Author: Jane Albright

Guest contributor J. Dianne Dotson takes us to the 2019 San Diego County Fair. This year marked my very first visit to the San Diego County Fair. I ordinarily would not sign up for long traffic lines to go to any fair, anywhere. But nostalgia crept in. I grew up close to the Appalachian Fair in Gray, Tennessee. So I had fond memories of cotton candy, nauseating rides, baby ducks, and seeing my friends. When I realized the Del Mar Fair had an Oz theme this year, I felt my past and present collide: my lifelong love for all things Oz, and my younger child’s field trip to the fair. I knew I had to go. To give you some context, the San Diego County fair in Del Mar, California is immense. It attracts a huge audience for its run over a period of weeks every year. So imagine my utter delight when I discovered that Oz would be on display everywhere…and it did not focus on the 1939 film, but on Baum’s actual Oz books! You can see them over the gate as you exit, as well as in an educational exhibit. There was an L. Frank Baum exhibit, and the backs of the displays were giant Oz book covers. Each display gave insightful information about Baum’s history, the stories, and the illustrators of his books. And the purist in me absolutely adored the silver shoe display! I think most people today do not realize that Dorothy’s shoes were actually silver in the books. I also loved the lighting of this space, which captured everything from the twister to the moods of various Oz locales. Very “Ozzy” characters roamed the fairgrounds as well. So much love and care were put into the San Diego County Fair Oz displays. I felt truly seen as a hardcore Oz fan, and absolutely delighted that people of all ages learned more about L. Frank Baum and his Oz books. My thanks to Dianne for sharing her photos and report.  Jane

Best Bill Beem moment ever? Cheering as he accepted the Oz Club’s 2019 L. Frank Baum Memorial Award last weekend in Louisiana. Since meeting Bill at a Club convention in Castle Park, Michigan, in 1981 he has never ceased to amaze me. Often because when the Club really needs help⏤any kind of help⏤he’s the one who steps up. In 1999 the Club’s centennial convention was looming. There was a 30-foot wide display case in a hallway that would be a perfect Oz display.  Not only did Bill agree to fill it, he visited the facility in advance, found a SECOND 30-foot case on another floor and filled both of them! His public library displays in Michigan, Club convention displays, and loan of material to a multi-collector display at the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures here in Kansas City just continue to demonstrate the generosity that distinguishes him as a collector.  Pieces from his collection were included in the Wizard of Oz Collector’s Treasury, too. And he’s provided checklists to the Bugle for things like Oz glasses.   Then, set aside his collecting for a minute. He’s still stepping up!  Like when Fred Meyer’s death left two apartments crammed full of Club publications, mailings and materials that needed to be sorted, inventoried, packed and shipped. There was Bill, diving in to make order of the chaos.  With his wife Anita he chaired the 2005 Ozmapolitan convention. He was both a director-at-large for the Club, and served as our recording secretary for several years.  Currently he receives all our incoming mail, inputs the details of every single member into the  spreadsheets that serve as our membership database, participates in both monthly conference calls and the annual board meeting. His written reports come complete with charts so we who read them can get info at a glance.  Bill’s the person who sends you renewal notices (and who lets you know when you’ve inadvertently renewed so many times you’re good through 2023…) He mails Bugles to those who join later in the year, and handles all the questions mailed to our post office box. In recent years Bill has begun attending public Oz events to represent the Club and to recruit members. He’s at Oz-Stravaganza, the Michigan and Ohio Oz festivals, Autumn in Oz, and more. Lynn Beltz who works many of those events with him swears he is personally responsible for all the members we sign up. For a little perspective, our 2018 membership increased by more than 40% over 2017 once Bill’s grin became the face of the Oz Club at these public events.  I can think of other moments where we’d have been stumped without his help, but I suspect this run down helps you understand why he rose to the surface of the current nominee slate. The L. Frank Baum Memorial Award sometimes honors someone like Gregory Maguire who brought a whole new audience to Oz, or Willard Carroll whose productions and collections-based books have given more traditional Oz fans so much to enjoy.  But some years the winner is honored for the unselfish, generous support that keeps our Club strong. Bill has been that faithful supporter, and I’m thrilled he’s been recognized for all he’s done. PS. Even as I wrote this draft he offered to input information on 500 members into a new online program supporting our shop.ozclub.org store.  There’s no end to our appreciation for him!    

