Author: Jane Albright

If you think you’ve read all the Oz things there are to read, I suspect you need to see TheOzIndex.com. Our webmaster, board member, Ozmapolitan Express editor, Facebook administrator — he of many hats — Blair Frodelius created the Index as a database to gather all the Oz related publications he can find. And boy, has he ever found some. Packed with fiction and reference titles, browse around. You’ll find the original Oz books, newer fiction for both kids and adults, biographies, collecting books, literary analysis and “making of” books. You’re sure to find a book that appeals to you. I grabbed this photo of Blair off his chapter reading of The Wizard of Oz that you can find on our Youtube channel. He read Chapter 16 for us. Here’s a promo bit from when Anne Hathaway recorded the original story.  And here’s her entire reading at just under four hours. Nearly 79,000 people have tuned into Youtube to listen to her read The Wizard of Oz.  Perhaps The Magic of Oz, recently celebrated in the Baum Bugle would be a less familiar story? Libravox posted a recording of it here. You can find their entire list of Oz titles on their website. You can purchase recordings of all Baum’s Oz books, too. One site that sells them is audiobookstore.com. While most books not yet in the public domain, are not available as free audiobooks, I found Gregory Maguire reading his Wicked sequel, Son of a Witch on Youtube. Audio productions aren’t limited to books-on-tape (although you’ll find plenty of those).  The Colonial Radio Players have created “radio dramatizations” of the first six Oz books. From the modern new take on Oz, Hit the Bricks, (here’s a live table reading if you’d prefer) to the Lux Radio Theater hour-long version of The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, that was broadcast as a Christmas special in 1950, Youtube has multiple options. Some of my favorite other-than-book things you might enjoy online include the Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True  Recorded in 1995 with an all-star cast, it’s a marvelous way to enjoy the MGM classic. For a much shorter version of the MGM Film, try the incomparable Bobby McFerrin in his one-man show of the beloved 1939 musical. You can add a version of this performance to your collection if you find the Disney CD “For Our Children, the concert” recorded in 1991 to benefit the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Or, you can enjoy it online here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0jxxQGJOJ0 And if you’ve not seen Todrick Hall and Pentatonix, you can’t imagine what you’re missing.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rCQJmVaQpg&list=RD5rCQJmVaQpg&start_radio=1 More Todrick? Here’s the online version of his Straight Outta Oz production, that toured the US and Canada in 2016. This Oz production features all original musical written and produced by Hall. It uses the Wizard of Oz as a metaphor to share his own life story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mUSwHhJ6zA That’s it for now, but its just the tip of the iceberg for the Oz you can find online with just a little sleuthing.

This Saturday, May 23, fans can experience a new kind of Oz event from the safety of home. Yaymaker Events invited film critic and Oz historian Ryan Jay to interview Oz celebrities in the first-ever virtual Oz convention. He soon assembled a star-studded cast to take fans behind the stage, screen, and page of some of his favorite Oz projects: Todrick Hall (Straight Outta Oz) Gregory Maguire (Author, Wicked) Danielle Paige (Author, Dorothy Must Die) Rob Paulsen (Voice of the Tin Man in Tom & Jerry The Wizard of Oz and Back to Oz) Emma Ridley (Ozma, Disney’s Return to Oz) Kari Wahlgren (Voice of Dorothy/Queen Ozma, Boomerang’s Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz) Shanice Williams (Dorothy, NBC’s The Wiz Live) Join the fun Saturday May 23 at 7 p.m. central daylight time for this live event. 100% of the $10 tickets benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS with relief to those suffering from COVID-19. Tickets available now at https://bit.ly/35TRkCR Ryan, a life-long Oz fan, is well-known in the Oz community for his red-carpet and on-screen interviews with current Oz celebrities.  A member of the board of directors for the International Wizard of Oz Club and chairman of the Club’s Planning Committee, he began attending Oz conventions before he was old enough to drive. Today he presents and hosts Oz events around the country. 

