Indiana's 25th Wizard of Oz Festival

I  had the great honor of attending Indiana's 25th Wizard of Oz Festival. I was able to attend the Gala Dinner Friday night on the 15th of September. We had an exciting time! John Fricke was there along with pretty much all of the Munchkins.

Margaret O'Brien was there in attendance on Friday night and she had a wonderful interview that John Fricke conducted w/ her. Later on Michael Siewert came and presented her with a special framed small piece of the red dress she wore during her time on "Meet Me In St. Lewis" with Judy Garland. It had been years since she had seen it and so was so excited to finally see it again. The gala they had that night went wonderful, good food and great people as well. Saturday they had the parade at around 10:00 AM and it turned out they didn't start that till kind of late...but that was nice and all of the munchkins were in that as well as all of the other invited guests in the Oz community. On Saturday evening the Oz/Judy Exchange took place in the Main Hall of the Porter County Expo Center. There were many, many items on display and available for sale and many during the auction that took place later that evening. I had been able to get few things that evening including, an original "RETURN TO OZ" press kit complete with all of the photos. I shared with  John Fricke and Robert Baum they were both delighted that I was able to acquire that. I had them both sign it. I also brought along my copy of the 3-Disc Collectors set of the "WIZARD OF OZ" DVD and had them sign it. I also had most of the original munchkins sign the DVD I had, plus Margaret O'Brian signed it and John Fricke and Robert Baum's signatures were included on it was well. We all had a wonderful time and I think even more exciting... was later that night was the fun we had at the Chesterton Hilton Hotel !

I was able to host our very first Oz event, "We're Not In Indiana Anymore". One of the original munchkins, Donna Stewart-Hardway, and Judy Garland memorabilia collector Michael Siewert came as invited guests.  Michael brought along one of Judy Garland's wedding dresses, from her 4th wedding. I introduced Michael and both Donna at our event. Having them there to tell us some stories and give us some insight on Oz and Judy really educated us and we all went away some really happy memories that night. I was for the first time, and I believe first time publicly share some footage from the "Return to Oz" 1985 Disney film, that never made it to the final cut of the film. Earlier in the day I attend and went over to Munchkinland  Market Days over in Chesterton, IN at the Yellow Brick Road Gift Shop and Oz Fantasy Museum. That was alot of fun, and there was a good group of people attending that event that weekend too! I was able to meet Allen Pease and many others involved with the gift shop! If you are ever in Chesterton, IN make it a point to stop over there on your way. It is worth the time and the perfect place to buy Wizard of Oz Collectibles! They are known as the World's Largest Wizard of Oz Store!

 The next day on Sunday morning, there was a big wonderful breakfast with the munchkins and John Fricke and the others in the Oz community. It was really interesting later on that morning when an announcement came for everyone to get in line for their food. Within about 10 minutes someone had yelled that a girl had fallen to the ground and had fainted. She was in line for some food and then for some reason or another she ended up fainting. Thankfully enough there was a nurse there that was able help them out, and then my Father...who is actually a Doctor. My Dad was able to look over the situation with this girl and then along with her Mother they were able to give her some help. After a little while she was alert and my Dad helped her get up and over to a table so she could sit down and rest. A few people said that they were so thankful for the Doctor that came and I had mention at the time, that it was my Father. A few of the people there were thankful for my Dad's help and said they were going to get a plate of food fixed for him. I was grateful for that so I helped get that ready along with this young woman who was there. Later on my Dad came back to the table to where I was at, and had asked "whose plate of food is this?" I told him that we got had gotten some food ready for him, since he had helped this girl. He was grateful for that and enjoyed the breakfast. Finally coming up to Indiana for the Wizard of Oz Festival was a wonderful privilege and I was so happy personally to be there to meet many talented people in the Oz community and of course to host finally-- the web site's first Oz event !