Weddings ... at Fairyland?

By C.J. Hirschfield

When you think of events at Children’s Fairyland, kids’ birthday parties come immediately to mind.

But weddings?

Yes, indeed. We have eight booked for this season alone. And why not? We are part of the memories of countless kids who are now millennials, the generation born between 1981 and 1997 who now make up 25 percent of the U.S. population. And data show that 50 percent of millennials are more willing to make a purchase from a company if it supports a cause—and our nonprofit park, which has been serving our community’s kids for nearly 68 years is clearly a cause near and dear to the hearts of young people ready to partner up.

Wedding vows in Aesop's Playhouse

The Highs and Lows of Puppet Shows

By C.J. Hirschfield

Our puppet-theater director, Randal Metz, is also a respected historian of puppets and puppetry. Recently, while researching the history of puppeteers in California, he came across an article in the Puppetry Journal – the quarterly magazine of the Puppeteers of America – that caught his eye. It wasn’t about puppets or puppeteers: It was about shoes. And not just any shoes: the special footwear used by some height-challenged puppeteers to make them tall enough to do their job.

Puppeteers' shoes suggested by Nick LeFeuvre, via the Puppetry Journal

Fairyland's Munchkins

By C.J. Hirschfield

Last month, the last remaining Munchkin – of the more than 100 little people who performed in the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz – died.

He was Jerry Maren, the leader of the Lollipop Guild, and he was 98.

Most of the Munchkins, who sang “We’re Off to See the Wizard” and “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead,” went on to lead non-Hollywood lives. Maren, however, spent his life as a performer – in television, in movies and even as an Oscar Meyer spokesman in the 1950s.

You may not know that another Munchkin from the Oz movie — Victor Wetter – was, with his wife Edna, Children’s Fairyland’s very first “Ambassadors of Goodwill.” In that role they gave tours to thousands of delighted youngsters during Fairyland’s first two years of operation, 1950 to 1952. They ultimately left the park amid a political controversy that was taken all the way to the mayor’s office.

From Cut Paper to Fairyland Stage

By C.J. Hirschfield

So many classic, best-selling children’s books are illustrated with collage that you may assume the technique – sticking various materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric onto a backing – has always been associated with children’s literature. What would The Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle), Tar Beach (Faith Ringgold), Swimmy (Leo Lionni) and The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats) be without their playful and vibrant collage illustrations?

In fact, though, the first American children’s book illustrated with collage, Caps for Sale, wasn’t published until 1940. The story of its author/illustrator, Esphyr Slobodkina, itself reads like a novel – and a version of the book is now being adapted into a magical, musical production exclusively for Children’s Fairyland. “Circus Caps for Sale,” our co-production with the talented folks at San Francisco’s Circus Center, opens in our Aesop’s Playhouse on July 7 and continues on weekends through July 29.

Succeeding Beyond Emancipation: Reuel Mack's Story

By C.J. Hirschfield

Five years ago, I wrote a column about an extraordinary young woman, Reuel Mack, who’d been referred to Fairyland from an organization called Beyond Emancipation, which is Alameda County’s primary provider of services for former foster youth. Reuel had been in the foster system, in many different homes, for most of her life. As a child, she never knew her biological mother. Her father was in jail. She eventually learned she has 11 siblings.

Today I’m proud to share with you a very happy update to Reuel’s story – a story that Reuel herself will tell the guests at our 23^rd annual gala fundraiser on Wednesday, May 30.

When Muppets Come to Call

By C.J. Hirschfield

Children’s Fairyland boasts the longest-running puppet theater in America. Founded in 1956, it still presents three shows a day, every day we’re open.

The Storybook Puppet Theater is such a fixture in our park that we tend to take it for granted. Occasionally, though, we’ll be reminded that it has started the careers of some of the country’s greatest puppeteers, and continues to inspire those who perform one of the most ancient forms of artistic expression.

Fairyland's Storybook Puppet Theater.

After 28 Years, Author Mac Barnett Returns to Fairyland

By C.J. Hirschfield

“He is a believer that picture books can have Swiftian absurdity and untidy endings, and that ‘life is absurd, and kids know that.’”
— San Francisco Chronicle

Before he was a New York Times bestselling author, before more than 1 million copies of his books were sold in the U.S. and translated into more than 30 languages, and before his two Caldecott Honor–winning books, there was … Fairyland.

Young Mac Barnett as Peter Pan with Captain Hook (Edward Hightower) and Major Catastrophe (Carol Becksted)

Yes, Mac Barnett, the renowned author of 15 children’s books, was a Fairyland Personality when he was a youth. We’re delighted that he will join us for our Turn the Page! children’s book festival on May 19. And we like to think that the imaginary world he inhaled at our special park inspired his later fiction.