Judy Garland Routinely Molested by ‘Wizard of Oz’ Munchkins, Ex-Husband Alleges
The Wizard of Oz's Lollipop Kids were hardly innocent, Judy Garland's late ex-husband has alleged in his new posthumous memoir.
Sid Luft, who was married to Garland from 1952 to 1965, says that the actors who played the iconic fantasy film's Munchkins routinely sexually assaulted Garland. In Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland, an excerpt of which has been published to People, he wrote that the actors made Garland's experience on set hell.
"They would make Judy’s life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress...the men were 40 or more years old," Luft alleged. "They thought they could get away with anything because they were so small."
And Garland, herself, previously claimed the same actors were often totally unruly during Oz filming.
“They were little drunks," she said in a 1967 interview with Jack Paar, two years before she died. "They got smashed every night, and they picked them up in butterfly nets.”
Still, Munchkin actress Margaret Pellegrini claimed in a 2009 interview with The Independent that such claims were overstated, and that the actors were professionals.
"There were a lot of them who liked to go out and have a few drinks, but nothing got out of hand," she said. "Everyone was having a good time and enjoying themselves. There was no rowdiness or anything like that, and those stories are very upsetting.”
Celebrities Who Were Born With Famous Parents: