http://thewizardofoz.info/w/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Jaredofmo&feedformat=atomOzWiki - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T11:40:52ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.39.3http://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Dramatic_presentations_of_Oz&diff=5295Dramatic presentations of Oz2013-07-21T06:02:18Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* Was there ever an Oz radio show? */ Some clarifications and a fixed link. (A few other faulty ones remain.)</p>
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<div>[A word here about video formats: All references to home video in this section, unless otherwise noted, refer to what's been released in North America on the NTSC VHS format, and Region 1 (United States and Canada) DVDs and Region A Blu-Ray discs in NTSC. Outside of the United States and Canada, you will probably have to do some looking on your own. I'd love to include anything you find out in future editions of this FAQ, so please write me if you have information.]<br />
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==Was ''The Wizard of Oz'' or any other Oz story ever performed as a play?==<br />
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Most certainly! In fact, almost as soon as it was published, there was talk of turning it into a play. Under the guidance of stage manager Julian Mitchell, ''The Wizard of Oz'' debuted in Chicago in 1902, and a year later it was playing on Broadway, where it racked up one of the longest runs of its day. Touring productions of the play were on the road as late as 1909, and regional theaters were putting it on as late as 1918, possibly even later. Its original stars, Fred Stone and David Montgomery, who played the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, went on to become successes in other shows. Despite bearing little resemblance to the book — Dorothy's pet dog Toto became her pet cow Imogene, for instance, other characters were added, there was no Wicked Witch of the West, the Lion's part was greatly reduced and he couldn't talk, and many musical numbers that had nothing to do with the plot were thrown in — it was a great success which Baum tried to duplicate twice. His first attempt was ''The Woggle-Bug'' in 1905, a dramatization of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'', which "failed to woggle," as one observer put it. The critics said it was too similar to ''The Wizard of Oz'', but not as good, and it failed to draw an audience. It only played a few weeks in Milwaukee and Chicago. In 1913, Baum tried again with a dramatization of the third Oz book, ''Ozma of Oz'', but he made enough changes to make an entirely new story called ''The Tik-Tok Man of Oz''. Although successful in its Los Angeles and Chicago runs, it never made it to Broadway, and so Baum used the story instead as the basis for his next Oz book, where it became ''Tik-Tok of Oz''.<br />
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With the exception of the 1928 Jean Gros marionette show ''The Magical Land of Oz'', which was an adaptation of ''Ozma of Oz'' written by Ruth Plumly Thompson, and the Junior League adaptations of several Oz books in the 1920s and 1930s, for the most part that was it for Oz stage shows for some time. The success of The Movie, however, changed that, and in the 1940s the St. Louis Light Opera put on a version of ''The Wizard of Oz'', adapted by Frank Gabrielson and with songs from The Movie. It was successful enough that other regional theaters put it on as well, and are continuing to do so to this day.<br />
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In 1974, producer Ken Harper put on a new staging of ''The Wizard of Oz'' with all new music and an African-American cast. The storyline of ''The Wiz'' stayed fairly close to the original book, and after out-of-town tryouts, it opened on Broadway in 1975, where it picked up seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Director of a Musical. It has been revived, performed in community theaters, and loosely adapted into a movie.<br />
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Since then, most of the major stage productions have been tied in with The Movie. A lavish arena show toured much of North America in 1989, and in 1995 a one-time show, ''The Wizard of Oz in Concert'', emphasizing the music, was presented in New York City with an all-star cast to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. The latter was recorded and broadcast on American cable channel TNT, and has been released on videotape and reshown on PBS stations and VH1. In Great Britain, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged ''The Wizard of Oz'', a closer adaptation of The Movie than the St. Louis Light Opera show, for several Christmas seasons beginning in the 1980s, and this version has now been performed around the world, and is available for companies to put on. ''The Wizard of Oz on Ice'' toured a number of North American cities in the 1990s, and there were also Oz productions in many earlier editions of the Ice Follies and Ice Capades. And a major production, produced by Madison Square Garden and featuring Mickey Rooney as the Wizard, toured throughout the United States and Canada.<br />
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In 2003, a new show opened on Broadway after a successful tryout that summer in San Francisco. ''Wicked'', based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, is the story of what happened in Oz before Dorothy dropped in, and focuses on the relationship between Glinda the Good and Elphaba, who became the Wicked Witch of the West. It opened to mixed reviews, but the audiences were enthusiastic, and ''Wicked'' went on to become one of the biggest recent success stories on Broadway. It won many awards, including one for Best Actress in a Musical for Idina Menzel, who played Elphaba. Also, the cast album won a Grammy. As of October 2010, there are ''Wicked'' companies on Broadway, the West End in London, Tokyo, Oberhausen (Germany), two North American touring companies, and one company touring Australia. New productions are also open or in the works in Denmark and Finland.<br />
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Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber, after the success of his previous talent hunt shows on the BBC, was the guiding force behind ''Over the Rainbow'' in 2010. The goal of the show was to find an actress to play Dorothy in a new West End production, which opened in early 2011. The winner was Danielle Hope, and the runner up, Sophie Evans, is Hope's understudy. Michael Crawford plays the Wizard. Sir Andrew and Tim Rice wrote new songs to add to the show, but the show is based on the famous MGM movie version of the story, and includes the original songs as well. You can find out more about this show at http://www.wizardofozthemusical.com/.<br />
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There have also been several school, community, and children's theater stage productions of not only ''The Wizard of Oz'', but also ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', ''The Yellow Knight of Oz'', ''Merry Go Round in Oz'', and probably other books as well, over the years, as well as the Oz-themed novel ''Was'' and new Oz stories written especially for the stage. Some of Baum's non-Oz books have also been adapted for the stage, including ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' and ''Dot and Tot of Merryland''. ''Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda'' (see the question [[#What.27s_this_I_hear_about_a_different_Oz_series_in_Russia.3F|What's this I hear about a different Oz series in Russia?]]) has also been performed on stage in Russia.<br />
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==Our school/local community theater group wants to put on ''The Wizard of Oz''. Where can we get a script and the rights to do it?==<br />
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The current source for the amateur stage rights of The Movie is Tams-Witmark. You must go through Tams-Witmark and pay their royalties if you want to use the music from The Movie, even if you don't use their script. They have two different versions, one based on the 1940s St. Louis show (http://www.tamswitmark.com/musicals/wizard.html), one based on the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation (http://www.tamswitmark.com/musicals/wizardrsc.html), and one designed for younger performers (http://tamswitmark.com/musicals/wizardype.html). They can be reached on the WWW at http://www.tamswitmark.com. Music Theatre International also has a musical version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' available to theater companies, but the music is not that from The Movie. They are on the WWW at http://www.mtishows.com/default.asp, and they have a web page about their version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' at http://www.mtishowspace.com/mod/shows/mtishow.php?showid=000028. Another version is available through Classics on Stage (http://www.classicsonstage.com/scriptswizardofoz.html), and Pioneer Drama Services (http://www.pioneerdrama.com/) has five (!) different versions available. Yet another version (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/4326 — this is the non-musical Junior League version from the 1920s — along with ''The Wiz'' (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/2772) is available through Samuel French (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/). Still more versions of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and other Oz scripts can be found at Dramatic Publishing (http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/). A number of scripts for ''The Wizard of Oz'' and other Oz shows are available for sale through (TMOHH) the WWOOW's bookshop, aisle 10 (http://thewizardofoz.info/aisle10.html), and these generally contain performance and royalty information. If you are willing to forego the famous songs from The Movie, the story itself is in public domain, so you can always write your own script, as long as it's not a direct rip-off of The Movie or any other script. ''Wicked'' is not yet available for local productions, and likely won't be for some time. And no, there's no readily-available version of the 1902 stage play, either, and I don't know why.<br />
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==How can we make sets, costumes, and so forth for our production of ''The Wizard of Oz''?==<br />
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That's a very big, long question, and difficult to answer in a document of this type. Let's just say that it all depends on your performance area, budget, available materials, what crafts people you have available and what they can do, and what the director wants. You'd be better off looking for information on stagecraft rather than trying to get answers here. Some Oz-specific suggestions can be found, however, at http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/stagethewizard.html. Some sketches, plans, and scene designs used by the St. Louis Municipal Light Opera are available at http://www.trinity.edu/sgilliam/sd/oz.html and http://www.angelfire.com/tx/SLGDESIGN/oz.html. Moonstruck Dramatic Books has pages on their site devoted to both ''The Wizard of Oz'' (http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm6.htm) and ''The Wiz'' (http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm59.html). Information on Oz costumes and costume patterns can be found in the question [[Miscellaneous_questions#Where_can_I_find_Oz_costumes.3F|Where can I find Oz costumes?]]. Good lu... — er, I mean, break a leg!<br />
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==Who are Gloria, Lord Growley, and Tibia? I don't remember them from The Movie. What can you tell me about them?==<br />
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All three are new characters created for the St. Louis Light Opera's script for ''The Wizard of Oz''. Lord Growley is the prime minister of the Emerald City. He serves the same role in that show as the Soldier with the Green Whiskers does in the book, or many of the characters played by Frank Morgan in The Movie. Gloria is his daughter, who shows Dorothy the sights. Gloria, some of her friends, and Dorothy have a song in the show that is not from The Movie. (This Gloria is not the same character as Princess Gloria, from Baum's ''The Scarecrow of Oz''.) Tibia is a live skeleton who acts as the Wicked Witch's butler and henchman. Since none of these characters appear in The Movie or any other version or adaptation of Oz, actors playing these roles are free to interpret them in any way they care to.<br />
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==What can you tell me about ''Wicked''?==<br />
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''Wicked'' is a musical show currently playing on Broadway, and in London's West End, Japan, Australia and Southeast Asia, and the Netherlands, as well as two companies touring North America, with new productions in Finland and Denmark. It has also had a successful run in Germany. It opened on Broadway in 2003, and is still doing well, having now become the twelfth longest running show in Broadway history. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire, which is one of those Oz books that's not really written for children. ''Wicked'' tells the story of Elphaba, a young woman with green skin and a strong independent streak, how she becomes friends with Galinda (who later shortens her name to Glinda and becomes a good witch), and how she eventually becomes known as the Wicked Witch of the West. The novel is very dark, which has surprised some of the younger fans of the play when they seek it out. The play, while following the basic storyline, is lighter and appropriate for most audiences, although it is not recommended for theatergoers under the age of eight (more for the length of the show and the confusing experience of being at a big time professional show rather than content). For more details about the show, take a look at the ''Wicked'' pages on the website of the composer, Stephen Schwartz, at http://www.musicalschwartz.com/wicked.htm. There's even a ''Wicked''-specific FAQ there.<br />
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==Have there been any Oz movies?==<br />
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Oh, yes! Thanks to television, and now home video, for many people Oz ''is'' a movie, shown annually on American television and one of the most famous, beloved, and watched films of all time. Yet from the earliest days of filmmaking there have been Oz movies. In 1911 the Baums moved to a sleepy little suburb of Los Angeles called Hollywood, and Frank got caught up in the fledgling movie industry there, going so far as to organize his own film studio. Here is a partial, annotated list of Oz movies that have been made over the years:<br />
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[[File:fairylogue.jpg|frame|A scene from ''The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays''.]]<br />
* '''''The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays'''''. This was an elaborate multimedia show that toured the midwestern and eastern United States in 1908, and L. Frank Baum himself presented it. Using hand-tinted films, slides, live actors, and a full orchestra, Baum presented dramatizations of ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', and ''John Dough and the Cherub'', and a preview of his then-forthcoming new book, ''Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz''. No film from this show is known to exist, but the slides and scripts do.<br />
* '''''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''''', '''''Dorothy and the Scarecrow of Oz''''', '''''The Land of Oz''''', '''''John Dough and the Cherub'''''. When the ''Fairylogue'' ran into financial trouble, Baum assigned the film rights to some of his books to the Selig Polyscope Company, which had made the films, and as a result these one-reelers were released in 1910. These are not the Fairylogue films, but new versions. Thought lost for years, the first film turned up at the Kodak Film Archives in Rochester, New York, in the early 1990s. Clips were featured in the made-for-video documentary, ''Oz: The American Fairyland''. ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' has been shown on Turner Classic Movies, and is part of the current DVD releases of The Movie. It was also released as part of the DVD set ''More Treasures from the American Film Archives''. Nobody has found any sign of the other three films.<br />
* '''''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''''', '''''The Magic Cloak of Oz''''', '''''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'''''. These were produced by Baum's own Oz Film Company in 1914, and were not terribly successful. They were based on, respectively, ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', ''Queen Zixi of Ix'' (with its location changed from Ix to Oz), and a number of elements of Baum's other books. The latter was written up a year later as the novel ''The Scarecrow of Oz''. ''The Magic Cloak of Oz'' was released as two two-reelers in Great Britain, ''The Witch Queen'' and ''The Magic Cloak'', and the only prints currently available just give the title as ''The Magic Cloak''; while ''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'' was later released as ''The New Wizard of Oz''. The Oz Film Company also made some films based on Baum's non-Oz writings, none of which are now known to exist, although parts of ''The Last Egyptian'' were recently found. The complete Oz movies are currently available on home video and DVD in several different packages. ''The Magic Cloak of Oz'' and ''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'' are part of the first 3-DVD collector's set of The Movie, and they were joined by ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' on its 2009 release.<br />
* '''''The Wizard of Oz'''''. This 1925 release, co-written by Baum's eldest son, had a character named Dorothy living in Kansas and a house transported to Oz via cyclone, but the resemblance to the book ends there. This is a slapstick farce that served mainly as a vehicle for comedian Larry Semon, who played the Scarecrow. This film is most notable today for a set of farmhands who later become Dorothy's three friends in Oz, an idea MGM may have borrowed for The Movie; and the appearance of a young Oliver Hardy, somewhat slimmer than when he teamed up with Stan Laurel two years later. Hardy played the farmhand who disguised himself as a Tin Man. Currently available on home video and DVD, and a cleaned-up and restored version is part of current DVD release of The Movie. (This movie and the three Oz Film Company movies are all available on VHS, individually or in an attractive boxed set, from American Home Entertainment, and in a 3-DVD set from Brentwood Home Video.) There are also a few British DVDs in PAL format; one has it as part of a Laurel and Hardy collection (even though Stan Laurel wasn't in it), paired up with the movie ''Hustling for Health'', which featured Stan Laurel but not Hardy.<br />
* '''''The Wizard of Oz'''''. A 1933 cartoon short directed by Ted Eshbaugh, it was originally made in Technicolor. Unfortunately, before it hit theaters, Walt Disney signed an exclusive agreement with Technicolor, thus holding up release of Eshbaugh's short. Black and white copies eventually made it into the hands of collectors, and in the late 1980s it was finally released on home video. An excerpt was included on the 1998 DVD release of The Movie, and the whole cartoon, in color, is part of the most recent DVD releases of The Movie.<br />
* '''''The Wizard of Oz'''''. This is it, the big one, MGM's 1939 Judy Garland vehicle, the most watched movie in history. For many people, this movie ''is'' Oz. There have been so many questions, legends, rumors, half-truths, and speculations surrounding this movie that six (!) sections of this FAQ are devoted to it. Besides its annual television showings, it's been released on home video, laserdisk, and DVD in several versions, and made its Blu-Ray debut in 2009.<br />
* '''''Fantasia...3'''''. A 1966 anthology film from Spain with a segment loosely based on ''The Wizard of Oz''.<br />
* '''''The Wonderful Land of Oz'''''. A 1969 low-budget musical adaptation of Baum's second book, poor acting and poor production values let this one down. It was released on VHS and DVD (the latter paired with ''Jack and the Beanstalk'') by Something Weird in 2002, but it is no longer available in their catalog.<br />
* '''''Ayşecik ve Sihirli Cüceler Rüyalar Ülkesinde (Little Ayse and the Magic Dwarfs in the Land of Dreams'')''', a 1971 low-budget Turkish adaptation that has gained a latter-day cult following. Some have called it the worst film ever made.<br />
* '''''Journey Back to Oz'''''. Released in Europe in 1972 and North America in 1974, this was the first full-length animated Oz theatrical release, and boasted a stellar cast of voices, including Liza Minnelli as Dorothy, Mickey Rooney as the Scarecrow, and Ethel Merman as Mombi, the Wicked Witch. Although loosely based on ''The Land of Oz'', it introduced a number of its own elements, including an army of marauding green elephants. To date, probably the most successful animated Oz film, although it still leaves much to be desired. It has been released on home video, and made its DVD debut in 2006.<br />
* '''''Oz''''' (North American title: '''''Twentieth Century Oz'''''). A 1976 Australian film that transplanted the story of ''The Wizard of Oz'' to Melbourne and its environs, with the Scarecrow becoming a dim surfer, the Tin Woodman a greasy mechanic, the Lion a braggart biker, and the Wizard a rock star. It was rated "R" in the United States, so this is not a film for kids! Not available on North American home video, but it has been shown on local television in Canada, and is now available on DVD in Australia.<br />
* '''''The Wiz'''''. The 1977 movie version of the Broadway play, although Oz is transplanted to New York City, and much of what made the play a success is lost. It stars Diana Ross as a rather mature Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, and Richard Pryor as the Wiz. It is available on home video and DVD.<br />
* '''''Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oroz'''''. This 1984 Brazilian comedy features the slapstick troupe Os Trapalhões as the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion in a search for water during a drought. Children's television host Xuxa plays the Cowardly Lion's girlfriend (!).<br />
[[File:rtoz.jpg|left]]<br />
* '''''Return to Oz'''''. This 1985 film was Disney's attempt to get in on Oz. (An elaborate Oz production number, starring the Mousketeers, was shown on the ''Disneyland'' television show in the 1960s as a preview for ''The Rainbow Road to Oz'', which was never made.) Loosely based on ''The Land of Oz'' and ''Ozma of Oz'', it was too dark and gloomy for many, and critics unfamiliar with the books made unfavorable comparisons to The Movie. It has been released on home video and DVD, and been shown on the Disney Channel, the Family Channel, the Hallmark Channel, and premium movie channels on cable, and independent television stations around America.<br />
{{clear}}<br />
* '''''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''''', '''''The Marvelous Land of Oz''''', '''''Ozma of Oz''''', '''''The Emerald City of Oz'''''. These animated films, made by Cinar Films Inc. in Canada in 1987, were released direct to videotape and DVD in North America, but were shown in theaters in several other countries around the world. These were edited compilations of the TV series (see the question [[#Has_there_ever_been_an_Oz_TV_show.3F|Has there ever been an Oz TV show?]] below), but they've also been shown by themselves on cable.<br />
* '''''Oz the Great and Powerful''''' (2013) a big budget tale of how circus illusionist Oscar Diggs, the future Wizard of Oz (James Franco) arrives in Oz and encounters the attractive witches Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz), and Glinda (Michelle Williams) who lead him into intrigue and warfare for the rule of the Emerald City.<br />
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Oz and Ozian themes have also been a part of other films, most notably ''Zardoz'', ''Wild at Heart'', and ''Under the Rainbow'', a poor Chevy Chase comedy about Nazi spies infiltrating Hollywood during the filming of The Movie. Oz jokes and references, usually referring to The Movie, often pop up in other films, such as ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'' ''Batman'' (1989), ''Kentucky Fried Movie'', ''Top Secret'', and ''One True Thing'', to name but a few. Costumed Oz characters appear in a department store during the Christmas season in ''A Christmas Story''. And if you look carefully, you can see Oz books in ''Rambling Rose'', ''You've Got Mail'', and perhaps other movies. Clips from The Movie itself appear in ''Jumanji'' and ''Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'', and probably others. One character in ''Girl, Interrupted'' is an Oz fan and collector.<br />
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With the wide array of video sharing sites, a number of fan made or independent short Oz films are available online, including full length CGI versions of ''The Tin Woodman of Oz'' and ''The Scarecrow of Oz''. (Due to the changing nature of these sites, a list may become obsolete.) Some independent studios are even attempting their own Oz feature films.<br />
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==Why doesn't Hollywood make more Oz movies?==<br />
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In a nutshell, it's already been done. The Movie is so well known that studio executives are generally reluctant to even consider another movie based on the Oz books. The generally poor reception of ''The Wiz'' and ''Return to Oz'' only adds to the perception. Plus, Oz just doesn't seem to fit into the current Hollywood movie-making climate, which expects lots of aliens, laser battles, car chases, and the like for a movie — at least one that would cost as much as a live-action Oz film — to be even considered for production. However, with the arrival of ''Oz the Great and Powerful'' that may change soon, depending on the box office results. Keep reading...<br />
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==I've heard about a new Oz movie being made. What can you tell me about it?==<br />
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It looks as if enough time has passed since ''The Wiz'' and ''Return to Oz'' for Hollywood to think about Oz movies again and the film ''Oz the Great and Powerful'' is the result (see above). Also, ''Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return'' (originally titled ''Dorothy of Oz'') is scheduled to be released in 2014. This 3D computer-animated musical film is based on the 1989 book ''Dorothy of Oz'' by Roger Stanton Baum.<br />
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Over the past fifteen years, several potential Oz movies have been rumored to be in the works. One was entitled ''Somewhere'', and was to feature Elizabeth Taylor playing Dorothy, now a grandmother, returning to Oz. Another project, overseen by Drew Barrymore, was called ''Surrender, Dorothy'', and would feature Barrymore playing Dorothy's great-granddaughter, who went to Oz and faces the Wicked Witch's granddaughter. And ''Pamela West'' has been mentioned, which would make the Witch the heroine and Dorothy the evil interloper. One may note that at least some of these projects appeared to be sequels to The Movie, rather than based on the books or any other version of Oz. John Boorman's CGI animated version of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' had some test footage done, but ran out of funding. It must be emphasized that, as of this writing (March, 2013), none of these films has actually gone before the cameras, and it appears unlikely that any of them will be made, unless ''Oz the Great and Powerful'' leads someone to revive them at the studios. <br />
Also in the works are a small independent adaptation, ''L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', for which much of the principal photography has already been completed. and ''Legend of Oz'', a contemporary modern update of the story (its website is at http://valleywind.com/legendofoz/). You'll just have to keep watching your local movie listings to see if any Oz movies get made and come to your local theater. For all the latest rumors and updates on Oz movie productions, keep an eye on http://thewizardofoz.info/oznews.html#rumors.<br />
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==I want to make my own Oz movie. What do I need to do?==<br />
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Wow, you ''are'' ambitious! Unlike writing a book, making a movie is a collaborative process that, to do right, involves dozens, if not hundreds of people. (Just count the number of names in the closing credits of any current movie and you get the idea.) It also takes money. Even low budget indie movies need producers to supply the funds. And then there's the whole game of Hollywood politics. My advice — as a non-filmmaker, you understand — is to go to film school and get yourself established in the industry. Seriously, that's what it's going to take. There is, at least, some Oz-themed help for you now, in the book [[Special:BookSources/144050640X|''Screenwriting in The Land of Oz: The Wizard on Writing, Living, and Making It In Hollywood'' by Richard Krevolin]]. And no, you can't just write a screenplay, either, and have it automatically seen by the suits. Again, you have to be established before they'll even see you. (Yes, it's a paradox, but that's how it works.)<br />
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==Hey, am I missing a scene in the 1914 silent version of ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''? Where is it? What happens in it?==<br />
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Yes, you are missing a key scene in ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' — but so is everyone else, as it's missing from the only known original print. Early film stock was fragile, and could rot or fall apart if not properly cared for, which was the case with the first reel of ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''. You can see the damage creep in as a white blob on the right hand side of the screen, and it progressively gets worse and worse as the reel keeps going. Finally, the key scene of the Patchwork Girl coming to life, and Unk Nunkie, Margolotte, and Danx turning to stone when the Liquid of Petrification falls on them is so badly damaged that I have never seen it intact in any film print or video or DVD release. Oz and silent movie fans around the world would be extremely happy if another, intact copy of the first reel was to ever turn up.<br />
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==I hear there's a big scene with lots of other Oz characters in ''Return to Oz''. Where is it, and who's in it?==<br />
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Right at the end of the 1985 Disney movie, once the Emerald City has been restored, there is a joyous celebration that leads up to Ozma's liberation and Dorothy returning home. The makers of ''Return to Oz'' paid homage to the Oz stories by slipping in many, many characters from the books into the crowds in these scenes, all based on the original Denslow and Neill illustrations. Sharp-eyed viewers can find the Guardian of the Gates, the Shaggy Man, the Patchwork Girl, Polychrome, the Bumpy Man, the Braided Man, Tommy Kwikstep, the Frogman, Rinkitink, and probably a few others as well. And by the way, those short people with the fur hats? Those are the Munchkins, sporting a new design for this film.<br />
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==Will there ever be a film version of ''Wicked''?==<br />
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It's difficult to predict, as Hollywood is fickle. If some executive were to approve a film version of ''Wicked'', there's no guarantee that another executive wouldn't come in, take his place, and cancel it. There are no current firm plans for a film version of ''Wicked'', but one of the producers of the show is Universal Pictures, and musicals are becoming big at the movies again. So it's not only possible, but likely that there will be a film version. When, however, I couldn't even begin to tell you. It will probably be some time still, so that the play can run its course on tour and around the world. If anything concrete comes up, I'll put it up on WWOOW's news page (http://thewizardofoz.info/oznews.html), and update this answer as soon as I can.<br />
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==Was there ever a movie called ''The Wizard of Oz 2''?==<br />
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Not by that name, no. But there have been several sequels to ''The Wizard of Oz'' made as movies, or released direct to video. The one most people seem to be thinking of, however, when they ask me this question is the 1985 Disney movie ''Return to Oz''. See the question [[#Have_there_been_any_Oz_movies.3F|Have there been any Oz movies?]] for more details on Oz movies.<br />
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==Was there ever an Oz radio show?==<br />
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Yes. Back in 1933, Jell-O sponsored a fifteen minute ''Wizard of Oz'' radio show on NBC's red network, which was broadcast Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons. It ran for six months, but then Jell-O decided to switch their sponsorship to Jack Benny instead, so that was it for Oz. The series pretty much followed the books, getting as far as ''The Emerald City of Oz'', with some allowances made for radio, and lots of songs and advertisements for Jell-O thrown in. No episodes of this series are known to survive, but NBC's archives still hold the scripts.<br />
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Also, there exists two episodes of an adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' from the same era, broadcast on CBS, but nobody's been able to find out any more about them.<br />
<br />
More recently, the BBC produced its own version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' for British radio in the 1990s. This is currently available in Great Britain and North America in a two CD set or audio download from the BBC Radio Collection. A second BBC adaptation was played on BBC Radio and the bbc.co.uk website during the 2009 holiday season.<br />
<br />
