The Three Del Rios

Paul, Inez and Trinidad Rodriguez were a trio of miniature siblings from Spain (they also had twelve normal sized brothers and sisters). Paul, the smallest, was 19″ in adulthood. Carmen, the tallest was 33″. They changed their names to the more euphonious Paul, Delores and Carmen Del Rio and began touring as an act, first in Spain, then in Mexico, and then, starting in 1935, the United States. They played the California Pacific International Exposition (1935), the Great Lakes Exposition (1936), Hamid’s Million Dollar Pier in Atlantic City (1938), several places in Canada (1938-39), and the New York’s World’s Fair (1939). They were also among the little people hired to perform in the motion picture The Wizard of Oz (1939). A fourth Del Rio, Dorothy, joined in 1944 (she may have been Paul’s wife). The sisters each married musicians who were also little people.

For more on performing little people please check out Rose’s Royal Midgets and Other Little People in Vaudeville.