April 23, 2025 • 21 mins
What if you could step into the magical world of Oz and celebrate its enduring legacy with fellow fans? This episode is your ticket to the incredible Oz Extravaganza, an annual festival that brings the enchantment of L. Frank Baum's timeless tale to life. Joined by special guests Mark Baum and Allison Laird, we explore the event's fascinating history and this year's stellar lineup. Expect nostalgic highlights like the 85th anniversary of the film, Technicolor effects, appearances by Jane Lahr, daughter of the Cowardly Lion actor Burt Lahr, and Robert Welch, grandson of the film's special effects artist Buddy Gillespie. Plus, hear from Gita Dorothy Morena, Baum’s great-granddaughter, and renowned pottery artist Irma Starr, making this a truly magical gathering.
The excitement doesn’t stop there! Get a sneak peek into the Wizard of Oz Festival at Quadling Country Park. Gourmet treats, whimsical entertainment, and a grand parade with beloved characters await you. Evening shows hosted by John Fricke promise captivating stories from our special guests, capped by a surprise finale on Sunday. We also take you inside the All Things Oz Museum for a treasure trove of memorabilia. Finally, hear from Bob Allison Laird about the beloved Oztravaganza event in Chittenango, where Dorothy costumes reign supreme. This isn’t just a festival; it’s a celebration of all things Oz, packed with nostalgia and fun for the whole family.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
John Carucci from the Dinosaur, and this is the Inner
Harbor podcast, and with me Ihave two guests, mark Baum and
Allison Laird, and we're goingto talk about Oz Extravaganza.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
All right, yeah, it's exciting.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
It's a fun time of year and it's a family event,
right?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, oz Extravaganza is a family event, formerly
OzFest, years and years ago wechanged it back in 2009 to
OzStravaganza, and it is greatfor the whole family to come out
, of course, based on the bookthe Wonderful Wizard of Oz and
the MGM movie the Wizard of Oz,written by L Frank Baum, who was
born in Chittenango, new York,and that's why we're there.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
That's why it happens , and each year you do something
a little different.
What are some of the specialthings we could be looking
forward to this year?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, so every year we have special guests and
different attractions.
You know we used to have theMunchkin actors from the 1939
film come.
For several years We've hadguests from Wicked on Broadway
and the Wiz and all kinds ofdifferent Oz incarnations, if
you will.
But this year we're reallyexcited.
We've got a great guest listand we're celebrating the 85th
(01:09):
anniversary of the movie and itstarts with Jane Lahr, who's
Burt Lahr's daughter theCowardly Lion's daughter will be
here and we're really excitedto have her join us this year.
She was here once before in2017.
She's got just great storiesand family photos and stuff from
her dad and it's just reallyinteresting stuff.
If you're a fan of the movie,you know it wouldn't be the same
(01:30):
without Burt Lahr's performanceas the Cowardly Lion.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I'll tell you he was my favorite character as a kid
growing up.
He just seemed so much fun andyou know what did you think
about him?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Oh, I loved him.
I loved him.
What did you think about him?
Oh, I loved him, I loved him.
You know, he's very dynamic,he's very funny and you know
everybody does the.
If I were king of the forestimpression.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
King of the forest Shown here.
That's about the only words Iknow.
And then we've got Robert Welchcoming this year, who is the
grandson of Buddy Gillespie, whodid all the special effects for
the movie.
And Robert's cool because he'scoming with some backdrops and
he's also coming with an Oscar,so you can take a picture with
an Oscar.
So that'll be, I'm excited justto do that.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Our theme is actually Technicolor Oz this year.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So we're really going to focus on a lot of those
special effects.
You know, the tornado, some ofthe backdrops which you know I
don't know if you're aware, butmost all of that was painted in.
So yeah, like when Dorothy isleaving Munchkin land and she's
heading, you know, on the yellowbrick road, she was only
actually able to walk so far andthen it was just a big painting
(02:40):
right there.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Wow, that's amazing.
I mean, when you think about it, the special effects back then,
what they were able to do, youknow.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I mean, compared to today with the computers and all
the AI that we have, it wasamazing what the results came
out to be Incredible that theywere able to do that All
practical effects and this thisguy was the master and Robert
actually wrote a book.
He put together a book calledthe Wizard of MGM which is all
about Buddy's work, not only onthis film but on several films
(03:10):
and, yeah, just amazing pieces.
He's got a great presentationwhere he can show you, like, the
different settings and what'sreal, what's not.
You know what plants are thereand what's actually painted.
So it's going to be reallyawesome.
We're excited about that.
And then we have a big guestlist this year Huge yeah let's
hear about the guest list wehave Gita Gita.
Dorothy Morena is going to behere.
She is L Frank Baum'sgreat-granddaughter and Matilda
(03:30):
Jocelyn Gage'sgreat-great-granddaughter, and
so she'll be here talking aboutthe family and just kind of all
the things growing up, growingup a Dorothy in Oz, right.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
She's also a Jungian psychotherapist and has written
a book on sort of the psychologyof Oz.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
The Wisdom of Oz.
The Wisdom of Oz, which is thetitle of her book.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
The Wisdom of Oz.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
That's a great title for a book.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
It is, it is.
And then this year we have IrmaStarr coming.
This will be her first festival.
