Oz: 100+ years of movie magic - U-T San Diego

"Oz, the Great and Powerful" is just the latest and costliest interpretation on film of the land over the rainbow.

L. Frank Baum, the author of the 1900 book that started it all, discovered trick photography on a trip abroad in 1908 and developed a show of slides and stop-action animation covering scenes from the first four of his 14 Oz books. He took "The Fairlogue and Radio-Plays" on the road, complete with orchestra, and played the Midwest and East before closing just before Christmas in New York City.

The effort was a financial failure and as a result, Baum turned over his film rights to film pioneer William Nicholas Selig, who produced four silent one-reelers in 1910.

By then, Baum had moved his family to Hollywood, and while writing more Oz books, he founded the Oz Film Manufacturing Co. with friends from the Los Angeles Athletic Club. They underwrote "His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz" in 1914 and several live-action movies.

"These were big lavish productions, far above the usual 'flickers' of the period, each with an original score composed by (Louis F.) Gottschalk," says Michael Patrick Hearn in "The Annotated Wizard of Oz." But they were flops, as well, and the Oz studio was sold to Universal. Baum died in 1919.

Read the UT's review of the new movie and about San Diego's Oz connections.

In 1925 one of Baum's sons tried his hand at Oz-movie making in a silent picture treatment of "The Wizard" starring Oliver Hardy as the Tin Woodman.

"It was a dreary hodgepodge of chases and slapstick, totally lacking the magic of Baum's book," Hearn said.

After a few minor cartoons (and a run at the franchise by Walt Disney) came the 1939 MGM classic, the treatment that set in many people's minds the look, feel and story arc of Oz.

At $2 million, it was MGM's most expensive film to date. It had sound, color, "Over the Rainbow" and memorable lines that land on "Jeopardy." It didn't make a profit on its first release but in subsequent showings, annual TV screenings and on videotape, DVD and Blu-ray, it's become a cinematic classic, the most watched movie of all time, according to the Library of Congress.

Still, other producers saw pay dirt down the Yellow Brick Road and followed up with cartoons, spinoffs, TV pilots and mini-series and big Hollywood productions.

"The Wiz" in 1978 was an adaptation of the Broadway all-black urban musical of 1975. Diana Ross was Dorothy, Michael Jackson, the Scarecrow. "Return to Oz" in 1985 was a Disney sequel, based on Baum's second and third books, "The Marvelous Land of Oz" and "Ozma of Oz." Neither movie hit pay dirt.

Since the MGM version is still under copyright, Disney and other movie makers have to steer clear of such iconic inventions as the ruby slippers (they were silver in Baum's book) and Glinda in her pink traveling bubble (the new Disney take is a transparent bubble).

You won't hear reprises of "Over the Rainbow," Judy Garland's signature song. Mariah Carey brings us "Almost Home" and composer Danny Elfman offers, "The Munchkin Welcome Song."

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