IS A SPECIAL GUEST AT THE LOS ANGELES PREMIERE OF“WICKED”
By John Fricke
[Above: Gabriel Gale is known to Oz fans everywhere as the originator of the AGES OF OZ fantasy book series, as the illustrator of THE ART OF OZ (the coffee-table volume compilation of his drawings), and as a regular and honored celebrity at Chittenango’s annual OZ-Stravaganza®! festival every June. Currently, Gabe’s working on a new project with a stellar Hollywood “dream team,” and – as such (and as you can see above) — he was invited to the Hollywood premiere of the movie version of WICKED on Saturday, November 9th. 😊 Details below!]
I know it was promised that this month’s blog would offer the third (and final) reminiscence about the 50th anniversary celebrations of MGM’s THE WIZARD OF OZ back in 1989 – and I hereby vow that such mini-history will be wrapped up in our next entry. However . . . the BIG news on the present-day OZ horizon is the coming (within days!) cross-country premiere of WICKED, the first of a two-part motion picture extravaganza based on the legendary stage musical. Drawn from Gregory Maguire’s novel, WICKED has just launched its 22nd season on Broadway, and that electrifying entertainment is now being brought to the screen by its composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz, its librettist Winnie Holzman, and its producer Marc Platt.
For the past two weeks, the media has been jampacked with coverage of advance screenings of WICKED in such diverse locales as New York, London, Mexico, and Australia. On Saturday evening, November 9th, however, Glinda’s ball dropped (so to speak) in Southern California, with a smashing premiere at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Los Angeles Music Center.
And as one of our prized “Oz operatives” was there as a special guest, we didn’t want to wait any longer to bring his comments about that glorious occasion to all of you!
Some of Gabriel Gale’s specific Oz connections are referenced in the caption under one of his WICKED premiere photos at the top of this blog. He and I have been friends and compatriots for almost 18 years – an association that was commemorated when I was asked to interview eight “royal citizens” of Oz; their recollections provided the text for his most recent book, THE ART OF OZ (2022):
Since then, Gabe’s projects have diversified, and one of his major professional considerations across the past two years has been a happy creative amalgamation with the aforementioned Ms. Holzman and Messrs. Schwartz and Platt. (Details to come, as they occur!) But given that association – and Gabe’s overall dedication to Oz – these current coworkers saw to it that he was also an essential and special guest attendee at the Los Angeles WICKED evening. Meanwhile, Gabe’s friendship with Chittenango and the All Things Oz Museum™ has long since become “a given,” and he graciously agreed to describe the magic of November 9th for all of us here, too!
In preparation for the event, Gabe “bought a green velvet tuxedo jacket with satin lapels at the State & Liberty Men’s Shop” (and notes, “I plan to wear it again!”). Stephen Schwartz’s incomparable associate, Michael Cole, offered advance, detailed instructions about approaching the downtown Music Center, for as Gabe reports, “There was so much going on.” There are five different theaters and concert halls in that acclaimed complex, and for the WICKED event, “The lower level of the huge block was set up so that the crowds of cheering fans who’d gathered on street level could watch the arriving celebrities — and the paparazzi could claim their pictures and videos. This was overseen by security, who were always in control.”
A long staircase led to the upper level and courtyard, which is where the theater entrances are located, and where Gabe and his companion walked into a wonderland of WICKED. “There were five or six ‘vignettes’ of film-related exhibitions that had been assembled and mounted – including star costumes from the movie, Lego recreations of the WICKED characters of OZ, and a raft of various Lexus cars, wrapped in WICKED designs – clockwork and otherwise.
“And, of course, there was a major green carpet to walk to enter the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion itself.
“Once inside, we were seated in the center orchestra – and surrounded by those principally involved in the motion picture itself. We were three rows in front of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, one row in front of Michelle Yeoh, and six feet to the right of Jeff Goldblum. Stephen was sitting near Ariana and Cynthia, and when we turned and waved at him, he got up, ‘traversed’ his way out of his row, came down to ours, and ‘traversed’ his way in to hug and welcome us.” (Such kindness and largesse on the part of composer/lyricist Schwartz will comes as no surprise to the hundreds who remember his interview and musical performances onstage at Chittenango’s OZ-Stravaganza®! in 2018 – and his alternately “live” and pretaped greetings to attendees at the festivals in 2023 and 2024.)
Among a flock of other attending stars, Gabe was quick to notice the devotion paid by both fans and movie personnel to Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel – the original Broadway stars of WICKED. “Marc Platt had the two of them up onstage at the Chandler with all the principal cast performers from the film. They’re at the far right in this photo.” Otherwise, from left, below: producer Marc Platt, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Marissa Bode, Ethan Slater, and Keala Settle. (Their Ozian identities, respectively: Glinda, Elphaba, Fiyero, Madame Morrible, the Wizard of Oz, Nessarose, Boq, and Miss Coddle; the latter is a new character, added to the film plot.)
Amidst such excitement, Gabe also had the opportunity to briefly meet Ariana and Cynthia, aka G[a]linda and Elphaba. His “take”: “When you’re near or with them, you can feel their ‘superstar’ energy, but what predominates (in the case of both women) are the other qualities. They’re sweet and warm – and loving and inviting and caring.”
And the film itself? Well, here’s Gabe “prior to the preem,” in an exclamatory, heralding, “acclamatory” pose . . . already confident in what he was about to see. For his post-performance review, please keep reading below this photographic hallelujah! 😊
“It’s GREAT . . . an incredible movie. Director John Chu couldn’t have done any aspect of it better, and it’s all right up there on screen to see. Everybody involved is working at the top of their game: all the creative and technical components, the cast, musicians, set and costume designers, the crew, the special effects artists . . .. The result is as perfect a picture as it could be.
“And at the end, there was overwhelming excitement: a screaming, standing, cheering ovation.”
—–
Two things to add: A heartfelt “thank you” — and gratitude and appreciation — to Our Man in Hollywood, Gabriel Gale!
And – if even necessary, here’s the reminder: WICKED opens this coming week. Y’all GO! 😊
Above: Artwork detail from the cover of the weekly “TV Screen” supplement to the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL (Sunday, December 11, 1960). It heralds that evening’s network telecast of THE WIZARD OF OZ – the third in what would be a virtually annual series through 1998. Echoing their approach of the preceding year (when Red Skelton and daughter Valentina did the honors), CBS engaged one of their top series “names” (and offspring) to host the film. Shown here, bottom left, are Richard Boone and his seven-year-old son Peter; Boone was the star of HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL. The OZ drawing itself was prepared by JOURNAL staff artist Einar V. Quist, and the original clipping was one of some 500 illustrations in THE WIZARD OF OZ: THE OFFICIAL 50th ANNIVERSARY PICTORIAL HISTORY coffee-table book of 1989, currently celebrating the 35th anniversary of its publication.
Welcome to Part Two of our birthday salute to the best-selling, full-length history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s 1939 production of THE WIZARD OF OZ, first published 35 years ago this past August to commemorate the film’s 50th anniversary in 1989. Its immediate and gleeful reception by Oz enthusiasts, film buffs, critics, and the public made the emerald-clothbound volume a happy success for me, Jay Scarfone, and William Stillman. “The green book” – as it’s often been termed – broke considerable new ground in telling AND illustrating the back-story of the OZ motion picture; it’s been gratifying and delightful to find that it continues to please both new and long-standing fans.
All those years ago, the book’s actual creation saw it burgeon from a proposed 200-picture offering — with brief comment and captions — to a final product encompassing 500 pictures and a full text. Many people continue to approach me for details on “how it all came to be,” whether the questions are posed at Chittenango’s OZ-Stravaganza! or other Oz festivals and events. So it seemed the 85th anniversary might be a good time to kick across the saga for posterity, and this is actually the second installment in the retelling. (Part one may be found below, at the conclusion of this entry.)
That initial account concluded in September 1987, when I approached Jack Haley, Jr. (Son of Tin Man!) for advice on how to get an okay from MGM to seek a publisher for such a book. Jack was way ahead of me; even before we met, he’d taken a copy of our 20-page outline/proposal to Roger Mayer, chief executive officer of the Turner Entertainment Company (TEC), recommending that I be given such permission. Roger was a long-time, respected official with a renowned reputation in the industry. (It would be impossible to tabulate how many of his compatriots were thrilled when he was presented with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ “Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award” Oscar in 2005.) Roger was also a fast-thinking, quick-moving decision maker, and I soon had a letter from him saying that the studio would cooperate with me and allow access to surviving MGM paperwork and art for use in the book. With that major hurdle surmounted, we could move ahead with what we had given a working title of THE WIZARD OF OZ: A PICTORIAL HISTORY.
Back home in New York City in autumn 1987, I became acquainted with Carole Orgel and Lois Sloane of TEC’s licensing and merchandising division. This was initially a bit overwhelming, as they immediately, unquestioningly, and basically blew the padlock off the hinges of the surviving MGM archive for me – even though Roger’s letter had merely implied that the company would allow reasonable entrée and use. I figured I needed to be honest and remind Carole of this, but when I expressed that thought, she simply said, “Hey – word has come down through the channels that ‘ROGER MAYER WANTS THIS BOOK!’” And that, in effect, meant that everything was mine to peruse.
Who was I to argue? 😊
Armed with such avowed corporate cooperation – and the proposal and the “assembled art” portfolio I’d assembled of material from the collections of we three authors – our agent Mitchell Rose went to work. He called just a few weeks later to announce that Warner Books had made an offer to publish a 256-page, hardcover, 8.5×11 inch volume, with sixty-four pages in full color. Even Mitch, a young pro, was thrilled; MGM/TEC were impressed; and the three “creators” were alternately jubilant, cautious, wide-eyed, and awed. (Well, I was, anyway!)
By March 1988, the contracts were signed, and they specifically called for (among other things) approximately 250 illustrations in the finished product. Of course, our collections were the foundation for much of the vintage and contemporary Oz memorabilia and merchandising we planned to use. It was decided, though, that we would plow some of the advance money right back into the project by sending me on a research jaunt to the West Coast. The admitted hope was that this might turn up a dozen or so rare pictures to add to the hundreds that Jay, Bill, and I already had on hand.
I undertook that trip for three weeks in April 1988. It was not only a revelation but provided the almost daily feeling that God was looking down and saying (in effect), “You want to do a book? I’ll GIVE you a book!” Rather than “a dozen or so” visuals, that journey turned up more than four hundred “new” photographs, studio memos, special effects work sheets, Technicolor test slides, clippings, and scores of script pages – most of which had been unpublished or at least unseen for almost 50 years.
Much of the treasure trove was located at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. One of their newer acquisitions at that time was the John Truwe Collection; he’d been a make-up man at MGM for decades and had saved a handful of test stills from each of the many films on which he’d worked. THE WIZARD OF OZ, however, was the exception. There were more than seventy make-up and costume test reference photos that he’d retained from that production (most of them unfamiliar); they provided glowing visual proof of many behind-the-scenes rumors and/or anecdotes. We used a lot of them in the book, of course, and here are a few reminders of what had been, until 1989, hidden treasure.
Judy Garland’s Dorothy went through multiple hair styles, make-up applications, ruby slipper designs, and different dresses as MGM tried to transform the 16-year-old entertainer into a Kansas youngster of 12. There are many pictures of those efforts that more-or-less obliterate Dorothy in favor of lookalikes for Lewis Carroll’s Alice – or Heidi, Pippi Longstocking, and Marcia Brady (the latter decades ahead of the fact). But here’s Judy in her # 2 frock, and this one would not be out-of-place on one of the von Trapp Family Singers:
As a preteen, I’d been fascinated by a quote from a 1939 MGM press release, excerpted in the text for Alla T. Ford and Dick Martin’s delightful book, THE MUSICAL FANTASIES OF L. FRANK BAUM (1959). It offered that OZ had “terrified Hollywood by unique production problems. Characteristic of innumerable dilemmas was that posed by the flying monkeys. MGM borrowed wings of giant condors from museums, attached them to midgets dressed in monkey suits, who were hung on wires and manipulated from an elaborate control board.” Well, that made for a great story, but certainly none of the actual movie simians bore such an on-screen appearance. Imagine my thrill, however — nearly thirty years later — to find visual proof that some sort of attempt or variation along those lines had indeed been tested at the studio. (Notice, too, the electrical cord on the floor, trailing off to the right side of the photo. Battery packs would be used to “flap” the small wings in the ultimate film, but electricity was employed here for test purposes.)
I wouldn’t meet Jerry Maren until the actual 50th anniversary of OZ in 1989. But from that day on, he and wife Elizabeth – a preeminent “Munchkin by Marriage” — became steadfast and remarkable friends and coworkers. Thus, there was some exceptional foreshadowing for me in the 1988 discovery of this next costume test shot. Jerry’s flanked here by his “Lollipop Guild” compatriots: Harry Doll on his right, Jackie Gerlich on his left. (The signboard is incorrect.) Note that wigs and make-up were yet-to-come as part of their costuming.
It was a fortunate thing that I first examined all these extraordinary mementoes in a library . . . or I would have been voicing a lot of exclamatory reactions. I think this “discovery” created the greatest initial thrill for me, as there were decades of reports that Gale Sondergaard had been cast, costumed, and tested as a beautiful Wicked Witch of the West — only to leave the production when it was decided she’d appear instead as a typical old harridan. I found the latter “look” among Truwe’s archive, as well, but the best image was this first one: the slinky, sequined, eye-shadowed Evil-Queen-of-SNOW-WHITE-styled visage. (That night, when I got back to the Hollywood hotel from the library, I called Jay and Bill long distance to exult about the existence of such a photo.)
Meanwhile, the Academy held much other amazing material. There was the Tom Tarr Technicolor Collection: roughly 190 35mm film frames, each taken from WIZARD test footage. These captured between-the-scenes and often casual moments never visible in the actual film. There were also the personal collections of the newspaper columns written by Hedda Hopper, Louella Parsons, and Sidney Skolsky. That fact that they’d been gathered made a much simpler task of following the OZ commentary of three preeminent daily reporters of that era.
Perhaps best of all, the Academy possessed some of the papers of A. Arnold “Buddy” Gillespie, the gentleman whose genius and staff were responsible for the OZ special effects. (All of them were, of course, created “out of whole cloth,” so to speak; there was no CGI in 1938-39.) Buddy’s files included the forms he was required to fill out to explain the dates, costs, and procedures attendant to creating OZ film magic. Paramount among his sorcery — to this day — might well be the “twister,” which he formulated at a time in history when there were only still photograph captures of actual tornadoes, plus a single, 30-second bit of grainy black-and-white film footage of a Caribbean waterspout. (We used a tornado-in-repose picture in the 50th ANNIVERSARY book; here’s a more-recently-discovered frame of the Gillespie “cyclone” in action as it’s about to envelop the farmhouse. This bit of film was trimmed from the OZ rough cut prior to its premiere, possibly because it proved too intense for the youngsters in the OZ “sneak preview” audience.)
The Academy library had other photos of major interest, too. The theory has been that MGM, back in the day, circulated very few OZ stills that depicted the actual filming process; by that I mean, on-set or set-adjacent photos that showed the lights, cameras, and non-acting personnel. The rationale attendant to this hesitation on the part of the studio has been ascribed to the idea that such pictures – seen in the press or in the showcases or lobbies of theaters — would break the spell of the fantasy on screen. This, however, didn’t mean such images weren’t taken, and among others, we found a distant “capture” that took in both acting and activity:
There were also stills from deleted moments of OZ, including several from the excision I most regret. It’s the sixty seconds when 300+ green-clad Emerald Citizians – singing, dancing, marching, or viewing — welcomed the Fab Five back to town as the Scarecrow brandished the broomstick of the fallen Witch of the West. The principals aren’t visible in this capture – but it surely denotes an extraordinary musical minute that I would put back into OZ, pronto. (If only it existed!)
