On April 21, the Library will open the third of its special Bicentennial exhibitions, "The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale." The exhibition marks the 100th anniversary of one of America's -- and the world's -- most beloved children's stories. View the exhibition online.
An envelope addressed to the Library's Copyright Office on Baum's personal stationery, featuring Father and Mother Goose, characters designed by W.W. Denslow for Baum's previous books.
It was author L. Frank Baum's intent to write a truly modern fairy tale, written solely to delight children of his day. He fully succeeded in creating a story in which "the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out."
The copyright registration for the book on which the exhibition is based, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, has become one of the most successful and famous ever issued by the Library's Copyright Office. Since its publication in September 1900, the book has outsold all other children's books in numerous editions. It has also engendered a long series of sequels, stage plays, musicals, motion pictures, television shows, biographies of Baum, scholarly studies of the significance of the book and film, advertisements, toys, games and all sorts of Oz-related products. The Oz characters are familiar to almost everyone, and the characters and the wondrous land through which they travel are no less real for being imaginary.
Using the Library's unparalleled collections of first editions, artifacts and films, the exhibition will examine the creation of this timeless American classic and trace its phenomenal and enduring success. Because of its role as the nation's copyright depository, the Library of Congress collections contain many rare and unique items related to The Wizard of Oz and its impact on American popular culture. Approximately 110 items will be on display, drawn from a variety of formats: play scripts, rare books, photographs, posters, drawings, manuscripts, maps, sheet music, autographs and film as well as three-dimensional objects depicting the Land of Oz and its inhabitants throughout the 20th century. The Library will supplement its own large holdings with original costumes from the 1939 film and other memorabilia borrowed from museums, other libraries and private collectors. A special feature will be selections from motion pictures and sound recordings. Also accompanying the exhibition will be an online version and other educational outreach programs.
Left, the title page from the 1900 first edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum with illustrations by W.W. Denslow. Illustrations from the book appear throughout this article; center, an ad in a bookseller's trade magazine announced the publication of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; right, the illustrated slipcover of the 1900 edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
The exhibition opens with a focus on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book and artifacts related to it. The land of Oz was born when, after pondering what to title his new book, Baum (1856-1919) noticed the labels on the drawers of a little three-drawer letter file he kept on his desk. Labeled in gilt letters, the first drawer was labeled A-G; the next, H-N, and on the last were the letters O-Z. Having already settled on having "Wizard" as part of the title, at once it became The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Following his careers as an actor, playwright, theater manager, shop owner, newspaperman and traveling salesman, Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz when he was 44. His ability to make fantastic circumstances seem plausible and his invention of appealingly outlandish creatures combined with illustrator W.W. Denslow's vibrant color plates and line drawings produced a volume that was innovative in style. It was this unique presentation that inspired a reviewer for The New York Times in 1900 to aptly describe the book as having "a bright and joyous atmosphere."
Two of the most valuable treasures from the Library's collections, a pristine copy of the first edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the original handwritten copyright application, will be displayed along with a letter concerning the publication of the book that Baum wrote to his brother, Harry C. Baum. Borrowed from the New York Public Library, this is one of the most remarkable letters of Baum now extant and gives a keen insight to the great fantasist and his innermost feelings about the impending publication of his new book. It says, in part, "Then there is the other book, the best thing I ever have written, they tell me, ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.' It is now on the press and will be ready soon after May 1st. Denslow has made profuse illustrations for it and it will glow with bright colors. Mr. Hill, the publisher, says he expects a sale of at least a quarter of a million copies on it. If he is right, that book alone solves my problems."
Six of the original illustrations by W.W. Denslow described in the letter are also being loaned by the New York Public Library. Reviews of the book and colorful advertising posters promoting the Wizard and other Baum books will also be featured.
L. Frank Baum's letter to the Library of Congress requesting copyright registration for the book.
Although Baum tried several times to end the Oz series to devote himself to other writing and theatrical ventures, his youthful fans pressured him to create more stories about Dorothy and her friends. In response, he wrote 13 other books set in the Land of Oz and featured a number of additional characters. Several of these books will be exhibited, along with the handwritten manuscript for the last one, Glinda of Oz (1920). At the time of Baum's death in 1919, the Oz books were so well-loved that his publishers continued the series with other authors. The first successor was Ruth Plumly Thompson, who wrote 19 books that were almost as popular when first published as Baum's books had been. The series was continued later by John Neill, to extend the Oz canon to a total of 40 books. First-edition books by those later authors will be exhibited along with selected editions of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in languages other than English, including a Hebrew edition that shows palm trees in Kansas.
The exhibition will also examine dramatizations of the book, ranging from the extravagantly mounted comic opera produced by Baum and Chicago composer Paul Tietjens to MGM's 1939 triumph starring Judy Garland and the Tony Award-winning The Wiz.
