Miscellaneous questions

I'm a teacher. Are there any Wizard of Oz-related lesson plans or ideas?

Yes, there are. Check out (TMOHH) the Oz Lesson Ideas page of WWOOW at http://thewizardofoz.info/ozteach.html. In addition to some general lesson plan ideas, there are some links to more comprehensive sites and resources. (If anyone has information on other Oz lesson plans or teacher resources, on or off the WWW, I would appreciate hearing about them.)

I want to throw a Wizard of Oz-themed party for my son/daughter/self. What can I do?

After nothing being available for many years, there are now not one, but two different lines of Oz party supplies available. You can take a look at what's available and buy them through (TMOHH) my website's Oz party page. It also has some examples and suggestions, and links to other sites. Take a look at it at http://thewizardofoz.info/ozparty.html. And here are a few more tips:

• Use Ozzy greeting cards or postcards, or ones with rainbows, for invitations.
• Decorate with poppies, sunflowers (the Kansas state flower), bunches of straw, small metal funnels, paw prints, diplomas, hearts, medals, green balloons with baskets hanging from the bottom, big pink bubbles...
• Paper cups and name tags can have Oz stickers put on them (available from Hallmark stores and Dover Publications), or decorated with rainbows or Oz rubber stamps.
• Got a walkway up to the front door? Use yellow street chalk to turn it into a yellow brick road. Put the appropriate shoes (silver or ruby) on a pair of socks stuffed with newspaper and have them stick out from under the house.
• Does the guest of honor want to dress as Dorothy? All it takes are braids, a blue checked dress, and a stuffed dog in a basket. And don't forget the shoes — either wrapped in foil or sprayed in glue and rolled in red glitter (use old shoes, of course), or some of the costume shoes now available.
• Find partyware and streamers in Ozzy colors — yellow, blue, purple, red, and especially green.
• For party favors, besides anything you can think of that's Ozzy (bubbles, rainbows, hearts, etc.), Dover has a set of miniature Oz activity books (coloring, stickers, temporary tattoos, etc.) at extremely reasonable prices. Check at your local bookstore, or you can find them (TMOHH) in aisle eight of the online Oz bookshop at http://thewizardofoz.info/aisle8.html, and look for items marked with a party hat.
• For an activity, get strips of colored card stock, green yarn, crayons, and Oz stickers, and make Oz bookmarks. Or, use paper lunch bags, create Oz puppets, and put on a show.
• Try a yellow brick road treasure hunt, with clues on each brick leading up to a group prize.
• Oz themed games could include Pin the Tail on the Lion/the Heart on the Tin Man/the Diploma on the Scarecrow, etc., ring toss around a witch's hat, or whatever other party game you can Ozzify. With large pieces of yellow paper you can play Musical Yellow Bricks.
• For another Ozzy variant on musical chairs, use pictures of different Oz characters as "chairs." Then, when the music stops (use the soundtrack from The Movie, of course), choose a character at random (spinner, names from a hat, or some such way), and whoever is standing on that character wins.
• For drinks, try frothy pink Good Witch shakes, green Melted Witch punch (green punch with scoops of lime sherbet floating on top), or bright green Emerald City punch. You can also make rainbow ice cubes by freezing different colors of drinks in layers (freeze a thin layer of cherry, then pour some orange on top of that and freeze it, then some lemon... oh, you get the idea).
• Use a star-shaped cookie cutter and carrot sticks to make Glinda's Wand Sandwiches. Makes pigs in a blanket and call them Totos in a basket. Or just give all of your food Ozzy names.
• For a cake, any good bakery should be able to decorate a sheet cake with an illustration from one of the books or a picture from The Movie. Or decorate a yellow cake with a brick design, or rainbows.

The following ideas are adapted from the January/February 1999 issue of American Girl magazine, and are copyright 1998 by Pleasant Company.