Unfortunately, most of MGM’s actual production paperwork for their films was destroyed circa 1970. Yet the legal files remained and were housed at Turner at the time I was researching; that information was made available to me, as well. (Another appreciative salute here for the trust of Roger Mayer, by way of Jack Haley, Jr.) Those papers included astonishing background data and many remarks — or even fragments of remarks — that could be assembled with other facts to paint a word picture in accompaniment to our ever-growing stacks of illustrations.
The University of Southern California furnished another significant cache of material. Its Arthur Freed and Roger Edens Collections contained surviving memos, discarded lyric sheets, and stacks of script pages that contributed many revelatory Ozian insights – even for someone who’d already spent several decades researching the film for fun.
At this point in the story, it’s important to note that (almost despite ourselves) we found the book evolving from a planned, simple pictorial into a complete retelling of the making, editing, promotion, reception, and subsequent history of MGM’s WIZARD. There were two primary reasons for this: first, such background was required if a reader was to make adequate sense of the mountain of art the book would possess. Of equal importance, however, was the unexpected actuality that so much of the material that turned up was new or provided clarification (and even major correction) of some of the hitherto accepted “facts” behind the film.
Meanwhile, material continued to pile up from other West Coast sources – notably those somehow connected to the production. Sarah, the youngest daughter of OZ director Victor Fleming, made available remarkable material from her father’s WIZARD scrapbook. Robert Baum, great-grandson of L. Frank himself, shared another amazing scrapbook, this one compiled in 1938-39 by Maud Gage Baum, Frank’s widow. It contained a mass of rare clippings, telegrams, advertisements, an invitation to the movie premiere — even a ticket stub! Linda, the daughter of OZ producer Mervyn LeRoy, gave us access to her father’s papers. Sid Luft, longtime manager and once husband of Judy Garland, offered WIZARD items from the material Judy herself had maintained throughout her life and which he had preserved since her passing. Jane Lahr, daughter of the Cowardly Lion, answered questions about her father.
Furthermore, the generosity of other Oz and Judy Garland collectors made for preeminent blessings. Bill Chapman possessed five original color transparencies of the OZ cast, including a classic portrait of Dorothy and Toto. We used all of ’em in the book, and although this one has since been seen everywhere, it first appeared in the 50th ANNIVERSARY tome:
I’d been a member of The International Wizard of Oz Club, Inc. (ozclub.org) since 1962, and several compatriots I’d met during my first year in the organization jumped in — more than 25 years later — to offer rarities from their own archives: Fred M. Meyer, Dick Martin, and Douglas and David Greene. Rob Roy MacVeigh was a younger affiliate but an “MGM-er” from way back and every bit a match to our excitement about the book. Marc Lewis allowed us to borrow all forty of his first editions of the Oz book series, so that their covers could be professionally photographed for the three-page spread demonstrating the scope of Oz far beyond Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Woolsey Ackerman tracked down one of the OZ assistant directors, Wallace Worsley — Woolsey and I interviewed him together — and then also discovered an Adrian collector who owned and entrusted us with the loan of four of that genius’s original Munchkin costume sketches. (See pages 32 and 33 in the book.) The movie’s “Munchkin Coroner,” Meinhardt Raabe, was a longtime friend to the Oz Club, and he sat for a warm, detailed interview with Jay and Bill, while other audio and printed interviews were made available through the Academy, historians, and fans.
Further, the project was a marvelous way to make friends. Buddy Ebsen, the original OZ Tin Man, was overjoyed when I was able to point him to the location of some of his costume and make-up test stills – and even those of “his” Tin Man in the few scenes he was able to film before becoming ill. He was ever interested in revisiting the crazy association he had with OZ, although his remembrance turned rather wry when he recalled the heat and heft suffered in wearing two costumes at once. He’s shown here with Ray Bolger and Bert Lahr in the sequence where the friends of Dorothy don coats of the Winkie Guard:
By August 1988, we’d accumulated more than 700 images from which to choose the illustrations, and the book grew to a 500+ picture project. We next dug in to write the captions for all that art, endeavoring to get as much information into the wordage as possible. This was not only for the sake of imparting history but to minimize the amount of actual text writing yet to do. Jay and Bill did the majority of the labeling of the promotional material, along with that to accompany past, interim, and present-day merchandising. They also contributed first drafts of chapters 14 and 20 to discuss the Ozzy film-related products.
I wrote the remainder of the text and captions between mid-August and December, trepidatiously delivering the manual-portable-typewriter manuscript just prior to the holidays. I also took another jaunt to the West Coast, spending ten October days to check out several new illustrations that had come to light since the first swath of research in April. Meanwhile, Mitchell Rose and/or Warner Books were becoming ever more revved about the project’s possibilities. In their fervor, they sold OZ to British publishers Hodder & Stoughton, as well as to the Book of the Month Club and to the Movie/Entertainment Book Club. Amid all this, Turner Entertainment – in the mildest tone of inquiry – asked if we would mind changing the subtitle from A PICTORIAL HISTORY to (what was, to say the least, an honor designation) THE OFFICIAL 50th ANNIVERSARY PICTORIAL HISTORY. Mind you, at that point, no one had read a single word of the manuscript. Talk about the magic of Oz!
Our man at Warner Books, Jim Frost, returned the manuscript to me in early January 1989, fresh from the copy editor. As someone who’d never before written a book, I was terrified of that meeting, fearing that wholesale chopping, rearranging, and dismissal might have occurred, been recommended . . . or demanded. Instead, there some minor “cosmetic” changes — and a few suggestions for clarification here and there. But that was it. My pendulum quickly swung the other way, and I pointedly asked Jim if it wouldn’t be best to have someone more critical look at (if not take a hatchet to) all those chapters. He paid me a compliment that eventually went to the hearts and souls of all of us Ozians who’d worked so diligently to assemble the raw materials: “John . . . very seldom do we receive this seamless a manuscript.”
Happy day? To be sure – but there were more of those in the immediate offing. The copy was in galley by February, and I spent many days through the spring at the NYC design studios of Sylvain Michaelis and Irene Carpelis, the independent firm hired to create the physical book. They involved me in every department, and ideas flew around the office. We were all so much on the same page (. . .) that immediate coalescence was the order of each session. At their request, I keyed the artwork into the text and assembled the color materials on their 64 pages so that correct prominence was given to the best of the 1939 (and beyond) MGM-related images. We all agreed on green binding and endpapers, and to 1930s art deco as an appropriate, tangible through-line for the page-by page appearance. Without exception, Sylvain, Irene & Co. were patience-squared in dealing with the incessant Ozzy perk (i.e., Fricke) at hand.
And then . . . to the surprise of all of us: The entire text FIT, all the desired pictures FIT, and the book came to exactly 256 pages – with no deletions, several last-minute additions, and the inclusion of twice as many visuals — and four or five times as many words –as was thought possible.
By the end of May, it was done, and Warner Books sent off the page mechanicals and art to a printer in Tennessee. In late June and over the 4th of July weekend, Warner representative Charles Morea forsook holiday time and flew down to oversee the final printing process. The first book was delivered to Warner’s in New York on July 18th, and Jim Frost called to alert me at the end of that business day: “We have ONE copy. We need it back here by 10 a.m. tomorrow. But if you come over now, you can take it home overnight.” Moreover, the finished product had already swept through the offices that afternoon, and when I arrived, the head of Warner Books came down to Jim’s office to congratulate us. (There’s an additional, very personal saga to the rest of that evening, but we’ll have to discuss that in person. 😊 Meanwhile. this picture wasn’t taken on that specific date — but very soon thereafter:)
And all THAT was just the beginning! I promise to wrap this up next month in a reminiscence about the nationwide tidal wave of enthusiasm caused by “the green book,” for it immediately became a surprisingly pivotal part of the overall 50th anniversary celebrations. There was also an additional, concurrent project on which I was asked to work, plus a multi-city promotional and “signing” tour arranged on behalf of that second product and the book . . . plus TV, radio, and Macy’s – all for MGM’s wonderful WIZARD OF OZ.
One anecdote still makes me laugh. The poster above was on display in countless cross-country bookstores from late July until Christmas 1989. A cherished friend from college days, Lillian Polus Gerstner, managed one such emporium, and she was a “theatrical” as well; we’d done several shows together and shared our enthusiasms for many things. When the OZ poster arrived at her shop, she was excited to discover there was such a book in the offing but gave the oversize “ad” only a cursory glance, planning to display it as soon when she had time. She also (as she told me later), planned to call her Oz-obsessed old buddy, John Fricke, to make sure he knew about the existence of such a volume. (Hands up, please, all Ozites reading here whose entire acquaintance of family, friends, associates — and strangers met on a bus — SOMEhow knew you were OZ fans, because you discussed it MULTIPLE hours a day. Every day. 😊 ) A few hours later, Lillian took a break to unfurl the poster and was astounded at one of the names on the book cover. As she did tell me later that night, “It made sense, of course . . . but it sure was a surprise!”
“THE WIZARD OF OZ — THE OFFICIAL 50th ANNIVERSARY PICTORIAL HISTORY” IS NOW 35 😊
Part One – By John Fricke
Above: This is the front dust jacket cover of the book that celebrated the golden anniversary of MGM’s THE WIZARD OF OZ just 35 years ago this summer . . . and on into that autumn and winter. Once the volume hit stores the third week of July 1989, there was such an immediate public response that Warner Books was propelled into two additional hard-cover printings well before the end of August.
This summer, the media launched – with doubtless more to come — all the expected (and still darn thrilling!) hoopla warranted by the 85th anniversary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s 1939 motion picture, THE WIZARD OF OZ. There’s a revitalized DVD package, a raft of glowing new products and merchandising, a schedule of special screenings and festivals, and a coming documentary. There’s also a mounting series of YouTube-posted “reaction videos,” wherein numerous young adults have recorded themselves as they watch the movie for the first time. (Some of them are instantly gleeful. Others initially manifest or feign blasé sophistication. Yet all end up enthralled and rapturous by the end of the picture.) Social media, too, is in its own furor, mingling new peaks of Ozzy enthusiasm with unfortunate and burgeoning idiocies of inaccurate declarations, gossip, and dark-dark-dark stupidity.
Mostly, however, it’s once again been about joy and magic and memories – which brings me to the topic of this month’s blog. Amidst all the recent Ozzy Facebook offerings, I’ve been grateful and proud to encounter a raft of postings about THE WIZARD OF OZ: THE OFFICIAL 50TH ANNIVERSARY PICTORIAL HISTORY. That was the first of the eight Fricke books to date, and it was done in conjunction with collectors Jay Scarfone and William Stillman. As noted in the caption above, it hit stores in July 1989, enjoyed three hardcover printings in just seven weeks, and reappeared as an oversize trade paperback in 1990 (and again in 1998). Originally bound in an emerald-colored covering, it instantly became known among fans as “the green book” — nomenclature it retains to this day. 😊
I hope any pride-between-the-lines here – and as I write along – will be pardonable. That “green book” continues to inspire exhilaration and gratitude in me; it was more-or-less the launching pad for these past 35 years of Oz and/or Judy Garland related activities. Without getting into the specifics, I am in awe at how many of them there have been, and I am bound to be thankful.
Anyway, I thought a look-back on how that first project came into existence might be of interest, particularly in terms of the discoveries made along the way. Oz devotees continue to this day to present copies to be autographed; they pose questions about the content; and if they’re comparatively new Ozians, they kindly and/or rabidly exult over the art, the anecdotes, and all.
That book essentially grew out of a lunch date here in New York City roughly four years earlier. Brad Saiontz was visiting from Boston and reached out to me as a fellow Oz fan; he was also a keen collector and showed me a couple of exciting OZ stills I’d never before seen. (Little did anyone know in the mid-1980s how many mountains of 1938-39 OZ visuals would come to light in succeeding decades!) What made Brad’s pictures noteworthy was the fact that they had been taken during the initial two weeks of OZ filming in October 1938. This was when Judy was a blonde, wearing a different wig, dress, make-up, and shoes; when Ray Bolger and Margaret Hamilton’s make-ups were peculiar; and when Buddy Ebsen was playing the Tin Woodman. (Just below is one of the photos Brad shared back in 1985 or so that provided me with an absolute jolt of elation. In addition to the difference in the characters’ appearances, you can see that even the Yellow Brick Road is differently paved – and not curbed. Below this first visual are two other stills which turned up later in my own research and also date from those early days on the set. Once again, Judy is a blonde Dorothy, shown here with Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West; the latter wears a different make-up, and her hair is in a sort of Marlo (THAT GIRL) Thomas – or Lea (GLEE) Michele – flip. Beneath this, the Famous Four are posed as they hope to escape up the staircase in the Witch’s Castle. In addition to “Lolita Gale of Kansas” (as she’s been affectionately termed), you’ll see the Scarecrow with a make-up that offers a certain “Mummy of Oz” quality – along with Buddy Ebsen as the Tin Man.
Back to that opportune meeting with Brad. As his passion for OZ was most certainly a match for mine, we fell to discussing the idea that a majorly illustrated book about the film’s creation might be a great idea for the coming 50th anniversary. We envisioned it, from the onset, primarily as a pictorial; THE MAKING OF THE WIZARD OF OZ book was then not even a decade old, and it was pretty much universally held that the backstory of the picture had been therein told by Aljean Harmetz. Meanwhile, my own college degree was in journalism, and – as of 1985 – I’d been working in entertainment-adjacent public relations for more than fifteen years, so I had writing credentials. I was not, however, a collector on Brad’s level, or that of Bill Stillman, whom I knew through The International Wizard of Oz Club; thus, Bill was readily invited to come on board, too.
To summarize the next couple of years: Michael Patrick Hearn, another Oz Club friend (since 1963!), introduced me to his book agent, Mitchell Rose, who endorsed the John/Brad/Bill concept and outlined the necessity for a proposal and portfolio sample of art which he could eventually circulate to publishers. While the Harmetz tome had included behind-the-scenes photos and reproductions of memos, NO book – to that date – had reproduced any of the beautiful (and COLORFUL) OZ posters, lobby cards, magazine ads, rotogravure pages, or samples from decades of Oz movie merchandising. Nor could one find anywhere depicted in color the covers of all forty (plus!) of the original Oz series – or the foreign edition movie-tie books – or the glorious exploitation aids for the film prepared by MGM for its theatrical engagements. (And etc.!) Because of the heavily promoted Technicolor splendor of OZ, many Kodachrome images were taken of the various stars and scenes in 1938-39. Most, however, had disappeared into long-forgotten filing cabinets and storage units, although we hoped to locate at least some of those true-color images for the book. (I’m about to get a bit ahead of the story, but here’s one we did! Please note the barely visible string used to tie Bert Lahr’s tail into the appropriate angle for a photograph.)
So, Mitchell, Bill, and I were increasingly het-up about our ideas and the potential for the endeavor. Brad, however, unexpectedly dropped out of sight — and communication — for the interim years between 1987-1989; then a desired third contributor happily turned up in another Oz collector and club member, Jay Scarfone.
Throughout summer 1987, I was singing on the Cunard Princess cruise ship, up and down along the Alaska coast for ten weeks. It fell to me, during that time, to follow Mitchell’s advisements and to write what turned out to be a twenty-page outline for the book’s text and to assemble, as well, an oversize, seventy-page portfolio of suggested art: black-and-white and color photocopies from the collections of the three authors. I can’t recall now if all three of these images just below were part of that presentation, but they certainly appeared in the finished product and definitely represented the sort of bright and bountiful artwork we hoped would enhance the book. At top, Judy and Ray pose with a momentarily docile apple tree; this shot was exclusively published in the NEW YORK SUNDAY MIRROR on August 20, 1939); a specialized, cartoon approach to OZ advertising that appeared in a number of Sunday newspaper “comic sections” during that same month; and a title lobby card for the first OZ reissue in 1949. By then, Judy Garland had become such an international film star that her billing became much more prominent than that of the rest of the cast.
