Happy Thanksgiving!

I've posted this before but it's appropriate for today. W. W. Denslow created six Thanksgiving postcards in this series, and one of these days I'll get them all!

Ozzy Merchandise

Over the years, quite a variety of Oz merchandise has been created. A great many of these items have been inspired by the classic 1939 MGM film, which is an area that I don't really collect. However, I do enjoy running across vintage pieces that are not particularly film related, but refer back to the original books. Here are a couple dating back to my own childhood:

The fabric shown on the left was produced in the late 1950s - early 60s, and sold as yardage for customers to use for various purposes. This piece was recently given to me by a friend - his grandmother had used it as a coverlet/bedspread on a child's bed. Dorothy is wearing silver shoes, and the characters certainly aren't based on their movie counterparts - or on any particular book illustrations. I think it's a charming example, and my favorite among the various Oz fabrics that have been produced.

Paint by number pictures have become a popular collectible. I don't collect them myself, but couldn't resist this particular one, which is intriguing. It includes the Sawhorse from The Marvelous Land of Oz and a young boy (possibly Tip?). The characters are a little more generic, particularly Dorothy who looks remarkably like Alice from Wonderland, but the inclusion of a character from a later book is rather unique. This piece seems to date from sometime in the late 60s/early 70s, and the couple examples I've seen have all had the same frame - it must have been included in the kit!

Pictorial Review

John R. Neill was only illustrating one Oz book a year, con- sequently the majority of his work appeared in magazine illustrations. Neill illustrated stories in Pictorial Review magazine over a number of years. I recently picked up an issue from February 1926 with a few of his drawings.

For the story shown above, Neill contributed three pieces of two-color artwork. The way his illustrations are used is interesting - particularly the combination of two pieces on the page to the right. The large drawing on the right of the woman handing the man his coat used to be available from the Neill family a few years ago. If anyone reading this blog happened to buy it, here's what it illustrated!

Another drawing pops up further along in the magazine, illustrating a poem . This piece is dropped into the middle of another story, and the drawing is a simpler vignette.

A third use is found even further along, in an article about Abraham Lincoln. Here, two little drawings by Neill are used in conjunction with the photos illustrating the article. These two pieces are unsigned, but they are unmistakably Neill.

Jean Gros

This little guy is a cut-out advertisement from 1928 for a marionette production of the Oz stories. The image shows the Tin Woodman riding the Hungry Tiger, and the Oz series is advertised on the rear, as well as the puppet show. The owner is instructed to "Keep this Lucky "Oz" Picture and use it for a Bookmark".







A second cut-out, featuring the Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion, was also distributed. The advertisement is for Jean Gros' marionette version of The Magical Land of Oz, which was written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. This show would later play at the Chicago World's Fair of 1933. It's a shame that the performance doesn't seem to have been captured on film - I'd love to see it!

The images were taken from the endpapers of The Patchwork Girl of Oz. The original John R. Neill artwork for these endpapers is in the collection of The International Wizard of Oz Club, and can be viewed by looking at the gallery in the Archive section of their lovely redesigned website - http://ozclub.org/Home_Again.html

Jean Gros was a well known puppeteer and showman from Pittsburgh who spent years building up an elaborate traveling marionette show, but lost it all when he attempted to stage a grand opera with puppets, hiding 75 singers behind the curtains. He produced a number of puppet shows based on classic stories, and also designed marionettes for a WPA project in the 1930s. These were used in schools for teaching various subjects - nutrition, safety, history, folklore, etc.

A Time magazine article from 1948 tells of a later business venture, creating parades along the line of those staged by Macy's for Thanksgiving Day. These were to be used by smaller cities and towns or department stores, who could hire Gros and his crew to produce the parade. Apparently a large part of the trick was designing parade balloons which would fit beneath the trolley wires which crossed many city streets!

I mentioned a few posts ago that I used to experiment with marionettes - after some digging in the basement I've managed to locate one of my attempts, a version of Jack Pumpkinhead. I know I have heads for some other characters somewhere - I'll have to keep looking!

Halloween 1908

Just in time for Halloween - here's another postcard with an Oz connection, from about 100 years ago. This was produced by the Gibson Art Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio. Gibson was the oldest American greeting card firm, started in 1850, and was still in business in the 1990s as Gibson Greetings. In 2000 they became part of American Greetings.

