DECATUR - Robyn Bodine followed the Yellow Brick Road and wound up taking the Rodeo Drive exit.

She was in Hollywood, accompanying a bunch of the surviving Wizard of Oz Munchkins, who were at last getting their star on the Walk of Fame outside Grauman's Chinese Theater.

While the Munchkins were doing photo ops and news conferences, Bodine decided to do a little window shopping along the nearby street of high-priced retail dreams. The Decatur woman soon realized she wasn't in Central Illinois, anymore.

"They've got jewelry in the windows with prices starting at $16,500," she says. "And stores where you can't go in unless you have an appointment. Hollywood is an amazing place but, when I got back and walked into my own nice little house, I kept thinking 'There's no place like home, there's no place like home ¦' "

But the trip was worth it to see the Munchkins grab a bit of belated glory. Bodine, 49, had flown out in November as the special guest of Munchkin Meinhardt Raabe - he played the coroner - who, like many of his celluloid kin, has become a good friend over the years. A woman who lives, eats and breathes the movie, Bodine has met the Munchkin actors through attending countless Wizard of Oz fan conventions, including a giant one, The Wizard of Oz Festival in Indiana.

She's also a member of several other Oz fan organizations and one of the moderators of the "Everything Oz Group," a popular online chat room. Some 50 messages a day pop up from the faithful all over the world who have wandered somewhere over that cinematic rainbow and don't want to come back.

Bodine, along with boyfriend Donnie Tate owns The Flying Monkey Bar & Grill in Warrensburg, where there's a painted flying monkey signed by Danny Windsor, the last surviving monkey cast member. The bar regulars recently presented Bodine with a sweatshirt featuring a flying monkey, raising a beer glass, and frequently try to trip her up on Oz trivia.

"I asked her once if she knew the Wicked Witch actually caught on fire during the filming," said customer John Hughes, 52, who lives in Latham. "But she knew it. She knows everything about it."

"And she never stops talking about it," says fellow regular Terry Ruthrauff, 45, of Warrensburg, who sports a T-shirt with the message "It's all fun and games until the flying monkeys attack."

Ruthrauff says the bar owner is always passing around Oz-related pictures, too, (like that recent trip to Hollywood), and patrons can't help but get interested. "She seduces you into it," he says with a smile.

Bodine succumbed to the allure of the 1939 classic for the first time when she was about 8, and watched it on television. Judy Garland's magical voice and the fine supporting cast turned Oz into something that hasn't stopped speaking to her heart for the past 40 years.

"The message the movie sends - 'There's no place like home; you always have the power to do the things you want, have courage at heart' - I just love all that," she says. "It's just the perfect all-round family movie, and it's hard to find a classic like that."

But hunting up Oz-related goodies isn't so tough; Bodine's home is jammed with them, ranging from themed Christmas trees and wreaths to watches, jewelry, posters, pictures, clocks, figurines and several pairs of ruby slippers. Many of the pieces are signed by Munchkin actors, and you get a sense of the consummate fan's devotion when she shows off a set of five dinner plates autographed by the Munchkin actors.

"I was having dinner with them at an event and slipped the waitress a $100 bill to give me the plates they ate off, being careful not to mix them up so I knew which was which," she says.

With all this fan adoration and brisk sales of anything Oz, it would be easy to believe the Munchkins had found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But not so. Bodine says they get no royalties from the merchandising of the movie's everlasting appeal. And in the original contract, even Toto the dog made out better than they did.

"The real dog's name was Terry, and his owner, Carl Spritz, demanded $125 a week for him to appear as Toto," she says. "The Munchkins got $75 a week."

Tony Reid can be reached at treid@herald-review.com or 421-7977.