"Come along, Toto," she said. "We will go to the Emerald
Baum's career as a children's author began with the 1899 publication of Father Goose: His Book. Although Father Goose was the children's bestseller of the year, it was soon overshadowed by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The demand for additional stories about Dorothy and her friends was so great that Baum wrote thirteen more Oz books. Other fictional works created for boys and girls were published by Baum under the pen names "Floyd Akers" and "Edith Van Dyne." After Baum's death in 1919, a new generation of authors continued the Oz series as well as several of Baum's other story lines.
The Wizard of Oz debuted on stage long before the famous 1939 MGM film. On June 16, 1902, The Wizard of Oz opened at the Grand Opera House in Chicago. Produced by Fred Hamlin, written by Baum, with music by Paul Teitjens, the play was a hit. After its January 1903 Broadway premiere, the production tallied over 290 performances. It was the longest running show of the decade. The musical focused on the Tin Woodsman and Scarecrow, rather than Dorothy, advancing the careers of David Montgomery and Frank Stone--the vaudeville team tapped for the roles. Throughout the 1910s, traveling road companies brought the The Wizard of Oz to cities and towns across the country. In fact, the play was so successful and so well known that subsequent editions of the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz were retitled The Wizard of Oz to reflect the popularity of the stage production.
Attempts to capture The Wizard of Oz on film date to 1910, when the Selig Polyscope Company created four one-reel silent movies based on the Wizard and other Oz books. In 1914, L. Frank Baum founded his own Hollywood film company. Its five silent features and several shorts based on Baum's stories were not successful -- Baum sold the studio to Universal in 1915. In 1925, yet another silent film version also disappointed at the box-office.
The 1939 MGM production starring Judy Garland as Dorothy was an immediate success. With its brilliant use of Technicolor, talented cast, and respectful editing of Baum's story, The Wizard of Oz quickly became a classic. Shown again and again on television, the film has been seen by more viewers than any other movie. In a recent People magazine poll, The Wizard of Oz emerged as its readers favorite movie of the twentieth century.
Learn more about the Yellow Brick Road on a trip down American Memory lane:
- Visit The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale -- the online companion to the Library of Congress exhibition celebrating the 100th anniversary of this timeless American classic.
- Examine a playbill from one of the early Wizard of Ozstage productions. Search the collection American Variety Stage on Wizard of Oz to retrieve several playbills from musical productions of the book.
- Watch the Tin Woodsman and the Scarecrow battle it out. Dancing Boxing Match shows the vaudeville team of Montgomery and Stone at work. To view the film, search the collection American Variety Stage on Montgomery and Stone.
- The text of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and other Oz tales are available through The Online Literature Library.
