WW II Member Passes On - Meinhardt Raabe, Actor in Wizard of Oz

[TeamBronx]

The NY Times this morning reported that Meinhardt Raabe passed away at age 94.  He was a WW II member of the Civil Air Patrol.  He played the part of the munchkin coroner in the Wizard of Oz movie. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/movies/10raabe.html?ref=obituaries

RIP

[fyrfitrmedic]

Meinhardt Raabe, coroner in "The Wizard of Oz" and WWII CAP pilot, passed away at the age of 94:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/movies/10raabe.html

[Johnny Yuma]

He had made a number of appearances at the OZ museum in Wamego and was made an official Coroner by the state of Kansas. He'll be missed by many Kansans.

RIP.

[Major Lord]

And he's not only merely dead, he's really most sincerely dead?

Major Lord

[fyrfitrmedic]

 Mr. Raabe was a resident of the Philly area in the 70s.

I was in first grade and had a small (literally) role in my grade school's production of "The Wizard of Oz." Mr. Raabe got wind of the school play and stopped by and visited with us backstage - very nice man from what I can remember.

[tdepp]

Mr. Raabe was an example of don't judge the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog.  What an extraordinary life and person.  We should be proud he was one of "ours."

[wingnut55]

In the early Days of CAP,  Cap Sergeant Raabe was an instructor to US Army aviators, I remember seeing a photo of him teaching a class. He was a Giant amongst men in CAP. What courage and patriotism.

[Major Carrales]

We are lessened by this loss...let us double our local efforts in honor of this "Giant among men."

[dogboy]

A skilled aviator, Meinhardt Raabe served stateside in the
> Civil Air Patrol in World War II, by all accounts the smallest pilot in
> uniform.

Meinhardt Raabe, who has died aged 94, played the Munchkin coroner in the film The Wizard of Oz (1939) and solemnly announced that the Wicked Witch of the East was "not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead".

>
> As coroner, I must aver
> I thoroughly examined her.
> And she's not only merely dead,
> She's really most sincerely dead.
>
Raabe was 22 and only 3ft 6in tall when the film was made, eventually growing to 4ft 6in. He could not remember what he was paid for his role but "by today's standards, people would say you were crazy to work for that."

As with the other surviving Munchkins, Raabe's few minutes of fame lasted more than 70 years. He regularly attended Wizard of Oz conventions dressed in a replica of his original bright blue coroner's outfit, complete with oversized hat and scroll containing the Wicked Witch of the East's death certificate.

Meinhardt Raabe was born on September 2 1915, the son of German-American immigrants, and brought up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. His parents were of normal height, as was his sister, and were convinced that the boy would start growing too, until doctors discovered that he was, in clinical terms, a pituitary midget. He excelled at school, graduating near the top of his class.

From 1934 he performed in various midget fairs and conventions, played in midget bands, and lured crowds to sideshows as a barker. But in 1937, after graduating with a degree in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Raabe found landing a professional job difficult. "Interviewers would shout and say I belonged in a freak show," he said in 2009.

Things changed when Raabe was interviewed with the Oscar Mayer sausage firm, and he became the company's official spokesman.

A year later, Raabe heard that MGM were about to cast a number of little people in a new film starring Judy Garland. He asked for time off to audition, and was eventually given two months' leave.

Raabe joined 124 other little people trying out at MGM's sound stage in California, and all received roles. His speaking part during the musical number Ding Dong, the Witch Is Dead required him to utter a mere 20 words: "As coroner I must aver, I thoroughly examined her, and she's not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead."

Raabe returned to Oscar Mayer a celebrity. Now billed as "Little Oscar, the World's Smallest Chef", he travelled America as the company's pocket ambassador in a chauffeur-driven frankfurter known as the Wienermobile.

During the Second World War, Raabe trained as a pilot, but was too small to join the Air Corps. He served as a ground instructor for the Civil Air Patrol, teaching combat pilots meteorology and navigation. Even though his size prevented him from seeing combat, he became the smallest licensed pilot to fly during wartime.

After the war Raabe continued to appear as Little Oscar in cookery shows and promotional tours. After retiring from Mayer in 1970, and as the popularity of the Wizard of Oz film grew, he started travelling to Oz festivals throughout America. "Once the picture came out we were Munchkins," he told The Daily Telegraph in 1994. "It was like being given a knighthood."

In 2007 Raabe appeared with six other surviving Munchkin actors at the unveiling of a star for The Wizard of Oz Munchkins on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He made his last public appearance in October 2009 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the making of the film.

Meinhardt Raabe, who died on April 9, married, in 1946, Margaret Marie Hartline, of Rose's Royal Midget Troupe. She was killed in a car crash in 1998. They had no children.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/film-obituaries/7583020/Meinhardt-Raabe.html

[MIKE]

Merged.