Sig Frohlich - Alav HaShalom

This is one of several obituaries written about my great Uncle Sig. He was my grandfather's brother and a beloved man.

The article leaves out many movies and shows that he appeared in. He appears briefly but prominently in Airplane! and gave my brother a jacket from the set before the movie was released. He was in The Sting, and on the Twilight Zone and more. A few years ago the assistant directors mentioned in this piece made him a birthday party and a video of it was sent around to family members and you could see that these guys really admired my Uncle Sig.

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Publication:The New York Sun; Date:Oct 12, 2005; Section:National; Page:4

Sig Frohlich, 95, a Winged Monkey in "Wizard of Oz"
By STEPHEN MILLER Staff Reporter of the Sun

Sig Frohlich, who died September 30 at 95, cast an indelible shadow as a winged monkey in "The Wizard of Oz," the one who actually snares Dorothy's little dog, Toto, and delivers him to the Wicked Witch of the West.

Frohlich was apparently the last survivor among the movie's monkeys, who numbered about a dozen but were made to seem like a miasmal flock through trick photography and models.

Frohlich had a long, if fairly anonymous, career in Hollywood, appearing in dozens of non-speaking film and television roles and frequently working behind cameras as a director's assistant. For several decades, beginning in 1939, he served as Mickey Rooney's stunt double. Later, after Mr. Rooney "had grown a lot in the middle," as Frohlich put it, he continued to work as the actor's stand-in.

Soon after he was born in 1910 in Galicia, Frohlich's father moved to New York. Ten years later, Frohlich, with his mother and two brothers, came to America to rejoin his father, who had opened a dry-goods store on the Lower East Side. The family lived on Orchard and Ludlow streets, and Frohlich was raised as an Orthodox Jew.

After attending Seward Park High School, Frohlich worked on the New York Stock Exchange while living at home. In late 1934, after quarreling with his parents, he moved to Hollywood to try his luck in the movies.

Handsome, if a bit short for featured roles at 5 feet 5 inches, Frohlich answered cattle calls and soon found work as an extra. In 1935, he appeared in "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Mutiny on the Bounty." He garnered his first screen credit the next year in "Riffraff," starring Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy. Then, in "The Devil Is a Sissy" (1936), Frohlich was hired as stand-in for the star, Jackie Cooper. When the stand-in for Mickey Rooney, who appeared in both films, quit, Mr. Rooney asked Frohlich to work as his stand-in too.

He appeared in a number of Mr. Rooney's films, including "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1939), "Killer McCoy" (1947), "The Atomic Kid" (1954), and "Andy Hardy Comes Home" (1958). In 1981, while working as a stand-in for Mr. Rooney on the TV film "Leave 'Em Laughing," Frohlich described his work as "double and stuntman for fast car chases, collisions, falling off horses, you name it."

During the shooting of "The Wizard of Oz," Frohlich wore a monkey suit with battery-powered wings while dangling from a cable to swoop down on the screaming Dorothy (Judy Garland). He was paid $30 per swoop, a full $5 more than other swooping monkeys, on account of his membership in the Screen Extras Guild. Those who knew him later in life say that Frohlich is easily recognizable among the monkeys because of his unique gait.

Frohlich later recalled how he and the others were trussed up like "Thanksgiving Day turkeys" with special belts and hardware for flying.The steel tracks in the reinforced rafters on the MGM Sound Stage 29 are still on display, a haunting reminder of the winged monkey menace.

Frohlich enlisted in the Army Air Force during World War II and served as a gunner in a B-24 during bombing runs in Europe.

After the war, Frohlich returned to Hollywood and resumed his relationship with Mr. Rooney. The difficult Mr. Rooney disliked being on set, but Frohlich,who enjoyed being among film crews, hung around and proved every bit as popular with them as Mr. Rooney was unpopular. Frohlich only appeared on film when he was shot from behind, after Mr. Rooney had hurt his back.

He also managed to appear in small roles on his own, for instance as a callboy in "Easter Parade" (1948), a photographer in "Right Cross" (1950), an air traffic controller in "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World!" (1963), and an adman in "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini" (1965). He occasionally even supplied his own car, a blue Mustang that appeared in many films and television shows. In later years, he became a favorite among a group of assistant directors who used him on farflung location shoots for his expertise as an extras wrangler and general fixer. His business card read, "Have tux, will travel."

Content to go out on top, his last role was one of his biggest, as Debbie Reynolds' business partner in "Jo Jo Dancer,Your Life Is Calling" (1986).

Sig Frohlich

Born January 8, 1910, in Kozova, Galicia (present-day Ukraine); died September 30 of pneumonia at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Los Angeles. Survived by his sister, Ethel. He never married.

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