Longtime Fan Believes There’s No Place Like Oz

Kurt Steinruck has five scrapbooks, but they are not filled with life’s typical mementos.

They are bulging with newspaper clippings, magazine articles and assorted ephemera of a place that does not exist: the Land of Oz.

“It wasn’t so much Dorothy and the other characters, although I do like those characters and the out-of-this-world element of this story. For some reason I was always drawn to the Wicked Witch,” said Steinruck, a 30-year-old Aliso Viejo resident who has spent the last eight years performing “The Wizard of Oz” in community theater groups and one-man shows. The Wicked Witch of the West is his specialty.

“I don’t know whether it was the pointed hat or the green face or whatever. After I’d first seen the movie, when I was about 4 years old, my mom said: ‘I’m going to have a weird child. He’s not in love with Dorothy; he’s in love with the Wicked Witch.’ ”

His mother was right, said Steinruck, who has dedicated a significant part of his life to the Land of Oz in general and the Wicked Witch in particular. He hired a seamstress to create an exact replica of the witch’s costume in which he performs. And he has crafted his performance to include the smallest of gestures made by actress Margaret Hamilton in the 1939 MGM classic, which he has studied in excruciating detail over the years.

“My parents first bought a VCR in 1980, and I saved up enough money to buy the movie. I went to Sears and bought it; I spent $79.95. I watched it every day for a year,” he said.

“I drove my parents insane. They’d hear me constantly clicking the VCR back and forth, rewinding and fast-forwarding, rewinding and fast-forwarding. I broke it twice. The rewind button was worn off.

“I memorized the film in a couple of months. I’d watch myself in the mirror and make sure I did all the little gestures.”

Four years earlier, Steinruck, an Oz-obsessed 10-year-old, had begun a correspondence with Hamilton.

“My Mom and Dad said, ‘If you like the Wicked Witch so much, why don’t you write her?’ I got her address in New York City from the Wizard of Oz club, and I wrote to her and said how much I loved her work and whatever else a 10-year-old could write.

“About three months later I got this package. I opened it up and it was a couple of autographed photos. On one of them, she was looking into the crystal ball and it said, ‘Dear Kurt, so nice of you to write to me. Eventually, I’ll get you and your little dog too,’ signed ‘Wicked Witch of the West, Maggie Hamilton.’ ”

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The correspondence had continued for years, when one day he finally mustered the courage to call her on the telephone. He was a high school senior and had been given the phone number from his Wizard of Oz club pen pal.

“He visited her every year or so, and so he gave me her phone number and said, ‘Call it, just call it.’ He had talked to her on the phone many times and he would send me tapes of the conversations he had with her, because I didn’t believe him. So I thought, ‘Oh, can I really do this?’ I called and she answered, ‘Hello,’ and I hung up the phone. I got cold feet.”

She died a few months later on May 16, 1985.

“I still have the letters and the photographs. Maybe I made a little impression on her.”

Steinruck began taking part in theatrical performances of Oz in 1988, sometimes acting, sometimes scene-painting and often serving as a technical advisor because of his single-minded passion for the film and story. He also helps coordinate the annual International Wizard of Oz Club convention in Dana Point in October. The organization has about 2,000 members, including about 250 from Southern California.

He recently completed a five-week run as the Wicked Witch at the Camarillo Community Theater in Ventura County, and a one-man show in the 800-seat theater at Leisure World in Laguna Hills.

“I did the whole movie in eight minutes.”

Steinruck is looking forward to the 60th anniversary of the movie in 1999 and the 100th anniversary of the L. Frank Baum book, considered the first American fairy tale, in 2000. He’s hoping the anniversaries will further boost his unusual avocation.

“I always dreamed that I would eventually be on a major stage and perform whatever role I could get in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ Even when I audition for the Scarecrow or the Tin Man or whatever, I always, always get the witch. But I don’t mind.

“Where else can you throw fireballs and fly and appear in a puff of red smoke and melt--the Scarecrow and the Tin Man don’t have special effects like that. Every single time I do it, it’s great.”

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Profile: Kurt Steinruck

Age: 30

Hometown: Mission Viejo

Residence: Aliso Viejo

Education: Studied drama in high school and at Saddleback College

Background: Actor, set painter and illustrator who has been a member of cast and crew and has served as a technical advisor for numerous performances of “The Wizard of Oz” during the last eight years; organizer of the annual International Wizard of Oz Club convention in Orange County; performs and lectures on “The Wizard of Oz” at local schools

Day job: Former video store manager; currently in charge of storage for Kingston Technology in Fountain Valley

Oz obsession: “For some reason, I was always drawn to the Wicked Witch. I don’t know whether it was the pointed hat or the green face or whatever. After I’d first seen the movie, when I was about 4 years old, my mom said: ‘I’m going to have a weird child. He’s not in love with Dorothy; he’s in love with the Wicked Witch.’ ”

Source: Kurt Steinruck; Researched by RUSS LOAR / For The Times