The last surviving midget cast to play a munchkin in “The Wizard Of Oz,” has been accused of sexual misconduct.
98-year-old Jerry Maren played a munchkin in the lollipop gang but according to Judy Garland’s husband, he’s not all that innocent. Garland was 16 years old when she filmed “The Wizard Of Oz,” in 1939. And her now-deceased husband, wrote in his book to be published posthumously, “Judy And I: My Life With Judy Garland,” that the young Garland experienced sexual harassment while filming.
“They’d make Judy’s life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress,” he writes in the book, due out September. “The men were 40 or more years old. They thought they could get away with anything because they were so small.”
Jerry Maren, who’s the last surviving munchkin from the original cast, would be the only person able to confirm or dispute the claims. But he’s apparently in pretty bad health, so Mark Povinelli, the president of Little People Of America, refuted the claim.
“I contacted a friend close to Jerry Maren. Unfortunately, due to Jerry’s health, he hasn’t been in a condition to give an interview for a while now,” Povinelli told a reporter for ABC.Net.AU. “He has refuted these accusations in the past and I am sure he’d do the same now if he were able to. I appreciate your sincerity in trying to give a voice to the actors being referenced in the book but I was told that Jerry would rather not bring any more attention to it.”
Judy Garland has previously claimed the munchkins exhibited some questionable behavior.
“They were drunks,” Garland stated back in 1967. “They put them all in one hotel … they got smashed every night, and the police had to pick them up in butterfly nets.”
Maren disputed this claim in 1996 and expressed admiration for Garland, calling her “wonderful.” but it definitely doesn’t help the case as a whole. There are no clear cut answers in this case, and it certainly proves that nobody’s immune in the era of #MeToo. Even a seemingly innocent, almost 100 year-old munchkin.
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