Oz in the News 8.22.12

Wizard of Oz fans hit Holland, ruby slippers and all  Just ask Walter Krueger and he can tell you the price of a replica pair of ruby slippers or the value of the original Emerald City wool coat. He owns both. As an avid fan, collector and appraiser for Wizard of Oz Collectors United, Krueger, of Chicago, has devoted a good portion of his life to the Wizard of Oz story. Krueger was one among about 100 Wizard of Oz fans who gathered at the Doubletree Hotel in Holland this weekend for the annual International Wizard of Oz Club National Convention.

Wamego, Kan., offers fans a road to Oz  Stepping into the Oz Museum, 511 Lincoln in Wamego, pulls visitors into the magical land, where life-size figures of the main Oz characters gaze at visitors. Greeting visitors as they enter is a giant Tin Man, signed by Roger S. Baum, great-grandson of L. Frank Baum. Roger S. Baum has written multiple “Oz” books, including “Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage,” which was adapted into the animated feature, “Lion of Oz.”

Local playwright gives ‘Wizard of Oz’ a campy, thriller spin“Dot’s Journey” will be presented as an old-time radio drama, with the actors standing and speaking into microphones onstage, with live sound effects. “It’s a campy vintage thriller,” says the imaginative playwright, who is directing the show’s premiere. Set in California circa 1939, the “Oz”-paralleling story has Dot (played by Jennifer Sanford Bernhardt) traveling on a train called the Yellow Trail Express, where she encounters three men with personality traits that parallel the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion (Doug Tennant, Leland Pettis, Scott Mason).