She is a world-renowned 17thcentury style slipware pottery
artist and she has works in theSmithsonian, in the Nelson, in
the Everson, here, and then shedoes a Wizard of Oz, a wonderful
(04:14):
Wizard of Oz collection that wehave at our museum, and so
she's going to be here kind oftalking about her craft and how
to keep that art form alive, the17th century pottery that she
does, and so she's going to bereally neat and, like I said,
it's the first festival for herever anywhere.
So that'll be fun.
She'll be doing a signing andshe'll be doing a signing at the
museum.
She's actually going to be withyou at the museum.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Sunday Sunday 11 to 1230.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yep, so you can come see her and meet her and she'll
doodle on your ornaments andstuff, so that'll be fun.
And then we've got Gabriel.
Gale will be here.
He's an author, illustrator.
He did the ages of Oz books andthen the art of Oz and he's a.
He's a fun character.
He's the, he's the and he's anarchitect by trade and he was
always a big Oz fan and grew upkind of wondering how would
(04:59):
these characters in the bookswork?
How would the flying monkeys beable to fly?
How would their?
So in the art of Oz he kind ofdeconstructs a lot of that and
he's got like what they wouldlook like, the characters that
you don't see on the pages, howthe mechanics of it would work.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, you know how TikTok monkey's wing structure
would work, and it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Like an engineering perspective.
Yeah, yeah, it's really neat.
And then his ages of Oz booksare fiction books that are kind
of the story of Glinda as ateenager who finds out she's a
sorceress.
So he's going to be here withus this year.
We're excited to have him back.
And then we've got I'm excitedabout this We've got Steve
(05:41):
Margosius coming and Steveworked with us.
He's he's been in a five-yearproject.
This is year nine of afive-year project with us.
Covid kind of took some timeout of the middle and we had a
year that we had to miss forillness on his.
So we've, we've got Steve back.
And Steve Margosius is not awell-known common name but you
definitely know his work.
He wrote Fame, the Musical.
He's the composer andorchestrator of a lot of
(06:03):
Broadway shows, including thewho's Tommy, which just got
nominated for a Tony Award.
But he did orchestrations forNewsies and Aida and all these
big Broadway shows.
Big River, soul Doctor hecomposed Soul Doctor.
So he's got all these Broadwayshows.
But then also he took a littlebreak from Broadway in the 70s
and worked on some otherprojects and he did all the
(06:25):
orchestrations for Meatloaf'sBad Out of Hell album Wow.
So he is yeah he's, he's, he'sright in the right in the
dinosaur sweet spot there, andyou know a song that has been on
uh rotation more recently yes,total eclipse of the heart.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yes, everybody was playing it, right, yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
so so he's coming.
He's got a new project callednew songs from oz and you know
it's really great.
He took local kids uh, localhigh school kids and he
partnered them up with broadwaystars and he wrote all these new
songs new o Oz songs and he'sgot them together.
So they've recorded them.
Now they're done in therecording studio.
He's going to come share someof that with us and it's a
(07:06):
really great project.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So it was very nice Any screenings going on at all.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, we're not doing any movie screenings per se
this year, but we do have a lotof people with a lot of
different clips and thingsshowing you know what's going on
, and we've got some specialstoo.
Of course our whole event ishosted by John Fricke.
You know he is the world'spreeminent Oz historian.
If you have the DVD of theWizard of Oz, he's the guy on
(07:32):
the commentator track.
He's also, you know, he cameand hosted our event for the
first time in 1990.
His first book came out in 1989, the Wizard of Oz, and then
he's he's hosted our event in1990.
Since then he went on to get aGrammy nomination for doing the
liner notes on a Judy Garland CDthat came out.
(07:52):
He has written nine books on Ozand Judy Garland.
He has produced two televisionspecials on Judy.
He won two Emmy awards forthose.
He has become the spokespersonfor the Smithsonian for the Ruby
slippers and the scarecrowcostume that are there.
He was the spokesperson for theSan Diego fair when they
featured Oz.
(08:13):
He has been on QVC.
He's the official spokespersonfor Warner brothers for all
their wizard of Oz things andnobody told him he's too big a
star to come back to Chittenangoand host our event every year.
So he still comes back everyyear and hosts our event and
we're not telling him.
So that's a secret.
Don't share with John if yousee him, just get his autograph
and move along.
That's all.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Now there's some participation things going on
for the kids.
Let's hear about some of those.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Absolutely We've got.
So we did a coloring contest.
All those entries are submittedcoloring contest, writing
contest.
But there at the festival wehave a costume contest.
We've got the Munchkin MileKids Fun Run and the Toddler
Trot, so yeah, there's all kindsof fun things to be
participating in.
(08:57):
And then, you know, if the kidsenter the costume contest they
can even be part of the parade.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
And who doesn't want to be in?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
a parade.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
That's even more fun.
Skip doesn't want to be in aparade.
Parades are great.
So the costume contest is greatbecause also and Allison and I
were talking about this just theother day there's so many
categories there are.
It's not just show up as yourmovie person right, you can come
as someone dressed from themovie, but you can come in
costumes from the book.
You can come as a group.
(09:26):
There's group or businesscategories for groups of people.
I know a few years ago there'sa Chittenango Pride category.
Trader Joe's came all dressedas the winged monkeys a few
years ago.
So that was fun.
They had a whole group thing.
