Here’s a funny story about my grandparents’ neighbor when I was very young, Andy Ratoucheff.⠀
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I remember Andy quite well, though he died when I was 3, so he must have hung out with grandma and grandma and grandpa a lot.
Grandma told me Andy had played a munchkin in the Wizard of Oz. I’d always look for him in those scenes! I always thought one of the members of the Lollipop Guild (the guy in the blue shirt) looked like it could be young Andy, but idk Andy’s IMDB page only lists his work in H.R. Pufenstuf. It’s possible he was part of the Singer Midgets troupe, which worked on vaudeville and in the Wizard of Oz (uncredited individually).⠀
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So in 2016 while I was in New York I went to see the Diane Arbus exhibition In the Beginning at the Met Breuer, and my mouth dropped when I saw a photo of Andy! “Andy ‘Potato Chips’ Ratoucheff performing his Maurice Chevalier impersonation.” Online I found another photo of Andy by Arbus in his Manhattan rooming house. I have no idea why he’s nicknamed Potato Chips! I wish I knew!
These pictures by Arbus must have been taken near the end of his stage career. As I was once again looking online today to find out whether he was actually in the Wizard of Oz, I rediscovered that he became a Jehovah’s Witness (now that I think about it, after he died I remember my grandma telling me he’d be resurrected, but that goes for non-jws too), and a showbiz career would not have been permitted. Yes, they tell you what kind of jobs you can have. ⠀
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Anyway, the world is so small! And I knew someone who personally knew Diane Arbus! And I saw a picture of him at a museum, and I have these snapshots of him that my grandpa took! Oh, he was also a painter and grandma and grandpa had a seascape that he had painted in their apartment for years. I don’t remember what happened to that.
