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!

A Case of Mistaken Identity!

A while back, (2013) I posted a photo of the Scarecrow and Tin Man from the Broadway Wizard of Oz musical.  I identified them as Fred Stone and David Montgomery, the creators of the roles, but it now seems apparent that this isn't the case.

David Maxine contacted me recently with further information on the identity of the performers, from research he has done on the show. It appears that they are actually George Stone (no relation to Fred!) and Charles Wilkins.

In 1906, the theatrical firm of Hurtig & Seamon acquired the rights to the show, and it toured for three seasons, into 1909. The photo on the left shows the stars of the show. Through comparison, particularly of costume details, it's evident that they are the same subjects in my photo - most likely photographed during the same publicity shoot!

Convention 2017

This past weekend I was at the National Convention of the International Wizard of Oz Club. As always, it was an opportunity to see old friends and meet new ones, as well as experience a variety of programming dealing with various aspects of Oz.

This year I did a presentation based on the making of the toy theater I've been working on for the past two years. I spoke about the steps involved in creating the theater and the various scenes of the 1903 Wizard of Oz musical. Below are a few pages of sketches and drawings used to make the different curtains and figures used in the scenes of the show.

I finished with a showing of a simple stop-motion animated version of the show. It's an adaptation based on the script in the Library of Congress, and utilizing bits of music and songs that were in the production - though not necessarily all at the same time! L. Frank Baum makes a cameo appearance at the end of the show. I've never done anything quite like this before, and it was an interesting experience... but I don't think film-making is in my future!

Pearls and Pumpkins

 The Pearl and the Pumpkin was one of the most elaborate children's books W.W. Denslow would illustrate. With 16 color plates, two color illustrations throughout the text, a cover label and decorated endpapers, it was nearly as complex as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

The book was published by G. W. Dillingham in 1904, four years after The Wizard, and was still in print in 1913 due to Donohue reprints. It was originally intended to pave the way for a 1905 musical extravaganza by Denslow and Paul West, in the style of The Wizard of Oz, but the show was a failure. (Note: As David Maxine points out in his comment below, the show wasn't truly a failure - it just wasn't a smash hit like The Wizard.)

Denslow did produce lovely work for the book. An interesting point is the endpapers. There are two variants, one with the illustration printed in blue and the other printed in black and orange. Priority is uncertain, but the blue endpapers are generally considered earlier. For me, the illustration is easier to see in the single color of blue, than in the more elaborate 2 color version - I find the orange distracting!

There is also a definite variation in the printing of the cover on the two copies I own. In the photo at the top of this post, the copy on the right has the blue endpapers and the printing on the cover and spine is a bright green. The other copy, with the black and orange endpapers, uses a much darker green, almost black in person.

Those Marbeau Cousins

The Marbeau Cousins was published by Rand McNally in 1898, and W. W. Denslow's cover for this title went through quite a few changes in color and design. I recently picked up another copy of the book, but I doubt I'll ever have all the variations!

 The original edition had a wraparound cover design. The cover fabric on my copy is a putty/tan color, but there do seem to be other colors. Denslow's seahorse is visible between two of the crows.

This copy has changed to cover and spine only, and a reduced size which resulted in one crow losing his tail! As usual, Denslow's seahorse has vanished from the cover. The cover does still use gilt for the title and author. A version also exists with white lettering rather than gold. There's no indication of when these changes occurred.

The simplest of the batch is this version, which keeps only the lettering and three of the birds. I have seen copies of this binding using white lettering and the pictorial spine design, but this is an even simpler one-color stamping. This copy does have a 1914 inscription, which might indicate when it was published.

It's endless!

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!

Groucho in Mo Part 2

 A couple years ago I blogged about a 1960 television version of The Magical Monarch of Mo that was being considered as a vehicle for Groucho Marx. The idea never amounted to anything, and sadly died away. Since then, I've come up with a copy of the script for the show that was written by Gore Vidal. It's an interesting read, especially when combined with the promotional pamphlet that was designed to entice sponsers!