So, yeah, the costume contest isgreat and this year, because
we're always trying to push theboundaries a little this year at
(09:48):
the costume contest, sonormally the contest happens and
then the judges deliberate andwhile they're deliberating it's
just quiet time.
You know, this year we haveMums the Mime who's going to be
there performing on stage.
Wow, we have Mums the Mimewho's going to be there
performing on stage.
Oh, wow, yes, which will stillbe quiet time.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I guess yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I expect if you come you'll see all the favorites.
He'll be breaking out of aglass box fighting against the
wind.
I don't know.
A mime is a terrible thing towaste, so we're putting him to
good use.
We're putting him to good use.
So Mums the Mime will be thereand Moms the Mime will be there.
And then Saturday, we've gotanother thing going on at
Quadling Country Park, which isStickles Park, at the other end
of the village, just a fewblocks up the road.
(10:22):
You can walk the whole thing onour Yellowbrook Road sidewalks,
but we're going to have JillyDogs there with gourmet popcorn
and hot dogs, and Dad's IceCream will be there and Buddy
the Clown will be there doingballoon animals and clowning
around if you will and clowningaround if you will, and we'll
have photos with Glinda andDorothy.
I mean all our costumecharacters will be there.
You know, saturday and Sunday,but Saturday Buddy the Clown is
(10:47):
going to be in the parade alsowith his band.
He has a band I Clowns theBuddy which will be in the
parade.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So we're kind of excited.
Who's that?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I'll have to see, we'll find out.
At the same time, I'll do thatone from my float, wherever I am
.
I know the dinosaur is going tobe in the parade.
So that's nice, all right, ohyeah, yeah, because I saw your
paperwork come through, so Iknow that's going to be oh,
that's good.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Carol got it in, so that's good.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
We'll save a space for you.
Yeah, but the parade onsaturday, you know, here's the
the thing.
There's so much going on andit's all family friendly.
Um, they're, it's all free.
Free admission, uh, to thefestival.
There's free parking onsaturday, which is our busiest
day.
Uh, we borrow one of the tramsfrom the state fair so there's a
tram up and down so you canpark at the high school park at
the legion and take your tram.
But but friday night there'sfireworks, fireworks.
(11:41):
Saturday is the big parade,sunday we have a grand finale.
That's really special.
We're going to have some secretthings happening yeah so Sunday
at the grand finale.
Grand finale happens at 4o'clock Sunday and the last few
years we brought in likesomebody joins us by video.
So we had last year it wasStephen Schwartz who wrote the
musical Wicked and Pippin andGodspell, but obviously Wicked.
(12:04):
So this year we've gotsomething really special planned
.
So that's going to be excitingat the closing.
But then Friday and Saturdaynight, both of those evenings,
starting at 6 o'clock, there's ashow that John Fricke hosts and
it's kind of like a talk show.
So it's like going to see theTonight Show, but with John
Fricke, and he'll interview theguests that we have coming.
(12:26):
So instead of just, you know,meeting them at a table, getting
an autograph, you actually getto hear their story and you know
, like I said, jane's gonnashare pictures and and things of
her dad and and a lot of thebehind the scenes stuff.
So you get that.
So john's doing the show fridayand saturday.
That's also free.
It's right at the festival, uh,right inside the church.
So and you know, rain or shine,where they there, rain or shine
, there's rides and games andfoods and vendors and all kinds
of things to do.
(12:47):
There's a lot of photoopportunities and different, you
know, backdrops, like with the.
Oscar, like with the OscarAllison, has been practicing her
speech, so she can just tapeher acceptance speech.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yes, I got a feeling that line's going to be long to
take a picture with an officer.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, it's a pretty neat, pretty neat thing that
he's doing so we're, we'reexcited Robert's bringing that.
But yeah, there's so much at thefestival and there's so much
going on.
You know, pancake breakfast onSaturday morning, I mean it's
just, it's nonstop thing.
And then we've got our costumecharacters, who are led by the
(13:26):
fabulous Sean Ryan and JeffSadecki I always want to add an
S in his name Out of Florida.
Sean is a costumer, costumedesigner and recreator and he
has recreated the Wizard of Ozcostumes for our characters, and
the characters will be aroundthe park.
And then our director ofcharacters is Corey Corey Taylor
, who is the house manager atSyracuse stage.
So we've got a lot of localactors involved and it's just
(13:48):
really a great event.
They are great and it's a goodto good to come have your
pictures taken with thecharacters.
So, again, it's all free andit's just a really nice event,
you know.
And then, not for nothing,we've got this little thing
called the all things Oz museum.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Oh hey, I know that place, let's hear about that and
I think Allison runs that placeright.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I do, I do.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
So we're actually not just open these three days
either.
We're open Wednesday throughSunday at 10 to 5.
And we have all kinds of piecesranging from, you know, early
on the bomb stories I don't knowif you're aware, but he
actually wrote 14 different Ozbooks.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I heard about that.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, so we've got like first and second editions
of the books.
We've got a mimeographed copyof the contract for that first
book.
So it kind of starts there andworks its way through all of the
different iterations of Oz thatthere have been.
So we've got things from stageversions the ruby slippers from
the stage production of ChasingRainbows.
(14:49):
We've got the large greenglasses worn in the original
Broadway production of the Wiz,worn by Andre De Shields.