Today I emailed our 2019 members a link to the Winter 2019 issue of The Baum Bugle online. We’ve never done anything like this before. We’ve never even emailed all our members before! But we are living in challenging times. No, we are not replacing the printed Bugle with a digital version, but we can’t anticipate when that printed copy will arrive in your mail. So off it went in a way that would have seemed like magic to L. Frank Baum. Email.  First, let me tell you about the Bugle!  This issue celebrates the publication centennial of L. Frank Baum’s The Magic of Oz. A cover story “Pyrzqxgl: or, How to Do Things with Magic Words” by Dennis Wilson Wise presents Baum’s unique word in the context of other magic words in classic literature. “The Believing Child” then puts that very word on the lips of a child in a fascinating story by Zenna Henderson. The Bugle re-publishes her story, with permission, for the first time since it appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in June 1970.  The magic continues with a report on a time Baum saw a famous magician perform at a meeting of the Uplifters. I contributed a bit about monuments of Magic Land, as Oz is known in Russia. The world’s best known magic shoes also get their due as Jonathan Shirshekan wraps up his two-part feature about Judy Garland’s famous Ruby Slippers.  Departments are packed with news and reviews. Speaking of which, Scott Cummings shares reviews that followed the original release of The Magic of Oz, and Brady Schwind dives into Dick Martin’s design of a new Magic of Oz dust jacket in 1960. Collectors can take a look at a few pieces of 1939 MGM merchandise that have led many collectors down a yellow brick road to collecting Oz merchandise. Cindy Ragni writes about the convention we’ve planned for August, and Zoe O’Haillin-Berne wraps up the issue talking about the Chesterton Wizard of Oz Days festival—planned to bring the long-popular festival back to Indiana. Which gets us back to these unpredictable days. The Bugle went to the printer in March. We expected you to have it by now. Our editor moved on to the Spring 2020 issue. Then the coronavirus crises led to the shutdown of our Chicago-area printer. They thought they’d reopen and get to it in April, then in May. Now? Well, they’re just not sure. Rather than leave our members entirely Bugle-less any longer we opted to share it digitally. We sent all members who’ve given us an email address a link to read it online. Members will get the printed one, too, of course. We just don’t know when. Similarly, Chesterton Wizard of Oz Days rescheduled from the May dates reported in the Bugle for July 11-12. Our August convention is still planned in Denslow’s old stomping grounds of the Roycroft campus in East Aurora, NY; we’ll decide in late May if that’s possible or if we need to reschedule it for next summer.  That’s the news for now. I hope you’ll appreciate seeing the Bugle online. When I first joined the Club back in the 1970s, an option like this was pure science fiction, and now here it is solving our dilemma as easily as clicking our heels. If you didn’t get an email from [email protected] with your link to the digital Bugle, write that address and let me know.  It may be that you are one of the 80 or so members we have who’ve never given us an email, or one of the 21 emails that bounced back as undeliverable.  I’m happy to work through whichever it to ensure you are included.

Today (March 20) the Oz Club rolls out a series of on-camera readings that take you through The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  The chapter-a-day project can be found on the Oz Club’s Youtube channel and on our public Facebook page.  The idea was Dina Massachi’s, who is teaching from home during the coronavirus shutdown. When she posed it to me (at 6:20 am on Monday to be exact) I encouraged her to run with it. By Wednesday the first three recordings were in hand and it looked like Friday could really be our launch day. Watch along! You’ll see familiar faces. Lots of Oz Club people read chapters, but some Oz fans who are a bit more celebrated are reading, too.    During this time of crisis, all our schedules are upended as stress piles up on all sides. We at the Oz Club hope this project will give you one way to escape for a bit each day and find yourself in Oz. 

This year Americans celebrate 100 years of the 19th Amendment to our Constitution.  In case you didn’t know, Oz fans have a particular reason to celebrate this centennial. Oz author L. Frank Baum’s wife Maud was the daughter of Matilda Joslyn Gage, a prominent leader in the Suffrage movement. Toward the end of her life, Matilda spent many months living in the Baums’ home. She overheard Frank telling is wonderful stories to children and insisted that he should write them down. Although her 1898 death meant she did not live to see her son-in-law succeed as an author, she had a profound influence on his philosophy, theology, and his fiction. Often credited as the voice that persuaded Baum to seek publication of his stories, Matilda’s influence went much further. Her writing about matriarchal Native American government likely inspired the way Oz is governed.  The strong female leaders of Oz distinguish American’s fairyland even as they have attracted criticism of it by those who object to the story’s feminist message. Matilda is who introduced the Baums to Theosophy and spiritualism. Her outspoken insistence that church and state should remain separate may have contributed to the absence of religion in Oz. Her granddaughter Dorothy Gage, who was born three months after Matilda died and lived only five months, is widely believed to the namesake of our Kansas heroine; Gage believed in reincarnation and her family had particular hopes that the infant would somehow continue to grandmother’s legacy. I am not remotely an authority on Gage. Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, on the other hand, is. The Oz Club’s first National Convention was held in partnership with the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Fayetteville, NY. Sally was our co-host, rallying Gage Foundation volunteers and resources to help Club members enjoy a Wonderful Weekend of Oz in and around the Gage home that is there. Her recent book, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, has her speaking around the country this year about Gage. Next week, she’s in NYC on a panel with Gloria Steinem for the Gage Foundation and the American Indian Law Institute. Angelica Shirley Carpenter, a past president of the Oz Club, recently wrote Born Criminal: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Radical Suffragist and is touring the country speaking about Gage and her book. Look for her forthcoming picture book about Matilda, too, The Voice of Liberty. In one recent talk, she was interviewed by Gage descendent Greg Morena (above, grandson of Ozma Baum Mantele). You can see that on YouTube here: Carpenter/Morena in Santa Monica.  Oz fans even outside the Club know Angelica for her young readers’ biography, L. Frank Baum: Royal Historian of Oz. She served as one of our Oz Centennial chairmen back in 2000, and chaired Oz, the National Convention 2010 in Fresno, California. Thanks to these two friends I anticipate a Gage-filled March!  Last weekend, the Oz Museum hosted an event in Wamego Kansas  titled “Suffrage and Oz.” The six-person Baker University Speech Choir performed a fascinating work using Gage’s biography and writings, followed by a more traditional presentation by Oz Museum curator Chris Glasgow. I was delighted to cheer them along from the audience. Chris blogged about Matilda here: Curator’s Corner.  Looking forward, Angelica will be speaking in the Kansas City area March 12-14, and Sally will be here speaking at Kansas University March 31. I have a reception for Angelica planned at my home, and am scheduling time with Sally while she’s in the area. I encourage Oz fans to attend any Gage presentations in your area. Sally’s Website lists her bookings, and Angelica’s is equally filled with presentation dates. A fun footnote, Oz Club member Karyl Carlson, primarily known as the “Doll Maker of Oz” for her handmade Oz character creations, has been appearing in character as Matilda in the Portland area. Those attending Oz, the National Convention 2019 can picture what a great job she’s doing because she was a charming addition to Angelica’s Gage talk in Thibodaux last June (below). This has been a long blog, but it’s about an unusual and significant topic I don’t want to shortchange.  If you have an opportunity to learn about Gage, jump at it!  Learning about the “Wonderful Mother of Oz,” as Sally Wagner has dubbed her, provides a fascinating insight into this beloved and influential woman whose significant, far-reaching impact on Oz is beyond measure.

