The Yellow Brick Road leads to Sonoma

Andy Warhol is credited with coining the phrase about everyone having 15 minutes of fame. Sonoma’s Betty Ann Bruno, one of the last surviving Munchkins, has had more than her share. She writes about it in “The Munchkin Diary,” a memoir detailing her journey from “The Wizard of Oz,” to Stanford University, to working for the CIA, to being a civil activist in Oakland, to a career in television.

“I never intended to write about my life,” Bruno, 89, told the Index-Tribune. “Then I thought my kids would like to hear about being on the set with Judy Garland, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow and a whole bunch of little people. That story led to many more.”

Bruno was born in Hawaii to a Hawaiian mother, her father from Texas. The family moved to Hollywood when she was quite young. Living across the street from the Twentieth Century Fox studios, it seemed only natural that Bruno would go into show business. And the timing was perfect.

“Hollywood was in love with everything Polynesian,” Bruno said. “Being Hawaiian helped me get roles.” She took singing and dancing lessons, and appeared in several movies. The big opportunity came when a call went out seeking girls less than 4-and-a-half feet tall, who could sing and dance and look terrified. Her mother took her to the audition. She made the cut and was cast as a Munchkin, joining 124 adults and a dozen young girls playing the inhabitants of Munchkinland.

“The elaborate Oz movie set with all those big colorful plastic flowers, the playhouse-like thatched huts and that famous yellow brick road was magical. It was a 7-year-old’s dream,” Bruno said. Only later would she realize the significance of being part of the 1939 Hollywood classic, one of the most famous movies of all time.

Bruno’s stint in show business ended when the family moved to a small farm in San Jacinto. The dwelling, with no running water, had a two-seater outhouse. “I didn’t care about the plumbing,” Bruno said. “I had a horse named Wahoo and a pig called Tiny.” From an idyllic life in the country, Bruno went to Stanford and majored in political science. There she began to question her identity, a common occurrence then for those with brown or dark skin, living in a white culture. It became even more of an issue when her parents gave her a trip to Europe and she applied for her birth certificate to get a passport. She discovered her mother was half Chinese, something she had hidden, and a race her mother disparaged. Confused, Bruno struggled to understand who she was.

Following graduation in 1953, Bruno went to work for the CIA in Washington D.C. Though promised a slot in the junior officer training program, she was told she would have to wait for an opening and ended up doing secretarial work. “That was in the ’50s prior to the women’s movement,” Bruno said. During her time at the agency, she met her first husband, Russ. When he was accepted to UC Berkeley-School of Law in 1955, they returned to the Bay Area where their three sons were born. Though she enjoyed taking care of the family, she sought balance in her life and joined the Oakland League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan group focused on community issues. Her activism came to the attention of local TV station KTVU-Channel 2 and in 1971 she was hired as a reporter for its “10 O’clock News,” the station’s most watched program. Bruno covered stories of national importance, interviewed a notorious drug lord and crossed paths with the Mafia. “I had to come up with stories, do interviews and get them ready for broadcasts. It was a high-pressure job.” Bruno says.

Though Betty Ann and Russ split up after 21 years of marriage, she says they’ve remained close. “Both of us say we got divorced to save our friendship,” Bruno said.

It was at KTVU where she met her current husband, Craig Scheiner, who was a cameraman at the station.

“It’s kind of a family joke,” said Bruno. “Craig got me through my first day in the news department, and I married him out of gratitude.”

She retired from an illustrious career in television in 1992. Retirement provided an opportunity to reconnect with her early days in the Land of Oz. In the late ‘90s the town of Chesterton, Indiana, held an Oz festival and invited Munchkins and other “Wizard of Oz” celebrities to attend. Eight elderly former Munchkins and Bruno participated. “It was a huge event. 95,000 people showed up, many dressed as characters from the movie. Munchkins were stationed at different venues to sign autographs.” Being a festival first timer, Bruno was selected to be the parade’s Grand Marshal. “That was almost 25 years ago. Even now I still get letters from Oz fans.”

Betty Ann and Craig moved to Sonoma in 2002. In 2009, she led what was supposed to be a one-time hula workshop at Vintage House senior center. But the Polynesian dancing was so well received it evolved into Hula Mai, what Bruno describes in her book as “a community of dancers - an extended family that strengthens, nourishes and enriches everyone who participates.”

Through Hula Mai, Bruno teaches modern and ancient hula. Prior to the pandemic, she and her students performed throughout the Bay Area. Now performances are on hold and classes are held on Zoom. (Check out the hulamai.org.)

At 89, Bruno is still active, vibrant and embodies the gracious “aloha” spirit.

“Hula represents the history of Hawaii, it’s a connection to nature and everything around us,” writes Bruno. “Hula was the way I found out who I was.”

“The Munchkin Diary’ is available at Readers’ Books and online through Amazon.