What is up the this Wizard of Oz suicide? (please read all details before answering)?

Question

Okay, I have been reading these rumors on the internet and people describe this scene in elaborate detail. They say they can clearly see the person climbing on a ladder or a block putting the rope around his/her neck and kicking off then swinging. Now, all the clips that people show of this infamous scene are clips of the characters walking around a curve in the road past a cabin. As they pass the curve you can see something in the trees which, no matter how hard I stretch my imagination, I can not see anything remotely resembling anything but a large bird. Now my question is, is there another scene that people are talking about, or is this just a case of mass hysteria? I think I remember someone (who likely wouldn't outright lie) telling me they saw it and that it was a different scene, not the one that is just a bird.

Oh yeah, and if anyone has a link to a video clip showing this they'll get best answer. (And not the munchkin land scene, I've seen that one)

Most of you are answering the question in regards to the scene I specifically said I already knew about and considered to be just a bird, which is why I asked that you read all the details. As for the scene being edited out, maybe this is what people described. But even that one of you described as a shadowy thing you have to look at closely, not the detailed scene I'd described above. But I don't know anyone with an original copy so I guess I'll never know.

Answer 1

http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/ozsuicid.htm

Ok, did a bit more researching and while I believe the munchkin thing is a myth here is what the other website (listed below) has to say about it and it does include pictures.

The *real hanging scene takes place in Munchkinland!
I have watched this scene over and over trying to convince
myself that the woman is not hanging from somekind of rope
or cable. It seems like the more i watch that errie scene
the more it looks like like she is swaying back and forth
maybe suspended by a rope. maybe even by a rope around the neck.

I don't want to believe that the classic childrens movie
The Wizard of Oz contains a real to life death scene, but the
more i watch it, the more conciveable this idea becomes.

This particular part of the movie contained maybe hundreds
of little people (the Munchkins) who were already complaining
that they were under paid. The idea that MGM could'nt afford to
do a retake. Or maybe the Munchkins refused to come back and
do the reshoot for MGM because of the fact that Toto the dog
got paid more than they did. Maybe it was a secret protest
statement ("If im not worth the pay of a dog - i'd rather die)
that made it past the editors and into the theators and into
millions (uuh- forgot TV) billions of homes over the past
fifty three (53) years.

I can't say for sure if the hanging scene is realy a
hanging munchkin although im now a believer.
But what i can do is tell you where to find the poor
little person swaying back and forth with no expression
on her face. The only movements she makes is back and forth
not exactly side to side like the rest of the actors.
Not even swaying at the hips like a dance but more like a swing.

Look in the horse scene (in munchkinland) when Dorothy first
boards the coach (white wagon). look just over the top of the
drivers hat and a little to the right all the way in the rear
of the set. The person in the very back row. The ONLY person
in the very back row. The one that seems to sway to the others
and then back agan at an angle diffrently than everyone else.

Answer 2

According to everything I've ever read about this, the rumor started around the same time as the Wizard of Oz was promoting it's 50th Anniversary video release in the late 80s. It helped to sell videos, because everyone wanted to find the scene with the hanging munchkin in it. There is no such footage. Quite a few actors that played Munchkins were interviewed by showbiz historian Stephen Cox among others for books etc, and many of the actors still surviving at that time said this never took place. It was believable due to Judy Garlands stories of munchkin mayhem on the set. People should stop being gullible! to even think that 1 frame of a suicide would be left in a film all these years is preposterous, especially a classic family masterpiece like the Wizard of Oz.

No need to look any further....it's simply not true

Answer 3

Wizard Of Oz Suicide Scene

Answer 4

What's the deal? This is the second Wizard of Oz question I've answered today. This movie is about drugs. The girl is playing in a poppy field in the beginning. Poppies produce opium. The whole trip to Oz is a hallucination which is sometimes happy and sometimes scary (just like in reality). I don't know if someone was hanging but I know there is more to this movie than anyone on Yahoo seems to be aware of.

Answer 5

It DOES HAPPEN, and you CAN SEE IT, but only IF you watch one of the ORIGINAL footage scenes- (1980 VHS or older)- the horrible occurrence was later scrubbed out, and a bird put in it's place.

I am really surprised at just HOW WELL the Internet has covered this up..

If you watch the Behind the Scenes of the 75th anniversary, you can see just how they did it! They explain & demonstrate it while discussing the process of removing "dirt" from the original film strips.

