Slovak Munchkin died at 93 / Slovensky Mlaskal zemrel ve veku 93 let

I have been living in this culture long enough to know that movie The Wizard of Oz to Americans is something like the Czech movie Popelka to Czechs. It is the ultimate classics.

Although I have not warmed up to that movie too much now I know I will be changing my ways. Why? One of the CMD readers sent me a link to the LA Times which had a long article about a 4’4″ dwarf-actor named Karl Slover who recently passed at the age of 93 and his most popular role was acting as one of the munchkins in The Wizzard of Oz.

So far it’s a pretty uneventful story until I tell you that  Karl Slover was born in Slovakia (former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and yes, the LA Times has that information wrong) as Karel Kosicky. He could have lived there his whole life if his evil father didn’t sell him to the circus when he was 9 years old! Well, so he ended up in Hollywood…. Read the rest of the story here (click here).

CZ: Jestlize zijete v USA jiz nejaky ten patek jako ja, asi vite ze ‘Carodej ze zeme Oz’ je americka klasika. Prirovnala bych to asi k nasi Popelce. Nikdy mi ten film nejak k srdci neprirostl, ale nevim, jestli se to brzy nezmeni. Jedna ze ctenarek CMD mi totiz poslala link o jednom z Munchkinu (Mlaskalu?), ktery nedavno zemrel ve veku 93 let.

Nejzajimavejsi na tom clanku ale je, ze Slover byl rozeny Karel Kosicky ze Slovenska (tehdejsi Rakousko-Uhersko; a ano, LA Times to ma spatne)! Jelikoz byl maly Karel liliputan, jeho otec se ho v jeho 9 letech zbavil a prodal ho do cirkusu. No, a mily Karlik skoncil v Hollywoodu! Zbytek jeho osudu si prectete zde.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Slover

http://thejudygarlandexperience.blogspot.com/2011/09/munchkin-turns-93.html