'Wizard of Oz' Superfan's Memorabilia Collection Worth Nearly Half a Million Dollars
When NBC’s Emerald City premieres on Jan. 6, Walter Krueger knows he’ll be watching. The 30-year-old is a die-hard Wizard of Oz superfan.
Over the past 27 years, Krueger estimates, he’s spent more than $400,000 on a collection that he’s been building since he first fell in love with a Wizard of Oz coloring book when he was 3 years old.
From old books…
and movie memorabilia and props…
to figurines, posters, and dolls…
Krueger’s collection stands at more than 6,000 items, including several pairs of replica ruby slippers.
These days, it fills several rooms and much of the basement of his house in the Chicago suburbs.
Krueger comes from a family of art collectors, and he says his mother and grandmother, both antique collectors, encouraged him to follow his passion.
He says Oz was a refuge for him — a world of stories into which he could escape when he was bullied as a kid for being gay or when he felt alone after his mom died.
“All of the morals that she taught me as a kid, The Wizard of Oz was there as a reminder,” Krueger says. “And everything she taught me — her love and her passion … and her sense of home — come through that story to me.”
These days, Krueger has turned his love of all things Oz into a career. He runs a Wizard of Oz fan club called Wizard of Oz Collectors United, and also recently teamed up with Broadway performers to produce a Wizard of Oz/The Wiz mashup video called The Oz Project.
He’s currently working with partners to open a museum in the coming year that will house his entire collection and help him fulfill his dream of sharing Oz’s message of hope with the world.
With that mission of spreading the message of Oz, Krueger is looking forward to NBC’s Emerald City, which he describes as “our greatest Oz venture that is yet to come.”
Krueger says he loves all the iterations of Oz and is not a purist who likes only the original books or movie. He’s excited that the show will bring in new fans. “Emerald City‘s venture will probably bring in more people,” he says. “It keeps the story alive and fresh and new.”
For him, Oz is more than a hobby; it’s a way of life.
“In life, you’re going to meet people who will be your friends, who are brainless, heartless, sometimes cowardly,” Krueger says. “You’ll meet good witches, and unfortunately we meet bad witches in our life. But if we can conquer them and if we can override them and become higher above that, we can get to our Emerald City.”
If you, too, are #Obsessed with a movie or TV series, let us know your story on Facebook or in the comments below!
To see more of our series, check out our episode below with a superfan of all things Harry Potter:
What’s your #Obsession? Share it on our brand-new Flickr group! You might be featured in an upcoming episode of Yahoo’s #Obsessed.