Another of Mitchell’s dictates was the wise, savvy, and very challenging counsel that I needed to somehow get permission from the Turner Entertainment Company to DO such a book – along with their assurance they would license no other major WIZARD OF OZ anniversary tome! (Mind you, I had never before in my life sought the responsibility or demands required of an author; this was a new world, to be sure.)
So . . . from Alaska, I wrote to Jack Haley, Jr. – both the “Son of Tin Man” and a highly-regarded force in Hollywood. (To offer that he was the producer and director of THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT [1974] is credit enough and an indication of his status.) I’d had dealings with Jack across the preceding eight years, often in connection with various MGM-related features I was preparing for the Oz Club magazine, THE BAUM BUGLE. We’d corresponded and spoken on the phone, and though we’d never met, he did know of me. So, I sent him the book outline, noted that I’d be disembarking from the ship in San Pedro, and offering that I’d call his office when I arrived, in case he would be willing to tell me to whom I should speak at Turner about licensing OZ material for such a venture. (The back story of the photo below will be offered in next month’s blog, but by way of introduction, that’s Jack, Sr., reading a favored book to five-year-old Jack, Jr., sometime between November 1938 and summer 1939.)
Begging for courage, I did indeed place that call on my first morning in the Los Angeles area. I gave my name, and before I could ask to speak to Jack, his secretary exclaimed, “Oh, he’s waiting to hear from you! Call him at home!” A deeper breath, another call, and I got, “John! Where are you staying? Have you got a car? Can you come right over? This is the address!” (I was suddenly calmer – and much more motivated than trepidatious!)
Given his immediate kindness, Jack and I became instant friends, and after 45 minutes of get-further-acquainted and industry chatter, I finally ventured to bring up the topic of the proposal. (As much as I was reveling in the man’s company, I was certainly still insecure enough to fear he was dancing through all the other topics while building up to telling me that my work was no good.) Finally: “Jack . . . about the book. Do you even think it’s an okay idea? Or should we forget it? . . . Or DO you know to whom I’d speak in licensing?”
His reply: “Oh, don’t bother with licensing! I went to Roger Mayer’s office — he’s the president and chief executive officer at Turner Entertainment – and I put the proposal on his desk. I told him, ‘If you want a 50th anniversary OZ book, John Fricke is the person to do it’!”
Okay!!!! 😊
As referenced above, the rest of the story will be along here in the next entry. Suffice it to say, Roger Mayer’s coming approbation made a whole lot possible – even though it was misinterpreted by some . . . all to the book’s advantage!
Here’s a final image to “go out on.” This is the back dust jacket cover for the 1989 hardbound edition. The nine images here weren’t used on the rear of the 1990 paperback, so I thought it would be nice to show them again here.
And a Happy, High-Spirited History of Last Month’s Magic (Or: Oz-Stravaganza® 2024 😊)
by John Fricke
Above: Adapted from original illustrations by W. W. Denslow, the Fab Four – plus Toto and an apparently welcome compatriot to the Scarecrow – serve as a constant “logo pictorial” for the All Things Oz Museum in Chittenango, New York. That hamlet was the birthplace of L. Frank Baum, author of THE WIZARD OF OZ, and the Museum there is not only open year-round but serves as one of the primary focal points of the town’s annual Oz-Stravaganza®, traditionally held the first weekend in June. To read about (and see striking proof of) this year’s rapturous blow-out, please keep slowly scrollin’ down!
After 46 prior and virtually annual jubilations, what can be said about Oz-Stravaganza® #47 that hasn’t been gratefully and proudly “sung out” before? Perhaps the most grandiose AND accurate declaration is that the weekend of May 31st-June 2nd, 2024, may well rank among the top five or six Ozzy excitements in Chittenango history.
Somehow, it all specially coalesced this spring with a combination of energy, joy, and relaxation unique to these impossible-to-rehearse and pretty much spontaneous presentations. It’s no exaggeration to say that (once again) the crowd of approximately 30,000 participants contributed a major share of the exhilaration.
The weather gods contributed as well, with alternately sunny, partly cloudy, or overcast days and evenings, but nary a drop of Gene Kelly (that’s “show biz” for precipitation!) until an hour or so after the 4 p.m. Grand Finale in Oz Park on Sunday. Otherwise – and naturally — the special guests were among those providing rainbow moments across all three days. This year, OZ-Strav! hosted two “newbies” (Robert Welch and Irma Starr) and four returnees (Jane Lahr, Gita Dorothy Morena, Steve Margoshes, and Gabriel Gale); the six of ‘em offered a diversity of presentations.
As everyone must by now be aware, 2024 marks the 85th anniversary of the release of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s iconic musical film version of THE WIZARD OF OZ. Jane Lahr returned to Chittenango for her third visit in honor of the occasion, and the anecdotal and illustrated mélange she offered about her father, Bert Lahr – THE Cowardly Lion of the movie (and for all-time) – warmed hearts and generated emotions ranging from guffaws to quiet tears:
A fresh and singular view of the film was captivatingly shared by someone unusually well-equipped for the job. The grandson of A. Arnold “Buddy” Gillespie, Robert Welch excitingly entertained the capacity audience with amazing behind-the-scenes film clips, stills, paperwork, and anecdotes about how the screen sorcery of OZ was achieved by Buddy – head of the M-G-M Special Effects Department across five decades. His creations (and those of his staff) were all invented, devised, and produced, employing chicken wire, muslin, crayon matte paintings, flash powder, rear projection, real smoke and fire, elevator platforms, miniature sets, and assorted other (literally) handmade constructions. All of this still-astounding visual wizardry, mind you, occurred many years before CGI (computer generated imagery) was barely a dream. Robert shared his grandfather’s accomplishments with elan, knowledgeability, and energetic humor.
Another OZ-Strav! first-timer was living legend Irma Starr, whose handmade ceramic art creations are treasured and housed everywhere from museums and private collections to the White House and Smithsonian Institution. Irma’s Oz craftings were an overwhelming hit with the Chittenango crowds – including several Ozzy denizens who found themselves well represented:
This seems an appropriate moment for immediate homage to costume designer/ constructionist/“architect,” Shawn Ryan, whose gifts are everywhere apparent in the recreations seen here of the incomparable Oz characters. A simultaneous doff of a tin funnel (or any Oz-centric chapeau) to Jeffrey Lane Sadecky, who aided, abetted, and wrangled the Emerald Citizenry with Shawn, so that they were able to fulfill the expectations of the all-ages festival attendees. As noted, this took place on the turf (or in the neighborhood thereof!) where Frank Baum was born on May 15, 1856; it’s always fun to imagine how he might now react to seeing the individuals and oddities he discovered brought so vividly to life by Shawn and Jeffrey. (And huzzOZ, too, for Chittenango’s merry band of players, their superlative performing abilities, and their spot-on vocal “personations”!) Note: Jeffrey’s smiling out front in the photo below. In the background, Shawn’s more wary – as if he’s not sure he can trust either the pink or the green.
One person who is preeminently qualified to discourse on Frank and the Baum family is assuredly Gita Dorothy Morena, great-granddaughter of the “Royal Historian of Oz.” She fascinated the festival audience with remembrances of the impact he had (and continues to have) on her and her family. Gita was joined onstage by a current Royal Historian, Gabriel Gale, whose AGES OF OZ fantasy books and THE ART OF OZ pictorial history of Baum’s populace are currently delighting “children of all ages.” As with Frank himself, Gabe (at left below) is constantly asked by fans when they can expect another AGES OF OZ installment; Gita’s own writing was well-represented at OZ-Strav! by her THE WISDOM OF OZ, which grows from and reflects her own remarkable career as a psychoanalyst. (We’re all three laughing here during Friday night’s presentation, so I’m not sure which of us said something outrageous; there’s generally plenty enough of that blame to go around:)
Meanwhile, it wouldn’t be Oz without music, and after several years’ hiatus, Broadway and pop composer, lyricist, orchestrator, and arranger Steve Margoshes was back to share the status of his ongoing and happily anticipated project, NEW SONGS FROM OZ. The completion of the melodies and words (the latter built on characters and adventures from the original Oz Books) is envisioned for early summer 2025, and it’s hoped that the recorded works will debut at next year’s fest. (Steve is creating this new material in conjunction with Chittenango’s International L. Frank Baum and All Things Oz Historical Foundation; he poses here with longtime fest volunteer – and NEWS SONGS FROM OZ singer — Matthew Marc Baum)
The foregoing descriptions indicate only a percentage of the consistent joys at pretty much every festival turn. The aforementioned tenants of the “Celebrity Tent” were joined by a wondrous representation of other creatives in the traditional “Authors & Artists Alley” on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons, and the honor roll for 2024 included (from left, below) Alan Lindsay, Tom Hutchison, Amber R. Duell, Julienne La Fleur, Cory Leonardo, and Jordan Riley Swan:
A little way up Genesee Street, the All Things Oz Museum was customarily crowded all weekend, whether the kids, parents, grandparents, relatives, or friends opted for formal tours or just plain awe-struck browsing. One of the new displays was unveiled during the annual pre-fest Thursday evening reception for members of the All Things Oz Museum. (Visit the All Things Oz Museum on Facebook for further information.) Those who gathered viewed a biographical placard for Betty Ann Bruno, as well as her freshly framed appearance costume, crafted after the one she wore as a seven-year-old “MunchKid” in the 1939 MGM movie. The garb in the frame is the outfit she had made for herself to don during her first appearance in Chittenango two years ago. At 90, Betty Ann was beyond indefatigable, beyond graciousness, beyond joy; she returned last year, and we’d hoped for many more meetings to come. She passed, however, just two months after the 2023 festival, and her recreated Munchkin wardrobe from the movie was thereafter donated to the Museum by her husband, Craig Scheiner. He’d accompanied her to OZ-Strav! both years and seen the joy she brought to everyone — all the while, I think, also witnessing the pleasure and recognition the event brought her. Below, you’ll find the Betty Ann costume and poster, as well as a souvenir picture of the 2024 Museum festival window:
To attract tens of thousands of attendees each year, there are many other fascinations presented by the all-volunteer festival board and staff. The parade unquestionably takes pride of place, and the preponderance of rainbows never abates.
The special guests specifically ride forth as part of the joy-oz procession. In order below, you’ll find Jane (doing a fine impression of her father’s “Put ‘em up! Put ‘em up!” from the OZ motion picture); musician supreme Margoshes; “Royal Historian” Gale; Gita (actually photographed on Sunday in the act of waving a genuinely fond farewell to the Ozian adulators); and Robert. The latter also served as Grand Marshal of that aspect of the weekend:
Not at all incidentally: One of Robert’s many gracious contributions to the merriment was his sharing of a legitimate Academy Award “Oscar.” Fans were invited to “clutch” the statuette in true, enviable Hollywood fashion; the recommended $5 donation collected per picture (per family) was then donated by Robert to the All Things Oz Museum. (Incidentally, no one was turned away –donation or not.) Posing here is the gleeful and eminently worthy Marc Baum, currently secretary to the Baum/Oz Museum Foundation.
The festival’s yearly competitions once again inspired enormous interest. More than 30 books were presented to winners of (and participants in) the all-ages “Royal Historian” writing contest, and the costume contest saw virtually all THE WIZARD OF OZ characters on-hand in multiples! – plus Jack Pumpkinhead and others from Baum’s later books. Here, from left, are a Lollipop Guild member (and escort), Dorothy, the Wizard himself (accompanied by the traditional State Fair/Omaha balloon), the Cowardly Lion, another Dorothy, and Glinda the Good.
Popular and revered Buddy the Clown “inaugurated” a new area of fun on Saturday by setting up shop in Stickles Park at the head of the parade route. His antics delighted the audience, and he had Oz costume characters and diverse edible treats on hand to augment his own special theatrics.
And otherwise? Well (among everything else), people enjoyed a wide range of food, live music and performances, rides, vendors, craft booths, exhibits, Oz souvenirs and memorabilia, a mass of highly desirable items to attract bids across three different silent auctions (one per day), a Saturday pancake breakfast, and a “Munchkin Mile Fun Run” for kids and a “Toto’s Toddler Trot” for those even younger!
Before saluting the two surprises that wrapped up the weekend, I very much want to say a blanket thank-you: to the thousands who made everything worthwhile – to the village and populace of Chittenango and its environs – AND to the scores and scores of men and women of all ages who (as mentioned above) VOLUNTEER to plan, plot, assemble, oversee, and make possible each year’s Oz-Stravaganza®. A personal appreciation goes out to my current “ambassador,” Judy Thompson Waite, who trundles me from and to the airport (the latter at 3:30 a.m.), as well as everywhere else in between. Her company is nonpareil!
There was also fun “off-campus” across three days of promotional appearances for local media. Individually or semi-collectively, we special guests made appearances on two editions of the morning BRIDGE STREET television show; on Dinosaur radio with John Carucci; and then again onsite with John for a special half-hour podcast. Here’s the ever-trusting Carucci (second from the left), flanked by Welch, Lahr, and Fricke on the latter occasion:
And I also want to thank two genuinely splendid friends, whose companionship and audio/visual tech support bolstered me in action (this year and in ages past), through three days of meet-and-greet-and-autographing, as well as three stints of evening programming. This photograph shows them three weeks after the festival, but — as they put up the new photograph backing in the Museum — they’re obviously still giving their all for the . . . er, “C’Oz.” (Ouch . . . .) Anyway, I cherish you, Colton Baum and Connor Ball:
Finally, the weekend was capped by Sunday afternoon’s Grand Finale, which was made WICKED-ly splendid by two superior and virtual (or as we used to put it in my day, “by remote”!) surprise guests – exclusive to Oz-Stravaganza® this year. One of them is a Chittenango native, born and bred, and he grew up with the festival, meeting many of the MGM Munchkins when he was just a little “local-er.” He had a very good reason for not being present in-person; while we screened his pretaped video, Ryan Mac was onstage at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City where he’s appearing in Broadway’s WICKED eight times a week. He’s been featured as Fiyero both there and on the road, as well as working in the ensemble and playing and “covering” several other roles. Ry’s past participation in the festival and his hometown greeting were both much appreciated, and he ardently commented on the effects Oz has had on his life and career. He’s shown here in full WICKED regalia:
Not much could top that, but one final video clip managed it – to the max. Delivering his personal message to the Oz-Stravaganza® crowd (much as he did last year), we were gratified and proud to present the Oscar, Grammy, and special Tony Award-winning composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz, whose songs in WICKED first began delighting theater audiences all over the world more than two decades ago. His “live” appearance at OZ-Strav! in 2018 is still regarded as the pinnacle of entertainment, and his 2024 video was a genuine and warming “wave” to all . . . while reminding us that the WICKED movie (Part One) opens in November!
If all of the foregoing doesn’t convey the Ozziness, glee, and fellowship, I guess all I can offer is the traditional “I guess you had to be there!” 😊
And THAT comes by way of saying that Oz-Stravaganza® 2025 is set and scheduled for June 6th-8th. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the original Broadway production of THE WIZ – and we’ll also be midway between the theatrical releases of the WICKED motion picture, Part One and Part Two. Meanwhile, there’s a whole lot of other Oz news currently percolatin’, and we hope that’ll be sharable by next year at this time.
So please mark those calendars, prep the ruby slippers or the silver shoes, and plan to “ease on down the” Yellow Brick Road(s) that permeate Chittenango, NY – where L. Frank Baum and (as a result) OZ all began!
Many thanks, as ever, for reading!
