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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Kansas City attracts 'Wizard of Oz' lovers

By Lisa Gutierrez
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

'70 YEARS OF OZ: OH MY!'

The interactive exhibit on Level 1 of Crown Center in Kansas City, Mo., will take visitors down the yellow brick road into the Land of Oz, Jan. 31 through April 26. It's free. For more information, see www.crowncenter.com or call 816-274-8444.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jane Albright doesn't want to be one of "those" collectors whose stuff takes over the entire house. She has confined her "Wizard of Oz" collection to a small bedroom on the second floor of her Kansas City, Mo., home.

She has loaded up the room with Oz books, ornaments, dolls, board games, bottles of wine and a hooked rug hung across a window blocking the sunlight that could damage her treasures.

Overstuffed bookshelves hold not just books but also Oz snow globes, clocks, coffee mugs and cookie cutters. Oz-related posters and prints decorate the walls. What you don't see is all the stuff tucked away in storage.

Visitors overwhelmed at so much Oz in so small a space are sure to leave thinking, Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.

Be ready to hear that phrase a lot this year as the 70th anniversary of "The Wizard of Oz," the movie, is celebrated. Crown Center, with help from Albright, gets the party started in Kansas City this month.

Workers there last week began building an Oz-themed playground that will mimic the whimsy of L. Frank Baum's tale about Dorothy, her three pals and her little dog, too.

Some of Albright's finds will be exhibited, also. Her Oz collection was first highlighted in a Crown Center show marking the movie's 50th anniversary in 1989.

"I've had 20 years to bulk up," said Albright, a board member of the International Wizard of Oz Club.

This time, Crown Center, a shopping center, sought an interactive way to get children and families involved, so it's building its own Oz in the exhibit called "70 Years of Oz: Oh My!" which opens Jan. 31.

"As you walk up, you see Aunt Em's house and you enter through there," said Pat Krehbiel, who is planning the exhibit.

"You'll come in and see a house that's slanted like it's been through a tornado, topsy-turvy. You'll see the witch's feet where the house landed."

That would be the Wicked Witch of the East — sister of the Wicked Witch of the West — who died when Dorothy's house landed on top of her.

The exhibit will follow the story arc of the movie, said Krehbiel. Dorothy lands in Oz and meets the Munchkins, follows the yellow brick road, befriends the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, travels to the Emerald City and then to the scary witch's castle.

The interactive parts? A ruby slipper slide, a hot-air balloon basket with pretend lift-offs, and monkey bars to swing on in the witch's castle. ("Monkey" bars. Get it?)

Krehbiel said her 2-year-old grandson loves the 70-year-old movie. "I think a lot of it is the fantasy of it and the message it brings," Krehbiel says.

Albright had plenty to offer Krehbiel and Jennifer Hoenig, display designer for Crown Center, when they came calling to choose items for the exhibit.

Albright's Tin Man robot was chosen for the exhibit. The Madame Alexander Oz dolls? Those, too. Not surprisingly, a pair of ruby slippers, made by the same company that created the ones Judy Garland wore in the movie was selected as well.