In 1939 the state publishing house Detgiz in Moscow published a new children’s book. International copyright law was not recognized by the Soviet Union so Volshebnik izumrudnogo goroda (The Wizard of the Emerald City), by mathematics teacher Aleksandr Malentyevich Volkov (1891-1977), appeared under Volkov’s name with no mention of L. Frank Baum.  More than a straight translation, Volkov added original side adventures in place of some of Baum’s and never used the word “Oz.” He renamed the characters. Dorothy is Elli, Scarecrow is Strashila, and the Cowardly Lion is Leo. The Tin Woodman becomes an Iron Woodman largely because Volkov knew that tin doesn’t rust. Elli’s faithful little dog Totoshka speaks in Volkov’s tale, Baum’s Kalidahs become Saber Tooth Tigers, the Wizard is named Goodwin, and the witches are Villina, Bastinda, and Gingema. Illustrated by Nikolai Ernestovich Radlov (1889-1942) the book quickly sold 50,000 copies. The 1941 edition reportedly had a print run of 227,000 copies.  We now know that Volkov read The Wizard of Oz to improve his English at some risk; it was not easily available in the Soviet Union and was not state-approved. The story captured his imagination; when he read it to his own children they loved it.  The success of his book led to a new edition illustrated by Leonid Viktorovich Vladimirskii (1920-2015). Volkov edited his own text for this revised 1959 version. It became wildly popular in the Communist Bloc. So popular, in fact, that just like Baum, Volkov penned his own original sequels. With time he tweaked the story until Aunt Anna and Uncle John become Elli’s parents.  And Volkov himself  became a beloved children’s author, writing more than 50 books.  Now ingrained in Russian culture, the “Magic Land” books first came to life in puppet shows and on radio followed by stage musicals, live-action movies, and stop-motion television. Sculptures are found on the streets, postcards are mailed to friends, toys and games are playthings of Russian children. A computer-animated film Urfin Jus i ego derevyannye soldaty (Fantastic Journey to Oz based on Volkov’s The Wooden Soldiers of Oz), was released in 2017, followed by Fantastic Return to Oz in 2019.  Accepted as his creations, Volkov’s headstone is illustrated with Elli and her friends.   The 1939 MGM film was introduced to Russian audiences in the 1970s. Direct translations of Baum’s original story became available in the USSR in 1983 followed in 1991 with his sequels. Magic Land has been translated into other languages and is sometimes used as an English language text book. It is a more widely known version of the story than Baum’s in some countries. Modern Russian authors continue the series and a Friends of the Emerald City group is based in Moscow. A new reference book, Oz Behind the Iron Curtain: Aleksandr Volkov and His Magic Land Series (Erika Haber, Univ. Press of Mississippi) was published in 2017. While Club members and devoted fans are likely to have heard about Magic Land, it is not common knowledge with the public. For the next six months or so, the Oz Club’s case (below, left) in the Oz Museum, Wamego, Kansas, offers a look at Russia’s Oz and its creators.

