From the beginning OzCon International has mixed serious research with a healthy dose of fun and fellowship. One moment people are discussing Baum bibliography and the next moment they’re rushing to get into their Ozzy costumes! Whether you’re strictly a “book person” or you prefer Wicked or The Wiz, whether you discovered Oz through the Judy Garland film or through Disney’s Return to Oz, everyone is welcome at OzCon!
The West Coast Oz Convention was founded in 1964 by four southern Californians: Blake Maxam, Judy Pike, C. Warren Hollister, and Peter Hanff, as a west coast gathering of members of the International Wizard of Oz Club. That first convention was held at the home of nineteen-year-old Peter Hanff, It was a one-day affair, but proved very popular, with more than eighty registrants showing up from not just the west coast, but from across the USA. Eventually the West Coast Oz Convention would expand beyond the USA and the Oz Club to become a truly international convention.
For the first seven years we held single-day cons – but in 1971 the group was aching to expand and we held our first weekend-long event, now called The Winkie Convention, at the Cambria Pines Lodge, in Cambria, California, where we enjoyed increasingly elaborate Oz costume contests, screening of historic and more recent Oz film footage, and rich and varied Oz auctions, as well as the new tradition of the Winkie Treasure Hunt!
In 1975 the convention moved to the beautiful Wawona Hotel in California’s Yosemite National Park – where we met annually through 1983. OzCon has always held a strong connection to nature and the outdoors – indeed a sense of escaping the real world for a few days has been a major component of OzCon.
In 1984 the convention moved to the Asilomar Conference Grounds at the Asilomar State Park in Pacific Grove, California. Here the traditions of elaborate Oz costume contests, the Winkie Auction, and the Winkie Treasure Hunt grew even stronger. The forested grounds and cool weather energized attendees.
In 2014 and 2015, OzCon International was held at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center in San Diego’s Mission Valley. Although located in the heart of the city, the detailed landscaping at the Town and Country retained a hint of OzCon’s traditional link to nature.
The 2014 convention commemorated the 50th anniversary of the convention and would mark the last time it was referred to as Winkie Con. The highlight was a fully staged production of L. Frank Baum’s The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. For the 75th anniversary of MGM’s The Wizard of Oz the event featured a major display of Judy Garland’s original costumes.
The 2015 convention celebrated 30 years of Disney’s Return to Oz, 40 years of The Wiz, and the 100th anniversary of L.Frank Baum’s The Scarecrow of Oz.
In 2016 & 2017 OzCon International moved to Portland, Oregon at the Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel. These two years were the only time OzCon was held outside the state of California. Excursions included a cruise on a stern wheeler to take in the beautiful scenery of the Columbia River Gorge.
After briefly moving out of state the convention returned to Southern California in 2018. The Kellogg West Conference Center & Hotel on Cal Poly Pomona’s pastoral hilltop campus was our last home before our upcoming 2025 move to Burbank, California.
Eloise Jarvis McGraw & Lauren Lynn McGraw Wagner – Authors of Merry Go Round in Oz, The Forbidden Fountain of Oz, & The Rundelstone of Oz
Ozma Baum Mantele, Gita Dorothy Morena, & Robert Baum – Descendants of L. Frank Baum
Aljean Harmetz – Author of The Making of the Wizard of Oz
Dick Martin – Oz book Illustrator
Caren Marsh-Doll – Judy Garland’s stand-in from the 1939 MGM Wizard of Oz film
Eric Shanower – Cartoonist and Oz Illustrator
John Fricke – Historian of the MGM film and Judy Garland
Michael Patrick Hearn – Author of The Annotated Wizard of Oz
Katherine Rogers, Kathleen Krull,and Angelica Carpenter – Biographers of L. Frank Baum
William Stout – Designer of The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz, Illustrator of The Emerald Wand of Oz
Michael O. Riley – Author of Oz and Beyond
Susan Morse – Voice actor for Dorothy in the animated 1964 Return to Oz television special
Henry Littlefield – Author of A Parable on Populism
Margaret Pellegrini, Clarence Swensen, & Priscilla Montgomery – Munchkin actors from the 1939 MGM Wizard of Oz film
Joe Luft – Son of Judy Garland
Paul Maslansky, Emma Ridley, & Justin Case – producer and actors from the 1985 Disney Return to Oz film
The world’s longest-running Oz Convention celebrating L. Frank Baum & The Land of Oz for over 60 years!
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