Grace Drayton

Here's an original piece of art by Grace Drayton, also known as Grace Weider- seim, the creator of the Campbell Soup kids. This particular piece made me wonder, what if Grace had illustrated Oz? After all, this lion wouldn't look too out of place!

Grace Gebbe was born in 1877, and married her first husband in 1900, becoming Grace Weiderseim. In 1911 she divorced and married again, becoming Grace Drayton. She divorced a second time, in 1923, and died in 1936. She created the Campbell Soup kids, and the Dolly Dingle paper doll series, as well as a number of comics and other illustration work.

Grace was a well established artist. Among her early comic pages was The Turr'ble Tales of Kaptin Kiddo, which was a collaboration with her sister Margaret. I have several pages of this comic from 1910. Each week is a first person narrative by a young child detailing some outrageous adventure, including colorful characters and close shaves. It's written in a childish dialect, which is something I can't stand - but it's a style that seems to have been popular in the day (witness Dorothy's sudden difficulty with language in Ozma of Oz!)

In an episode from Feb. 27th, Grace incorporates some characters from Alice in Wonderland into the strip. While her general style is a bit too cute for my taste, it's fun to imagine her take on some of L. Frank Baum's Oz creations!

Mermaids!

This year marks the 100th anniversary of The Sea Fairies, L. Frank Baum's attempt to break away from the Land of Oz and start a new series with the characters Trot and Cap'n Bill. The series only lasted through 2 books, with the main characters finally arriving in Oz in Baum's 1915 book, The Scarecrow of Oz.

Mermaids and life under the sea are the main components of this story, giving John R. Neill many opportunities for striking illustrations. He seems to have enjoyed the subject, as he provided another lovely image of a mermaid in his drawing of the whirlpool that captures Trot and Cap'n Bill's boat in The Scarecrow of Oz.

Off-hand, I don't know of any other Baum stories dealing with mermaids, although a mermaid with a parasol makes a brief appearance during an underwater sequence in the 1914 Oz Film Co. production of His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz.

This book was not a great success, but it did get reprinted over the years and went through several different cover designs. The original cover, which used a metallic gold background, was dropped quickly and replaced with an adaptation of one of the duotone color plates within the book. When Reilly & Lee reprinted this title in 1920, Neill created a new full color cover, shown on the left.

This was the same time period during which he illustrated Peter and the Princess (1920), and close in time to his illustrating Andersen's Fairy Tales (1923). These three titles seem to be the last book covers Neill produced as full watercolor paintings. He used very similar type styles for the titles of Sea Fairies and Andersen's.

In fact, the cover of Andersen's doesn't really seem to particularly apply to any of the stories within that book, but it does bear a striking resemblance to the final illustration from The Sea Fairies!

John Dough

Here's a copy of John Dough and the Cherub from 1930 or so - the rear dust jacket flap lists Oz titles to Yellow Knight, the Oz book published that year. This must have been one of the final printings of this title by the Reilly & Lee company.

When Reilly & Britton changed to Reilly & Lee in 1919, several of the L. Frank Baum books underwent changes in appearance. In particular, early titles that originally had stamped covers were changed to paper labels. The Patchwork Girl was one exception - although it too was changed in the 1930's. In some cases, this required a bit of re-thinking on the publisher's part.

For John Dough, the original cover design (shown above right) was used, but it was changed to a full color paper label pasted to the front of the book, instead of a 3 color stamping. The design from the spine of the book was used on the spine of the jacket but only printed in black; this raises the problem of John's disappearing bow tie! I would have thought, considering that the cover was now full color, the spine could have been colored as well!


This past Christmas I did get around to making some John Dough gingerbread cookies. Unfortunately, I couldn't lay my hands on any Elixir of Life, the special ingredient...

Denslow Possibilities?

Here's another stock cover used by the publishers Donohue & Henneberry for a variety of titles. This cover intrigues me, as it it looks like it could be a W. W. Denslow design - but there's no definite indication. The design uses several common elements seen on Denslow covers - in particular, the band of color across the top and the repetition of a design element, laurel wreaths in this case. This cover was also produced in at least one other color combination. The image isn't signed, and there are aspects that don't look like Denslow to me - but it's fun to speculate and theorize!

This cover was used by Laird & Lee for a set of works by Opie Read. Here again, there are elements that make me think of Denslow, but there's nothing to firmly indicate that this is his work - and it does look a lot like many other stock book covers from the time. Denslow did do work for Laird & Lee, and this particular title has a halftone frontispiece by him - apparently earlier printings contained 4 plates.

Part of the fun of collecting is keeping an eye out for possibilities - these may both be wrong, but they are intriguing!

Generic Denslow

Happy New Year! After a slow start, I'm finally getting around to a new blog posting!

I first saw one of these generic bindings by W. W. Denslow on the Hungry Tiger Talk blog, and of course I started looking for examples. Over the New Year's weekend, I went on an antiquing expedition, and managed to hit the jackpot, finding several copies from several different dealers!