During the holiday season in 2000, many public radio stations in the United States broadcast a new radio adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' with an all-star cast, including Michelle Trachtenberg as Dorothy, Harry Anderson as the Wizard, Rene Auberjonois as the Scarecrow, Nestor Serrano as the Tin Woodman, and Robert Guillaume as the Cowardly Lion. This production is available as a four-CD set from LodesTone Audio Theatre, http://www.lodestone-media.com/wizard.html, and other outlets.<br />
<br />
Mention should also be made here of the Colonial Radio Theatre's audio adaptations of the first five Oz books. Although they were not initially broadcast on radio, they were originally presented, on ten audio cassettes, as if they were. You can hear some samples at http://www.colonialradio.com/HTML/titles/oz_series.html. They have since been re-edited and broadcast on Sirius XM Radio's now defunct Book Radio. These are also available on CD and audio download at audible.com, and as of 2012, more books will be dramatized.<br />
<br />
Two Oz-related episodes of radio shows also need to be mentioned here. An installment of the ''Maxwell House Good News'' show broadcast in June of 1939 was devoted to a sneak peek at The Movie, which was due to be released later that summer. It featured Judy Garland, Frank Morgan (a regular ''Good News'' cast member), Ray Bolger, and Bert Lahr, and was the public debut of the songs from The Movie. It featured many behind-the-scenes vignettes (mostly made up for the show), a "Baby Snooks" routine where her Daddy reads the story to her, and an appearance by Fred Stone, who played the Scarecrow in the 1902 stage play. (A snippet of this show can even be heard in the opening audio montage of the science fiction movie ''Contact'', as it's one of the few examples of radio from that time period that's been preserved.) The CD version of the ''Good News'' episode includes the original commercials, and MGM's ''Wizard of Oz'' edition of ''Leo Is On the Air'', an extended radio advertisement. Both shows are also available as audio-only tracks on the current American DVD and Blu-Ray releases of The Movie.<br />
<br />
On Christmas Day, 1950, Judy Garland recreated her role as Dorothy for an adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' on ''The Lux Radio Theatre''. Garland was the only original cast member, but her then-four-year-old daughter, Liza Minnelli, makes a cameo appearance at the end. Both of these radio episodes have been released on record, audio cassette, and CD, the latter available from Radio Spirits at http://www.radiospirits.com/. The Lux Radio Theatre production is also available as part of the current DVD and Blu-Ray releases of The Movie.<br />
<br />
==Have there been talking book versions of any of the Oz books?==<br />
<br />
Yes, quite a few. Most have been adaptations of the story for very young children of ''The Wizard of Oz'', many of which are still available today. One, from Caedmon, was read by Ray Bolger, who also read adaptations of ''The Land of Oz'', ''Queen Zixi of Ix'', and some of the "Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz" comic stories. These are currently available on cassette in a boxed set as ''The Oz Audio Collection''. Another notable version came out from Columbia Records in 1969, with the entire book recorded on seven records, read by George Rose and Mildred Dunnock. More recently, Piglet Press has put out large cast readings of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''The Emerald City of Oz'' on cassette. In the 1960s, Disney put out book-and-record editions of ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Scarecrow of Oz'' (narrated by Ray Bolger), ''The Tin Woodman of Oz'', and a new story called ''The Cowardly Lion of Oz'' — not to be confused with the Ruth Plumly Thompson story of the same name, despite the claims of the album notes that it is an adaptation. And there have been many other audio adaptations of ''The Wizard of Oz'' on records, cassettes, CDs, and now CD-ROM. Gregory Maguire's novels ''Wicked'', ''Son of a Witch'', and ''A Lion Among Men'', and Stuart Kaminsky's ''Murder on the Yellow Brick Road'' have been recorded as audiobooks.<br />
<br />
A number of free audiobooks are available from [http://librivox.org Librivox], including a number of Oz and Baum books, recorded by volunteers. [http://uvulaaudio.com/kids.html Uvula Audio Books] also has a number of Baum titles available for free downloading. And in 2010, as part of the American Library Association's 2010 convention in Washington, D. C., Random House Audio set up a recording studio and let famous authors, attendees, and members of the general public each record a few lines of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' for a charity release. It's free to download [https://www.firstbook.org/site/c.lwKYJ8NVJvF/b.6201823/k.9861/Lend_Your_Voice/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?c=lwKYJ8NVJvF&b=6201823&en=atKJIXPDL9LSI7NGL8JOJ9OXJtL0LbPVLpIZL8MJJjI2IhP2F right here], but they do encourage you to donate to First Book while you're there.<br />
<br />
==Has there ever been an Oz TV show?==<br />
<br />
Yes, quite a few now. Again, here's an incomplete checklist of what's been shown:<br />
<br />
* SERIES:<br />
** ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz''. A series of 130 short (less than five minutes each) cartoons about the adventures of Socrates the Straw Man, Rusty the Tin Man, Dandy Lion, and other characters very loosely based on ''The Wizard of Oz'', with many liberties taken. Produced in 1961, these were probably shown between other cartoons on Saturday mornings or on local independent stations. They seem to have been especially widespread in Canada, as many people have written to me having seen them there. I've heard that some episodes have been released on home video, but these aren't generally available any more. Episodes have also been available on some cable system's digital "on demand" systems. You can find out a little more at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3584.<br />
** ''Off to See the Wizard''. This series was MGM's answer to ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', in that it was an anthology of old movies, short subjects, etc., from the studio's archives. The animated Oz segments were used to introduce the show and as bumpers going into commercial breaks. The animation was done by Chuck Jones, and voices included Mel Blanc, June Foray, and Daws Butler. Some samples are included on recent North American releases of The Movie on DVD and Blu-Ray. More information is available at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=2673.<br />
** ''W krainie Czarnoksiężnika Oza''. A 1980s Polish series of stop motion animated episodes based on ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and ''The Marvelous Land of Oz''. Information (in Polish) at http://www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php/425538.<br />
** ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. This 1987 animated series, made by Cinar, Inc. in Canada, was the English-language adaptation of a Japanese ''anime'' series, オズの魔法使い, (''Ozu no Mahotsukai''). It was made up of four stories: ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', and ''The Emerald City of Oz''. In the United States the fifty-two episode series has been shown on HBO and other cable channels, but only the edited movie versions have been released on VHS and DVD. It was released in its entirety, uncut, on DVD in other countries around the world. The English version is available for online viewing in a serial format at [http://www.jaroo.com/shows/about/the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz Jaroo.com] and [http://www.hulu.com/tv Hulu.com], and often shown on television on the This TV channel. The entire series, in the original Japanese as well as an additional Chinese soundtrack, is available from [http://www.yesasia.com/us/1004625527-0-0-0-en/info.html Yesasia.com].<br />
** From 1987 to 1990, Jim Henson's company produced ''Jim Henson's Mother Goose Stories'', a series of short vignettes that told the story behind several of the classic Mother Goose rhymes. A number of the stories (but not all) were based on stories written by L. Frank Baum in his first published children's book, ''Mother Goose in Prose''. Some of the stories have been released on VHS and DVD.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz''. In 1990, to capitalize on the publicity surrounding The Movie's fiftieth anniversary, Turner Entertainment Co. and DIC produced this thirteen episode animated series, based on The Movie. In the Unites States it ran on ABC Saturday mornings during the 1990-91 TV season. Some episodes have been released on VHS. Three DVD collections are currently available, meaning only two episodes have not been released on DVD. More information about the show is available at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3962.<br />
** Some time in the 1990s, Tokyo Broadcasting Service broadcast 少年サンタの大冒険 (''Shonen Santa no Daibouken''), or ''The Adventures of Young Santa Claus'', an animated adaptation of Baum's ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus''. So far, nobody has been able to track down any video or DVD release in either Japan or the United States, although the credits have been uploaded to Youtube.com. Brief information is available at http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1728.<br />
** ''La Maga y el Camino Dorado''. A 2008 series produced in Argentina for the Latin American Nickelodeon. It is the story of a young woman whose adventures parallel Dorothy's in ''The Wizard of Oz''. You can see it's website (in Spanish) at http://www.lamagatv.com/.<br />
<br />
* SPECIALS, MINISERIES, AND ONE-TIME EVENTS:<br />
** ''The Land of Oz''. This adaptation of the second Oz book was an episode of Shirley Temple's weekly 1960 NBC series, and featured Temple as Tip and Ozma, Jonathan Winters as General Nikidik, and Agnes Moorehead as Mombi. (It was this role, incidentally, that convinced the producers of the series ''Bewitched'' to cast Moorehead as Endora, Samantha's mother, on that series.) In 2005, it was released on DVD as part of a set of Shirley Temple adaptations. More information can be found at http://store.nexternal.com/shared/StoreFront/product_detail.asp?RowID=25&CS=shirley&All= .<br />
** ''Return to Oz''. The producers of ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' used many of the same characterizations for this 1964 animated TV special, shown on NBC. It has previously been released on VHS, but isn't currently generally available. It was more recently released on DVD, but this is no longer available new. You can find out more about this special, and Susan Conway, who provided the voice of Dorothy, at http://www.rankinbass.com/schome.html.<br />
** ''The Making of The Wizard of Oz''. Aljean Harmetz, author of the book of the same name, hosted this short 1979 documentary, shown on PBS in the United States, about the making of The Movie. Includes interviews with Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Margaret Hamilton, among others.<br />
** ''Thanksgiving in Oz'' (AKA ''Dorothy in the Land of Oz'', ''Christmas in Oz'', ''Dorothy and the Green Gobbler in Oz'', or just plain ''Oz''). Animated holiday special first shown in 1980. Very loosely based on ''Ozma of Oz''. It has previously been released a number of times on VHS, and on DVD in 2007 (coupled with ''Peter and the Magic Egg'' with Ray Bolger).<br />
** ''The Whimsical World of Oz''. 1985 documentary about the Oz phenomenon, partly used to publicize Disney's film ''Return to Oz'', and shown on PBS stations.<br />
** ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' (1985). Another holiday special, this one was made by Rankin-Bass and faithfully adapted from Baum's book of the same name. The animation uses stop-motion puppets, like other famous Rankin-Bass specials such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer''. It is available on VHS and DVD (the latter coupled with another old Rankin-Bass special, ''Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey''), and shown during the Christmas season on the ABC Family Channel.<br />
** ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic''. As part of The Movie's fiftieth anniversary, Angela Lansbury hosted a documentary about the history and making of The Movie, shown after the movie's TV broadcast in 1990 and 1996, and in conjunction with many of The Movie's recent cable airings. It has also been shown on its own on PBS stations, and was released on video as part of ''The Ultimate Oz'' collector's set of The Movie, and the 1999, 2005, and 2009 DVD (and Blu-Ray) reissues of The Movie. The home video version is a bit longer, featuring more material.<br />
** ''The Dreamer of Oz''. This 1990 TV movie was a biography of L. Frank Baum, starring John Ritter as Frank and Annette O'Toole as Maud. While some of the details are inaccurate, this was, overall, a faithful telling of Baum's early life and career and how he came to write ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. It was never released on VHS in the United States, but it was in Australia. It finally made its home video release in 2009 as part of the new DVD and Blu-Ray releases of The Movie that year (see the question [[#Where_can_I_find_The_Dreamer_of_Oz_on_home_video.3F|Where can I find ''The Dreamer of Oz'' on home video?]] for more details.)<br />
** ''In Search of Oz''. In 1994, the BBC's Arena documentary series produced this examination of Oz, which concentrated more on the books than most others. Shown in the United States, with a few cuts, on A&E.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz in Concert''. This 1995 concert, filmed for television, was a benefit for the Children's Defense Fund, and shown on TNT. It is available on home video, and has since been shown on VH1 and some PBS stations. Performers include Jewel as Dorothy, the Harlem Boys Choir, Joel Grey as Professor Marvel and the Wizard (predating his portrayal of the Wizard in ''Wicked'' on Broadway), Jackson Browne as the Scarecrow, Roger Daltrey as the Tin Man, Nathan Lane as the Cowardly Lion, Natalie Cole as Glinda, and Deborah Winger as the Wicked Witch of the West.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz on Ice''. This 1996 production, shown on CBS, was an abbreviated version of the touring production of the same name, with Oksana Baiul as Dorothy and Viktor Petrenko as the Scarecrow (neither of whom appeared in the touring show), and narrated by Bobby McFarrin, who does the same on tour. McFarrin also played the Wizard in this production, the only non-skater in the cast. It was released on VHS, but is no longer available.<br />
** ''Lion of Oz''. This animated movie was made by Sony in 2000, and is based on the book ''Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage'' by Roger S. Baum. It's a prequel about how the Wizard and the Lion came to Oz. It was shown on the Disney Channel and Toon Disney, and released on home video and DVD.<br />
** ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' (2000). This is a different animated version of the Baum story, produced by Sony, released on VHS, and shown on Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel.<br />
** ''Being Dorothy'', a Canadian documentary, shown on the CBC, about life in small-town America. The town they chose was Liberal, Kansas, home of the "Dorothy's House" tourist attraction, hence the Oz theme.<br />
** ''The Muppets' Wizard of Oz'' was a 2005 TV movie shown on ABC. It featured Ashanti as Dorothy, Pepe the King Prawn as Toto, Kermit the Frog as the Scarecrow, Gonzo as the Tin Thing, Fozzie as the Cowardly Lion, Miss Piggy as all four (!) witches, Jeffrey Tambor as the Wizard, and a cameo by Quentin Tarantino as himself. It was later released on video and DVD with additional footage and extras.<br />
** ''Tin Man'', the 2007 SciFi Channel miniseries, features Zooey Deschanel as DG, a Kansas waitress who turns out to be the lost princess of the O. Z., a land overrun by a wicked witch named Azkadellia. Believe it or not, this show turned out to be both a sequel and a reimagining of ''The Wizard of Oz''. It is available on DVD and Blu-Ray.<br />
** ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The True Story'', a British documentary presented on BBC Four in 2011. This was a look at the life and careers of L. Frank Baum, how he came to write ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and the Oz books, and also how they translated the work to make the famous film version.<br />
** ''The Witches of Oz'' (2011), a four-hour minseries, was first broadcast in Europe (most notably the Syfy channel in the United Kingdom), and made available on DISH Pay-Per-View and On Demand in the United States in September 2011, along with showings at select theaters. Dorothy, having forgotten about Oz, is all grown up and living in New York City, making a living as a children's book writer. But when the wicked witches come looking for her, she is forced to remember Oz and confront them. Fortunately, her old friends from Oz, the good witches, and the Wizard have come to help her. It has been released on DVD in Europe and Australia.<br />
<br />
Numerous Oz references have made their way into any number of TV series, movies, and specials, and some shows have even had special ''Wizard of Oz'' episodes, such as ''Superfriends'', ''Fame'' (which is now available to watch on [http://www.hulu.com/watch/151850/fame-not-in-kansas-anymore Hulu.com]), ''Alf Tales'', ''Beetlejuice'' (the cartoon), ''The Guiding Light'', ''That 70s Show'', ''Life with Bonnie'', [http://www.zebra.lt/lt/video/futurama-wizard-of-oz.html a segment of ''Futurama''], ''That's So Raven'', and ''Phineas and Ferb'', to name but a few. A 1970 episode of ''Death Valley Days'' entitled "The Wizard of Aberdeen" featured L. Frank Baum as a character, dramatizing an incident that took place while he was editing a newspaper in South Dakota. The soap opera ''Passions'' devoted an entire week to a ''Wizard of Oz''-themed storyline in the summer of 2002. The HBO series ''Boardwalk Empire'' featured readings from ''The Road to Oz'' in an episode of its first season. And in Russia, television versions of ''Volshebnik Izumrudnogo Goroda'' have been shown, one live-action (which may have also had a theatrical release), one stop-motion animation, and one (a Baum-Volkov hybrid) cel animation. The last mentioned film was followed by a version of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz''. The ''Wizard'' segment has been dubbed by British actors and released in the United Kingdom on DVD as ''The Haunted Journey to Oz''.<br />
<br />
==I remember an Oz cartoon, can you tell me more about it? It had a catchy theme song that started out, "They're three sad souls, Oh me, oh my..."==<br />
<br />
"No brains, no heart, He's much too shy..." Yes, I'm familiar with that song. That's the theme song for ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' (see the question [[#Has_there_ever_been_an_Oz_TV_show.3F|Has there ever been an Oz TV show?]] for more information). Despite what many people think, it's not a Canadian show, but American, produced by Rankin-Bass in the United States in the early 1960s. It just seems to have been shown in Canada a lot in the 1980s and '90s. The complete theme song lyrics are:<br />
<br />
: They're three sad souls<br />
: Oh me, oh my,<br />
: No brains, no heart,<br />
: He's much too shy.<br />
: But never mind you three,<br />
: Here's the Wizard as you can see.<br />
: He'll fix that one, two, three<br />
: In that funny place called the world of Oz.<br />
: Oh the world of Oz is a funny, funny place<br />
: Where everyone has a funny, funny face.<br />
: All the streets are paved with gold,<br />
: And no one ever grows old.<br />
: In that funny land lives the Wizard of Oz. <br />
<br />
More information about ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' can be found on the WWW at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3584. If you'd like to download the theme as a Real Media file, go to http://www.toontracker.com/realaudio/ttra60-1.htm and scroll down about a third of the way. Or you can just listen to it by going to http://www.toontracker.com/waves/waves.htm and finding the show's name on the second page.<br />
<br />
==Where can I find ''The Dreamer of Oz'' on home video?==<br />
<br />
''The Dreamer of Oz'' was available as a VHS rental in Australia, but was never released in North America. In 2009, it was finally made available as a special feature on certain editions of the 2009 DVD and Blu-Ray release of The Movie (The Ultimate Collector's Edition, the Emerald Edition, and a special 2-disc set made exclusively for Wal-Mart). It should be noted, however, that the video quality is far from pristine, and the Blu-Ray only contains a standard definition version.<br />
<br />
==Have any Oz productions been released directly to home video?==<br />
<br />
A few animated versions of ''The Wizard of Oz'', and one of ''Ozma of Oz'', have been released straight to video. These are of varying quality, from so-so to all right, with some being straight adaptations and some a little more irreverent. One of the most notable of these is a Japanese version of ''The Wizard of Oz'', which was released on home video in North America with a dubbed English soundtrack, featuring Aileen Quinn as Dorothy and Lorne Greene as the Wizard. A series, ''The Oz Kids'', was also released straight to VHS, from Paramount, although it has been shown on television in other countries. The main characters are the sons and daughters of the familiar Oz characters (Dorothy's children Dot and Ned, Scarecrow Jr., Tin Boy, and so on), but the stories are based on Baum's books, including some of his non-Oz writings. Characters from later books — or rather, their children — appear, such as Jackie Pumpkinhead, Nome Prince Otto, and the Patchwork Baby. The videos were distributed through Paramount Home Video, and the titles are ''Toto, Lost in New York'', ''The Nome Prince and the Magic Belt'', ''Virtual Oz'', ''Who Stole Santa?'' ''Christmas in Oz'', ''Journey Beneath the Sea'', ''Underground Adventure'', ''The Monkey Prince'', and ''The Return of Mombi''. The two Christmas stories were also released on DVD in Great Britain. A play was recorded and released on video, the 1981 Minneapolis Children's Theater production of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz''. Also, two documentaries were released on video in 1997, ''Oz: The American Fairyland'' and ''Charles Santore Illustrates The Wizard of Oz''. Both were produced by Leonard A. Swann and released by Sirocco Productions, Inc., which no longer appears to be in business.<br />
<br />
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<div style="text-align:center;">[http://thewizardofoz.info/wiki/Oz_FAQ Oz FAQ Index Page] • [http://thewizardofoz.info/index.html "There's no place like the home page."]</div></div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Oz_on_your_computer&diff=4395Oz on your computer2012-12-02T19:53:33Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* Have there been any Wizard of Oz video games? */</p>
<hr />
<div>==Are there any Wizard of Oz computer programs or CD-ROMs?==<br />
<br />
Quite a few. Some examples:<br />
<br />
* ''The Legends of Oz'' came out in 1993 from Multicom Publishing, and has a number of different elements: The complete text of ''The Wizard of Oz'', animated storybooks of three SillyOZbul picture books by Roger S. Baum, pictures and film clips from The Movie, a matching game, background information, and more. It does not seem to be generally available any more, but searching might turn it up.<br />
* QVision Publishing (now defunct) put out a number of CD-ROMs based on the Oz books of L. Frank Baum. Each of Baum's fourteen Oz novels was released on its own CD-ROM with the complete text, narration, and illustrations. They were sold individually or as a set, and they also sold a single CD-ROM that holds just the texts of all fourteen novels.<br />
* ''Reading Adventures in Oz'', an educational game issued by Davidson and Associates around 1993 (I have yet to locate a copy of this, but you can find out more and download a copy at http://coreduo.me.uk/index.php?id=350).<br />
* ''The Wizard of Oz Audioclips'' — sounds from The Movie — from Sound Source Unlimited around 1993.<br />
* In 2000, DK put out ''Oz: The Magical Adventure'', an edutainment game for young children in which the player guides the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion through various areas of Oz to rescue Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the West. This was followed up in 2002 with ''The Oz Interactive Storybook''.<br />
* A CD-ROM of the first edition of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' was once available from EbookCDRom. A similar CD-ROM edition of ''The Woggle-Bug Book'' was also made.<br />
<br />
==Have there been any ''Wizard of Oz'' video games?==<br />
<br />
A few.<br />
* There was an adventure game entitled ''The Wizard of Oz'', which combined elements of the first two books, for the Apple, Commodore 64, PC, and possibly other platforms in 1984. This was issued by the Telarium Corporation as part of their Windham Classics series. More information about the Telarium Corporation and their products can be found online at http://www.lysator.liu.se/adventure/Telarium_Corporation.html. ''The Wizard of Oz'' can be downloaded there for the Commodore, Apple II, PC, and Tandy computers or their emulators. You can even play it in your browser now, at http://www.virtualapple.org/wizardofozdisk.html.<br />
* A video game based on ''Return to Oz'' by US Gold was available for at least the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum. You can find out more about this game at http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0004115 and http://tacgr.emuunlim.com/downloads/filedetail.php?recid=2999.<br />
* ''Twisted'', a graphic adventure game for pre-OSX Macintosh systems, is available for download at http://www.semitech.com/marc/ray.html (you can still play it in the "Classic Mac" emulator). You may also be able to order a CD-ROM of ''Twisted'', with hints and maps, by sending $20 to Ray Dunakin, 4665 Huggins St.,San Diego, CA 92122 (but this information may be out of date).<br />
* Jack Lockerby released a text adventure based on ''The Wizard of Oz'' for the ZX Spectrum in 1995.<br />
* ''Yellow Brick Road'' is a CD-ROM adventure game, in which you control 3-D animated versions of the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion as you search for the missing Scarecrow. It was released in 1996 from Synergy, Inc. ''Yellow Brick Road 2'' has reportedly been issued, but not in English. You can see some screen grabs of the German release at http://www.thelegacy.de/Museum/55473/.<br />
* The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) had ''The Wizard of Oz'', published by SETA, which came out in 1993. <br />
* A Russian game called ''Bolshebnik Strany Oz'' or ''The Wizard of Land Oz,'' was made for the ZX Spectrum in 1996. More information is available [http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0013128 here]. Russian video games were also released based on the first two ''Magic Land'' books, [http://www.ep.com.ua/htmls/proj.php?imgdir=wizard&lang=&name=The%20Wizard%20of%20Emerald%20City ''The Wizard of the Emerald City''] and [http://www.ep.com.ua/htmls/proj.php?imgdir=urfin&lang=&name=Urfin%20Jus%20and%20his%20Wooden%20Soldiers ''Urfin Jus and His Wooden Soldiers''].<br />
* The Fuzhou Waixing Computer Science & Technology Company of China, infamous for making games using graphics from other games, produced a Wizard of Oz-inspired game for the Famicon (the Japanese Nintendo Entertainment System) entitled ''Lu Ye Xian Zong'' in 1996. More information can be found here [http://bootleggames.wikia.com/wiki/Lu_Ye_Xian_Zong here].<br />
* One of the unreleased titles by Philips Funhouse for the CD-I system was a game called ''Treasures of Oz'', apparently based on the first book. It would have featured Diana Ross as the Good Witch of the North. More information is available [http://cdii.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-cd-i-brought-philips-funhouse-and.html here].<br />
* Available for download online is Zim Greenleaf's Laboratory, based on a character in the ''Seven Blue Mountains of Oz'' trilogy by Melody Grandy (available from Tails of the Cowardly Lion and Friends). It's on the web page http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXsourceXagt.html; scroll down to the file zimlab.zip.<br />
* See the previous question for information on DK's ''Oz: The Magical Adventure'', an educational program with many game elements.<br />
* In 2002, an Oz-themed game came out from THQ featuring the Rugrats, called ''Munchin Land'', for Windows.<br />
* A new Oz-themed video game was said to be in the works from Carbon6 Entertainment, the company that developed American McGee's ''Alice'' for Electronic Arts. It has since been announced the project has been canceled.<br />
* A number of these video games, and some original creations based on other Oz and Baum books, on its download page, are available from The Royal Website of Oz at http://dorothyandozma.com/downloads.html. The original games are available for online play here: http://dorothyandozma.com/games.html. That site also has information about other Oz video games.<br />
* In 2008, the Japanese company D3 released ''RIZ-ZOAWD'' a game for the Nintendo DS that was loosely based on ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.'' It was released in English in 2009 as ''The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.''<br />
* Recently, a number of Oz games have been available for free trial play with an option to purchase the full version. These have included ''[http://www.logler.com/the_wonderful_wizard_of_oz The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]'', a ''Bejeweled''-style gem matching game, ''[http://www.playfirst.com/game/emerald-city-confidential Emerald City Confidential],'' an adventure game with a film noir slant on Oz, and another game called ''[http://www.retro64.com/the_wonderful_wizard_of_oz_game.asp The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]'', based around hidden objects.<br />
* Word has spread of a possible Oz-themed area available in the MMORG ''World of Warcraft''. (Any ''WoW'' players out there want to fill me in on the details?)<br />
* A social game for Facebook based on The Movie debuted in 2012 by Spooky Cool Labs. Players build a Munchkinland and the Yellow Brick Road while being occasionally bothered by the Wicked Witch of the West. [http://spookycool.com/games/index.html More information may be found here.]<br />
<br />
==Where can I find some ''Wizard of Oz'' clip art?==<br />
<br />
A long-term goal of mine for WWOOW is to add an Oz art gallery, including clip art. But I have no idea how soon I'll be able to do this. Until then, take a look at the WWOOW links page (see the question [[Oz_on_your_computer#Are_there_any_WWW_sites_having_to_do_with_Oz.3F|Are there any WWW sites having to do with Oz?]] below). There is one section set aside for sites with Oz art, and there may be something there that you can copy or download to suit your needs. You might also want to search online image archives or search engines (an example of the latter is http://images.google.com/). If you are interested in just The Movie, and are willing to do a little digging, Corel put out a ''Wizard of Oz'' version of its Print House Magic program, for Windows-based systems only, a few years ago. You may be able to find a used copy somewhere. The original illustrations by W. W. Denslow have finally come out on a clip art CD-ROM from Dover (ISBN 0486991466).<br />
<br />
==Where can I get ''Wizard of Oz'' screensavers or desktop accessories?==<br />
<br />
These are available on the WWW, free for downloading. A whole bunch of different Oz screensavers can be found at http://www.kfu.com/~scarlet/oz_screensavers.htm. The Hungry Tiger Press website has some non-Movie based wallpaper at http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertreats/index.shtml. If you don't find exactly what you are looking for, you may want to think about making your own Oz-themed desktop accessories, which is not as difficult as you might think — but it's also beyond the scope of this FAQ, so if you want to try this, you'll have to look for resources on desktop accessories.<br />
<br />
==How can I get in touch with other Oz fans on the Internet?==<br />
<br />
Regalia is an Oz mailing list, where members can write e-mails and they go to everyone else. For more information or to subscribe, see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/regaliaofoz/ and http://www.pauahtun.org/mailman/listinfo/regalia. Another list, hosted by author Edward Einhorn, is OzFiction at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OzFiction/. You can also find many Oz fans on message boards. One Oz message boards is hosted by IWOC at http://ozclubforums.yuku.com/directory. Some other Oz sites (see next question) also have message boards, and even chat rooms, so feel free to explore.<br />
<br />
==Are there any ''Wizard of Oz'' apps for my smartphone or tablet?==<br />
<br />
Yes, quite a few. Just go to your app store and start looking. I know, for example, that some programmers have reformatted ''The Wizard of Oz'' and other Oz books as apps. A site you may want to look at if you have an iPad or other Apple device is http://www.wizardofozapp.com/, which has a demonstration video and information about an interactive story version of ''The Wizard of Oz''.<br />
<br />
==Are there any WWW sites having to do with Oz?==<br />
<br />
Oh, yes! There are now far too many to list here, and they're being added to and removed from the WWW all the time. A very good place to start looking for Ozzy WWW sites is (TMOHH) WWOOW's links page at http://thewizardofoz.info/wiki/Oz_links. The page links to lists that add up to over three hundred links to other sites, and many of those sites have links to even more sites. Plus, some of those sites, along with WWOOW, are part of Oz webrings, allowing you to connect directly to other sites. So if you're looking for Ozzy websites, break out your browser and take a look. (Note that, while there are many sites on that links page, it is far from complete, and probably never will be. If you're looking for information on a specific Oz topic, you may want to try a search engine — or better yet, several of them — and provide as many keywords as possible.)<br />
<br />
==Is there an Oz newsgroup in Usenet?==<br />
<br />