• Make paper poppies. Cut red tissue paper into circles of three different diameters: 4 1/2 inches, 3 1/2 inches, and 2 1/2 inches. Make a stack of six circles, two of each size, with the largest on the bottom and smallest on the top. Cut two small lines across the fold to make slits. Push a black pipe cleaner up through one slit and down through the other. Twist the pipe cleaner ends together, and pull the paper through your closed hand to make a flower shape.
• Make ruby slipper invitations. Create a shoe pattern about five inches long. Fold a piece of red construction paper in half and trace your pattern, with the heel on the fold so that when it's open, you have two shoes connected at the heels. Glue yellow ovals on the shoes for the foot opening. Decorate your invitations with red glitter and ribbons. (Yes, this idea can also be adapted for silver shoes.)
• For a simple Melted Witch punch, sprinkle one envelope unsweetened lemon-lime Kool Aid into a large clear bowl. Gently pour in two liters chilled lemon-lime soda and stir. To make a witch hat to float on top, tape a black conical party hat to a seven-inch black plastic plate.
• For Munchkin Mix, combine eight cups popcorn, three cups pretzel sticks, one cup M&Ms (for "Auntie M"), 1/2 cup animal cookies (especially lions, tigers, and bears — oh my!), and 1/4 cup green gumdrops (for emeralds). Serve in metal funnels (like the Tin Woodman's hat).
• Make a cake that goes from black and white to color! Make a batter from one box of white cake mix. Divide the batter into four equal parts. Stir one tablespoon Jell-O mix into each part (use four different colors, and don't use grape). Bake each part in a round eight-inch cake pan. Once each of these is cool, use yellow frosting between each layer. Then frost the whole thing with white frosting. Draw tornadoes on the cake with black decorating gel.
• Make a rainbow arch with different colors of helium balloons and different lengths of string.
• Use rainbow candies, a bottle of bubble solution, or bubble gum as party favors, so guests can take part in the stunts (see next item).
• While watching The Movie, guests can eat rainbow candies while Dorothy sings "Over the Rainbow," blow bubbles whenever Glinda pops up, link arms and dance around the room during every chorus of "We're Off to See the Wizard," cackle whenever the Wicked Witch appears, and pretend to fall asleep when Dorothy is in the poppy field.
• For a game, split the guests into teams. Each team gets a stack of newspaper, rubber bands, clothespins, gloves, socks, a small flannel shirt, a small pair of pants, a hat, and a paper bag with a face drawn on it. The teams race to make their Scarecrow first. (Use the rubber bands to attach the gloves and socks, and clothespins to attach the shirt to the pants.)
• Play "Brains, Heart, Courage." On three paper bags, draw a diploma, a heart, and a medal. These are the brains, heart, and courage bags. Each guest gets three slips of paper. On the first one, everyone writes down something he or she knows how to do, and that goes in the brains bag. On the second slip of paper, everyone writes down something they love, and that goes in the heart bag. On the third slip, everyone writes something they are afraid of, and that goes in the courage bag. Then, one person picks a slip from one bag and reads it aloud. Everyone tries to guess who wrote it. If someone guesses correctly, that person picks the next slip of paper. If nobody guesses correctly, whoever wrote it gets to pick next.

Here are some ideas sent to me by a mother in Ontario, Canada:

• We are going to build a Munchkin village outside out of boxes and such (nothing too fancy but creative). Then hide a bunch of small dolls (Munchkins). Then the kids can do a find the Munchkin dolls and win prizes (all will get prizes of course). Could also add some giant flowers like in the movie.
• For a craft we may do Emerald beaded necklaces. Just get a bunch of green glass beads and let their imagination go from there.

Other sites with information you may find useful are http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/wizard_of_oz_party.html and http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/cartoons/oz.html.

What's this Project Ozma I've heard tell about among astronomers?

Oz seems to be popular in the astronomical community. So it seemed only natural that one of the first SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) programs, in 1960, should be called Project Ozma, named for the ruler of Oz. Frank Drake called it that because he knew that distant planets, like Oz, were "very far away, difficult to reach, and populated by exotic beings." Using one of the earliest radio telescopes, in West Virginia, Drake examined a whole whopping two stars, Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani, for radio signals that could indicate intelligent, technologically advanced beings living on a planet orbiting those stars. Of course, he didn't find any, although there were a few false alarms. In 1973, Ben Zuckerman of the University of Maryland and Patrick Palmer of the University of Chicago initiated a follow-up search, Ozma II, which scanned 600 stars, but with no greater success. For more information about Project Ozma, check out http://www.bigear.org/vol1no1/ozma.htm for a reminiscence by Drake, and http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874057,00.html for a contemporary article from Time magazine.

In November of 2010, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Project Ozma, the SETI community launched a new effort to find extraterrestrial intelligence. It's name? Project Dorothy.

Has there ever been any sort of Wizard of Oz-themed amusement park or tourist attraction?

The earliest plans for an Oz amusement park were put forth by L. Frank Baum himself. In an interview, he mentioned buying Pedloe Island off the coast of California to turn it into an Oz park. Trouble is, not only did he not buy Pedloe Island, nobody has ever been able to find any island whose name even resembles Pedloe in that area. There was a Land of Oz Park in Banner Elk, North Carolina some years ago, but it's long since been converted to a resort (which still hosts an annual Oz event — see http://www.emeraldmtn.com for more information). An Oz-themed resort complex, including an amusement park, was in the works for the Kansas City, Kansas area, but they never could get the local government to approve it, and the company closed up shop in 2001. There has been talk of other Oz amusement parks in other parts of the country (notably upstate New York), but nothing concrete has happened yet.

There have also been Oz attractions at other parks and fairs. The earliest was at The Chutes in Chicago, which is considered to be the world's first amusement park. In 1905, there were attractions called "The Fairies of Oz" and "The Poppy Fields of Oz," and Oz scenes were also included in "The Mystic Rill," a darkened boat ride through various locales. At the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, a giant Scarecrow and Tin Woodman stood guard outside the entrance to Enchanted Island, the children's play area. Inside, the Junior League and the Jean Gros Marionettes performed, and both included Oz dramatizations at times. "The Land of Oz" was part of the children's amusement area of Cincinnati's Coney Island from 1934 until the park's closure in 1971. Ray Bolger mentioned a "Wizardland of Oz" park in interviews in the 1960s. And an Oz ride was planned and designed for Disneyland in the 1960s, but never built.

