1965 Winkie Convention

This is the report written by Peter Hanff for the eighth issue of the Winkie Newsletter.

Edna Baum (Mrs. Robert S. Baum and a daughter-in-law of L. Frank Baum) was so enthusiastic about that first gathering, she proposed hosting the next one in her home in Claremont, California. She invited, as guest of honor, and keynote speaker, Matilda Jewell Gage, L. Frank Baum's niece from Aberdeen, South Dakota. Once again the program was enriched by the active participation of members of the Baum family, and Bob and Clare Baum, so much a part of the Oz conventions in the twenty-first century, attended the 1965 Claremont event. Matilda's paper on L. Frank Baum's days in Aberdeen was later published in The Baum Bugle.

The 1965 convention also celebrated Father Goose: His Book, the 1899 best-selling children's book that had launched L. Frank Baum's and W. W. Denslow's career. Edna had known the Baum family from their summers at Macatawa Park in Holland, Michigan, where her family also had a summer house. The buffet luncheon was complemented by a Father Goose sheet cake, bearing a likeness of Father Goose himself.

Warren Hollister presented the first Winkie Quiz, which was won by Reva Milne, a major Oz collector in Santa Barbara. From the Baum family collection, Edna Baum also arranged for the showing of prints of two Oz Film Manufacturing Company films, The Patchwork Girl of Oz and His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz. It was many years before these rare 1914 films were available more generally.