Publicity, Publicity!

The 1903 production of The Wizard of Oz made stars of Fred Stone and David Montgomery, and their performances certainly deserve credit for a great deal of the success of the show. But there were also performers behind the scenes, working tirelessly to promote the Broadway smash, and keep it steadily in the public eye.

Townsend Walsh (1872 - 1935) was the business manager of the show, and the man responsible for promotion and publicity. He worked closely with Fred Hamlin, the producer, and John Flaherty, manager of the Majestic Theatre. The image above shows Walsh shaking hands with Fred Stone as the Scarecrow; this was used in a souvenir album of the show, indicating the importance of Walsh's work.

Here are two examples of letters sent to help in promoting the show, already a striking success. The first is dated April 8, 1903 and written by Walsh, to the dramatic editor of an unnamed paper. In a very straightforward way, he offers free tickets in exchange for printing a notice concerning The Wizard of Oz. The editor is offered free tickets for the rest of the season, which seems a rather generous offer.

The second is a little later, July 17th 1903, and written by Flaherty. Once again, a free viewing of the show is offered in exchange for printing an article about the production. However, the terms aren't quite so generous - rather than being offered free tickets for the rest of the season, a single performance is offered, with the exclusion of Saturday nights and Souvenir performances.

Clearly the show was doing good business, so seats might as well be saved for ticket buyers!

This second letter is addressed to the editor of the Times in Haverstraw, NY. I think this may be the Rockland County Times, which did publish a blurb on the show two weeks later, on August 1st. Whether this is the article mentioned in the letter, I do not know - but it's a possibility!

The New York Public Library holds an archive of material that belonged to Walsh, including the lovely little Denslow drawing of the Scarecrow shown below. I haven't viewed the archive, but it might be an interesting future project!

Washee-Washee

Here’s a little Reilly & Britton oddity, something unlikely to be published today - the Washee-Washee book of laundry lists. This was published in 1905, and while it is not an Oz book, it has the honor of having been advertised in the Ozmapolitan, the little newspaper created to publicize the Oz books.

The booklet had its own mailing envelope, printed with the cover design and the address of the publisher, Reilly & Britton. This example is inscribed with "A very merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!"

The book itself is intended to be used when sending out laundry to the cleaner, with appropriate spaces for indicating quantities of clothing articles. At the bottom of each page is a quote from a variety of sources, or as the title page says, "wise saws and modern instances”.

As an institution, the Chinese laundry has disappeared; but during the time period when this book was published, Chinese laundries could be found in every town across America. This was due to restrictive laws that blocked Asian immigrants from pursuing better jobs. The Chinese Exclusion Act wasn’t repealed until 1943.

While the book is built around the kind of comic ethnic stereotype that is found offensive today, the advertising piece printed in The Publisher's Weekly adds insult to injury. This took the form of the front page of the Ozmapolitan, the newspaper of Oz, and refers to "The Yellow Peril" and "Oz endangered by Invasion of Heathen Chinee". It then goes on to explain that the Washee-Washee is simply a popular novelty book.

 

The same page advertises L. Frank Baum’s The Wogglebug Book, notorious for its use of humor based on ethnic stereotypes. In a rather bizarre reference, the Wogglebug is said to have been inspired in his exploits by the adventures of Johann Hoch; Hoch was the notorious Bluebeard murderer, who was captured in 1905 and executed in 1906. Other items on the page include The Christmas Stocking Series, (under the bold headline of 60,000 KILLED?) and Baum’s pseudonymous book The Fate of a Crown. 

 

The image of the Ozmapolitan shown above is taken from the Baum Bugle. I don’t know if this was simply created as an advertising page for The Publisher’s Weekly, or if an actual paper was produced. In any case, it's quite a page of questionable content!

Rand McNally

I’ve posted a number of times in the past about books published by Rand McNally, with cover designs by W. W. Denslow. Recently, I picked up a Rand McNally catalog of Holiday Books from 1898 that features quite a few of these titles.

