Author: Jane Albright

June 11 in Los Angeles Oz Club members and fans will be gathering at the Wiltshire Ebell Theatre to attend “Get Happy: 100 Years of Judy Garland.” The exhibit has long been a labor of love for Garland collector and Oz fan Scott Hedley. I can’t do it justice; please read all about the exhibit at its website: https://www.judygarlandexhibit.com/ I’ll be in town that weekend for the launch of the new Judy Fragrance, a Friday evening event also held at the historic Ebell. While I am honored to represent the Oz Club, I won’t be alone in representing the Oz community. Personal Oz friends coming include Sean Barrett (The Land of Oz NC), Victoria Calamito (Oz Talk, The Oz Vlog), Ryan Jay (Oz Talk, Ryan Jay Reviews), Walter Krueger (Wizard of Oz Collectors United), EmKay Shrader and Tara Tagliafero (Down the Yellow Brick Pod), and Tiffany Sutton (Follow the Yellow Brick Girl). Quite likely others I just don’t know to expect will be there, too.  With us converging on the Ebell Friday night for the fragrance party, it only makes sense to see Get Happy together Saturday morning—and to encourage other area fans to come, too. As people come and go to suit their schedules, it’s likely breakfast, lunch, or both will slip into the schedule. I’ll be making a straight line to the Academy Museum Saturday afternoon. My own tickets are for 3 pm. A Sunday evening film showing of The Wizard of Oz at the Hollywood Forever cemetery is awfully tempting, too. They’ve organized a walking tour of the cemetery with signage marking the graves of many people with whom Judy worked professionally. https://cinespia.org/event/the-wizard-of-oz-2/ Now that in-person Oz gatherings are possible again after two summers of so many cancellations, I look forward to making every moment of this fun weekend count! If you can make time to spend some of your Saturday celebrating Judy’s 100th birthday with us, do!  It should be a memorable way to hob nob with your fellow wizards!

David Moyer, a long-time member and friend of the International Wizard of Oz Club crossed the shifting sands April 12. David’s contributions to Oz have been far-reaching. As a volunteer, an actor, a lecturer, and more he’s been an asset to the Club, our conventions, and our publications for decades. You can read a bit more about David’s Oz interests and Club support in the L. Frank Baum Memorial Award recipients section of our website; he received the award in 2006. His obituary is online here if you’d like to share photos or memories with his family and friends. The Spring 2022 Bugle was on its way to press when we learned of David’s death so there wasn’t time to prepare a tribute to him, but I expect we’ll have one in the Autumn issue. I hope his Oz friends in the central New York area will be able to attend his service Saturday, May 14 (10 am) at the Moyer family plot in Phoenix Rural Cemetery, 126 Chestnut Street, Phoenix, NY. 13135. While those far away find your own way to honor his memory — wear a fez, hug a Beagle, re-read his 2002 essay in the Bugle about the Baum’s trip abroad, or raise a toast of lacasa in the name of this dear friend.

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!  

Oz in popular culture is now presented in Case #14 at the Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas, courtesy of The Oz Club. Visitors will see Oz and Oz characters in food marketing, toys and collectibles, music, attractions, and more. For the past few years, the museum has worked with me to help publicize the Oz Club by letting me fill this particular case with themed Oz exhibits. We’ve featured 1939 Oz merchandise, Oz stained glass, Russian Oz, and more. This is our eighth exhibit. I provide a new theme twice a year, but the timing is flexible. Today I took down Oz Maps and put up a fun assortment of pieces that show Oz as it’s appeared in advertising, music, entertainment, and toys. It’s always a challenge to find things that aren’t already on display in the museum. Luckily, curator Chris Glasgow is a delight to work with and always helps me both in advance and onsite. I propose a theme (or six since I’m swimming in ideas), and we agree on one. Then I generally send a list of what I might include, and she ticks off those pieces that would be redundant. For example, the museum has a Muppets Wizard of Oz display in place, so to include them, I selected Muppet material not tied to that film. The Rolling Stone cover with the Jerry Seinfeld cast?  It’s already on display. So is Tom and Jerry’s Wizard of Oz. Oz peanut butter?  They have a massive selection. With the list whittled down, I still pack and take about twice as much as will fit to give myself options. The oldest material, in this case, are Wogglebug items including What Did the Wogglebug Say? buttons and the Wogglebug Game of Conundrums. Music represented includes LPs of Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” a small poster of Todrick Hall’s “Straight Outta Oz,” and the Grateful Dead’s Follow the Golden Road T-shirt.  I added DVDs in that area of Oz productions where the part of Dorothy is played by Hello Kitty, Strawberry Shortcake, and Minnie Mouse. Below that section are some fun food products such as Dunkin Munchkins and ice cream packaging, and one of the Jello Oz booklets open to the Jello recipes. I included a fun ad for Swift’s Oz Peanut Spread that I knew they didn’t have. There are Funko collectibles and Monchhichi dolls, Betty Boop and the Ice Capades, the Land of Oz in Cincinnati, and a Build-a-Bear Dorothy. The Mr. Potato Head figures are always one of my favorites. From comic book characters to an Annie Leibovitz photo spread in Vogue, there’s something for nearly every age group. If you’re able to visit the Oz Museum over the next six months or so, have a look!