1964 Winkie Convention
The 1964 Winkie Convention was held August 22nd at the home of Peter Hanff in Arleta, California. The hosts were Peter Hanff, Warren Hollister, and Judy Pike. The event included a nearly complete display of L. Frank Baum's books, movies from the Oz Film Company, a magic act by Blake Maxam, and a small swap and sale of Oz and Baum items.
- The Baum Bugle report was written by Judy Pike and appeared in Volume 8, Number 3, Christmas 1964.
THE FIRST WINKIE CONVENTION, By Peter Hanff, as printed in the Winkie Newsletter issue 3
The International Wizard of Oz Club was founded in 1957 by Justin G. Schiller, a thirteen-year-old from Brooklyn, New York. Just four years later, in 1961, members of the fledgling International Wizard of Oz Club members gathered for their very first Oz convention at the summer lodge, Ozcot, at Bass Lake, Indiana, The lodge was run by L. Frank Baum's second youngest, and last surviving son, Harry Neal Baum, and his vivacious wife Brenda.
Holding such a meeting was rather ambitious, but the early members were extremely enthusiastic. Many had corresponded with each other for a number of years. Because information about L. Frank Baum, his books, and the books of his successors was still hard to come by, a meeting of like-minded enthusiasts was very appealing. By sharing knowledge about Baum and his books, members of The International Wizard of Oz Club were truly pioneers of Baum research and collecting.
Just three years later, when I was a sophomore at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Oz Club members on the West Coast conceived of holding a convention. Indeed, quite independently, Blake Maxam, then a student at San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge), proposed such a gathering to Fred Meyer, Secretary of the Oz Club, just as Professor C. Warren Hollister, Judith Pike, and I were putting our ideas together for such a meeting. Fred Meyer urged us all to work together, and we happily did. That spring, I was awarded first prize for entering my Baum/Oz collection in the very first Edwin Corle Memorial Book Collection at UCSB, and my parents, in their enthusiasm for the award, agreed to let us turn the Hanff family house into Oz for a day.
Warren Hollister visited Edna Baum, widow of Baum's second son, Robert, at her home in Claremont, California. He described our goal of assembling an exhibition of every Baum and Oz book published. Warren and I both had strong collections, and Mrs. Baum happily filled in any gaps in our combined collections. The Hanff living room was turned into an exhibition hall and the eighty-one registrants saw, often for the very first time, first editions and other rarities that revealed the breadth of Baum's remarkable writing career.
The one-day program attracted more than eighty registrants, including Edna Baum, Elizabeth Ligon Baum (widow of Baum's eldest son, Frank Joslyn Baum), Dick Martin, Fred Meyer, and many other Baum and Oz enthusiasts who would become regulars at subsequent Winkie Conventions. In honor of the date, August 22, the group celebrated Ozma's birthday with a cake decorated with the colorful map of Oz. Program highlights included an opening magic show conducted by the Wizard himself (Blake Maxam), footage from L. Frank Baum's own Oz Film Company productions, and a swap meet of Oz memorabilia and collectibles. So successful was that first Winkie Convention that it started a strong West Coast tradition of annual gatherings.