We have the Madame Morribledress that was worn by legendary
Patty Duke in the San Franciscoproductions of Wicked.
And then we've got some thingsFrom around the 1939 film, Judy
(15:09):
Garland's signature.
We've got some originalMunchkin appearance costumes,
Like from when they came To ourfestival before or when they got
their star On Hollywood Walk ofFame.
We've got some original moviecostumes From After the Wizard
Muppets Wizard of Oz.
We've got some original moviecostumes from After the Wizard
Muppets Wizard of Oz.
Did you know that was?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
a thing David Alan Greer played Uncle Henry and
we've got the Uncle Henrycostume from Muppet Wizard of Oz
and I love that.
I love that more than anything.
Ashante played Dorothy when shewas in concert a few years, a
few months ago, here in Syracuse.
She was here and she actuallysigned all of our stuff in our
case.
So that was nice and yeah, it'sjust, we've got so much stuff.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
And it really We've got over 16,000 pieces.
Right now, about 1,500 piecesare on display.
So, as you can imagine, there'sjust a ton of stuff that's out
there.
And we're you know we rotate itall the time.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Right keep it nice and fresh people haven't seen
certain things.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
They'll see another thing different the next time.
Absolutely, I like that.
Right now we've got oz peanutbutter and jelly.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
That just went out oz peanut butter canisters from
the 60s.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
There were peanut butter canisters in the 60s and
70s that were wizard of oz, andthen all kinds of jelly jars
with oz characters.
So that display.
I walked, walked by it theother day.
Those are also peanut butterjars Are they yeah, oh, I walked
by it the other day and I'mlike what is this?
It's a new display.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Free jelly jar.
Oh yeah, and I know there'sWizard of Oz plates that came
out.
Yes, yep.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yep.
So there's all kinds ofcollectibles and the funny thing
is the movie.
So the book was wildly popularin 1900, right, and as early as
1902, they had a musical, theWizard of Oz musical, and it's
(16:57):
kind of grown from that right.
And the Wizard of Oz musicalwas fun because it opened in
Chicago and then it went toBroadway.
It played for seven years onBroadway and on tour and it
opened at the Majestic Theater.
And then in 1975, january 5th1975, the Wiz opened at the
Majestic Theater, same placewhere the Wizard of Oz had
opened, got it full circle.
Yeah, 72 years before that, sothat was kind of cool.
But yeah, the museum is righton the main drag there in
Chittenango.
It's 219 Genesee Street, it'sright across from Village Hall,
(17:19):
on the Yellow Brick Roadsidewalks and it's open
year-round, like Allison said.
But the museum's a fun storytoo, because that actually came
out of the festival.
So the festival group startedout.
Well, 1978, clara Houck startedthe festival.
She was the librarian in townand she didn't think we were
celebrating that L Frank Baumwas born there.
So she had the kids make maskson paper plates of their
(17:41):
favorite characters and they dida little parade around the
parking lot of the library andthen they went in and sang happy
birthday to l frank bomb andhad cake and ice cream and she
read the first couple chaptersof the book and that was the
first.
That was the first event ofwhat became an annual event and
turned into australia that was1978.
This will be our 47th festivalthis year and and yeah, now we
(18:02):
have 30, 35,000 people who comeevery weekend or every year for
that weekend you have peoplecome from all parts of the
country.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
We do.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
We've had visitors from all 50 states and 29
countries, and it's fun.
When you go to the museum, youcan scan a little QR code on our
sign-in sheet, and Allison hasput together a map that shows
you where everybody has comefrom the last six, eight months.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
So yeah, it's a little interactive experience it
is.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
It is.
And then you know the group wasa part of the village and then
it became a part of the Chamberof Commerce.
And when we were a part of theChamber of Commerce back 2009,
when I joined the committee, wehad an opportunity in 2010.
There was a collector that wasretiring to Florida and he
wanted to sell his collection.
He had about $100,000 worth ofstuff, and so he said, well,
(18:48):
I'll sell it to you for 10 grand.
So we got our money, collectedup money and bought it, and then
the video store had just goneout of business and so we rented
the video store space and weput up this collection that we
had bought, and that was kind ofthe beginning of the of the
museum.
Since then, we filed and got ourcharter with the state of new
york.
We're a chartered historicalfoundation.
We're a 501c3 non-profit.
(19:09):
Our actual name is theinternational l frank bomb and
all things historical foundation, but that does not fit well on
a sign roadside that you have toread.
So we thought all things ozmuseum works much better for us,
sure, but yeah, we've gotthruway signs now yeah, we're
we're all over where weparticipate with.
(19:30):
I love New York, and and so themuseum has really taken on a
life of its own.
We've become the place thateverybody goes to.
When they finished an Ozproject and they have something
that they think should go in themuseum, it used to be we would
beg for things, and now theycome to us and say, would you
like?
And we have to say yes or maybemaybe there's better usage for
(19:51):
that.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yeah, I was just going to ask you that question.
So if somebody does havesomething that they may think
you'd be interested in, they canbring it by then.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yes, they can talk to Allison, allison will sign them
up.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I'll take a look at it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
So, yeah, we've got, we've got the museum building
and we actually have outgrown italready.
We have two annex buildingsthat we lease in town as well.
So it's a it's a big thing, butyou know our big fundraiser for
the year, ostravaganza, andthat's what.
