any category built for Oz, that's it. But no, it was in Hotel California that we get this clue, for $400:

Erin, the defending champion, rang in first and correctly replied, "Who is Nixon?" Considering the ties between Baum and the Del, that's a good reason to put this clue on this blog, right?

Okay, no, not really. But since the very next clue was also Ozzy, it was no problem throwing that in before looking at this one for $600:

Yes, this may be perpetuating some untrue, or at least exaggerated, stories, but Bryna, the challenger in the middle, at least gave the correct response of, "Who are the Munchkins?" It was Erin, however, who went on to handily win the game.

A couple of weeks later, on the June 16 game, one category was If You Watch the Movie Backwards… which might have been a lot of fun if The Wizard of Oz had been one of them. But it was in Book 'Em where this clue was uncovered for $200:

Jim, the challenger in the middle, rang in first and replied, "What is The Wizard of Oz?" However, he came in a distant third at the end of the match.

We're almost done with all these Jeopardy! clues! One more blog entry should wrap things up.

The Wizard of St. Louis Deserves Better

Mickey Carroll played the Town Crier in Munchkinland in the most famous film version of The Wizard of Oz. He didn't stick with acting, however, and eventually moved back to St. Louis to work in the family business, which was building and engraving tombstones. From that, he became a wealthy man, and gave much of his wealth to charity, helping many people out and becoming a beloved figure in the St. Louis area. He died in 2009, but his family has been contesting his estate and what's to be done with it. As a result, his space in a mausoleum where he is interred is not marked. Yes, the man who worked in the industry to remember people who have passed on lies in an unmarked space. It sounds like, from reading this account, that his family are not acting terribly well in this matter. (And in case you were wondering about the Facebook page that was mentioned, here it is.) Admittedly, we're only hearing one side of what's going on here, but the fact is, there is a Munchkin, a captain of industry, and a great philanthropist, all rolled into one package, lying in an unmarked space because of family bickering. I don't know what the solution is, and I certainly can't do anything to solve the problem myself. But I did want to at least get the word out about this situation to the world, as it looks like the Oz community doesn't know much about this. If you could spread the word, that might go a long way towards getting this matter settled.

Meinhardt Raabe 1915-2010

I found out last night that we've lost another Munchkin. Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Munchkin Coroner in The Wizard of Oz, passed away in Florida. He was ninety-four, the oldest of the surviving Munchkin actors. Although Oz was the only movie he appeared in, his twelve seconds of screentime, warbling his line ("As Coroner, I must aver, I've thoroughly examined her. And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead.") were memorable. He also made many appearances as Little Oscar, the chef for Oscar Meyer, in the famous Weinermobile. During World War II, he was an instructor and pilot for the Civil Air Patrol. When the Oz community rediscovered him in the 1980s, he embarked on a new career as, essentially, a professional Munchkin, appearing at conventions and events all over the country. His autobiography, Memories of a Munchkin, came out in 2005, and he won the 2008 L. Frank Baum Memorial Award from the International Wizard of Oz Club. He also attended the 2007 ceremony awarding the Munchkins a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Update: One of my favorite bloggers, writer Mark Evanier, got to talk to Meinhardt about being Little Oscar, and another Munchkin, Jerry Maren, gets into the story, too. It's all right here.

President Obama needs to apologize to Munchkins everywhere!

Well, it could happen, I suppose. Take a look at this entry on Mark Evanier's blog for the whole scandalous story.