# New development in Wizard of Oz "hanging"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 23, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775 "2011-08-23T14:18:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LaurenIpsum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@LaurenIpsum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LaurenIpsum)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/21 "2011-09-13T12:12:01Z")
I just borrowed a VHS copy of this movie from my library. The cassette itself did not list a date, but the record in the library catalog listed a date of 1983 - but that doesn’t sound quite correct. I was hoping it would be 1986, because that’s supposedly the year that this YouTube person had. But anyway, I checked out that scene on the VHS tape, and it was still a bird, no hanging object in the background. Which is what I had pretty much expected already, based on everyone else’s comments. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/22 "2011-09-24T07:56:28Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > Now, [Ed Woods](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Wood) was known for shooting in one take, and it shows. Ed Wood didn’t care if a tombstone fell, or the background changed from day to night and back to day in one scene. Or if his name changed from “Woods” to “Wood” and back to “Woods” again in a single paragraph? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kozz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5ac83/32.png) [@kozz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kozz)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/23 "2011-09-24T08:27:38Z")
whatever that thing is, it doesn’t even look like a munchkin. It looks like a wicked witch. Probably the until-recently-good witch of the south who went bad when she heard she didn’t get to appear in the movie. If it’s really there, it obviously doesn’t weigh anything either, because it’s clearly hanging sideways. Its center of mass should be under the part of the tree it’s suspended from, instead it’s way out where there’s no tree above it at all. It really looks like some kind of piece of fabric, flapping slowly in the breeze. Maybe something used to cover props that somebody hung there and forgot about. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/24 "2011-09-24T18:16:12Z")
As **legionmonkey** wrote in the comments on the YouTube link in the OP, there’s evidence this was put over the original video: > [@](#): > > some one put this over top the bird,proof is :50 , 1:34,and 2:57. third tree to the left FROM hanging figure,the white tree makes and X with the 3rd black tree,you can see clearly that there is a black thing poking out toward the cabin,this is the wing from the bird that we see stretching at this very same moment on all the other versions. (the first one is at more like 0:52) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/25 "2011-09-24T19:24:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The apparent hanging object makes 5.5 oscillations in 20 seconds, for a period of 3.6 s. Using the pendulum formula T = 2pi\*sqrt(L/g), we find that the length of the pendulum must be 3.3 meters. Yet the apparent attachment point of the object is only slightly above the “head”. So either there’s some higher attachment point we’re not seeing, or that’s not a real physical object. It’s threads like this and especially posts like this that keep me a Doper. ---
**Author:** ![Andyfighter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Andyfighter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andyfighter)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/26 "2012-03-24T17:42:27Z")
It was an edited hoax and I can prove this very clearly. I have made a video on youtube to point out that parts of the bird still appear in it, proving the bird has been edited out. Both of the birds wing tips poke out from behind a tree, the editor has obviously missed them, its best to watch this in full screen [http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAqvkj3HtGY](http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAqvkj3HtGY) It was found on a vhs tape that claimed to be original, but you can clearly see it has been faked, someone made this as a hoax ---
**Author:** ![Andyfighter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Andyfighter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andyfighter)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/27 "2012-03-24T17:50:38Z")
It was an edited hoax and I can prove this very clearly. I have made a video on youtube to point out that parts of the bird still appear in it, proving the bird has been edited out. Both of the birds wing tips poke out from behind a tree, the editor has obviously missed them, its best to watch this in full screen [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAqvkj3HtGY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAqvkj3HtGY) It was found on a vhs tape that claims to be original, but you can clearly see here it was faked ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/28 "2012-03-26T17:29:58Z")
You all are missing what really happened. The munchkin dressed up as a bird before hanging himself. Ps the video is fake ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/29 "2012-03-26T17:51:43Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > The thing that gets me is that the three actors walk right up to the alleged body while singing. You’d think if there was a dead body there, one of them might have at least miss a beat. This ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/30 "2012-03-26T17:54:12Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > This but that’s why he dressed up as a bird so no one would realize it till later. He then had his buddy cut him down and cover the whole thing up… ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/31 "2012-03-26T18:04:15Z")
Also if that is how it looked originally. IN the theatrical release, I find it hard to believe that nobody in all the millions of millions of people who watched the movie saw such an obvious hanging body. ---
**Author:** ![allison\_gonzalez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@allison\_gonzalez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/allison_gonzalez)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/32 "2015-05-26T14:40:03Z")
The body is supposed to be higher up you can see it in the film it is in the secne were the wicked witch comes out in the forest. I have the VHS version and have seen it. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/33 "2015-05-26T15:16:30Z")
Good for you. But it still isn’t there. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/34 "2015-05-27T21:59:59Z")
So someone commits suicide on a studio soundstage filled with people, and none of those people have _ever_ talked about it, not even the lead actors who danced right by the corpse without noticing or caring. MGM covers everything up, threatens everyone into signing confidentiality agreements, and even bribes the LA county medical examiner into silence … but then _they use the take containing the suicide in the film_, despite having at least five or ten other usable takes. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/35 "2015-05-27T22:11:18Z")
Honestly, even if there were something like that in the background, the idea that it was a hanged munchkin would never cross my mind. I’d assume it was some piece of equipment or some prop that broke loose and was hanging by a cable or something like that. The whole legend is ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/36 "2015-05-27T22:34:31Z")
Interesting topic/zombie thread combo. ---
**Author:** ![Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90ced4/32.png) [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waltzes_with_Cacti)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/37 "2015-05-28T01:27:06Z")
Those are fake trees on the set, probably constructed of cardboard or plywood. Some of them look one dimensional. An insubstantial fake tree would topple if someone tried to climb it. If it didn’t fall over, likely the flimsy branch to which the rope was tied would break with the plunging weight of a body, even a small body. Plus I don’t see a step stool or ladder lying kicked over on the ground. Let’s say I’m wrong about the trees and they are as sturdy as a man-o-war’s mainmast, how did the suicidal munchkin get up the tree? Little people often have hip dysplasia and configurations of the thighs and spine that make shinning up a tree improbable. I vote bird. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/38 "2015-05-28T02:29:18Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Interesting topic/zombie thread combo. Yeah, I was going to make some kind of joke about a zombie hanged munchkin but decided against it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/39 "2015-05-28T02:38:13Z")
And I knew about half of the last dozen or so surviving Munchkins. They would have talked about it. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775/40 "2015-05-28T13:11:35Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Yeah, I was going to make some kind of joke about a zombie hanged munchkin but decided against it. Stopped short, eh? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-development-in-wizard-of-oz-hanging/593775.md?page=3)