The Latest Wizard of Oz News

Michael Jackson, the self-proclaimed King of Pop, died today in Los Angeles from an apparent coronary attack. He was fifty years old. An entertainer his entire career, the superstar was best known for his music, both in the Jackson 5 with his brothers and his solo career. He also dabbled in acting, however, and his first role was as the Scarecrow in the 1978 movie adaptation of The Wiz. He is succeeded by his parents, brothers and sisters, two sons, and a daughter.

If you are a member of the International Wizard of Oz Club, it should be on its way! The latest edition of The Baum Bugle, cover dated Winter 2008, is in the mail and making its way to members.

In this issue:

• To commemorate the centennial of the fourth Oz book, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, the front cover features the cover by Sonoko Arai for the 1985 Japanese edition of the book, Ozu to Fushigina Chika no Kuni.
• Sean P. Duffley gives a behind the scenes look at this latest issue in his penultimate "Letter from the Editor".
• In "Oz and Ends":
  • Reprints of old Oz comics include Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz, reproducing all of the original Oz comic pages by both L. Frank Baum and W. W. Denslow, and two new volumes reprinting the old Caliber Oz comic, Volume 3: What Price Victory? and Volume 4: New World Order.
  • Exhibits at the Coronado (California) Historical Association Museum of History and Art, Geppi's Entertanment Museum (Baltimre, Maryland) and the post-remodel reopening of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, which includes several items of interest to Oz fans.
  • New objets d'Oz include a Wizard of Oz-themed birdhouse, and figurines of Dorothy and her friends as mice, as pigs, and as trinket boxes.
  • New Oz events on stage, screen, and video include a revivial of The Wiz at the New York City Center Theater, musician Eliza Wren's new score for Return to Oz, a new CGI animated version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from John Boorman, a CGI version of The Tin Woodman of Oz with a behind the scenes wiki, and the new documentary The Yellow Brick Road and Beyond, a look at dramatic presentations of Oz from the original 1902 stage play to Wicked.
  • New for Oz computer buffs are the online film noir detective game Emerald City Confidential, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Writer's World where would-be royal historians can post all kinds of original Oz stories.
  • Announcements of new books include Mrs. Ziegfeld: The Public and Private Lives of Billie Burke by Grant Hayter-Menzies, a new biography of the woman who (among other things) played Glinda in the MGM movie version of The Wizard of Oz; a new Baum biography, The Real Wizard of Oz: The Life and Times of L. Frank Baum by Rebecca Loncraine; Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label by Christian Esquevin, a biography and career retrospective of the MGM costume designer whose credits include The Wizard of Oz; and Once Again to Zelda: The Stories Behind Literature's Most Intriguing Dedications by Marlene Wagman-Geller, which includes a look at L. Frank Baum's dedication in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to his wife.
• J. L. Bell looks at Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz and it's place in the Oz and Baum canons in "Dorothy and the Wizard in a 'Dark Passage': Re-examining the Oz Book for 1908", illustrated by many illustrations from editions all over the world.
• "The Amazing Truth About Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz" by Robin Hess examines historical records to determine just which earthquake it was that caused Dorothy and Zeb to start their journey.
• "Multi-MediOz" presents a review of the Tin Man DVD release, written by Jared Davis.
• A bumper-sized edition of "Bibliographia Oziana" by Bill Thompson looks at the various different printing of Reilly and Britton's The Christmas Stocking Series of small books, all with an introduction by L. Frank Baum.
• Books reviewed in "The Oz Bookshelf" include:
  • Oz in Perspective by Richard Tuerk, reviewed by Joe Bongiorno.
  • The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps, and Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum by Kathleen Krull, reviewed by Michael Gessel.
  • The Bouncy Bunnies of Oz by Marin Elizabeth Xiques, illustrated by Ashley Akers, reviewed by Suzanna E. Henshon.
• The list of winners of the L. Frank Baum Memorial Award is updated to include 2008 winner Meinhardt Raabe.
• "In Memoriam" notes the passage of movie Munchkin soldier Clarence Swenson and A Barnstormer in Oz author Philip José Farmer.
• "CuriOzity" looks at the similarity of one of John R. Neill's illustrations for Children's Stories That Never Grow Old to some of his Oz work, notably his depiction of Ozma.
• The back cover reproduces four paintings by the late Rob Roy MacVeigh made to illustrate the 1949 record version of Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.

