TALES OF THE WIZARD

by Patty Tobias

Originally published in The Baum Bugle, vol. 37, no. 1 (Autumn 1993), pgs. 19–20

Citations

Chicago 17th ed.:

Tobias, Patty. “Tales of the Wizard.” Baum Bugle 37, no. 2 (1993): 19–20.

MLA 9th ed.:

Tobias, Patty. “Tales of the Wizard.” The Baum Bugle, vol. 37, no. 2, 1993, pp. 19–20.

(Note: In print, this article was supplemented with photographs and illustrations that have not been reproduced here. However, typographical errors have been left in place to accurately reflect the printed version.)

 

When you entered Brenda and Harry Baum’s house in Bass Lake, Indiana, the first thing you saw was the staircase to the bedrooms. To the right was the meeting room, full of tables and Oz exhibits. And perpendicular to the staircase was a small couch. My first morning at my first Oz convention, I woke up early—probably 5:30 or 6 in the morning—positive as only a ten-year-old can be that something wonderful must be happening downstairs. So I went running down the stairs and when I had gotten two or three steps from the bottom, I grabbed hold of the post and swung myself through the air into the big meeting room. Much to my surprise, I didn’t land on the floor. I landed on Bill Eubank, who until that moment had been blissfully asleep on the perpendicular sleeper sofa. It would be hard to determine which of us was more surprised.

It’s a credit to Bill’s personality that we became fast friends after that inauspicious beginning. Of course, Bill was every kid’s ideal of the perfect adult. He paid attention to kids and had a great rapport with us. He dressed up in costumes, drew pictures, painted faces, invented things, knew magic, worked as a clown, made puppets, and sang in a wonderful cabaret tenor voice. That first year, he spent the weekend alternately as the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion, complete with elaborate costumes and a different voice for each.

On Saturday night, Bill put on a puppet show of The Marvelous Land of Oz. The children were seated up front on the floor where we could look up and see Baum’s story come to life. In my memory, that puppet show was one of the best productions I ever saw in my whole life. It had music and explosions and smoke and I never forgot it. Twenty-five years later, Bill brought an audio tape of that show to another convention. Listening to it, I could recreate that splendid moment from my childhood all over again.

The following year, 1966, Brenda Baum asked Bill and me to help her out. Standing in front of Ozcot Lodge was a lifesized Scarecrow. Sadly, the Scarecrow had been left out in the rain and had gotten soggy. Bill and I spent the better part of an afternoon taking out the moldy straw and re-stuffing the Scarecrow with newspaper so he would be ready for the convention visitors. With Bill there to help me, that Scarecrow seemed alive as we took him apart and put him back together again.

Over the years, Bill performed often for Oz convention audiences. My favorite, after the puppet show, was the year he did a magic show. Again, the children were down front where they could see everything—everything except how the tricks were done. Bill was dressed as The Wizard himself and, with the help of Carrie Hedges and Bill Van Camp, gave us the best magic show ever. One moment stands out. Sitting on the piano throughout the show was a black and white portrait of the Wizard. Late in the program, he draped the picture with a scarf, and said a magic word; when he removed the fabric, poof, the picture was now in color. Like Bill himself, that stunt was magical and sweet.

Whenever Bill arrived at a convention, he would unpack the goodies he’d created for that year. One year, he made a cardboard version of the old stereopticons, which he called a Stereo-Ozicon, complete with three-dimensional pictures of the Oz characters for viewing. Another year, he brought a big black wheel about three inches high with slots cut in it. The wheel stood on a little stand and paper drawings of the Oz characters fit inside the wheel. If you looked at the wheel from the side as Bill set the wheel spinning, the characters came to life, recreating an early form of animated motion pictures.

Bill always made decorations for the Ozmopolitan conventions: hanging cardboard balloons with the Wizard inside waving at us or elaborate signs to be placed near the punch bowl. For years he has drawn Fred Meyer’s Ozzy Christmas cards, depicting Oz books not yet written or published.

Bill never seemed to realize just how much his talents were appreciated. The year he won the L. Frank Baum Memorial Award, I was sitting across the table from him as Fred Meyer started reading off his accomplishments. Not until the very end, did Bill realize he was the person being honored. As he stood up to accept his plaque, his eyes were rimmed with red as he fought back tears. He was so moved by the tribute, he could barely speak. I think it had never occurred to him that he would be chosen—he had not written any scholarly articles or conducted any research. But what he had done over the years was just as valuable. He’d brought joy to all of us.

Three years ago, Bill appeared as The Wizard in The Oz Radio Show and quite rightly got the biggest ovation of anyone in the cast. He was noticeably touched and pleased as the audience cheered and cheered. Bringing his Oz career full circle, Bill created one more special moment at the 1992 Ozmopolitan convention, when he once again produced a puppet show, this time of Ruth Plumly Thompson’s A Day in Oz. But Bill’s greatest talent always lay, not just in shows he put on or the gadgets he created, but in the love he engendered in children and adults.

One former child who would always remember Bill said, “No one believed in Oz more than Bill did. He was not a rich man, but he really put his heart and soul into it; he spent a lot of money just to make puppets and gadgets for little kids. Even after we grew up, he always made us feel like children again. Bill Eubank was the heart and soul of childhood.”

 

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