SINGER'S MIDGETS

Singer's Midgets (also known as The Singer Midgets), who were a troupe of little person performers organized by Leo Singer, a Viennese showman, and they performed in circuses and carnivals in Europe in the 1910s, as singers, dancers, wrestlers, and acrobats. In 1921, they appeared in three Hollywood movies, a feature film, "Skirts", and two shorts, "Singer Midgets Side Show" and "The Singer Midgets' Scandal". Apparently these were not that successful, because they returned to Europe, but returned to Hollywood in 1935 for the short film "Wee Men". The group had had 30 members at its peak, but was not down to 18, but then they got a giant break when MGM put "The Wizard of Oz" into production, and they hired Leo Singer and his group to play Munchkins! He was also paid to round up additional actors who were little people, and in all, he gathered together around 130. We have seen a window card advertising this group as "Singer's Midgets", and the latest that poster could be from is the mid 1940s when the group disbanded, and we would think it would likely reference The Wizard of Oz if it was after they appeared in that movie, so we strongly suspect it is from the 1930s. If anyone knows more about this, please e-mail us and we will post it here.