——-
P.S. The photos shown above were taken and provided by CaraMariePhotography (Official Oz-Stravaganza! Photographer) and – alphabetically! — Marc Baum, Carol Fargo, Julie Groder, Lindsay Morgan-Arnold, and Leah Schriber. My heartfelt gratitude to them for so-immortalizing this year’s great, good fun — and magic. 😊
P.P.S. Okay . . . one more picture, because it’s my personal favorite. Several of us bozos (!) do our best to grab a photographic souvenir every year. These kids are people who travel miles and miles to volunteer, to aid, and to “play Oz,” and they are marvelous personal and professional constituents. This year, it took us until the wrap party on Sunday night to all be in the same place at the same time — and find a leisure moment — but here we all are, with my heart à them. (From left: Julie Groder, Louis Berrillo, Lindsay Morgan-Arnold, yours truly, and Leah Schriber!)
Above: This line drawing of Dorothy Gale – as created by W. W. Denslow for the first edition of L. Frank Baum’s THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ (1900) – welcomes you to the longest-running, most widely-attended, and (arguably) most jubilant annual event of its kind: OZ-STRAVAGANZA! The picture’s been doctored up a bit for its use here, but read on below, and you’ll find out why.
Given the paraphrased title of this month’s blog, may I remind you that this year marks the 85th anniversary of THAT film, too . . . . 😊
However, there’ll be no further homage to GONE WITH THE WIND! We’re all about ALL THINGS OZ, and we’re here to herald and celebrate both the 85th anniversary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s THE WIZARD OF OZ movie, as well as the forty-seventh annual OZ-STRAVAGANZA! festival in author L. Frank Baum’s birthplace. Or to put it more simply, The Place To Be from Friday afternoon, May 31st through Sunday afternoon, June 2nd is Chittenango, NY. (Turn right at Syracuse. 😊 )
In our efforts to combine Baum OZ and MGM OZ, we’ve seen to it that the vintage Dorothy above has momentarily switched out the silver shoes of the first Oz book for the later ruby slippers of “that film.” But there’s much more that you need to know, so on with the show – and “Hey, leader, strike up the band!”
And what do you want to hear? There are numerous commemorative choices, as referenced in the series of forty “official” Oz Books. (Baum himself wrote the first fourteen of those, and six other authors carried on after his passing.) Anyway, what’ll it be? You can select “The Oz Spangled Banner,” “Oz and Ozma Forever,” “What is Oz Without Ozma?,” “The Grand March of Oz,” “The Land of Oz Forever,” or “I’ll Sing a Song of Ozland.” Or maybe you’ll opt for such Hollywood and Broadway compositions as “The Merry Old Land of Oz,” “The Rainbow Road to Oz,” “Follow the Yellow Brick Road”/“We’re Off to See the Wizard,” “Ease On Down the Road,” or the incomparable “Over the Rainbow.”
I reference all of these, as it seems there ought to be bells, whistles, sirens, and a whole lot of music to honor America’s Own Fairyland – especially when one considers its world-widespread popularity and fame. Beyond the Judy Garland WIZARD OF OZ movie and the Oz books, Baum’s characters, countries, and stories have inspired such additional entertainments as THE WIZ (right now and once again on Broadway), WICKED (now in its twenty-first consecutive year on Broadway – and soon to be seen in a multi-million dollar, two-film screen adaptation; part one opens at Thanksgiving), OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, RETURN TO OZ, JOURNEY BACK TO OZ . . . and on and on to new books, new products, cartoons, TV programs, and diverse events and merchandise of all types.
And then there’s – to return once more and however gently to the “commercial” – OZ-STRAVAGANZA! You can see examples of (and history about) all the projects referenced above at Chittenango’s ALL THINGS OZ Museum, open for special hours across the three days of the festival:
The wealth of emerald green and Munchkin magic actually permeates the whole town during OZ-STRAV! weekend. There’s a real Yellow Brick Road bordering Genesee Street. There’s the 2 p.m. parade on Saturday. There’s the cOZtume contest and the writing contest. In centrally located Oz Park, there’ll be rides and vendors and food and crafts and Oz memorabilia and three special silent auctions (one on each day). There’s free live music and entertainment across all three days – and (ditto!) free meet-and-greet (and-pose-and-snap) moments with some of the most recognizable characters in history. They’re shown here with Shawn Ryan – kneeling left, in the hat — who designed their costumes, and Jeffrey Lane Sadecky, their convivial and consummate wrangler:
And for the Ozians, Ozites, Ozzys, Ozmites, collectors, historians, fans, entertainment seekers, and the just plain pop-culture-curious, there’s the free Celebrity Tent, where the OZ-STRAV! special guests will hold forth for autographs and pictures every afternoon. Additionally, and free-of-charge, they’ll also be part of special interviews and presentations on Friday and Saturday evening at 6 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, immediately adjacent to Oz Park.
Finally, it’s a pleasure to outline here the dazzling line-up of Oz luminaries. We have two guests who will specifically acclaim THE WIZARD OF OZ movie, which first premiered eighty-five years ago this summer. One is the preeminent book editor, packager, and writer Jane Lahr – and if her last name sounds familiar . . . it should! She’s the daughter of the movie’s one-and-only Cowardly Lion, the unforgettable Bert Lahr himself:
Jane’s recollections of her incomparable father have to be heard to be fully experienced – and the same may be said about Robert Welch, who comes with memories and multiple visual examples of the OZ work of his grandfather, A. Arnold “Buddy” Gillespie. Buddy was, for decades, the genius (and there’s no other word for it) behind the MGM special effects department, and he and his coworkers created all the magic of Oz for the screen – long before there was CGI or AI or anything else other than makin’-it-up-out-of-imagination-and trial-and-error-and-actual-physical-properties:
Want to know about the full-size monkeys? the miniature rubber monkeys? the thirty-five-foot-long tornado? Robert will tell all about these accomplishments (and more!) in his very first appearance at an Oz Festival.
Yet Jane and Robert are just the beginning. Gracing the Celebrity Tent and stage with them is Gita Dorothy Morena, great-granddaughter of L. Frank Baum — THE WIZARD OF OZ author himself. Her family reminiscences and insights are drawn from her own revered career as an author, lecturer, and psychoanalyst:
Another first-time visitor to Chittenango is the supreme artist, Irma Starr, whose achievement in ceramic art, commemorative plates, decorative ornaments, jewelry, and figurines is renowned. Irma has been commissioned to “create” for private collectors, corporations, the White House, and the Smithsonian Institute; the fact that her work includes Oz imaging makes her an ideal OZ-Stravaganza! guest:
Returning after a few years’ absence (and MOST welcome) is Broadway songwriter, arranger, and orchestrator Steve Margoshes. (Some of his work is presently being heard on the Great White Way in this season’s revival of THE WHO’S TOMMY.) For the past decade, Steve has been composing and assembling an original “Oz Song Cycle,” drawn from the fabled books and combining his own inspired gifts with their fantasy, whimsy, joy, and philosophies. He’ll debut and reprise some of this work for program attendees.
Finally, we two resident hambones (I say this affectionately about him and honestly about me) will be on-hand as well! Gabriel Gale is the conceptualizer of the AGES OF OZ novels for middle-school students (and children of all ages), as well as the wondrous talent behind the beautiful THE ART OF OZ coffee-table book. The latter, published three years ago, showcases his own inventive, exciting portraits of citizens of Baum’s Oz and “Borderland of Oz” titles. (Additionally, THE ART OF OZ juxtaposes the Gale drawings with those by Denslow and John R. Neill from the original editions of Baum’s work.) Gratefully and proudly, I’ll add that I was selected to write the text for Gabe’s book, adding that title to the seven others I’ve been privileged to do about the OZ movie, Judy Garland, and the greater Oz franchise in the past thirty-five years:
In addition to comments about our current projects – separately and together – I can tell you that Gabe has just returned from Hollywood and will also share advance and special news about the forthcoming WICKED movie.
[Please note: Once again, the Friday and Saturday presentations begin at 6 p.m. On Friday, the rundown includes Gita Dorothy Morena and Robert Welch; on Saturday, the speakers will be Steve Margoshes, Gabriel Gale, and Jane Lahr. I’ll be the master-of-ceremonies and sometime interviewer on both occasions.]
And – believe it or not! – the 1,300+ words through which you’ve just read offer only the lightest touch of the hours and hours of magic and fun awaiting every generation at OZ-Stravaganza! The Celebrity Tent will also boast the presence of other writers, illustrators, and creators who carry on the legends, myths – and realities! – discovered by Baum and his associates. This year, we welcome:
Also, for the first time this year, Stickles Park – at the head of Chittenango’s Saturday parade route – will open at 10 a.m. that day with diverse food treats, special entertainment, and costumed characters on hand. It’s the perfect way to launch “a day in Oz”!
I reiterate — with no sense of exaggeration but with hopefully pardonable exhilaration – that if you’re seeking “The Land of Oz” from May 31st – June 2nd, we’ll have it for you in Chittenango, NY. As ever, we anticipate the pleasure and exhilaration of YOUR company.
Many thanks for reading – and as I can’t possibly do justice to all of it here, please check www.oz-stravaganza.com for the complete OZ-Stravaganza! schedule!
Above: In 1956, Reilly & Lee – then the sole publishers of the entire Oz Book Series except for THE WIZARD OF OZ — was finally able to add that title to their roster. Dale Ulrey did the illustrations for the new edition, and these were initially offered in black and red. Across the next nine years, the book went through additional printings, and the interior palette expanded into black and yellow, blue, and green, as well. (We’ve selected Ms. Ulrey’s drawings from a later print run for this blog to emphasize more of a “rainbow road to Oz.”) Just above, you’ll see her full-color, front-cover dust jacket for the Reilly & Lee THE WIZARD OF OZ, which was utilized for the first three years of its publication. She depicts the title character as a somewhat portlier gentleman than did her predecessors, W. W. Denslow and John R. Neill.
A bit of background to begin! Part One of this two-part series may be found by simply scrolling down past this entry; therein discussed are some of the early artists who pictured L. Frank Baum’s book, THE WIZARD OF OZ. There were comparatively few such illustrators, however; from its initial publication as THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ in 1900 – and through 1943 — the predominant editions of the story used and/or adapted the original pictures done by William Wallace (W. W.) Denslow for its first release at the turn of the twentieth century.
Evelyn Copelman’s drawings completely supplanted these in 1944, and although a handful of other artists supplied pictures for abridgements and picture books of THE WIZARD OF OZ between 1939 and 1956, her work remained in print for decades. The copyright expired on THE WIZARD OF OZ text in that latter year, however, and a flock of new versions of OZ – whether in complete or abbreviated format — hit the market. As a result, diverse artists were given the opportunity to “compete” with Copelman and supply their own variations of Baum’s characters and concepts.
The new “public domain” status of THE WIZARD OF OZ was particularly important to The Reilly & Lee Company of Chicago. They – or their predecessor, Reilly & Britton – had published all of the other titles in the official Oz series from 1904 through 1951: thirty-eight books in all. Now, in 1956, they could finally add Baum’s preeminent classic to their list, and they immediately thought in terms of a more contemporary appearance for the publication itself.
They’d actually begun considering such modernization for the series a year or more earlier. To that end, a bright and gifted graphic artist, Dale Ulrey, was selected to re-illustrate Baum’s 1918 book, THE TIN WOODMAN OF OZ, for publication in 1955. (History has it that the Reilly & Lee stock of TIN WOODMAN was running low at the time, and rather than merely reprint the title, the company rationalized that updating its appearance might make of it an experimental test case.) The Ulrey TIN WOODMAN also featured a new interior layout and fresh typesetting – “New Plates Throughout!” as Reilly & Lee trumpeted in its jacket copy — and the Ulrey style, both charming and attractive, was worthy of the new adaptation. Ms. Ulrey maintained the energy of John R. Neill’s original illustrations, emphasized the personalities (comical and otherwise) of the familiar Ozians, and re-cast Dorothy’s image as that of a sweet and sunshiny child of the 1950s.
(It should be noted that — in addition to THE TIN WOODMAN OF OZ — Ulrey had also worked on an earlier Baum project for the publishers, providing art for an edition of his JAGLON AND THE TIGER FAIRIES. This 1953 storybook was adapted from one of the writer’s “Animal Fairy Tales,” as published across nine months in THE DELINEATOR magazine, January through September 1905.)
All in all — and especially after her work on THE TIN WOODMAN – Dale Ulrey was a logical pictorial “select” for Reilly & Lee’s initial printing of THE WIZARD OF OZ. It’s also interesting to note that, at this point in history, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s classic THE WIZARD OF OZ motion picture had enjoyed theatrical releases in 1939, 1949, and 1955 but had not yet begun its virtually annual, national television appearances. This meant that Ulrey didn’t have to worry about fulfilling many expectations of her reading audience in terms of any deeply implanted “movie” visuals of Ozzy citizens or terrain.
That being said . . . ! Whether or not Ms. Ulrey meant to imply that the wafting wagon and other detritus shown here — mid-funnel — would filmically float by Dorothy’s window is unknown. But one of her first dominant images for the new 1956 edition of THE WIZARD was this vivid, energized depiction of the little girl’s transportation to Oz:
As a graphic artist, Dale Ulrey was best known “in the industry” for her years of drawing such popular, long-running newspaper comic strips as MARY WORTH. That character – if suitably Ozified – might have made a potential lookalike for Baum’s Good Witch of the North. As shown here, however, the illustrator opted out of any such temptation, and the mature sorceress, however unintentionally, seems more a semi-ringer for actress Agnes Moorehead. (This was four years before Ms. Moorehead would play a cranky, Cockney Mombi in the NBC-TV adaptation of Baum’s THE [MARVELOUS] LAND OF OZ to launch THE SHIRLEY TEMPLE SHOW in 1960 – and eight years before the actress would find eternal familiarity and fame as the elegant, sophisticated, and sometimes spiteful Endora on ABC-TV’s BEWITCHED.) Meanwhile, the Munchkins remain unembellished and true to Baum’s descriptions:
In much of her approach to THE WIZARD OF OZ assignment, Ulrey was judicious in continuing the predominant visions of Neill, who’d done the pictures for thirty-four of the preceding books in the series. Prior to that, Denslow had contributed a basic architectural template of a typical Oz house, but Neill had embellished it, and Ulrey substantiated his tradition as she showed Dorothy and Toto during their first day’s journey down the Yellow Brick Road.
Ulrey’s splendid interpretations continued as Dorothy and Toto met their three incomparable companions:
Although Baum never gives the child’s age in his text, Dorothy had been drawn by Denslow as a six- or seven-year-old with brown braids. Neill, in turn, had then given the Oz heroine a shorter, blonde style throughout his thirty-eight year tenure as artist, and Ulrey followed suit. This gave the ingenue’s appearance a happy and logical resemblance to the girl familiar to readers of all of the rest of Reilly & Lee’s Oz Book Series.
The Poppy Field sequence of THE WIZARD saw three of our five protagonists succumb to the potent power of the floral aroma. Ulrey then captured, in excellent fashion, Baum’s detailed description of the rescue of the Cowardly Lion from the deadly poison – on a Tin Woodman-built cart pulled by thousands of field mice. (The idea that that poppies would be neutralized by a snowstorm sent by the Good Witch of the North was first implemented in the 1902 stage musical of THE WIZARD OF OZ and further adapted by MGM for their film, thirty-six years later.)
Following Baum’s textual cues, Ulrey presented Dorothy in her new Emerald City dress when the child went for her first, private audience with the Wizard; the latter, of course, presented himself as “an enormous Head.” The artist also provided an interesting point of view when — a chapter later — she offered the moment the Winged Monkeys arrived with the girl and her dog as their prisoners in the Winkie Country, presenting them to the anticipatory Wicked Witch of the West.