The image has clearly been adapted from John R. Neill's illustration for the copyright page of L. Frank Baum's Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. Gibson began producing cards in 1907, and Dot/Wiz was the Oz book for 1908, so I would guess that this card might be from that time. The company produced cards until around 1917, so the card may have been produced later in that period, but I think it's an early example.

I find it fascinating that someone went to the trouble to reproduce Neill's Scarecrow drawing - including the club he's holding and the emerald he's sitting on! - rather than coming up with a more generic image. I wonder if it was an intentional Oz reference, or simply drawn by a fan of the books. The artist is unknown, as were many of the Gibson postcard artists. I'm not aware of any other Gibson cards using Oz images in this way - many of their cards were single designs, and this doesn't seem to be part of a series.

The company was a latecomer to the postcard craze of the early 20th century, and certainly did not commit themselves to the concept. Gibson cards were not produced in great quantity, and were not marketed nationwide, so they are among the scarcer and more desirable Halloween postcards.

Oz Writing

It's been said that if you scratch an Oz collector, you find an Oz author trying to get out - I think there's a lot of truth to that. About fifteen years ago, my partner and I wrote and illustrated two Oz books which were published by Books of Wonder. Our first attempt in this line was providing illustrations for Queen Ann in Oz, by Karyl Carlson and Eric Gjovaag. We learned quite a bit from this project, and when we were asked if we would like to come up with a story ourselves, decided to give it a try.

Masquerade in Oz was set at Halloween, and grew from an idea to do a story taking place within Ozma's palace in the Emerald City. We came up with the general outline and would discuss ideas while walking our dogs in the evening and then take turns writing, re-writing and adding to what each other wrote. I'll admit that we weren't overly concerned with Oz chronology or canon - it was a lot of fun, and we were enthusiastic. For the illustrations, we both made sketches after which I would do full sized pencil drawings. Once these were ready, Irwin would ink them. The collaboration worked well - but we are used to working with one another during the day in our stained glass studio.

The Lavender Bear of Oz was a shorter book aimed at a younger reader. Bringing L. Frank Baum's Valley of Babies from Dot & Tot of Merryland and Bear Center from Lost Princess of Oz together seemed like a natural combination. Once again we had fun in the process. We originally intended the title of this book to be “Babes in Oz” and did the illustration pictured, but that title was rejected. After digging around, I also found a couple other cover design experiments - both in a different style than the published version.

All in all, it was a fun experience and we were fortunate enough to actually be published. We did write a third story, and who knows - it might get dusted off someday.

Silver Shoes

Here's another item with no real Oz connection, other than my own twisted inter- pretation. This is a pair of Buck Rogers Rocket Roller Skates, produced in 1932 by Marx Toys. These are heavy duty skates with great styling - this particular pair is missing its leather straps and key. The reason I'm including them here is because I've always thought they looked as though they could be L. Frank Baum's silver shoes, taken by Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the East in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In the MGM film the shoes became the ruby slippers. Even the concept of rocket roller skates fits in - maybe that's how Dorothy returned home at the end of the book!

Graphic Oz

There have been a number of Oz comics/graphic novels in recent years. I don't tend to collect these, but do have a set of the graphic novels written and drawn by Eric Shanower. I've mentioned in a past posting that Eric Shanower is my favorite among contemporary Oz illustrators. I have one small original piece of his artwork, aside from drawings in several collector's copies of Oz books published by Hungry Tiger Press.

The portrait of Glinda shown above is from 1985, the period when Shanower's graphic novels of Oz were bring produced. The four novels were reissued in a single volume, Adventures in Oz, in 2006 and are very enjoyable.

This is a small drawing, but nicely detailed - I like the decoration of hearts on the hem of Glinda's dress.

Scraps...

Here she is - after a week of evenings spent figuring, sewing and experimenting, I finished my Patchwork Girl. She is approximately 20" tall, and has a lot of personality - she can be demure and well behaved, or wild and stick her tongue out, in typical Scraps fashion. She has her button eyes (pearl rather than silver), pearl teeth, and golden ears; I didn't quite get to golden fingernails. She can even stand on her own two feet - occasionally!

My aim was to come up with something that would look appropriately old. Years ago, I used to explore making puppets and marionettes and this wasn't much different.

It was an interesting project - After being inspired by a handful of vintage patchwork squares, I quickly learned that my quilt squares were extremely delicate and fragile - patches would disintegrate if not handled carefully. This didn't bother me too much, aside from the difficulties of working with the fabric. My goal was to end up with something that looked like it might have been around for seventy some years, so a few perished patches fit right in. However, if anyone were attempting this for an actual doll, I strongly recommend using new fabric!

