MGM proclaimed at the time of filming,
that they had rented 300 birds
from ZOO PARK, in Los Angeles,
so that the director could select an appropriate
few for the background atmosphere amidst
the trees.
Among the birds were:
golden pheasants, a South American toucan,
an African crane and
a Saurus crane.
A few of these birds managed to escape and
appeared in various shots throughout the filming of
THE WIZARD OF OZ.
One of these incidents occurred on the set of
the Tin Woodsman (with the cottage),
that is so highly discussed even today - and is known as
THE HANGING/SUICIDE !!
The explanation given is that it was one of the
larger birds on that particular set that creates the
illusion of a person hanging!
| Below I have circled in yellow the bird that gives the illusion of a hanging person. Now watch the video clip below, and you decide. |
Click here to watch the video clip of the rumored "hanging" scene
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It's funny I still get e-mails all the time with people saying " I know who that munchkin was", or "I am related to the munchkin that hung himself/herself". It even has gone as far as people giving me names of the "dead" munchkin which are usually made up names. No one ever sends the same name. People have also told me it isn't on the DVD, that it is on the first VHS release, or on the Video Disc release, well I own all of those (check the References page) . I have carefully reviewed and watched those hundreds of times and there isn't any hanging. There also isn't someone going on stage or Margret Hamilton hanging around in the background either. Also a good portion of the trees in the background are painted on a backdrop, the entire movie (except the clouds in the credits) was filmed in doors. The trees in front of the backdrop are fake and very weak, they cannot hold the weight of someone trying to hang themself from the limbs. Also there is no conspiracy, and a race of aliens didn't come and replace the hanging with a bird on all the DVDs and VHS copies in existance. It was just never there. And finally click on the photo below, see all those people? They would have seen someone in the background trying to hang themselves.
Click to enlarge
<< Go back to hanging main page | Goto hanging scene #2 >>
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