Ozzy tourist attractions include:

• Dorothy's House in Liberal, Kansas. It's a reproduction of the house from The Movie. More information is available at http://www.liberal.net/info/events/oz.html.
• There's an Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas, with all kinds of Oz memorabilia. Information can be found at http://www.ozmuseum.com/.
• Another Oz museum is open in Wausaukee, Wisconsin (http://landofozmuseum.com/Home.html; they're also on Facebook).
• The National Oz Museum is currently in the works in Camden, Maine.
• L. Frank Baum's home town in Chittenango, New York, also has an "All Things Oz" museum.
• Chittenango is also home to the Yellow Brick Road Casino, which has several Oz-themed games.
• Fairytale Town, a Sacramento storybook-themed park, recently added a yellow brick road area.
• The MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada (http://www.mgmgrand.com/) had an Oz theme to it several years ago, complete with giant animatronic Oz characters and an Oz casino, but it has since been remodeled.
• More recently, the Revere Hotel on Boston Common opened an Oz/Wicked-themed Emerald Lounge.
• Wylie Park in Aberdeen, South Dakota, has a Land of Oz area.
• Oz characters appear in Oz Park in Chicago.
• The town of Washington, Kansas has a Munchkinland playground and fitness trail.
• Butler Haynes Park in Mapleton, Illinois, has an Oz-themed children's garden.
• Watkins Regional Park in Upper Marlboro, Maryland (not far from Washington, DC) has opened a Wizard of Oz-themed playground.
• In Malaysia, the first Hello Kitty theme park outside of Japan opened the show Hello Kitty in Oz in 2015. You can find more information at the park's website and Facebook page.
• Sluggers & Putters Wild World of Fun in Canal Fulton, Ohio, has a Wizard of Oz-themed miniature golf course, the Flying Monkey video arcade, and Auntie Em's Ice Cream amongst its attractions.
• There is also an Over the Rainbow mini golf course in Old Forge, New York.
• The Miniland at the LEGOLAND Discovery Fun Center in Kansas City, Missouri includes several Oz exhibits made of LEGO bricks.
• The New York City branch of Madame Tussaud's wax museum has a Judy Garland as Dorothy figure.
• While you're in New York, you might want to head to the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, where you can record your voice saying classic lines from The Movie.
• Sunday Mountain, a ski resort in Maine, has a hill called Oz, with runs titled Cowardly Lion, Kansas, Ruby Palace, Tin Woodsman, Lost Princess, Eureka, Emerald City, Flying Monkey, Witch Way, and Cyclone.
• If you're traveling to the other Oz (Australia, that is), there is a Wizard of Oz Funland in Leumeah, New South Wales.
• Disneyland Paris has the Emerald City and the Witch's castle in Les Pays des Contes de Fées (the French version of the Storybook Land canal boats).
• The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the folks who hand out the Oscars) is in the process of gathering items and preparing a film history museum in the near future. One item they have acquired is a pair of Ruby Slippers used in The Movie.
• Holland, Michigan, on the western shore of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, celebrates its connection to The Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum used to vacation in the area) with the Oz Project, putting a yellow brick road and statues in one of its parks. You can find out more at https://hollandozproject.com/.
• St. Louis Escape, creators of escape rooms in St. Louis, Missouri, is (as of September 2019) working to create a Wizard of Oz-themed escape room.
• There is an Oz-themed Airbnb cottage available for rent in West Jefferson, North Carolina.
• Eggheads, a restaurant in Fort Bragg, California, has Wizard of Oz-themed decor and dishes on their menu.
• The Yellow Brick Road is an Oz-themed playground at the Sundown Adventureland park in Retford, Nottinghamshire, England.
• The Wizard of Oz Museum is now open in Cape Canaveral, Florida. You can see a walkthrough by a local television station here.
• Warner Bros. Movie World in Australia has plans for a Wizard of Oz precinct, including two rides, to open in 2024.
• Just for Kicks Cupcakes & More in Surrey, Virginia, has a whole Oz-themed cupcake menu.

And there is now a website dedicated to Oz attractions. Please see https://dolsofka.wixsite.com/theyellowbrickroad for more places in the United States.

Was the band Toto named for Dorothy's dog?

Toto was a very popular band of the late 1970s and early '80s, with Top 40 hits like "Hold the Line", "Rosanna", "Africa", and "99". They are still performing today, and released a new album in 2015. So naturally, with a name like that, Oz fans have wondered if there was a connection between Dorothy's dog and the band. Research has been fuzzy on that topic, however, so I finally resorted to outside help, asking Brian Cronin of the Entertainment Urban Legends Revealed website for an assist. And in March of 2016, I finally got the answer. It turns out that, yes indeed, the initial tapes that the band put together were labeled "Toto" as a placeholder name after Jeff Porcaro had seen a recent airing of The Movie. When it came time to actually name the band (and the eponymous first album), the band researched the roots of the word "toto" and found that it was Latin for everything or all-encompassing. They liked the sound of the name and the meaning of the word, and decided to keep it.

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