Mickey Carroll, who played several Munchkins in the famous 1939 movie version of The Wizard of Oz, died today in his home town of St. Louis. He was 89. Born Michael Finocchiaro in 1919, he entered vaudeville, appearing in Phillip Morris promotions at the age of 17, and opposite Mae West at 18. He was then invited by MGM to appear in his only movie, playing the Town Crier, a fiddler, and a soldier. By the end of World War II, however, he was back in St. Louis working in the family business. Over the last few years, once his Wizard of Oz role was discovered, he was a mainstay of the Oz circuit, appearing at conventions and events all over the world. He also raised money for local charities, raising over $1 million for causes in St. Louis. (News courtesy of Jane Albright and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.)

Slowly but surely, the Oz Club is catching up with its own publication schedule for their journal, The Baum Bugle. Thanks to the efforts of guest editor Marcus Mébès, the Autumn 2008 issue has now been published and is making its way to members.

This issue includes:

• The front cover features "Girl at Piano," an unfinished watercolor by John R. Neill.
• "Letter from the Guest Editor" allows Mébès to reveal how this issue came about, and discusses the issue's emphasis on Oz art.
• "Oz and Ends" presents a round-up of Oz news and tidbits, including:
  • Some of the results of the auction of the collection of the late Fred M. Meyer.
  • Photos of the Land of Oz theme park in North Carolina, taken by James Thomas Josephs (which can be seen, and even purchased, here).
  • The art of Michael Herring, including many of the covers he did for the Del Rey paperback editions of the Oz books, available at graphiccollectibles.com.
  • New Oz comics, including Oz content in issue two of the Xena/Army of Darkness: What, Again? crossover book, the Dorothy of Oz manhwa series, and the manga series Toto! The Wonderful Adventure.
  • New Wicked merchandise to commemorate the show's fifth anniversary, including displays at Barnes and Noble stores, the publication of the third book (see reviews below), the book Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked, special Wicked packaging at See's Candies, a reissue of the cast album with a second disc of supplementary material, "First Day at Shiz" Elphaba and Galinda dolls available exclusively from FAO Schwartz, and the new "For Good" glitter globe at the Ozdust Boutique.
  • Reproductions of the original Oz book dust jackets, available at RareOzBooks.com.
  • New books, including the reissue of the 1951 Little Golden books edition of The Road to Oz and the forthcoming Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story by Evan I. Schwartz.
• Michael Herring writes Greetings from Oz: An Old Friend from Down Under Revisits Oz, a reminiscence of his career and how he came to paint the covers of over two dozen Oz books for Del Rey (and editor Marcus Mébès tells about the roundabout way he tracked Herring down to his new home in Australia).
• Greg Hunter writes "Surprised by Jory: John R. Neill's daughter and granddaughter open up a new book," in which the John R. Neill family reconnects with their roots and how Neill and Oz were a part of it.
• "MultimediOz" looks at the thirtieth anniversary DVD release of The Wiz (reviewed by David Maxine) and the Veggie Tales movie The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's (reviewed by Dr. Richard R. Rutter).
• "We're Off to...Document the Wizard!" by Sean Barrett goes behind the scenes of a film student's efforts to make a documentary about Wizard of Oz fans.
• "The Oz Bookshelf" reviews a number of recent Oz books, including:
  • Sam Steele's Adventures: The Amazing Bubble Car by L. Frank Baum (previously published under two different titles and two different pen names), reviewed by Jared Davis.
  • A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire, the third volume in his Wicked Years series (reviewed by Kevenn T. Smith)
  • Dunkiton Press #17: Yuletide, a standalone Christmas story by Paul West and illustrated by W. W. Denslow, the latest volume of material reprinted from vintage newspapers, edited by Ruth Berman (reviewed by M. A. Berg)
• "The Magic Picture" presents a report by Scott Cummings of the Oz Club's 2008 National Convention in Fayetteville, New York, and environs.
• Peter Hanff reminisces about a recently deceased Club member in "In Memoriam: Steven Levitin."
• "CuriOzity" turns up an interesting piece during the search for more information about John R. Neill: an old photograph of Billie Burk, over twenty years before she played Glinda in the famous film version of The Wizard of Oz.
• The back cover reproduces a previously unpublished cover rough by Michael Herring for The Giant Horse of Oz.

