Welcome to my blog, featuring various pieces from my collection of Oz books, artwork and memorabilia!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

H. M. Brock


Here's another bit of a stretch for a connection - but I think it's fun. In 1947, the English publisher Hutchinson Books published an edition of The Wizard of Oz with 5 color plates by H. M. Brock. (The book also included the text illustrations by W. W. Denslow.) I don't have a copy of this edition, but I do have a 1919 poster designed by Brock for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, home of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.

The poster is for a revival of The Sorcerer, one of the earlier operas, and pictures the sorcerer himself, John Wellington Wells. I've always thought that this could just as easily be an image of Oscar Z. Diggs, the Wizard of Oz. I think it looks like a blending of both Denslow and John R. Neill's version of the man - with a little bit of Frank Morgan from the MGM film tossed in for good measure!

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