Denslow's Christmas Tales

On December 14th, 1902, the New York Herald published four comic pages by W. W. Denslow. These were Denslow's Christmas Tales, and used artwork Denslow was preparing for his series of picture books published in 1903, with additional titles in 1904. I've recently obtained a set of these pages, courtesy of Cindy at Wonderful Books of Oz .





The four stories are told in verse, and Denslow has revised each one from the traditional version, to remove the "horrors" of the original. Hence, Red Riding Hood's wolf is tamed, Humpty Dumpty Jr. is hardboiled to prevent breakage, the Giant becomes a sideshow exhibit, and little Golden Hair becomes housekeeper for the Three Bears and stays with them. The same changes occur in the picture book versions, but the stories are rewritten in prose with additional illustrations. 

The newspaper pages are bright and colorful, and would certainly have caught the eye of a young reader. These were part of a Sunday Christmas Edition supplement - Red Riding Hood was the cover page, Humpty Dumpty and Three Bears were the interior pages 4 and 5, and Jack and the Beanstalk was the final page. Modern newspapers certainly don't compare to this!

Land of Oz Library

I couldn't resist showing this piece - unfortunately it's not in my collection, just passing through my hands to another collector!

This is the boxed Wonderful Land of Oz Library, released in 1939 by Rand McNally. This set contained reprints of the six Little Wizard stories (two to a book), and Junior Editions (or adaptations) of six of L. Frank Baum's full length Oz books. The individual books turn up frequently, but you don't often see a full boxed set - this is the first one I've seen in person!

Beware the Wheelers!

Here's another page by Skottie Young from the award winning Eric Shanower/Skottie Young adaptations of the Oz books, published by Marvel comics. This one comes from Ozma of Oz, and shows Dorothy finding a warning scratched into the sand on an unfamiliar beach. And very good advice too!

Also, a pair from The Marvelous Land of Oz - here we see the companions captured by General Jinjur - and their escape in the flying Gump!

I obviously enjoy Skottie's artwork, and his take on the Oz characters and situations. I also think it's one of the better opportunities out there for acquiring published Oz illustrations!

Louise

I haven't had a new W. W. Denslow cover design  to show in quite a while. This one is a little different - The Story of Louise, by De Fontages and translated by Deshler Welch. I don't think I've ever run across the name Deshler before!

Although it falls right into the style of the covers Denslow designed between 1896 and 1898 for Rand McNally, this was done in 1901 for a different publisher - the Royal Columbia Press. It's a lovely wraparound design, featuring a woman with a parasol viewing sailboats on a river. Denslow's seahorse is easily spotted by the hem of the woman's dress. On the rear cover, the woman is seen from afar, walking with a man toward a town in the distance.

I think the color scheme of soft blues and pink on a tan ground is particularly nice!

Another Ozzy Mystery

After the photo last week of Montgomery & Stone, I thought I'd share a couple odd little photos I ran across online while looking through the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.

Here we have an unidentified pair of performers, in costume as the Scarecrow and, could that possibly be, Jack Pumpkinhead? These are from a group of photos printed on a contact sheet, with no information other than the name of the photographer, White Studios in New York City. They were filed under Wizard of Oz, but I don't think this has anything to do with the Broadway Wizard. There is no date to help with identification, and these could easily be an unknown pair of vaudeville performers. (Note - see the comments below for identification of these performers).

This certainly isn't Fred Stone and David Montgomery, and I know of no occasions when these two characters would have been together in a stage production - if that actually is Jack Pumpkinhead. There is a definite resemblance to the makeup style used in The Wogglebug, the unfortunate show that never made it to Broadway, and featured Jack Pumpkinhead as seen on the right.







 
The Scarecrow is clearly copied from the Fred Stone character, with a notably different hat, but the other figure is harder to place. It's a bizarre and intriguing couple of images!

Here's a final shot, showing the two performers in more standard outfitting, as well as in character. Another little mystery waiting to be solved...

 

Montgomery & Stone & Friend

After all the excitement surrounding the recent new Oz movie, here's a flashback to the first theatrical Oz adaptation - a wonderful and unusual photo of Fred Stone and David Montgomery as the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman in 1903.