There is. Check out alt.books.wizard-of-oz and alt.movies.wizard-of-oz. The trouble is, nobody seems to be using these groups — the few times anyone posts to them, it generally is an advertisement for something particularly non-Ozzy. Still, maybe someone will say something substantial in them some time. And there's always rec.arts.books.childrens, which many Oz fans read. If your local Internet service provider doesn't carry these newsgroups, you can access them for free through the Google Groups service at http://groups.google.com/group/alt.books.wizard-of-oz?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8, http://groups.google.com/group/alt.movies.wizard-of-oz?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8, and http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.books.childrens?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8.<br />
<br />
==Where can I find the texts of Oz books online?==<br />
<br />
Most of public domain Oz books, and many non-Oz books by Baum, have been made available to read online. Project Gutenberg is trying to get as many public domain works online as possible, and these include many books by Baum. For a list of what's available, check out the official Project Gutenberg site (http://www.gutenberg.net/) or the Online Public Library (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books), or any other site you may find by typing "Project Gutenberg" into a search engine. Several other sites have these texts as well, and some sites have other Oz and Oz-related books not published by Project Gutenberg, such as some of those on http://www.emeraldcityofoz.com/library/ and http://dorothyozma.tripod.com/library.htm. Other sites carry some books in other languages. For a list of Oz and Baum works known to be online, check the WWOOW links page (http://thewizardofoz.info/links.html).<br />
<br />
==Where can I find Wizard of Oz MIDI or other sound files on the Internet?==<br />
<br />
I know of no such resource for just Oz-related MIDIs or other sound files. Your best bet might be to use the keywords "Wizard of Oz MIDI" in your favorite search engine. Or try http://www.musicrobot.com for a search engine that specializes in MIDI and other sound files. Those looking for Oz music from the earliest Oz stage shows can find some samples, as either MIDI or MP3 files, at http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertunes/index.shtml. I also have a few sites listed on my links page — see the question [[Oz_on_your_computer#Are_there_any_WWW_sites_having_to_do_with_Oz.3F|Are there any WWW sites having to do with Oz?]].<br />
<br />
==Are there any ''Wizard of Oz'' ringtones that I can put on my cell phone?==<br />
<br />
A quick search on Google using "'Wizard of Oz' ringtones" turned up quite a few sites with ringtones from The Movie, of varying quality. Some appear to have been created by people who didn't know the music very well, as the ringtones placed the emphasis in odd places or had notes that were off. But they are out there, if you're willing to take a look. Sprint used to have some ''Wicked'' ringtones, but they don't appear to have them on their site any more.<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align:center;">[http://thewizardofoz.info/wiki/Oz_FAQ Oz FAQ Index Page] • [http://thewizardofoz.info/index.html "There's no place like the home page."]</div></div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Writing,_illustrating,_and_publishing_your_own_Oz_book&diff=3174Writing, illustrating, and publishing your own Oz book2012-03-09T04:37:28Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* Who can I submit my story to for publication? */ Restored (and updated) the bit about Oziana being open.</p>
<hr />
<div>==I have an idea for an Oz book. How do I write it?==<br />
<br />
There is a saying in Oz circles: Scratch an Oz fan and you'll find an Oz book. Despite the large numbers of new books coming out now, many more books are written than are ever published, so don't get your hopes up — especially if you expect to make a lot of money writing Oz books, because it just isn't going to happen. But if you have an Oz story to tell, go ahead and write it down. There are no real hard and fast rules for how to write an Oz book, just do it. And remember the cardinal rule on becoming a writer (of anything): Write. The more you write, the better writer you will become.<br />
<br />
==What should I write about? Is there anything I ''shouldn't'' write?==<br />
<br />
That depends, mostly on who you want to read and enjoy your book. Some Oz fans want their Oz stories to conform to strict limits of acceptability. Of course they can't always agree on what those limits are. Other fans are more forgiving of stories that may be a little offbeat or different. Some write just for themselves, while others want as many people to read their stories as possible. In the famous words of singer Ricky Nelson, "They say you can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." In other words, write the kind of Oz story you want to read.<br />
<br />
Do not forget the fundamentals of good storytelling. When writing a scene, remember to ask yourself, does this advance the plot or give the reader insight to the character? And don't forget the goal. Even a quest adventure, meandering from place to place, has a goal behind the quest. So don't forget to explore that goal as you go along.<br />
<br />
Finding a hook or theme to hang your story around will help. Make it stand-alone. If you're relying on something from other stories, make sure that the reader does NOT have to read the original stories, but can pick up the essentials from your story alone.<br />
<br />
Some areas to avoid: Too many books have been published, and undoubtedly countless more written, that presume the reader will only be familiar with ''The Wizard of Oz'' and go from there, totally ignoring the rest of the books. In some cases, one must wonder if the writers even knew there were other Oz stories. There are already dozens of sequels to ''The Wizard of Oz'', both the book and The Movie, out there, so unless you have a really good, original idea, anything involving Dorothy all grown up, or her children or grandchildren, has probably already been done. This is also a good way to alienate a built-in audience.<br />
<br />
Don't try to be consistent with every Oz book ever published or that may be published in the future. It can't be done. Even the FF contain some inconsistencies (see the question [[About_the_Oz_Books#Why_are_there_so_many_inconsistencies_in_the_Oz_books.3F|Why are there so many inconsistencies in the Oz books?]]), and most other books have been written without trying to do this, so they often contradict other books without ever intending to. It is a difficult enough task to just gather them all together and read them, and most Oz fans don't have them all anyway. Don't worry about it, and don't let continuity or canonicity straitjacket you. If you are consistent with the FF, or even just the Baum books, your story will probably turn out all right. If you can also be consistent with other books that you have read and enjoyed, so much the better.<br />
<br />
Don't let previous books constrain you so much that you can't tell the story you want. Because Oz is a magical land, any number of things can happen. Just because it hasn't been shown before doesn't necessarily mean it can't ever happen in Oz. But don't go too far. If you want to write a story, but it doesn't seem like it could fit in Oz, maybe it shouldn't be an Oz story. Perhaps the worst review an Oz fan can give of an Oz book is that it's not Ozzy. (If you're not sure what that means, you may not be quite ready to write an Oz book yet.) Whether you're messing with canon or not, the story should have its own internal consistency. You don't have to strictly follow canon, but you need to set your own story "rules" and ''not'' break them. Define your characters from the onset clearly, and keep them consistent within that story so that it ''feels'' right when the character is doing something and you don't have to stop and say "Wait, would he/she do that?"<br />
<br />
You're not J. R. R. Tolkien, and this is an Oz book, not ''Lord of the Rings'', so don't plan on writing a trilogy. The Oz series is not a connected epic, as each book is a single, stand-alone story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. If you're just starting off, this is a good fact to keep in mind. Also, there are several trilogies out there already that consist of only two books, with little likelihood of completion. Don't be one of those authors! Write single Oz (or other) books to establish yourself. Then, if things go well and you plan your epic out ahead of time, you could pound out that three-part opus that's been rolling around in your head.<br />
<br />
Bearing all this in mind — and yes, it's a lot — go ahead and write your Oz story. Just remember that it should be as much fun, or more, for you to write it as it is for other people to read.<br />
<br />
==What characters can I use? Are they all in public domain?==<br />
<br />
The basic rule of thumb is, if a book is in public domain, then everything that book says about its characters is public domain as well. For instance, you could have the character of Ojo appear in your book, since he first appears in ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', which is now public domain. But you shouldn't use information about Ojo revealed in ''Ojo in Oz'', since that book is still under copyright. (To see which books are in public domain, see the question [[About_the_Oz_Books#Are_the_Oz_books_still_under_copyright.3F|Are the Oz books still under copyright?]].) The good news is, the vast majority of Oz characters are in public domain, including all of those created by L. Frank Baum. You may use the Baum characters however you wish. If you have your heart set on using a character who's still under copyright, however, you're out of luck, and you may want to think about using another character, or perhaps even creating a new one. The characters still under copyright belong to the writers who created them, and their estates are not known to let just anyone who asks to use them. Some characters from books that are now public domain were introduced in books that are still under copyright, and it's not terribly clear if they can be used safely or not. Use caution if you want to use one of these characters, and make sure not to use any information about them from a book that is still under copyright. Or better yet, to avoid any problems, you may just want to not use them at all.<br />
<br />
==I've written my book. Now what?==<br />
<br />
It's no fun writing a new Oz story if nobody else can read it! So, you have two real options here: Either make a few copies and share it with friends, or get it ready for publication. In the current electronic age, that means to put your story on a computer disk, memory card, or other electronic medium. It depends on your publisher or printer, but for the most part you will want to have it available as either a text file or Microsoft Word document. Don't worry about pagination or any other technical matters; these will be taken care of later. All you need in your file are your words. Make sure that all spelling, grammar, and punctuation are correct, because neither your publisher nor your readers want to correct them for you.<br />
<br />
==Should I have someone else read my book before submitting it for publication?==<br />
<br />
Most certainly. A writer can sometimes get so wrapped up in a story while writing it that he or she may not notice small errors, gaps in plot or logic, or anything else that might detract from the story. So if you can find a willing test audience, by all means make use of it. Remember, however, that they may be brutally honest. If they criticize your work, don't take it personally. It's not a reflection on you as a person, or as a writer, merely problems with that particular story. Take it to heart, and learn from any remarks your story may get. Criticism, if it is constructive and focuses on the story's weaknesses, should be welcome. There is nothing personal in it other than "I want to read a good story. I don't want to be yanked out of the story because something makes no sense."<br />
<br />
Be careful with whom you choose to read your story, however. It's very easy to find fellow Oz fans online, for instance, and many of them will be willing to read and criticize your story — but many others are not. Again, this is not a reflection on you. Rather, it demonstrates not only how busy other people are with their own lives, but that they may also be safeguarding themselves. A lot of Oz fans are also writers (and not just of Oz books), and will routinely turn down any requests to review other people's work. This is because, should they write something similar, now or in the future, they don't want to be accused of plagiarism, even if it's unintended or coincidental. If you are looking for someone to read and critique your story before it's published, make sure it's someone you know well and trust. Do not, under any circumstances, send a story, on paper or electronically, to someone whose permission you don't already have to send it to. This is to protect yourself from plagiarism, and the recipient from accusations of plagiarism — as well as letting them live their own lives.<br />
<br />
==Who can I submit my story to for publication?==<br />
<br />
First word of caution here: Don't get your hopes up! There are an awful lot of Oz writers out there now, and you are competing with all of them. Publishers need to be choosy. Also, if you intend on making money writing Oz books, don't quit your day job. While Oz fans are dedicated, they are also a small audience, and you just can't make a lot of money, if any, from Oz book royalties. For that matter, most Oz fans stick pretty much to the FF and closely related books; they don't all collect every book whose title ends in Oz. But if you still want to go through with it, here are your chances with the major publishers of new Oz books:<br />
<br />
* '''The International Wizard of Oz Club''': Don't even try. Over the last three decades they've published only six original books, five of them written by established Oz authors, and all at IWOC's instigation. However, if you're interested in submitting a short story or poem to the Club's literary magazine, ''Oziana'', contact the editor, Marcus Mebes, via e-mail at OzianaEIC@gmail.com. But ''Oziana'' does get several submissions, and there are quality standards, so there is no guarantee that they will publish your work.<br />
<br />
* '''Emerald City Press''', the division of Books of Wonder that publishes new Oz stories, is a professional publishing house, with editors and readers and all that, and so the process is similar to pitching a manuscript to just about any other publisher. They have published several books, but they also haven't put out a new book for several years. Before sending them a manuscript, write to them in care of Books of Wonder — see the question [[Buying,_selling,_and_collecting_the_Oz_books#What_Oz_books_are_available.3F_And_where_can_I_get_them.3F|What Oz books are available? And where can I get them?]] for contact information — and ask for submission guidelines, what they're looking for, etc. Then carefully read whatever they send you and follow all of their instructions to be sure that your manuscript will be considered.<br />
<br />
* '''Tails of the Cowardly Lion of Oz''' will publish just about any book that's sufficiently Ozzy, and they put out three or four titles a year. But they also have a huge backlog, and no money to speed up production, so if you want your book published through them, you will have to be patient. Again, before sending a manuscript, write to them. Since this is a non-profit, we-do-it-for-the-love-of-Oz set-up, it would be really nice to send them a SASE with any correspondence you send so they won't have to spring for postage for your reply. Their address is 1606 Arnold Palmer Loop, Belen, NM 87002, or you can e-mail them at LionCoward@aol.com.<br />
<br />
* '''Hungry Tiger Press''' has published only three original Oz novels, and in those cases they commissioned the works and got the ball rolling. You're unlikely to get your book published through them, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.<br />
<br />
There is another option — self-publishing. But this takes money and knowledge of the printing business, and if you want pictures for your book, you're going to have to draw them yourself or find your own illustrator. Even then, you have to find some way to get the word to Oz fans that your book is out there. But it is happening more and more now, so if you're feeling really ambitious and can afford to spend some money, you may want to seriously consider this. You could also look into a print-on-demand self-publisher, which will print it for you, but little else, for the right price. One such press to check out online is Xlibris, at http://www2.xlibris.com/ on the WWW. Many Oz writers are also now using Lulu to publish their works. See what they're about at http://www.lulu.com/. For more about print-on-demand publishing, take a look at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1043161,00.asp. Or, you may even want to consider "publishing" your work on the WWW.<br />
<br />
You could always approach another publisher, but it's extremely unlikely that they'd want to publish an Oz book. As mentioned before, the audience for Oz is extremely small, and most of the bigger publishers don't want to cater to such a niche market, or compete with other Oz publishers (nor, for that matter, with the Oz books that are already out on the market, including the FF). And remember, they already have dozens, if not hundreds, of other manuscripts under consideration.<br />
<br />
For more details on the children's book market in general, you may wish to track down a copy of the annual ''Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market'' book. Many booksellers and libraries carry it.<br />
<br />
==Who's going to illustrate my book?==<br />
<br />
That depends, but if you buck the odds and your book is picked up by a publishing firm, you have less say in the matter than you might think. If you are publishing your own book, no problem, you can provide whatever illustrations you want. But if you've submitted your book to someone else to publish, it's out of your hands. You're welcome to make suggestions, of course, or submit your own illustrations, but the publishers are under no obligation to listen to you unless it's in your contract — and first-time authors don't have that kind of clout.<br />
<br />
==I'm an artist, and I like drawing Oz scenes and characters. Where can I go to get my work published?==<br />
<br />
Your options are basically the same as for writers (see the question [[Writing,_illustrating,_and_publishing_your_own_Oz_book#Who_can_I_submit_my_story_to_for_publication.3F|Who can I submit my story to for publication?]] above for more details). IWOC makes its own contacts for book illustrations, but ''Oziana'' can always use artwork. The Oz Club also sometimes publishes an annual calendar with fan art. Tales of the Cowardly Lion and Friends always needs illustrators for their books. Emerald City Press usually hires professional artists, but you can always write to them and see if they'd be interested, maybe sending along a few copies of your work (not the originals) as examples.<br />
<br />
==Why does my publisher want me to make so many changes?==<br />
<br />
Because they are taking the bigger risk. When you think about it, the actual story is a very small component of putting a book together. All you are providing are the words. The publisher is taking care of printing, binding, publicity, marketing, and all other aspects of turning your words into a book and getting it into the hands of readers. This costs them a lot of money, which they have to pay up front. The author, on the other hand, has only lost the time it took to write it. That's also why your royalties, if any, are such a relatively small amount of the price of the book, and the publisher gets to choose the illustrator. So naturally the publishers are going to want to make changes if they think it will improve the book, or it needs to be shortened, or for any other reason.<br />
<br />
==Is there anywhere else I can show off my Oz writing or artwork?==<br />
<br />
IWOC, at its conventions, often has an Oz Research Table, where stories, articles, and art in all media can be displayed. During each convention, two winners in each category are chosen, and yes, there is sometimes a small amount of prize money. For more information, contact IWOC.<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align:center;">[http://thewizardofoz.info/wiki/Oz_FAQ Oz FAQ Index Page] • [http://thewizardofoz.info/index.html "There's no place like the home page."]</div></div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Writing,_illustrating,_and_publishing_your_own_Oz_book&diff=3173Writing, illustrating, and publishing your own Oz book2012-03-09T04:33:07Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* Who can I submit my story to for publication? */ Since Oziana was continued, that bit about the cessation announced is no longer applicable to this section.</p>
<hr />
<div>==I have an idea for an Oz book. How do I write it?==<br />
<br />
There is a saying in Oz circles: Scratch an Oz fan and you'll find an Oz book. Despite the large numbers of new books coming out now, many more books are written than are ever published, so don't get your hopes up — especially if you expect to make a lot of money writing Oz books, because it just isn't going to happen. But if you have an Oz story to tell, go ahead and write it down. There are no real hard and fast rules for how to write an Oz book, just do it. And remember the cardinal rule on becoming a writer (of anything): Write. The more you write, the better writer you will become.<br />
<br />
==What should I write about? Is there anything I ''shouldn't'' write?==<br />
<br />
That depends, mostly on who you want to read and enjoy your book. Some Oz fans want their Oz stories to conform to strict limits of acceptability. Of course they can't always agree on what those limits are. Other fans are more forgiving of stories that may be a little offbeat or different. Some write just for themselves, while others want as many people to read their stories as possible. In the famous words of singer Ricky Nelson, "They say you can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." In other words, write the kind of Oz story you want to read.<br />
<br />
Do not forget the fundamentals of good storytelling. When writing a scene, remember to ask yourself, does this advance the plot or give the reader insight to the character? And don't forget the goal. Even a quest adventure, meandering from place to place, has a goal behind the quest. So don't forget to explore that goal as you go along.<br />
<br />
Finding a hook or theme to hang your story around will help. Make it stand-alone. If you're relying on something from other stories, make sure that the reader does NOT have to read the original stories, but can pick up the essentials from your story alone.<br />
<br />
Some areas to avoid: Too many books have been published, and undoubtedly countless more written, that presume the reader will only be familiar with ''The Wizard of Oz'' and go from there, totally ignoring the rest of the books. In some cases, one must wonder if the writers even knew there were other Oz stories. There are already dozens of sequels to ''The Wizard of Oz'', both the book and The Movie, out there, so unless you have a really good, original idea, anything involving Dorothy all grown up, or her children or grandchildren, has probably already been done. This is also a good way to alienate a built-in audience.<br />
<br />
Don't try to be consistent with every Oz book ever published or that may be published in the future. It can't be done. Even the FF contain some inconsistencies (see the question [[About_the_Oz_Books#Why_are_there_so_many_inconsistencies_in_the_Oz_books.3F|Why are there so many inconsistencies in the Oz books?]]), and most other books have been written without trying to do this, so they often contradict other books without ever intending to. It is a difficult enough task to just gather them all together and read them, and most Oz fans don't have them all anyway. Don't worry about it, and don't let continuity or canonicity straitjacket you. If you are consistent with the FF, or even just the Baum books, your story will probably turn out all right. If you can also be consistent with other books that you have read and enjoyed, so much the better.<br />
<br />
Don't let previous books constrain you so much that you can't tell the story you want. Because Oz is a magical land, any number of things can happen. Just because it hasn't been shown before doesn't necessarily mean it can't ever happen in Oz. But don't go too far. If you want to write a story, but it doesn't seem like it could fit in Oz, maybe it shouldn't be an Oz story. Perhaps the worst review an Oz fan can give of an Oz book is that it's not Ozzy. (If you're not sure what that means, you may not be quite ready to write an Oz book yet.) Whether you're messing with canon or not, the story should have its own internal consistency. You don't have to strictly follow canon, but you need to set your own story "rules" and ''not'' break them. Define your characters from the onset clearly, and keep them consistent within that story so that it ''feels'' right when the character is doing something and you don't have to stop and say "Wait, would he/she do that?"<br />
<br />
You're not J. R. R. Tolkien, and this is an Oz book, not ''Lord of the Rings'', so don't plan on writing a trilogy. The Oz series is not a connected epic, as each book is a single, stand-alone story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. If you're just starting off, this is a good fact to keep in mind. Also, there are several trilogies out there already that consist of only two books, with little likelihood of completion. Don't be one of those authors! Write single Oz (or other) books to establish yourself. Then, if things go well and you plan your epic out ahead of time, you could pound out that three-part opus that's been rolling around in your head.<br />
<br />
Bearing all this in mind — and yes, it's a lot — go ahead and write your Oz story. Just remember that it should be as much fun, or more, for you to write it as it is for other people to read.<br />
<br />
==What characters can I use? Are they all in public domain?==<br />
<br />
The basic rule of thumb is, if a book is in public domain, then everything that book says about its characters is public domain as well. For instance, you could have the character of Ojo appear in your book, since he first appears in ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', which is now public domain. But you shouldn't use information about Ojo revealed in ''Ojo in Oz'', since that book is still under copyright. (To see which books are in public domain, see the question [[About_the_Oz_Books#Are_the_Oz_books_still_under_copyright.3F|Are the Oz books still under copyright?]].) The good news is, the vast majority of Oz characters are in public domain, including all of those created by L. Frank Baum. You may use the Baum characters however you wish. If you have your heart set on using a character who's still under copyright, however, you're out of luck, and you may want to think about using another character, or perhaps even creating a new one. The characters still under copyright belong to the writers who created them, and their estates are not known to let just anyone who asks to use them. Some characters from books that are now public domain were introduced in books that are still under copyright, and it's not terribly clear if they can be used safely or not. Use caution if you want to use one of these characters, and make sure not to use any information about them from a book that is still under copyright. Or better yet, to avoid any problems, you may just want to not use them at all.<br />
<br />
==I've written my book. Now what?==<br />
<br />
It's no fun writing a new Oz story if nobody else can read it! So, you have two real options here: Either make a few copies and share it with friends, or get it ready for publication. In the current electronic age, that means to put your story on a computer disk, memory card, or other electronic medium. It depends on your publisher or printer, but for the most part you will want to have it available as either a text file or Microsoft Word document. Don't worry about pagination or any other technical matters; these will be taken care of later. All you need in your file are your words. Make sure that all spelling, grammar, and punctuation are correct, because neither your publisher nor your readers want to correct them for you.<br />
<br />
==Should I have someone else read my book before submitting it for publication?==<br />
<br />
Most certainly. A writer can sometimes get so wrapped up in a story while writing it that he or she may not notice small errors, gaps in plot or logic, or anything else that might detract from the story. So if you can find a willing test audience, by all means make use of it. Remember, however, that they may be brutally honest. If they criticize your work, don't take it personally. It's not a reflection on you as a person, or as a writer, merely problems with that particular story. Take it to heart, and learn from any remarks your story may get. Criticism, if it is constructive and focuses on the story's weaknesses, should be welcome. There is nothing personal in it other than "I want to read a good story. I don't want to be yanked out of the story because something makes no sense."<br />
<br />
Be careful with whom you choose to read your story, however. It's very easy to find fellow Oz fans online, for instance, and many of them will be willing to read and criticize your story — but many others are not. Again, this is not a reflection on you. Rather, it demonstrates not only how busy other people are with their own lives, but that they may also be safeguarding themselves. A lot of Oz fans are also writers (and not just of Oz books), and will routinely turn down any requests to review other people's work. This is because, should they write something similar, now or in the future, they don't want to be accused of plagiarism, even if it's unintended or coincidental. If you are looking for someone to read and critique your story before it's published, make sure it's someone you know well and trust. Do not, under any circumstances, send a story, on paper or electronically, to someone whose permission you don't already have to send it to. This is to protect yourself from plagiarism, and the recipient from accusations of plagiarism — as well as letting them live their own lives.<br />
<br />
==Who can I submit my story to for publication?==<br />
<br />
First word of caution here: Don't get your hopes up! There are an awful lot of Oz writers out there now, and you are competing with all of them. Publishers need to be choosy. Also, if you intend on making money writing Oz books, don't quit your day job. While Oz fans are dedicated, they are also a small audience, and you just can't make a lot of money, if any, from Oz book royalties. For that matter, most Oz fans stick pretty much to the FF and closely related books; they don't all collect every book whose title ends in Oz. But if you still want to go through with it, here are your chances with the major publishers of new Oz books:<br />
<br />
* '''The International Wizard of Oz Club''': Don't even try. Over the last three decades they've published only six original books, five of them written by established Oz authors, and all at IWOC's instigation.<br />
<br />
* '''Emerald City Press''', the division of Books of Wonder that publishes new Oz stories, is a professional publishing house, with editors and readers and all that, and so the process is similar to pitching a manuscript to just about any other publisher. They have published several books, but they also haven't put out a new book for several years. Before sending them a manuscript, write to them in care of Books of Wonder — see the question [[Buying,_selling,_and_collecting_the_Oz_books#What_Oz_books_are_available.3F_And_where_can_I_get_them.3F|What Oz books are available? And where can I get them?]] for contact information — and ask for submission guidelines, what they're looking for, etc. Then carefully read whatever they send you and follow all of their instructions to be sure that your manuscript will be considered.<br />
<br />
* '''Tails of the Cowardly Lion of Oz''' will publish just about any book that's sufficiently Ozzy, and they put out three or four titles a year. But they also have a huge backlog, and no money to speed up production, so if you want your book published through them, you will have to be patient. Again, before sending a manuscript, write to them. Since this is a non-profit, we-do-it-for-the-love-of-Oz set-up, it would be really nice to send them a SASE with any correspondence you send so they won't have to spring for postage for your reply. Their address is 1606 Arnold Palmer Loop, Belen, NM 87002, or you can e-mail them at LionCoward@aol.com.<br />
<br />
* '''Hungry Tiger Press''' has published only three original Oz novels, and in those cases they commissioned the works and got the ball rolling. You're unlikely to get your book published through them, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.<br />
<br />
There is another option — self-publishing. But this takes money and knowledge of the printing business, and if you want pictures for your book, you're going to have to draw them yourself or find your own illustrator. Even then, you have to find some way to get the word to Oz fans that your book is out there. But it is happening more and more now, so if you're feeling really ambitious and can afford to spend some money, you may want to seriously consider this. You could also look into a print-on-demand self-publisher, which will print it for you, but little else, for the right price. One such press to check out online is Xlibris, at http://www2.xlibris.com/ on the WWW. Many Oz writers are also now using Lulu to publish their works. See what they're about at http://www.lulu.com/. For more about print-on-demand publishing, take a look at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1043161,00.asp. Or, you may even want to consider "publishing" your work on the WWW.<br />
<br />
You could always approach another publisher, but it's extremely unlikely that they'd want to publish an Oz book. As mentioned before, the audience for Oz is extremely small, and most of the bigger publishers don't want to cater to such a niche market, or compete with other Oz publishers (nor, for that matter, with the Oz books that are already out on the market, including the FF). And remember, they already have dozens, if not hundreds, of other manuscripts under consideration.<br />
