‘The Wizard of Oz’ Returns to TV: Inside an Incredible Collection of Oz Treasures

For generations of viewers, The Wizard of Oz was much more than a movie people watched, turning into an annual event. Once a year, families gathered around their television sets to follow Dorothy down the Yellow Brick Road, meeting the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion along the way. Now MeTV is attempting to recapture some of that magic by bringing the 1939 MGM classic back to free broadcast television for the first time in nearly three decades.

But before Dorothy returns to Oz on October 2, the network is taking viewers inside the home of someone who never really left. On Sunday, September 27, Collector’s Call host Lisa Whelchel visits Victoria “Tori” Calamito, an Oz historian, social media creator and collector whose memorabilia spans more than a century of Oz history. Among the treasures are a first edition of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, stage-worn costumes from Wicked, autographs from stars of the 1939 film, an Ariana Grande Wicked-themed makeup kit and a vintage Tin Man squeeze toy so rare that Collector’s Call expert John Ragusa says it “barely exists.”

For Whelchel, the episode also offered a chance to revisit a story that has been part of her life since childhood.

Lisa Whelchel’s own trip to Oz

Long before Collector’s Call, The Facts of Life or even her professional acting career, Whelchel had her own role in The Wizard of Oz. At 11, she appeared in a stage production at Casa Mañana in Fort Worth, Texas.

LISA WHELCHEL: “I was in the play The Wizard of Oz, but I was Toto. It was all adults, but they needed a child to be in this full-body dog suit. And so I had to express all of Toto’s feelings just through my body. I was really a shy little girl. And you know what? With shy kids, there’s a contraction of their body, too. There’s a turning in. And I was kind of a protected, shy little girl. Being in that dog suit, completely covered, it was a fully protective suit, and I was asked to really express largely—being afraid or being happy or whatever the dog was. It gave me that opportunity to just inhabit my body rather than try to just stay contracted. So it was a really powerful time for me and also fun.”

“I also think the original book is incredible and so is the 1939 film, but when I was 10 years old, I went with a group from Casa Manana to New York City and we saw The Wiz on Broadway. I love that soundtrack. And then there was Wicked, so I I love all things Oz.”

Stepping Inside an Oz Collection

After seven seasons of Collector’s Call, Whelchel has seen plenty of extraordinary collections. But Calamito’s offered something unusual: a journey through Oz history that stretches from Baum’s original book through the MGM movie, Broadway and the modern Wicked phenomenon.

LISA WHELCHEL: “A collection is a great way to really do a deep dive on a subject and learn a lot in a very short, entertaining bit of time. The thing about Tori’s collection that was really awesome is that she has the first edition of the book, but she also has memorabilia from back in the ’30s. So those are some of the strangest items, items that we don’t use anymore today. But then she also has things from the play, and then even something as recent as she’s got this whole makeup kit from Ariana Grande.”

One item, however, apparently required a particularly gentle touch. Calamito owns a vintage Tin Man squeeze toy, an object that seems to demonstrate both the joy and occasional terror of hosting a television series surrounded by irreplaceable memorabilia.

LISA WHELCHEL: “I think we all feel that way when we go into someone’s home and their collection. There’s a lot of equipment there. They’re bringing in lights, and yet they are surrounded by things of great value—many of them monetarily, all of them of heart value. So I think we are all very, very aware of the fact that these are someone’s treasures. And you’re right, a treasure like that is irreplaceable. But I think we’re always mindful.”

Calamito’s collection may be built around physical objects, but for her, their importance ultimately comes back to the story those objects represent.

TORI CALAMITO: “I think stories that stand the test of time tap into some sort of universal human element that we all relate to. I can say for Oz specifically, I think the deeper themes of found family and finding your tribe, as it were, along your Yellow Brick Road and facing your various Wicked Witches and obstacles along the way and coming to that place of self-actualization, coming home again to your true self, I think that really sticks with people.”

That connection has also been passed down from one generation to another. Through her work discussing Oz online, Calamito says she repeatedly hears from people whose attachment to the story is inseparable from memories of watching it with their families.

TORI CALAMITO: “The universal message that I hear is that it’s a very generational thing. People watched it with their parents or their grandparents or remember seeing it on television when it was only on once a year, and so have this deep nostalgic connection to Oz. It taps into a lot of childhood positive memories and was a coping mechanism for a lot of people. I hear a lot of people echo what I felt about it, which was when they were having a hard day or when things were bad, they would put The Wizard of Oz on and it would bring them joy and comfort.”

That makes MeTV’s decision to restore The Wizard of Oz to broadcast television particularly appropriate. The movie’s October 2 airing will be hosted by Whelchel and accompanied by original vignettes featuring interviews with Oz experts, performers and designers. Additional presentations follow during October, including Svengoolie Presents The Wizard of Oz on October 3.

Insofar as Calamito is concerned, something really was lost when the annual broadcast of The Wizard of Oz disappeared.

TORI CALAMITO: “I definitely think so. We’ve become a little spoiled that we can pop it on whenever we want and because of that, we have kind of lost the community aspect of it. I was raised in the VHS era, so I was one of those spoiled kids who could put it on whenever I wanted. But I hear from a lot of the older generation that it was a neighborhood event. You’d go to the person’s house who had the color television and you’d watch it, and everyone in school the next day was talking about it. It was a community thing. So I think we did lose a little bit of Americana when we lost the yearly broadcast of The Wizard of Oz. I’m so glad that MeTV is tapping back into that and bringing it back, and I hope they’ll keep that tradition going.”

The Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion inside all of us

For Whelchel, however, nostalgia only partly explains the story’s staying power, that much of it comes down to the characters at the heart of the story.

LISA WHELCHEL: “The Wizard of Oz is just such a great illustration of the representation of all the parts that are in all of us. There’s a part of us that’s afraid. There’s a part of us that feels like we just don’t know, and we’re not in the know;  and there’s a part of us that can feel like our heart is contracted— like being really shy. There’s a part of us that’s always feeling like, ‘Do I belong? I just want to go home to a place I feel like I belong.’”

It’s an interpretation that fits remarkably well with Calamito’s own explanation of why she continues returning to Oz.

TORI CALAMITO: “For me, I really relate to the journey that we’re all on, and I think we are all initially attracted by the beautiful colors and the music and Judy Garland and her sincerity. But I personally know that I have stayed for the deeper themes—walking your road and walking it with the found family of friends that you’ve gathered around you and chosen as your family in addition to the people you call home. And that journey of fighting through the bad times and coming to the rainbow at the end of it, I think that’s what keeps me coming back over and over again.”

Which may ultimately explain why an Oz collection can fill an entire house — and why, nearly nine decades after Judy Garland first stepped onto the Yellow Brick Road, audiences are still eager to follow her.

Collector’s Call: “Meet Victoria Calamito” airs Sunday, September 27 at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT on MeTV. The network presents The Wizard of Oz Friday, October 2 at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT, hosted by Lisa Whelchel.