In 1891, a man named Lyman Frank Baum moved his family to Chicago. He didn’t like his first name, Lyman, so everyone called him Frank. Frank Baum had already tried many jobs. He had raised chickens, acted in plays, and sold oil. In Chicago, he worked as a traveling salesman. At home, he made up stories for his four sons.
In 1893, the World’s Fair came to Chicago. Its huge white buildings were called the White City, and they amazed millions of visitors. Many people believe the fair helped Baum imagine a shining city of his own. Later, Baum explained how he named his magic land. He said he looked over at his file cabinet, and one drawer was labeled “O–Z.” Nobody knows if that story is completely true, but it’s a fun one.
On September 1, 1900, a Chicago company published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Baum’s friend W. W. Denslow drew the colorful pictures. In the book, a cyclone picks up a farmhouse in Kansas with a girl named Dorothy and her little dog, Toto, inside. Dorothy soon finds herself in a strange land. On her way to the Emerald City, she meets the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion. Each of them hopes the great Wizard will help him.
The book is different from the famous movie in many ways. In the book, Dorothy’s magic shoes are silver, not red. In the Emerald City, everyone has to wear green glasses, so the city looks even greener. The Wizard appears to each visitor in a different form: a giant head, a beautiful lady, a terrible beast, and a ball of fire. And in the book, Oz is a real place, not a dream. On Dorothy’s trip home, the silver shoes fall off, and they are lost forever in the desert.
The book was a big success, and in 1902 it became a stage musical. Readers wanted more, so Baum wrote 13 more Oz books, 14 in all. In 1910 he got tired of Oz and tried to end the series. But he had money problems, and he went back to writing about Oz. Frank Baum died in May 1919, twenty years before the most famous version of his story came out.
In 1938, the MGM studio in Hollywood decided to make a big color movie of the book. Disney’s cartoon Snow White had just been a huge success, and MGM wanted a hit of its own. The studio considered the child star Shirley Temple for Dorothy, but the part went to 16-year-old Judy Garland. Filming began on October 13, 1938. Several directors worked on the movie. The first one was replaced after about two weeks. Then George Cukor helped for a short time and changed Judy’s makeup and costume. Victor Fleming directed most of the movie, and King Vidor filmed the Kansas scenes, including the song “Over the Rainbow.” But only Fleming’s name appears on the screen.
Making the movie was hard, and sometimes it was dangerous. Buddy Ebsen was the first Tin Man, but the silver aluminum powder in his makeup made him very sick. He had to go to the hospital, and Jack Haley took over the role. You can still hear Ebsen’s voice in some of the songs. Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch of the West, was badly burned when the fire for her exit from Munchkinland started too early. She needed about three months to get well. Bert Lahr, the Cowardly Lion, wore a costume made of real lion fur. He couldn’t eat normal meals in his costume and makeup, so he lived on soup and milkshakes during breaks.
The movie has many surprising little secrets. The Tin Man’s “oil” was really chocolate syrup. The “horse of a different color” was a white horse colored with Jell-O powder. The snow in the poppy field was made from a white mineral called gypsum. Toto was played by a female Cairn terrier named Terry. She earned $125 a week, which was more than some of the Munchkin actors were paid. After the movie, her owner changed her name to Toto. And why did the silver shoes turn red? The screenwriter, Noel Langley, changed them, and people say red looked better in the new Technicolor. Viewers often ask themselves how many pairs of ruby slippers there were. Four real pairs are known today. If you visit the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C., you can see a pair for yourself.
Studio bosses almost cut out “Over the Rainbow.” They thought it was too long and too grown-up for children, and they didn’t know whether children would like it. The producer and the director fought to keep it, and the song won an Oscar. Judy Garland received a special small Oscar for young performers. The movie opened in August 1939, and Baum’s widow, Maud, went to the premiere. But the movie cost about $2.8 million to make, and at first it lost money.
The story didn’t end there. When MGM brought the movie back to theaters in 1949, it finally earned back what it cost. Then, on November 3, 1956, CBS showed it on television for the first time. Starting in 1959, it was on TV every year, and families gathered in their living rooms to watch it together. The Library of Congress calls it the most-seen movie in history. Oz has been a part of children’s lives for more than 120 years.
Chicago still remembers Frank Baum. In Oz Park, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, there are statues of the Tin Man and of Dorothy and Toto. People who live nearby walk past them every day. If you go to Oz Park, look for the Tin Man. If you could step into the Land of Oz, which character would you want to meet?