Oz on Music Box

Oz-related music box discs are something I first became aware of several years ago, from a blog post by David Maxine at Hungry Tiger Press. Since then, I have kept an eye out for examples and have managed to obtain two songs written for the show, Must You? and I Love Only One Girl in This Wide Wide World.

I've become fascinated by the music boxes themselves. At the time of The Wizard of Oz there were multiple companies producing disc-playing music boxes. The disc players were popular from the 1890’s into the early years of the 20th century, when they were surpassed by the phonograph. The various companies produced boxes in a variety of sizes, and each brand and size required specific discs - they were not interchangeable. Consequently, it can be difficult to find a specific song for a specific make/size of box. I now own two different boxes, one a 15.5” Stella and the other a 9.25” Mira.

The two Oz discs I own are for the small Mira machine. The first video, above, is I Love Only One Girl, and the second video, below, is Must You? In the Must You? video, I also demonstrate the zither attachment on the box - this was an extra feature that was available, and originally added an additional dollar to the cost. It's basically a bar that applies pressure to the comb of the box, causing a much more plunking tone - similar in some ways to a harpsichord. It can be heard during the second chorus of the song.

 

In looking through catalogs for a couple different brands, I’ve found that generally the same songs were available for all the various machines. The arrangements could differ from maker to maker, and larger discs would have extended versions of the music - extra choruses, or additional elements. Unfortunately there are gaps in the lists I’ve seen, so it’s possible a song that's missing from one brand, but is present in another, may actually have been available in both.

I've come across six makers that offered a total of 12 titles of songs that were either written for or used during the run of The Wizard. There could easily be more, as Symphonium was another large producer, and further Criterion titles are probably out there. Several of the discs attribute the song to the show, as shown in apostrophes below. They are as follows:

Polyphon
#50009 - I’d Like to Go Halves in That
#50727 - Sammy

Edelweiss
#0190 - Mr. Dooley
#0196 - Must You “from the Wizard of Oz”
#0201 - I Love Only One Girl in the Wide Wide World
#0202 - Sammy

Stella or Mira (both were made by the same company, the Stella was unique in that it used smooth discs with no projections)
#865 - Mr. Dooley
#899 - Must You “from the Wizard of Oz”
#898 - I Love Only One Girl in the Wide Wide World “from the Wizard of Oz”
#904 - Sammy
#1130 - Can’t You See I’m Lonely
#1257 - The Bullfrog and the Coon

Regina
#1982 - Mr. Dooley
#10008 - Sammy
#10020 - Hurrah for Baffin’s Bay
#10074 - Under a Panama
#10138 - Johnny I’ll Take You “from the Wizard of Oz”
#10279 - The Sweetest Girl in Dixie

#10152 - Can’t You See I’m Lonely
#10652 - The Bullfrog and the Coon

Criterion
#13426 - "Wizard of Oz" When the Circus Comes to Town

Olympia

#3427 - Wizard of Oz “Sammy” Song

Sammy turns up on five lists, it was the hit of the show! Finally, here's Mr. Dooley played on the larger Stella machine. This song was written for The Chinese Honeymoon, but was reused in the Chicago production of The Wizard, before its Broadway run.

Cowgirls in Oz?

In my ongoing quest to view costume designs by Caroline Siedle, I recently contacted the Museum of the City of New York. It turns out that they have 63 examples of Siedle's work in their collection, including one piece from The Wizard of Oz.

This is an unexpected design - but it does appear to be captioned Wizard of Oz at the bottom of the drawing, and it was intended for the show. One of the many interpolated numbers in the production was Sitting Bull, sung by Fred Stone as the Scarecrow during the Ball of All Nations. This song was added to the show in 1905 and, according to Oz Before the Rainbow, was performed with a chorus of "cowgirls, Mexicans and squaws". This must have been for that number. 

This photo is not of the best quality, and I haven't viewed this piece in person to know whether there are further notations on the back of the drawing. 

Many of Siedle's designs bear the stamp of the Metropolitan Opera. This isn't because they were designed for the opera, I believe it's simply where they came to be kept after her untimely death in 1907. Her husband Edward Siedle was prop master for the Metropolitan Opera, so it seems logical that the drawings would end up stored there.

