Author: Jane Albright

The Oz Club’s board of directors met Thursday, August 9, 2018. These annual all-day meetings give us time to hear from each officer, editor, appointee, and committee chairman.  It’s our chance to learn—in person—how various directors and other volunteers have been assisting the Club. We bring to the group plans and ideas for what we’d like to introduce in the year ahead, propose nominees for the next term’s board, and approve the budget. Picture 20+ people around tables that line a big room, with an open phone line in the center that allows those unable to join us in person to at least dial in, report, and participate.  While we’re all friends and Oz fans, we do take Board service seriously. Roberts Rules of Order are followed; minutes are recorded.  There are regular needs to refer to our bylaws and to make, second, and vote on various motions from the floor. By the time we wrap up we’ve solved some problems, shared our ideas for reaching new members, and made suggestions for what more we can do as a Club. We’ve tapped a few new volunteers, and inspired one another to volunteer our time in the months ahead. You can see a list of who currently serves on the Board and in what capacity in the About Us section of the Website.

Bill Thompson was presented with the 2018 L. Frank Baum Memorial Award Aug. 11 in Pomona, California. The auction Bill led had just ended before dinner, so his expertise and energy was top-of-mind for the cheering crowd. Scott Cummings (2017 LFB recipient) made the presentation following a traditional format that hints at the winner with increasingly revealing details. As a past recipient I knew what name was coming and kept sneaking looks at Bill. Scott was well into the speech before Bill caught on, responding with genuine surprise and emotion. Wondering why we chose Bill this year? Well let me tell you…. Bill has served as our auctioneer for many years, which is nothing at all like most fundraising auctions where some paid, fast talker shows up for a couple of hours then disappears at the last bang of a gavel. Within the Club, our volunteer auctioneer manages all aspects of this job from start to finish. He advises people who have material they want to donate or consign, fielding emails, phone calls and visiting their homes. He regularly packs donations, organizes and stores them in his own home, and personally drives them across country to be available at our auction sites. Of course the auction income is important to the Club, but it’s also important to our educational mission to identify and describe everything for collectors in both the auction and the silent auction. Bill does all that—and he’s introduced absentee bidding, expanded to accept PayPal payments, and writes the descriptions for the auction lists that he distributes in advance. He maintains the database of listings and bidders, working with two helpers to tally up winner totals, and get us through payments efficiently. When Bill first attended our Oz Centennial convention in Bloomington, Illinois, he lost no time jumping right in. That year he helped decorate the hotel for the event. Soon he was contributing to bibliographic research and writing articles for the Bugle. I recently blogged about his piece describing the Wonderful Game of Oz. His interest in collecting material by W.W. Denslow resulted in the most extensive checklist of Denslow material available. He’s served on our Board of Directors, and we’ve recently nominated him for that service again. Bill’s bibliographic research led to his developing an extensive personal research collection that he generously shares. And this year his expertise evolved into the publication of his massively comprehensive Bibliographia Baumiana. It was a milestone in many ways and provided a perfect moment to recognize Bill for his outstanding contributions, as the plaque reads, to the saga of Oz. Congratulations, Bill!

2019 marks both the 80th anniversary of the MGM film, and the 100th anniversary of L. Frank Baum’s death. Why not consider approaching a local library, museum, historic site, or gallery to see if they’d be interested in hosting a display of your Oz collection? Your collection doesn’t have to be extensive. With the right fit you can share your enthusiasm for Oz any number of ways based on the facility’s focus and the Oz pieces you’d be willing to loan. The larger more professional places plan a year or more in advance, so you need to get the ball rolling now. There are plenty of special interest museums devoted to dolls, pop culture, music, art, and more where an Oz exhibit would be a fun topic.  Library exhibits can range from rare books to modern fiction; you can fill a case with books and biographies about the MGM film. From a community center interested in a case of quilts and crafts, to a puppet theater with a lobby case that’s perfect for Oz puppets, there are many ways to place Oz displays in public view. Look around and see what venue near you would be a good fit for Oz.  Find out if they have an area for short-term or rotating exhibits. Contact the director or curator and ask if they’d be interested in meeting to talk about Oz.  At that point, next steps will depend on how fully staffed and professional the facility is and how long the exhibit would be up. I love to exhibit and have served up anything from a single piece to literally rooms full of Oz. That means I’ve worked with places where a team agreed on each object, which was then measured in advance for specially designed cases, then itemized, photographed and insured in detailed documentation. Even packing and pick up was all done by a professional staff.  I’ve also been offered an empty case — or ten — and given the keys to bring whatever I like and arrange it all myself. Anything’s possible, just be sure to determine how much work will be required of you in advance, and decide if you’re interested. I’ve also supported exhibits where precious things are locked behind glass, and exhibits where security is slim to none; weigh risks as you decide what you’re willing to loan. This blog is just meant to get you thinking about how to get your Oz autographs, cookie jars, comic books, nutcrackers, Baum books, foreign translations, or feature film posters out for the world to see. Detailed advice on mounting an exhibit would call for more space and time than this blog offers. But as an experienced exhibitor, I encourage you to consider finding a good fit for sharing Oz with others in 2019.  