The summer’s Expanding Oz exhibit in Overland Park, Kansas, (a Kansas City suburb) is open and wonderful. It’s always fun to loan material from my collection to a public exhibit. This one, where the Johnson County Museum has done such a beautiful job of creating an Oz environment, is particularly satisfying.  These photos, taken just ahead of the opening event, will give you an idea of what you can expect Murals cover walls. You wander between them among cases of Oz items. Bits of ephemera, book covers, and photos have been enlarged and incorporated with W.W. Denslow’s original artwork.  I took my large bookcase, re-styled it to include all Baum’s books, and they’ve presented it life-sized in one place. They created a fun corner with some vintage pieces made for a child’s bedroom. And the Oz Club!  Their presentation of our organization is everything I could hope for. I’ve agreed to support some public events in July, including hosting a fashion show of Dorothy costumes. We first did this at our Club convention in 2017. I’ve changed a couple costumes, added more, and look forward to introducing fourteen versions of Dorothy to the audience.     https://www.jcprd.com/330/Museum  

The Woodsman, on stage now at the Bluebarn Theater in Omaha, is an engrossing, innovative production I completely loved. Although I heard James speak last summer and read his interview about The Woodsman in the Winter 2018 Baum Bugle, I had not seen the play performed live. You can read a glowing review at BroadwayWorld.com.  Much of what made my visit memorable happened after the show when writer/director James Ortiz introduced me to cast members and showed me some of the extraordinary puppets used on stage. Thursday May 30 and June 6 following the 7:30 p.m. shows, James is scheduled for talk-back sessions with the audience. Too fun!  If you could make it, I can’t encourage you enough. Tickets are general admission. Arrive early and have a Green Monkey at the bar… Bluebarn Theatre 1106 S 10th St Omaha, NE 68108 http://bluebarn.org Phone: 402.345.1576   The only reason I won’t be there again is because I have an exhibit opening June 1 here in Kansas City.  Expanding Oz borrows hundreds of pieces from my collection aiming to “trace the growth of the The Wizard of Oz phenomenon, explore its global appeal, and illustrate its influence on popular culture.” An opening event is planned May 31; I’ve included all Kansas and Missouri Oz Club members on the invitation list, but if you can join us, let me know! The more the merrier.    Johnson County Museum 8788 Metcalf Ave. Overland Park, KS. 66212 https://jcprd.com/330/Museum Phone: 913.826.2787 But the Midwest isn’t the only place to end the month.  Oz-Stravaganza!, the wonderful weekend festival produced by the All Things Oz museum , kicks off May 31 in Baum’s hometown of Chittenango, NY.  Saturday’s parade — the only Oz parade in the country — is always a highlight. All Things Oz Museum 219 Genesee St. Chittenango, NY 13037 http://allthingsoz.org http://www.oz-stravaganza.com Phone: 315.687.7772 West Coast?  You’ll have to wait a couple weeks, but the El Segundo Museum of Art opens Experience 41: Oz June 13. I’m especially pleased that selections from the Oz Club’s collection will included in this exhibit. Which reminds me to sign and return paperwork!  I’m loaning a few pieces, too. ESMoA 209 Main Street El Segundo, California 90245 https://esmoa.org/experience/oz/ Phone: 424.277.1020

