The “Me Too” age just turned into the “Not Them Too!” era.
Judy Garland was just a teenager when she starred in the iconic film, “The Wizard of Oz.” But a posthumous memoir from her former husband says she was sexually harassed by the little people who played “the munchkins” in the 1939 film.
“They would make Judy’s life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress,” wrote Sid Luft, who married Garland in 1952. “The men were 40 or more years old,” wrote Sid Luft, a former movie produce who penned “Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland.”
“They thought they could get away with anything because they were so small,” he said.
Luft, who helped Garland return to the big screen in the 1950s, died in 2005 at age 89. Garland, daughter of performer Liza Minnelli, passed away in 1969 at just 47. His book will be released in paperback in September.
Garland had also said the munchkins were anything but the innocent little people portrayed in the film, The Wrap reported.
“They were drunks,” she said in a 1967 interview with TV talk show host Jack Paar. “They put them all in one hotel … they got smashed every night, and the police had to pick them up in butterfly nets.”
The star added one of the actors, who was around 40 years old, asked her out on a date.
There have been many rumors about the debauchery of the munchkins. “The U.K.’s Independent reported the allegation may have first started with producer Mervyn LeRoy, who reportedly claimed after the movie wrapped: ‘They had sex orgies in the hotel, and we had to have police on just about every floor,” Fox News reported.
But some of the rumors have been denied by the actors.
“There were a lot of them who liked to go out and have a few drinks, but nothing got out of hand,” Margaret Pellegrini, who played a munchkin when she was 15, told The Independent in 2009. “Everyone was having a good time and enjoying themselves. There was no rowdiness or anything like that, and those stories are very upsetting.”
Jerry Maren, recognized as the last surviving munchkin at 98, has previously slammed the claims.
“That was a lot of bulls***,” he told Entertainment Weekly in 1996. “When were they going to party? Even if they did, there were only two or three that did get drunk, a couple of Irish kids.”
Maren added Garland was “wonderful” to work with.
“We expected her to be a snobby movie star,” he said. “She was more excited at meeting us than we were at meeting her.”
Maren also told People magazine that the actors didn’t make much money for the movie. “How could you get drunk on $50 a week?” he said. “There were a couple of kids from Germany who liked to drink beer. They drank beer morning, noon and night, and got in a little trouble. They wanted to meet the girls, but they were the only ones.”