That's what's exciting andthat's what's coming up May 31st
to June 2nd.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
That sounds great.
One last question Out of allthe costumes that people come in
dressed in, what is the onethat you see the most of?
Either one can answer or youboth can answer.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Oh, dorothy, by far.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I was going to say Dorothy, yeah, on any given day
during the weekend, you'll havea thousand Dorothys running
around.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
All right, once again we have our Bob Allison Laird
from Oztravaganza and that willbe coming up on May 31st, june
1st and June 2nd in the villageof Chittanango, john Carucci on
the Inner Harbor Media podcast.
Thank you so much, bye, bye.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Bye, thank you.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Thanks, son.
John Carucci from the Dinosaur, and this is the Inner
Harbor podcast, and with me Ihave two guests, mark Baum and
Allison Laird, and we're goingto talk about Oz Extravaganza.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
All right, yeah, it's exciting.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
It's a fun time of year and it's a family event,
right?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, oz Extravaganza is a family event, formerly
OzFest, years and years ago wechanged it back in 2009 to
OzStravaganza, and it is greatfor the whole family to come out
, of course, based on the bookthe Wonderful Wizard of Oz and
the MGM movie the Wizard of Oz,written by L Frank Baum, who was
born in Chittenango, new York,and that's why we're there.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
That's why it happens , and each year you do something
a little different.
What are some of the specialthings we could be looking
forward to this year?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, so every year we have special guests and
different attractions.
You know we used to have theMunchkin actors from the 1939
film come.
For several years We've hadguests from Wicked on Broadway
and the Wiz and all kinds ofdifferent Oz incarnations, if
you will.
But this year we're reallyexcited.
We've got a great guest listand we're celebrating the 85th
(01:09):
anniversary of the movie and itstarts with Jane Lahr, who's
Burt Lahr's daughter theCowardly Lion's daughter will be
here and we're really excitedto have her join us this year.
She was here once before in2017.
She's got just great storiesand family photos and stuff from
her dad and it's just reallyinteresting stuff.
If you're a fan of the movie,you know it wouldn't be the same
(01:30):
without Burt Lahr's performanceas the Cowardly Lion.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I'll tell you he was my favorite character as a kid
growing up.
He just seemed so much fun andyou know what did you think
about him?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Oh, I loved him.
I loved him.
What did you think about him?
Oh, I loved him, I loved him.
You know, he's very dynamic,he's very funny and you know
everybody does the.
If I were king of the forestimpression.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
King of the forest Shown here.
That's about the only words Iknow.
And then we've got Robert Welchcoming this year, who is the
grandson of Buddy Gillespie, whodid all the special effects for
the movie.
And Robert's cool because he'scoming with some backdrops and
he's also coming with an Oscar,so you can take a picture with
an Oscar.
So that'll be, I'm excited justto do that.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Our theme is actually Technicolor Oz this year.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So we're really going to focus on a lot of those
special effects.
You know, the tornado, some ofthe backdrops which you know I
don't know if you're aware, butmost all of that was painted in.
So yeah, like when Dorothy isleaving Munchkin land and she's
heading, you know, on the yellowbrick road, she was only
actually able to walk so far andthen it was just a big painting
(02:40):
right there.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Wow, that's amazing.
I mean, when you think about it, the special effects back then,
what they were able to do, youknow.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I mean, compared to today with the computers and all
the AI that we have, it wasamazing what the results came
out to be Incredible that theywere able to do that All
practical effects and this thisguy was the master and Robert
actually wrote a book.
He put together a book calledthe Wizard of MGM which is all
about Buddy's work, not only onthis film but on several films
(03:10):
and, yeah, just amazing pieces.
He's got a great presentationwhere he can show you, like, the
different settings and what'sreal, what's not.
You know what plants are thereand what's actually painted.
So it's going to be reallyawesome.
We're excited about that.
And then we have a big guestlist this year Huge yeah let's
hear about the guest list wehave Gita Gita.
Dorothy Morena is going to behere.
She is L Frank Baum'sgreat-granddaughter and Matilda
(03:30):
Jocelyn Gage'sgreat-great-granddaughter, and
so she'll be here talking aboutthe family and just kind of all
the things growing up, growingup a Dorothy in Oz, right.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
She's also a Jungian psychotherapist and has written
a book on sort of the psychologyof Oz.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
The Wisdom of Oz.
The Wisdom of Oz, which is thetitle of her book.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
The Wisdom of Oz.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
That's a great title for a book.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
It is, it is.
And then this year we have IrmaStarr coming.
This will be her first festival.
She is a world-renowned 17thcentury style slipware pottery
artist and she has works in theSmithsonian, in the Nelson, in
the Everson, here, and then shedoes a Wizard of Oz, a wonderful
(04:14):
Wizard of Oz collection that wehave at our museum, and so
she's going to be here kind oftalking about her craft and how
to keep that art form alive, the17th century pottery that she
does, and so she's going to bereally neat and, like I said,
it's the first festival for herever anywhere.
So that'll be fun.
She'll be doing a signing andshe'll be doing a signing at the
museum.
She's actually going to be withyou at the museum.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Sunday Sunday 11 to 1230.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yep, so you can come see her and meet her and she'll
doodle on your ornaments andstuff, so that'll be fun.
