After our visit with Olive Brasno in Lakeland, Lisa and I then traveled about 35 miles west to the Florida city of Tampa. Here we hooked up with yet another midget actor who had once worked at the Hal Roach Studios. Before I describe the visit itself, I’d like to point out once again the providence that was occurring whereby I was able to visit with not one, but two celebrities from the Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy films (and both midget stars to boot), and they were both perfect aligned on our path from Disney World to Clearwater. Our final destination would be about another 25 miles due west.
My new friend from Burbank, Steve Cox, had put me in contact with Karl Slover (who during his performing days was know as Karl Kosiczky) and he agreed to meet with me on this particular day, Wednesday, August 2, 1995. Karl was living with an elderly couple who had taken him in quite a while back. Lisa and I never got a chance to meet his boarders. He met us outside and we sat in the Florida sunroom for about 90 minutes and chatted.
Lisa always hated how huge she looked next to Karl
In his late 70’s, Karl was full of energy and full of stories. He related tales to us of his days as a carnival barker and how he was nearly robbed carrying the days intake back to the carnival’s owner. With bewildered amusement, we were taken aback by his flagrant – yet non-derogatory – use of the politically incorrect N-word…he said this with no malice, but simply as a term describing a black person, one he undoubtedly was raised hearing during his days in Germany and on the carnival circuit.
And during our short visit, we were able to glean stories from him from both his experience in Laurel and Hardy’s Block-Heads and his more famous appearance as a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. I was able to weave our experience, along with his stories into a rather popular artcile about Karl (appropriately title “Out Please!” – based on his classic line of dialogue in Block-Heads) which was published in Dante’s Info #14. I have reworked this article slightly and posted it to The Wax Apple – so check out that link if you’d like to learn more about Karl.
Karl as the first trumpeter in The Wizard of Oz
Overall, the most memorable aspect of our visit was when Karl was signing the twenty photos that I brought along. These were supplied by Steve Cox, so the deal was that I would get them all signed and then we would split them. Karl took what felt like eons to sign each photo, relating a story after each one, and bursting into a high-pitched, almost-maniacal laughter each time he added the inscription “Out Please” on every photo.
Karl as he appeared in Block-Heads
Two years later, I would run into Karl – as well as Olive Brasno – once again at a Wizard of Oz festival in Chesterton, Indiana. As for the 1995 visit, it was extremely enjoyable to have an intimate audience with Karl. We bid him farewell, thanked him for his hospitality, and then headed toward Clearwater to resume our vacation…
Click here to go to Clearwater…
Leave a Reply