The Autumn 2019 issue of the Baum Bugle is bursting with Baum. A celebration of the writer’s legacy, L. Frank Baum “crossed the shifting sands” in 1919. This issue of our Club’s journal looks at different aspects of his legacy 100 years later. From a review of the news stories and obituaries that marked the end of his life by Scott Cummings, to my own report on the Oz Museum that thrives today in Wamego, Kansas, Bugle editor Sarah Crotzer has served up an eclectic mix of articles to honor the beloved writer. Fred Meyer ( 1926-2004) served as Oz Club secretary for nearly 50 years. He once wrote about a fragment of an Oz story given him by a Baum family member who was certain it had been written by L. Frank. Sarah’s published that fragment here with the introduction Fred wrote at the time. We can never know for certain that Baum wrote it, but now we can read it and ponder. Another Baum family member–great-granddaughter Gita Dorothy Morena through her mother Ozma Baum Mantele–shares reflections on growing up as a descendant of the Frank Baum and how she aspires to carry his vision, creativity, and compassion forward through her work today. Fans, too, continue Baum’s legacy. You’ll find the earliest published Oz fan fiction in this Bugle. It’s a quirky little story written by two children — clearly readers of Baum — in their local paper. And illustrator Mark Manley, who has been recently been providing new illustrations for the Bugle, writes about his interpretation of Baum’s work into the glorious, full-color wrap-around painting that provides this Bugle with it’s front and back covers. Drama’s included, too; Ray Wohl takes us behind his writer-and-actor curtain to talk about the creation of his one-man show in which he takes on the character of L. Frank Baum to tell his audience the “stories behind the stories.” Dina Schiff Massachi adds an academic feature by exploring the appeal and appropriateness of Oz for kids today. To help reach today’s kids, we follow the aforementioned article about the Oz Museum, by encouraging you to celebrate Baum’s legacy by providing a Baum or Oz display in your own community. While our Club itself is part of Baum’s legacy, we also recognize individuals who contribute to it with the annual L. Frank Baum Memorial Award. This issue introduces Bill Beem, the 2019 recipient. I’ve known Bill since 1981 and was pleased to see him receive this honor. In addition to feature stories, the issue has news, book and arts reviews, and our made-for-kids enclosures, The Oz Gazette newsletter from Oz and a unique hands-on project to cut and color. This time it’s part two of a three-part project designed by David Kelleher; complete all three parts and you’ll have your own tabletop theater for paper puppet performances!  I suspect some of our members long past the youth membership category are going to be stepping out for green glitter.  

Our holiday mailing, sent to member homes in November, included a membership renewal form for 2020.  We’re already off to a great start with nearly a third of our 2019 members welcomed back for 2020. We hope you’ll add your renewal to the momentum and send the form with payment to our assistant membership secretary (and keeper of the Post Office Box!) Bill Beem. You can also always join online through the membership section of Shop.OzClub.org.  Is there’s an Oz fan in your life who you think would enjoy the Club? Consider giving a gift membership; we included that form, too. There was also a ballot that’s due Feb. 15.  Although the positions aren’t contested, we appreciate knowing if members agree with our nominating committee. Susan Hall who has long been active in our Club agreed to count the votes as they came in and report back. An envelope addressed to her is included for your convenience. This year’s greeting card is a fun one featuring two Oz favorites, Jack Pumpkinhead and the Patchwork Girl, hanging their stockings on a fireplace. The original artwork by the Oz Club’s own Dick Martin is currently in the collection of Jack Van Camp who offered it for our card. We believe it is previously unpublished. Inside we added the text of L. Frank Baum’s 1905 “Christmas Stocking” essay. The Baum family celebrated Christmas and Frank wrote this piece as an introduction to a series of small books that were marketed by publishers Reilly and Britton as “Christmas Stocking Books.” Our “Happy Ho(z)lidays” graphic was used in Oz Club cards for decades. Enjoy! The flier for the Club’s 2020 convention Aug. 6-9 in East Aurora, New York, should whet your appetite for the wonderful weekend Cindy Ragni is organizing. We’ve opted to make all meals optional this year and she’s been working on finding more affordable options, so registration itself hasn’t yet opened. To keep up with convention news between fliers, follow OzConvention.org. We can include more details there and will add the registration option as soon as it’s ready.  You will be getting a flier for the west coast OzCon International, too; at the last minute our printer caught a typographical error that made the dates confusing, so we pulled it from this mailing. That turned out to be advantageous because the dates have since changed to July 17-19. And finally, there’s a letter from me touching on some of the highlights of 2019 and thanking a number of our more active volunteers who made so much happen for our Club through the year. Of course, the membership year isn’t quite over; your Winter 2019 Baum Bugle will bring you a celebration of The Magic of Oz. And leave all of you trying once again to pronounce Pyrxqzgl.