By KEVIN NEVERS
Lollipop Kid Jerry Maren will be appearing at the Wizard of Oz Festival
after all.
He just won’t be a guest of festival organizers.
Ralph Zellem, who represents Maren and fellow Munchkins Karl Slover, the
First Munchkin Trumpeter, and Mickey Carroll, the Munchkin Violinist and
Fiddler, told the Chesterton Tribune on Thursday that Maren and Carroll will
both be in Chesterton for the duration of the festival and will be making
personal appearances on the afternoons of Sept. 16-19. Slover has a prior
engagement, Zellem said, and will be unable to attend.
Maren and Slover were both invited by Lakeshore Festival & Events Inc. (LFE)
in the spring to be guests of this year’s festival but were later
“disinvited” after they and Zellem were unable to reach terms with LFE and
the Chesterton/Duneland Chamber of Commerce on their contracts.
Traditionally, the Chamber has paid all traveling expenses for the Munchkin
guests of the festival as well as a stipend. This year, however, Maren and
Carroll are being entirely sponsored by ozmunchkinland.com, after Zellem
said that he received “countless requests for the Munchkins to come to
Chesterton” following an Associated Press story on the flap.
“The Munchkins are coming to the festival for several reasons,” Zellem said.
“They would like to share in the celebration with WOZ fans from across the
globe those wonderful memories of the No. 1 movie of the century, the Wizard
of Oz. They also wish to extend our gratitude and well wishes to our friends
in Chesterton and we are looking forward to meeting them at the festival.”
“The Munchkins really enjoy this,” Zellem added. “This is the one festival
they enjoy the most. They have made friends and friends and friends in their
20 years plus here.”
Maren and Carroll will appear at a vacant storefront at 119
Broadway—formerly the home of Fine Things—from 2 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Friday,
and Saturday, and from 12 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Zellem said that, depending on
their schedule, those hours could be extended as well.
“We’re doing our own thing,” Zellem said.
So they are, but Zellem also raised the possibility, if all parties are
amenable, of Maren and Carroll appearing in the Oz Parade on Saturday. “We
would love to be in the parade,” he said. “We would love to be part of the
organized festivities.” Such an appearance would have to be negotiated,
however, “just to be fair” to Maren and Carroll and their sponsors at
ozmunchkinland.com.
A Memorial
If Zellem is looking to this year’s festival, though, he is also looking to
the festival of tomorrow and to the day—sad as it will be and may it not
come for many years—when there will be no more Munchkins to meet and greet
the children. Maren is 84, he noted, Carroll 85, and Slover 86. But the
festival, Zellem hopes, is forever. “I’m assuming that Chesterton wants to
continue these festivals well into the century, for many years, and I would
like to memorialize the Munchkins while they’re still with us, with
something that the community of Chesterton will be very proud of in the
future.”
To that end, Zellem said, he has approached the Porter County Convention,
Recreation, and Visitors Commission with the idea of “immortalizing” the
Wizard of Oz and Maren, Carroll, and Slover “in particular” with a permanent
museum in the PCCRVC’s new visitors center under development at Ind. 49 and
U.S. Highway 20. Something along the lines of a 10’ x 20’ or 10’ x 30’
display, he suggested. “Animatronics would be perfect.”
Zellem said that he and Maren, Carroll, and Slover would help in the
fundraising for such a museum and is confident that WOZ fans from across the
world would respond generously.
Posted 9/10/2004