A popular stage production of 1902 will be represented in the exhibition by posters of the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow as well as other characters used to advertise the production, sheet music of the popular songs from the show and a metal souvenir jewelry box issued to audience members who attended the 100th performance at the Majestic Theater. A program for a 1905 engagement at Washington's National Theater will also be displayed.
In 1910 the first commercially produced film versions appeared: four one-reel silent films by the Selig Polyscope Co. based on the Wizard and some other Oz books. Only one print of this version, now in the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film collection, is known to have survived.
Just as he was involved in the stage adaptations of the book, Baum also initiated early film versions. In 1914 Baum founded the Oz Film Manufacturing Co. in Hollywood in partnership with the noted composer Louis Gottschalk, who was to write music for the films. The company produced five silent features and a few short subjects based on Baum's stories. The films were not a critical or financial success, and the studio failed in 1915. In 1925 Chadwick Pictures released its silent film version of "The Wizard of Oz," which starred Oliver Hardy (before he teamed with Stan Laurel) as the Tin Woodman. The film, which took large liberties with the plot, was a box-office failure.
Next came the 1939 MGM venture, one of the rare instances in which a great book became a great film. The film garnered two Academy Awards in addition to a number of nominations, including that for best picture, which it lost to "Gone with the Wind." In 1989 "The Wizard of Oz" was selected for the first listing of the Library of Congress National Film Registry (25 films worthy of preservation are chosen annually), and in 1998, it was listed sixth on the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 American films of the 20th century. Because of its many television showings between 1956 and 1974, it has been seen by more viewers than any other movie. Many people who have never read the book know the Wizard of Oz characters and story because of it.
Also featured will be items from the Library's collections of publicity shots and photographs taken on the set of the 1939 film, related sheet music, recordings and advertisements in magazines and other periodicals – all of which came to the Library through copyright deposit. Supplementing the Library's holdings will be film costumes borrowed from private collectors, including a pair of the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy; the Scarecrow costume worn by Ray Bolger; the mane and beard worn by Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion; a Munchkin costume worn by a member of the "Lollipop Guild" and an Emerald City towns-man's coat. Posters and lobby cards advertising the film will also be displayed.
Later dramatized versions will also be featured, including The Wiz, which won seven Tony awards, including "Best Musical" on Broadway, in 1975 and became a popular film. A kiosk showing clips from various Oz film versions will highlight this section.
Over the past hundred years, a surprising number of Oz-related novelties have been produced, more than for any other children's book. Among those featured are glass Christmas tree ornaments of Oz characters, music boxes, coloring books, paper dolls, a poster map of Oz, a commemorative postage stamp and the original artwork, and a sequined evening handbag in the form of the ruby slippers. Some of these items came into the Library as copyright deposits; others are borrowed from private collections.
The earliest souvenir items were produced in connection with the stage show of the early 1900s. The Library's exhibition will display one of the small jewel boxes with the Cowardly Lion on the lid that were presented to audience members at the 100th performance. The publishers of the Oz book series also produced Oz items to advertise the series. The exhibition will feature a 1921 Parker Brothers board game with a playing board that is a large color map of Oz and small pewter figures of the main characters as playing pieces.
One of the most unusual items on view will be The Wizard of Oz Waddle Book (1934). This edition contains cardboard cutout figures of Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Lion and the Wizard that can be assembled as three-dimensional figures with a metal strip attached to their feet so they can be made to waddle down an inclined yellow brick road runway furnished with the book. In the Library's copy, the figures remain intact and unassembled, which is extremely rare.
By 1939, when the MGM film appeared, the Oz stories and characters had been firmly established in the hearts of the public. MGM spared no expense in publicizing the film and licensed a variety of promotional items, including dolls, charm bracelets, coin purses and greeting cards. New film-related items began to appear in the 1950s, when the film reached television, and many still appear each year. One of the newest, displayed in the exhibition, is a version of Monopoly featuring the characters from the film.
Left, illustration of unmasking the wizard; center, Dorothy's ruby slippers from the MGM film "The Wizard of Oz (courtesy Philip Samuels, St. Louis, Mo.); right, a woman's purse designed in the shape of the ruby slippers (courtesy of Kathrine Baumann, Beverly Hills).
In 1956 the copyright on the book expired, opening the way for a steady stream of new editions of the book as well as games and toys. Since then, Oz wall decals, bedspreads, wastebaskets and other Ozian artifacts have proliferated. There are Oz Halloween costumes, valentines and glass Christmas-tree ornaments. A recent one in the exhibition reproduces the cover of the original book.
As The Wonderful Wizard of Oz enters its second century, America's fascination with its homegrown fairytale shows no sign of abatement. In 1998 the Nieman Marcus Christmas catalog even offered a custom-built Wizard of Oz bedroom complete with hand-painted murals, a bed with Toto carved into the headboard and yellow brick road carpeting, suitable for a lucky (and wealthy) child or perhaps as the ultimate fantasy for an adult Oz fan.
