Bob & Clair Baum  

   BOB BAUM is a great grandson of L. Frank Baum.  He and his wife Clare were elementary school teachers who team taught for thirty-three years.  Upon retiring they turned their attention to researching where L. Frank Baum got his ideas for the "Land of Oz" and its wonderful characters.  For the last 19 years, they have participated in many Oz Fests and Conventions across the country.  Their family was part of the movie "Dreamer of Oz" staring the late John Ritter.  Bob was a technical assistant on the set.

Bob and Clare also turned their research and family stories into a play called "Frank and Maud."  They have presented the play to many schools and classes as well as Oz events.  Bob and Clare show where Frank got many ideas for Oz and just how important Maud was in helping him bring his stories to life.  Along the way you also get a peek into life of the real "Wizard of Oz".  

Sit and visit with Bob and Clare Baum in a charming Victorian bed and breakfast and learn about L. Frank Baum from his great grandson, view family photos, and enjoy light refreshments made from Baum family recipes.  For more information click here.

Caren Marsh-Doll - Actress
CAREN MARSH-DOLL A 1940's Hollywood icon and Western leading lady, Caren co-starred with Bob Steele in 1945's "The Navajo Kid" and opposite Alan Ladd in 1947's "Wild Harvest", in addition to being featured as a dancer in scores of Hollywood musicals. She also acted on Broadway, met gangster Bugsy Siegel, and survived a near fatal plane crash. One of her most cherished memories, though is being Judy Garland's stand-in for MGM's "The Wizard of Oz". Caren has written a book of her life story titled "Hollywood's Babe". She currently resides in Southern California.

 
Eerie Von - Artist, Author, Musician, and Photographer
  Eerie Von best known as a founding member of the Bands Samhain, and Danzig, he started painting at a very early age ,and his "Fiend Art" is attracting World Wide attention. His book of photographs, "Misery Obscura" chronicling his music career, was recently released to great acclaim, as was his New CD "Kinda Country". A Fan of the Wizard of Oz, he donates to the city of Chittenango, his Portrait of Margaret Hamilton as the "Wicked Witch of the West". Contact Eerie Von at: eerivon777@aol.com. 

The Hit Men - Brass Band
  The Hit Men of Rochester, New York, were founded in 2002 by World Drum Corps and Buglers Hall of Fame Member, David Martin. The Hit Men consist of 9 of the finest incarcerated, marching musicians in the history of the New York State Department of Corrections. The Hit Men perform all over the US and Canada. 

Jerry Maren - Lollipop Munchkin 
  JERRY MAREN was just eighteen when he traveled from his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts to Los Angeles to be in his first film, “The Wizard of Oz.”  Jerry became the famous Lollipop Munchkin in his movie debut, the one who handed Judy Garland the oversized treat.  And seventy years later he still works in film and television.

In his illustrious career, Jerry was Buster Brown on TV and radio, one of Oscar Mayer’s World’s Tiniest Chefs (on the West Coast), and even Hamburglar and Mayor McCheese in McDonald’s commercials.  You may have recognized him as the little guy in a tuxedo who tosses up confetti at the end of each episode of TVs “The Gong Show.”   He and his wife, Elizabeth, also an actress, continue to travel the country and attend Oz festivals and nostalgia shows.   “I can mention a long list of credits, movies, TV shows,” Jerry confesses, “and nobody cares about any of it except Oz and that was my first.”   To fulfill many requests from fans, Jerry finally penned his memoirs in the new book, “Short and Sweet: The Life and Time of the Lollipop Munchkin” which is currently available.  Elizabeth Maren adds with a laugh, “Short and Sweet….hmmm, well it’s half right.”

John Fricke - Author
  JOHN FRICKE has won two of television's Emmy Awards as the co-producer of Judy Garland documentaries for the PBS-TV "American Masters" program and for the A&E "Biography" series. As a writer, he's also been nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Album Notes." A graduate of Northwestern University, Fricke is the author of five books -- two about Judy Garland and three about The Wizard of Oz. The latest of these, coauthored with Jonathan Shirshekan, was published last September in conjunction with the seventieth anniversary of M-G-M's The Wizard of Oz. Fricke's next book, about Judy and her film career, will appear in 2011. To date, he has also been involved with more than three dozen Oz or Garland compact disc and home video projects. John has lectured about these topics all over the United States as well as in England and France. A newspaper critic recently summarized the Fricke career by stating, "John is to Oz and Judy Garland what Baskin is to Robbins." This year marks the twentieth anniversary of his first participation in Chittenango's Baum and Oz celebrations.