And then we've got Gabriel.
Gale will be here.
He's an author, illustrator.
He did the ages of Oz books andthen the art of Oz and he's a.
He's a fun character.
He's the, he's the and he's anarchitect by trade and he was
always a big Oz fan and grew upkind of wondering how would
(04:59):
these characters in the bookswork?
How would the flying monkeys beable to fly?
How would their?
So in the art of Oz he kind ofdeconstructs a lot of that and
he's got like what they wouldlook like, the characters that
you don't see on the pages, howthe mechanics of it would work.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, you know how TikTok monkey's wing structure
would work, and it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Like an engineering perspective.
Yeah, yeah, it's really neat.
And then his ages of Oz booksare fiction books that are kind
of the story of Glinda as ateenager who finds out she's a
sorceress.
So he's going to be here withus this year.
We're excited to have him back.
And then we've got I'm excitedabout this We've got Steve
(05:41):
Margosius coming and Steveworked with us.
He's he's been in a five-yearproject.
This is year nine of afive-year project with us.
Covid kind of took some timeout of the middle and we had a
year that we had to miss forillness on his.
So we've, we've got Steve back.
And Steve Margosius is not awell-known common name but you
definitely know his work.
He wrote Fame, the Musical.
He's the composer andorchestrator of a lot of
(06:03):
Broadway shows, including thewho's Tommy, which just got
nominated for a Tony Award.
But he did orchestrations forNewsies and Aida and all these
big Broadway shows.
Big River, soul Doctor hecomposed Soul Doctor.
So he's got all these Broadwayshows.
But then also he took a littlebreak from Broadway in the 70s
and worked on some otherprojects and he did all the
(06:25):
orchestrations for Meatloaf'sBad Out of Hell album Wow.
So he is yeah he's, he's, he'sright in the right in the
dinosaur sweet spot there, andyou know a song that has been on
uh rotation more recently yes,total eclipse of the heart.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yes, everybody was playing it, right, yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
so so he's coming.
He's got a new project callednew songs from oz and you know
it's really great.
He took local kids uh, localhigh school kids and he
partnered them up with broadwaystars and he wrote all these new
songs new o Oz songs and he'sgot them together.
So they've recorded them.
Now they're done in therecording studio.
He's going to come share someof that with us and it's a
(07:06):
really great project.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So it was very nice Any screenings going on at all.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, we're not doing any movie screenings per se
this year, but we do have a lotof people with a lot of
different clips and thingsshowing you know what's going on
, and we've got some specialstoo.
Of course our whole event ishosted by John Fricke.
You know he is the world'spreeminent Oz historian.
If you have the DVD of theWizard of Oz, he's the guy on
(07:32):
the commentator track.
He's also, you know, he cameand hosted our event for the
first time in 1990.
His first book came out in 1989, the Wizard of Oz, and then
he's he's hosted our event in1990.
Since then he went on to get aGrammy nomination for doing the
liner notes on a Judy Garland CDthat came out.
(07:52):
He has written nine books on Ozand Judy Garland.
He has produced two televisionspecials on Judy.
He won two Emmy awards forthose.
He has become the spokespersonfor the Smithsonian for the Ruby
slippers and the scarecrowcostume that are there.
He was the spokesperson for theSan Diego fair when they
featured Oz.
(08:13):
He has been on QVC.
He's the official spokespersonfor Warner brothers for all
their wizard of Oz things andnobody told him he's too big a
star to come back to Chittenangoand host our event every year.
So he still comes back everyyear and hosts our event and
we're not telling him.
So that's a secret.
Don't share with John if yousee him, just get his autograph
and move along.
That's all.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Now there's some participation things going on
for the kids.
Let's hear about some of those.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Absolutely We've got.
So we did a coloring contest.
All those entries are submittedcoloring contest, writing
contest.
But there at the festival wehave a costume contest.
We've got the Munchkin MileKids Fun Run and the Toddler
Trot, so yeah, there's all kindsof fun things to be
participating in.
(08:57):
And then, you know, if the kidsenter the costume contest they
can even be part of the parade.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
And who doesn't want to be in?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
a parade.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
That's even more fun.
Skip doesn't want to be in aparade.
Parades are great.
So the costume contest is greatbecause also and Allison and I
were talking about this just theother day there's so many
categories there are.
It's not just show up as yourmovie person right, you can come
as someone dressed from themovie, but you can come in
costumes from the book.
You can come as a group.
(09:26):
There's group or businesscategories for groups of people.
I know a few years ago there'sa Chittenango Pride category.
Trader Joe's came all dressedas the winged monkeys a few
years ago.
So that was fun.
They had a whole group thing.
So, yeah, the costume contest isgreat and this year, because
we're always trying to push theboundaries a little this year at
(09:48):
the costume contest, sonormally the contest happens and
then the judges deliberate andwhile they're deliberating it's
just quiet time.
You know, this year we haveMums the Mime who's going to be
there performing on stage.
Wow, we have Mums the Mimewho's going to be there
performing on stage.
Oh, wow, yes, which will stillbe quiet time.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I guess yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I expect if you come you'll see all the favorites.
He'll be breaking out of aglass box fighting against the
wind.
I don't know.
A mime is a terrible thing towaste, so we're putting him to
good use.
We're putting him to good use.
So Mums the Mime will be thereand Moms the Mime will be there.