A Patchwork Girl?

This past weekend was the last of the large antique/flea markets at the local State Fairgrounds. As usual, I took a wander through to see if there were any wonderful finds to be made. I saw a few Oz related items, but what I ended up buying were several small vintage patchwork quilt segments.

Back in February 2008, Antique Doll Magazine featured an interesting article on Patchwork Girl dolls. These appear to have generally been homemade items, and several photos were included of various dolls. So - having run across the raw material, I think I need to make a Patchwork Girl! I'm a fairly crafty person, so I think I can manage it. The fabrics are in somewhat rough shape, but I think that will add to the vintage quality. We'll see how it turns out, and I'll post it here.

Pop-Up!

Here's another book that was a favorite of mine as a kid. I think this was the first version of The Wizard of Oz with actual pop-ups - the Julian Wehr edition had movement, but nothing actually rose from the page. I remember running across this book in a grocery store as a kid, and asking my mother to buy it. It's a simple but surprisingly faithful adaptation of the story, and includes a lot of proper details - silver shoes, separate visits to the wizard, etc. This was part of a series of pop-up books published by Random House, but I've never tried tracking down any other titles - I believe Pinocchio was one.

The book was published in 1968, and the artwork is very original with a strong 60's flair. I particularly like the bird's eye view of the cyclone lifting Dorothy's house - a clever idea. Of course, Kansas looks far more colorful than the bleak grey state describe in the story!

In 2000, Robert Sabuda created an extravagant pop up version of The Wizard of Oz, with images that literally burst from the pages. I still have a sneaking preference for this earlier, simpler 1960's version - probably because I had it as a child. However, Sabuda was clearly influenced by this edition, particularly in his Emerald City pop-up. He included green glasses, so that a secret message can be read - just as this book did!

Moveable Oz

In 1944, the first moveable Oz book was created by Julian Wehr, who designed a number of moveable books with clever paper engineering. The Wizard of Oz was not a pop-up book, but the six animations are subtle and effective. Sliding a tab from left to right creates movement in the image. In the example I've shown, I particularly like Toto's sudden appearance!

The Wehr family has started to reissue a couple of Julian Wehr's books - maybe this title will become available again. Their website is www.wehranimations.com

Psychedelic Oz

Here's another childhood relic. This album of The Wizard of Oz, by Tale Spinners for Children, is from sometime around 1969. I've always found this cover design intriguing, because the image really put a 1960's spin on the characters. Dorothy looks like Goldie Hawn in a mini-dress, and the strange proportions of the characters make the whole thing feel very psychedelic! The back of the album cover advertises a number of other story records, but none have the sophisticated cover art of The Wizard of Oz.

Merry Go Round in Oz

Merry Go Round in Oz, published in 1963, was the last of the Oz books published by Reilly & Lee, and the only one published in my lifetime - although I was too young to know anything about it! This was written by the mother and daughter team of Eloise and Lauren McGraw, and illustrated by Dick Martin - his first full length Oz book. In 1989, Dick Martin designed a new cover for the first reprint edition of this book.

By this point in the series, the variety of authors and illustrators involved in creating the books makes the late sequels feel a good deal less cohesive to me. I'll admit to preferring the earlier books, but it's still amazing to see what a long run the original book inspired. This title is the end of the forty book "Oz Canon", the run of books considered by many to be the Oz series. Quite a few titles have been written since, although relatively few have had widespread distribution.

The International Wizard of Oz Club published a second Oz book by the McGraws in 1980, titled The Forbidden Fountain of Oz, again with illustrations by Dick Martin. In 2001, Hungry Tiger Press published The Rundlestone of Oz, which was Eloise McGraw's last book. This was illustrated by Eric Shanower.

A Neill Miscellany

Here are a couple odds & ends by John R. Neill. The Girl Graduate was published by Reilly & Britton and intended to be used as a school scrapbook. It's not an uncommon book, but this is the only copy I've run across with the Neill cover. This is taken from a finished watercolor, and is the only illustration he provided for this book. The other copies I've seen are of a later edition with a totally different cover design.

