Elaine Merk Binder, one of the last surviving actors who played a Munchkin in the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz,” has died, according to her daughter Annette Phillips. She was 94.
Binder auditioned for “The Wizard of Oz” in 1938 and was selected as one of the eight children who would dance and sing as part of the Munchkin ensemble.
“I tried out for the ‘Wizard of Oz’ Munchkins. For me it was scary. It was my first big call for girls from a major studio,” Binder recalled of the experience. “I was relieved when Bud told the dance director, ‘She’s O.K.’ I did not have to perform like the others did. And they selected me as one of the eight who would both dance and sing. We learned later that they had added girls to the Little People because they had the mistaken impression that the Little People were not athletic.”
During the song “Come Out, Come Out,” Binder was staged in the second little house up the steps. Just before they go into “Off to See the Wizard,” Binder can be seen as one of the eight dancers in a pavilion at the rear, wearing a dark green dress and hat. She was just eight years old while filming on the MGM lot.
Binder’s last film was “Nothing Sacred” with Carole Lombard and Frederic March. Although Paramount would later offer her a contract as a teen, she declined and went to study at Occidental College. She graduated in 1951 and later completed her master’s at Cal State Los Angeles in 1953 with degrees in music and education. She went on to study computer science and theology, and worked as a computer consultant for USC and First Interstate Bank.
Binder is survived by her son, George Christy, her daughter, Phillips, and her six grandchildren.