Last Surviving Munchkin From “The Wizard Of Oz” Is 97 Years Old

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Maren launched a show business career before Wizard of Oz came calling. Five years prior to casting, he began taking lessons for singing and dancing during school vacations. Soon after, helped by his dance teacher Leo Singer, he developed an act called  Three Steps and a Hop. He toured New England with the stage act, but it didn’t become a huge success. However, later on, he became a member of Singer’s popular vaudeville troupe, called Singer’s Midgets.

Almost all of the Singer vaudevillians were cast in Oz, but because of his ability to sing and dance and most of all his distinctive hop, director Fleming presented young Maren with the privilege of handing the complimentary sweet to Dorothy.

When the movie hit the big screen, Maren was the one who emerged from the crowd in the middle of the trio, danced a little, and sang, “We represent the Lollipop Guild, and we welcome you to Munchkinland,” after which he presented his large lollipop.

It’s a sequence now frozen in the childhood memories of all of us who cherish this dream of a movie.

After his screen debut in The Wizard of Oz, Maren continued to act in movies and television shows on occasion, working as Little Oscar for the Oscar Mayer Company in the 1950s as well as portraying Mayor McCheese and the Hamburglar in McDonald’s commercials. In later years, he had a walk-on role in an episode of Seinfeld named “The Yada Yada.” All in all, he’s had different opportunities in show biz, but none as memorable as his Munchkin role.

Apart from acting, Maren made many personal appearances throughout the country with some of his fellow Munchkin actors, taking part in state fairs and film festivals. On Jan. 16, 2014, after his fellow Munchkin Ruth Duccini passed away, he came to be the last surviving Munchkin.

Related story from us: There was a sequel to the “Wizard of Oz” that was about Dorothy going into a mental hospital because nobody believed her adventure

Today Maren resides in a retirement community in North Hollywood, after decades of living high on a hill in Hollywood with his late wife, Elizabeth.

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