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.

MORE ABOUT THE FIRST WINKIE CONVENTION, By Peter Hanff, as printed in the Winkie Newsletter issue 7

*editor's note: Peter kindly provided a report about the first Winkie Convention for issue three of this newsletter. Here is a little more about that first convention and what happened there.*

The first Winkie Convention took place in August 1964 in the roasting summer heat of the San Fernando Valley. Warren Hollister, Judy Pike, and I had been planning a one-day event for months, and because my parents were very proud of my having one first-prize in the Edwin Corle Book Collecting Contest at the University of California, Santa Barbara, they were willing to serve as hosts.

Unknown to Warren, Judy, and me, Blake Maxam, then a sophomore at San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge) had decided to hold a Winkie Convention that same summer. Fortunately Warren and Blake were in touch with Fred Meyer who became alarmed at the idea of two Winkie Conventions being planned at the same time!

Judy Pike served as emissary for the three of us and met with Blake who enthusiastically joined us in planning a convention. Edna D. Baum, the widow of Robert Stanton Baum, and the last surviving daughter-in-law of L. Frank Baum who had actually known him well was willing to fill out a central part of our plan, which was an exhibition of all of L. Frank Baum's published works, and all the Oz books in first edition. Warren and I had substantial collections, so we provided most of the display, but Edna lent marvelous, inscribed first editions, and the pencil Baum framed with an indication that he had used in writing The Emerald City (his original title for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz).

Blake Maxam was an amateur magician, so he offered to come as the Wizard of Oz and perform magic tricks. I think the exhibition and the magic were the chief elements of the program. We were celebrating Ozma’s birthday, and the cake bore the classic map of the Land of Oz.

Edna Baum, Elizabeth Ligon Baum (widow of Frank Joslyn Baum), Forrest J. Ackerman (of Famous Monsters of Filmland fame), Manuel Weltman (compiler of the newly published THE UPLIFT OF LUCIFER, a handsomely produced, letter-press anthology of early Baum pieces written for the Uplifters Club of Los Angeles, and underwritten by Elmer Purdue, who also attended), the parents of Robert Riley Pattrick (a close friend and co-writer of original Oz research and other material with Fred M. Meyer), Fred Meyer, Dick Martin, and a host of Southern California Oz enthusiasts filled out the crowd with some eighty registrants. The enthusiasm of everyone was so great that we survived the sweltering heat, and Edna Baum determined that she would host the second Winkie Convention at her palatial house in Claremont, California, the following year.