The idea put forth in the pamphlet is that Groucho would play a contemporary family man, who escapes to the Land of Mo when everyday pressures become too heavy. It says that a script is being written by Frank Gabrielson in collaboration with Robert Dwan. Gabrielson had already adapted The Marvelous Land of Oz for Shirley Temple, as well as creating a stage version of The Wizard of Oz that was used for many years by various theaters. Dwan was the director and editor of Groucho's quiz show You Bet Your Life. His role was to "...help tailor the title role for Groucho's unique and flamboyant talents...". A script written by Gore Vidal is mentioned as something that may be integrated into this concept. But the script by Vidal is really a straightforward fairy tale, and fairly faithful to the source material. There's nothing to indicate that it was intended for Groucho, or the concept outlined in the pamphlet.

In the script, we are introduced to the Magical Monarch, who is also referred to simply as Mo. He introduces us to his country, and his daughter Pattycake who has lost her temper. In Mo, we are told, everyone keeps their temper (which resembles a square cut jewel) in a locket. After Pattycake runs off to fetch an axe, in order to cut down a hat tree that has offended her by growing last season's hats, we are introduced to Timtom. He is a young hunter who is in love with the princess. When he declares his love, she cuts off his head with the axe intended for the tree. The Monarch restores Timtom's head, backwards at first, and Timtom declares his intention to marry the princess.

The Monarch's three wise men rush in and and announce that King Scowleyowe (spelt Scowleyow by Baum) has set the Purple Dragon upon the kingdom of Mo, with the demand that the Monarch surrender and grant him Pattycake's hand in marriage. The Wise Donkey is summoned and they all learn that the princess's temper was stolen by King Scowleyowe. The Monarch sets off with Timtom to restore the temper, and both are promptly eaten by the dragon.

In Act 2, the Monarch and Timtom are inside the dragon, which is filled with neatly labeled shelves of things the beast has devoured - including a television set! Scowleyowe appears on the TV and informs the monarch that his white magic will not work inside the Purple Dragon. The Monarch decides he will have to defeat the dragon with Tattletale Gray Magic, better known as psychology. Through flattery and kindness, they manage to escape the dragon.

They head off through the Haunted Forest, where they meet Maetta, the Queen of the Forest. She reveals Scowleyowe's weak point to the Monarch, and he and Timtom set off in disguise to defeat the villain. It turns out that Scowleyowe's weakness is a fondness for riddles, and after the Monarch trades a riddle for the temper, the wicked king is taken off in a straitjacket. Pattycake's temper is returned, and she and Timtom are free to marry. The script is 39 pages long, and dated July 31, 1959.

The original book by L. Frank Baum is actually a series of nonsensical stories, and the script incorporates a number of characters and ideas without accurately following any one tale. Vidal also added a number of his own touches, particularly the methods of defeat for both the dragon and Scowleyowe. There would have been plenty of additional material to draw upon if this version of the show had indeed become a series. But clearly the idea of a show based on Mo had been in the works before the idea of bringing Groucho on board, and catering to his particular talents.

Bouncing Along With Billy

W. W. Denslow covered a lot of ground in his artistic career. Newspaper artist, poster artist, designer of book covers, theater designer, children's book illustrator, and comic postcards are all among his credits. Another was innovative comic strip artist.

In 1901, Denslow created Billy Bounce. This was an early comic strip that made use of a continuing story line, rather than a simple weekly gag. Denslow played with novel layouts in the early pages, and his designs jumped across the paper.

Here is a later episode, from early in 1902. The complete date is missing as the page has been trimmed and is a bit rough. By this time the strip has become much more standard, in layout and concept, than some of the earlier examples. Denslow quit the comic later that year, but it continued for several more years under another artist.  Some of Denslow's Mother Goose characters are included in this particular episode. (Click on the picture for an enlarged image of the page.)

The strip was popular, even after Denslow gave up drawing it in 1902. Buttons were produced to publicize it, and it even inspired a brand of cigars. Two button designs are known, but it is unclear whether they were drawn by Denslow. The one I'm showing does not appear to be his work.

Toys From the Land of Oz

Back in January, I attended the opening of an exhibition at the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures in Kansas City, Missouri. The show is called Over the Rainbow: Toys from the Land of Oz, and was organized by Jane Albright. Her aim, with the assistance of 20 or so other collectors, is to show as many vintage Oz-related toys as possible.

Along with the toys are a number of other rarities, from film costumes to souvenirs from the 1903 Broadway production. The show runs through August 20th and is well worth visiting if you happen to be in the area!