Karl Slover - Munchkin

 KARL SLOVER was born in Hungary.  His real last name is Kosiczky, but changed his name to Slover when he became a U.S. citizen in 1943.   He immigrated to the United States in 1928 along with midget impresario Leo Singer and traveled with the famous “Singer’s Midgets” vaudeville troupe for nearly fifteen years.  Afterward, he settled in Florida, and is now retired and living in Georgia.   Today, he is the last surviving member of the famous Singer Midgets.

Karl also carries the distinction of being the sole surviving cast member of the all-midget musical western film, “The Terror of Tiny Town,” made just months before he worked as the First Trumpeter in “The Wizard of Oz.”   So tiny a fellow and cute in his wardrobe when he made “Oz,” the director Victor Fleming would pull Karl aside when visitors were on the set and ask Karl to sing “We’re Off to See the Wizard” for the guest.

Margaret Williams Pellegrini - Munchkin

  MARGARET WILLIAMS PELLEGRINI  was known as “Popcorn” and sometimes “Li’l Alabam” back in her hometown of Sheffield, Alabama. Born in 1923, she was one of the youngest of the little people to play a Munchkin in “The Wizard of Oz.”

Known popularly as the “flower pot Munchkin” in the movie, because her wardrobe consisted of such a hat, she proudly wears a replica costume from “Oz” at personal appearances even today.  She was also a “Sleepyhead” Munchkin in the pink bonnet up in the nest egg during the parade through Munchkinland.  A proud mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, Margaret loves traveling and making appearances promoting Oz around the country.   She contributed the Foreword to the book, “Cooking in Oz” because she’s a down-home southern cook herself, she says.  One of the first Munchkins to begin appearing regularly at Oz festivals more than twenty years ago, she’s a crowd pleaser still today.  “My bags are always packed and ready to go,” she says.  “I even visited Australia a few years ago for an Oz event.  I loved it there.”   Today, she lives in Arizona.

Rick Ewigleben - Illustration

  RICK EWIGLEBEN a nationally renowned graphic artist, children’s book illustrator and poster artist Rick Ewigleben will be among the celebrities participating in this year’s Oz-Stravaganza. Ewigleben will display his critically acclaimed, limited edition Wizard of Oz series of posters at the festival. In 2003, Ewigleben began a series of Oz tribute prints created in the poster-art style of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. The posters were an immediate hit with Oz fans. There are now seven limited edition posters in the series as he has unveiled a new poster each year since 2003. In 2007, he began creating other Oz-inspired original art and they also became hits with Oz fans. Rick will be on hand to autograph and/or personalize each of these as well as his limited edition Oz tribute posters and a dozen different prints that are currently a part of his collection.

The artist is a life-long Wizard of Oz devotee who presents his own artistic interpretation of the characters he's loved since childhood. He first watched the Wizard of Oz on his family's black and white 13-inch TV. "I didn't even know the MGM classic was in color until the neighbors invited us over to share the experience on their new TV set. “I was seven," he says, "and I was enthralled. It was AMAZING in color. Years later, when I finally got to see it on the big screen at a revival in Valparaiso, Indiana, I was blown away.”

Even though he’s become a successful graphic designer and illustrator, Ewigleben never forgot the characters, including the lessons they learned and the lessons they taught. It never occurred to him to be anything but a fan until a friend suggested he visit the famous Oz Festival in Chesterton, Indiana and witness all the Oz fun.

Once there, he was mesmerized. "I also illustrate for children's books, so the fabulous Oz characters fall right into line with my more serious work". Rick maintains a studio in Chicago’s trendy Rogers Park neighborhood. All of Rick’s works employ a combination of traditional and digital techniques. He begins each Oz poster by creating original line drawings and, through a series of digital layers, applies the colors, shadows and highlights which make the characters distinctive. Now, in his own way, Ewigleben brings Toto and Dorothy, the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow to life through his art of color. The artist will autograph at no additional charge each poster or other Oz art purchased.

This will be Ewigleben’s second time at Oz-Stravaganza here in Chittenango. The event’s directors, Barb Evans and Colleen Zimmer, invited him to participate after meeting him in Hollywood in 2007 where his work was showcased during the dedication of the Munchkins’ star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ewigleben has appeared alongside the Munchkins with his limited edition posters and prints of his Oz-inspired original art over the past five years at festivals and special events across the country. This past November, he once again shared the venue of two suburban Chicago Wizard of Oz film festivals with Munchkins Margaret Pellegrini, Karl Slover and Lollipop Kid Jerry Maren.

“I’m so happy to be coming back to Chittenango. I did six such events last year and this festival was among my favorites,” Ewigleben says from his Chicago studio, “I don’t remember being made to feel so welcome as I did by the people I met last year at Oz-stravaganza”.