<br />
For more details on the children's book market in general, you may wish to track down a copy of the annual ''Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market'' book. Many booksellers and libraries carry it.<br />
<br />
==Who's going to illustrate my book?==<br />
<br />
That depends, but if you buck the odds and your book is picked up by a publishing firm, you have less say in the matter than you might think. If you are publishing your own book, no problem, you can provide whatever illustrations you want. But if you've submitted your book to someone else to publish, it's out of your hands. You're welcome to make suggestions, of course, or submit your own illustrations, but the publishers are under no obligation to listen to you unless it's in your contract — and first-time authors don't have that kind of clout.<br />
<br />
==I'm an artist, and I like drawing Oz scenes and characters. Where can I go to get my work published?==<br />
<br />
Your options are basically the same as for writers (see the question [[Writing,_illustrating,_and_publishing_your_own_Oz_book#Who_can_I_submit_my_story_to_for_publication.3F|Who can I submit my story to for publication?]] above for more details). IWOC makes its own contacts for book illustrations, but ''Oziana'' can always use artwork. The Oz Club also sometimes publishes an annual calendar with fan art. Tales of the Cowardly Lion and Friends always needs illustrators for their books. Emerald City Press usually hires professional artists, but you can always write to them and see if they'd be interested, maybe sending along a few copies of your work (not the originals) as examples.<br />
<br />
==Why does my publisher want me to make so many changes?==<br />
<br />
Because they are taking the bigger risk. When you think about it, the actual story is a very small component of putting a book together. All you are providing are the words. The publisher is taking care of printing, binding, publicity, marketing, and all other aspects of turning your words into a book and getting it into the hands of readers. This costs them a lot of money, which they have to pay up front. The author, on the other hand, has only lost the time it took to write it. That's also why your royalties, if any, are such a relatively small amount of the price of the book, and the publisher gets to choose the illustrator. So naturally the publishers are going to want to make changes if they think it will improve the book, or it needs to be shortened, or for any other reason.<br />
<br />
==Is there anywhere else I can show off my Oz writing or artwork?==<br />
<br />
IWOC, at its conventions, often has an Oz Research Table, where stories, articles, and art in all media can be displayed. During each convention, two winners in each category are chosen, and yes, there is sometimes a small amount of prize money. For more information, contact IWOC.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align:center;">[http://thewizardofoz.info/wiki/Oz_FAQ Oz FAQ Index Page] • [http://thewizardofoz.info/index.html "There's no place like the home page."]</div></div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=The_Movie_-_Production_and_Crew&diff=1864The Movie - Production and Crew2011-04-17T17:53:40Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* Is it true that you can see a man hanging himself in The Movie? */ Added information about online forgeries.</p>
<hr />
<div>==Who was the director?==<br />
<br />
The director initially assigned to The Movie was Norman Taurog, but before shooting began he was replaced by Richard Thorpe. Thorpe worked on The Movie for only ten days, however, before LeRoy, dissatisfied with the scenes Thorpe had shot to that point, decided to replace him. George Cukor took over, but didn't shoot any film. He did redesign some of the sets, costumes, and make-up, especially for Judy Garland. Thorpe had put her in heavy baby-doll make-up and a long blond wig, but Cukor changed that to the look used in the finished film. Once Cukor was done with The Movie — he began directing ''Gone with the Wind'' only a few weeks later — Victor Fleming came on board. Although known as a "man's film" director who worked on many pictures with his close friend Clark Gable, Fleming also had a reputation for saving troubled pictures, and he had two young daughters for whom he wanted to make a movie. Fleming did most of the work on the film — Cukor's changes and the recasting of the Tin Woodman meant scrapping the Thorpe footage, so Fleming started from scratch — until Clark Gable and David O. Selznick asked that he come work on ''Gone with the Wind'', which was also running into trouble. King Vidor came in to finish The Movie, and his work included the Kansas scenes. Fleming, who at one point was directing ''Wind'' during the day and supervising the editing of The Movie at night, was given final screen credit. Vidor was offered co-directing credit, but turned it down, claiming Fleming had done all the real work.<br />
<br />
==Who did the music? The sound effects? The costumes? The make-up? The sets? The...==<br />
<br />
Whoa, all right, I get the idea. Who were the creative folks behind the camera, and what did they do, right? Okay, here we go:<br />
<br />
* The songs were written by lyricist E. Y. "Yip" Harburg and his collaborator, Harold Arlen. They are probably most noted, outside of their songs for The Movie, for writing the Broadway hit ''Hooray for What?'' and the popular songs "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and "I've Got the World on a String."<br />
* The background music was composed, compiled, and orchestrated by Herbert Stothart.<br />
* Ken Darby was the vocal arranger.<br />
* The costumes were designed by MGM designer Adrian (his first name was Gilbert, but he used only his surname professionally; he was born Adrian Adolph Greenburg). Yes, he designed the Ruby Slippers.<br />
* The make-up was designed and supervised by Jack Dawn.<br />
* The sets were designed by William Horning and Jack Martin Smith, although MGM Art Department head Cedric Gibbons also had a hand in the process, as he did with every MGM picture at the time.<br />
* The special effects were designed by A. Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie, whose team had to design a tornado, a falling house, a sky-writing witch who later melted, flying monkeys, a disembodied head floating among flames, and a bubble to transport the good witch.<br />
* The cinematographer was Harold Rossen, but he had the aid of two cameramen lent to the production by Technicolor. Henri Jaffa was the Technicolor Color Director — essentially a consultant.<br />
* Bobby Connolly was the main choreographer, although Busby Berkeley did some work towards the end of shooting, after he signed with MGM.<br />
* Blanche Sewell was the editor.<br />
* Douglas Shearer, brother of MGM actress Norma Shearer, was in charge of the MGM sound department, and was thus responsible for the sound effects.<br />
<br />
==How did the Munchkin voices get so high?==<br />
<br />
Vocal arranger Ken Darby used the then-unusual technique of speeding up the recordings — actually, slowing the tape down during recording and playing it back at normal speed — to get the high pitched voices for the Munchkins. Most of the actors playing Munchkins were not singers, and some had thick accents, so they did not perform their own singing or dialogue. Instead, Darby hired other singers, and the Munchkin actors would lip synch to the prerecorded words. A similar technique was used for the Winkies, the Witch's guards, to lower their voices for their chant, and for the reprise of "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" after the Wicked Witch of the West is melted, which was eventually left out of the finished film. This time, however, the tape was speeded up during recording, making the voices lower when played back at normal speed.<br />
<br />
==What kinds of sound effects were used?==<br />
<br />
The Sound people had quite a challenge, putting in up to twelve tracks of sound in some scenes at a time when most movies had three. At one point they went to Catalina Island and recorded thousands of birdcalls, then played them at different speeds and backwards to achieve the spooky sounds of the Witch's haunted forest. Other special sound effects included the rustle of the Scarecrow's straw, the Tin Woodman's metallic clanks, the Lion's roars, and Toto's growls and barks.<br />
<br />
==What were the costumes made from?==<br />
<br />
Unlike most other films made by MGM, costumes for The Movie had to be made almost entirely in house, and by hand. Among the materials used were real straw for the Scarecrow, buckram and silver-painted leather for the Tin Woodman, two real lionskins for the Cowardly Lion (see the question [[#What_was_the_Cowardly_Lion.27s_costume_made_from.3F|What was the Cowardly Lion's costume made from?]]), and yards and yards of felt for the Munchkins. Five women in the Wardrobe Department spent several days doing nothing but dying material and clothes green for the people of the Emerald City to wear.<br />
<br />
==Is it true that the Wizard's coat originally belonged to L. Frank Baum?==<br />
<br />
No, but you're close. For the Kansas scenes, made towards the end of the film's shooting schedule, a shabby old coat that had once been quite elegant was found at a local thrift shop for Frank Morgan to wear as Professor Marvel. While idly examining the coat one day Morgan found the name "L. Frank Baum" stitched into a pocket. The discovery caused quite a stir on the set, and Baum's widow and the Chicago tailor who had made it later confirmed that it had belonged to Frank (the Baum's had moved to Hollywood in 1911, and Maud Baum still lived there). At the end of filming LeRoy presented the coat to Mrs. Baum.<br />
<br />
==What was the Cowardly Lion's costume made from?==<br />
<br />
Lahr's costume was made of two real lionskins, weighed over fifty pounds, and was extremely hot and uncomfortable to work in. He claimed it was like "working inside a mattress." When Lahr was on the set, the lights would be turned off and the soundstage doors opened for fresh air every half hour so he wouldn't suffocate. One of the costumes was found and restored in the 1990s, and featured on the program ''History's Lost and Found'' on the History Channel. It is now in a private collection.<br />
<br />
==What were the Ruby Slippers made from?==<br />
<br />
Certainly not rubies! They were ordinary red shoes, with red silk sewn onto them, and red sequins sewn onto the silk. Should you be fortunate enough to see a real pair, you'll notice that the sequins are a darker color than that seen in the film, making the slippers look more burgundy than ruby. This is because the color process of the time couldn't record true colors, so colors were adjusted so that they would appear onscreen as the desired color. Had the sequins on the Ruby Slippers actually been the same bright red as seen in The Movie, they would have looked orange on screen.<br />
<br />
==What unusual make-up techniques were used on this film?==<br />
<br />
Because of the unusual nature of some of the characters, much of the make-up in The Movie was groundbreaking, and many of the techniques developed are still being used today. In 1933 Paramount released an all-star version of ''Alice in Wonderland'', but most of the stars were unrecognizable behind the masks used to create the characters. So to utilize the faces of The Movie's actors and make them more recognizable, Jack Dawn developed a way of using foam rubber prosthetics. Dawn pioneered the use of prosthetics for the 1937 film version of ''The Good Earth'' — unfortunately to make European and American actors look Chinese — but The Movie was the first true test of prosthetics to create the make-up for entire characters. A rubber bag, with holes cut out for eyes and mouth and textured to look like burlap, became the Scarecrow's head, and over one hundred of these were baked for the film. The Lion's make-up involved a number of different pieces, and the Wicked Witch and the Winkie guards had false noses and chins attached before green make-up was applied. (There is no truth to the story that Hamilton lost her false metal nose on Hollywood Boulevard, since it wasn't metal, and she wouldn't have been allowed to take it out of the studio anyway.) Jack Haley's Tin Woodman had a rubber strap placed across his chin, a false aluminum nose, and individual rubber "rivets" applied each day. And the Munchkins were made up in assembly line fashion in a rehearsal hall, with MGM training dozens of people in make-up application for The Movie as there weren't enough people already on staff or otherwise available. While other materials are often used today, a similar technique is still being used for movies such as the ''Star Wars'' series, and television programs such as the numerous ''Star Trek'' shows. For more information about the make-up techniques used in The Movie, ''Make-Up Artist Magazine'' devoted an entire issue to it in 1999, which you can read online or order at http://makeupmag.com/issues/id/809/.<br />
<br />
==Where were the sets, and how were they built?==<br />
<br />
The Movie was made entirely in the studios of MGM, so all of the sets — around sixty in all — had to be built on soundstages. Every set had a backdrop that, if designed and lit properly, would look like the outdoors. In other cases, only a portion of the set would be created for the actors to appear on, and then the shot would be joined with a matte painting in post-production. The mattes were painted by Warren Newcombe.<br />
<br />
==Are the sets still standing? Can I go see them?==<br />
<br />
No, sorry. Once a set was finished being used for filming, it would be struck as quickly as possible so that the soundstage could be used for another scene — or for production of another movie. The set pieces and props were often used in other movies, and the backdrops would be stored for possible reuse if a scene had to be reshot. Once the film was finished, however, there would be no reason for MGM to hang on to anything. It's most likely that the backdrops were eventually thrown away, but there have been rumors that some of them were saved from a landfill in the 1970s. If any of the backdrops do exist, I don't know where they are. (This rumor may relate to some of the smaller background drawings used for special effects, which were salvaged, and were donated to either the UCLA or USC film archives.) The soundstages are now part of the Sony Pictures Studio, and many are still in use, so none of the sets from The Movie have been preserved on the sets they were shot on.<br />
<br />
==Was the Witch's castle a real castle?==<br />
<br />
The "castle" was all done in the studio, and the special effects department. Much of what is seen in the finished film is a detailed matte painting, and a partial set that the actors could appear in would be combined with the painting in post-production to make it look as if the actors were on a much larger set. It is possible that the paintings and set designs were based on a real castle, but I don't know which one.<br />
<br />
==Was there any location filming done for The Movie?==<br />
<br />
No. The Technicolor process of the time was pretty complicated, and sets had to be ''very'' brightly lit to register on the film. Location work could be done, but it was not ideal. As a result, The Movie was made entirely on soundstages. (While ''The Wizard of Oz'' was in production, Technicolor developed color cameras that could more successfully film outside in natural light. It was too late to use them on The Movie, but the process was used in making ''Gone with the Wind'' later in the year.) The Kansas scenes could perhaps have been done on location if the crew had wanted to, but location shooting was still unusual for a major studio feature at the time, and the MGM designers did just fine creating Kansas on a soundstage, anyway. There is, however, one shot in The Movie that was filmed outdoors: The clouds behind the opening and closing credits.<br />
<br />
==How did they do the special effects?==<br />
<br />
Remember, The Movie was released in 1939. This was long before the days of synchronized cameras, multi-film techniques, blue- or green-screen effects, and computer animation so common today. Buddy Gillespie had several weeks and MGM's deep pockets to work with, however, and was encouraged to experiment. For the most part he was quite successful. The biggest problem proved to be the cyclone. A miniature Kansas set was built, and a funnel-shaped tube of cloth was anchored to a dolly on the stage. The two ends could be rotated and moved around at different speeds. The first attempt used rubber, which didn't work well, so that was scrapped in favor of muslin, which did the trick. (Some of the tornado footage was recycled in another MGM movie four years later, ''Cabin in the Sky'', and other productions.) Most of the flying monkeys were working models, with a few actors in costumes and harnesses. To melt, all Margaret Hamilton had to do was stand on a small elevator built into the set. Dorothy's window during the cyclone was a rear projection screen, and the Witch's crystal ball and the steam in the Wizard's throne room served as front projection screens. Glinda's bubble was a silver ball, and the camera tracked towards it while filming. The Witch's skywriting was actually a hypodermic needle spreading black ink across the bottom of a glass tank filled with tinted water. And the "smoke" coming from the Tin Woodman's hat was the result of compressed air and talcum powder. Test footage for some of the special effects are available on the more recent DVD releases of The Movie.<br />
<br />
==How did the Lion's tail move?==<br />
<br />
Look carefully in some scenes, and you can see for yourself. It was on a fishing line, and there was a man in the stage rafters with a fishing pole who would swish it around. Lahr would sometimes hold the tail, and those are the scenes where the line was let loose.<br />
<br />
==What did they use for snow?==<br />
<br />
As you may have already realized, it was dangerous business making movies in the late 1930s! And the snow during the poppy scene was no exception. Small chunks of white gypsum, the mineral used in plaster of Paris and other products, were used. Powdered gypsum is dangerous when inhaled, so the actors were told not to inhale too deep! The use of gypsum in this fashion was outlawed soon afterwards.<br />
<br />
==Was The Movie originally made in color or black and white? Were the Oz scenes colorized later?==<br />
<br />
The vast majority of The Movie was originally shot in color, and those were all of the Oz scenes. They were not shot in black and white and later colorized. The Kansas scenes were filmed in black and white, but processed so that they appeared in sepia tones — in other words, brown and white. For a time, the sepia tones were dropped, and Kansas was shown on television, in theaters, and on videotape in black and white. For The Movie's fiftieth anniversary in 1989, the sepia was restored (one videodisk release had it in sepia even earlier), and has been there ever since.<br />
<br />
==Was The Movie the first film made in color?==<br />
<br />
Not even close! It wasn't even the first Oz movie in color. There had been several experiments with color films in the silent era. L. Frank Baum was even involved with one of them, the hand-tinted films of his ''Fairylogue and Radio-Plays'' multimedia show (see the question [[Dramatic_presentations_of_Oz#Have_there_been_any_Oz_movies.3F|Have there been any Oz movies?]] for more information). The first true color feature movie, however, shot in the same three-strip Technicolor process used on The Movie, was ''Becky Sharp'' in 1935, an adaptation of the novel ''Vanity Fair''. Shorts and cartoons had used Technicolor even earlier, including a 1933 cartoon version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' (which unfortunately could not be released, as Walt Disney had signed an exclusive contract with Technicolor). After ''Becky Sharp'', the studios gradually made more and more color pictures — although black and white was still the rule, and color used for only the most prestigious films. One color film that pre-dates The Movie and is still well known today: ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', released in 1937. For more information about the history of Technicolor, and The Movie's place in it, check out http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/technicolor10.htm (this is the tenth page of a complete history of early Technicolor, which begins at http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/technicolor1.htm).<br />
<br />
==Why were the Kansas scenes filmed in black and white?==<br />
<br />
The Kansas scenes were filmed in black and white as a contrast to the bright colors of Oz, and also as a way to translate to film a technique Baum and Denslow had used in the book, using different colors in the pictures to show different locations. It is not true at all that MGM ran out of money, and had to resort to black and white as a cost cutting measure. MGM was the biggest, richest movie studio of its day, and could easily afford to film Kansas in color if they chose to. For the initial theatrical release, the Kansas scenes were actually processed with a sepia wash, so that Kansas actually looked like it was brown and white. This process was not used again until a 1980s videodisk release, the 1989 video release, and the 1998 theatrical rerelease, so for many years Kansas actually was in black and white. Two instances of sepia remained, however, even during the black and white years: Dorothy's entrance into Munchkinland (which was actually shot in Technicolor with a brown set and a double for Judy Garland wearing a brown dress), and Aunt Em's appearance in the Wicked Witch's crystal ball.<br />
<br />
==What's this I hear about a dance number called "The Jitterbug"?==<br />
<br />
When it was first previewed in the summer of 1939, The Movie was nearly two hours in length, which some believed to be too long. So a number of scenes were shortened, and several dropped entirely, such as the return to the Emerald City after melting the Wicked Witch of the West (including a reprise of "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead"), an extended version of Ray Bolger's dance during "If I Only Had a Brain" (which was recovered complete in the 1980s), and a scene where the Wicked Witch really does turn the Tin Woodman into a beehive, complete with animated bees. Also cut was "The Jitterbug," an elaborate song-and-dance number that came right before the Winged Monkeys captured Dorothy and her friends in the Haunted Forest. It's still referred to in The Movie when the witch tells the monkeys, "I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them!" No one is exactly sure why it was cut, since it took several weeks to choreograph, rehearse, and film, and cost quite a bit of money, but the best guess is that it was too lighthearted for the dramatic tension of the story at that point, and unlike the rest of the musical numbers, it was extraneous and didn't advance the plot. It was also felt that it would date the film, as "jitterbug" had already become slang for a hot dancer at that point, and the studio hoped the film would have long-lasting appeal, for at least ten years. (If only they'd known...) While the footage is now lost, Harold Arlen did take some home movies on the set during rehearsals, which have now been made available on television (the ''Ripley's Believe It or Not'' show on ABC in 1983 was the first public appearance of the entire film), video, and DVD. And numerous school and community theater productions have put "The Jitterbug" back into the story, either in its intended place in the Haunted Forest or as a replacement for the poppy field.<br />
<br />
==Were there any problems in making The Movie?==<br />
<br />
Many! The film took six months to shoot, used MGM's biggest sound stages, stretched the studio's resources to their limits, and the bright lights needed for the color photography generated a lot of heat, so something was bound to go wrong. Besides the problems of Buddy Ebsen and Jack Haley's make-up (see the question [[The_Movie_-_Cast#Is_it_true_Buddy_Ebsen_was_originally_cast_to_play_the_Tin_Woodman.3F|Is it true Buddy Ebsen was originally cast to play the Tin Woodman?]]), two major accidents happened, both involving the Wicked Witch:<br />
<br />
* Margaret Hamilton, on the fourth take of the Witch's disappearance from Munchkinland, caught on fire. The green make-up used at that time contained copper and was highly flammable, and only quick thinking and immediate first aid kept her alive. Even so, Hamilton was off the set for several weeks, and the skin on her right hand was so badly burned that she had to wear a tight-fitting green glove instead of make-up for the rest of the film, as there was so little skin there. The shot of the Witch's fiery exit used in the movie was an earlier take. Look carefully and you can see the smoke start up before Hamilton hits her mark.<br />
* Naturally enough, Hamilton wanted nothing to do with fire for the rest of the film. Even setting the Scarecrow on fire later on made her extremely nervous, despite the asbestos lining in the Scarecrow costume's arm. So Hamilton's double, Betty Danko, made a number of the broom flights. And at one point, the prop broom exploded, seriously injuring Danko and embedding bits of the costume into her leg, and causing the costume's hat to fly into the rafters above the stage. <br />
<br />
Haley and Lahr also had general problems with their costumes and make-up (see the question [[#What_was_the_Cowardly_Lion.27s_costume_made_from.3F|What was the Cowardly Lion's costume made from?]] for details on Lahr's costume woes), Haley couldn't sit down and had to lean against a reclining board to relax, and Ray Bolger had trouble going to the restroom without spilling straw all over the place. None of them were allowed to eat in the studio commissary, as they looked so grotesque. Lahr could barely open his mouth to eat anyway, and had to drink soup and other liquids through a straw. Hamilton also had trouble at lunch, as she had to carefully eat her sandwich wrapped in waxed paper, else the make-up would rub off onto the bread.<br />
<br />
==Is it true that you can see a man hanging himself in The Movie?==<br />
<br />
No, of course not. It's true that you can see a shadowy figure fluttering in the background at the end of the scene in the Tin Woodman's forest, just as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman are marching offscreen as they sing "We're Off to See the Wizard." And if you ever get a chance to see the film projected onto the big screen of a movie theater, you can quite clearly see that it is a bird flapping its wings. (A number of birds were rented from the Los Angeles Zoo for this scene. Other birds sharp-eyed viewers can also see in that forest are a toucan and a peacock.) Let me say that again to make it perfectly clear to those who still believe it's a hanging man:<br />
<br />
<center><font="+5">'''IT IS A BIRD FLAPPING ITS WINGS.'''</font></center><br />
<br />
So what kind of bird is it? For a long time, many thought it was a stork, but this is probably just a conjecture, since there was a stork in the original novel. I have now had two birders tell me that it was a crowned crane, or ''Balearica pavonina''. Since I'm not any sort of bird expert, I will have to take their word for it.<br />
<br />
So why do so many think that this poor, innocent bird is a hanging man? The problem is, most people today don't see The Movie on the big screen; they watch it on television, videotape, or DVD. And the scan lines that make a TV picture possible do the disservice of making the picture less clear than on a movie screen. The small size of most TV screens and the lack of clear prints before 1989 don't help, either. So on a television screen, the stork is not very clear. Some have thought it was a stagehand accidentally caught in the shot, or the Wicked Witch still lurking in the background, but for some reason this shadowy figure passed into urban legend as a hanging man. But it can't be. Studio security was tighter than usual on The Movie, and it's extremely unlikely that a major studio like MGM wouldn't notice such a macabre sight, or would allow it to be included in one of its highest profile pictures. Besides, most of those trees were on a painted backdrop, and the rest were artificial, and thus too fragile to hold that much weight. And towards the end of the scene, all three principal actors look directly at the object in question. If it was something that wasn't supposed to be there, especially something so gruesome, doesn't it make sense that at least one of them would alert the crew and stop filming right then and there? Don't forget, there were a lot of people on the set watching what was going on, with the director and his assistants, the cameramen, the lighting crew, and so forth. Would all of them not notice something suspicious? Could all of them not say anything about it for so long?<br />
<br />
Some amusing variants of this story have surfaced:<br />
<br />
* The hanging man was one of the Munchkin actors — which is unlikely, as the forest scenes were actually shot before the Munchkinland scenes, and the little people playing the Munchkins hadn't arrived in town at that point. Many of the surviving Munchkin actors have also stated that this is false.<br />
* A Munchkin actor hanged himself after being rejected by one of the Munchkin actresses — see above.<br />
* The man hanging himself is the director's son, upset that he didn't get a part in The Movie or on the crew — which is impossible, as Victor Fleming only had two young daughters at the time.<br />
* MGM was forced to leave the shot in, as they couldn't afford to reshoot the scene — which is extremely unlikely, as MGM was the biggest studio of the day, and could well afford another take.<br />
* The man who hanged himself was the grandfather of the boy who became the ghost in ''Three Men and a Baby'', another popular Hollywood urban legend. Since the "ghost" is actually a cardboard cutout of actor Ted Danson, this is not terribly likely.<br />
* The "hanging" was actually a technician who got entangled in some cables or ropes and accidentally fell into the scene, strangling himself — I think somebody is confusing the stagehand and hanging legends.<br />
* The bird was added in later to mask the hanging — well, then, couldn't they have made the bird clearer? Or erased the hanging man entirely?<br />
* The hanging person was a young, unknown actress who was upset that she didn't get the part of Dorothy — the only actresses ever seriously considered for the part were Judy Garland and, for a brief time, Shirley Temple (see the question [[The_Movie_-_Cast#Wasn.27t_Shirley_Temple_originally_cast_to_play_Dorothy.3F|Wasn't Shirley Temple originally cast to play Dorothy?]] for the details).<br />
* The hanging was still in the original videotape release of The Movie, but replaced by the bird in the 1989 fiftieth anniversary rerelease — the only change made from the early '80s release and the 1989 one was to finally change the Kansas scenes back to their original sepia tones. Furthermore, I can personally attest to seeing the bird in a film print in 1979, before The Movie was ever released on home video.<br />
* The hanging is really somewhere else in the scene, or the next one — look, if people can't even figure out where the hanging is, could it possibly be that it isn't really there?<br />
* I'm just part of some conspiracy to cover up the truth — if I am, I wish someone would let me in on the secret! I have no reason to hide the truth, I am in no one's employ or thralls, and I don't see what good it would do me or anyone else to hide it now. The truth is, there is no hanging.<br />
* "I know who the hanged man was" — yet every time someone has told me this, they clam up when I ask for a name or details. If there is truly a hanging in The Movie, I and Oz and film researchers around the world are going to need a lot more evidence than "It looks like a hanging man" or a man with no name.<br />
<br />
Regrettably, there are now online videos of the scene showing a hanging figure in the background. Please rest assured, this footage is a forgery and should not believed.<br />
----<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align:center;">[http://thewizardofoz.info/wiki/Oz_FAQ Oz FAQ Index Page] • [http://thewizardofoz.info/index.html "There's no place like the home page."]</div></div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Oz_on_your_computer&diff=1729Oz on your computer2011-03-31T05:00:18Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* Have there been any Wizard of Oz video games? */ Added my latest discovery.</p>
<hr />
<div>==Are there any Wizard of Oz computer programs or CD-ROMs?==<br />
<br />
Quite a few. Some examples:<br />
<br />
* ''The Legends of Oz'' came out in 1993 from Multicom Publishing, and has a number of different elements: The complete text of ''The Wizard of Oz'', animated storybooks of three SillyOZbul picture books by Roger S. Baum, pictures and film clips from The Movie, a matching game, background information, and more. It does not seem to be generally available any more, but searching might turn it up.<br />
* QVision Publishing (now defunct) put out a number of CD-ROMs based on the Oz books of L. Frank Baum. Each of Baum's fourteen Oz novels was released on its own CD-ROM with the complete text, narration, and illustrations. They were sold individually or as a set, and they also sold a single CD-ROM that holds just the texts of all fourteen novels.<br />
* ''Reading Adventures in Oz'', an educational game issued by Davidson and Associates around 1993 (I have yet to locate a copy of this, but you can find out more and download a copy at http://coreduo.me.uk/index.php?id=350).<br />
* ''The Wizard of Oz Audioclips'' — sounds from The Movie — from Sound Source Unlimited around 1993.<br />
* In 2000, DK put out ''Oz: The Magical Adventure'', an edutainment game for young children in which the player guides the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion through various areas of Oz to rescue Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the West. This was followed up in 2002 with ''The Oz Interactive Storybook''.<br />
* A CD-ROM of the first edition of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' was once available from EbookCDRom. A similar CD-ROM edition of ''The Woggle-Bug Book'' was also made.<br />
<br />
==Have there been any ''Wizard of Oz'' video games?==<br />
