Author: Jane Albright

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!        

The Winter 2018 Baum Bugle had finally gone to press, four stress-filled months after our most optimistic expectations. Death, birth, illness, images that didn’t arrive and drafts that came well past their due dates—Murphy’s Law had repeatedly triumphed.  We had put the Bugle to “bed” on Monday and this was Thursday night. With all writing, layout, proofreading, and correcting behind me, I was running errands with my husband. I was, in fact, so far from thinking about the Bugle I wasn’t sure who Sarah was when her voice came through my car’s dashboard.  Houston, we have a problem.  The printer had the layout on the press ready to roll the next morning only to discover it was two pages short.  If you aren’t familiar with print production, a sheet of folded paper becomes four pages. There has to be an even multiple of four for a publication to fold correctly. How, you ask, after a dozen proofreaders, could this have gone unnoticed? Well, the inclusion of the kids’ newsletter in the center spread means we have three individual sections of numbered pages; 1-26 before the Gazette, 4 pages of the Gazette, and 27-56 after the Gazette. Shifting pages in the layout back and forth around that center spread had artificially expanded the second half to end on page 56 even though there were only 54 pages. Two pages simply didn’t exist. Sarah and I had both looked at it so many times our brains skipped straight over the omission.   Never mind how it happened. That wasn’t the problem I faced in the Home Depot parking lot, thinking four castors were my priority. Fixing it—that was the problem. Fixing it and fixing it now. Sarah could either pull two pages or add two pages. She’d found a couple of drastic options like converting separate enclosures into new pages, or simply pushing content back to Spring, but she wanted my thoughts before pulling any triggers. And so it is that your Baum Bugle now includes an entirely unplanned, two-page spread featuring five distinctive, and thus collectible, copies of The Tin Woodman of Oz.  Sarah, bibliographic reference books at hand, flew through creating copy and editing the table of contents while I pulled the five volumes from my collection and propped them into a photo and created the layout. I was pouring text into columns when it was only half written. Midnight came, midnight passed. The next morning, the press ran: 56 pages strong. Ultimately, we had to remove the Gazette and include it as a separate fold-out in your Winter mailing. There was no way to preserve the strict flow of articles on either side of the Gazette and still get the new file to the printer so quickly. But necessity is the mother of invention, and we’re proud that no content was lost. What could be more Ozzy than friends working as a team to beat the odds? 

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of MGM’s Wizard of Oz, merchandise tied to the film’s original release is now on display at the Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas, complements of the Oz Club. Twice a year I switch the Oz Club’s display drawing primarily from material in my own collection. Although some 1939 merchandise is on display at the museum all the time — and the screen-used props are the real museum treasures — the 80th anniversary seemed a great opportunity to share more of the merchandise fans could find back when the film was new If you’ve been to the museum, you’ve likely seen the Sealtest cottage cheese glasses, Swift’s peanut butter spread cans, Kerk Guild’s figural soaps, and other vintage pieces in the museum’s permanent displays. Now you can add to that list the Ideal Dorothy and Scarecrow dolls, Bissel adult-sized sweeper, classroom valentines, record albums, rubber Tin Woodman, Whitman board and Castell card games, “movie edition” books from the US and England, Paint Book, coloring, book, and linen picture book. Both this display and the museum have a rayon scarves; I chose one with a different pattern and color combination. Glimpses of other pieces can be spotted in signage. Selecting items for this display was challenged by my need to keep in reserve enough material for a different display I’ll be supporting this summer in Kansas City. Vintage pieces like these are what turned my head back in the 1980s. Until then I was strictly an Oz book collector. But once I saw that sweet composition doll, I had to have her! Be watching the Museum’s website for updates. They have some exciting acquisitions and loans that should make it to your Oz new feeds anytime now. One bit of news I can share is that another phase of the facade has been completed. Dorothy and friends can now be spotted peering out of the second floor windows. A local artist was commissioned to create the original character designs. They were then printed on UV filtering material to help cut down the damaging rays in the second-story administrative areas.