Philip José Farmer, one of the most widely read and honored writers of modern science fiction and fantasy, died peacefully this morning in his sleep. He was ninety-one, and is survived by his wife, Bette, and children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Although probably best known to the general public for the science fiction series Riverworld, Farmer is best known in Oz circles for the 1982 novel A Barnstormer in Oz, in which he imagined an Oz that Dorothy had actually traveled to. A generation later, her son, a barnstorming pilot, flew his plane into a green cloud and ended up in the real Oz, not the sanitized version written about by L. Frank Baum. He helps Glinda stop a new wicked witch from taking over Oz, as well as stopping the United States Army from invading. Although controversial among many Oz fans, Barnstormer does have its devotees. Its publication at the time also raised the profile of Oz at a time when there was little else new.

(News courtesy of cnn.com and The Official Philip José Farmer Web Page.)

Also passing away today was August Clarence Swensen, who had a brief career in Hollywood in the 1930s. After being discovered in an all-midget circus in Texas, he went west and played the town preacher in the 1938 all-midget Western The Terror of Tiny Town and an ape in Tarzan Finds a Son (1939), but he is best known for playing a Munchkin soldier in The Wizard of Oz. He left show business after the United States entered World War II, however, and moved back to his native Texas to become a radio technician. After the war, he married his sweetheart, Myrna Clifton, and went on to a career as an electronic technician at the University of Texas. He retired in 1980, and then found a new career reminiscing about The Wizard of Oz at Oz festivals around the country. Clarence and Myrna (who did not appear in the movie) were popular guests, where Clarence would wear a reproduction of his soldier's costume. He had been in ill health since a stroke in 2005. He is survived by his wife, Myrna, and three daughters and their familes.

(News courtesy of Jane Albright and The Austin American-Statesman. Further background information courtesy of The Munchkins of Oz by Stephen Cox.)

Members of the International Wizard of Oz Club should expect to see the latest edition of the Club's journal, The Baum Bugle, in their mailboxes soon, if it hasn't shown up already. As usual, the Bugle production schedule is a little behind, as this is the Spring 2008 issue, which focuses on Ozian geography, in honor of the Club's latest, updated edition of its Oz maps.
In this issue:

• The front cover acts as a gateway to the contents, with a portion of the new map bookended by plinths of the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman.
• In his "Letter from the Editor," Sean P. Duffley announces that this issue commences his final year of editing the Bugle, and that the search is on for a new editor beginning with the 2009 issues.
• In "Oz and Ends":
  • The hype over the seventieth anniversary of the famous MGM movie version of The Wizard of Oz begins with an exhibit of Ruby Slippers as reimagined by famous designers, and a set of stamps featuring some of the new Ruby Slippers.
  • The Wizard of Oz exhibit of new Oz-inspired art at the Watis Institute for Contemporary Art in San Francisco.
  • The newly redesigned and relaunched websites for The International Wizard of Oz Club and www.johnrneill.net.
  • A forthcoming new Oz computer adventure game from DAH Computer Consultants.
  • The recent Wizard of Oz Happy Meal toys from Madame Alexander, given out at McDonald's this past fall.
  • The Judy Garland as Dorothy bust coming next year from Gentle Giant.
  • The comic book round-up features issue 3 and the Jack and Cat Special of the Oz/Wonderland Chronicles series, and also Betty and Veronica Digest #188 from Archie Comics, which featured an Oz-themed story called "There's No Place Like Riverdale".
  • Theatrical productions of The Wizard of Oz at the Columbia (South Carolina) Marionette Theatre, The Lowry in Manchester, England (featuring Judy Garland's daughter, Lorna Luft, as the Wicked Witch of the West!), and the current North American touring production.
  • And new books include the Graham Rawle-illustrated edition of The Wizard of Oz; the third volume of Gregory Maguire's The Wicked Years series, A Lion Among Men; and Jellia Jamb, Maid of Oz by Dave Hardenbrook.
• Barbara S. Koelle looks at the various ways of getting around Oz on foot in "The Roads of Oz".
• David Hulan asks the questtion, "How Big Is Oz?" and comes up with some surprising and consistent answers.
• In a previously unpublished article, the late Fred M. Meyer writes about "The Nonestic Ocean".
• Michael Patrick Hearn has one of those "Adventures in Oz" as he writes about the Ozian influence on his life and writings.
• A new bibliography column, "Bibliographia Illustriana," starts up by examining the Neill Gift Book Series, a series of poems illustrated by John R. Neill and first published in 1909.
• "The Oz Bookshelf" presents reviews of new Oz and Oz-related books, including:
  • The new Hungry Tiger Press edition of L. Frank Baum's John Dough and the Cherub, reviewed by Jared Davis.
  • Shipwrecked in Oz by Marcus Mébès, reviewed by Sue Henshon.
  • The newest edition of L. Frank Baum's poetry collection, By the Candelabra's Glare, reviewed by Blaire Frodelius.
  • Dennis Anfuso's The Astonishing Tale of the Gump of Oz, reviewed by Marcus Mébès.
  • Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture by Jon Savage, reviewed by Angelica Carpenter.
  • Over the Rainbow by E. Y. Harburg, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish, reviewed by Joe Bongiorno.
  • The Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls by Elise Primavera, reviewed by Sue Henshon.
  • Leading Ladies by Marlee Matlin (yes, the actress) and Doug Cooney, reviewed by Angelica Carpenter.
  • There's No Place Like Here by Cecelia Ahern, reviewed by Sue Henshon.
• "The Magic Picture" looks back at this past summer's Winkie Convention in a report by Angelica Carpenter.
• "CuriOzity" looks at the legend of a dying boy who had asked to have the Oz books read to him. It turns out to have been true, as the letter telling the story was kept by Maud Baum, and was in the Fred Meyer collection.
• And finally, the back cover features Neill's Gift Book series, including artwork for a projected but never published fifth volume.