<br />
A few.<br />
* There was an adventure game entitled ''The Wizard of Oz'', which combined elements of the first two books, for the Apple, Commodore 64, PC, and possibly other platforms in 1984. This was issued by the Telarium Corporation as part of their Windham Classics series. More information about the Telarium Corporation and their products can be found online at http://www.lysator.liu.se/adventure/Telarium_Corporation.html. ''The Wizard of Oz'' can be downloaded there for the Commodore, Apple II, PC, and Tandy computers or their emulators. You can even play it in your browser now, at http://www.virtualapple.org/wizardofozdisk.html.<br />
* A video game based on ''Return to Oz'' by US Gold was available for at least the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum. You can find out more about this game at http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0004115 and http://tacgr.emuunlim.com/downloads/filedetail.php?recid=2999.<br />
* ''Twisted'', a graphic adventure game for the Macintosh, is available for download at http://www.semitech.com/marc/ray.html.<br />
* Jack Lockerby released a text adventure based on ''The Wizard of Oz'' for the ZX Spectrum in 1995.<br />
* ''Yellow Brick Road'' is a CD-ROM adventure game, in which you control 3-D animated versions of the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion as you search for the missing Scarecrow. It was released in 1996 from Synergy, Inc. ''Yellow Brick Road 2'' has reportedly been issued, but I have not seen it.<br />
* The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) had ''The Wizard of Oz'', published by SETA, which came out in 1993. <br />
* A Russian game called ''Bolshebnik Strany Oz'' or ''The Wizard of Land Oz,'' was made for the ZX Spectrum in 1996. More information is available [http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0013128 here.]<br />
* The Fuzhou Waixing Computer Science & Technology Company of China, infamous for making games using graphics from other games, produced a Wizard of Oz-inspired game for the Famicon (the Japanese Nintendo Entertainment System) entitled ''Lu Ye Xian Zong'' in 1996. More information can be found here [http://bootleggames.wikia.com/wiki/Lu_Ye_Xian_Zong here].<br />
* One of the unreleased titles by Philips Funhouse for the CD-I system was a game called ''Treasures of Oz'', apparently based on the first book. It would have featured Diana Ross as the Good Witch of the North. More information is available [http://cdii.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-cd-i-brought-philips-funhouse-and.html here].<br />
* Available for download online is Zim Greenleaf's Laboratory, based on a character in the ''Seven Blue Mountains of Oz'' trilogy by Melody Grandy (available from Tails of the Cowardly Lion and Friends). It's on the web page http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXsourceXagt.html; scroll down to the file zimlab.zip.<br />
* See the previous question for information on DK's ''Oz: The Magical Adventure'', an educational program with many game elements.<br />
* In 2002, an Oz-themed game came out from THQ featuring the Rugrats, called ''Munchin Land'', for Windows.<br />
* A new Oz-themed video game was said to be in the works from Carbon6 Entertainment, the company that developed American McGee's ''Alice'' for Electronic Arts. It has since been announced the project has been shelved.<br />
* A number of these video games, and some original creations based on other Oz and Baum books, on its download page, are available from The Royal Website of Oz at http://dorothyandozma.com/downloads.html. The original games are available for online play here: http://dorothyandozma.com/games.html. That site also has information about other Oz video games.<br />
* In 2008, the Japanese company D3 released ''RIZ-ZOAWD'' a game for the Nintendo DS that was loosely based on ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.'' It was released in English in 2009 as ''The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.''<br />
* Recently, a number of Oz games have been available for free trial play with an option to purchase the full version. These have included ''[http://www.logler.com/the_wonderful_wizard_of_oz The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]'', a ''Bejeweled''-style gem matching game, ''[http://www.playfirst.com/game/emerald-city-confidential Emerald City Confidential],'' an adventure game with a film noir slant on Oz, and another game called ''[http://www.retro64.com/the_wonderful_wizard_of_oz_game.asp The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]'', based around hidden objects.<br />
* Word has spread of a possible Oz-themed area available in the MMORG ''World of Warcraft''. (Any ''WoW'' players out there want to fill me in on the details?)<br />
<br />
==Where can I find some ''Wizard of Oz'' clip art?==<br />
<br />
A long-term goal of mine for WWOOW is to add an Oz art gallery, including clip art. But I have no idea how soon I'll be able to do this. Until then, take a look at the WWOOW links page (see the question [[Oz_on_your_computer#Are_there_any_WWW_sites_having_to_do_with_Oz.3F|Are there any WWW sites having to do with Oz?]] below). There is one section set aside for sites with Oz art, and there may be something there that you can copy or download to suit your needs. You might also want to search online image archives or search engines (an example of the latter is http://images.google.com/). If you are interested in just The Movie, and are willing to do a little digging, Corel put out a ''Wizard of Oz'' version of its Print House Magic program, for Windows-based systems only, a few years ago. You may be able to find a used copy somewhere. The original illustrations by W. W. Denslow have finally come out on a clip art CD-ROM from Dover (ISBN 0486991466).<br />
<br />
==Where can I get ''Wizard of Oz'' screensavers or desktop accessories?==<br />
<br />
These are available on the WWW, free for downloading. A whole bunch of different Oz screensavers can be found at http://www.kfu.com/~scarlet/oz_screensavers.htm. The Hungry Tiger Press website has some non-Movie based wallpaper at http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertreats/index.shtml. If you don't find exactly what you are looking for, you may want to think about making your own Oz-themed desktop accessories, which is not as difficult as you might think — but it's also beyond the scope of this FAQ, so if you want to try this, you'll have to look for resources on desktop accessories.<br />
<br />
==How can I get in touch with other Oz fans on the Internet?==<br />
<br />
Regalia is an Oz mailing list, where members can write e-mails and they go to everyone else. For more information or to subscribe, see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/regaliaofoz/ and http://www.pauahtun.org/mailman/listinfo/regalia. Another list, hosted by author Edward Einhorn, is OzFiction at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OzFiction/. You can also find many Oz fans on message boards. One Oz message boards is hosted by IWOC at http://ozclubforums.yuku.com/directory. Some other Oz sites (see next question) also have message boards, and even chat rooms, so feel free to explore.<br />
<br />
==Are there any ''Wizard of Oz'' apps for my smartphone or tablet?==<br />
<br />
Yes, quite a few. Just go to your app store and start looking. I know, for example, that some programmers have reformatted ''The Wizard of Oz'' and other Oz books as apps. A site you may want to look at if you have an iPad or other Apple device is http://www.wizardofozapp.com/, which has a demonstration video and information about an interactive story version of ''The Wizard of Oz''.<br />
<br />
==Are there any WWW sites having to do with Oz?==<br />
<br />
Oh, yes! There are now far too many to list here, and they're being added to and removed from the WWW all the time. A very good place to start looking for Ozzy WWW sites is (TMOHH) WWOOW's links page at http://thewizardofoz.info/wiki/Oz_links. The page links to lists that add up to over three hundred links to other sites, and many of those sites have links to even more sites. Plus, some of those sites, along with WWOOW, are part of Oz webrings, allowing you to connect directly to other sites. So if you're looking for Ozzy websites, break out your browser and take a look. (Note that, while there are many sites on that links page, it is far from complete, and probably never will be. If you're looking for information on a specific Oz topic, you may want to try a search engine — or better yet, several of them — and provide as many keywords as possible.)<br />
<br />
==Is there an Oz newsgroup in Usenet?==<br />
<br />
There is. Check out alt.books.wizard-of-oz and alt.movies.wizard-of-oz. The trouble is, nobody seems to be using these groups — the few times anyone posts to them, it generally is an advertisement for something particularly non-Ozzy. Still, maybe someone will say something substantial in them some time. And there's always rec.arts.books.childrens, which many Oz fans read. If your local Internet service provider doesn't carry these newsgroups, you can access them for free through the Google Groups service at http://groups.google.com/group/alt.books.wizard-of-oz?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8, http://groups.google.com/group/alt.movies.wizard-of-oz?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8, and http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.books.childrens?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8.<br />
<br />
==Where can I find the texts of Oz books online?==<br />
<br />
Most of public domain Oz books, and many non-Oz books by Baum, have been made available to read online. Project Gutenberg is trying to get as many public domain works online as possible, and these include many books by Baum. For a list of what's available, check out the official Project Gutenberg site (http://www.gutenberg.net/) or the Online Public Library (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books), or any other site you may find by typing "Project Gutenberg" into a search engine. Several other sites have these texts as well, and some sites have other Oz and Oz-related books not published by Project Gutenberg, such as some of those on http://www.emeraldcityofoz.com/library/ and http://dorothyozma.tripod.com/library.htm. Other sites carry some books in other languages. For a list of Oz and Baum works known to be online, check the WWOOW links page (http://thewizardofoz.info/links.html).<br />
<br />
==Where can I find Wizard of Oz MIDI or other sound files on the Internet?==<br />
<br />
I know of no such resource for just Oz-related MIDIs or other sound files. Your best bet might be to use the keywords "Wizard of Oz MIDI" in your favorite search engine. Or try http://www.musicrobot.com for a search engine that specializes in MIDI and other sound files. Those looking for Oz music from the earliest Oz stage shows can find some samples, as either MIDI or MP3 files, at http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertunes/index.shtml. I also have a few sites listed on my links page — see the question [[Oz_on_your_computer#Are_there_any_WWW_sites_having_to_do_with_Oz.3F|Are there any WWW sites having to do with Oz?]].<br />
<br />
==Are there any ''Wizard of Oz'' ringtones that I can put on my cell phone?==<br />
<br />
A quick search on Google using "'Wizard of Oz' ringtones" turned up quite a few sites with ringtones from The Movie, of varying quality. Some appear to have been created by people who didn't know the music very well, as the ringtones placed the emphasis in odd places or had notes that were off. But they are out there, if you're willing to take a look. Sprint used to have some ''Wicked'' ringtones, but they don't appear to have them on their site any more.<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align:center;">[http://thewizardofoz.info/wiki/Oz_FAQ Oz FAQ Index Page] • [http://thewizardofoz.info/index.html "There's no place like the home page."]</div></div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Oz_on_your_computer&diff=391Oz on your computer2010-09-06T04:28:45Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* Have there been any Wizard of Oz video games? */ I took the liberty to update that to my new site.</p>
<hr />
<div>==Are there any Wizard of Oz computer programs or CD-ROMs?==<br />
<br />
Quite a few. Some examples:<br />
<br />
* ''The Legends of Oz'' came out in 1993 from Multicom Publishing, and has a number of different elements: The complete text of ''The Wizard of Oz'', animated storybooks of three SillyOZbul picture books by Roger S. Baum, pictures and film clips from The Movie, a matching game, background information, and more. It does not seem to be generally available any more, but searching might turn it up.<br />
* QVision Publishing (now defunct) put out a number of CD-ROMs based on the Oz books of L. Frank Baum. Each of Baum's fourteen Oz novels was released on its own CD-ROM with the complete text, narration, and illustrations. They were sold individually or as a set, and they still sell a single CD-ROM that holds just the texts of all fourteen novels.<br />
* ''Reading Adventures in Oz'', an educational game issued by Davidson and Associates around 1993 (I have yet to locate a copy of this).<br />
* ''The Wizard of Oz Audioclips'' — sounds from The Movie — from Sound Source Unlimited around 1993.<br />
* In 2000, DK put out ''Oz: The Magical Adventure'', an edutainment game for young children in which the player guides the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion through various areas of Oz to rescue Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the West. This was followed up in 2002 with ''The Oz Interactive Storybook''.<br />
* A CD-ROM of the first edition of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' was once available from EbookCDRom. A similar CD-ROM edition of ''The Woggle-Bug Book'' was also made.<br />
<br />
==Have there been any ''Wizard of Oz'' video games?==<br />
<br />
A few.<br />
* There was an adventure game entitled ''The Wizard of Oz'', which combined elements of the first two books, for the Apple, Commodore 64, PC, and possibly other platforms in 1984. This was issued by the Telarium Corporation as part of their Windham Classics series. More information about the Telarium Corporation and their products can be found online at http://www.lysator.liu.se/adventure/Telarium_Corporation.html. ''The Wizard of Oz'' can be downloaded there for the Commodore, Apple II, PC, and Tandy computers or their emulators. You can even play it in your browser now, at http://www.virtualapple.org/wizardofozdisk.html.<br />
* A video game based on ''Return to Oz'' by US Gold was available for at least the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum. You can find out more about this game at http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0004115.<br />
* ''Twisted'', a graphic adventure game for the Macintosh, is available for download at http://www.semitech.com/marc/ray.html.<br />
* In 1993, Seta issued a ''Wizard of Oz'' game based on The Movie for the Super Nintendo (SNES) system.<br />
* Jack Lockerby released a text adventure based on ''The Wizard of Oz'' for the ZX Spectrum in 1995.<br />
* ''Yellow Brick Road'' is a CD-ROM adventure game, in which you control 3-D animated versions of the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion as you search for the missing Scarecrow. It was released in 1996 from Synergy, Inc. ''Yellow Brick Road 2'' has reportedly been issued, but I have not seen it.<br />
* The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) had ''The Wizard of Oz'', published by SETA, which came out in 1993. <br />
* A Russian game called ''Bolshebnik Strany Oz'' or ''The Wizard of Land Oz,'' was made for the ZX Spectrum in 1996. More information is available [http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0013128 here.]<br />
* One of the unreleased titles by Philips Funhouse for the CD-I system was a game called ''Treasures of Oz'', apparently based on the first book. It would have featured Diana Ross as the Good Witch of the North. More information is available [http://cdii.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-cd-i-brought-philips-funhouse-and.html here].<br />
* Available for download online is Zim Greenleaf's Laboratory, based on a character in the ''Seven Blue Mountains of Oz'' trilogy by Melody Grandy (available from Tails of the Cowardly Lion and Friends). It's on the web page http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXsourceXagt.html; scroll down to the file zimlab.zip.<br />
* See the previous question for information on DK's ''Oz: The Magical Adventure'', an educational program with many game elements.<br />
* In 2002, an Oz-themed game came out from THQ featuring the Rugrats, called ''Munchin Land'', for Windows.<br />
* A new Oz-themed video game was said to be in the works from Carbon6 Entertainment, the company that developed American McGee's ''Alice'' for Electronic Arts. It has since been announced the project has been shelved.<br />
* A number of these video games, and some original creations based on other Oz and Baum books, on its download page, are available from The Royal Website of Oz at http://dorothyandozma.com/downloads.html. The original games are available for online play here: http://dorothyandozma.com/games.html. That site also has information about other Oz video games.<br />
* In 2008, the Japanese company D3 released ''RIZ-ZOAWD'' a game for the Nintendo DS that was loosely based on ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.'' It was released in English in 2009 as ''The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.''<br />
* Recently, a number of Oz games have been available for free trial play with an option to purchase the full version. These have included ''[http://www.logler.com/the_wonderful_wizard_of_oz The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]'', a ''Bejeweled''-style gem matching game, ''[http://www.playfirst.com/game/emerald-city-confidential Emerald City Confidential],'' an adventure game with a film noir slant on Oz, and another game called ''[http://www.retro64.com/the_wonderful_wizard_of_oz_game.asp The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]'', based around hidden objects.<br />
<br />
==Where can I find some ''Wizard of Oz'' clip art?==<br />
<br />
A long-term goal of mine for WWOOW is to add an Oz art gallery, including clip art. But I have no idea how soon I'll be able to do this. Until then, take a look at the WWOOW links page (see the question [[Oz_on_your_computer#Are_there_any_WWW_sites_having_to_do_with_Oz.3F|Are there any WWW sites having to do with Oz?]] below). There is one section set aside for sites with Oz art, and there may be something there that you can copy or download to suit your needs. You might also want to search online image archives or search engines (an example of the latter is http://images.google.com/). If you are interested in just The Movie, and are willing to do a little digging, Corel put out a ''Wizard of Oz'' version of its Print House Magic program, for Windows-based systems only, a few years ago. You may be able to find a used copy somewhere. The original illustrations by W. W. Denslow have finally come out on a clip art CD-ROM from Dover (ISBN 0486991466).<br />
<br />
==Where can I get ''Wizard of Oz'' screensavers or desktop accessories?==<br />
<br />
These are available on the WWW, free for downloading. A whole bunch of different Oz screensavers can be found at http://www.kfu.com/~scarlet/oz_screensavers.htm. The Hungry Tiger Press website has some non-Movie based wallpaper at http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertreats/index.shtml. If you don't find exactly what you are looking for, you may want to think about making your own Oz-themed desktop accessories, which is not as difficult as you might think — but it's also beyond the scope of this FAQ, so if you want to try this, you'll have to look for resources on desktop accessories.<br />
<br />
==How can I get in touch with other Oz fans on the Internet?==<br />
<br />
Regalia is an Oz mailing list, where members can write e-mails and they go to everyone else. For more information or to subscribe, see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/regaliaofoz/ and http://www.pauahtun.org/mailman/listinfo/regalia. Another list, hosted by author Edward Einhorn, is OzFiction at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OzFiction/. You can also find many Oz fans on message boards. One Oz message boards is hosted by IWOC at http://ozclubforums.yuku.com/directory. Some other Oz sites (see next question) also have message boards, and even chat rooms, so feel free to explore.<br />
<br />
==Are there any WWW sites having to do with Oz?==<br />
<br />
Oh, yes! There are now far too many to list here, and they're being added to and removed from the WWW all the time. A very good place to start looking for Ozzy WWW sites is (TMOHH) WWOOW's links page at http://thewizardofoz.info/links.html. The page lists over three hundred links to other sites, and many of those sites have links to even more sites. Plus, some of those sites, along with WWOOW, are part of Oz webrings, allowing you to connect directly to other sites. So if you're looking for Ozzy websites, break out your browser and take a look. (Note that, while there are many sites on that links page, it is far from complete, and probably never will be. If you're looking for information on a specific Oz topic, you may want to try a search engine — or better yet, several of them — and provide as many keywords as possible.)<br />
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==Is there an Oz newsgroup in Usenet?==<br />
<br />
There is. Check out alt.books.wizard-of-oz and alt.movies.wizard-of-oz. The trouble is, nobody seems to be using these groups — the few times anyone posts to them, it generally is an advertisement for something particularly non-Ozzy. Still, maybe someone will say something substantial in them some time. And there's always rec.arts.books.childrens, which many Oz fans read. If your local Internet service provider doesn't carry these newsgroups, you can access them for free through the Google Groups service at http://groups.google.com/group/alt.books.wizard-of-oz?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8, http://groups.google.com/group/alt.movies.wizard-of-oz?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8, and http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.books.childrens?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8.<br />
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==Where can I find the texts of Oz books online?==<br />
<br />
Most of public domain Oz books, and many non-Oz books by Baum, have been made available to read online. Project Gutenberg is trying to get as many public domain works online as possible, and these include many books by Baum. For a list of what's available, check out the official Project Gutenberg site (http://www.gutenberg.net/) or the Online Public Library (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books), or any other site you may find by typing "Project Gutenberg" into a search engine. Several other sites have these texts as well, and some sites have other Oz and Oz-related books not published by Project Gutenberg, such as some of those on http://www.emeraldcityofoz.com/library/ and http://dorothyozma.tripod.com/library.htm. Other sites carry some books in other languages. For a list of Oz and Baum works known to be online, check the WWOOW links page (http://thewizardofoz.info/links.html).<br />
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==Where can I find Wizard of Oz MIDI or other sound files on the Internet?==<br />
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I know of no such resource for just Oz-related MIDIs or other sound files. Your best bet might be to use the keywords "Wizard of Oz MIDI" in your favorite search engine. Or try http://www.musicrobot.com for a search engine that specializes in MIDI and other sound files. Those looking for Oz music from the earliest Oz stage shows can find some samples, as either MIDI or MP3 files, at http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertunes/index.shtml. I also have a few sites listed on my links page — see the question [[Oz_on_your_computer#Are_there_any_WWW_sites_having_to_do_with_Oz.3F|Are there any WWW sites having to do with Oz?]].<br />
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==Are there any ''Wizard of Oz'' ringtones that I can put on my cell phone?==<br />
<br />
A quick search on Google using "'Wizard of Oz' ringtones" turned up quite a few sites with ringtones from The Movie, of varying quality. Some appear to have been created by people who didn't know the music very well, as the ringtones placed the emphasis in odd places or had notes that were off. But they are out there, if you're willing to take a look. Sprint used to have some ''Wicked'' ringtones, but they don't appear to have them on their site any more.<br />
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<div style="text-align:center;">[http://thewizardofoz.info/wiki/Oz_FAQ Oz FAQ Index Page] • [http://thewizardofoz.info/index.html "There's no place like the home page."]</div></div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Dramatic_presentations_of_Oz&diff=229Dramatic presentations of Oz2010-08-08T15:25:54Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* Have there been any Oz movies? */ A bit about independent Oz films.</p>
<hr />
<div>[A word here about video formats: All references to home video in this section, unless otherwise noted, refer to what's been released in North America on the NTSC VHS format, and Region 1 (United States and Canada) DVDs and Region A Blu-Ray discs in NTSC. Outside of the United States and Canada, you will probably have to do some looking on your own. I'd love to include anything you find out in future editions of this FAQ, so please write me if you have information.]<br />
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==Was ''The Wizard of Oz'' or any other Oz story ever performed as a play?==<br />
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Most certainly! In fact, almost as soon as it was published, there was talk of turning it into a play. Under the guidance of stage manager Julian Mitchell, ''The Wizard of Oz'' debuted in Chicago in 1902, and a year later it was playing on Broadway, where it racked up one of the longest runs of its day. Touring productions of the play were on the road as late as 1909, and regional theaters were putting it on as late as 1918. Its original stars, Fred Stone and David Montgomery, who played the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, went on to become successes in other shows. Despite bearing little resemblance to the book — Dorothy's pet dog Toto became her pet cow Imogene, for instance, other characters were added, there was no Wicked Witch of the West, the Lion's part was greatly reduced and he couldn't talk, and many musical numbers that had nothing to do with the plot were thrown in — it was a great success which Baum tried to duplicate twice. His first attempt was ''The Woggle-Bug'' in 1905, a dramatization of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'', which "failed to woggle," as one observer put it. The critics said it was too similar to ''The Wizard of Oz'', and not as good, and it failed to draw an audience. It only played a few weeks in Milwaukee and Chicago. In 1913, Baum tried again with a dramatization of the third Oz book, ''Ozma of Oz'', but he made enough changes to make an entirely new story called ''The Tik-Tok Man of Oz''. Although successful in its Los Angeles and Chicago runs, it never made it to Broadway, and so Baum used the story instead as the basis for his next Oz book, where it became ''Tik-Tok of Oz''.<br />
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With the exception of the 1928 Jean Gros marionette show ''The Magical Land of Oz'', which was an adaptation of ''Ozma of Oz'' written by Ruth Plumly Thompson, and the Junior League adaptations of several Oz books in the 1920s and 1930s, for the most part that was it for Oz stage shows for some time. The success of The Movie, however, changed that, and in the 1940s the St. Louis Light Opera put on a version of ''The Wizard of Oz'', adapted by Frank Gabrielson and with songs from The Movie. It was successful enough that other regional theaters put it on as well, and are continuing to do so to this day.<br />
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In 1974, producer Ken Harper put on a new staging of ''The Wizard of Oz'' with all new music and an African-American cast. The storyline of ''The Wiz'' stayed fairly close to the original book, and after out-of-town tryouts, it opened on Broadway in 1975, where it picked up seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Director of a Musical. It has been revived, performed in community theaters, and loosely adapted into a movie.<br />
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Since then, most of the major stage productions have been tied in with The Movie. A lavish arena show toured much of North America in 1989, and in 1995 a one-time show, ''The Wizard of Oz in Concert'', emphasizing the music, was presented in New York City with an all-star cast to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. The latter was recorded and broadcast on American cable channel TNT, and has been released on videotape and reshown on PBS stations and VH1. In Great Britain, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged ''The Wizard of Oz'', a closer adaptation of The Movie than the St. Louis Light Opera show, for several Christmas seasons beginning in the 1980s, and this version has now been performed around the world, and is available for companies to put on. ''The Wizard of Oz on Ice'' toured a number of North American cities in the 1990s, and there were also Oz productions in many earlier editions of the Ice Follies and Ice Capades. And a major production, produced by Madison Square Garden and featuring Mickey Rooney as the Wizard, toured throughout the United States and Canada.<br />
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In 2003, a new show opened on Broadway after a successful tryout that summer in San Francisco. ''Wicked'', based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, is the story of what happened in Oz before Dorothy dropped in, and focuses on the relationship between Glinda the Good and Elphaba, who became the Wicked Witch of the West. It opened to mixed reviews, but the audiences were enthusiastic, and ''Wicked'' went on to become one of the biggest recent success stories on Broadway. It won many awards, including one for Best Actress in a Musical for Idina Menzel, who played Elphaba. Also, the cast album won a Grammy. As of July 2010, there are ''Wicked'' companies on Broadway, San Francisco (scheduled to close in September), the West End in London, Tokyo, Sydney, Oberhausen (Germany), and two North American touring companies. New productions are also scheduled to open in Denmark and Finland in the coming months.<br />
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There have also been several school, community, and children's theater stage productions of not only ''The Wizard of Oz'', but also ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', ''The Yellow Knight of Oz'', ''Merry Go Round in Oz'', and probably other books as well, over the years, as well as the Oz-themed novel ''Was'' and new Oz stories written especially for the stage. ''Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda'' (see the question [[#What.27s_this_I_hear_about_a_different_Oz_series_in_Russia.3F|What's this I hear about a different Oz series in Russia?]]) has also been performed on stage in Russia.<br />
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==Our school/local community theater group wants to put on ''The Wizard of Oz''. Where can we get a script and the rights to do it?==<br />
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The current source for the amateur stage rights of The Movie is Tams-Witmark. You must go through Tams-Witmark and pay their royalties if you want to use the music from The Movie, even if you don't use their script. They have two different versions, one based on the 1940s St. Louis show (http://www.tamswitmark.com/musicals/wizard.html), and one based on the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation (http://www.tamswitmark.com/musicals/wizardrsc.html). They can be reached on the WWW at http://www.tamswitmark.com. Music Theatre International also has a musical version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' available to theater companies, but the music is not that from The Movie. They are on the WWW at http://www.mtishows.com/default.asp, and they have a web page about their version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' at http://www.mtishowspace.com/mod/shows/mtishow.php?showid=000028. Another version is available through Classics on Stage (http://www.classicsonstage.com/scriptswizardofoz.html), and Pioneer Drama Services (http://www.pioneerdrama.com/) has five (!) different versions available. Yet another version (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/4326 — this is the non-musical Junior League version from the 1920s), along with ''The Wiz'' (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/2772) is available through Samuel French (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/). Still more versions of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and other Oz scripts can be found at Dramatic Publishing (http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/). A number of scripts for ''The Wizard of Oz'' and other Oz shows are available for sale through (TMOHH) the WWOOW's bookshop, aisle 10 (http://thewizardofoz.info/aisle10.html), and these generally contain performance and royalty information. If you are willing to forego the famous songs from The Movie, the story itself is in public domain, so you can always write your own script, as long as it's not a direct rip-off of The Movie or any other script. ''Wicked'' is not yet available for local productions, and likely won't be for some time. And no, there's no readily-available version of the 1902 stage play, either, and I don't know why.<br />
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==How can we make sets, costumes, and so forth for our production of ''The Wizard of Oz''?==<br />