I enjoy seeing the verbiage used to sell the books - in some cases, like Enoch the Philistine and Romola, Denslow is mentioned as the cover designer. The presence of Denslow's name in connection with the design for Romola is nice, as it confirms that this is indeed a Denslow design. Of his various Rand McNally covers, this one looks the least like one of his works to me!

 

In others, like Phoebe Tilson, we are given the artist's description of the cover design - although Denslow isn't actually mentioned:

 

"In the words of the artist's description of the cover design, "Phoebe Tilson" treats of the life of an eccentric maiden lady who is dragging out a drab-colored existence in the gray atmosphere of a quaint New England village, when that existence is enlivened and entirely changed by the advent of a bright little girl child, a waif, left at her door. This child brings cheer and color into the neglected house as does the gay little geranium against the dusty panes of a garret window. The other side of the cover is suggestive of the tender care bestowed upon the "waif", while on the back (spine) is represented the locket which proved her right to her estates and a name beside the "Blossom"that she is."

Illustrations are included from some of his other titles; the only books I'm aware of with interior drawings are An Arkansas Planter, and A Cruise Under the Crescent.

 

All in all, it's a fun little reference!

Jacket Advertising

The Oz books were one of the jewels of the Reilly & Britton publishing house, and the company was eager to promote the series. I occasionally run across other R & B titles showing ads for the works of their most famous author. Here are a couple examples of ads for Oz books, as well as other L. Frank Baum titles, featured on the jackets of other Reilly & Britton books. These jackets can be rather tattered, but I still find them interesting!

The back cover of Fairy Tales From Shakespeare features what was then the entire Oz series, as published by Reilly & Britton. The Sea Fairies, the start of Baum's new (and short-lived) Trot & Cap'n Bill series is given the front flap, while The Juvenile Speaker is shown on the rear flap, making this a very Baum-ful jacket!

What Happened at Olenberg also featured a pair of Baum books; The Sea Fairies again, and The Daring Twins. This was to be the start of a series of young adult novels written under Baum's own name, but it only lasted for two books. However, Aunt Jane's Nieces was shown on the rear of the jacket. This young adult series, written by Baum under the pseudonym of Edith Van Dyne, was quite successful!

An ad similar to those published within the Oz books was used on the rear of Betty's Policeman. The titles list up to Lost Princess, dating this jacket to 1917. The flaps contain no ads.

Azalea was another Reilly & Britton series, written by Elia Peattie, which ran to four titles. The Daring Twins is featured prominently on the rear cover, this time with both titles in the series, while Aunt Jane is on the rear flap. The front flap of the jacket contains a synopsis of the book. A later title from the series features all ten Aunt Jane books on the rear cover.

And finally, Captain Becky's Masquerade has prominent ads for two of Baum's series written under the Edith Van Dyne pseudonym - Aunt Jane's Nieces and The Flying Girl. The Captain Becky books were written by Margaret Love Sanderson, and only ran to two titles - as did the Flying Girl series!

Publicity!

The Wizard of Oz was a huge Broadway hit in 1903, due in part to a fervid publicity campaign. The show ran for many years, often leaving town to tour, but returning for weeks at a time. A major attraction of the show, aside from the comedians Montgomery and Stone as the Tin Man and Scarecrow, were the quantities of chorus girls, in a variety of costumes showing quite a bit of leg! This was true of many shows of the period, and the traditions of casting women in male roles helped to provide opportunities for revealing the female figure in a variety of ways.

These photos are part of a series that were featured in the magazine The Standard & Vanity Fair. This was a weekly theater gossip/girlie magazine, featuring many photos of chorus girls doing provocative things like smoking...or kissing...or fighting...or simply showing off their figures in outrageous costumes! The cover from January 6, 1905 shows a rather bizarre pose of chorus girl Bert Dean riding on the backs of the Cowardly Lion and Imogene the cow... I have to say, Imogene does not look like the healthiest cow I've ever seen.

This issue was published with a string of photos featuring some cast members from The Wizard of Oz. Included were four chorus girls, and the two actors who portrayed Imogene and the Cowardly Lion. The feature was popular enough to be continued in the following two issues of the magazine. The photo above shows the participants as well as a wardrobe man and the show's publicist Harry Townsend. Townsend worked tirelessly to promote the production, as this feature from two years into the run demonstrates.