Fred Stone's makeup has always intrigued me. He drew his Scarecrow eyes on very deliberately, and his right eye always is drawn through the center of his real eye. The left eye, which is larger, encircles his real left eye. Both eyes have dots in the center, leading me to wonder - did he perform with his eyes mostly closed in order to create the effect of the Scarecrow eyes?

 In the photo he is busy oiling the Tin Woodman through the character's funnel hat. I'm not certain how effective that would be on the character's joints, but it seems to have been a popular pose for the pair! I have not seen this particular photo before, and at a large 11" x 14", it makes a wonderful memento of the famous pair in their Broadway debut.

There is a third character in the photo who is quite a star in himself. For reasons unknown, the Tin Man is holding a Teddy Bear at gunpoint. The fascinating part of this is that this has to be one of the earliest Teddy Bears made. The famous hunting trip taken by Teddy Roosevelt, which gave rise to the creation of the stuffed toy, happened in November of 1902, and the first bears were offered by Morris Mitchtom of Brooklyn, New York in February, 1903.
 The Steiff company of Germany also produced their first bears of this style in 1903. L. Frank Baum would eventually bring Teddy Bears to Oz in his 1917 book The Lost Princess of Oz, with the creation of Bear Center.

The Wizard of Oz opened in New York in January of 1903, so our stars were right on top of the trend! Perhaps they're reenacting their own version of Roosevelt's hunting trip!

Hare-Brained Bunnies

Here for Easter is a magazine page of artwork by John R. Neill - The Hare-Brained Bunnies' Easter Party. These wonderful vignettes are a great collection of the Neill rabbits of this period!

This piece was published in McCall's magazine in March, 1919. The original artwork for the top drawing of the rabbit band (or Pussyfoot Chorus), is still in the Neill family (see image below), and was featured in Illustration magazine in 2006. At that point it was listed as an unknown magazine illustration, but we can see how it was used. It's a pity that the McCall's page wasn't printed in full color!

These drawings are closely related to Neill's cover of Pictorial Review magazine from 1916, and the series of bunny musician postcards that seem to date from the early 1920's.

In the 1922 Oz book, Kabumpo in Oz, one of the main characters is a rabbit named Wag, who could have stepped out of this series. I don't think I've run across any of these bunnies after that point in the early 1920's, which is too bad - they're great little characters!




I'm particularly fond
of The Egg Dance!

New Oz Art

One of the results of a new Oz movie opening, has been several gallery shows of Oz-inspired artwork. It's always fun to see different perceptions of familiar characters and stories!






There are two shows running currently that I am aware of. One is Not in Kansas Anymore: A Tribute to The Wizard of Oz at Nucleus, a gallery in Alhambra, CA. If you click on this link, you can visit their website and view the pieces that are on display and for sale.

Another exhibit called Visions of Oz: A Celebration of Art from Over the Rainbow is being held in Los Angeles, at the Heritage Square Museum. There doesn't seem to be an online gallery to view for this show, but a number of pieces from the exhibit are being run through eBay, by Creature Features. These can be seen by clicking on this link, and clicking the eBay auction link at the top of the web page.

I couldn't resist adding this small set of the four friends, as painted by artist Tony Lombardo, to my collection. They look like they stopped in at a photo booth while visiting the Emerald City!

These particular images were also used in the advertising for the show. Love those green glasses!

Great & Powerful

The first new major Oz movie in a generation opened this past weekend, to good box office and varying reviews. I avoided as much of the pre-publicity and hype as I could, in order to approach the film without too many preconceptions. I saw it this past week and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it!

I'll admit my expectations were not high, and the story certainly pays greater homage to the 1939 film than the book series. L. Frank Baum created a back story for Oz in his early books - key points include the arrival of the Wizard by balloon, a confrontation with the Witch of the West in her own part of the land, the usurpation of the throne and kidnapping of Princess Ozma, and the building of the Emerald City before retiring into seclusion. Of course, Baum also contradicted himself on a regular basis - did the Wizard build the Emerald City, or were the rulers of Oz already living there when he arrived? Was Ozma kidnapped by the Wizard or the witch Mombi? These many little mysteries and inconsistencies are part of what I enjoy in the original Oz books.

Disney didn't make much use of Baum's own history of the land, but did come up with a splashy story that doesn't ask to be taken too seriously - something Oz fans are often too prone to do!

Ruby Slippers 2

Here's the finished pair of ruby slippers. This has been an interesting project that I don't think I'm anxious to repeat any time soon!