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That's a very big, long question, and difficult to answer in a document of this type. Let's just say that it all depends on your performance area, budget, available materials, what crafts people you have available and what they can do, and what the director wants. You'd be better off looking for information on stagecraft rather than trying to get answers here. Some Oz-specific suggestions can be found, however, at http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/stagethewizard.html. Some sketches, plans, and scene designs used by the St. Louis Municipal Light Opera are available at http://www.trinity.edu/sgilliam/sd/oz.html and http://www.angelfire.com/tx/SLGDESIGN/oz.html. Moonstruck Dramatic Books has pages on their site devoted to both ''The Wizard of Oz'' (http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm6.htm) and ''The Wiz'' (http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm59.html). Information on Oz costumes and costume patterns can be found in the question [[Miscellaneous_questions#Where_can_I_find_Oz_costumes.3F|Where can I find Oz costumes?]]. Good lu... — er, I mean, break a leg!<br />
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==Who are Gloria, Lord Growley, and Tibia? I don't remember them from The Movie. What can you tell me about them?==<br />
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All three are new characters created for the St. Louis Light Opera's script for ''The Wizard of Oz''. Lord Growley is the prime minister of the Emerald City. He serves the same role in that show as the Soldier with the Green Whiskers does in the book, or many of the characters played by Frank Morgan in The Movie. Gloria is his daughter, who shows Dorothy the sights. Gloria, some of her friends, and Dorothy have a song in the show that is not from The Movie. (This Gloria is not the same character as Princess Gloria, from Baum's ''The Scarecrow of Oz''.) Tibia is a live skeleton who acts as the Wicked Witch's butler and henchman. Since none of these characters appear in The Movie or any other version or adaptation of Oz, actors playing these roles are free to interpret them in any way they care to.<br />
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==What can you tell me about ''Wicked''?==<br />
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''Wicked'' is a musical show currently playing on Broadway, and in San Francisco, London's West End, Tokyo, Australia, and Germany, as well as two companies touring North America, with new productions scheduled to open in Finland and Denmark. It opened on Broadway in 2003, and is still doing well, having now become the eighteenth longest running show inBroadway history. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire, which is one of those Oz books that's not really written for children. ''Wicked'' tells the story of Elphaba, a young woman with green skin and a strong independent streak, how she becomes friends with Galinda (who later shortens her name to Glinda and becomes a good witch), and how she eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. The novel is very dark, which has surprised some of the younger fans of the play when they seek it out. The play, while following the basic storyline, is lighter and appropriate for most audiences, although it is not recommended for theatergoers under the age of eight (probably more for the length of the show and the confusing experience of being at a big time professional show rather than content). For more details about the show, take a look at the ''Wicked'' pages on the website of the composer, Stephen Schwartz, at http://www.musicalschwartz.com/wicked.htm. There's even a ''Wicked''-specific FAQ there.<br />
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==Have there been any Oz movies?==<br />
<br />
Oh, yes! Thanks to television, and now home video, for many people Oz ''is'' a movie, shown annually on American television and one of the most famous, beloved, and watched films of all time. Yet from the earliest days of filmmaking there have been Oz movies. In 1911 the Baums moved to a sleepy little suburb of Los Angeles called Hollywood, and Frank got caught up in the fledgling movie industry there, going so far as to organize his own film studio. Here is a partial, annotated list of Oz movies that have been made over the years:<br />
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* '''''The Fairylogue and Radio Plays'''''. This was an elaborate multimedia show that toured the midwestern and eastern United States in 1908, and L. Frank Baum himself presented it. Using hand-tinted films, slides, live actors, and a full orchestra, Baum presented dramatizations of ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', and ''John Dough and the Cherub'', and a preview of his then-forthcoming new book, ''Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz''. No film from this show is known to exist, but the slides and scripts do.<br />
* '''''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''''', '''''Dorothy and the Scarecrow of Oz''''', '''''The Land of Oz''''', '''''John Dough and the Cherub'''''. When the ''Fairylogue'' ran into financial trouble, Baum assigned the film rights to some of his books to the Selig Polyscope Company, which had made the films, and as a result these one-reelers were released in 1910. These are not the Fairylogue films, but new versions. Thought lost for years, the first film turned up at the Kodak Film Archives in Rochester, New York, in the early 1990s. Clips were featured in the made-for-video documentary, ''Oz: The American Fairyland''. ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' has been shown on Turner Classic Movies, and is part of the current DVD releases of The Movie. It was also released as part of the DVD set ''More Treasures from the American Film Archives''. Nobody has found any sign of the other three films.<br />
* '''''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''''', '''''The Magic Cloak of Oz''''', '''''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'''''. These were produced by Baum's own Oz Film Company in 1914, and were not terribly successful. They were based on, respectively, ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', ''Queen Zixi of Ix'' (with its location changed from Ix to Oz), and a number of elements of Baum's other books. The latter was written up a year later as the novel ''The Scarecrow of Oz''. ''The Magic Cloak of Oz'' was released as two two-reelers in Great Britain, ''The Witch Queen'' and ''The Magic Cloak'', and the only prints currently available just give the title as ''The Magic Cloak''; while ''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'' was later released as ''The New Wizard of Oz''. The Oz Film Company also made some films based on Baum's non-Oz writings, none of which are now known to exist, although parts of ''The Last Egyptian'' were recently found. The complete Oz movies are currently available on home video and DVD in several different packages. ''The Magic Cloak of Oz'' and ''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'' are part of the first 3-DVD collector's set of The Movie, and they were joined by ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' on its 2009 release.<br />
* '''''The Wizard of Oz'''''. This 1925 release, co-written by Baum's eldest son, had a character named Dorothy living in Kansas and a house transported to Oz via cyclone, but the resemblance to the book ends there. This is a slapstick farce that served mainly as a vehicle for comedian Larry Semon, who played the Scarecrow. This film is most notable today for a set of farmhands who later become Dorothy's three friends in Oz, an idea MGM may have borrowed for The Movie; and the appearance of a young Oliver Hardy, somewhat slimmer than when he teamed up with Stan Laurel two years later. Hardy played the farmhand who disguised himself as a Tin Man. Currently available on home video and DVD, and a cleaned-up and restored version is part of current DVD release of The Movie. (This movie and the three Oz Film Company movies are all available on VHS, individually or in an attractive boxed set, from American Home Entertainment, and in a 3-DVD set from Brentwood Home Video.) There are also a few British DVDs in PAL format; one has it as part of a Laurel and Hardy collection (even though Stan Laurel wasn't in it), paired up with the movie ''Hustling for Health'', which featured Stan Laurel but not Hardy.<br />
* '''''The Wizard of Oz'''''. A 1933 cartoon short directed by Ted Eshbaugh, it was originally made in Technicolor. Unfortunately, before it hit theaters, Walt Disney signed an exclusive agreement with Technicolor, thus holding up release of Eshbaugh's short. Black and white copies eventually made it into the hands of collectors, and in the late 1980s it was finally released on home video. An excerpt was included on the 1998 DVD release of The Movie, and the whole cartoon, in color, is part of the most recent DVD releases of The Movie.<br />
* '''''The Wizard of Oz'''''. This is it, the big one, MGM's 1939 Judy Garland vehicle, the most watched movie in history. For many people, this movie ''is'' Oz. There have been so many questions, legends, rumors, half-truths, and speculations surrounding this movie that six (!) sections of this FAQ are devoted to it. Besides its annual television showings, it's been released on home video, laserdisk, and DVD in several versions, and made its Blu-Ray debut in 2009.<br />
* '''''The Wonderful Land of Oz'''''. A 1969 low-budget musical adaptation of Baum's second book, poor acting and poor production values let this one down. It was released on VHS and DVD (the latter paired with ''Jack and the Beanstalk'') by Something Weird in 2002, but it is no longer available in their catalog.<br />
* '''''Ayşecik ve Sihirli Cüceler Rüyalar Ülkesinde (Little Ayse and the Magic Dwarfs in the Land of Dreams'')''', a 1971 low-budget Turkish adaptation that has gained a latter-day cult following. Some have called it the worst film ever made.<br />
* '''''Journey Back to Oz'''''. Released in Europe in 1972 and North America in 1974, this was the first full-length animated Oz theatrical release, and boasted a stellar cast of voices, including Liza Minnelli as Dorothy, Mickey Rooney as the Scarecrow, and Ethel Merman as Mombi, the Wicked Witch. Although loosely based on ''The Land of Oz'', it introduced a number of its own elements, including an army of marauding green elephants. To date, probably the most successful animated Oz film, although it still leaves much to be desired. It has been released on home video, and made its DVD debut in 2006.<br />
* '''''Oz''''' (North American title: '''''Twentieth Century Oz'''''). A 1976 Australian film that transplanted the story of ''The Wizard of Oz'' to Melbourne and its environs, with the Scarecrow becoming a dim surfer, the Tin Woodman a greasy mechanic, the Lion a braggart biker, and the Wizard a rock star. It was rated "R" in the United States, so this is not a film for kids! Not available on North American home video, but it has been shown on local television in Canada, and is now available on DVD in Australia.<br />
* '''''The Wiz'''''. The 1977 movie version of the Broadway play, although Oz is transplanted to New York City, and much of what made the play a success is lost. It stars Diana Ross as a rather mature Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, and Richard Pryor as the Wiz. It is available on home video and DVD.<br />
* '''''Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oroz'''''. This 1984 Brazilian comedy features the slapstick troupe Os Trapalhões as the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion in a search for water during a drought. Children's television host Xuxa plays the Cowardly Lion's girlfriend (!).<br />
* '''''Return to Oz'''''. This 1985 film was Disney's attempt to get in on Oz. (An elaborate Oz production number, starring the Mousketeers, was shown on the ''Disneyland'' television show in the 1960s as a preview for ''The Rainbow Road to Oz'', which was never made.) Loosely based on ''The Land of Oz'' and ''Ozma of Oz'', it was too dark and gloomy for many, and critics unfamiliar with the books made unfavorable comparisons to The Movie. It has been released on home video and DVD, and been shown on the Disney Channel, the Family Channel, the Hallmark Channel, and premium movie channels on cable, and independent television stations around America.<br />
* '''''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''''', '''''The Marvelous Land of Oz''''', '''''Ozma of Oz''''', '''''The Emerald City of Oz'''''. These animated films, made by Cinar Films Inc. in Canada in 1987, were released direct to videotape and DVD in North America, but were shown in theaters in several other countries around the world. These were edited compilations of the TV series (see the question [[#Has_there_ever_been_an_Oz_TV_show.3F|Has there ever been an Oz TV show?]] below), but they've also been shown by themselves on cable.<br />
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Oz and Ozian themes have also been a part of other films, most notably ''Zardoz'', ''Wild at Heart'', and ''Under the Rainbow'', a poor Chevy Chase comedy about Nazi spies infiltrating Hollywood during the filming of The Movie. Oz jokes and references, usually referring to The Movie, often pop up in other films, such as ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'' ''Batman'' (1989), ''Kentucky Fried Movie'', ''Top Secret'', and ''One True Thing'', to name but a few. And if you look carefully, you can see Oz books in ''Rambling Rose'', ''You've Got Mail'', and perhaps other movies. Clips from The Movie itself appear in ''Jumanji'' and ''Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'', and probably others.<br />
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With the wide array of video sharing sites, a number of fan made or independent short Oz films are available online. (Due to the changing nature of these sites, a list may become obsolete.) Some independent studios are even attempting their own Oz feature films.<br />
<br />
==Why doesn't Hollywood make more Oz movies?==<br />
<br />
In a nutshell, it's already been done. The Movie is so well known that studio executives are generally reluctant to even consider another movie based on the Oz books. The generally poor reception of ''The Wiz'' and ''Return to Oz'' only adds to the perception. Plus, Oz just doesn't seem to fit into the current Hollywood movie-making climate, which expects lots of aliens, laser battles, car chases, and the like for a movie — at least one that would cost as much as a live-action Oz film — to be even considered for production. However, that may change soon. Keep reading...<br />
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==I've heard about a new Oz movie being made. What can you tell me about it?==<br />
<br />
It looks as if enough time has passed since ''The Wiz'' and ''Return to Oz'' for Hollywood to think about Oz movies again, because several potential Oz movies have been rumored to be in the works. One was entitled ''Somewhere'', and was to feature Elizabeth Taylor playing Dorothy, now a grandmother, returning to Oz. Another project, overseen by Drew Barrymore, was called ''Surrender, Dorothy'', and would feature Barrymore playing Dorothy's great-granddaughter, who went to Oz and faces the Wicked Witch's granddaughter. And ''Pamela West'' has been mentioned, which would make the Witch the heroine and Dorothy the evil interloper. One may note that at least some of these projects appear to be sequels to The Movie, rather than based on the books or any other version of Oz. It must be emphasized that, as of this writing (December, 2005), none of these films has actually gone before the cameras, and it appears unlikely that any of them will be made. You'll just have to keep watching your local movie listings to see if any Oz movies get made and come to your local theater. For all the latest rumors and updates on Oz movie productions, keep an eye on http://thewizardofoz.info/oznews.html#rumors.<br />
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==Hey, am I missing a scene in the 1914 silent version of ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''? Where is it? What happens in it?==<br />
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Yes, you are missing a key scene in ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' — but so is everyone else, as it's missing from the only known original print. Early film stock was fragile, and could rot or fall apart if not properly cared for, which was the case with the first reel of ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''. You can see the damage creep in as a white blob on the right hand side of the screen, and it progressively gets worse and worse as the reel keeps going. Finally, the key scene of the Patchwork Girl coming to life, and Unk Nunkie, Margolotte, and Danx turning to stone when the Liquid of Petrification falls on them is so badly damaged that I have never seen it intact in any film print or video or DVD release. Oz and silent movie fans around the world would be extremely happy if another, intact copy of the first reel was to ever turn up.<br />
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==I hear there's a big scene with lots of other Oz characters in ''Return to Oz''. Where is it, and who's in it?==<br />
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Right at the end of the 1985 Disney movie, once the Emerald City has been restored, there is a joyous celebration that leads up to Ozma's liberation and Dorothy returning home. The makers of ''Return to Oz'' paid homage to the Oz stories by slipping in many, many characters from the books into the crowds in these scenes, all based on the original Denslow and Neill illustrations. Sharp-eyed viewers can find the Guardian of the Gates, the Shaggy Man, the Patchwork Girl, Polychrome, the Bumpy Man, the Braided Man, Tommy Kwikstep, the Frogman, Rinkitink, and probably a few others as well. And by the way, those short people with the fur hats? Those are the Munchkins, sporting a new design for this film.<br />
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==Will there ever be a film version of ''Wicked''?==<br />
<br />
It's difficult to predict, as Hollywood is fickle. If some executive were to approve a film version of ''Wicked'', there's no guarantee that another executive wouldn't come in, take his place, and cancel it. There are no current plans for a film version of ''Wicked'', but one of the producers of the show is Universal Pictures, and musicals are becoming big at the movies again. So it's not only possible, but likely that there will be a film version. When, however, I couldn't even begin to tell you. It will probably be some time still, however, so that the play can run its course on tour and around the world (the play hasn't even opened outside of North America yet). If anything concrete comes up, I'll put it up on WWOOW's news page (http://thewizardofoz.info/oznews.html).<br />
<br />
==Was there ever a movie called ''The Wizard of Oz 2''?==<br />
<br />
Not by that name, no. But there have been several sequels to ''The Wizard of Oz'' made as movies, or released direct to video. The one most people seem to be thinkning of, however, when they ask me this question is the 1985 Disney movie ''Return to Oz''. See the question [[#Have_there_been_any_Oz_movies.3F|Have there been any Oz movies?]] for more details on Oz movies.<br />
<br />
==Was there ever an Oz radio show?==<br />
<br />
Yes. Back in 1933, Jell-O sponsored a fifteen minute ''Wizard of Oz'' radio show on NBC's red network, which was broadcast Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons. It ran for six months, but then Jell-O decided to switch their sponsorship to Jack Benny instead, so that was it for Oz. The series pretty much followed the books, getting as far as ''The Emerald City of Oz'', with some allowances made for radio, and lots of songs and advertisements for Jell-O thrown in. No episodes of this series are known to survive, but NBC's archives still hold the scripts. Also, there exists two episodes of an adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' from the same era, broadcast on CBS, but nobody's been able to find out any more about them. More recently, the BBC produced its own version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' for British radio in the 1990s. This is currently available in Great Britain and North America in a two CD set or audio download from the BBC Radio Collection. A second BBC adaptation was played on BBC Radio and the bbc.co.uk website during the 2009 holiday season. And during the holiday season in 2000, many public radio stations in the United States broadcast a new radio adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' with an all-star cast, including Michelle Trachtenberg as Dorothy, Harry Anderson as the Wizard, Rene Auberjonois as the Scarecrow, Nestor Serrano as the Tin Woodman, and Robert Guillaume as the Cowardly Lion. This production is available as a four-CD set from LodesTone Audio Theatre, http://www.lodestone-media.com/wizard.html, and other outlets. Mention should also be made here of the Colonial Radio Theatre's audio adaptations of the first five Oz books. Although never actually broadcast on radio, they're presented, on ten audio cassettes, as if they were. You can find information about this set, and hear some samples, at http://www.colonialradio.com/titles.html#ozbox.<br />
<br />
Two Oz-related episodes of radio shows also need to be mentioned here. An installment of the ''Maxwell House Good News'' show broadcast in June of 1939 was devoted to a sneak peek at The Movie, which was due to be released later that summer. It featured Judy Garland, Frank Morgan (a regular ''Good News'' cast member), Ray Bolger, and Bert Lahr, and was the public debut of the songs from The Movie. It featured many behind-the-scenes vignettes (mostly made up for the show), a "Baby Snooks" routine where her Daddy reads the story to her, and an appearance by Fred Stone, who played the Scarecrow in the 1902 stage play. (A snippet of this show can even be heard in the opening audio montage of the science fiction movie ''Contact'', as it's one of the few examples of radio from that time period that's been preserved.) The CD version of the ''Good News'' episode includes the original commercials, and MGM's ''Wizard of Oz'' edition of ''Leo Is On the Air'', an extended radio advertisement. Both shows are also available as audio-only tracks on the current American DVD and Blu-Ray releases of The Movie. On Christmas Day, 1950, Judy Garland recreated her role as Dorothy for an adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' on ''The Lux Radio Theatre''. Garland was the only original cast member, but her then-four-year-old daughter, Liza Minnelli, makes a cameo appearance at the end. Both of these radio episodes have been released on record, audiocassette, and CD, the latter available from Radio Spirits at http://www.radiospirits.com/. The Lux Radio Theatre production is also available as part of the current DVD and Blu-Ray releases of The Movie.<br />
<br />
==Have there been talking book versions of any of the Oz books?==<br />
<br />
Yes, quite a few. Most have been adaptations of the story for very young children of ''The Wizard of Oz'', many of which are still available today. One, from Caedmon, was read by Ray Bolger, who also read adaptations of ''The Land of Oz'', ''Queen Zixi of Ix'', and some of the "Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz" comic stories. These are currently available on cassette in a boxed set as ''The Oz Audio Collection''. Another notable version came out from Columbia Records in 1969, with the entire book recorded on seven records, read by George Rose and Mildred Dunnock. More recently, Piglet Press has put out large cast readings of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''The Emerald City of Oz'' on cassette. In the 1960s, Disney put out book-and-record editions of ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Scarecrow of Oz'' (narrated by Ray Bolger), ''The Tin Woodman of Oz'', and a new story called ''The Cowardly Lion of Oz'' — not to be confused with the Ruth Plumly Thompson story of the same name, despite the claims of the album notes that it is an adaptation. And there have been many other audio adaptations of ''The Wizard of Oz'' on records, cassettes, CDs, and now CD-ROM. Gregory Maguire's novels ''Wicked'' and ''Son of a Witch'', and Stuart Kaminsky's ''Murder on the Yellow Brick Road'' have been recorded as audiobooks.<br />
<br />
A number of free audiobooks are available from [http://librivox.org Librivox], including a number of Oz and Baum books, recorded by volunteers. [http://uvulaaudio.com/kids.html Uvula Audio Books] also has a number of Baum titles available for free downloading.<br />
<br />
==Has there ever been an Oz TV show?==<br />
<br />
Yes, quite a few now. Again, here's an incomplete checklist of what's been shown:<br />
<br />
* SERIES:<br />
** ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz''. A series of 130 short (less than five minutes each) cartoons about the adventures of Socrates the Straw Man, Rusty the Tin Man, Dandy Lion, and other characters very loosely based on ''The Wizard of Oz'', with many liberties taken. Produced in 1961, these were probably shown between other cartoons on Saturday mornings or on local independent stations. They seem to have been especially widespread in Canada, as many people have written to me having seen them there. I've heard that some episodes have been released on home video, but these aren't generally available any more. Episodes have also been available on some cable system's digital "on demand" systems. You can find out a little more at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3584.<br />
** ''Off to See the Wizard''. This series was MGM's answer to ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', in that it was an anthology of old movies, short subjects, etc., from the studio's archives. The animated Oz segments were used to introduce the show and as bumpers going into commercial breaks. The animation was done by Chuck Jones, and voices included Mel Blanc, June Foray, and Daws Butler. Some samples are included on recent North American releases of The Movie on DVD and Blu-Ray. More information is available at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=2673.<br />
** ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. This 1987 animated series, made by Cinar, Inc. in Canada, was made up of four stories: ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', and ''The Emerald City of Oz''. In the United States the fifty-two episode series has been shown on HBO and other cable channels, but only the edited movie versions have been released on VHS and DVD. It was released in its entirety, uncut, on DVD in other countries around the world. The English version is available for online viewing in a serial format at [http://www.jaroo.com/shows/about/the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz Jaroo.com].<br />
** From 1987 to 1990, Jim Henson's company produced ''Jim Henson's Mother Goose Stories'', a series of short vignettes that told the story behind several of the classic Mother Goose rhymes. A number of the stories (but not all) were based on stories written by L. Frank Baum in his first published children's book, ''Mother Goose in Prose''. Some of the stories have been released on VHS and DVD.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz''. In 1990, to capitalize on the publicity surrounding The Movie's fiftieth anniversary, Turner Entertainment Co. and DIC produced this thirteen episode animated series, based on The Movie. In the Unites States it ran on ABC Saturday mornings during the 1990-91 TV season. Some episodes have been released on VHS. Three DVD collections are currently available, meaning only two episodes have not been released on DVD. More information about the show is available at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3962.<br />
** Some time in the 1990s, Tokyo Broadcasting Service broadcast ''Shonen Santa no Daibouken'', or ''The Adventures of Young Santa Claus'', an animated adaptation of Baum's ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus''. This ran for twenty-four episodes. More information (but not much!) can be found at http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rllew/santa.html. So far, nobody has been able to track down any video or DVD release in either Japan or the United States.<br />
* SPECIALS AND ONE-TIME EVENTS:<br />
** ''The Land of Oz''. This adaptation of the second Oz book was an episode of Shirley Temple's weekly 1960 NBC series, and featured Temple as Tip and Ozma, Jonathan Winters as General Nikidik, and Agnes Moorehead as Mombi. (It was this role, incidentally, that convinced the producers of the series ''Bewitched'' to cast Moorehead as Endora, Samantha's mother, on that series.) In 2005, it was released on DVD as part of a set of Shirley Temple adaptations. More information can be found at http://www.buyshirleytemple.com/.<br />
** ''Return to Oz''. The producers of ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' used many of the same characterizations for this 1964 animated TV special, shown on NBC. It has previously been released on VHS, but isn't currently generally available. It was more recently released on DVD, but this is no longer available new. You can find out more about this special, and Susan Conway, who provided the voice of Dorothy, at http://www.rankinbass.com/schome.html.<br />
** ''The Making of The Wizard of Oz''. Aljean Harmetz, author of the book of the same name, hosted this short 1979 documentary, shown on PBS in the United States, about the making of the movie. Includes interviews with Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Margaret Hamilton, among others.<br />
** ''Thanksgiving in Oz'' (AKA ''Dorothy in the Land of Oz'', ''Christmas in Oz'', ''Dorothy and the Green Gobbler in Oz'', or just plain ''Oz''). Animated holiday special first shown in 1980. Very loosely based on ''Ozma of Oz''. It has previously been released a number on VHS, and on DVD in 2007 (coupled with ''Peter and the Magic Egg'' with Ray Bolger).<br />
** ''The Whimsical World of Oz''. 1985 documentary about the Oz phenomenon, partly used to publicize Disney's film ''Return to Oz'', and shown on PBS stations.<br />
** ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' (1985). Another holiday special, this one was made by Rankin-Bass and faithfully adapted from Baum's book of the same name. The animation uses stop-motion puppets, like other famous Rankin-Bass specials such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer''. It is available on VHS and DVD (the latter coupled with another old Rankin-Bass special, ''Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey''), and shown during the Christmas season on the ABC Family Channel.<br />
** ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic''. As part of The Movie's fiftieth anniversary, Angela Lansbury hosted a documentary about the history and making of The Movie, shown after the movie's TV broadcast in 1990 and 1996, and in conjunction with many of The Movie's recent cable airings. It has also been shown on its own on PBS stations, and was released on video as part of ''The Ultimate Oz'' collector's set of The Movie, and the 1999, 2005, and 2009 DVD (and Blu-Ray) reissues of The Movie. The home video version is a bit longer, featuring more material.<br />
** ''The Dreamer of Oz''. This 1990 TV movie was a biography of L. Frank Baum, starring John Ritter as Frank and Annette O'Toole as Maud. While some of the details are inaccurate, this was, overall, a faithful telling of Baum's early life and career and how he came to write ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. It was never released on VHS in the United States, but it was in Australia. It finally made its home video release in 2009 as part of the new DVD and Blu-Ray releases of The Movie that year (see the question [[#Where_can_I_find_The_Dreamer_of_Oz_on_home_video.3F|Where can I find ''The Dreamer of Oz'' on home video?]] for more details.)<br />
** ''In Search of Oz''. In 1994, the BBC's Arena documentary series produced this examination of Oz, which concentrated more on the books than most others. Shown in the United States, with a few cuts, on A&E.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz in Concert''. This 1995 concert, filmed for television, was a benefit for the Children's Defense Fund, and shown on TNT. It is available on home video, and has since been shown on VH1 and some PBS stations. Performers include Jewel as Dorothy, the Harlem Boys Choir, Joel Grey as Professor Marvel and the Wizard (predating his portrayal of the Wizard in ''Wicked'' on Broadway), Jackson Browne as the Scarecrow, Roger Daltrey as the Tin Man, Nathan Lane as the Cowardly Lion, Natalie Cole as Glinda, and Deborah Winger as the Wicked Witch of the West.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz on Ice''. This 1996 production, shown on CBS, was an abbreviated version of the touring production of the same name, with Oksana Baiul as Dorothy and Viktor Petrenko as the Scarecrow (neither of whom appeared in the touring show), and narrated by Bobby McFarrin, who does the same on tour. McFarrin also played the Wizard in this production, the only non-skater in the cast. It was released on VHS, but is no longer available.<br />
** ''Lion of Oz''. This animated movie was made by Sony in 2000, and is based on the book ''Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage'' by Roger S. Baum. It's a prequel about how the Wizard and the Lion came to Oz. It was shown on the Disney Channel and Toon Disney, and released on home video and DVD.<br />
** ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' (2000). This is a different animated version of the Baum story, produced by Sony, released on VHS, and shown on Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel.<br />
** ''The Muppets' Wizard of Oz'' was a 2005 TV movie shown on ABC. It featured Ashanti as Dorothy, Kermit the Frog as the Scarecrow, Gonzo as the Tin Thing, Fozzie as the Cowardly Lion, Miss Piggy as all four (!) witches, Jeffrey Tambor as the Wizard, and a cameo by Quentin Tarantino as himself. It was later released on video and DVD with additional footage and extras.<br />
** ''Tin Man'', the 2007 SciFi Channel miniseries, features Zooey Descanel as DG, a Kansas waitress who turns out to be the lost princess of the O. Z., a land overrun by a wicked witch named Azkadellia. Believe it or not, this show turned out to be both a sequel and a reimagining of ''The Wizard of Oz''. It is available on DVD and Blu-Ray.<br />
<br />
