Meinhardt Raabe Dead at 94; Actor Played the Coroner Munchkin in the WIZARD of OZ
Meinhardt Raabe, born September 2, 1915, in Wisconsin, was one of only nine munchkins with speaking parts out of the 124 little people chosen to play in film The Wizard of Oz. At 22 years old, he was only around 3 1/2 feet tall, and would eventually only reach about 4 1/2 feet in total height. At the time of his portrayal, Raabe had already toured with the Midget City cast at the Chicago's World Fair in 1934. A seasoned show vaudevillian, he was taking various jobs like these to support his college tuition. He would eventually earn a Bachelors degree in Accounting and a year later his Masters in Business Administration. Later, he would tour as "Little Oscar the Worlds Smallest Chef" in the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile for over 30 years.
Meinhardt Raabe was always very proud of his work in The Wizard of Oz, attending various Oz events around the country. He still enjoyed receiving fan mail, and told the Associated Press in 1988 that he did not realize that The Wizard of Oz would become the classic film it has, due to the fact that another major movie made the same year overtook the Oscars in 1940: Gone With the Wind. Raabe also still took great pleasure in reciting his complete dialogue as the Coroner when he declares to Dorothy the witch's permanent condition, delighting crowds young and old:
"As a coroner I must aver, I thoroughly examined her. And she's not only merely dead; she's really most sincerely dead"
He wrote a book in 2005 documenting his experiences as a munchkin, entitled, "Memories of a Munchkin: An Illustrated Walk Down the Yellow Brick Road" along with co-author Daniel Kinske. Raabe's wife Marie, whom he married in 1946, was also a midget vaudevillian who died in a car accident in 1997.
Published by Lisa Stanley
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