1st Annual Wizard of Oz
Day in Orange Park,
Florida
-On March 11th 2006 -
~ Honoring
MEINHARDT
RAABE,
Original Munchkin from
"The Wizard of Oz" ~
A Prospective On The Event By
Aaron Pacentine & Allen Newcomer
"The Wizard of
Oz" has captured millions of hearts both on and off the screen since it's
release in August in
1939. As you can see the largest portion of the web site,
VideosForFamily.com (at
The Land of Oz) is devoted to Oz and I (Aaron) been very honored and
blessed to have worked online,
in the recent months with many great individuals in the Oz community. Just about
a month and a half ago, I was informed by John Fricke about a group of people that
were putting together an national Oz event honoring one of the original
Munchkins from the movie, Meinhardt Rabbe. The official local event was titled,
"WIZARD OF OZ DAY". Bobby Ingram along was heading up the event and
the director of the events,
Cindy Bosnyak were working together on this. I contacted Bobby and introduced
myself and mentioned my web site to him. After Bobby received my e-mail he went to
the VideosForFamily.com web
site, and after viewing it e-mailed me and asked me to contact him. I (Aaron)
was personally invited to come and be a part of this VERY first Wizard of Oz
Day, located in Florida along with
Allen Newcomer
(who lives in the greater Orlando area) and
we
were there to present a collection of "Wizard of Oz" collectibles that we had
available. The event started at 1:00 PM and we arrived there around 12:45 PM to
get things setup. After walking around the mall and checking things out we head
over to the Orange Park Mall's "BOOKS A MILLION". We attend movie showing at the AMC theaters.
We headed into the theater to make sure
we had a good seat after the collectibles and extra Oz stuff we brought along
were kept safely in the back of the BOOKS A MILLION store.
Once we were in the Theater and the event started, Michelle Newgent came
out dressed as Dorothy. Michelle is known around the Jacksonville, Florida area
for her portrayal as Dorothy from the movie, "THE WIZARD OF OZ". Michelle performed
a few lines from the
MGM movie and then after a few minutes Meinhardt
was brought out with Bobby
Ingram who was the overseer of the event. After Bobby followed, Cindy Bosniak
who was co-producer of the event. Harold Rutledge was present and read the
proclamation. It really honored Meinhardt
and his work that he did on the MGM movie. A short while later after the movie played, during some of the muck inland sequence, and Meinhardt's roles were heard, everyone clapped and applauded after his lines in the film. Some people in the audience also stood out of recondition for Meinhardt. This event was covered so much, that the AP was also in attendance at this event and did some filming !
Later about 4:00 PM after the movie was shown people were coming into the
book store and there
were many people that came and and were in line for Meinhardt's
book signing. We
had many people come to the table where
we were. Many people came and spoke to us and got a lot info on what was there
on display and in regards to our
site, VideosForFamily.com It's always fun to tell more
people about the other people I have been able to work with in the Oz community that have been on the web site. It was a great time, and
we're looking forward to being more involved with
the festival they will be planning next spring in Florida !
-PHOTOS OF THE OFFICIAL EVENT WILL BE POSTED HERE SOON... WE WERE SO BUSY WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TIME TO PERSONALLY TAKE ANY PHOTOS AT THE MALL. SO ENJOY THESE PHOTOS (MOST TAKEN FROM DISNEY WORLD AND LOCAL AN RESORT-
Download MP3 Audio Statement
About Allen Newcomer & His involvement with Aaron Pacentine
You'll also hear some information about their recent time
spent working at the national Oz event in Florida
|
Part 1
|
Part 2|
(Recorded March 15th 2006)
NEW Promotional
Statement with
Aaron Pacentine & Allen Newcomer
-Regarding the future of
VideosForFamily.com and what
will be taking place in the future-
(Recorded April 16th
2006)
(Back to Videos For The Family)