There was additional and ongoing loyalty to Baumian detail when Ulrey chose to recreate the moment that the “Great and Terrible” humbug found himself revealed to Dorothy & Co. In an attempt to frighten the Wizard into granting their requests – and per the book’s written passage — “the Lion . . . gave a large, loud roar . . . so fierce and dreadful that Toto jumped away from him in alarm and tipped over [a] screen that stood in the corner.” There, the five travelers “saw . . . a little old man, with a bald head and a wrinkled face . . . The Tin Woodman, raising his axe, rushed toward the little man and cried out, ‘Who are you?’”
It’s a reasonably well-known fact that MGM both departed from and added to Baum’s plot line in numerous cinematic ways – yet they remained true to the author’s intent in a number of others. As Dorothy prepared to leave for Kansas with the Wizard, “Toto had run into the crowd to bark at a kitten, and Dorothy at last . . . picked him up and ran toward the balloon. She was within a few steps of it, and Oz was holding out his hands to help her . . . when, crack! went the ropes, and the balloon rose into the air without her.” Ulrey maintained the same loyalty to the Royal Historian in sharing this moment of the saga:
The final adventures undergone by our friends are equally faithfully represented by Ulrey. She portrays each of the four challenges they met during their trek to the Quadling Country to seek aid from the Good Witch of the South: the fighting trees, the Dainty China Country, the giant spider monster, and the fractious, armless, telescopic-necked Hammer-Heads:
Finally, when the palace of Glinda the Good is ultimately reached, the famed Sorceress of the South proves to be as lovely as Baum’s description — and Ulrey’s portraiture:
For the last chapter, last page, and last Ulrey illustration, Reilly & Lee – and most probably unintentionally – parroted a THE WIZARD OF OZ art concept that dated back to Denslow and the 1900 first edition. Therein, that remarkable artisan often melded his line drawings with the book text: overlapping, underpinning, or just plain enhancing the awe-inspiring nature of his style and approach. (Of course, it’s just an imaginative indication of my age that Aunt Em is pictured here by Ulrey as a much more bucolic Mary Worth . . .. 😊 )
While there’s no disputing the inherent entertainment in — and pictorial beauty of — Ulrey’s work in THE WIZARD OF OZ, the public response to it and the redrawn THE TIN WOODMAN OF OZ (for all its own splendor) weren’t readily accepted by the public. Their response to such illustrative updating was quiet rejection, and when Reilly & Lee brought out the gloriously re-presented and manufactured “White Editions” of Baum’s fourteen Oz stories in 1964-65, they reinstated Neill’s art in TIN WOODMAN and replaced Ulrey’s work in THE WIZARD with adaptations of Denslow’s original pictures.
Still, there are tens of thousands of children (or more) who grew up in the decade between 1955-65 – or who later inherited copies of those two titles – and who maintain fond recollections of what Dale Ulrey contributed to the history of Oz publication. Her obvious dedication to her assignment provided art that was unquestionably entrancing, exciting, magical, and appealing – adjectives that happily and indubitably apply as well to Baum’s topography, terrain, and types of characters.
It’s a privilege to celebrate and share some of those drawings here!
Above: This color plate was one of many drawings by Evelyn Copelman, who was hired by The Bobbs-Merrill Co. to illustrate a new edition of THE WIZARD OF OZ in 1944. Although her work was described on the book’s title page as “Adapted from the Famous Pictures by W. W. Denslow,” many of Copelman’s characterizations and backgrounds were seemingly inspired by images recently familiar to the public from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Judy Garland OZ film, released five years earlier. This is worth noting, because — apart from a few separately licensed and minor retellings of the story — the 1944 Bobbs/Baum/Copelman edition marked the VERY first time since 1900 that the full-length WIZARD OF OZ novel appeared without its original, much-embraced Denslow pictures — once heralded as inseparable from the text. Additionally, that 1944 publication would informally mark the beginning of an endless onslaught of fascinating — it’s the safest word! — representations of Oz by an uncountable number of creative, imaginative, limitlessly gifted, and sometimes overwhelmingly innovative artisans.
Even occasional visitors to these blogs – or to Oz in general – will recognize the name William Wallace [W. W.] Denslow. It was his dazzling color pictures, artful book design, and character and setting concepts that helped make L. Frank Baum’s THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ the best-selling children’s book of 1900. For more than four decades, the vast majority of WIZARD OF OZ editions continued the Baum/Denslow amalgamation, although as twentieth century publishing grew more cost-effective across those years, much of Denslow’s work lost varying degrees of color. Additionally, many of the plates themselves were dropped, along with much of his interior art and motifs.
Yet the reading (and read-to) OZ audiences of all ages generally — and in many cases,
exclusively — knew Dorothy and her friends from Denslow’s visual interpretations. In the Denslow color plate below (from a reprint of the 1900 volume), the famous foursome – and Toto, too! — are hospitably hosted for dinner in a family’s home just outside the Emerald City:
Yet by the late 1930s, Denslow’s unique standing as the singular graphic adjunct to the pages of THE WIZARD OF OZ story was about to be challenged — and then eliminated. Today, we (gratefully) live at a time when facsimiles of the very first edition of THE WIZARD OF OZ (with Denslow in excelsis) are once again eminently available. Any artistic loss has thus been corrected. Conversely, there also has been an enormous benefit in the fact that Denslow WAS supplanted – for diverse reasons to be revealed. His displacement ultimately led to the innumerable, joyous, different (and apparently ceaseless) visualizations of Oz by others during the last eighty-plus years.
On behalf of the All Things Oz Museum, this brief new blog series will touch on some of the earliest “re-illustrations” of Baum’s masterwork. Yes, it’s history – but we thought it would be the perfect justification for mentioning the facts and then getting out of the way so as to share lovely and/or curious pictures!
Admittedly, there had been a few interpretations of THE WIZARD OF OZ adventures drawn by others even before Denslow’s art was completely dropped from the book. In 1939-40, separately licensed adaptations or abridgements of the story appeared in North America — and beyond — in conjunction with the debut of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Judy Garland musical movie. MGM’s copyright on their special treatments of the characters, storyline, and settings, however, meant that the new illustrators had to determine their own pictorial approach to the Girl from Kansas & Company. Grosset & Dunlap issued a brief, board-bound retelling of the Baum tale for which he received the author credit; no other writer is referenced. Oscar Lebeck, however, is cited for pictures, many of them in full color. Here is his cover design and a fanciful view of the Winkies at work to restore the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman after their devastation by the Winged Monkeys. The fact that there are seven little men here need not be interpreted as a private homage to Walt Disney’s 1937 success, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. (And yet . . . ! 😊 )
There was also a Whitman Publishing Company paint book, with H. E. Vallely’s cover definitely and only semi-discreetly inspired by MGM stills of Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow and Jack Haley
as the Tin Woodman. The interior captions and art, however, followed Baum’s text with more originality.
Bobbs-Merrill themselves issued this very brief, ten-page picture book, with art by Percy Leason and a linen-like finish:
Meanwhile, there were other storybooks and coloring books. Bobbs-Merrill adapted its regular edition of the full text by adding film stills to its endpapers; some of Denslow art appeared in the interior, as well. British versions took a similar approach, and there were also foreign language imprints, at least one of which told the movie story — Miss Gulch and all!
These were, of course, of their specific time, and once the MGM film had run its full course of theaters, Bobbs-Merrill went back to business as usual. Their standard edition of THE WIZARD OF OZ in the early 1940s continued to offer all of Baum’s words and increasingly minimized glimpses of Denslow — until 1944. As noted with the picture and caption at the top of this blog, that’s when the publishers brought in a new but accomplished talent in Evelyn Copelman to re-picture the full WIZARD OF OZ book, completely eliminating all of Denslow’s work. (His stunning designs wouldn’t be seen again in their entirety until a marvelous paperback effort by Dover Publications in 1960.)
Copelman proved masterful in updating and remodeling, both in her color and black-and-white art. Although she later denied that the MGM film had influenced her approach (and she may have been legally obligated to do so), there are obvious overtones, as can be seen here in two of her plates and one of her interior visuals. The multihued gathering of the gang just below and the portrait two pictures past that offer a Scarecrow easily perceived in characteristic Bolger-like poses or attitudes. Additionally, the Wizard here is diplomatically Frank Morgan in both stance and appearance, and Dorothy is a little-girl Garland. The middle of these three Copelman pieces is enhanced by a Margaret Hamilton-green, two-eyed Wicked Witch of the West (unlike the Baum-described, non-color specific, but one-eyed creature). Her castle staircase and chandelier are straight out of MGM’s scenic department in Culver City as well.
The 1949 theatrical reissue of the MGM film led to another spate of WIZARD OF OZ abridgements. Though far from the number of editions that appeared a decade prior, the new
crop included versions that remained “in print” well into the 1950s and even beyond.
In 1950, Random House brought in Allen Chaffee to abbreviate Baum’s story for an excellent picture book, illustrated by Anton Loeb in artwork that was detailed, accessible, and appealing to youngsters. As can be seen below, the cover was emblazoned “For Ages 5 to 9”; also shown is the artist’s atmospheric conception of the travelers as they “keep to the West, where the sun sets” in their attempt to find and destroy the Wicked Witch.
In addition to the Random House volume, Bobbs-Merrill also licensed an adaptation of THE WIZARD for the popular Wonder Books series in 1951. The perky, full-color art was drawn by Tom Sinnickson; here’s his cover design (with Dorothy ever more a little girl of the era) and a glowing view of the first part of “journey achieved” for our friends:
Then, in 1956, all Oz broke loose. So to speak.
Not only did the MGM film receive its first, sensationally received and top-rated, coast-to-coast CBS telecast, but the copyright expired on THE WIZARD OF OZ book. This meant that any publisher anywhere could bring out an edition of Baum’s story, whether word-for-word or condensed. No licensing needed to be done, and residuals were no longer payable to the Baum heirs. (An important note: The MGM film script, its new characters, and its revisions remained under copyright in 1956 and do so to this day. Thus, no one can release a book that retells the movie story; portrays Miss Gulch, Professor Marvel, or the farmhands; places Dorothy in ruby slippers – and etc.)
In 1956, however, THE WIZARD OF OZ became fair game at publishing houses throughout the land. Grosset & Dunlap rehired Evelyn Copelman to add extra images to those she’d done a dozen years earlier and produced three new editions of THE WIZARD in varying degrees of “luxe.” Whitman, whose (if memory serves!) fifty-nine cent editions of classics were then rampant in dime stores throughout the land, also put out the full Baum text in 1957, bound in glossy boards and with brand new art throughout by Russell H. Schulz. As the latter drew Dorothy for his color cover, she sported a sort of mouseketeer-styled Annette Funicello “do.” She returned to her braided self a moment later on the endpapers and in the rest of the Schulz pictures:
A year later, Scholastic Book Services jumped into the fray with a paperback version eventually uber-familiar to a couple of decades of children who eagerly anticipated their elementary school’s annual “book fair.” (Those were the days!) Scores of titles would be on display, whether “in person” or in a catalog; all were available to order from Scholastic at vastly reasonable prices. Paul Granger did their OZ cover (below), and his sketchy but evocative blank-and-white pictures dotted the text. In the art below the cover here, Dorothy’s friends are shown during the rare moment of their final farewell as she actually begins her flight home to Kansas:
One of the more sumptuous, “quick-to-take-advantage-of-its public domain status” editions of THE WIZARD OF OZ was published as IL MAGO DI OZ in Milan in 1957. Per the April 1962 issue of THE BAUM BUGLE – magazine of The International Wizard of Oz Club, Inc. (ozclub.org) – it was translated into Italian by Emma Saracchi “and beautifully illustrated in color by Maraja. The publishers were Fratelli Fabbri Editori . . .. The next year, this version was issued, with English text, simultaneously in England (W. H. Allen) and the United States (Grosset & Dunlap).” It also appeared in French in 1959 as LE MAGICIEN D’OZ.
Such world-wide appeal speaks not only of Baum’s timeless, ageless, boundary-less story but also of Maraja’s art: bright, gorgeously and richly rendered, yet delicate and singular. Below, you’ll see (from top): a) The 1958-59 cover picture. b) The fivesome as they listen to the confession of the Great & Powerful Humbug; Dorothy appears to be channeling the visage of a sort of blonde Pippi Longstocking. c) The age-appropriate Good Witch of the North as she balances her hat on her nose; it’s about to turn into a slate on which the directive is written, “LET DOROTHY GO TO THE CITY OF EMERALDS.” d) A blue-garbed Munchkin in front of his blue-garbed home, paying homage to the girl who has liberated his country from the Wicked Witch of the East. e) That touching overnight moment en route to the Emerald City when the Scarecrow – after filling Dorothy’s basket with nuts from the nearby trees to help stave off her hunger – keeps “a good distance away from the flames, and only [comes] near to cover Dorothy with dry leaves [to] keep her snug and warm.” And f) What may well be the all-time amalgamation of Glinda as a slinky, sloe-eyed, seductive sophisticate: the Scarlett O’Hara of the Quadling Country!
By now, you’ve gotten the idea. Denslow started it all and reigned pictorially supreme in terms
of THE WIZARD OF OZ book – until fate stepped in, as these examples have shown. There were others in the late 1950s, of course, and as the annual film telecasts kicked off in 1959 and extended deep into the 1990s, incalculable different editions attempted to sate the public reading appetite. They, too, were often augmented by clever, beauteous, bizarre, funny, weird, superb pictures.
There’s one more point to be made and one more 1956 edition to be referenced. From 1903-1956, Bobbs-Merrill had held ONLY the copyright on THE WIZARD OF OZ book. There were, as of 1951, THIRTY-EIGHT OTHER FULL-LENGTH OZ BOOKS, published by Reilly & Britton (or, later, Reilly & Lee). In terms of variety, they basically defined the Oz marketplace and had done so since Baum began to continue the series in 1904. After he passed in 1919, the saga was continued by Ruth Plumly Thompson, John R. Neill, Jack Snow, and Rachel Cosgrove. Neill also illustrated all but three of those sequels; as a result, his work was even more deeply associated with Oz than that of Denslow.
Thus, it was a major event for Reilly & Lee and their audience: In 1956, they could finally top off AND head up their list of Oz titles with THE WIZARD OF OZ — champion of them all. Neill had died in 1943, however, so they had to ponder the question of an illustrator to take on such an important job as picturing their own “official” version of THE WIZARD OF OZ. Fortunately, they knew of someone both appropriate and already well-schooled. A year earlier, they’d hired Dale Ulrey to draw new pictures for Baum’s 1918 title, THE TIN WOODMAN OF OZ. This came about because Reilly & Lee wanted to “test the waters” in terms of updating the look of the Oz series; THE TIN WOODMAN was selected as the test case. Ulrey’s drawings thus went into a refashioned 1955 reprint, and Neill’s art was abandoned.
Ms. Ulrey did a sleek and vivid job with THE TIN WOODMAN OF OZ, and she quickly accepted the assignment to picture THE WIZARD. After all, she had just learned to align the famous Neill characters with a mid-1950s modernity. She had just depicted Dorothy as a blonde, in keeping with the girl’s hair color and style in every “official” Oz book in which she appeared post-Denslow – and Ulrey had also proved capable of contemporizing the little girl while maintaining her classic qualities. And as noted, the artist already proved that she knew how to draw many of the other legendary Ozians.
Here, as a teaser, is one of the first of her WIZARD OF OZ book drawings: the now baby-boomer Dot . . . and that wonderful (if somewhat portly) title character himself:
Thus, in 1956, Reilly & Lee finally published their own version of the first Oz book with pictures throughout by Dale Ulrey. Next month, we’ll pay tribute to those results . . . and reflect on what happened – and why. 😊
Thanks for being here – with all of these extraordinary artists!
