'I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too'



It doesn't pay to be little in Hollywood it seems. Especially not in 1939. According to the few surviving munchkins, Toto (the dog) was paid 125 per week, whereas the munchkins only received 50 per week. To add insult to injury, the cast of the munchkins did not even receive an individual credit on the film, but were simply credited as the Singer Midgets. Toto (I repeat, the DOG) received his own credit of course. It really was a dog eat Munchkin world in the land of Oz. It's enough to make a person end it all.
Except, forget what you've heard, (if you haven't heard, just play along ok?) there was in fact NO munchkin suicide on the set of the film. Especially one that was captured on film and used in the final print. All a big fat celluloid urban legend.

So, how much did you pay for your last pair of shoes? I'll wager it was a little less than 1.5 million dollars. Yes folks, out of the seven pairs of ruby slippers used in the movie, the whereabouts of five have been accounted for and valued at around a million and a half dollars. Also, did you know that in L. Frank Baum's book, the slippers weren't red at all? They were silver. However, since the movie was going to be in Technicolor, the producers thought it best to jazz up the slippers to a brighter colour. Hence, the ruby reds.

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