A small group of Oz Club members, Oz fans and friends recently met in Troutdale, Oregon, for an afternoon of Oz fun and games. I was vacationing in Portland, so set my sights on the McMenamins Edgefield for the June 16th event organized by Karyl Carlson.  We gathered in a meeting room Karyl had loaded with Oz board games. After a round of introductions, the games began. My first round of competition played the Wonderful Game of Oz using a facsimile copy of the original 1921 board game. Contemporary games followed at all four long tables, each circled with 8-10 fans who ranged in age from 5 to 90. Unopened games were awarded as prizes to triumphant winners. Show-and-tell gave us a break from games, then we broke for refreshments — a tea complete with finger sandwiches and sweets. Following tea we switched to a jeopardy-style game that divided the group into two large teams each eager to best the other with our knowledge of Oz trivia. There was much cheering and laughter as the scores added up. One enthusiastic player flung his hand in the air with such force and eagerness that the threw himself right off his own chair. When our scheduled meeting room time ended, we moved to a lounge area for another hour or so. Still unwilling to let the day end, several of us caravaned for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. Everyone had a splendid time. I left wishing I had a similar group of like-minded Oz fans to gather with back home. In the land of Oz the northwest corner of the country is home to the Oogaboos, prompting these fans in the Washington/Oregon area to claim the title for themselves. For decades — literally — the Oogaboos have met regularly. Generally they meet in someone’s home for a pot luck meal and Ozzy fellowship. I heard people talk about past events that included everything from watching movies to playing croquet. They make it easy by simply sorting through who might host next, setting a date and inviting everyone over. This Oogaboo Rendezvous was considered a “Grand” event because they booked space and pooled funds to provide the refreshments. The venue, the McMenamins Edgefield, was a charming old resort loaded with whimsical art. I’d have enjoyed exploring it further; they had restaurants, lodging, a onsite distillery, bars, live music, and more. I’m not a beer drinker, but one brand caught my eye.  They bottle Hammerhead ale! If you ever have a chance to spend a day as a Oogaboo, go for it!

Wizard of Oz puppetry turned out to be a topic big enough for its own book. (And if you want to write it, you can have my notes.) Tackling it for The Baum Bugle I quickly discovered the topic was larger than my vision for the article, which was limited to performing puppet shows for children here in the US. As I focused on a dozen or so of the more memorable shows, I quickly realized there were just as many intriguing Oz puppet shows overseas. I also can include some information about the use of puppetry on stage and screen in Part 2, although I dare not carry that conversation too far; technology has taken that far over my head. And have you seen the Muppets wiki entry for The Wizard of Oz?  The feature would double! We’d be serving up puppet features for two years! Following the necessary but painful direction of our editor to cut cut cut cut this topic down to Bugle-sized bites, we hit on an idea I have long toyed with. Why not overflow some of that “extra” material onto the Club’s website? So I did. Now in addition to puppet content in the Spring and Autumn Bugle, you’ll find “extra” Oz puppetry online such as International puppet shows, a few pages of Muppet material, and a request for your help building a photo gallery of mass-produced Oz puppets. Sort of a visual checklist we can do online that would have filled too many pages in the Bugle. I’m currently working to gather up a scrapbook of ephemera that we didn’t include, too, but that Extra’s not quite ready to share — just like so many words and so many pages, there are so many clippings, photos, programs and pictures to sort through. Moving forward, we hope to see other contributors to the Bugle take advantage of our website to provide extra material beyond what Bugle pages can hold. The opportunity to embed links was particularly helpful with this puppetry content. I hope you’ll follow them, and have a look at some of the fantastic Wizard of Oz puppet shows I uncovered while researching the articles. Look for Bugle Extras posted as pdfs on the Baum Bugle page here at OzClub.org.

When Parker Bros.’ Wonderful Game of Oz was described in the Wizard of Oz Collector’s Treasury as “one of the most visually satisfying Oz products ever published,” I nodded my agreement—vigorously. The game is really striking. Plus, it’s a game—and it’s a map of Oz covered with characters and places from the Oz books. It’s also lovely enough to frame. Who could ask for anything more? I soon discovered there was far more to the game than I realized. There were variants to the way it was packaged, or example: at least four that I could spot. It was released in the US and Canada. The game markers, the rules, and the shakers all went through changes. In the Spring 2018 Baum Bugle (arriving now in member mailboxes), Bill Thompson takes readers far beyond the superficial and delves into the details that define and distinguish the different copies of this game following its first appearance.  While I contributed some content to this issue of the Bugle myself, I think this great piece by Bill is one the collector in me will most remember from our Spring 2018 issue.

This year I have spent far more time than I ever dreamed possible exploring the fascinating world of Oz puppets. The Spring 2018 issue of The Baum Bugle will be Club members’ first exposure to the result; as a preview I’m using my blog to cover one of the aspects of Oz puppetry that won’t make the Bugle pages—fun memories many members have of their own Oz puppets and childhood Oz puppet shows. I have vivid memories of playing with Hazelle marionettes growing up. My sister had the Scarecrow, I had a bear, and we both had girls. Not quite the cast for an Oz puppet production, but many hours of fun in our homemade cardboard theater. Today my collection includes the Hazelle set (above left), a vintage pair of handmade marionettes of the Tin Woodman and Scarecrow (right), and a delightful Tin Man I found on Etsy (below left). The pair was purchased from another collector so I don’t know who made them, but they were clearly used many, many times. Oh, and there are dozens of mass-produced hand puppets smiling up at me including a few from overseas. We have lots of puppet stories. I remember Willard Carroll telling me about the afternoon he emptied and washed enough jam jars to get all three of the Return to Oz plush puppets in 1985. Or David Diket using Multi-toy dolls as puppets to act out The Wizard of Oz for his home movie productions. Have you a story you’re willing by to share? Please use the comments feature of this blog to tell us about the Oz puppet adventures of your childhood. Puppets you made, shows you staged, and fun tales of acquisitions. Bring ‘em on!