A number of the photos center around the animal characters. The fact that one of the chorus girls, Alice "Stubby" Ainscoe, had married the Cowardly Lion (Arthur Hill) a year earlier is mentioned several times. Ainscoe and Hill were both with the show from the start, and eventually, when the rights were available for amateur productions, the pair were instrumental in producing a very successful version of the show in Boston. In fact, Hill repeated his performance as the Cowardly Lion!

The costumes worn appear to primarily be those of Munchkin youths and maidens from the show, but the photos were taken at a photographer's studio rather than on the stage of the theater.

This is an excellent example of the real attraction of the magazine - chorus girl Helen Turner, smoking a cigarette with her hair down, in a comparatively skimpy costume. In typical hyperbolic verbiage, she's credited with the "most lengthened limbs on this hemisphere"!

The magazine is filled with similarly arch comments and pictures, but I think this is the most surreal of the photos - Arthur Hill wearing the Cowardly Lion's head, photographing two chorus members! The caption explains that Hill was an enthusiastic amateur photographer - but I think it would be difficult to focus his shot while wearing that head. On the other hand, this might prove to be an interesting way of costuming the lion in a stage production!

Montgomery Ward

Here's another example of work done by W. W. Denslow for Montgomery Ward. This is a pamphlet from 1897 celebrating the 25th anniversary of the mail order company, the first of its kind. On the cover we have Uncle Sam, in the guise of a mailman, collecting an order from a farmer, working in his field - farmers were one of the core customers for the company.

The booklet is quite small, about 3.5" by 6".  As it was a silver anniversary, the cover is a shining metallic silver, printed in blue. The brilliance of the silver can make the delicate drawing difficult to see in bright light!

Denslow provided a number of spot illustrations for the story, which told of the origins of the firm. The drawings are very small and not very well printed, similar in style to newspaper work the artist had done. My favorite is this boy emptying the mailbag of orders for Montgomery Ward!

An Oz Scarf

Wizard of Oz head scarves were among the many items manufactured at the time of the 1939 MGM film. These were produced by Brian Fabrics, and there are three different designs that I'm aware of. This is an example of one, a whimsical pattern filled with Oz imagery. Whenever I see this, it makes me think of a game board!

I had not seen this color scheme before, although another of the same has popped up on eBay. I don't know how many color variations were made for this particular design, but I have seen 3 others so far. 

There are interesting errors in the character vignettes; I like this one in particular, where the Wizard has joined Glinda to greet Dorothy on her arrival!

Early Denslow

Here's an early example of advertising work by W. W. Denslow, the original illustrator of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This is one of a set of postcards depicting several Roman Gods as babies, from 1884. This particular card shows a baby Pluto, complete with metallic gold flame and menacing bat. I think it's my favorite of the series.

These were produced for stores to use, adding their own names and addresses - in this case it was the druggist, Frank Butler. Which immediately makes me think of Annie Oakley - but this Frank Butler was a storekeeper in Bellefontaine, Ohio, not a Wild West Show attraction.

The card doesn't bear a Denslow signature, and is very different from the work he would become known for in later years. Several examples of other cards from this series are currently available from Wonderful Books of Oz.

Times - Herald

Here is one of W. W. Denslow's earliest posters, from 1895, celebrating the newspaper merger of the Chicago Times and the Chicago Herald. In whimsical fashion, Denslow has shown the Times as a bride, while the Herald is indeed a herald - I particularly like the tunic with an emblem of an ink pot and crossed quills!

This is inscribed in the lower border: "Compliments of Denslow Very Very Rare". On the back is another notation: "Out of Print / Presented with compliments of the artist". Clearly the original owner of the poster was acquainted with Denslow! According to the Hearn/Greene biography of Denslow, this may have been his first poster design.

This piece dates before the time of Denslow's regular use of the hippocampus, or seahorse, emblem. An interesting point is that this poster was made in two sizes - here is the larger size, from the NYPL digital archive. The image has been completely redrawn for each version, with a number of differences in the details!

