I first heard of the "hanged man" in TWoOz about four years ago at the birthday party of one of my younger nephew's. A bunch of the kids were watching The Wizard of Oz and my sister-in-law asked me if I'd ever seen the part where the man hangs himself. Well, to say the least she had piqued my interest, so when the scene was coming up, she described to me where to look on the video screen. Sure enough, just like she said there was a man in the background attempting to hang himself. I was totally weirded out! I just had to see that one again! She rewound it and played it back and I saw it again! Then the kids started to get annoyed and wanted to watch the rest of the movie so that ended my viewing time. I never really thought about it again until I read about the sync using TWoOz and DSOTM on the Internet, and begun the work on my DSOTR website.
I bought my own copy of the movie and was viewing it for about the seventh or eighth time, all the while never once remembering about the "hanged man", as I was just too busy trying to find syncs and list them. Then, while viewing that particular section again, I noticed this large bird ... an African Crowned Crane in fact ... wandering about and picking at stuff on the ground, in front of the little shack, behind the Tin-man and the Scarecrow, in various shots. At one point when Dorothy, Scarecrow and Tin-man are in the fore and the bird is directly behind them, after some sudden movement by the Tin-man, the Crane begins flapping its wings. Scenes switch back and forth and evidently the bird moves across the Yellow Brick Road, as he is now seen in front of the other little shack, on top of which the Wicked Witch of the West appears. Then later, as the trio (and Toto too) were skipping off to see the Wizard my eyes caught a glimpse of something in the distance. Oh, it's that Crowned Crane again and it's spreading its wings ... ummmmmm ... hey ... wait a minute ... wasn't that supposed to be a guy hanging himself? I stopped my sync searching for the time being and rewound the tape to the portion in question, and took another look ... and another. Yep, no doubt about it, it was the big bird alright and not a man hanging himself at all! Evidently I and the rest of the folks at that party several years ago had become susceptible to suggestion ... sort of a mass hypnotism if you will. Don't believe me? Then now that you have heard the truth, go back and look at that scene where you thought you saw a man hang himself, and you will see what it really is!
Now here's the kicker -- I actually did show this to another (older) nephew of mine. Both he and his wife had previously witnessed the "hanged man" scene on separate occasions. When I told them about my discovery they were a bit suspicious of my claims but they looked anyway, of course. His wife saw it right away and was rather astonished that she was capable of seeing something that wasn't really there. He, on the other hand, seems to still want to see the hanged man, and as a result, his mind tells him that that is what he is seeing. When all along it just isn't.
About a year ago I received a letter from a fellow telling me that indeed there is a large bird in the background, but that the hanged man is to the left of the bird, just to the right of the shack. Being the first to admit that it's possible to be in error, I checked out the claim. To the immediate right of the shack, there is an area that is not that clear -- and there indeed appears to be some sort of movement going on there. Over the past several months on occasion, due to other letters I've received concerning the area in question, I've viewed and thought and reviewed and rethought about it. Then I got a letter from another fellow syncer who calls himself Rus who mentioned that he thinks there may be another bird on the set. I'd actually put his letter in a holding pattern until I could give him an acceptable response. Thanks to my reviewing his letter and noticing the bit about another bird, I believe the mystery is solved. If you will notice just to the right of the shack, just before the crane to the right starts to open his wings, there is movement very similar to his. It appears that, just as the Crane that became excited from the movements of the Tin-man in the earlier shots, and the one that is in plain view becomes excited from the movement of the three of them skipping along and flinging their hands in the air, that there is another bird flapping its wings just to the right of the shack. Take a few looks and make your own choice, but rest assured, there is no hanged man.
For more information, see this article on the Urban Legend concerning the "hanged man". It even has a tiny clip of the film, though I suggest using your television and a good copy of the video.