Numerous Oz references have made their way into any number of TV series, movies, and specials, and some shows have even had special ''Wizard of Oz'' episodes, such as ''Fame'', ''Alf Tales'', ''Beetlejuice'' (the cartoon), ''The Guiding Light'', ''That 70s Show'', ''Life with Bonnie'', a segment of ''Futurama'', and ''That's So Raven'', to name but a few. A 1970 episode of ''Death Valley Days'' entitled "The Wizard of Aberdeen" featured L. Frank Baum as a character, dramatizing an incident that took place while he was editing a newspaper in South Dakota. The soap opera ''Passions'' devoted an entire week to a ''Wizard of Oz''-themed storyline in the summer of 2002. And in Russia, at least two television versions of ''Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda'' have been shown, one live-action (which may have also had a theatrical release), one stop-motion animation.<br />
<br />
==I remember an Oz cartoon, can you tell me more about it? It had a catchy theme song that started out, "They're three sad souls, Oh me, oh my..."==<br />
<br />
"No brains, no heart, He's much too shy..." Yes, I'm familiar with that song. That's the theme song for ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' (see the question [[#Has_there_ever_been_an_Oz_TV_show.3F|Has there ever been an Oz TV show?]] for more information). Despite what many people think, it's not a Canadian show, but American, produced by Rankin-Bass in the United States in the early 1960s. It just seems to have been shown in Canada a lot in the 1980s and '90s. The complete theme song lyrics are:<br />
<br />
: They're three sad souls<br />
: Oh me, oh my,<br />
: No brains, no heart,<br />
: He's much too shy.<br />
: But never mind you three,<br />
: Here's the Wizard as you can see.<br />
: He'll fix that one, two, three<br />
: In that funny place called the world of Oz.<br />
: Oh the world of Oz is a funny, funny place<br />
: Where everyone has a funny, funny face.<br />
: All the streets are paved with gold,<br />
: And no one ever grows old.<br />
: In that funny land lives the Wizard of Oz. <br />
<br />
More information about ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' can be found on the WWW at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3584. If you'd like to download the theme as a Real Media file, go to http://www.toontracker.com/realaudio/ttra60-1.htm and scroll down about a third of the way. Or you can just listen to it by going to http://www.toontracker.com/waves/waves.htm and finding the show's name on the second page.<br />
<br />
==Where can I find ''The Dreamer of Oz'' on home video?==<br />
<br />
''The Dreamer of Oz'' was available as a VHS rental in Australia, but was never released in North America. In 2009, it was finally made available as a special feature on certain editions of the 2009 DVD and Blu-Ray release of The Movie (The Ultimate Collector's Edition, the Emerald Edition, and a special 2-disc set made exclusively for Wal-Mart). It should be noted, however, that the video quality is far from pristine, and the Blu-Ray only contains a standard definition version.<br />
<br />
==Have any Oz productions been directly released to home video?==<br />
<br />
A few animated versions of ''The Wizard of Oz'', and one of ''Ozma of Oz'', have been released straight to video. These are of varying quality, from so-so to all right, with some being straight adaptations and some a little more irreverent. One of the most notable of these is a Japanese version of ''The Wizard of Oz'', which was released on home video in North America with a dubbed English soundtrack, featuring Aileen Quinn as Dorothy and Lorne Greene as the Wizard. A series, ''The Oz Kids'', was also released straight to VHS, from Paramount, although it has been shown on television in other countries. The main characters are the sons and daughters of the familiar Oz characters (Dorothy's children Dot and Ned, Scarecrow Jr., Tin Boy, and so on), but the stories are based on Baum's books, including some of his non-Oz writings. Characters from later books — or rather, their children — appear, such as Jackie Pumpkinhead, Nome Prince Otto, and the Patchwork Baby. The videos are available through Paramount Home Video, and the titles are ''Toto, Lost in New York'', ''The Nome Prince and the Magic Belt'', ''Virtual Oz'', ''Who Stole Santa?'' ''Christmas in Oz'', ''Journey Beneath the Sea'', ''Underground Adventure'', ''The Monkey Prince'', and ''The Return of Mombi''. The two Christmas stories were also released on DVD in Great Britain. A play was recorded and released on video, the 1981 Minneapolis Children's Theater production of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz''. Also, two documentaries were released on video in 1997, ''Oz: The American Fairyland'' and ''Charles Santore Illustrates The Wizard of Oz''. Both were produced by Leonard A. Swann and released by Sirocco Productions, Inc., which no longer appears to be in business.</div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Oz_on_your_computer&diff=226Oz on your computer2010-08-04T19:41:37Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* Have there been any Wizard of Oz video games? */ Remembered more...</p>
<hr />
<div>==Are there any Wizard of Oz computer programs or CD-ROMs?==<br />
<br />
Quite a few. Some examples:<br />
<br />
* ''The Legends of Oz'' came out in 1993 from Multicom Publishing, and has a number of different elements: The complete text of ''The Wizard of Oz'', animated storybooks of three SillyOZbul picture books by Roger S. Baum, pictures and film clips from The Movie, a matching game, background information, and more. It does not seem to be generally available any more, but searching might turn it up.<br />
* QVision Publishing put out a number of CD-ROMs based on the Oz books of L. Frank Baum. Each of Baum's fourteen Oz novels was released on its own CD-ROM with the complete text, narration, and illustrations. They were sold individually or as a set, and they still sell a single CD-ROM that holds just the texts of all fourteen novels. For more information, check out QVision's website at http://www.qvision.net.<br />
* ''Reading Adventures in Oz'', an educational game issued by Davidson and Associates around 1993 (I have yet to locate a copy of this).<br />
* ''The Wizard of Oz Audioclips'' — sounds from The Movie — from Sound Source Unlimited around 1993.<br />
* In 2000, DK put out ''Oz: The Magical Adventure'', an edutainment game for young children in which the player guides the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion through various areas of Oz to rescue Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the West. This was followed up in 2002 with ''The Oz Interactive Storybook''.<br />
* A CD-ROM of the first edition of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is available from http://www.ebookcdrom.com/Classic/Oz.html. A similar CD-ROM edition of ''The Woggle-Bug Book'' is available at http://www.geocities.com/rombooks/store/baumx.htm. <br />
<br />
==Have there been any ''Wizard of Oz'' video games?==<br />
<br />
A few.<br />
* There was an adventure game entitled ''The Wizard of Oz'', which combined elements of the first two books, for the Apple, Commodore 64, PC, and possibly other platforms in 1985. This was issued by the Telarium Corporation as part of their Windham Classics series. More information about the Telarium Corporation and their products can be found online at http://www.lysator.liu.se/adventure/Telarium_Corporation.html, and you can even download the game and instructions at http://www.the-commodore-zone.com/mainf.htm. (You will probably need to find a Commodore emulator program for your computer to successfully run this game, but The Commodore Zone has links to those as well.) The contents of the first of the two disks of the PC version can be found at http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=1273.<br />
* A video game based on ''Return to Oz'' by US Gold was available for at least the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum.<br />
* ''Twisted'', a graphic adventure game for the Macintosh, is available for download at http://www.semitech.com/marc/ray.html.<br />
* In 1993, Seta issued a ''Wizard of Oz'' game based on The Movie for the Super Nintendo (SNES) system.<br />
* Jack Lockerby released a text adventure based on ''The Wizard of Oz'' for the ZX Spectrum in 1995.<br />
* ''Yellow Brick Road'' (ISBN 1-888158-09-3) is a CD-ROM adventure game, in which you control 3-D animated versions of the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion as you search for the missing Scarecrow. It was released in 1996 from Synergy, Inc. ''Yellow Brick Road 2'' has reportedly been issued, but I have not seen it.<br />
* A Russian game called ''Bolshebnik Strany Oz'' or ''The Wizard of Land Oz,'' was made for the ZX Spectrum in 1996. More information is available [http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0013128 here.]<br />
* One of the unreleased titles by Philips Funhouse for the CD-I system was a game called ''Treasures of Oz'', apparently based on the first book. It would have featured Diana Ross as the Good Witch of the North. More information is available [http://cdii.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-cd-i-brought-philips-funhouse-and.html here].<br />
* Available for download online is Zim Greenleaf's Laboratory, based on a character in the ''Seven Blue Mountains of Oz'' trilogy by Melody Grandy (available from Tails of the Cowardly Lion and Friends). It's on the web page http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXsourceXagt.html; scroll down to the file zimlab.zip.<br />
* See the previous question for information on DK's ''Oz: The Magical Adventure'', an educational program with many game elements.<br />
* In 2002, an Oz-themed game came out from THQ featuring the Rugrats, called ''Munchin Land'', for Windows systems, but they do not seem to be making it any longer.<br />
* A new Oz-themed video game was said to be in the works from Carbon6 Entertainment, the company that developed American McGee's ''Alice'' for Electronic Arts. It has since been announced the project has been shelved.<br />
* Dorothy and Ozma productions has a number of these video games, and some original creations based on other Oz and Baum books, on its download page at http://dorothyozma.tripod.com/downloads.htm.<br />
* In 2008, the Japanese company D3 released ''RIZ-ZOAWD'' a game for the Nintendo DS that was loosely based on ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.'' It was released in English in 2009 as ''The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.''<br />
* Recently, a number of Oz games have been available for free trial play with an option to purchase the full version. These have included ''[http://www.logler.com/the_wonderful_wizard_of_oz The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]'', a ''Bejeweled''-style gem matching game, ''[http://www.playfirst.com/game/emerald-city-confidential Emerald City Confidential],'' an adventure game with a film noir slant on Oz, and another game called ''[http://www.retro64.com/the_wonderful_wizard_of_oz_game.asp The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]'', based around hidden objects.<br />
<br />
==Where can I find some ''Wizard of Oz'' clip art?==<br />
<br />
A long-term goal of mine for WWOOW is to add an Oz art gallery, including clip art. But I have no idea how soon I'll be able to do this. Until then, take a look at the WWOOW links page (see [[question 18.6]]). There is one section set aside for sites with Oz art, and there may be something there that you can copy or download to suit your needs. You might also want to search online image archives or search engines (an example of the latter is http://images.google.com/). If you are interested in just The Movie, and are willing to do a little digging, Corel put out a ''Wizard of Oz'' version of its Print House Magic program, for Windows-based systems only, a few years ago. You may be able to find a used copy somewhere.<br />
<br />
==Where can I get ''Wizard of Oz'' screensavers or desktop accessories?==<br />
<br />
These are available on the WWW, free for downloading. A whole bunch of different Oz screensavers can be found at http://www.kfu.com/~scarlet/oz_screensavers.htm. The Hungry Tiger Press website has some non-Movie based wallpaper at http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertreats/index.shtml. If you don't find exactly what you are looking for, you may want to think about making your own Oz-themed desktop accessories, which is not as difficult as you might think — but it's also beyond the scope of this FAQ, so if you want to try this, you'll have to look for resources on desktop accessories.<br />
<br />
==How can I get in touch with other Oz fans on the Internet?==<br />
<br />
A mailing list service, the Tik-Tok Talk Mailing List (TMOHH), is available through WWOOW. This is a free service. Members sign up for a subscription, and then may write any Oz messages to the list they choose to. All messages are screened, then sent to everyone on the list. You can reply to messages as well, and the list has produced many interesting discussions. You can elect to receive the messages one at a time, when they are sent out to the list, or in a digest, sent out once a day and containing several messages. For more information and to subscribe, see the Tik-Tok Talk Mailing List page at http://thewizardofoz.info/maillist.html. A similar mailing list is Regalia. For more information or to subscribe, see http://www.pauahtun.org/mailman/listinfo/regalia. Another list, hosted by author Edward Einhorn, is OzFiction at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OzFiction/. You can also find many Oz fans on message boards. Oz message boards are hosted by IWOC at http://p208.ezboard.com/bozclubforums, and by Beyond the Rainbow at http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html. Some other Oz sites (see next question) also have message boards, and even chat rooms, so feel free to explore.<br />
<br />
==Are there any WWW sites having to do with Oz?==<br />
<br />
Oh, yes! There are now far too many to list here, and they're being added to and removed from the WWW all the time. A very good place to start looking for Ozzy WWW sites is (TMOHH) WWOOW's links page at http://thewizardofoz.info/links.html. The page lists over three hundred links to other sites, and many of those sites have links to even more sites. Plus, some of those sites, along with WWOOW, are part of Oz webrings, allowing you to connect directly to other sites. So if you're looking for Ozzy websites, break out your browser and take a look. (Note that, while there are many sites on that links page, it is far from complete, and probably never will be. If you're looking for information on a specific Oz topic, you may want to try a search engine — or better yet, several of them — and provide as many keywords as possible.)<br />
<br />
==Is there an Oz newsgroup in Usenet?==<br />
<br />
There is. Check out alt.books.wizard-of-oz and alt.movies.wizard-of-oz. The trouble is, nobody seems to be using these groups — the few times anyone posts to them, it generally is an advertisement for something particularly non-Ozzy. Still, maybe someone will say something substantial in them some time. And there's always rec.arts.books.childrens, which many Oz fans read. If your local Internet service provider doesn't carry these newsgroups, you can access them for free through the Google Groups service at http://groups.google.com/group/alt.books.wizard-of-oz?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8, http://groups.google.com/group/alt.movies.wizard-of-oz?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8, and http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.books.childrens?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8. Movie fans might also want to check out alt.movies.wizard-of-oz (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.movies.wizard-of-oz).<br />
<br />
==Where can I find the texts of Oz books online?==<br />
<br />
Most of public domain Oz books, and many non-Oz books by Baum, have been made available to read online. Project Gutenberg is trying to get as many public domain works online as possible, and these include many books by Baum. For a list of what's available, check out the official Project Gutenberg site (http://www.gutenberg.net/) or the Online Public Library (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books), or any other site you may find by typing "Project Gutenberg" into a search engine. Several other sites have these texts as well, and some sites have other Oz and Oz-related books not published by Project Gutenberg, such as some of those on http://www.emeraldcityofoz.com/library/ and http://dorothyozma.tripod.com/library.htm. Other sites carry some books in other languages. For a list of Oz and Baum works known to be online, check the WWOOW links page (http://thewizardofoz.info/links.html).<br />
<br />
==Where can I find Wizard of Oz MIDI or other sound files on the Internet?==<br />
<br />
I know of no such resource for just Oz-related MIDIs or other sound files. Your best bet might be to use the keywords "Wizard of Oz MIDI" in your favorite search engine. Or try http://www.musicrobot.com for a search engine that specializes in MIDI and other sound files. Those looking for Oz music from the earliest Oz stage shows can find some samples, as either MIDI or MP3 files, at http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertunes/index.shtml. I also have a few sites listed on my links page — see [[question 18.6]].<br />
<br />
==Are there any ''Wizard of Oz'' ringtones that I can put on my cell phone?==<br />
<br />
A quick search on Google using "'Wizard of Oz' ringtones" turned up quite a few sites with ringtones from The Movie, of varying quality. Some appear to have been created by people who didn't know the music very well, as the ringtones placed the emphasis in odd places or had notes that were off. But they are out there, if you're willing to take a look. If you have Sprint, you can download ringtones from Wicked at http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/ueContent.jsp?scTopic=broadway.</div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Oz_on_your_computer&diff=225Oz on your computer2010-08-04T12:50:41Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* Have there been any Wizard of Oz video games? */</p>
<hr />
<div>==Are there any Wizard of Oz computer programs or CD-ROMs?==<br />
<br />
Quite a few. Some examples:<br />
<br />
* ''The Legends of Oz'' came out in 1993 from Multicom Publishing, and has a number of different elements: The complete text of ''The Wizard of Oz'', animated storybooks of three SillyOZbul picture books by Roger S. Baum, pictures and film clips from The Movie, a matching game, background information, and more. It does not seem to be generally available any more, but searching might turn it up.<br />
* QVision Publishing put out a number of CD-ROMs based on the Oz books of L. Frank Baum. Each of Baum's fourteen Oz novels was released on its own CD-ROM with the complete text, narration, and illustrations. They were sold individually or as a set, and they still sell a single CD-ROM that holds just the texts of all fourteen novels. For more information, check out QVision's website at http://www.qvision.net.<br />
* ''Reading Adventures in Oz'', an educational game issued by Davidson and Associates around 1993 (I have yet to locate a copy of this).<br />
* ''The Wizard of Oz Audioclips'' — sounds from The Movie — from Sound Source Unlimited around 1993.<br />
* In 2000, DK put out ''Oz: The Magical Adventure'', an edutainment game for young children in which the player guides the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion through various areas of Oz to rescue Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the West. This was followed up in 2002 with ''The Oz Interactive Storybook''.<br />
* A CD-ROM of the first edition of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is available from http://www.ebookcdrom.com/Classic/Oz.html. A similar CD-ROM edition of ''The Woggle-Bug Book'' is available at http://www.geocities.com/rombooks/store/baumx.htm. <br />
<br />
==Have there been any ''Wizard of Oz'' video games?==<br />
<br />
A few.<br />
* There was an adventure game entitled ''The Wizard of Oz'', which combined elements of the first two books, for the Apple, Commodore 64, PC, and possibly other platforms in 1985. This was issued by the Telarium Corporation as part of their Windham Classics series. More information about the Telarium Corporation and their products can be found online at http://www.lysator.liu.se/adventure/Telarium_Corporation.html, and you can even download the game and instructions at http://www.the-commodore-zone.com/mainf.htm. (You will probably need to find a Commodore emulator program for your computer to successfully run this game, but The Commodore Zone has links to those as well.) The contents of the first of the two disks of the PC version can be found at http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=1273.<br />
* A video game based on ''Return to Oz'' by US Gold was available for at least the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum.<br />
* ''Twisted'', a graphic adventure game for the Macintosh, is available for download at http://www.semitech.com/marc/ray.html.<br />
* In 1993, Seta issued a ''Wizard of Oz'' game based on The Movie for the Super Nintendo (SNES) system.<br />
* Jack Lockerby released a text adventure based on ''The Wizard of Oz'' for the ZX Spectrum in 1995.<br />
* ''Yellow Brick Road'' (ISBN 1-888158-09-3) is a CD-ROM adventure game, in which you control 3-D animated versions of the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion as you search for the missing Scarecrow. It was released in 1996 from Synergy, Inc. ''Yellow Brick Road 2'' has reportedly been issued, but I have not seen it.<br />
* A Russian game called ''Bolshebnik Strany Oz'' or ''The Wizard of Land Oz,'' was made for the ZX Spectrum in 1996. More information is available [http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0013128 here.]<br />
* Available for download online is Zim Greenleaf's Laboratory, based on a character in the ''Seven Blue Mountains of Oz'' trilogy by Melody Grandy (available from Tails of the Cowardly Lion and Friends). It's on the web page http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXsourceXagt.html; scroll down to the file zimlab.zip.<br />
* See the previous question for information on DK's ''Oz: The Magical Adventure'', an educational program with many game elements.<br />
* In 2002, an Oz-themed game came out from THQ featuring the Rugrats, called ''Munchin Land'', for Windows systems, but they do not seem to be making it any longer.<br />
* A new Oz-themed video game was said to be in the works from Carbon6 Entertainment, the company that developed American McGee's ''Alice'' for Electronic Arts. It has since been announced the project has been shelved.<br />
* Dorothy and Ozma productions has a number of these video games, and some original creations based on other Oz and Baum books, on its download page at http://dorothyozma.tripod.com/downloads.htm.<br />
* In 2008, the Japanese company D3 released ''RIZ-ZOAWD'' a game for the Nintendo DS that was loosely based on ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.'' It was released in English in 2009 as ''The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.''<br />
<br />
==Where can I find some ''Wizard of Oz'' clip art?==<br />
<br />
A long-term goal of mine for WWOOW is to add an Oz art gallery, including clip art. But I have no idea how soon I'll be able to do this. Until then, take a look at the WWOOW links page (see [[question 18.6]]). There is one section set aside for sites with Oz art, and there may be something there that you can copy or download to suit your needs. You might also want to search online image archives or search engines (an example of the latter is http://images.google.com/). If you are interested in just The Movie, and are willing to do a little digging, Corel put out a ''Wizard of Oz'' version of its Print House Magic program, for Windows-based systems only, a few years ago. You may be able to find a used copy somewhere.<br />
<br />
==Where can I get ''Wizard of Oz'' screensavers or desktop accessories?==<br />
<br />
These are available on the WWW, free for downloading. A whole bunch of different Oz screensavers can be found at http://www.kfu.com/~scarlet/oz_screensavers.htm. The Hungry Tiger Press website has some non-Movie based wallpaper at http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertreats/index.shtml. If you don't find exactly what you are looking for, you may want to think about making your own Oz-themed desktop accessories, which is not as difficult as you might think — but it's also beyond the scope of this FAQ, so if you want to try this, you'll have to look for resources on desktop accessories.<br />
<br />
==How can I get in touch with other Oz fans on the Internet?==<br />
<br />
A mailing list service, the Tik-Tok Talk Mailing List (TMOHH), is available through WWOOW. This is a free service. Members sign up for a subscription, and then may write any Oz messages to the list they choose to. All messages are screened, then sent to everyone on the list. You can reply to messages as well, and the list has produced many interesting discussions. You can elect to receive the messages one at a time, when they are sent out to the list, or in a digest, sent out once a day and containing several messages. For more information and to subscribe, see the Tik-Tok Talk Mailing List page at http://thewizardofoz.info/maillist.html. A similar mailing list is Regalia. For more information or to subscribe, see http://www.pauahtun.org/mailman/listinfo/regalia. Another list, hosted by author Edward Einhorn, is OzFiction at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OzFiction/. You can also find many Oz fans on message boards. Oz message boards are hosted by IWOC at http://p208.ezboard.com/bozclubforums, and by Beyond the Rainbow at http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html. Some other Oz sites (see next question) also have message boards, and even chat rooms, so feel free to explore.<br />
<br />
==Are there any WWW sites having to do with Oz?==<br />
<br />
Oh, yes! There are now far too many to list here, and they're being added to and removed from the WWW all the time. A very good place to start looking for Ozzy WWW sites is (TMOHH) WWOOW's links page at http://thewizardofoz.info/links.html. The page lists over three hundred links to other sites, and many of those sites have links to even more sites. Plus, some of those sites, along with WWOOW, are part of Oz webrings, allowing you to connect directly to other sites. So if you're looking for Ozzy websites, break out your browser and take a look. (Note that, while there are many sites on that links page, it is far from complete, and probably never will be. If you're looking for information on a specific Oz topic, you may want to try a search engine — or better yet, several of them — and provide as many keywords as possible.)<br />
<br />
==Is there an Oz newsgroup in Usenet?==<br />
<br />
There is. Check out alt.books.wizard-of-oz and alt.movies.wizard-of-oz. The trouble is, nobody seems to be using these groups — the few times anyone posts to them, it generally is an advertisement for something particularly non-Ozzy. Still, maybe someone will say something substantial in them some time. And there's always rec.arts.books.childrens, which many Oz fans read. If your local Internet service provider doesn't carry these newsgroups, you can access them for free through the Google Groups service at http://groups.google.com/group/alt.books.wizard-of-oz?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8, http://groups.google.com/group/alt.movies.wizard-of-oz?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8, and http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.books.childrens?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8. Movie fans might also want to check out alt.movies.wizard-of-oz (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.movies.wizard-of-oz).<br />
<br />
==Where can I find the texts of Oz books online?==<br />
<br />
Most of public domain Oz books, and many non-Oz books by Baum, have been made available to read online. Project Gutenberg is trying to get as many public domain works online as possible, and these include many books by Baum. For a list of what's available, check out the official Project Gutenberg site (http://www.gutenberg.net/) or the Online Public Library (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books), or any other site you may find by typing "Project Gutenberg" into a search engine. Several other sites have these texts as well, and some sites have other Oz and Oz-related books not published by Project Gutenberg, such as some of those on http://www.emeraldcityofoz.com/library/ and http://dorothyozma.tripod.com/library.htm. Other sites carry some books in other languages. For a list of Oz and Baum works known to be online, check the WWOOW links page (http://thewizardofoz.info/links.html).<br />
<br />
==Where can I find Wizard of Oz MIDI or other sound files on the Internet?==<br />
<br />
I know of no such resource for just Oz-related MIDIs or other sound files. Your best bet might be to use the keywords "Wizard of Oz MIDI" in your favorite search engine. Or try http://www.musicrobot.com for a search engine that specializes in MIDI and other sound files. Those looking for Oz music from the earliest Oz stage shows can find some samples, as either MIDI or MP3 files, at http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertunes/index.shtml. I also have a few sites listed on my links page — see [[question 18.6]].<br />
<br />
==Are there any ''Wizard of Oz'' ringtones that I can put on my cell phone?==<br />
<br />
A quick search on Google using "'Wizard of Oz' ringtones" turned up quite a few sites with ringtones from The Movie, of varying quality. Some appear to have been created by people who didn't know the music very well, as the ringtones placed the emphasis in odd places or had notes that were off. But they are out there, if you're willing to take a look. If you have Sprint, you can download ringtones from Wicked at http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/ueContent.jsp?scTopic=broadway.</div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Oz_on_your_computer&diff=224Oz on your computer2010-08-04T12:48:52Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* Have there been any Wizard of Oz video games? */ I think this reads easier as a list, and I added information about other games.</p>
<hr />
<div>==Are there any Wizard of Oz computer programs or CD-ROMs?==<br />
<br />
Quite a few. Some examples:<br />
<br />
* ''The Legends of Oz'' came out in 1993 from Multicom Publishing, and has a number of different elements: The complete text of ''The Wizard of Oz'', animated storybooks of three SillyOZbul picture books by Roger S. Baum, pictures and film clips from The Movie, a matching game, background information, and more. It does not seem to be generally available any more, but searching might turn it up.<br />
* QVision Publishing put out a number of CD-ROMs based on the Oz books of L. Frank Baum. Each of Baum's fourteen Oz novels was released on its own CD-ROM with the complete text, narration, and illustrations. They were sold individually or as a set, and they still sell a single CD-ROM that holds just the texts of all fourteen novels. For more information, check out QVision's website at http://www.qvision.net.<br />
* ''Reading Adventures in Oz'', an educational game issued by Davidson and Associates around 1993 (I have yet to locate a copy of this).<br />
* ''The Wizard of Oz Audioclips'' — sounds from The Movie — from Sound Source Unlimited around 1993.<br />
* In 2000, DK put out ''Oz: The Magical Adventure'', an edutainment game for young children in which the player guides the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion through various areas of Oz to rescue Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the West. This was followed up in 2002 with ''The Oz Interactive Storybook''.<br />
* A CD-ROM of the first edition of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is available from http://www.ebookcdrom.com/Classic/Oz.html. A similar CD-ROM edition of ''The Woggle-Bug Book'' is available at http://www.geocities.com/rombooks/store/baumx.htm. <br />
<br />
==Have there been any ''Wizard of Oz'' video games?==<br />
<br />
A few.<br />
* There was an adventure game entitled ''The Wizard of Oz'', which combined elements of the first two books, for the Apple, Commodore 64, PC, and possibly other platforms in 1985. This was issued by the Telarium Corporation as part of their Windham Classics series. More information about the Telarium Corporation and their products can be found online at http://www.lysator.liu.se/adventure/Telarium_Corporation.html, and you can even download the game and instructions at http://www.the-commodore-zone.com/mainf.htm. (You will probably need to find a Commodore emulator program for your computer to successfully run this game, but The Commodore Zone has links to those as well.) The contents of the first of the two disks of the PC version can be found at http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=1273.<br />
* A video game based on ''Return to Oz'' by US Gold was available for at least the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum.<br />
* ''Twisted'', a graphic adventure game for the Macintosh, is available for download at http://www.semitech.com/marc/ray.html.<br />
* In 1993, Seta issued a ''Wizard of Oz'' game based on The Movie for the Super Nintendo (SNES) system.<br />
* Jack Lockerby released a text adventure based on ''The Wizard of Oz'' for the ZX Spectrum in 1995.<br />
* ''Yellow Brick Road'' (ISBN 1-888158-09-3) is a CD-ROM adventure game, in which you control 3-D animated versions of the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion as you search for the missing Scarecrow. It was released in 1996 from Synergy, Inc. ''Yellow Brick Road 2'' has reportedly been issued, but I have not seen it.<br />
* A Russian game called ''Bolshebnik Strany Oz'' or ''The Wizard of Land Oz,'' was made for the ZX Spectrum in 1996. More information is available [http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0013128 here.]<br />
* Available for download online is Zim Greenleaf's Laboratory, based on a character in the ''Seven Blue Mountains of Oz'' trilogy by Melody Grandy (available from Tails of the Cowardly Lion and Friends). It's on the web page http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXsourceXagt.html; scroll down to the file zimlab.zip.<br />
* See the previous question for information on DK's ''Oz: The Magical Adventure'', an educational program with many game elements.<br />