And then Saturday, we've gotanother thing going on at
Quadling Country Park, which isStickles Park, at the other end
of the village, just a fewblocks up the road.
(10:22):
You can walk the whole thing onour Yellowbrook Road sidewalks,
but we're going to have JillyDogs there with gourmet popcorn
and hot dogs, and Dad's IceCream will be there and Buddy
the Clown will be there doingballoon animals and clowning
around if you will and clowningaround if you will, and we'll
have photos with Glinda andDorothy.
I mean all our costumecharacters will be there.
You know, saturday and Sunday,but Saturday Buddy the Clown is
(10:47):
going to be in the parade alsowith his band.
He has a band I Clowns theBuddy which will be in the
parade.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So we're kind of excited.
Who's that?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I'll have to see, we'll find out.
At the same time, I'll do thatone from my float, wherever I am
.
I know the dinosaur is going tobe in the parade.
So that's nice, all right, ohyeah, yeah, because I saw your
paperwork come through, so Iknow that's going to be oh,
that's good.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Carol got it in, so that's good.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
We'll save a space for you.
Yeah, but the parade onsaturday, you know, here's the
the thing.
There's so much going on andit's all family friendly.
Um, they're, it's all free.
Free admission, uh, to thefestival.
There's free parking onsaturday, which is our busiest
day.
Uh, we borrow one of the tramsfrom the state fair so there's a
tram up and down so you canpark at the high school park at
the legion and take your tram.
But but friday night there'sfireworks, fireworks.
(11:41):
Saturday is the big parade,sunday we have a grand finale.
That's really special.
We're going to have some secretthings happening yeah so Sunday
at the grand finale.
Grand finale happens at 4o'clock Sunday and the last few
years we brought in likesomebody joins us by video.
So we had last year it wasStephen Schwartz who wrote the
musical Wicked and Pippin andGodspell, but obviously Wicked.
(12:04):
So this year we've gotsomething really special planned
.
So that's going to be excitingat the closing.
But then Friday and Saturdaynight, both of those evenings,
starting at 6 o'clock, there's ashow that John Fricke hosts and
it's kind of like a talk show.
So it's like going to see theTonight Show, but with John
Fricke, and he'll interview theguests that we have coming.
(12:26):
So instead of just, you know,meeting them at a table, getting
an autograph, you actually getto hear their story and you know
, like I said, jane's gonnashare pictures and and things of
her dad and and a lot of thebehind the scenes stuff.
So you get that.
So john's doing the show fridayand saturday.
That's also free.
It's right at the festival, uh,right inside the church.
So and you know, rain or shine,where they there, rain or shine
, there's rides and games andfoods and vendors and all kinds
of things to do.
(12:47):
There's a lot of photoopportunities and different, you
know, backdrops, like with the.
Oscar, like with the OscarAllison, has been practicing her
speech, so she can just tapeher acceptance speech.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yes, I got a feeling that line's going to be long to
take a picture with an officer.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, it's a pretty neat, pretty neat thing that
he's doing so we're, we'reexcited Robert's bringing that.
But yeah, there's so much at thefestival and there's so much
going on.
You know, pancake breakfast onSaturday morning, I mean it's
just, it's nonstop thing.
And then we've got our costumecharacters, who are led by the
(13:26):
fabulous Sean Ryan and JeffSadecki I always want to add an
S in his name Out of Florida.
Sean is a costumer, costumedesigner and recreator and he
has recreated the Wizard of Ozcostumes for our characters, and
the characters will be aroundthe park.
And then our director ofcharacters is Corey Corey Taylor
, who is the house manager atSyracuse stage.
So we've got a lot of localactors involved and it's just
(13:48):
really a great event.
They are great and it's a goodto good to come have your
pictures taken with thecharacters.
So, again, it's all free andit's just a really nice event,
you know.
And then, not for nothing,we've got this little thing
called the all things Oz museum.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Oh hey, I know that place, let's hear about that and
I think Allison runs that placeright.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I do, I do.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
So we're actually not just open these three days
either.
We're open Wednesday throughSunday at 10 to 5.
And we have all kinds of piecesranging from, you know, early
on the bomb stories I don't knowif you're aware, but he
actually wrote 14 different Ozbooks.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I heard about that.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, so we've got like first and second editions
of the books.
We've got a mimeographed copyof the contract for that first
book.
So it kind of starts there andworks its way through all of the
different iterations of Oz thatthere have been.
So we've got things from stageversions the ruby slippers from
the stage production of ChasingRainbows.
(14:49):
We've got the large greenglasses worn in the original
Broadway production of the Wiz,worn by Andre De Shields.
We have the Madame Morribledress that was worn by legendary
Patty Duke in the San Franciscoproductions of Wicked.
And then we've got some thingsFrom around the 1939 film, Judy
(15:09):
Garland's signature.
We've got some originalMunchkin appearance costumes,
Like from when they came To ourfestival before or when they got
their star On Hollywood Walk ofFame.
We've got some original moviecostumes From After the Wizard
Muppets Wizard of Oz.
We've got some original moviecostumes from After the Wizard
Muppets Wizard of Oz.
Did you know that was?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
a thing David Alan Greer played Uncle Henry and
we've got the Uncle Henrycostume from Muppet Wizard of Oz
and I love that.
I love that more than anything.