Restoration

An adage for collecting is to buy the best you are able - in other words, it's better to pass by damaged and lesser items in favor of something better. But, there are times when a damaged book can be a bargain worth picking up and having restored.

This is a first edition, first state copy of The Marvelous Land of Oz. The key identification point for a first state of this title is the absence of the words "Published July 1904" on the copyright page. First states of this book are hard to come by, and are priced accordingly. 

In this case, I ran across an inexpensive damaged copy at auction - the text block was separated from the covers, there was a tear across the spine and the spine was torn from the rear cover. In spite of the condition issues, all the elements were present and it looked like a good candidate for restoration.

A feature of early printings of this book was the endpaper drawing which included a photo of Fred Stone and David Montgomery, in their respective roles as the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman in the stage version of The Wizard of Oz. This image came from a publicity photo of the two characters sitting on a wall; with some minor adjustments, the two were driving a pony cart in Oz!

The end result proved worth the cost. The work was done by Sophia Bogle of Save Your Books, in Portland, Oregon.

Design vs Reality

Last week's post showed costume designs by Caroline Siedle for the 1903 Wizard, from the collection of the Schubert Archive. I thought this week it might be interesting to show how some of the actual costumes measured up to the original concepts. The costume drawings are fascinating in their own right, and many have information on the back with names of actors or chorus members, notes concerning fabric choices, even details of construction. This was, of course, before the days of lightweight synthetic fabrics, and the costumes involved a good deal of silk, velvet, and spangles. As always, clicking on an image will enlarge it for better viewing.

 These two designs for Anna Laughlin as Dorothy are both easily recognized with little to no adaptation. The cape and staff on her elaborate Emerald City costume are missing in the photo, but perhaps they were not in use.

Tryxie's first act waitress dress is also straightforward, although in this particular photo she's wearing a cape and no cap. Her Emerald City outfit takes a little more getting used to, as the various accessories of hat, gloves, muff and parasol are missing. But there's still at least one bird on her skirt!

Dashemoff is also easy to compare, although his boots have gone missing and some detailing of the tunic seems to have changed. On the rear of the sketch for the blue first act costume, there is a bold underlined notation of No Boot! It appears that the second act leggings were also discarded in favor of tights. There are some photos of Bessie Wynn in her first act costume with boots - shorter than those in the sketch. In the end, the chance to view legs and ankles seems to have won out!

The Munchkin maidens and youths are particularly faithful to the costume design.

Some chorus members from the third act - the Cooks, who are well realized from the costume drawing, and the Guards. The Guards maintain all the details of the design, though it looks a bit overwhelming on this 1903 chorus girl!

Finally, Cynthia Cynch in her third act costume. Here again, the outfit is immediately recognizable - but it looks as though the headdress of onions may have been discarded for flowers!

The Shubert Archive

While in New York City this past weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting the Shubert Archive. The Archive is a large collection of theater-related material which is not open to the public, but is available for research purposes. A friend secured an appointment and we spent an enjoyable few hours learning about the Shuberts and the various aspects of the collection. The archivist Mark E. Swartz was our guide during the visit - Mr Swartz is also the author of Before the Rainbow, a study of productions of The Wizard of Oz prior to the 1939 film. This book was extremely useful to me when I worked on my toy theater!

 My reason for visiting was to see what material was available concerning the 1903 Wizard of Oz. I was aware that the collection included some of Caroline Siedle's costume designs for the show, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a dozen examples - more than I expected! I've added two other examples I know of to show all the surviving costume designs that I'm aware of. These costume drawings are one of the few tangible things that survive from the creation of the show.

There are a number of other Siedle designs in the collection, including several which are unidentified. I think I helped to classify one of the unknown examples, which I've included in the above lineup - I believe this drawing is for the second act Emerald City outfit worn by Dashemoff Daily, played by Bessie Wynn.

Autographs from Fred and Dave

The role of the Scarecrow, in the original Broadway version of The Wizard of Oz, was Fred Stone's big break and the role with which he would always be identified. He went on to star in many shows, and worked in Hollywood as well. When the MGM film of Oz was being produced in 1938, some fans were disappointed that Fred would not be playing his signature part in the movie. At that time he would have been 55 years old - I've never seen if he ever expressed any regrets over not reprising his role!

