By DEE DUNHEIM

When Donna Stewart-Hardway was a mere six years old, she spent eight weeks of her career playing a tiny Munchkin in MGM’s classic 1939 extravaganza, “The Wizard of OZ.”

Donna Hardway (at the time Donna Jean Johnson) was the youngest Munchkin on the Hollywood set. When talent scouts couldn’t find enough adults of small stature, she was selected - with another eleven children - to complete the colorful and lively population of Munchkinland.

The 124 Little People who were munchkins had already grown to their full heights. Some had, and would continue to, perform in vaudeville acts, others in midget circus performances, while still others had a wide variety of professional full time careers.

But all of them were much older than Donna. And, like most children growing up in the 1930s, she was expected to be seen and not heard.

“At the time of filming, children Munchkins and adult Munchkins were all the same size,” explains Donna, “but nothing else matched. The Little People could smoke. They could drink. They could use adult language. It was kind of confusing,” she admits.

Child Munchkin roles in the movie were not as prominent as those of the true Little People. For even though Donna had been prepared to - she was not allowed to - sing, dance or speak as were the 124 adults because of restrictions between the Little People’s contractual agent and MGM. “We were the ones who stood behind bushes and held up trees. We were also hidden in the little houses on the set,” she laughs. “So, as you watch the movie, sometimes you can see our little hands waving, or our heads popping out of windows.”

She credits her mother with “pushing her into show business.” After winning the Best Baby Contest in Los Angeles, her mother insisted she be enlisted into Meglin Kiddies, a popular workshop for aspiring performers. The pressure was on. “My mother, perhaps one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen,” she explains, “was a look-alike for Jean Harlow, but with more refined features. She aspired to have a glitzy Hollywood career that never came to be. So I became her ticket into the studios. She was always trying to cook up a deal.”

By the fragile age of three, her mother had already seen to it that she’d learned to swim, horseback ride, do acrobatics and model. While the youngster was performing dramatic parts in plays and mastering dance routines, the Shirley Temple look-alike also sang song lyrics and recited poetry to sharpen her memorization techniques.

Even though she hated every minute of it, Hardway even played in several early episodes of “Our Gang.”

“Most of the kids in that gang weren’t very nice to me. I played the part of a little rich girl. Robert Blake used to knock me down on purpose,” she says, and Alfalfa was no better.”

OZ remains the highlight of her career and Donna remains ever grateful to - and friends with - many author experts on the subject of all that is OZ. “And Jean Nelson, founder of the Oz Festival in Chesterton 22 years ago and nick-named Mother of the Munchkins, has kept the magic going.” That’s why the Chesterton Festival is so important to OZ fans and why Hardway will travel from her West Virginia home to congregate with other original MGM munchkins.

By capturing the attention and affection of no less than four generations, “The Wizard of OZ” is probably the best film production ever to come out of Hollywood. “My life has been a lesson in conversion and inspiration,” says the mother of seven children. “It embraces all that OZ has come to mean for those who seek its magic.” The child Munchkin’s dream is that the Wizard of OZ lives on into perpetuity.

The Wizard of Oz Festival and Parade takes place from Friday evening Sept. 19 with the Munchkin Celebrity Indoor Picnic, through Sunday afternoon Sept. 21 with autograph sessions, look-alike contests, 50 food booths, 250 craft booths (many with Oz memorabilia), Judy-Oz Exchange, and other activities and festivities. For information and directions to the 22nd Annual Wizard of Oz Festival and Parade, from Sept. 19 - 21, call the Chesterton/Duneland Chamber of Commerce at 926-5513 and, like Dorothy, you too can be back home again in the Wonderful Land of OZ by clicking the Wizard of Oz button after logging onto www.chestertonchamber.org.

Posted 8/6/2003