The Tin Woodman of Oz was published in 1918, so our last 2018 issue of the Baum Bugle celebrates that particular story.  As Oz book readers know, it was in this book that the Tin Woodman was prompted to revisit his past in search of the woman with whom he’d been in love prior to suffering the enchanted that cost him his heart.  A quest with twists and surprises, giants and transformations, discovered “twins” and old friends, the book was L. Frank Baum’s 12th Oz title. For the Bugle, editor Sarah Crotzer provided an appreciation and John Bell a plot analysis. Scott Cummings revisited reviews and advertising in one of his occasional “Oz Under Scrutiny” reports.  But we didn’t stop when the last page turned.  This story has found a life of its own in stage and screen adaptions. Five men who’ve brought Nick Chopper to life were interviewed about their projects in our cover story. Todrick Hall, the performer who’s Straight Outta Oz tour infused contemporary music, dance and themes into Oz, created memorable Tin Men; Dina Schiff Massachi explores them in her article, “Metal, Malleable, Male.”  You also get a look at what the Tin Man has looked like through the years. Tin Man toys and collectibles (100 of them) are pictured inside the back cover. After describing the defining characteristics of some of the more collectible book reprints, the variety of character interpretations led to this issue’s “Baum Bugle Extra”, an online gallery of 100 different appearances of the Tin Woodman. Follow this link to see it here.  https://www.ozclub.org/galleries/100-years-100-tin-men/ Of course there are also the popular Bugle reports. The Bulletin shares news. In addition to Ozma’s Honor Roll, we profile Bill Thompson, winner of the 2018 L Frank Baum Memorial Award. Oz in the Arts reviews some recent performances, and the Bugle Review serves up some recently published titles.  Finally, to her her many friends most importantly, the loss of the Oz Club’s beloved past president and Bugle editor, Barbara Koelle, is recognized with fond tributes from her daughter and dear friend Patty Tobias.

The Baum Bugle is near and dear to my heart—but it has limitations. Color is a big one; there are so many things I wish we could share in color!  It would quadruple the budget to go to a full-color interior, and that’s just not an option for our club.  And long stuff—stories or checklists that would consume a quarter of the entire publication—just isn’t fair to serve up when our membership is so diverse that a majority would have no interest in that particular topic. Club webminister Blair Frodelius added them to the Baum Bugle Extras section of OzClub.org. (If I understood WordPress better, they’d be .html pages, but I’m fumbling along as best I can. Please, bear with me—or better still, volunteer to help us bring the site to the next level!) With our Winter 2018 issue, editor Sarah Crotzer was much more ambitious. She proposed the terrific idea that we deliver a gallery of Tin Man images created by various illustrators through the years. The Bugle was celebrating The Tin Woodman of Oz turning 100, so 100 different Tin Men became the goal. I have a conveniently large collection with lots of unusual and international editions that I was happy to photograph. Those made up roughly half of the final selections, bolstered by contributions from other members, including a few books from Sarah’s own collection. She was driven to confirm an illustrator credit and date for any image we used, so that became its own challenge for reprinted books and selections from Russia, Japan, Korea, and China.   100 Tin Men later, the gallery is live! You can find it at https://tinyurl.com/100tinmen. As a Baum Bugle Extra I’m delighted that we—the Oz Club, not just Sarah and I—have made this fascinating Tin Man revue available. Happy 100th, Nick Chopper!

I grew up reading Oz books that we had at home. Once I realized there were more, I began the hunt to complete my set. I could borrow other titles for reading, but I wanted my own.  How could I know I was innocently stepping right into an abyss? From Oz, to Baum, to Denslow and Neill and Thompson–I was still in high school when my desire to read had somehow morphed into the need to acquire.  After college I met Tod Machin, who had little interest in Oz books at that point, but had the most jaw-dropping, eye-popping collection of vintage dolls and toys and valentines and and and and…   There was a whole world of Oz things to look for that I had been overlooking! As you can see, it pretty much went to seed from there (there are five cases of books in that back right corner that remain dear to me): With nearly 50 years of accumulating Oz under my belt, I listened to our Baum Bugle editor Sarah Crotzer, tell me what she had planned for the Winter 2018 issue honoring the 100th publication anniversary of The Tin Woodman of Oz.  I offered to add a collection of Tin Men. Surely will a little digging I could round up one hundred of them. Clearing a double bookcase  that was only about half-Oz anyway, I began to pull Tin Woodmen from every nook and corner of my Oz collection. Books, figurines, dolls, a chair, a snowboard, a marionette. Muppets, puppets, and wind-up walkers, a Wogglebug Lesson Card and a Tin Grin t-shirt. I wanted the rarer, unusual ones, some common favorites everyone would remember, and important stage/screen appearances. The shelves filled up and I began to count. How did “too many” happen?  Editing followed–anxiously lamenting each that had to go–to ensure I’d hit exactly one hundred.  That left pouring on lots of light for a photo, reviewing, tweaking so every little Veggie Tale Tin Man could be distinguished, then a little Photoshopping to lessen the appearance of the underside of higher shelves. Voilà!  The inside back cover of the Winter Bugle was complete!