Oz before the rainbow: L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on stage and screen to 1939

Abstract

Although obvious source for 1939 MGM musical Wizard of was L. Frank Baum's children's book, author reminds readers in this text that various stage and screen dramatizations of Baum's story preceded and influenced 1939 film. Musical-comedy elements in MGM film, extensive scenes with Kansas farmhands, and even ending in which Dorothy realizes that her visit to Oz was only a dream, all originated in stage or film versions rather than in pages of Baum's book. This illustrated text contains rare photographs, film stills, sketches, theatre programmes and movie advertisements from different productions. Piecing together Chicago and Broadway stage productions (1902-3) from contemporary reviews, surviving script pages and published song lyrics, Mark Evan Swartz shows how Baum and his many collaborators worked to transform book into a popular theatrical attraction - often requiring significant alterations to original story. He documents how show evolved during its tour of US, changing songs or adding topical jokes to keep production fresh. Swartz makes clear that popular stage musical influenced silent film depictions of Oz, including a multimedia show (1908), a one-reel short produced by Selig Studios (1910) and a full-length feature film (1925) that portrayed Dorothy as a flirtatious flapper and co-starred Oliver Hardy as Tin Woodman. Comprehensive examinations of each production provide behind-the-scenes information, including: battles over legal rights to Baum's stories and over financial backing for each play or film; different strategies to market each production; set and costume designs; special effects (how to create a tornado on stage); box-office receipts; and reactions of audiences and newspaper critics. To offer a comparison of different versions, Swartz also provides a full plot-synopsis of each production - including lyrics from early musicals, some written by Baum himself. The book concludes with an examination of famous MGM film, first version of story to locate Oz in a land Somewhere over Rainbow. Swartz argues that Baum created the first truly American fairyland, using language and imagery that would be familiar to ordinary American child.