Karl Slover

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Karl Slover (2nd from left) with Jerry Maren , Clarence Swenson and Margaret Pellegrini at a Wizard of Oz event (1998)

Karl Slover , actually Karl Kosiczky or Karel Košický (born September 21, 1918 in Prakfalva , Austria-Hungary , † November 15, 2011 in Dublin , Georgia ) was an American short actor of Slovak descent.

Life

Karl Slover was the son of a 1.98 m father. Due to hormonal short stature , he was barely 60 cm tall on his 8th birthday. In order to make him bigger, he was treated with fixators on his arms and legs in Hungary . When he was nine years old, his father gave him to a dwarf troop from Berlin . After a few years as a dwarf artist, Karl emigrated to the United States, where he joined another circus troupe. In 1937 he made his first film appearance in Hollywood, followed the next year by the western The Terror of Tiny Town , which was exclusively cast with dwarf actors. A ringmaster in Hawaii brought Slover to the film production The Wizard of Oz (1939), where more than 120 "little people" were sought for the representation of the short Munchkin people. At the time, he was 1.21 m tall and played the roles of four Munchkins in this film : the leader of the trumpeters, a soldier, one of the sleeping children and a singer in the song Follow the Yellow Brick Road . After the film, Karl Slover worked for the "Original World Famous Singers Midget Show", with which he toured the entire United States as a singer and dancer. After the end of 1942 Slover became a member of the "Royal American Carnival" in Tampa . From that time on he carried the surname Slover , the family name of his manager.

In the later years of his life he attended numerous festivities related to the Wizard of Oz . Every year in June Slover stayed at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids (Minnesota) on the occasion of the birthday of the leading actress, who died in 1968. In November 2007 Slover was with the other seven surviving Munchkins, including Meinhardt Raabe and Jerry Maren , in Hollywood , where the Honorary Mayor Johnny Grant unveiled a star for the Munchkins on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

Karl Slover died in Dublin , Georgia , at the age of 93 . He was never married and had no children. At the time of Slover's death, only four other Munchkin actors were still alive.

Filmography

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Floridian: After the rainbow
  2. ↑ Karl "Karchy" Kosiczky at IMDb.com
  3. ↑ YouTube - Karl Slover interviewed by Studio Kaiju, youtube.com
  4. ↑ The Wizard of Oz Munchkin Biographies
  5. ^ Judy Garland Museum
  6. ↑ FOXNews.com - Munchkins Get Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.foxnews.com
  7. ↑ 2008 Macon Film and Video Festival Special Guests ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.maconfilmfestival.com
personal data
SURNAME Slover, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kosiczky, Karl (real name); Košický, Karel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American short actor of Slovak descent
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Prakfalva , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH November 15, 2011
Place of death Dublin , Georgia , United States