85th Anniversary of the Wizard of Oz

It’s October.

The season of witches and costumes and tricks – of wizards and magic and memories!

What better time to hold a celebration in honor of one the greatest stories of clever, cunning, magically wonderful worlds ever to have been told?

This year is the 85th anniversary of the 1939 MGM classic, The Wizard of Oz, which premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Billed as a Musical/Fantasy, the film – and Baum’s book (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) on which it is based – is so much more to the millions of children, and children at heart, who have thrilled to the story of Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and Cowardly Lion. Not to mention Glinda, the Wizard, the Wicked Witch, Munchkins, and of course the Flying Monkeys!

Kathleen Di Scenna, Executive Director of the Lyman Frank Baum Foundation, shared the exciting news about the celebration recently.

On Saturday, October 19th, 10am-5pm, with free admission, the American Legion in Mattydale will be transformed into the land of Oz – visitors, vendors, food, music, games and contests will charm and delight all guests at The Wizard of Oz Fest Event. The magical day honors L. Frank Baum, the MGM classic film – and hopes to raise funds for another piece of magic.

The Town of Salina purchased a property at 2601 Brewerton Road in Mattydale recently, intending to transform the site into the Hoosock-Jensen Salina Community Center. In that center will be found The L. Frank Baum and Wizard of Oz Historical Museum.

The Mattydale Community and 3rd Ward Councilman, Daniel Ciciarelli had dreamed about a Community Center and to honor L. Frank Baum. Also a 35 year long dream for Di Scenna to have a museum, which will now be in the community center, on the actual property where Baum once lived, will be unprecedented. Baum called it “his beloved childhood home.”

Cicarelli and Di Scenna found some common roots, and a shared enthusiasm for Baum, his story, his stories, and history (yes, it’s wordplay – something Baum excelled at!).

Thanks to her Directorship of the 2009 International Wizard of Oz Club to Munchkin Convention, Di Scenna invited L. Frank Baum’s great grandson and his wife, Robert and Clare Baum. The next year in 2010, the Baums took part in a project to dedicate a time capsule to L. Frank Baum with the help of parents, teachers and imaginative children at the Roxboro Middle School. Unknown to each other, at the time, both Di Scenna and Ciciarelli were at the same events.

The Salina Community Center proved to be the ideal location to house a Museum dedicated to the writer and his wonderful story of Oz, as the writer, as a child, spent many happy years at Roselawn, the family estate, located on Brewerton Road in Mattydale!

And yes, the location of the planned 13,000 square foot Community Center and Baum Museum is to be located on the author’s childhood home. As Di Scenna puts it, “Coming back home will be full circle for L. Frank Baum, as he too always wanted to go home to Roselawn.”

Thanks to the Town of Salina, The L. Frank Baum and Wizard of Oz Historical Museum anticipated opening in July of 2025. It just happens to be the 125th Anniversary (May 1900) of the publication of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Magic truly does happen!

Table Hopping