Who Was the Real Dorothy?

I owned a used/rare bookstore in Holland, MI beginning in 12-1991 and specialized in L. Frank Baum’s writings because of his connection to Holland - Macatawa, MI. The most familiar book was the WIZARD OF OZ.

It seemed that the longer I was in the store, the more people I met who sincerely believed that the main character, Dorothy, was a relative of theirs (it must have been a very large family). So I did a lot of reading and researching to find the source material to try to verify that L. Frank Baum knew a local Dorothy prior to writing his book (in 1899).

The search included finding writings of Baum's pre OZ, putting together his addresses and vacations prepublication date and gathering material written about him and talking with the Holland, MI high school teacher who taught students about Baum for years, and, of course, listening to the many people who was sure they knew the truth about who the real Wizard of Oz's Dorothy was based on.

There is a lot of information already available at http://www.ozclub.org

You can learn a lot by reading what people who specialize in Baum have written there. It is quite evident to me that Dorothy was not named after any one living child at Holland's West Michigan "Sign of the Goose" cottage area.  The "Dorothy" name most likely came from a niece who died as a child.  However, many people believe that the character was based on a relative and nothing is harmed by maintaining that family lore!

Most Amusing response: One reader of this page told me that her father believed that his mother-in-law was the Wiched Witch of the West character!  Evidently the family took him seriously...but then, when my daughter was a teenager, she believed I WAS the "Wicked Witch of the West" - not the just the prototype! 

Chesterton, Indiana had an annual OZ Festival for many years - since discontinued- which included as many of the original movie Munchkins as possible.  I attended a few of those festivals and enjoyed them a lot.  On Saturday night there was a sale of Oz related items where we all bought and sold our collectibles and could meet with the Munchkins and get signatures.  I'm offering for sale two of my treasures from one of the events.  I know the signatures are real because I was present when signed.  See below. 

We invite all visitors to send us comments and suggestions.

http://oldbaglady.pbwiki.com/f/Munchkin%20Love.jpg

http://oldbaglady.pbwiki.com/f/Munchkin%20Love.jpg

For membership and publications orders, send correspondence to:

The International Wizard of Oz Club

P.O. Box 26249

San Francisco, CA 94126-6249

The movie followers are a different but overlapping group from the book fans. For the movie fans I have: Margaret Pellegrini Doll For Sale - see photo below. Madlyn

OldBagLady@embarqmail.com

1-800-Contacts

Doll $100.00 in original box. Inscribed.

13 Munchkin signatures with photo - $500.00.  Obviously I'm not too thrilled about selling these but will at this price.  Madlyn