For those interested in some details - the shoes are vintage 1930's size 5 1/2, and there are around 2500 sequins sewn on silk overlays attached to each shoe. The bows each contains 46 rhinestones, 3 central glass stones and varying numbers of bugle beads. The sequins are metallic 5mm flat sequins, which have been aged ( I didn't age them myself and don't know the process). There are some details that I haven't done - adding an Innes Shoe Co. label inside the right shoe, gluing felt on the soles or adding Judy Garland's name inside the shoe. I still may do some of this.

There is debate over whether the original shoes used metallic or transparent sequins. Here's a link to an interesting article concerning the sequins on the slippers - Why do they look like that?

Here's a fascinating blog covering one slipper maker's process - The Ruby Slippers Project. I took a different route, but there are still a number of good reference points.

Another interesting site is The Ruby Slipper Fan Club . Here you can find more information on the various original shoes, see other reproductions and view a helpful blueprint containing a number of useful measurements.

I found Etsy to be a very useful site for finding supplies - particularly the Dreamer of Oz shop, which has had various helpful things.

So, if you're feeling inspired, why not give it a shot? It's certainly a project you'll remember!

Ruby Slippers

Although I'm a fan, I'm not a great collector of the 1939 MGM film version of The Wizard of Oz. But there is something fascinating about the ruby slippers! The last pair offered at auction sold for 2 million dollars (Correction - the shoes did not actually sell at auction, the reserve was not met - check the comments below for further info on this), and they are one of the most readily recognized Hollywood props. Four original pairs are known to exist, but the fate of one pair is unknown, since it was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum several years ago.

This year I've been working on replicating the slippers in order to have a pair in my collection. Creating slipper replicas is a popular hobby among Oz collectors, and people approach the project in a variety of ways. Methods and materials can be hotly debated, as to what is most accurate to the original shoes, but in each case the end result is a shining pair of ruby slippers.


My goal was to try making the shoes along the same lines as the originals. This means creating silk overlays which are hand sequined and then attached to the shoes. I'm no stranger to time consuming projects, but I have to say that I've found this to be one of the harder things I've tried - I just don't seem to be naturally compatible with sequins!

The most important part in my mind is finding an appropriate pair of shoes. It's possible to have a custom pair of shoes made for this purpose, complete with an outer lining of fabric for sewing on sequins, but I wanted the look of an actual vintage shoe. It's surprisingly difficult to come up with the right heel height and style of shoe, but I finally did run across a pair that is almost perfect. The original shoes vary a bit from one to the next, and range from size 5 to size 6. I'm using a pair of size 5 1/2 silk pumps, from the time period of the movie. After removing the shoe clips, they were ready to be colored red and turned into a pair of the most famous shoes in history!

 

Now I just have to finish the other shoe....

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year! Of course we're well into 2013 by now, but I've been on a break from blogging so I have some catching up to do!

 Here's a fun item I received this past Christmas. At our stained glass studio, we carry the work of a few potters, including one who is local friend. He came up with this Tik-Tok pot, and did a fine job of capturing the copper man's character. Tik-Tok's hat is a lid and is removeable, making him a very useful fellow! The Denslow seahorse pot seen in the top photo was an earlier piece by the same artist.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 

I'm afraid I've been neglecting my blog for the past few months, but we'll see what the new year brings!

Happy Halloween!

Earlier this year I spent a good deal of time creating centerpieces for the National Oz Convention, in the form of candy containers based on the corn mansion of the Scarecrow. While I was working on  them, I kept thinking that Jack Pumpkinhead's house would also work well in the same style. In fact, I considered making both for the convention but decided, in the interest of sanity, to stick to one design that I had already figured out and knew how to do!

Anyway, once that was over, I began to think about Jack again, and this is the result. I've based the piece on John R. Neill's wonderful illustration showing Jack's house in the 1909 book, The Road to Oz. Once again, this is a candy container - the pumpkin lifts off to reveal a central core for hiding sweets.

 Here you can see the door open, with Jack at home ready for visitors. The process started with an artificial foam pumpkin, which I carved and embellished before making a mold and casting in paper mache. There are still a few details I want to adjust, but the general scheme is finished. There are a number of similarities to the Scarecrow's house, but as Jack designed both, that shouldn't be too surprising!