What a topic for our 2022 calendar. I thought honoring Judy Garland’s centenary with a look at times her life intersected with Oz would be fun. We could celebrate the most well-known Dorothy while highlighting how Oz was more than a six-month shooting schedule for the teenaged actress. Each month could focus on a particular Ozzy incident in her life. I’d work in interactions with other Oz folks…. And sure, include some general information about MGM’s classic film while I was at it.
Little did I know what I was getting myself into.
Once I clicked into “On This Day in Judy Garland’s Life and Career” online and turned to the pages of Judy Garland, the Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Legend I quickly realized this calendar was going to be full, full, full! I could easily spend 6-8 hours just scanning any two-week period to spot fun bits connected to Oz. She might be performing with the Meglin Kiddies or Nipsey Russell, or singing with Ethel Merman. Sales of her Dorothy costumes and Ruby Slippers made headlines, and Over the Rainbow… well, it was everywhere. And a bit overwhelming.
I turned to Scott Hedley for help identifying broad topics for each month. Ranse Ransone answered a question I posted on Facebook and was soon passing me marvelous details. And I greatly appreciated friends who joined me in late-night chats, because getting this calendar finished took some seriously late nights.
This summer, when I’m usually working on the calendar to provide a much earlier fall delivery, I was instead working my way through two donated collections that deposited more than 70 boxes of Oz material in my dining room—and filled four separate days with round-trip road trips. Then there was a board of directors meeting and a virtual convention to organize when our in-person options remained suspended again this year. Plus a week-long detour to help staff an Oz Club booth in North Carolina, the holiday mailing, and the 2022 membership card and welcome letter. The time I could make available for Oz projects was stretching thinner and thinner. The sudden death of my good friend Lynn Beltz just before Thanksgiving was a heartbreaking setback. 
But today I sealed the envelopes, stuck in the stamps, and off they’ve gone to our Sustaining, Patron, and Wizard’s Circle members with our sincere thanks for your generous support of the Oz Club.
PS. Here’s an illustration I turned up in a TV Guide yesterday when I was looking for something else in a drawer of magazines and tear sheets. (Harper’s Weekly with the Wizard of Ooze cover, if you must know.) Since I didn’t find it in time to include it in the calendar itself, here it is to dress up this blog. Enjoy!