Montgomery Ward

W. W. Denslow did a lot of commercial artwork in the course of his career, creating pamphlets, postcards, posters etc. One of his clients in the 1890's was the Montgomery Ward Company, the first mail-order retailer in America. He created many drawings for the Ward catalogs of the late 90's, as well as two almanacs - this one for 1898, and another for 1899.

Images from the interior of this piece, as well as the 1899 version can be seen on the Wannabe Wonderlands: Outside of Oz blog, a very good resource for viewing vintage children's books in the style of Oz, as well as other related items.

Both of the almanacs feature a selection of drawings of country life through the year. One of my favorites is this great Denslow snowman, collecting an order for Montgomery Ward - and here's an early Denslow Santa making deliveries!!

Poppies will make them sleep.....

Here is a fun illustration that appeared in Harper's Weekly in 1903. It provides a different view of the famous Poppy scene from the Broadway Wizard of Oz, and was published together with a short blurb praising the show.

The drawing is by H. C. Edwards, and dated 1902, which is interesting - the show played Chicago and traveled in 1902, with Dorothy in a pale polka dot dress (seen on the right); when the show moved to Broadway in 1903, a new dress was designed in red with a polka dot apron. This is the costume shown in the illustration - perhaps the dress changed prior to the New York opening on January 20th, 1903!

Dorothy is seen stretched out on the ground, with her cow Imogene asleep at her feet. The sleeping figure of Pastoria (the true ruler of Oz) is propped up in the background, as the Tin Woodman raises an arm in warning that enchantment is at work. The dangerous poppies are in the background, cleverly disguised chorus girls who will sing and dance, and lure travelers into a deadly sleep....until the Snow Queen arrives to save them all!

Another Book Fair

This past weekend, I took a trip to Massachusetts to visit family in the Boston area. As it happened, the Boston Book Fair took place that same weekend, which was something I hadn't expected! So, we trundled off to the fair to see what there was to see...

There were a variety of Oz titles throughout the show, as well as the usual wide range of fascinating antiquarian and newer books. One dealer showed me an item he was not yet ready to offer - an original 1902 piano roll from the hit Broadway production of The Wizard of Oz. The roll features selections from the show - a recording of the selections is available on the 2 disc CD set of vintage music from The Wizard of Oz, offered by Hungry Tiger Press.

My sister won the spotting prize for coming across this lovely 1905 Queen Zixi poster. A couple years ago, I purchased an example of this poster that was rather rough, and had it restored; this one is brighter with very little damage, so it had to come home with me!

Ozzy Adapting

I recently found my missing half of this set of advertising cards. I've had the Tin Woodman for some time, but the Scarecrow proved elusive! These were produced in 1928 to promote performances of a puppet play written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. I have some more information in an earlier post here.

I find the artwork for these images interesting; they are taken from the endpapers of The Patchwork Girl of Oz, published in 1913. The printing quality is quite poor, when compared with the original book endpapers - a common occurrence with later printings of Oz color plates.

The original artwork is in the archives of the International Wizard of Oz Club. The piece appears to have had a rough life, but this is because it originally served two purposes. The main drawing of the Scarecrow and Tin Man was done to be used as endpapers in the Little Wizard series of books. There was no landscape in the background, just a shadow under each of the figures. The image was printed in blue ink, and the shadow was stippled rather than solid.

In 1932, some of the Little Wizard books were reprinted to be used with sets of jigsaw puzzles, and later as advertising for Jello; this time the image was printed in black with solid shadows underneath. This seems to be what the original artwork would have looked like in its original form.

When looking at the drawing in the club archives, it becomes obvious that the main image of the characters was drawn on a smaller piece of paper, which was later glued to a larger sheet. The shadows beneath the figures were whited out, and a new background was drawn in by John R. Neill. Several of the illustrations from the Little Wizard Series were adjusted and reused in The Patchwork Girl; in this case, the paper size needed to be increased in order to be the correct proportion for the larger book!