The Winter 2007 issue of The Baum Bugle, the journal of the International Wizard of Oz Club, has been published and sent off to Club members. Celebrating the centennial of the book Ozma of Oz, it's another in a long line of comprehensive (if somewhat chronically challenged) issues.

In this issue:

• The front cover features a sample of Dale Ulrey's artwork for an updated edition of Ozma of Oz in the 1950s, which never came about. The original work was colored and put against an appropriate background by Marcus Mébès
• Editor Sean P. Duffley's "Letter from the Editor" includes a vintage photograph of a young contemporary Oz fan holding a very early copy of Ozma of Oz
• "Oz and Ends" reports on:
  • A forthcoming reality series on the web, High Drama: Against All Oz, chronicling a high school's spring musical production of The Wizard of Oz from casting to curtain call
  • A forthcoming Spanish-language telenovela produced for Nickelodeon Latin America entitled La Maga y el Camino Dorado (The Sorceress and the Golden Road) which chronicles Dorana's real life drama and contrasts it with her fantasy life that resembles a certain famous movie.
  • The new Wicked Witch of the West talking keychain from Red Bat, joining their previously release talking Dorothy keychain
  • The forthcoming Oz Collectible Card Game from Orion's Bell
  • The Toner Doll Company's 2008 addition to their Wizard of Oz line, the Wicked Witch of the East
  • Volume 1 of the English trnaslation of the multi-Oz-allusioned manga series Toto! The Wonderful Adventure
  • The forthcoming Marvel comic book Avengers Fairy Tales #4, which features She-Hule being whisked away to Oz and helping Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America and battling the Scarlet Witch of the West
  • The current production of The Wizard of Oz at the South Bank Theatre in London
  • Sam Arlen appearing in Las Vegas with the musical show about his father, Wizard: The Musical Journey of Oz Composer Harold Arlen
  • The Oz Enthusiast, the blog of Oz artist, collector, and fan Bill Campbell
  • The Ozmatron, an online Oz text treasury with search engine and image galleries
  • An online virtual tour of the Worlds' Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago, which may have inspired some of the events that L. Frank Baum wrote in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
  • The new Hungry Tiger Press editions of two L. Frank Baum novels originally published pseudonymously, The Flying Girl and The Amazing Bubble Car (which was first published in 1907 as Sam Steele's Adventures in Panama)
  • Short and Sweet: The Life and Times of the Lollipop Munchkin by Jerry Maren
  • A new biography of Baum for younger readers, The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps, and Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum by Kathleen Krull
  • The forthcoming 70th anniversary Wizard of Oz cruise, celebrating seven decades of the famous movie version of The Wizard of Oz
  • The recent death of Lewis "Idaho" Croft, one of the actors who played a Munchkin soldier in The Wizard of Oz
  • An appeal by the organizers of the 2009 Munchkin Convention for pictures of previous conventions for a display celebrating forty years of the convention
• Atticus Gannaway writes a centennial appreciation of L. Frank Baum's major book for 1907, Ozma of Oz
• Michael O. Riley presents Ozma of Oz in the context of the rest of the Oz series and Baum's career in "Ozma of Oz: The Beginning of the End?"
• "The Outer Limits: Sci-Fi Channel's Tin Man Updates The Wizard of Oz" by Eric Gjovaag reviews the 2007 miniseries, while sidebars present an overview of Tin Man advertising and memorabilia, and reactions to Tin Man from other Oz fans
• The MGM Scrapbook presents an interview with Barbara Freed Saltzman about her father, Arthur Freed, and his uncredited role in making the famous film version of The Wizard of Oz
• "The Oz Bookshelf" reviews:
  • In Other Lands Than Ours by Maud Gage Baum, edited and with an introduction and photographs by L. Frank Baum, reviewed by David Moyer
  • Tamawaca Folks by L. Frank Baum, reviewed by Blair Frodelius
  • The Twinkle Tales by L. Frank Baum, reviewed by Michael O. Riley
  • The Barnes & Noble Classics edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, reviewed by Denise Sciandra
  • The Wizard of Oz: A Pop-Up Book illustrated by John Patience, reviewed by Suzanna E. Henshon
  • An edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz illustrated by Scott McKowen and reviewed by Henshon and Sciandra
  • The Pop Quiz Book by Shannon Payette Seip, a book of pop culture trivia that includes many Wizard of Oz questions, reviewed by Henshon
• Lee Speth presents "The Fred Meyer Memorial Quiz" in honor of the man who started the tradition of quizzes in the Bugle
• The roster of winners of the L. Frank Baum Memorial Award is updated to include the 2007 winner, Nancy Tystad Koupal
• The Oz Club announced a new set of its maps, revised for the first time in twenty years.
• Finally, the back cover reproduces a stained glass panel of Ozma, from the endpapers of The Emerald City of Oz, designed and created by Irwin Terry and Bill Campbell.

