Wizards of Oz

In the fall of 1938, some 125 midgets, drawn from across the country by the prospect of steady paychecks and a nibble of fame, arrived in Hollywood to perform in The Wizard of Oz. For the next two months, working for wages substantially lower than Toto's, they became what the world has known ever after as Munchkins. Offscreen, rumors of sex orgies and of drunken debaucheries flourished, fueled no doubt by the unprecedented sight of 125 midgets commingling. More memorable, though, is what occurred on-screen: it was magic. This month, in conjunction with the fiftieth birthday of The Wizard of Oz (also being marked by a seventy-week North American tour of a staged version), comes The Munchkins Remember (E. P. Dutton), Stephen Cox's behind-the-scenes, belt-level view of the movie that took midgets out of the sideshow and placed them, however briefly, front and center stage.

JIM RASENBERGER