Above: The impact made by the 1989 coast-to-coast, fiftieth anniversary celebrations of THE WIZARD OF OZ was predicated on two factors: the undiminished glory of the film itself and the sudden public reappearances by Munchkins from the motion picture cast. Even more importantly, such joy continued, and — for more than twenty years thereafter — the however gradually-diminishing number of “little people” of OZ were ceremoniously feted at festivals, movie screenings, charity events, parades, tap dance competitions, lectures, and (as shown above) on the “Munchkin Cruise”! This week-long Caribbean sojourn featured (standing in back, from left:) Robert Baum, the great-grandson of OZ author L. Frank Baum; auditor-only Dotty Fricke (my mom!); and yours-truly-OZ-historian John Fricke. Seated across in front (from left): flowerpot-hatted dancer/Sleepyhead Margaret Pellegrini, soldier Clarence Swensen, first trumpeter/soldier Karl Slover, and Coroner Meinhardt Raabe. Clarence is one of those who are heralded in this month’s blog; six others – “MunchKid” Betty Ann Bruno, villager Ruth Duccini, Lollipop Guild mainstay Jerry Maren, and Margaret, Karl, and Meinhardt — have had blogs written about them in this series during 2023. Please scroll down beyond this entry to find those.
FOREWORD
In our August 26th entry for 2023 — posted on Chittenango’s All Things Oz and OZ-Stravaganza! Facebook pages (as well as on this blog site) — we celebrated the Oz festival of last June. The highlights of that weekend, of course, were provided by the song, dance, autographing-and-reminiscing participation of ninety-one-year-old Betty Ann Bruno, an original “MunchKid” from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s 1939 feature film, THE WIZARD OF OZ. This was Betty Ann’s second annual visit to the upstate New York village where L. Frank Baum was born in 1856. Mr. Baum went on to write THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ (1900) and thirteen other Oz Books, and everybody involved in OZ-Stravaganza! (which has joyously honored him for more than four decades) happily anticipated that Betty Ann would make many return trips to his birthplace in the future.
Incidentally, for those unfamiliar with the terminology, it’s important to note here that the unofficially named “MunchKids” group was comprised of a dozen little girls from Hollywood dance schools who mostly “filled in” background spots on the MGM OZ set. Five, as of earlier this year, were still among us, although – as all are in their nineties – it was only Betty Ann who traveled.
Most unexpectedly, however, she herself passed away just a month after Chittenango’s forty-sixth festival. That shattering loss has since reminded me of other MGMunchkins, whose local appearances beginning in the late 1980s were much responsible for putting the village’s long-term Oz event on the map.
These men and women were among the approximately 124 “little people” (as they preferred to be called) who played in the film. More than five years have passed since we lost the last of them, and it’s been more than a decade since any were able to appear in Chittenango. Although I was regularly on site for the local festival beginning in 1990, I wasn’t writing a blog for All Things Oz at any point “back in the day[s]” of the Munchkins’ 1989-2012 era of participation. This past summer, when Betty Ann left us, it occurred to me that it was more than appropriate that this space now provide a means of remembering some of the others who preceded her in enthralling central New Yorkers, as well as Oz fans from all over the world who found their way to “Baum Country.” In this manner, we’re able to again celebrate their contributions, as we did those of Betty Ann in 2022 and 2023 blog entries.
In line with that concept, this space has — across the last five months — heralded Munchkins Ruth Duccini, Karl Slover, Meinhardt Raabe, Jerry Maren, and Margaret Pellegrini. Now we move on to reference a number of others – as well as the treasured Swensens and a certain Ms. Formica!
Above: You’ve heard, of course, of Alice in Wonderland. What we have here is Chaos in Munchkinland – and director Victor Fleming hasn’t even called “Action!” Please note that this between-takes image captures horses, carriage, a goodly percentage of actors, Fleming himself – just to the left of Judy Garland, “Glinda” Billie Burke (holding what appears to be her on-camera wand/staff), a technician just to the right of Ms. Burke (holding her alternate wand/staff, with a less ornate star at its peak), and a mass of other staff and technicians. Just to the right of center at the bottom of this photo, an inked-on arrow points to OZ assistant director Wallace Worsley, with his back to the still photographer.
IT’S GOING TO BE SO HARD TO SAY GOOD-BYE:
CLARENCE AND MYRNA AND FERN & COMPANY
In 1989, I was privileged to extensively travel the country to promote THE WIZARD OF OZ: THE OFFICIAL 50th ANNIVERSARY PICTORIAL HISTORY book (for which I served as principal writer), as well as the best-selling VHS tape of the film. (I was enlisted to help in that assemblage by MGM/UA Home Video.) In the process, I got to meet many Oz enthusiasts, collectors, and — among the best of all — a number of those who’d actually participated in the creation of the movie in 1938-39.
More than thirty of the film’s Munchkins were still alive in 1989, although roughly half of them were unwilling (or too frail) to travel. During that year, however — and across a couple of subsequent seasons — upwards of fifteen of them gathered in Los Angeles, Minnesota, Indiana, and Kansas to publicly celebrate their “dual citizenship” in the United States and Oz. In the photograph below (taken in Chesterton, Indiana, circa 1990), I got to pose with the brilliant pop culture and Munchkin historian Steve Cox (top right) and uber-fan Richard Mikell (top center). Immediately in front of us (from left) are Munchkin-by-Marriage (hereinafter MBM) Fred Duccini, dancing villager Fern Formica, and soldier Lewis Croft. The next row shows just the hair of MBM Elizabeth Maren; she’s standing next to MBM Marie Raabe, villager Ruth Robinson Duccini, and coroner Meinhardt Raabe. Across the front are Lollipop Guild member Jerry Maren, dancing villager/Sleepyhead Margaret Pellegrini, and MBM Mary Ellen St. Aubin.
Another early-era festival photo – also 1990 — gathered a bunch of us in Liberal, KS. From left: Ruth Duccini, Marie and Meinhardt Raabe, Mrs. Lewis (Eva) Croft in the background, Fern Formica and Margaret Pellegrini in front of her (and draped over me; I did not have to manufacture that smile!), soldier Lewis Croft, soldier/villager Emil Kranzler and his MBM wife Marcella, and (again) Fred Duccini, Ruth’s husband. The tall lady in the back on the right is blessed Jean Nelson, who put her Chesterton, IN, Oz Festival on the radar by inviting soldier Pernell St. Aubin to appear there from 1982-1985 with his MBM wife, Mary Ellen.
Across the years, Oz events were graced – whether for one go-round or several — by Nita Krebs (tallest of the three “Lullaby League” ballerinas), villagers Betty Tanner and “Little Jeane” LaBarbera, and soldier Gus Wayne. There were other MBM guests, as well, notably Anna Mitchell, widow of villager Frank Cucksey, Olive (Mrs. Gus) Wayne, and Mary Ellen (Mrs. Pernell) St. Aubin. The latter was beamingly omnipresent for decades at Midwest Oz happenings and attended one of her final events at age 99 in 2019 in Tinley Park, Illinois. Several of the MunchKids also participated along the way, including (in her case, both early on and across these past two years) the beloved Betty Ann Bruno.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, Mickey Carroll was probably the most “controversial” of the surviving Munchkins. He became a semi-regular event attendee in 1989, but prior to that — and away from the watchful eyes of his fellow actors — he had been for years meeting and greeting fans and signing movie stills with the claim that he’d played the Munchkin Mayor (actually Charlie Becker), Coroner (the aforementioned Meinhardt Raabe), or appeared as a member of the Lollipop Guild trio. Once Mickey began festival jaunts with others, however, he had to pull way back on such declarations, although he then summoned up another series of odd pronouncements! His statements continue today in vintage video and print interviews and can be safely dismissed. Just for the record, however: He did not dub the soundtrack cries of Clara Blandick (Aunt Em) as she screeched “DORRR-THEEE!” during the tornado; he did not dub numerous singing voices of the Munchkins; he did not stay at Judy Garland’s house while appearing in the film; and he did not suggest to director Victor Fleming that the Munchkins skip as they sang “We’re Off to See the Wizard.”
But where credit is due, Mickey Carroll WAS a Munchkin solider; and one of the five little fiddlers who escorted Judy to the border of Munchkinland; and — in a purple-jacketed villager costume — he can be seen walking from left to right across the screen at the onset of the Munchkin musical number. (This appearance comes as the dubbed voices echo, “Kansas she says is the name of the star.”) So it was right and proper that Mickey joined six other surviving Ozians when “the little people who live in this land” received their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 20, 2007. In this picture, Mickey is posed at the far left; to his left: Clarence Swensen (more about him below!), Jerry, Karl, Ruthie, Margaret, and Meinhardt.
If Mickey was infamous for his voluble chicanery, he was also hallowed for a number of other qualities. Among such hallmarks: His indefatigable energy as he greeted and entertained fans, especially children; his ongoing kindness to (and care of) his disabled nephew; and – especially — for his heartwarming and generous gesture that will live on. In 1898, L. Frank Baum and his wife Maud were much saddened by the death of their five-month-old niece, Dorothy Louise Gage. Family history convincingly suggests that Baum then named the heroine of his book, THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ (1900) as a memorial to the child. Some nine decades later — after scrupulous research by preeminent history Sally Roesch Wagner — the much-weather-worn gravestone for the child was discovered in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery in Bloomington, Illinois. Mickey Carroll soon heard about this situation, and as his family had owned and operated a tombstone business in St. Louis for sixty years, he caringly donated a superb new headstone for the child, which was dedicated on May 31, 1997. The replacement marker states the Gage birth and death dates as they appear on the original stone; it was later confirmed that Dorothy Louise actually passed on November 15, 1898. Regardless, it’s thanks to MGM Munchkin Mickey Carroll that there is now a stunning remembrance of – as it plainly states – the “namesake of Dorothy In THE WIZARD OF OZ”:
Gus Wayne was one of nearly thirty little people who traveled by chartered bus to MGM in Culver City, California, from New York City in November 1938. Another of these bus pictures – taken as the Ozians-to-be assembled in Times Square before leaving town — was used here to accompany the blog about Jerry Maren a couple of months ago. This one, however, features future Munchkin soldier Gus as the first gentleman at left in the front row – and diminutive Jerry is the second traveler to his left. Both were just eighteen years old.
The bus contingent congregated at MGM on November 12, 1938 – with roughly one hundred additional Munchkinland actors – and work began in earnest. There were immediate rehearsals and costume measurements, followed by costume, hair, and make-up tests; these occupied the first month or more of their assignment. Actual filming of the “Munchkinland Musical Sequence” and scenes began in mid-December and continued for approximately two well-organized weeks. In this behind-the-scenes photograph, the massive Technicolor camera and its operator are swooping in from the left to capture the jubilant action:
Finally, we come to three special denizens of Oz: an unforgettable lady, a miraculous gentleman, and his own MBM: Fern Formica and Clarence and Myrna Swensen.
We lost Fern early on, but she was an extraordinary and dazzling personality. Once people on the “Oz Circuit” met her, she was invited EVERYwhere, although she was only able to enjoy such appearances until about 1992 or 1993. A life-long smoker, Fern had a wondrously deep voice and a wise, sparkling, sometimes sassy, sometimes flirtatious, always straight-from-the-shoulder (and heart) individuality. Her passion, compassion, and repartee were precious and treasurable, and she wholeheartedly embraced life, including her MGM past. She owned, operated, and taught from her own ceramic shop, turning out craft items that were certifiably “Munchkin-Maid-Made!” She was also the first of the reappearing Munchkins who had a duplicate of her OZ costume created to wear at events.
We used the photo just below in an earlier entry in this Munchkin series, but the version here is – as you’ll see – personally special. Beyond that, however, it also couldn’t be more appropriate. Fern autographed it during the first weekend we met, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, at the Judy Garland Festival in June 1989, and she is the only really visible Munchkin on hand in the image! Enjoy her expression of caution and awe as she acts her way out of the bushes, harking to the command of Billie Burke/Glinda to “meet the young lady who fell from a star.”
This frame grab offers a happy Munchkinland moment. Billy Curtis is front and center as he carols out (again, with a dubbed voice), “And, oh! What happened then was rich!” Margaret Pellegrini (in the light blue flowerpot hat) is immediately to his left; Fern, in blue, is second to his right; and Betty Tanner (in brown) is to Fern’s right:
This rare photo of Munchkinland activity shows the actual filming of one “take” (or perhaps rehearsal) when the camera tracked down the line of little people, immediately after Billy’s line. This is just conjecture, but I think that might be Mickey Carroll in his striped top and purple coat, about four or five people from the top. Five or so Munchkins down the line from (maybe!) Mickey, it looks like little Margaret, facing Billy in his tall, tall hat. And if I’m wrong . . . I still like the thought! (If I’m right, Fern, and Margaret, and Betty have switched places since the preceding shot. 😊 )
I was always so pleased and grateful when I was able to share several of the OZ fiftieth anniversary events with my mom and dad. Wally Fricke was a lifelong movie fan; I first watched THE WIZARD OF OZ on a black-and-white TV, sitting on the floor at his feet. (Well, I did briefly crawl up into his lap when the Wicked Witch of the West sent the Winged Monkeys to the Haunted Forest to “Bring me that girl and her dog!,” but I was only five at the time.) This happened on November 3, 1956 – the movie’s initial nationwide telecast. From then on, both Wally and my mom, Dotty, were each other’s equal in supporting me in an instantly blooming passion for Oz and Judy Garland. That’s a whole other story of joy and caring and love, but they joined me in my excitement on many occasions. Here, in December 1989, mom and dad have gathered at St. Luke’s Christmas House for Cancer in Racine, Wisconsin, with Fern Formica, Margaret Pellegrini, the oldest Fricke son (that’s me!), and two local actors in costume. This was a long-time annual event in Racine: a different and appealing theme would be chosen each year (OZ was a natural in 1989), a vintage home was appropriately decorated, people paid to tour this unusual holiday locale, and the money went to a very fine cause. We were there to sign photos and books across several days.
And now . . . here’s to one of Nature’s Noblemen: Clarence Swensen — a marching Munchkin soldier of OZ. In 1938, he’d not yet met his wife-to-be, Myrna, but that’s because she and her parents (each of the three of them little people) were an MGM “no-show.” Though all had been offered roles in OZ, the family had been kept at home in Texas, thanks to Myrna’s emergency appendectomy; by the time she recovered, it was too late for them to make the trek to California. Fortunately, however, fate managed to align Clarence and Myrna back in Texas just a few years later.
If I’m correctly recalling the facts, Clarence was the first of the male Munchkins to have a replica costume made for his latter day Oz appearances. A dedicated fan created one for him, and he wore out a couple more – with pride! — as the years went by. Clarence and Myrna were glorious contributors to every festival and occasion, and after he died, she continued to be a delightedly welcome and honored guest, until her own health precluded attendance.
There are so many adjectives to ascribe to Clarence. He was appropriately affectionate and known for his hugs – yet he was always a gentleman of the old school: courtly, unfailingly polite, ever aware of what was going on around him, dignified — and jolly. (And if you’re thinking that’s a colossal package, you’d be right!) When interviewed on stage and a request was made, he was delighted to leap up, in costume, and demonstrate the Munchkin soldier “goose-step” – at which, in his case, no one could take offense. Even better was a statement he used to make at the end of every Munchkin presentation. He would advance to the edge of the stage and say, with simplicity and sincerity: “I want to thank the public, because you made us what we are today.” (This photo typifies the warmth and glow of the Swensens – taken in Indiana circa 1994 or 1995.)
As noted, Margaret Pellegrini and Clarence were two of the Munchkins who presented themselves “in costume” at every event. The jolt of surprise and visible, tangible thrill this caused in audiences of all ages had to be seen — and felt — to be believed. As a result, and after many visits to Chittenango, both Margaret and Clarence wanted the All Things Oz Museum to possess one of each of their recreated ensembles. Here they are, now on permanent display among the other outstanding archival holdings in the central New York State village of Frank Baum’s birth.
