Book description
If you put four dwarfs in one room with enough opium and alcohol,
it's bound to end in tears...
In 1935 MGM studios embarked on a movie adaptation of L. Frank
Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The production called for
the casting of many dwarfs to play the Munchkins of the mythical Land
of Oz and the studio began recruiting 'small persons' from all over
the world.
During production, rumours spread around Hollywood of wild Munchkin
sex orgies, drunken behavior and general dwarf debauchery. More
sinisterly, a Munchkin is said to have committed suicide by hanging
himself on the set during filming - what appears to be a small human
body is clearly visible hanging from a tree in the Tin Man scene. It
is a claim that has passed into Hollywood legend.
Set in a hotel room in Culver City, California, Babylon
Heights is Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh's scabrous and hilarious
imagining of what could, very possibly, have led to that dwarf
suicide.
Babylon Heights premiered at the Exit Theatre, San Francisco,
in June 2006.
Dean Cavanagh is an award-winning screenwriter adn film and TV
producer. He lives in Bingley, West Yorkshire, with his wife and
children.
Irvine Welsh is the author of eight novels and four books of shorter
fiction. He currently lives in Chicago.