Anyone who insists that is a BIRD, in the forest, has NOT SEEN ORIGINAL FOOTAGE from the earlier releases. Plain and simple. Look at the comparison photo from the original & the scrubbed version and tell me HOW in any way, they look the same. They don't.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/itohf14wj16vlp1/photo%20may%2031%2C%2012%2009%2045%20am.jpg?dl=0

Answer 6

The
so-called "munchkin suicide" scene occurs at the very end of the Tin Woodsman sequence, as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodsman head down the road on their way to the Emerald City. This sequence begins with Dorothy and the Scarecrow trying to pick fruit from the talking apple trees, encompasses their discovery of the rusted tin man and their encounter with the Wicked Witch of the West (who tries to set the Scarecrow on fire), and ends with the trio heading off to Oz in search of the Wizard. To give the indoor set used in this sequence a more "outdoors" feel, several birds of various sizes were borrowed from the Los Angeles Zoo and allowed to roam the set. (A peacock, for example, can be seen wandering around just outside the Tin Woodsman's shack while Dorothy and the Scarecrow attempt to revive him with oil.) At the very end of this sequence, as the three main characters move down the road and away from the camera, one of the larger birds (often said to be an emu, but more probably a crane) standing at the back of the set moves around and spreads its wings. No munchkin, no hanging -- just a big bird.

The unusual movement in the background of the scene described above was noticed years ago, and it was often attributed to a stagehand's accidentally being caught on the set after the cameras started rolling (or, more spectacularly, a stagehand's falling out of a prop tree into the scene). With the advent of home video, viewing audiences were able to rewind and replay the scene in question, view it in slow-motion, and look at individual frames in the sequence (all on screens smaller and less distinct than those of theaters), and imaginations ran wild. The change in focus of the rumor from a hapless stagehand to a suicidal munchkin (driven to despair over his unrequited love for a female munchkin) seems to have coincided with the heavy promotion and special video re-release of The Wizard of Oz in celebration of its 50th anniversary in 1989: someone made up the story of a diminutive actor who, suffering the pangs of unrequited love for a female "little person," decided to end it all right there on the set, and soon everyone was eager to share this special little film "secret" with others. Since (grossly exaggerated) tales of munchkin lechery and drunken misbehavior on the "Oz" set had been circulating for years (primarily spread by Judy Garland herself in television talk show appearances), the wild suicide story had some seeming background plausibility to it. (Other versions of the rumor combined elements from both explanations, such as the claim that the strange figure was actually a stagehand hanging himself.)

The logistics of this alleged hanging defy all credulity. First of all, the forest scenes in The Wizard of Oz were filmed before the Munchkinland scenes, and thus none of the munchkin actors would have been present. And whether one believes that the figure on the film is a munchkin or a stagehand, it is simply impossible that a human being could have fallen onto a set actively being used for filming, and yet none of the dozens of people present -- actors, directors, cameramen, sound technicians, light operators -- failed to notice or react to the occurrence. (The tragic incident would also had to have been overlooked by all the directors, editors, film cutters, musicians, and others who worked on the film in post-production as well.) That anyone could believe a scene featuring a real suicide would have been left intact in a classic film for over fifty years is simply incredible.

Answer 7

This is coming from a person who has had a brother follow through with suicide. Through much thought and research, I have come to the conclusion that suicide may not be a selfish act after all but we family members might be selfish to think that a troubled soul should go on living so that we will not suffer. Do not get me wrong, I suffer tremendously from the loss of my brother. Guilt abides on a daily basis. But to ask him to live a troubled and painful life so that I won't suffer is selfish. Accept it for what it is. Don't judge the deceased, and try to get on with your life. The last part of my sentence is something I am still working on but I do not refer to my brother as neither selfish nor a coward. Just a soul that said enough is enough!

Answer 8

omg i thought that im the only one that heard about this. well yeah the story was told to me that a man that used to be the director got fired so he was really depressed then commited suicide by hanging himself. then while people were filming the wiz of oz, they didnt see any hanging shadow or anything hanging from the tree til they watched the movie. they said there was nothing there when they were filming. but its in the original old film so if you`re watching a newer version, you wont see anything beause they edited it. but my cousin (not my cousin`s friend`s neighbor`s sister`s whoever) has the original movie & most of my cousins were watching it to see if theres anything. they say there`s a little shadow but you haev to look very carefully, i was too scared to watch it so i flaked out. but now i really wna see it lol.

but maybe im wrong, that`s just what i HEARD.

...spooky.

Answer 9

I have the movie and it is in there but, that is not what was going on. I heard it on a tv show. It's right where they get ready to take off after meeting the Tin Man. Just look in the background closely.

Answer 10

Well the only way you can see that is in original footage. They have re-done the movie to edit that out. So unless you can find the video when the movie was first release or from the late 70s you wont see it.