David Montgomery was in the same position with the part of the Tin Woodman, but his early death forestalled some of his opportunity to top that famous portrayal. Although the pair appeared in a number of other hit shows of the period, a certain generation would forever identify the duo with these two characters. After the 1939 film, Ray Bolger and Jack Haley took over as the actors best known for these roles.

The photo on the left from 1910 shows Montgomery and Stone in The Old Town, one of the shows that followed Oz. After Montgomery's death in 1917, Stone declared he would not seek a new partner, and he became a solo performer - although there were rumors of his teaming with Frank Moore (an interesting Oz connection, since Moore had starred as the Shaggy Man in The Tik-Tok Man of Oz). In later years he often paired up with one or another of his three daughters - Carol, Paula, and - Dorothy!

 Throughout his life, Fred Stone kept a connection to his famous Scarecrow - he often signed autographs with his own caricature of the character. Although the example below bears the date of 1902, that simply commemorates the start of his years playing the role - this is from the endpaper of his autobiography, published in 1945. Something to be aware of, should a loose page with an early dated autograph turn up!

A Letter From Maud

L. Frank Baum received numerous letters from young, and not so young, readers in response to his books. He did his best to personally respond to his fans, especially if they supplied postage. His death in 1919 didn't stop the flow of fan letters that were written to the popular author, and his wife Maud continued to answer the incoming mail. This led to the existence of some seemingly ghostly Baum letters!

Here is an example from 1920 - obviously this wasn't written by Frank, though it bears his bold signature, thanks to a rubber stamp. It congratulates the sender on winning a prize in a contest in the Plain Dealer, and goes on to say "I am glad you like my stories - I have written thirteen Oz books - and many others". It finishes with Baum's usual sign-off of "Ozily Yours".

This was written in January of 1920, when there were still only thirteen titles in the series. Glinda of Oz would be published that summer, bringing Baum's total of full length Oz novels up to fourteen.

Denslow Atlases

W. W. Denslow's covers for Rand McNally covered a broad range of subject matter. Novels, reminiscences, travelogues and even atlases were decorated with his work. Here we have a Bible Atlas, written by J. L. Hurlburt, with a cover that was first designed in 1897. This copy is from 1910, showing that this cover design was in use for at least 13 years. The book itself was first published in 1884, and remained in print into the 1950's (possibly later) with varying cover designs.

The cover is a dark teal fabric, stamped in black, burnt sienna, gold and silver. It's an elaborately produced book, with color printing and two large fold out pages.

I've shown another example of a Denslow designed atlas in the past, The World's People and the Countries They Live In.  It also dates from 1897, but the cover style of this book is quite different. Rather than the simplified image used on the Bible Atlas, Denslow has produced a detailed drawing featuring women of various cutures. This book also included color printing.

These two examples provide an interesting contrast of the many styles in which Denslow worked.

Library Bindings

 Library bindings are a specialty niche in the world of Oz collecting. The books were available from the 1940's to the 1960's in sturdy bindings intended to hold up to heavy use. The covers were usually brightly colored, simplified screenprints of the original cover labels. The spines generally featured the title, without the usual pictorial vignette. As expected, these books often show heavy wear from library use. However, the specialty binding was also available to general customers, so copies occasionally turn up that were never used in a library system.

I haven't expanded into this area, but I did recently pick up an example that came my way. This is a library binding of The Land of Oz, featuring the Roland Roycraft dust jacket design, printed in black and orange on turquoise cloth, from 1959. The Roycraft designs were only issued for a short period of time as dust jackets, not as paper labels mounted to the book covers - so it's fun to have a copy with the design imprinted on the actual book! This particular copy bears no evidence of library use, so it presumably was sold to a home user. It's also interesting to note that the cover has been completely redrawn for this use!

Some Sketches

John R. Neill was always a frugal artist. Many of his drawings have sketches on the back, generally for other illustrations he may have been working on at the time. When working on his elaborate illustrations for The Road to Oz in 1909, he made various preparatory sketches and, as was his habit, these sketches were often on the back of finished drawings.

