7. A Munchkin Committed Suicide While Filming The Wizard Of Oz
This one is something of a Hollywood legend. Interestingly, it's a hoax that was spawned through technical limitation, showing just how far the human mind is willing to go in order to coherently interpret miscellaneous shapes and patterns. First released in November 1939, The Wizard Of Oz was directed by Victor Fleming and stars Judy Garland as Dorothy. In the film, Dorothy is swept away by a massive tornado to the magical land of Oz, where she meets a host of fascinating characters. In one particular scene, Dorothy, Scarecrow and the Tin Man are skipping along the Yellow Brick Road, singing about going to see the Wizard of Oz. In the background, a black shape can be seen swinging from side to side. Admittedly, the shape looks an awful lot like a small body, and it also appears to be attached to one of the many trees in the background. Though this went largely unnoticed when the film was first released in cinemas, the release of the film on home video allowed people to pause, rewind and analyse the footage, and it wasn't long before an urban legend was being spread: that the mysterious black shape was in fact a distraught Munchkin actor who had decided to commit suicide on-set. For a long time, the lie was genuinely believed by many film fans. Its popularity was likely boosted by the fact The Wizard Of Oz is such a light-hearted, family friendly movie, lending a curious darkness to the idea. In the end, though, it was debunked upon the release of the DVD version of the film, which showed the scene in much higher quality. Gone was the black smudge, replaced by a large bird, bowing its head and walking around. Nevertheless, the shape in the old footage and the shape in the new seem curiously different...