What to say in conclusion – amidst all the memories, experiences, and gratitude? I could never express enough appreciation to all of the Munchkins referenced or pictured here, or in the preceding five blogs. They grew to trust me, which was a major point of pride. Over two decades, we arranged to travel and appear together whenever we could. Then, once we were “on location,” we’d sit up late or get up early — to eat or talk or both. In 2009, Jonathan Shirshekan and I invited Margaret Pellegrini to write the introduction for our seventieth anniversary book, THE WIZARD OF OZ: AN ILLUSTRATED COMPANION TO THE TIMELESS MOVIE CLASSIC. She kindly and beautifully summarized the association by offering, “[John] always sees that we’re looked after. He knows the questions to ask, so audiences hear our best stories. We finally made him an honorary Munchkin”!
As is shown by the Christmas House for Cancer photo above, the “miniature Metro mob” was also infinitely welcoming to my family — especially Ms. Pellegrini and the Swensens. I wasn’t even around for one of the most memorable of those occasions, when Margaret, Clarence, and Myrna were riding on the back of a flatbed truck in a suburban Milwaukee parade. They waved, nonstop, to streets lined with fans; among them were my mom, my sister-in-law, and my two youngest nieces, sitting in bleachers along the route. When the flatbed truck came briefly to an unexpected stop directly in front of the Fricke faction, my mom stood up and called out, “Hi, Margaret! Hi, Clarence! Hi, Myrna!” The three heads snapped in the direction of the greeting, and – as if they’d rehearsed it – they excitedly exclaimed, “DOTTY!” “DOTTY!” “DOTTY!” Then the three of them, heedless of the parade route, clambered OFF the truck into the street to greet the four Frickes — holding up the procession but elating my gleeful gang. 😊
This last is another previously used photo, but I have to share it one more time. It was taken of Clarence, Margaret, and me in OZ Park in Chittenango – the place where, of course, Oz “began.” And I am still surprised, in awe, and yet again five years old in viewing proof that I knew these two extraordinary and favorite Oz people – among all of those many others who have helped insure the continuing bliss, legend, and rapture of “homeboy” Frank Baum’s creation.
One all-important additional fact. It’s important to state that the kindness of the Munchkins to me was nothing out-of-the-ordinary. They were that kind of gracious and caring to everybody. They earned and warranted their retroactive fame and attention; “in person,” they made literally hundreds of thousands of people immeasurably euphoric in the process. “The little people who live[d] in this land” have now again become “the little people who LIVE in this land” – never, ever to be forgotten.
—————-
A special note of its own: I’m sure that everyone reading here will be moved and exhilarated to learn that one of Betty Ann Bruno’s replica Munchkin costumes has also been given to Chittenango’s All Things Oz Museum. It will be unveiled and dedicated there during the annual OZ-Stravaganza!, May 31st through June 2nd, 2024. 😊
Above: This photo unquestionably captures one of the many Mt. Everest-like pinnacles of my own Oz festival associations. It was never anything less than the greatest joy, the greatest pleasure, and the greatest privilege to work several dozen times with the incomparable Margaret Pellegrini, movie Munchkin from THE WIZARD OF OZ. We were “caught” here, clowning on the Munchkinland bench in the Oz Park Poppy Field in Chittenango, NY, during a wonderful weekend roughly two decades ago. Her flowerpot hat upstages me – but Margaret could do that with a simple aside to an audience, and they loved it almost as much as I did. 😊
FOREWORD
In our August 26th entry for 2023 — posted on Chittenango’s All Things Oz and OZ-Stravaganza! Facebook pages (as well as on this blog site) — we celebrated the Oz festival of last June. The highlights of that weekend, of course, were provided by the song, dance, autographing-and-reminiscing participation of ninety-one-year-old Betty Ann Bruno, an original “MunchKid” from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s 1939 feature film, THE WIZARD OF OZ. This was Betty Ann’s second annual visit to the upstate New York village where L. Frank Baum was born in 1856. Mr. Baum went on to write THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ (1900) and thirteen other Oz Books, and everybody involved in OZ-Stravaganza! (which has joyously honored him for more than four decades) happily anticipated that Betty Ann would make many return trips to his birthplace in the future.
Incidentally, for those unfamiliar with the terminology, it’s important to note here that the unofficially named “MunchKids” group was comprised of a dozen little girls from Hollywood dance schools who mostly “filled in” background spots on the MGM OZ set. Five, as of earlier this year, were still among us, although – as all are in their nineties – it was only Betty Ann who traveled.
Most unexpectedly, however, she herself passed away just a month after Chittenango’s forty-sixth festival. That shattering loss has since reminded me of other MGMunchkins, whose local appearances beginning in the late 1980s were much responsible for putting the village’s long-term Oz event on the map.
These men and women were among the 124 “little people” (as they preferred to be called) who played in the film. More than five years have passed since we lost the last of them, and it’s been more than a decade since any were able to appear in Chittenango. Although I was regularly on site for the local festival beginning in 1990, I wasn’t writing a blog for All Things Oz at any point “back in the day[s]” of the Munchkins’ 1989-2012 era of participation. This past summer, when Betty Ann left us, it occurred to me that it was more than appropriate that this space now provide a means of remembering some of the others who preceded her in dazzling central New Yorkers, as well as the Oz fans from all over the world who found their way to “Baum Country.” In this manner, we’re able to again celebrate their contributions, as we did those of Betty Ann in 2022 and 2023.
In line with that concept, this space has — across the last four months — heralded Munchkins Ruth Duccini, Karl Slover, Meinhardt Raabe, and Jerry Maren. Now we move on to arguably the best loved of all the festival-going corps of little people: “Miss Margaret” Pellegrini.
Above: Here’s a rare, peaceful moment on the Munchkinland set. Glinda, Dorothy, and Toto – i.e., Billie Burke, Judy Garland, and Terry – are all three either quietly rehearsing or just on momentary “hold.” As soon as Glinda begins her welcoming song, however (“Come out, come out, wherever you are, and meet the young lady who fell from a star”), they’ll be joined by more than one-hundred-and-thirty of those who “live” in that surrounding village.
THE FAVORITE . . .
MARGARET PELLEGRINI: THE MAGICAL MUNCHKIN
If you track down the 1994 home video documentary, WE’RE OFF TO SEE THE MUNCHKINS, you’ll see a brief audio/visual clip that was photographed a year earlier at the Chesterton, IN, Oz Festival. The moment in question depicts three or four children costumed as movie characters from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s THE WIZARD OF OZ. They’re crowded around an open convertible; the vehicle is parked in line with other cars, preparatory to driving on to the annual parade.
Perched on the back seat of that car, however, is one of the approximately 124 “little people” who appeared in the 1939 film. Garbed in a duplicate of her townswoman/villager wardrobe and sporting a flower-pot hat on her head, she’s welcoming and encouraging to the kids. Suddenly, one of the children unhesitatingly and colloquially pipes up, “Are you theREALLY Munchkin?”
To which Margaret Pellegrini instantly responds, “Yes, I’m REALLY a Munchkin!”
She was, of course, so very much more. Yet her ultimately international fame came as an indefatigable representative of the cast of Metro’s OZ. During twenty-seven years of personal appearances at Ozzy events, festivals, and conventions, Margaret was sought after, greeted, hugged, and then held in fond memory by hundreds of thousands of people.
Above: In this closer view of Glinda, she assures the Munchkins they have nothing to fear from the recently arrived girl from Kansas. As for Margaret Pellegrini? She’s posed here in her dancing townswoman wardrobe, and you’ll find her just to the right of Judy Garland’s left hand. Notice, though, that a renegade Ozzy palm frond obscures most of her classic flowerpot hat. Margaret also had a second costume for the Munchkinland sequence, and in her own words, it was “a pink nightgown and bonnet with white lace trimming. I was put in the Sleepyhead Nest – I’m the second in the back. That nest was beautiful; it was pink satin. Even the eggs were lined in satin.”
The Pellegrini back story is best found in Steve Cox’s definitive history, THE MUNCHKINS OF OZ. As Steve notes, Margaret’s unexpected show business career and subsequent life as mother and grandmother (and eventually great- and great-great grandmother) was surprisingly topped off when Oz collector Tod Machin tracked her down – along with fellow Munchkins Fern Formica and Hazel Resmondo — to invite them to a 1985 birthday party for a senior citizen fan in Liberal, KS. By the time the OZ film celebrated its 50th anniversary four years later, the concurrent first edition book of Cox’s round-up research had been published as THE MUNCHKINS REMEMBER, and multiple other diminutive cast members also took to the circuit.
All the little people were feted. But from the onset, Margaret was In the forefront. She and Fern were the two youngest of the surviving little people, and the Pellegrini energy, accessibility, and spirit were outstanding. Always game, always rarin’ to go, she would stand (seldom sitting) through hour after hour of autograph sessions, photo ops, handshaking, and hugging.
Above: To save time, MGM catered the Munchkins’ noon meal in an area adjacent to their set. The challenge for the cast, of course, was to keep their costumes clean and food-free, but they managed it. Fifteen-year-old Margaret is shown as she comes down the aisle on the left, completely decked out for OZ and carrying her lunch tray.
Margaret Pellegrini embraced the world, from Sheffield, Alabama, on September 23, 1923, to Phoenix, AZ, on August 6, 2013 — and there’s no counting the stops in between. She was a strong and vital human being, withstanding occasional chaos at home and surviving the loss of husband, both her children, and a great-great grandchild. But she found renewal, peace, and company both with the family she loved and among the hordes of strangers everywhere who ecstatically recognized and embraced (figuratively and literally) a true Ozian. The International Wizard of Oz Club certainly honored her; she was the 2011 recipient of their L. Frank Baum Memorial Award.
My own personal memories of Margaret are incalculable. There were shared hours on stages from coast-to-coast, where — once we knew each other well, and SHE knew she could tease me to the max — she’d sometimes commandeer my microphone and stride to center stage so as to take over and joyously disrupt the proceedings. The voluble glee of the all-ages audiences on every such occasion doesn’t need to be described. 😊
There was, as well, the visual, visceral joy one felt at seeing a muumuu’d Margaret walking hotel hallways after-hours, looking to unwind with the festivalgoers who’d long since become trusted compadres. This invariably led to her lighting upon a chair in the lodging’s lobby or on the bed in someone’s room, as many loyal constituents and courtiers relished the never-waning thrill of sitting on the carpeted floor in a semi-circle at her feet. She and we would talk away the hours, tackling – it seems — a million or more topics. Sometimes, those late-night conversations would enable Margaret to privately, wisely, and pointedly vent about those whom she felt had somehow betrayed Oz. Or we’d hear about her original “discovery” by other little people, as she passed out potato chip samples for her brother-in-law at the Tennessee State Fair. She was then too young to accept their invitation to leave home and join their legitimate troupe, but on request, she nonetheless gave them her contact information. A year or so later, she heard from a Los Angeles theatrical agent, who offered her a job.
It was THE WIZARD OF OZ.
Above: One of the tiniest, cutest, and most talented of those playing Munchkins in OZ, Margaret constantly found herself placed in view on camera. Sometimes, she’d be in the distance; sometimes (as in these two pictures), she’d be more to the fore. At top: In this frame from footage taken just prior to (or just after) a “take,” you can plainly see Margaret and her blue flowerpot hat, above Judy Garland’s right shoulder. Below that photo, the Munchkins are shown after they’ve escorted Dorothy to the border of their country. Margaret was a good dancer and – moments prior to this shot – she was one of the preeminent females to swing out of the throng and into formation behind the five little fiddlers. As the citizenry marched and frolicked forward in farewell, they sang, “You’re Off to See the Wizard,” and this moment captures the finale of their rendition. The blue flowerpot is once again your “clue”; this time, Margaret is in the second row, far to the right and just behind the fifth miniature violinist.
Perhaps the best of all these late night activities came with the opportunity to watch in amazement as Margaret — after twelve or more hours of stand-up, hard work at “posing and signing” – gleefully galloped back to the hotel; doffed the Munchkin garb; donned slacks, comfortable shoes, and a formal, iridescent pullover top; and then trotted off to the nearest casino until the wee hours. (She more-than-frequently seemed to win, too!)
There’s no question that THE WIZARD OF OZ Munchkins had to wait a long time to be recognized for their movie-associated fame. But how fortunate were the countless fans to find that nearly three decades of Oz festivities eventually came to be populated and led by “the little people who live[d] in” that land. To be sure, it would have been wonderful to see Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Margaret Hamilton, or Judy Garland in an Oz parade. Yet by the 1980s and 1990s, their ages and altered appearances would have been confusing (at best) for the myriad young fans along any route. The Munchkins, however, were instantly identifiable: they were still small, still child-size, still conceivably direct from the Yellow Brick Road.
Or at least Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Above: All the surviving Munchkins became popular and public favorites. Here – from left – the jubilant “first trumpeter” Karl Slover, Margaret, and “Lollipop Guild” mainstay Jerry Maren are shown in a celebratory mood during a festival “wrap party.”
Finally! Here and now, for me, for many of us — and for the record and with no exaggeration whatsoever — I want to state that the most adored of all our Munchkin little people was Margaret Pellegrini. It didn’t matter what she was wearing; in street garb, formal garb, gambling garb, or in the petticoats and plastic that “poofed” her costume skirt and puffy sleeves (not to forget the omnipresent and headache-inducing flowerpot hat), she was everyone’s pal, everyone’s cherished companion, everyone’s wise counsel.
Everyone’s irreplaceable and indisputably magical Munchkin.
Above: We end as we began: Same duo! Same location! At the Chittenango OZ-Stravaganza! (But it’s a different year than that shown up top.) Margaret and I were like everyone else: We knew that such event participation was an honor, and we elatedly anticipated our reunions around the country, year after year. Some of the attendant magic was captured in the aforementioned VHS documentary, the box cover of which is also shown above. There’s a bad copy of the film on YouTube; it’s been inexpertly transferred, and we’re all stretched sideways! But it provides an opportunity to hear eight of the extraordinary little people tell their own stories. I don’t think anyone seeing it — or reading here — will doubt my sincerity when I say that I will spend the rest of my life indebtedly acknowledging that “I knew the Munchkins!” 😊
[This blog was expanded and edited from a briefer John Fricke feature that appeared in THE BAUM BUGLE: A JOURNAL OF OZ (Winter 2013) — a publication of The International Wizard of Oz Club, Inc. (ozclub.org)]
Above: Eighteen-year-old Jerry Maren is the “Lollipop Guild” representative in the center here — most certainly “caught in the act” at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Culver City, CA, in December 1938. On the left is Jackie Gerlich, twenty-one; on the right, Harry Doll, who was nearly forty. Age wasn’t a consideration when the three men were cast together; they were matched for the Munchkin trio because they were basically the same height, and it was felt that they would look good together.
FOREWORD
In our August 26th entry — posted on Chittenango’s All Things Oz and OZ-Stravaganza! Facebook pages (as well as on this blog site) — we celebrated 2023’s Oz festival. The highlights of that weekend, of course, were provided by the song, dance, autographing-and-reminiscing participation of ninety-one-year-old Betty Ann Bruno, an original “MunchKid” from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s 1939 feature film, THE WIZARD OF OZ. This was Betty Ann’s second annual visit to the upstate New York village where L. Frank Baum was born in 1856. Mr. Baum went on to write THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ (1900) and thirteen other Oz Books, and one and all involved in the OZ-Stravaganza! that has joyously honored him for more than four decades happily anticipated that Betty Ann would make many return trips to his birthplace in the future.
Incidentally, for those unfamiliar with the terminology, it’s important to note here that the unofficially named “MunchKids” were comprised of a dozen little girls from Hollywood dance schools who mostly “filled in” background spots on the MGM OZ set. Five, as of earlier this year, were still among us, although – as all are in their nineties – it was only Betty who traveled.