They can vary from very rough, as in this sketch for the Shaggy Man catching the heads of the Scoodlers  -

to more complete, like this drawing for Jack Pumpkinhead at home  -

to variations on the final drawing, as in this version of the Shaggy Man in the Truth Pond -

 In the final version of this drawing, the character's head is in profile rather than full on. Remember that clicking on an image will enlarge it for better viewing. It's always fascinating to see how drawings develop!

Denslow Displays

My post last week about Humpty Dumpty reminded me of this W. W. Denslow related piece.

This photo was published in December 1903, in the Current Books section of The Book-Lover magazine. It's a bit of a mystery, as it's not a standard kind of Denslow image. I think it may be a picture of a store display designed for the sales of Denslow's picture book series. It's a charming piece, and a three dimensional sales tool like this would have been very eye-catching!

The idea isn't too farfetched, and it seems as though it could be related to this other display, for Denslow's Mother Goose. The Mother Goose piece had a clockwork mechanism to make the goose raise and lower her head while her beak opened and closed. I've seen the Mother Goose display in person, some years ago, but who knows if Humpty could still survive!

Humpty Dumpty

Easter is just around the corner, and while out shopping the other week I ran across some brown paper mache eggs. Inspiration struck and I decided to make a pair of Humpty Dumptys - one as drawn by W. W. Denslow, and one based on John R. Neill's interpretation.

Denslow drew Humpty Dumpty for a newspaper comic page, which was later published as one of his series of picture books, by G. W. Dillingham. Neill also drew the egg for a newspaper page, an adaptation from Through the Looking Glass, which became one of the Children's Stories That Never Grow Old.

Denslow's egg is quite jolly, due no doubt to the fact that he has been hard boiled and no longer needs to fear being broken. On the other hand, Neill's version seems rather glum, perhaps grown tired of sitting on his wall!

Oz at University

Here's a little Oz oddity; this is a dance card from a party thrown by the Beta Kappa of Alpha Phi, on November 25th of 1939. After a bit of research, I've determined that this took place at Denison College in Granville, Ohio.

It's an elaborate little piece, involving several layers of specialty papers - a clear plastic cover with illustration in green ink, over a gold glitter paper with cutout window, a stiff page with corresponding cutout, green paper embossed in silver, striped glassine with silver stars, a printed programme, all bound up with green satin cord and a tassel. The card was produced by Brochon, a Chicago company that seems to have specialized in such things.

1939 was the year that the MGM film opened, three months earlier in August. It's also the year that Franklin Roosevelt caused a stir by moving Thanksgiving up one week, to allow for a longer shopping period before Christmas. This dance would have been held the weekend after Thanksgiving. The change in the date of the holiday caused many schools, including Denison, to cancel Thanksgiving vacations, so perhaps this helped to soften the blow!

The use of the Oz theme was probably inspired by the new film, although the Oz series was certainly far more familiar at that period than it is today.

A Letter From the Royal Illustrator/Historian

One of the duties of the Royal Historians of Oz was to respond to the many letters they received from their readers. L. Frank Baum and Ruth Plumly Thompson both spent a good deal of time over correspondence, but there don't seem to be many letters surviving from John R. Neill. Of course he only wrote 3 Oz books, but he did illustrate the series over a period of 38 years and must have received fan mail.

Here's a note he wrote prior to publication of his final Oz title for Reilly & Lee, Lucky Bucky in Oz. He compliments the correspondent on having read 32 Oz books, almost the entire series at that time. He also mentions an incident of three deer that ventured up to his back door; he featured a similar subject on his 1942 Christmas card.

Neill was never one to waste paper; the envelope used bears the return address of the International Information Service, in Washington, DC. Neill has added his own return information beneath this official stamp. Thanks to Cindy Ragni at Wonderful Books of Oz for coming up with this little gem.

A fun coincidence is the name of the recipient, Bobby Jones. The hero of the upcoming book was named Bucky Jones!

Valentines with Billy Bounce

My posts have been few and far between lately, but here's a slightly belated view of a Billy Bounce comic page for Valentine's Day, by W. W. Denslow. This page dates from 1902, and shows some of Denslow's originality in dealing with the layout of the comic for the standard newspaper page. If you click on the image, it will enlarge for reading. And remember - look before you kick!