This binding was designed for the Donohue & Henneberry publishing company. The name changed to Donohue Brothers, and finally was shortened to Donohue, the same company that produced cheaper editions of a number of the early L. Frank Baum books. Examples of all three names can be seen on the bindings pictured.

Quite a variety of titles were issued in this cover, in various colors - I have blue, green, brown and grey - and sometimes the same title is seen in different colors. The copies I have are all stamped in red and either black or dark green. It's a fairly elaborate design, compared to some of Denslow's other cover work - I just wish the publisher had stamped the book titles on the front cover, within the box that seems designed to hold a title!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!
.......from the gang!

Tik-Tok

Having done two fabric figures and two wooden figures, I decided it's time to try metal! Actually, Tik-Tok has fallen together more easily than I expected although I'll admit to cheating - he's brass, not copper. But with a little patina work, he's pretty convincing...

He's mostly made from a variety of lamp parts, along with some additional material. He has his winding key, and three winding spots - one under each arm and the middle of the back. Unfortunately, he doesn't actually wind up... Oh well - we'll have to call in Smith and Tinker for that!

Dorothy Doll?

 The other day, I happened to think of a photo I'd seen in the digital gallery of the New York Public Library website. This image shows Anna Laughlin, who played Dorothy in the original 1903 Broadway production of The Wizard of Oz, seated and holding a doll version of herself.

I can't help wondering whether these dolls were ever made available to the public? It would seem to be a likely souvenir to sell in the theater lobby wherever the show was playing. I've never heard of any, but wouldn't that be something fun to run across!

Knave of Hearts

While doing some Christmas shopping, I ran across a lovely new facsimile edition of The Knave of Hearts, by Louise Saunders, with the beautiful illustrations by Maxfield Parrish. This is published by Calla Books, and they've done a very nice job of it - the book is a large hardcover, the same scale as the original 1925 edition, and printed on heavyweight paper. The front cover has a color pastedown, like the original, and the overall effect is very impressive!

The printing quality of the illustrations is not quite as high as the first edition, as they haven't been reproduced from the original paintings, but they are all there in full color. Interestingly, a couple seem to have been reproduced from House of Art prints, rather than book illustrations - these are some of Parrish's best known book illustrations, and several were popular as art prints in their own right.

Maxfield Parrish illustrated L. Frank Baum's first published book for children, Mother Goose in Prose. It might have been interesting had he continued on and illustrated the Oz series - the books would have had quite a different look, I think! Now if someone would publish a full size facsimile of Mother Goose.....

The book is available on Amazon.com, and makes a fine gift for any Parrish lover!

Jack

I'm afraid my postings have been pretty sparse lately, but it's easy to chalk that up to the busy time of year!

Here's Jack Pumpkin- head and the Saw- horse, complet- ed and ready to join their other Ozzy friends. In keeping with trying to create these characters more or less as described in the Oz books, both have been made from found sticks and branches. Jack is pegged at his joints which does make him a bit awkward - and it was a bit of a trick to dress him! As stated in The Land of Oz, the Scarecrow will bend, but not break, whereas Jack will break, but not bend.

The Sawhorse is shown above in a more natural state, but here he is in saddle regalia - ready to trot through the Emerald City!

Original Broadway Poster

A poster from the original 1903 Broadway production of The Wizard of Oz was auctioned earlier this week at Poster Auctions International in New York, selling for $2800. I had a bid in - unfortunately the final price went quite a bit higher than I was prepared for. But what a fun piece of Oz ephemera for someone to have!

New Friends

Back in September I posted a little preview for my next pair of Oz figures. They've been moving slowly, but I am finally making progress on Jack Pumpkinhead and the Sawhorse. Scraps and the Scarecrow are looking forward to some new companions!

Here's Jack - he hasn't progressed too far yet, but I hope to make some headway in the next week or two. At the moment, I'm just working on pegging him together - I've been using found sticks and branches to work with, which keeps things interesting!




The Sawhorse is much further along. At this point I'm playing with various accessories and trims - in his illustrations, John R. Neill did enjoy throwing everything he could at this poor creature by way of tassels and ribbons, etc. I'll see what I can do!

Flying Girls and Boys

After the success of the Wright brothers in 1903, Reilly & Britton didn't waste much time jumping on the concept of the flying novel for teens. In The Wizard of Oz, the wizard leaves Oz by hot air balloon, but by 1909 boys, girls, everyone was flying airplanes! Even a 10 year old could do it, as seen in The Flight Brothers from 1912.


L. Frank Baum contributed to the trend with the two Flying Girl titles written under his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym. Other authors wrote the Airship Boys, the Aeroplane Boys, and the Boy Scouts of the Air series. The boys seem to have been more popular than the girls, as Baum's series only extended to 2 books while some of the other series continued to 8 or more titles.

