One of the Last Remaining Munchkins from “The Wizard of Oz” Has Died [VIDEO]
Karl Slover, one of the last surviving Munchkins from "The Wizard of Oz", died Tuesday afternoon of cardiopulmonary arrest. He was 93.
Slover played the lead trumpeter in the Munchkin band, and also a townsman and a soldier.
Jonathan Fricke, an expert on the film and its stars, says that when Karl was a young boy in the Czech Republic in the early 1900s, his father tried to use witchcraft to make him grow.
According to Fricke, Karl was buried in the backyard, immersed in heated oil until his skin was covered in blisters and attached to a stretching machine at a hospital.
When none of that worked, Karl was sold to a traveling show at the age of nine. He moved to the U.S. in his 20s, where he got his start in circuses and on Vaudeville.
Here's Karl singing "Off To See The Wizard" at the Wizard of Oz Festival in 2010:
Here's a scene from 'Oz' that features Slover. I'm not sure which one he is though. My guess would be 'the short one':