  Planning Oz travels for 2019?  For many fans, the closest event can become an annual favorite. I am fortunate to be within an easy drive of Oztoberfest, the annual event hosted by The Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas. For the museum’s blog I, on behalf of the Club, provide them with a calendar of upcoming monthly events. This year’s Oct. 6 event was especially memorable because it opened with the unveiling of the museum’s marvelous new facade.   This past year’s Oztoberfest was a wonderful Saturday spent meeting Oz fans at the Oz Museum. I was stationed in the Museum’s little theater where a pair of local students put on a hand puppet show. Before performances I talked to the audience about Oz puppetry, and did a bit of show and tell with puppets that were mass-produced for kids. Fun time! The art exhibit in the Swogger Gallery featured Totos with surface designs by local artists. They were imaginative and fun! Additional pieces included a wonderful fiber monkey with Toto, as well as lots of framed paintings and photos. Not every piece had an Oz theme, but the majority certainly did.               The Oz Museum is always a fun place for fans to visit. It’s especially satisfying to see it crowded. There was a steady stream of families Saturday. I am delighted to report that the Oz Club gained a dozen new members! Many thanks to Lynn Beltz for promoting membership next to the IWOC display case in the museum.   Outside the streets of Wamego are now dotted with large, decorated  Toto sculptures. My favorite was in front of the library. His body is layered with page from the book he’s reading, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!   The days prior to the festival, many of us who attend as invited guests speak about Oz in the local schools. This year was particularly fun for me because I got to put together a presentation about international Oz.  Although most of my effort went into the digital presentation, the samples of international products I brought to pass around the class were the biggest hit with the students.