The nominations came out to day for the 60th Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards, for excellence in television, and the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man received nine nominations. They are for:

• Best Miniseries
• Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie
• Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or a Movie
• Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
• Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
• Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries or a Movie
• Outstanding Makeup for a Miniseries or a Movie (Non-Prosthetic)
• Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
• Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Movie

The International Wizard of Oz Club presented the Winkie Award, for those who have contributed to the west coast Winkie Convention, tonight to David Maxine. As the force behind Hungry Tiger Press and an expert in Oz dramatizations, he has made many presentations to the convention, and also worked behind the scenes in many ways as well. At the same time, the Club announced that earlier, the L. Frank Baum Memorial Award, the Club's highest honor given for outstanding contributions to Oz, was awarded to Meinhardt Raabe, the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner in the famous 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz. Club President Angelica Carpenter was given the award to present to Meinhardt at a later date.

• Lost in Oz, a series that was to feature Melissa George as a Kansas university student who is whisked to Oz sixty years after the events of The Wizard of Oz and helping to spearhead a rebellion against the new Wicked Witch of the West. Although developed for the WB and a pilot film produced, it was never picked up, nor the pilot shown. (But keep an eye out on auction sites, as a bootleg DVD sometimes shows up...)
• A telelvision miniseries based on Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked, with Demi Moore in the title role. (There are stories that the people developing this version later pushed their involvement into the musical version now playing on Broadway and elsewhere.)
• The O. Z., a hip-hop flavored re-telling of The Wizard of Oz for Fox. Among the rumored Dorothy's at one point were Brandy, Mya, and the late Aaliyah. Justin Timberlake, John Leuizamo, and Little Richard were mentioned for other parts.
• Surrender Dorothy. Drew Barrymore as Dorothy's great-granddaughter coming to Oz, and battling the Wicked Witch of the West's granddaughter.
• Somewhere starring Elizabeth Taylor as Dorothy, now a grandmother, returning to Oz. (Rod Steiger was one of the forces behind this project, so his death likely means that it won't be developed.)
• Pamela West, where the Wicked Witch is the innocent victim and Dorothy (with Toto as a pit bull) is the evil interloper.
• The Land of Oz (not based on the book of the same name), produced by Hallmark for NBC.

If progress is made on any of these projects, such as actually going into production or a release date announced, the news will be posted as quickly as possible on this page. But at this stage, any of these going into production is very unlikely.