Bob Thorpe, Sky Fighter in the Lafayette Flying Corps is an adventure tale of World War I, with a cover, a couple full page illustrations and a number of small spot drawings by Neill. This was published by Harcourt Brace and Howe in 1919, and seems to be a bit difficult to find - at any rate, I haven't seen very many copies listed.


Another book with a number of illustrations by John R. Neill is From Pillar to Post, by John Kendrick Bangs, and published by The Century Co. Bangs was an author and humorist who traveled extensively on a lecture circuit in the early 1900s. In this book from 1916, he tells a number of stories and what might be called human interest pieces concerning his travels. The stories in the book were originally published as magazine articles.

Neill provided 30 small spot illustrations within the text, but not in his fantasy style. There is one drawing that I particularly like that is a bit more fantastic, with people pressed in books.

The cover and jacket for this book were designed by the Decorative Designers, the same company that designed the floral borders on the Aunt Jane's Nieces series, and Sam Steele covers. I always enjoy finding connections of that sort.

Neill Illustration

Here's another piece of original art by John R. Neill. This is an intriguing drawing, apparently of some sort of domestic quarrel. The woman's unusual outfit is quite a contrast to the man's sober suit - I particularly like her checkered cap!

The technique is interesting, as it is done in pencil and ink on coquille board. Coquille board is an illustration board with a pebbled surface, used by illustrators to create halftones in their artwork for reproduction. I've posted a close up on the right to show the effect. I'm not familiar with many Neill drawings done this way.

I haven't been quite able to decide whether this is actually a finished drawing or not. The areas that are inked have been very carefully selected, to accent the overall image. There are no indications to show that it was ever published.

Swans

John R. Neill drew several strikingly similar illustrations of swans in flight. I mentioned in some earlier comments that the frontispiece color plate for Andersen's Fairy Tales featured wild swans, from the story of that name. This was one of three finished watercolors for the book, and this book is one of the few to use finished paintings by Neill.



This image makes me think of the drawing of Glinda flying in her swan chariot, from The Lost Princess of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. This was drawn about five years before the Wild Swans. The swirl of the flying swans in the air is very similar in both pieces.




Another lovely watercolor is the painting created for the endpapers of Peter and the Princess. Here again we see a swirling group of swans, this time landing in a lake. The original of this piece is being auctioned Sept. 17th by Bloomsbury Auction House, as part of the Fred Meyer collection.

Another Oz piece, this time with a single swan, is the drawing of the diamond swan, from Glinda of Oz - the diamond studded bird is the result of a spell on a character in the book. I always thought it might be interesting for Glinda to adopt this swan as the leader of her pack - unfortunately, the swan is so vain it would probably never agree to such work.

Rachel Cosgrove

By the time Hidden Valley of Oz was published in 1951, the Oz books had been around for 50 years. This title introduced both a new Oz author, Rachel Cosgrove, and a new illustrator, Dirk Gringhuis.












I can't say I'm fond of Dirk's illustrations - for me, they lack the fanciful charm that was always present in the work of John R. Neill, even on his off days. They do give the book a very contemporary 1950's feeling, and this was the start of a time period when Reilly & Lee made several attempts to update the Oz books, with new covers and new illustrations. Eventually, they reverted to the originals.

For many years this was the only Oz book published by Rachel Cosgrove, but in 1993 the International Wizard of Oz Club published her second Oz title, The Wicked Witch of Oz. This was illustrated by Eric Shanower. Hungry Tiger Press has also published several short Oz pieces by Cosgrove.

Ozma/Sleeping Beauty

Sometime in 1907-1908, John R. Neill drew a set of illustrations for Sleeping Beauty for the Children's Stories That Never Grow Old series. These were originally published in the Philadelphia North American newspaper, and later as individual story books.

I find it interesting that the images of the Princess are clearly influenced by Neill's illustrations of Princess Ozma from the Oz series. The poppies in the hair, practically a trademark characteristic of Ozma, are present and make sense in this case. Poppies have long been associated with sleep and death, and the soporific power of the poppies tie in well with the 100 years sleep. In Greek mythology, Hypnos and Thanatos are twin brothers representing sleep and death - they are often pictured in conjunction with poppies. And L. Frank Baum made memorable use of this symbolism with the deadly poppy field in the first Oz book.

Neill placed poppies in Ozma's hair in his first illustrations of her, in The Marvelous Land of Oz, and continued to use them throughout the series. I wonder if his idea was to represent a reminder of her years under enchantment - either as years asleep, or dead to the world?