The free screening of “The Wizard of Oz” at Boothbay Harbor’s Harbor Theater Dec. 29  drew a full house that included some very interesting characters! Literally: Wicked Witches, Dorothys, Scarecrows, and the Wizard himself.

Speaking of Wizards, Richard Plunkett, our Wizard ... of Odds and Ends in Alna donated special prizes for the winners, in addition to the theater tickets donated by the Harbor Theater. All from  his personal collection there was an assortment of “refrigerator art”/magnets depicting scenes from the film as well as note cards and stickers. “It’s fabulous,” Plunkett said of the event. “I hope they show the film every year - not many of us have ever been able to see it on the big screen.”

Emily Mirabile, arts & humanities director at Boothbay Region YMCA and director-choreographer for the Y-Arts youth group, judged the costume contest. After the parade of characters around the theater, she chose... insert drum roll here ...  Best Youth Costume: Scout Martin as Dorothy (her red shoes were adorable); Best Teenage Costume award went to Keana Pitcher as the Wicked Witch of the West; and Best Adult Costume went to Autumn Mahoney for portraying all four of the major characters.

That’s right. Mahoney was Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. She shared a few secrets about the costume post contest. Instead of having a lion’s tail that was just hanging, she sewed a button at the top of the back of her scarecrow shirt and wound fishing line around it and to the tail. And that tail had bounce! The Tin Man’s chin and forehead were made of the corners of a plastic gallon milk container sprayed silver. Atop her head was a funnel painted silver as the final piece of this character’s representation.

“I’m still looking for a galvanized funnel to enhance the Tin Man in the costume,” shared Mahoney, rather seriously.

Autumn made this costume 12 years ago while she was still living in Massachusetts. After moving to Maine, she wore it to a work Halloween party seven years ago. The only addition she made for the Harbor Theater’s Oz costume contest was the petticoat.

“I used to have a yellow brick road, too ... but, I guess it got lost in the move!”

After the contest, Hamilton Meserve, Margaret “Wicked Witch of the West” Hamilton’s only child, spoke about his mother before showing her visit to Mister Roger’s Neighborhood in 1975. Ham said his mother’s other favorite role was that of kindergarten teacher. She was very concerned when she learned children were frightened by her character and wanted to show them that the Wicked Witch was make-believe, just a costume and green paint. Trivia: During filming she had to be fed during meal breaks because of the green paint on her hands;  a youngster had to break off small pieces of sandwiches and the like.

Meserve said he was just a “towhead of 3” running around the Oz set. His mother would not allow her son to see the film until he was 9. “It was more than time,” she said.

And then the audience was off to Kansas and an extended visit to Oz, that colorful (in more ways than one) place “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.”