Looking for last-minute gift ideas?  Anyone still asking what you’d like this holiday season?  Oz makes gift shopping easy for my family; but I can seldom wait when it’s a book I’ve looked forward to. My reading pile is already tall, and chock full of gift ideas for Oz fans.  While many of these titles will be reviewed and explored in The Baum Bugle, I thought I’d also share recent titles that have found their way to me here on the President’s Corner blog.  A Star is Born; Judy Garland and the Film that Got Away is written by her daughter Lorna Luft with Jeffrey Vance. (2018, Running Press)  I have great expectations; Lorna wrote it!  A must have for Judy fans; I don’t expect a lot of Oz in these pages, but will read every word anyway. The Road to Oz, the Evolution, Creation, and Legacy of a Motion Picture Masterpiece is where there most certainly will be lots of Oz. Jay Scarfone and Bill Stillman have added this title to their growing list of significant Oz research books. Google around and you’ll find online interviews and numerous media stories. The authors say they’ve filled it with many never-before-published details, including some that contradict long-held beliefs about the beloved film. Intriguing!  (2018, The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group) Adapting The Wizard of Oz; Musical Versions from Baum to MGM and Beyond by Danielle Birkett and Dominic McHough (2018, Oxford Press) looks a bit more like academic than a “popular” read. Not many images, but loads of notes at the end of each chapter.  If you’d really like to learn something about Oz musical history, and I do, I’m guessing this book will take us there. The Wonderful Animated World of the Wizard of Oz will be a much faster read with black and white images on every one of its 54 pages. Kevin Scott Collier authored for Cartoon Research. I counted 18 different productions covered, although the last chapter, “CGI Oz Productions 2007-present” actually bundles several productions together.  (2018, CreateSpace) Rhys Thomas book from 1989 has been updated!  The Ruby Slippers of Oz; Thirty Years Later serves up 330 pages of focus on the most magical footwear ever.  The original book was as much mystery genre as any other;  Thomas traced the origins and current whereabouts of all the Ruby Slippers known to have actually been used in MGM’s production. I look forward to catching up with the journeys they’ve had these last three decades. Find it available at Lulu.com. (Sorry it’s not in photo pile, but this one’s wrapped and under the tree.) Twenty years in the making, Dee Michel’s Friends of Dorothy: Why Gay Boys and Gay Men Love The Wizard of Oz, is one of those books I’m especially proud to have. Dee began his research long ago, and I have had the opportunity to hear him speak at Oz Club gatherings since our 2000 convention in Bloomington, Indiana. I appreciate his many references in his book to our Club and the encouragement he’s received from us. More than that, of course, gay and straight readers curious about his topic will enjoy learning about his discoveries. (2018, Dark Ink Press) The Road to Wicked is topping my pile simply because it’s a bit smaller than other titles. It’s subtitled “The Marketing & Consumption of Oz from L. Frank Baum to Broadway.” I have great expectations. Three co-authors are credited, Kent Drummond, Susan Aronstein, and Terri L. Rittenburg, in this book that was described to me as sort of a text-book about the Oz brand.  The authors are marketing and English professors, so I am inclined to be believe that may be as concise a description as any. I can honestly say it’s the first Oz reference book I’ve thumbed through where I spotted pie charts!  (2018, Palgrave MacMillan) I wrote a review of The Magic Belt by Paul Miles Schneider for the winter issue of the Baum Bugle, because I read it the minute I got it. Like his previous two Oz novels, I feel like a kid from Baum’s day demanding to know “what next?” when it comes to the adventures of Donald Gardner and his friends. Paul’s book is self-published, and easily found online at Paul’s website or through Amazon.  Without spoilers, I’ll just explain that Paul’s main character had an encounter with Oz magic in this world that turned his world upside down. Written in an action/adventure style, Paul has made Oz as real as Baum ever did, allowing powers of good and evil to erupt, and create for Donald situations ripe for a young hero to prove himself. The Wizard of Oz; Where Is He Now? Is the other fiction title waiting for me. Written by Richard Mickelson, it’s illustrated in color by Patty Fleckenstein. Tate Publishing brings us this book, which was an early Christmas gift to me from an Oz friend. The story follows the adventures of an extra-small Munchkin girl who was stowed away in the Wizard’s basket when it left the Emerald City behind at the end of The Wizard of Oz. I won’t be able to tell you more until I read it! Born Criminal: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Radical Suffragist is a fascinating biography of L. Frank Baum’s remarkable mother-in-law. She truly was a radical suffragist, an outspoken feminist, an abolitionist, and a brilliant writer who proposed ideas in the late 1800s that still challenge us today. Author Angelica Carpenter is a personal friend (and past Oz Club president) who sent me an early copy. I could not put it down. (2018, South Dakota Historical Society Press) The Munchkins of Oz; Legends, Myths and Realities by Stephen Hoover appears to have been self-published in 2013. I stumbled across it looking for something else entirely, and went ahead and ordered a copy anyway.  Looks to be a quick read at 128 pages.  Nearly all the sources credited are websites, which does not make me confident I’ll find anything particularly new. However if there’s a Munchkin-loving gift recipient on your list, it might please. I’m quite late to the party with Oz, the Marvel Omnibus.  The 2014 publication was released with a $125 list price that gave me pause. With used copies now on the market and the occasional comic shop offering its remaining copies at discounted rates, I was pleased to add it to my collection at last. This book gathers the six Skottie Young/Eric Shanower Marvel books into a single volume along with the Marvel Wizard of Oz Sketchbook and the Oz Primer. It’s also about the size and heft of three bricks; you are getting a lot for your money! Speaking of weight, last year Bibliographia Baumiana was likely weighing down a few stockings. It remains available at Shop.OzClub.org. (If you’re a Club member, be sure to select the hard- or soft-cover volume with member pricing.)  This comprehensive guide to collecting L. Frank Baum’s non-Oz writings hits 400 pages and still keeps going.  Introductory essays by W. Neal Thompson (we all know him as Bill) are really fascinating to read and the bibliographic details provided are precisely what Baum collectors need to help gauge the edition, and therefore relative value, of any Baum book in their collection. That can’t be all. I know Yookoohoos of Oz by Paul Dana with illustrations by Vincent Myrand was published this year. Both are friends who do fine work.  Oz fiction readers also might consider The Lost Tales of Oz, a collection of 18 new short stories in the Baum tradition. I’ve recently picked up some fascinating foreign language editions. Simply recommending would be an endless list this year. But my intent with this blog was to work my way through the pile currently sitting on the Oz room coffee table. And ta-da!!!  I’ve now done it. Please, if you have additional titles in your own reading pile, tell us about them in the comments section. And most of all, enjoy your holiday reading!