In the 1930's, Reilly & Lee resurrected some of these teen novels using new titles and packaging. I was recently given a copy of A Wild Night on Lost Island (quite a suggestive title), which is a repackaged Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island. The story remains the same, involving a canoe accident and adventures on a sinister island.

On the dustjacket flap several other titles are listed which seem to be similarly renamed books from 20 years earlier. On the Hungry Tiger Talk blog, one of these titles was featured - Jane Pellew in Kentucky, a reissue of The Camp Fire Girls in Old Kentucky. Unfortunately, none of Baum's work in this line was revived!

A Fun Project

On my last entry I received a comment from a reader directing me to a project she and her son had completed - a version of The Wizard of Oz featuring Riley and Company, created in rubber stamping and scrapbook techniques.
It's impressive - you can take a look here - And the stamps can be found here!

When Ozzy Houses Go Bad.....

Happy Halloween!

Denslow and Roycroft

An interesting item was auctioned at Swann Galleries in New York this past week - a copy of The Deserted Village, by Oliver Goldsmith, which was published by the Roycroft Press in 1898. This particular copy has sketches by W. W. Denslow sprinkled throughout the book, on the page borders.

Roycroft issued various titles with hand illumination as well as extra illustrations, but it's great fun - and quite a rarity - to see one done by Denslow. This was produced in the first year he traveled to East Aurora to work with the Roycrofters.

Unfortunately I didn't win this book at the auction, but I think it's a fascinating Denslow piece!

1905 Theater

Here are two pieces of sheet music I picked up in a mixed lot recently - Moon Song from The Gingerbread Man, and A String of Pearls from The Pearl and the Pumpkin. Both are from 1905 Broadway shows with slight connections to L. Frank Baum and Oz.

The most obvious connection is the success of The Wizard of Oz on Broadway in 1903. This inspired a plethora of fairyland extravaganzas, some successful, others not. On the Gingerbread Man sheet music, the show is labeled a "Fanciful Fairyesque" - what a great description!

The Gin- gerbread Man is interesting because the main character is named John Dough. In 1906, Baum would publish John Dough and the Cherub which has no connection to this show aside from the similarity of the title character, a living gingerbread man. The composer for the show was A. Baldwin Sloane, who also wrote some songs that were used in the stage production of The Wizard of Oz. Perhaps he and Baum discussed the idea of a living gingerbread man?

The Pearl and the Pumpkin was co-written by W. W. Denslow, the illustrator of The Wizard of Oz. This show also started as a children's book which was transferred to the stage. While it didn't achieve the success of Oz, it did manage a short run. Yet another John Dough - this time spelled Doe - turns up, this time a Baker/Pie Man! It's a pity that Denslow didn't design the sheet music cover used for selections from this show.

Hungry Tiger Press features some musical selections from these shows in their Tiger Tunes, at the Hungry Tiger website.

Halloween is Coming

Ok...I know this isn't Oz related, but I had to share it. While walking our dogs this evening, Irwin & I came across this totally unique lawn decoration about a block from our house. It made us both laugh out loud and we wanted to get a photo before something happened to it - it definitely ranks as one of the most original pieces of yard art I've seen!

A New Post!

It's been a hectic couple weeks here, so I'm afraid I've been neglecting my postings!

Here's a pic of the start of another Oz project - some companions for my Scarecrow and Scraps figures. I have a little ways to go, but they'll get done eventually...

Cloud Fairies and Mist Maidens

One of the fun things about the Oz series are the many unusual characters that turn up and make short appearances, often never to be seen again. One of my favorites occurs in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, where there is a brief passage concerning the cloud fairies. I've always thought these were a lovely creation by L. Frank Baum - Dorothy, Zeb, and the Wizard come across these delicate creatures, as they are climbing back to the surface of the earth after falling through an earthquake crack. The segment is very short, but John R. Neill devoted one of the book's 16 color plates to the subject.

We meet very similar beings in Glinda of Oz, this time the mist maidens. Ozma calls upon them to help herself and Dorothy cross a deep misty valley. Here again, the encounter is brief but a color plate was designed to picture it.

I've always liked these slight references to creatures that play no major part in the main Oz series. Recently while doing some research for work, I ran across a couple interesting paintings which brought these to mind. One is by Herbert Draper from 1912 called The Mountain Mists, (shown below on the right), the other by Fabio Cipolla called The Maidens in the Mist, (shown at the bottom).

I can't help being struck by the similarities of the paintings and the visual conceptions of John R. Neill. Of course, Neill's cloud fairies were drawn 4 years before Draper's Mountain Mists. I haven't found a date for the Cipolla painting, but the artist lived from 1854 to 1924. Or maybe 1852 to 1935. It's interesting how uncertain basic facts can be on the internet! I'm curious as to the date of the Cipolla painting - who knows, it may have helped inspire Neill - or even Baum's description of mist rising over a billowing black sea!