Ashante played Dorothy when shewas in concert a few years, a
few months ago, here in Syracuse.
She was here and she actuallysigned all of our stuff in our
case.
So that was nice and yeah, it'sjust, we've got so much stuff.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
And it really We've got over 16,000 pieces.
Right now, about 1,500 piecesare on display.
So, as you can imagine, there'sjust a ton of stuff that's out
there.
And we're you know we rotate itall the time.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Right keep it nice and fresh people haven't seen
certain things.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
They'll see another thing different the next time.
Absolutely, I like that.
Right now we've got oz peanutbutter and jelly.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
That just went out oz peanut butter canisters from
the 60s.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
There were peanut butter canisters in the 60s and
70s that were wizard of oz, andthen all kinds of jelly jars
with oz characters.
So that display.
I walked, walked by it theother day.
Those are also peanut butterjars Are they yeah, oh, I walked
by it the other day and I'mlike what is this?
It's a new display.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Free jelly jar.
Oh yeah, and I know there'sWizard of Oz plates that came
out.
Yes, yep.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yep.
So there's all kinds ofcollectibles and the funny thing
is the movie.
So the book was wildly popularin 1900, right, and as early as
1902, they had a musical, theWizard of Oz musical, and it's
(16:57):
kind of grown from that right.
And the Wizard of Oz musicalwas fun because it opened in
Chicago and then it went toBroadway.
It played for seven years onBroadway and on tour and it
opened at the Majestic Theater.
And then in 1975, january 5th1975, the Wiz opened at the
Majestic Theater, same placewhere the Wizard of Oz had
opened, got it full circle.
Yeah, 72 years before that, sothat was kind of cool.
But yeah, the museum is righton the main drag there in
Chittenango.
It's 219 Genesee Street, it'sright across from Village Hall,
(17:19):
on the Yellow Brick Roadsidewalks and it's open
year-round, like Allison said.
But the museum's a fun storytoo, because that actually came
out of the festival.
So the festival group startedout.
Well, 1978, clara Houck startedthe festival.
She was the librarian in townand she didn't think we were
celebrating that L Frank Baumwas born there.
So she had the kids make maskson paper plates of their
(17:41):
favorite characters and they dida little parade around the
parking lot of the library andthen they went in and sang happy
birthday to l frank bomb andhad cake and ice cream and she
read the first couple chaptersof the book and that was the
first.
That was the first event ofwhat became an annual event and
turned into australia that was1978.
This will be our 47th festivalthis year and and yeah, now we
(18:02):
have 30, 35,000 people who comeevery weekend or every year for
that weekend you have peoplecome from all parts of the
country.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
We do.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
We've had visitors from all 50 states and 29
countries, and it's fun.
When you go to the museum, youcan scan a little QR code on our
sign-in sheet, and Allison hasput together a map that shows
you where everybody has comefrom the last six, eight months.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
So yeah, it's a little interactive experience it
is.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
It is.
And then you know the group wasa part of the village and then
it became a part of the Chamberof Commerce.
And when we were a part of theChamber of Commerce back 2009,
when I joined the committee, wehad an opportunity in 2010.
There was a collector that wasretiring to Florida and he
wanted to sell his collection.
He had about $100,000 worth ofstuff, and so he said, well,
(18:48):
I'll sell it to you for 10 grand.
So we got our money, collectedup money and bought it, and then
the video store had just goneout of business and so we rented
the video store space and weput up this collection that we
had bought, and that was kind ofthe beginning of the of the
museum.
Since then, we filed and got ourcharter with the state of new
york.
We're a chartered historicalfoundation.
We're a 501c3 non-profit.
(19:09):
Our actual name is theinternational l frank bomb and
all things historical foundation, but that does not fit well on
a sign roadside that you have toread.
So we thought all things ozmuseum works much better for us,
sure, but yeah, we've gotthruway signs now yeah, we're
we're all over where weparticipate with.
(19:30):
I love New York, and and so themuseum has really taken on a
life of its own.
We've become the place thateverybody goes to.
When they finished an Ozproject and they have something
that they think should go in themuseum, it used to be we would
beg for things, and now theycome to us and say, would you
like?
And we have to say yes or maybemaybe there's better usage for
(19:51):
that.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yeah, I was just going to ask you that question.
So if somebody does havesomething that they may think
you'd be interested in, they canbring it by then.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yes, they can talk to Allison, allison will sign them
up.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I'll take a look at it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
So, yeah, we've got, we've got the museum building
and we actually have outgrown italready.
We have two annex buildingsthat we lease in town as well.
So it's a it's a big thing, butyou know our big fundraiser for
the year, ostravaganza, andthat's what.
That's what's exciting andthat's what's coming up May 31st
to June 2nd.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
That sounds great.
One last question Out of allthe costumes that people come in
dressed in, what is the onethat you see the most of?
Either one can answer or youboth can answer.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Oh, dorothy, by far.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I was going to say Dorothy, yeah, on any given day
during the weekend, you'll havea thousand Dorothys running
around.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
All right, once again we have our Bob Allison Laird
from Oztravaganza and that willbe coming up on May 31st, june
1st and June 2nd in the villageof Chittanango, john Carucci on
the Inner Harbor Media podcast.
Thank you so much, bye, bye.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Bye, thank you.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Thanks, son.
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