Most unexpectedly, however, she herself passed away just a month after Chittenango’s forty-sixth festival. The shattering loss of Betty has since reminded me of other MGMunchkins, whose local appearances beginning in the late 1980s were much responsible for putting the village’s long-term Oz event on the map.
These men and women were among the 124 “little people” (as they preferred to be called) who played in the film; more than five years have passed since we lost the last of them, and it’s been more than a decade since any were able to appear in Chittenango. As I wasn’t doing a blog across the 1989-2012 era of their participation, it occurred to me that this autumn might be an opportune time to especially remember some of them. In that manner, we’re able to again celebrate their contributions as we did those of Betty Ann in 2022 and 2023.
So, in keeping with such a “tribute” concept, this blog heralded Munchkins Ruth Duccini, Karl Slover, and Meinhardt Raabe across the last three months. Today, we move on to one of the most recognizable of all of Judy Garland’s Ozian welcoming corps: “The Lollipop Guild” kid in the middle!
Above: Moments after her arrival from Kansas, Dorothy Gale looks around Munchkinland. It’s a posed still, as Judy Garland is actually never seen on the bridge in the OZ film itself. This art, however, gives a rare, clear view of a good portion of the set, as — once Billie Burke (Glinda) hove into view and beckoned “the little people who live in this land” to “come out, come out, wherever you are” — the plaza was never again this uninhabited for the rest of the sequence!
“AND IN THE NAME OF THE LOLLIPOP GUILD. . . ”:
HERE’S JERRY MAREN!
He’s one of very few MGM Munchkins from THE WIZARD OF OZ to write – in company with revered pop culture historian Steve Cox — a full autobiography. (Betty Ann Bruno and Meinhardt Raabe are two of the others.) Yet it’s safe to say that one could do no better than to seek out a copy of SHORT AND SWEET/THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE LOLLIPOP MUNCHKIN (Nashville: Cumberland House, 2008) to get a sumptuously illustrated sense of the life and times of — as it’s put in the heralding copy — “The Most Famous Midget Since Tom Thumb.”
As Jerry’s professional career spanned nine decades, we can only trace highlights here. Gerard Marenghi was the youngest (and the only height-challenged) of twelve children, born January 24, 1920, in Roxbury, MA. His entertainment career began informally; he followed Anna, one of his sisters, to her dancing classes, aced any challenges there, and by the time he was sixteen or seventeen, he ended up performing in a hotel cabaret show with his dancing teachers. They were billed as Three Steps and A Half – the latter two words, of course, referenced the diminutive Jerry. In best traditional “show biz” fashion, he was seen in that act by an agent, who offered him a not-great-deal to appear in the all-midget western movie, THE TERROR OF TINY TOWN. A family counsel of Marenghis wisely turned it down, but it was Jerry’s sister Rae (“she was my encouragement”) who soon thereafter saw the following newspaper notice: “Mervyn LeRoy needs 100 midgets for WIZARD OF OZ, address him at MGM.” She submitted Jerry’s photo and received in return a telegram from Loew’s, Inc. (Metro’s parent company), asking that Jerry come to New York to catch the bus and meet two dozen other little people who were being driven west to be in the film. As MGM’s offer included transportation, hotel, meals, and fifty dollars a week, Jerry – fresh out of high school – accepted it.
When he got to NYC, Loew’s put the teen up at a hotel and the next day, he foregathered in Times Square for a promotional “photo op” before getting out of town. In the top picture below, he’s third from the left in the front row. In the second picture, he’s the second actor in the fourth window from the left, under the CHARTERED signage. (This photo was chosen for our blog because it both shows Jerry — already seemingly happy, excited, and “at home” with all the strangers — and provides a clear view of the ballyhoo banner that would promote MGM’s forthcoming film — ten months prior to its release! — as these Munchkins-to-be were carted across country. 😊 )
The work itself began in an MGM rehearsal hall, where Jerry’s life became increasingly exhilarating. Quickly cast as one of “The Lollipop Guild,” he was told that his salary — while filming — would jump to $100 per week; his later recollection is that impresario/entrepreneur Leo Singer took a twenty-five per cent cut of that. (Singer held the contract with the studio to provide most of the Munchkins appearing in the picture, and it was his vaudeville troupe of two dozen or more little people that made up the nucleus of that specific OZ ensemble.) Although savvy businessman Maren would die a millionaire eighty years later, the teenage Jerry didn’t worry much about financial arrangements in 1938. He and his compatriots elatedly jumped into four weeks of music rehearsal, staging, wardrobe fittings, and make-up and wig tests. The costume reference photo below, taken at Metro in December 1938, shows the Munchkin trio who were termed the “3 Little Tough Boys”; Jerry is once again center, with Jackie Gerlich (misspelled Gerligh on the chalk board) on his left and Harry Doll on his right:
As rehearsals progressed, those in charge realized that Jerry had unusual presence and charisma – and that he was one of the tiniest and cutest of the Munchkin cast. Director Victor Fleming, choreographer Bobby Connolly, and his assistants Dona Massin and Arthur “Cowboy” Appel thus utilized the kid from Roxbury all over the set. One of the most quietly comical Maren moments happens when the Wicked Witch of the West explosively appears, mid-plaza, in Munchkinland. Jerry is upstage, on the right hand side of the screen. On cue, he dashes from right to left and jumps in the window of one of the Munchkinland huts. Thereafter, whenever that hut is seen during Margaret Hamilton’s scene, there’s a pair of striped green and white stockings sticking out of the window frame. Additionally, there are some close-ups of Glinda – with several Munchkins, including Jerry, behind her — as she’s speaking to Dorothy. When the film cuts to a response shot, with Judy talking to Billie Burke, there are Munchkins behind Judy, too . . . also including Jerry! He’s frequently that omnipresent, as in the moment illustrated below as the gathering sings “We welcome you to Munchkinland” to Dorothy. The latter holds the lollipop Jerry had given her moments before:
Even though their singing voices were dubbed (per surviving studio records by Billy Bletcher, Pinto Colvig, and Harry Stanton), the “3 Little Tough Boys” made an immediate hit with OZ audiences when the film premiered. Harrison Carroll reviewed the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre opening night screening for the Los Angeles HERALD-EXAMINER, and the next day (August 16, 1939), he wrote, “Three midgets who receive no program credit offer a scene-stealing bit in [the ‘Munchkinland’] sequence.” The moment that especially tickled the audience came immediately after the “Lollipop Guild” song, when Jerry, Harry, and Jackie backed up — each with his own two hands clasped together and raised triumphantly over his head — in the then-standard imitation of a prize-winning boxer at a sporting event. This production still depicts the moment just before that:
Gleefully enough, Jerry was there at Grauman’s to share that memorable moment of spectator recognition. He and four fellow Munchkins were enlisted by MGM to “inhabit” the theater courtyard – wearing costumes from the film – so as to greet the stars and general public in attendance. Here they pose with Glinda herself, Billie Burke; from left: Tommy Cottonaro, Jerry (wearing the garb of the Munchkin Mayor just for the occasion), Billie, Nona Cooper, and Victor Wetter. In this shot, the latter two unfortunately and pretty much completely obscure another Munchkin, Billy Curtis:
When filming of “Munchkinland” was completed circa New Year’s Eve 1938, most of the little people — some as singles, some In duos, some in groups — went back home or returned to their respective vaudeville, supper club, theater, and circus engagements. Jerry, however, stayed in Hollywood – and really never left.
He also – at least seemingly — never again stopped working. Just days after completing OZ, Jerry was cast by MGM in an “Our Gang” short subject, TINY TROUBLES. This was immediately followed by a featured role in THE MARX BROS. AT THE CIRCUS, and throughout the next sixty-plus years, he conquered every entertainment medium. Jerry amassed more than seventy motion picture and television credits; the former include HERE WE GO AGAIN (in which he played the running, dancing, and highly active incarnations of Edgar Bergen’s ventriloquist dummies, Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd), SAMSON AND DELILAH, SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE-MEN, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, PLANET OF THE APES, HELLO, DOLLY!, THE APPLE DUMPING GANG, and UNDER THE RAINBOW. (Heavily cloaked, Jerry was even one of the “Dinks” in SPACEBALLS.) He also did “doubling” and/or minor stunts for child actors, and that work included television shows, as well. These days, and thanks to nostalgia TV cable channels, it’s very easy (and a lot of fun) to watch for Jerry’s appearances on such classic series as – among others — THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, BEWITCHED, HERE’S LUCY, THE ODD COUPLE, THE WILD, WILD WEST, STAR TREK, CHARLIE’S ANGELS, and NIGHT COURT. He had a recurring stint on THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW (as the Little German General) and a regular job as finale confetti-tosser on THE GONG SHOW. Perhaps topping much of the foregoing, Jerry and his real-life wife, Elizabeth Barrington, played the parents of Kramer’s girlfriend in a definitive episode of SEINFELD.
Amazingly, there was much more. The diverse Maren talents extended to radio roles; a World War II USO tour with fellow ‘little person” Billy Curtis; and a song and dance coupling with Jeanette Fern. (Both Curtis and Jeanette were OZ veterans as well.) Onstage, Jerry appeared as the Munchkin Mayor in a production of OZ and as one of the seven dwarfs in a massive mounting of Disney’s SNOW WHITE at the outdoor, eleven-thousand-seat St. Louis MUNY Opera. Finally, there were his lucrative commercials and product representations; outstanding among these were long-term employment as both Buster Brown and Little Oscar. (In the latter capacity, he extensively toured with the Wiener Mobile!) Those extraordinary occupations were followed by a ten year stint with McDonalds – primarily as either The Hamburglar or Mayor McCheese.
Just above, you’ll have read a reference to Elizabth Barrington. Another little person, she was the opposite of Jerry in that she was the oldest (but, again, the only height-challenged) of twelve kids. Jerry and Elizabeth married in 1975, built a Hollywood house for themselves “to scale,” and thereafter worked both separately and together. In the latter category – and in Jerry’s own “return to the rainbow” – the Marens appeared in a brief Munchkin fantasy sequence in THE DREAMER OF OZ (1990), a TV-movie biography starring John Ritter as L. Frank Baum. In the publicity art just below, Courtney Barilla appears with Jerry, Elizabeth, and Joe Griffo. (Ms. Barilla played a real-life niece of Frank Baum who died very young. Her parents had dubbed her Dorothy, and very soon thereafter, Baum used that name for a little girl about whom he was writing a book . . ..)
By that juncture in Jerry’s life, however – and amidst all else — Oz was never far away. Reunions of surviving Munchkin players were launched with the fiftieth anniversary of the MGM film in 1989. Oz festivals sprang up around the county, and pending their budgets, imported the little people as special guests – and very special attractions. Some of the occasions were one-time-only events, but several others became annual festivals. Additionally, the Munchkins began to turn up in countless TV and radio interviews, on talk shows, and in video documentaries.
A long-overdue and deserved honor was then provided them when Chicago-area theater manager, Ted Bulthaup – who’d featured the Munchkins as special guests at his venues — began a lobbying campaign within the film industry to get the Munchkins their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Major influencers fell in line to endorse Bulthaup’s idea and to appeal to the Mayor of Hollywood to get onboard with the project. (Among those in support: Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ted Turner, Roger Ebert, Hugh Hefner, Tippi Hedren, Mickey Rooney, Leonard Maltin, TCM, the AFI – and every major Hollywood studio: Warner Bros, Universal, MGM, Sony, Disney, and Paramount.) It all came to pass on November 20, 2007; from left, below: Clarence Swensen, Jerry, Mickey Carroll, Karl Slover, Ruth Duccini, Margaret Pellegrini, and Meinhardt Raabe:
Two years later, Jerry and four of the Munchkins — plus Lorna Luft (Judy Garland’s daughter) and yours truly joined forces in New York City for three days of press conferences, radio, TV and internet interviews, and a by-invitation-only party at Central Park’s famed Tavern on the Green restaurant. Our efforts hailed the new seventieth anniversary OZ book (which I coauthored with Jonathan Shirshekan) and seventieth anniversary DVD set (which I helped produce). All these festivities were capped by a screening of THE WIZARD OF OZ at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Oddy enough, for all their coast-to-coast festivals and gatherings, the Munchkins – en masse — had never before done an open-to-the public Manhattan appearance. When they took stage that morning, it was a complete surprise for the supposedly urbane, sophisticated (and all-ages) NYC audience, which went immediately and unquietly mad. The crowd — including Spike Lee — gave increasingly greater response to each brief anecdote or song snippet rendered by the five little people. (Lovingly, Jerry never tired of singing his five-line theme to an appreciative throng – and no spectators anywhere could ever get enough of it.) Across those days, the constant posing resulted in this photograph; from left: Meinhardt, Jerry, Ruth, Margaret, Karl, Lorna Luft (at right) and me (at left):
Jerry made what was basically his last formal public appearance by returning again to the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. This time, however, it was all about him, as he autographed – and placed his hand and footprints in — a block of cement. Swamped by photographers from international news services, he obliged one and all, and when the ceremony was over, he then willingly moved to the barricades beyond the theater forecourt to greet some of the hundreds of fans who’d gathered to concur with that day’s unique entertainment accolade. Ronnee Sass of Warner Bros. Classic Home Video was largely responsible for propelling the event to reality; we lost Ronnee in 2021, but she’s shown in the picture below with Jerry and me “on the day” in September 2023. (I was on hand for his “cement event,” as it was one of many anticipatory, celebratory aspects initiating another OZ anniversary. This included the launch of an even more elaborate deluxe DVD set and — notably! — inaugurated the debut of the 3D version of the film itself. Warner Bros. invited me to serve as their spokesperson for all the seventy-fifth birthday proceedings, and these included emcee duties at the 3D premiere, held right back at the Chinese Theatre, where – as referenced above – the film had received its official Los Angeles debut in 1939.)
During those days in 2013, Jerry also enjoyed a reunion with Ruth Duccini; at that point, they were the final surviving little people Munchkins of THE WIZARD OF OZ. He poignantly and privately told her that he didn’t “want to be the last” to go, but Ruthie quietly preceded him in 2014. Meanwhile, Jerry’s Elizabeth had unexpectedly passed in 2011, and it was left to Jerry to retire and otherwise quietly withdraw. He welcomed and enjoyed the occasional familiar visitor to his assisted living situation; he much more frequently and much more often enjoyed his omnipresent cigars — until he, too, passed on May 24, 2018.
Needless to say, there are countless other Maren career highlights. (Please seek out the Maren/Cox tome mentioned above; it’s a journalistic and pictorial beauty!) Finally, however, I’ll speak personally — grateful and privileged to be able to note that Jerry and Elizabeth and I worked together perhaps eighty times between 1989 and 2010. Their nickname for me was “Big John,” and my memories of their dynamism are vast and powerful.
So this month’s blog comes (as always) with gratitude to them – and to any and all of you for reading this far and sharing in recollections of some of Jerry’s countless accomplishments. He was a lovely but “real” human being, with an extraordinary sense of humor, memory, and loyalty. The last photo, below, is the Jerry I knew and continue to treasure. He was about to launch one of his innumerable appearances, with his lollipop prop and his ready smile – and the anticipation of his own joy at the opportunity to please another few hundred children (and people who used to be children). Lining up, sometimes for hours, they never could believe they were going to meet HIM. . . yet there he was: ready to sign, to kibitz, to josh with the very youngest of his cult. 😊 (Sudden remembrance: how he’d invent, on the spot, alliterative nicknames for the kids: “Your name is Patty? I’m going to call you ‘Patty Petunia’!”)
And I’ll never forget Elizabeth, always right there, alongside: a cheerleader, a caregiver, a wonderful wife. With her at hand to help with the fans and photos and fun, Jerry was ever-ready, and – to the benefit of all – ever on the circuit, just as you see here.
One last thought and realization: For Jerry Maren — as with so many of us – it all started with Oz! 😊