* In 2002, an Oz-themed game came out from THQ featuring the Rugrats, called ''Munchin Land'', for Windows systems, but they do not seem to be making it any longer.<br />
* A new Oz-themed video game was said to be in the works from Carbon6 Entertainment, the company that developed American McGee's ''Alice'' for Electronic Arts. It has since been announced the project has been shelved.<br />
* Dorothy and Ozma productions has a number of these video games, and some original creations based on other Oz and Baum books, on its download page at http://dorothyozma.tripod.com/downloads.htm.<br />
* In 2008, the Japanese company D3 released ''RIZ-ZOAWD," a game for the Nintendo DS that was loosely based on ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.'' It was released in English in 2009 as ''The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.''<br />
<br />
==Where can I find some ''Wizard of Oz'' clip art?==<br />
<br />
A long-term goal of mine for WWOOW is to add an Oz art gallery, including clip art. But I have no idea how soon I'll be able to do this. Until then, take a look at the WWOOW links page (see [[question 18.6]]). There is one section set aside for sites with Oz art, and there may be something there that you can copy or download to suit your needs. You might also want to search online image archives or search engines (an example of the latter is http://images.google.com/). If you are interested in just The Movie, and are willing to do a little digging, Corel put out a ''Wizard of Oz'' version of its Print House Magic program, for Windows-based systems only, a few years ago. You may be able to find a used copy somewhere.<br />
<br />
==Where can I get ''Wizard of Oz'' screensavers or desktop accessories?==<br />
<br />
These are available on the WWW, free for downloading. A whole bunch of different Oz screensavers can be found at http://www.kfu.com/~scarlet/oz_screensavers.htm. The Hungry Tiger Press website has some non-Movie based wallpaper at http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertreats/index.shtml. If you don't find exactly what you are looking for, you may want to think about making your own Oz-themed desktop accessories, which is not as difficult as you might think — but it's also beyond the scope of this FAQ, so if you want to try this, you'll have to look for resources on desktop accessories.<br />
<br />
==How can I get in touch with other Oz fans on the Internet?==<br />
<br />
A mailing list service, the Tik-Tok Talk Mailing List (TMOHH), is available through WWOOW. This is a free service. Members sign up for a subscription, and then may write any Oz messages to the list they choose to. All messages are screened, then sent to everyone on the list. You can reply to messages as well, and the list has produced many interesting discussions. You can elect to receive the messages one at a time, when they are sent out to the list, or in a digest, sent out once a day and containing several messages. For more information and to subscribe, see the Tik-Tok Talk Mailing List page at http://thewizardofoz.info/maillist.html. A similar mailing list is Regalia. For more information or to subscribe, see http://www.pauahtun.org/mailman/listinfo/regalia. Another list, hosted by author Edward Einhorn, is OzFiction at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OzFiction/. You can also find many Oz fans on message boards. Oz message boards are hosted by IWOC at http://p208.ezboard.com/bozclubforums, and by Beyond the Rainbow at http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html. Some other Oz sites (see next question) also have message boards, and even chat rooms, so feel free to explore.<br />
<br />
==Are there any WWW sites having to do with Oz?==<br />
<br />
Oh, yes! There are now far too many to list here, and they're being added to and removed from the WWW all the time. A very good place to start looking for Ozzy WWW sites is (TMOHH) WWOOW's links page at http://thewizardofoz.info/links.html. The page lists over three hundred links to other sites, and many of those sites have links to even more sites. Plus, some of those sites, along with WWOOW, are part of Oz webrings, allowing you to connect directly to other sites. So if you're looking for Ozzy websites, break out your browser and take a look. (Note that, while there are many sites on that links page, it is far from complete, and probably never will be. If you're looking for information on a specific Oz topic, you may want to try a search engine — or better yet, several of them — and provide as many keywords as possible.)<br />
<br />
==Is there an Oz newsgroup in Usenet?==<br />
<br />
There is. Check out alt.books.wizard-of-oz and alt.movies.wizard-of-oz. The trouble is, nobody seems to be using these groups — the few times anyone posts to them, it generally is an advertisement for something particularly non-Ozzy. Still, maybe someone will say something substantial in them some time. And there's always rec.arts.books.childrens, which many Oz fans read. If your local Internet service provider doesn't carry these newsgroups, you can access them for free through the Google Groups service at http://groups.google.com/group/alt.books.wizard-of-oz?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8, http://groups.google.com/group/alt.movies.wizard-of-oz?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8, and http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.books.childrens?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8. Movie fans might also want to check out alt.movies.wizard-of-oz (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.movies.wizard-of-oz).<br />
<br />
==Where can I find the texts of Oz books online?==<br />
<br />
Most of public domain Oz books, and many non-Oz books by Baum, have been made available to read online. Project Gutenberg is trying to get as many public domain works online as possible, and these include many books by Baum. For a list of what's available, check out the official Project Gutenberg site (http://www.gutenberg.net/) or the Online Public Library (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books), or any other site you may find by typing "Project Gutenberg" into a search engine. Several other sites have these texts as well, and some sites have other Oz and Oz-related books not published by Project Gutenberg, such as some of those on http://www.emeraldcityofoz.com/library/ and http://dorothyozma.tripod.com/library.htm. Other sites carry some books in other languages. For a list of Oz and Baum works known to be online, check the WWOOW links page (http://thewizardofoz.info/links.html).<br />
<br />
==Where can I find Wizard of Oz MIDI or other sound files on the Internet?==<br />
<br />
I know of no such resource for just Oz-related MIDIs or other sound files. Your best bet might be to use the keywords "Wizard of Oz MIDI" in your favorite search engine. Or try http://www.musicrobot.com for a search engine that specializes in MIDI and other sound files. Those looking for Oz music from the earliest Oz stage shows can find some samples, as either MIDI or MP3 files, at http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertunes/index.shtml. I also have a few sites listed on my links page — see [[question 18.6]].<br />
<br />
==Are there any ''Wizard of Oz'' ringtones that I can put on my cell phone?==<br />
<br />
A quick search on Google using "'Wizard of Oz' ringtones" turned up quite a few sites with ringtones from The Movie, of varying quality. Some appear to have been created by people who didn't know the music very well, as the ringtones placed the emphasis in odd places or had notes that were off. But they are out there, if you're willing to take a look. If you have Sprint, you can download ringtones from Wicked at http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/ueContent.jsp?scTopic=broadway.</div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Dramatic_presentations_of_Oz&diff=223Dramatic presentations of Oz2010-08-04T11:21:54Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* Has there ever been an Oz TV show? */ Added a bit about Jaroo's streaming version of the Cinar series.</p>
<hr />
<div>[A word here about video formats: All references to home video in this section, unless otherwise noted, refer to what's been released in North America on the NTSC VHS format, and Region 1 (United States and Canada) DVDs and Region A Blu-Ray discs in NTSC. Outside of the United States and Canada, you will probably have to do some looking on your own. I'd love to include anything you find out in future editions of this FAQ, so please write me if you have information.]<br />
<br />
==Was ''The Wizard of Oz'' or any other Oz story ever performed as a play?==<br />
<br />
Most certainly! In fact, almost as soon as it was published, there was talk of turning it into a play. Under the guidance of stage manager Julian Mitchell, ''The Wizard of Oz'' debuted in Chicago in 1902, and a year later it was playing on Broadway, where it racked up one of the longest runs of its day. Touring productions of the play were on the road as late as 1909, and regional theaters were putting it on as late as 1918. Its original stars, Fred Stone and David Montgomery, who played the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, went on to become successes in other shows. Despite bearing little resemblance to the book — Dorothy's pet dog Toto became her pet cow Imogene, for instance, other characters were added, there was no Wicked Witch of the West, the Lion's part was greatly reduced and he couldn't talk, and many musical numbers that had nothing to do with the plot were thrown in — it was a great success which Baum tried to duplicate twice. His first attempt was ''The Woggle-Bug'' in 1905, a dramatization of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'', which "failed to woggle," as one observer put it. The critics said it was too similar to ''The Wizard of Oz'', and not as good, and it failed to draw an audience. It only played a few weeks in Milwaukee and Chicago. In 1913, Baum tried again with a dramatization of the third Oz book, ''Ozma of Oz'', but he made enough changes to make an entirely new story called ''The Tik-Tok Man of Oz''. Although successful in its Los Angeles and Chicago runs, it never made it to Broadway, and so Baum used the story instead as the basis for his next Oz book, where it became ''Tik-Tok of Oz''.<br />
<br />
With the exception of the 1928 Jean Gros marionette show ''The Magical Land of Oz'', which was an adaptation of ''Ozma of Oz'' written by Ruth Plumly Thompson, and the Junior League adaptations of several Oz books in the 1920s and 1930s, for the most part that was it for Oz stage shows for some time. The success of The Movie, however, changed that, and in the 1940s the St. Louis Light Opera put on a version of ''The Wizard of Oz'', adapted by Frank Gabrielson and with songs from The Movie. It was successful enough that other regional theaters put it on as well, and are continuing to do so to this day.<br />
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In 1974, producer Ken Harper put on a new staging of ''The Wizard of Oz'' with all new music and an African-American cast. The storyline of ''The Wiz'' stayed fairly close to the original book, and after out-of-town tryouts, it opened on Broadway in 1975, where it picked up seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Director of a Musical. It has been revived, performed in community theaters, and loosely adapted into a movie.<br />
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Since then, most of the major stage productions have been tied in with The Movie. A lavish arena show toured much of North America in 1989, and in 1995 a one-time show, ''The Wizard of Oz in Concert'', emphasizing the music, was presented in New York City with an all-star cast to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. The latter was recorded and broadcast on American cable channel TNT, and has been released on videotape and reshown on PBS stations and VH1. In Great Britain, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged ''The Wizard of Oz'', a closer adaptation of The Movie than the St. Louis Light Opera show, for several Christmas seasons beginning in the 1980s, and this version has now been performed around the world, and is available for companies to put on. ''The Wizard of Oz on Ice'' toured a number of North American cities in the 1990s, and there were also Oz productions in many earlier editions of the Ice Follies and Ice Capades. And a major production, produced by Madison Square Garden and featuring Mickey Rooney as the Wizard, toured throughout the United States and Canada.<br />
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In 2003, a new show opened on Broadway after a successful tryout that summer in San Francisco. ''Wicked'', based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, is the story of what happened in Oz before Dorothy dropped in, and focuses on the relationship between Glinda the Good and Elphaba, who became the Wicked Witch of the West. It opened to mixed reviews, but the audiences were enthusiastic, and ''Wicked'' went on to become one of the biggest recent success stories on Broadway. It won many awards, including one for Best Actress in a Musical for Idina Menzel, who played Elphaba. Also, the cast album won a Grammy. As of July 2010, there are ''Wicked'' companies on Broadway, San Francisco (scheduled to close in September), the West End in London, Tokyo, Sydney, Oberhausen (Germany), and two North American touring companies. New productions are also scheduled to open in Denmark and Finland in the coming months.<br />
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There have also been several school, community, and children's theater stage productions of not only ''The Wizard of Oz'', but also ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', ''The Yellow Knight of Oz'', ''Merry Go Round in Oz'', and probably other books as well, over the years, as well as the Oz-themed novel ''Was'' and new Oz stories written especially for the stage. ''Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda'' (see the question [[#What.27s_this_I_hear_about_a_different_Oz_series_in_Russia.3F|What's this I hear about a different Oz series in Russia?]]) has also been performed on stage in Russia.<br />
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==Our school/local community theater group wants to put on ''The Wizard of Oz''. Where can we get a script and the rights to do it?==<br />
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The current source for the amateur stage rights of The Movie is Tams-Witmark. You must go through Tams-Witmark and pay their royalties if you want to use the music from The Movie, even if you don't use their script. They have two different versions, one based on the 1940s St. Louis show (http://www.tamswitmark.com/musicals/wizard.html), and one based on the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation (http://www.tamswitmark.com/musicals/wizardrsc.html). They can be reached on the WWW at http://www.tamswitmark.com. Music Theatre International also has a musical version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' available to theater companies, but the music is not that from The Movie. They are on the WWW at http://www.mtishows.com/default.asp, and they have a web page about their version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' at http://www.mtishowspace.com/mod/shows/mtishow.php?showid=000028. Another version is available through Classics on Stage (http://www.classicsonstage.com/scriptswizardofoz.html), and Pioneer Drama Services (http://www.pioneerdrama.com/) has five (!) different versions available. Yet another version (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/4326 — this is the non-musical Junior League version from the 1920s), along with ''The Wiz'' (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/2772) is available through Samuel French (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/). Still more versions of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and other Oz scripts can be found at Dramatic Publishing (http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/). A number of scripts for ''The Wizard of Oz'' and other Oz shows are available for sale through (TMOHH) the WWOOW's bookshop, aisle 10 (http://thewizardofoz.info/aisle10.html), and these generally contain performance and royalty information. If you are willing to forego the famous songs from The Movie, the story itself is in public domain, so you can always write your own script, as long as it's not a direct rip-off of The Movie or any other script. ''Wicked'' is not yet available for local productions, and likely won't be for some time. And no, there's no readily-available version of the 1902 stage play, either, and I don't know why.<br />
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==How can we make sets, costumes, and so forth for our production of ''The Wizard of Oz''?==<br />
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That's a very big, long question, and difficult to answer in a document of this type. Let's just say that it all depends on your performance area, budget, available materials, what crafts people you have available and what they can do, and what the director wants. You'd be better off looking for information on stagecraft rather than trying to get answers here. Some Oz-specific suggestions can be found, however, at http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/stagethewizard.html. Some sketches, plans, and scene designs used by the St. Louis Municipal Light Opera are available at http://www.trinity.edu/sgilliam/sd/oz.html and http://www.angelfire.com/tx/SLGDESIGN/oz.html. Moonstruck Dramatic Books has pages on their site devoted to both ''The Wizard of Oz'' (http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm6.htm) and ''The Wiz'' (http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm59.html). Information on Oz costumes and costume patterns can be found in the question [[Miscellaneous_questions#Where_can_I_find_Oz_costumes.3F|Where can I find Oz costumes?]]. Good lu... — er, I mean, break a leg!<br />
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==Who are Gloria, Lord Growley, and Tibia? I don't remember them from The Movie. What can you tell me about them?==<br />
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All three are new characters created for the St. Louis Light Opera's script for ''The Wizard of Oz''. Lord Growley is the prime minister of the Emerald City. He serves the same role in that show as the Soldier with the Green Whiskers does in the book, or many of the characters played by Frank Morgan in The Movie. Gloria is his daughter, who shows Dorothy the sights. Gloria, some of her friends, and Dorothy have a song in the show that is not from The Movie. (This Gloria is not the same character as Princess Gloria, from Baum's ''The Scarecrow of Oz''.) Tibia is a live skeleton who acts as the Wicked Witch's butler and henchman. Since none of these characters appear in The Movie or any other version or adaptation of Oz, actors playing these roles are free to interpret them in any way they care to.<br />
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==What can you tell me about ''Wicked''?==<br />
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''Wicked'' is a musical show currently playing on Broadway, and in San Francisco, London's West End, Tokyo, Australia, and Germany, as well as two companies touring North America, with new productions scheduled to open in Finland and Denmark. It opened on Broadway in 2003, and is still doing well, having now become the eighteenth longest running show inBroadway history. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire, which is one of those Oz books that's not really written for children. ''Wicked'' tells the story of Elphaba, a young woman with green skin and a strong independent streak, how she becomes friends with Galinda (who later shortens her name to Glinda and becomes a good witch), and how she eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. The novel is very dark, which has surprised some of the younger fans of the play when they seek it out. The play, while following the basic storyline, is lighter and appropriate for most audiences, although it is not recommended for theatergoers under the age of eight (probably more for the length of the show and the confusing experience of being at a big time professional show rather than content). For more details about the show, take a look at the ''Wicked'' pages on the website of the composer, Stephen Schwartz, at http://www.musicalschwartz.com/wicked.htm. There's even a ''Wicked''-specific FAQ there.<br />
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==Have there been any Oz movies?==<br />
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Oh, yes! Thanks to television, and now home video, for many people Oz ''is'' a movie, shown annually on American television and one of the most famous, beloved, and watched films of all time. Yet from the earliest days of filmmaking there have been Oz movies. In 1911 the Baums moved to a sleepy little suburb of Los Angeles called Hollywood, and Frank got caught up in the fledgling movie industry there, going so far as to organize his own film studio. Here is a partial, annotated list of Oz movies that have been made over the years:<br />
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* '''''The Fairylogue and Radio Plays'''''. This was an elaborate multimedia show that toured the midwestern and eastern United States in 1908, and L. Frank Baum himself presented it. Using hand-tinted films, slides, live actors, and a full orchestra, Baum presented dramatizations of ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', and ''John Dough and the Cherub'', and a preview of his then-forthcoming new book, ''Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz''. No film from this show is known to exist, but the slides and scripts do.<br />
* '''''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''''', '''''Dorothy and the Scarecrow of Oz''''', '''''The Land of Oz''''', '''''John Dough and the Cherub'''''. When the ''Fairylogue'' ran into financial trouble, Baum assigned the film rights to some of his books to the Selig Polyscope Company, which had made the films, and as a result these one-reelers were released in 1910. These are not the Fairylogue films, but new versions. Thought lost for years, the first film turned up at the Kodak Film Archives in Rochester, New York, in the early 1990s. Clips were featured in the made-for-video documentary, ''Oz: The American Fairyland''. ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' has been shown on Turner Classic Movies, and is part of the current DVD releases of The Movie. It was also released as part of the DVD set ''More Treasures from the American Film Archives''. Nobody has found any sign of the other three films.<br />
* '''''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''''', '''''The Magic Cloak of Oz''''', '''''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'''''. These were produced by Baum's own Oz Film Company in 1914, and were not terribly successful. They were based on, respectively, ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', ''Queen Zixi of Ix'' (with its location changed from Ix to Oz), and a number of elements of Baum's other books. The latter was written up a year later as the novel ''The Scarecrow of Oz''. ''The Magic Cloak of Oz'' was released as two two-reelers in Great Britain, ''The Witch Queen'' and ''The Magic Cloak'', and the only prints currently available just give the title as ''The Magic Cloak''; while ''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'' was later released as ''The New Wizard of Oz''. The Oz Film Company also made some films based on Baum's non-Oz writings, none of which are now known to exist, although parts of ''The Last Egyptian'' were recently found. The complete Oz movies are currently available on home video and DVD in several different packages. ''The Magic Cloak of Oz'' and ''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'' are part of the first 3-DVD collector's set of The Movie, and they were joined by ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' on its 2009 release.<br />
* '''''The Wizard of Oz'''''. This 1925 release, co-written by Baum's eldest son, had a character named Dorothy living in Kansas and a house transported to Oz via cyclone, but the resemblance to the book ends there. This is a slapstick farce that served mainly as a vehicle for comedian Larry Semon, who played the Scarecrow. This film is most notable today for a set of farmhands who later become Dorothy's three friends in Oz, an idea MGM may have borrowed for The Movie; and the appearance of a young Oliver Hardy, somewhat slimmer than when he teamed up with Stan Laurel two years later. Hardy played the farmhand who disguised himself as a Tin Man. Currently available on home video and DVD, and a cleaned-up and restored version is part of current DVD release of The Movie. (This movie and the three Oz Film Company movies are all available on VHS, individually or in an attractive boxed set, from American Home Entertainment, and in a 3-DVD set from Brentwood Home Video.) There are also a few British DVDs in PAL format; one has it as part of a Laurel and Hardy collection (even though Stan Laurel wasn't in it), paired up with the movie ''Hustling for Health'', which featured Stan Laurel but not Hardy.<br />
* '''''The Wizard of Oz'''''. A 1933 cartoon short directed by Ted Eshbaugh, it was originally made in Technicolor. Unfortunately, before it hit theaters, Walt Disney signed an exclusive agreement with Technicolor, thus holding up release of Eshbaugh's short. Black and white copies eventually made it into the hands of collectors, and in the late 1980s it was finally released on home video. An excerpt was included on the 1998 DVD release of The Movie, and the whole cartoon, in color, is part of the most recent DVD releases of The Movie.<br />
* '''''The Wizard of Oz'''''. This is it, the big one, MGM's 1939 Judy Garland vehicle, the most watched movie in history. For many people, this movie ''is'' Oz. There have been so many questions, legends, rumors, half-truths, and speculations surrounding this movie that six (!) sections of this FAQ are devoted to it. Besides its annual television showings, it's been released on home video, laserdisk, and DVD in several versions, and made its Blu-Ray debut in 2009.<br />
* '''''The Wonderful Land of Oz'''''. A 1969 low-budget musical adaptation of Baum's second book, poor acting and poor production values let this one down. It was released on VHS and DVD (the latter paired with ''Jack and the Beanstalk'') by Something Weird in 2002, but it is no longer available in their catalog.<br />
* '''''Ayşecik ve Sihirli Cüceler Rüyalar Ülkesinde (Little Ayse and the Magic Dwarfs in the Land of Dreams'')''', a 1971 low-budget Turkish adaptation that has gained a latter-day cult following. Some have called it the worst film ever made.<br />
* '''''Journey Back to Oz'''''. Released in Europe in 1972 and North America in 1974, this was the first full-length animated Oz theatrical release, and boasted a stellar cast of voices, including Liza Minnelli as Dorothy, Mickey Rooney as the Scarecrow, and Ethel Merman as Mombi, the Wicked Witch. Although loosely based on ''The Land of Oz'', it introduced a number of its own elements, including an army of marauding green elephants. To date, probably the most successful animated Oz film, although it still leaves much to be desired. It has been released on home video, and made its DVD debut in 2006.<br />
* '''''Oz''''' (North American title: '''''Twentieth Century Oz'''''). A 1976 Australian film that transplanted the story of ''The Wizard of Oz'' to Melbourne and its environs, with the Scarecrow becoming a dim surfer, the Tin Woodman a greasy mechanic, the Lion a braggart biker, and the Wizard a rock star. It was rated "R" in the United States, so this is not a film for kids! Not available on North American home video, but it has been shown on local television in Canada, and is now available on DVD in Australia.<br />
* '''''The Wiz'''''. The 1977 movie version of the Broadway play, although Oz is transplanted to New York City, and much of what made the play a success is lost. It stars Diana Ross as a rather mature Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, and Richard Pryor as the Wiz. It is available on home video and DVD.<br />
* '''''Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oroz'''''. This 1984 Brazilian comedy features the slapstick troupe Os Trapalhões as the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion in a search for water during a drought. Children's television host Xuxa plays the Cowardly Lion's girlfriend (!).<br />
* '''''Return to Oz'''''. This 1985 film was Disney's attempt to get in on Oz. (An elaborate Oz production number, starring the Mousketeers, was shown on the ''Disneyland'' television show in the 1960s as a preview for ''The Rainbow Road to Oz'', which was never made.) Loosely based on ''The Land of Oz'' and ''Ozma of Oz'', it was too dark and gloomy for many, and critics unfamiliar with the books made unfavorable comparisons to The Movie. It has been released on home video and DVD, and been shown on the Disney Channel, the Family Channel, the Hallmark Channel, and premium movie channels on cable, and independent television stations around America.<br />
* '''''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''''', '''''The Marvelous Land of Oz''''', '''''Ozma of Oz''''', '''''The Emerald City of Oz'''''. These animated films, made by Cinar Films Inc. in Canada in 1987, were released direct to videotape and DVD in North America, but were shown in theaters in several other countries around the world. These were edited compilations of the TV series (see the question [[#Has_there_ever_been_an_Oz_TV_show.3F|Has there ever been an Oz TV show?]] below), but they've also been shown by themselves on cable.<br />
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Oz and Ozian themes have also been a part of other films, most notably ''Zardoz'', ''Wild at Heart'', and ''Under the Rainbow'', a poor Chevy Chase comedy about Nazi spies infiltrating Hollywood during the filming of The Movie. Oz jokes and references, usually referring to The Movie, often pop up in other films, such as ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'' ''Batman'' (1989), ''Kentucky Fried Movie'', ''Top Secret'', and ''One True Thing'', to name but a few. And if you look carefully, you can see Oz books in ''Rambling Rose'', ''You've Got Mail'', and perhaps other movies. Clips from The Movie itself appear in ''Jumanji'' and ''Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'', and probably others.<br />
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==Why doesn't Hollywood make more Oz movies?==<br />
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In a nutshell, it's already been done. The Movie is so well known that studio executives are generally reluctant to even consider another movie based on the Oz books. The generally poor reception of ''The Wiz'' and ''Return to Oz'' only adds to the perception. Plus, Oz just doesn't seem to fit into the current Hollywood movie-making climate, which expects lots of aliens, laser battles, car chases, and the like for a movie — at least one that would cost as much as a live-action Oz film — to be even considered for production. However, that may change soon. Keep reading...<br />
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==I've heard about a new Oz movie being made. What can you tell me about it?==<br />
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It looks as if enough time has passed since ''The Wiz'' and ''Return to Oz'' for Hollywood to think about Oz movies again, because several potential Oz movies have been rumored to be in the works. One was entitled ''Somewhere'', and was to feature Elizabeth Taylor playing Dorothy, now a grandmother, returning to Oz. Another project, overseen by Drew Barrymore, was called ''Surrender, Dorothy'', and would feature Barrymore playing Dorothy's great-granddaughter, who went to Oz and faces the Wicked Witch's granddaughter. And ''Pamela West'' has been mentioned, which would make the Witch the heroine and Dorothy the evil interloper. One may note that at least some of these projects appear to be sequels to The Movie, rather than based on the books or any other version of Oz. It must be emphasized that, as of this writing (December, 2005), none of these films has actually gone before the cameras, and it appears unlikely that any of them will be made. You'll just have to keep watching your local movie listings to see if any Oz movies get made and come to your local theater. For all the latest rumors and updates on Oz movie productions, keep an eye on http://thewizardofoz.info/oznews.html#rumors.<br />
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==Hey, am I missing a scene in the 1914 silent version of ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''? Where is it? What happens in it?==<br />
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Yes, you are missing a key scene in ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' — but so is everyone else, as it's missing from the only known original print. Early film stock was fragile, and could rot or fall apart if not properly cared for, which was the case with the first reel of ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''. You can see the damage creep in as a white blob on the right hand side of the screen, and it progressively gets worse and worse as the reel keeps going. Finally, the key scene of the Patchwork Girl coming to life, and Unk Nunkie, Margolotte, and Danx turning to stone when the Liquid of Petrification falls on them is so badly damaged that I have never seen it intact in any film print or video or DVD release. Oz and silent movie fans around the world would be extremely happy if another, intact copy of the first reel was to ever turn up.<br />
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==I hear there's a big scene with lots of other Oz characters in ''Return to Oz''. Where is it, and who's in it?==<br />
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Right at the end of the 1985 Disney movie, once the Emerald City has been restored, there is a joyous celebration that leads up to Ozma's liberation and Dorothy returning home. The makers of ''Return to Oz'' paid homage to the Oz stories by slipping in many, many characters from the books into the crowds in these scenes, all based on the original Denslow and Neill illustrations. Sharp-eyed viewers can find the Guardian of the Gates, the Shaggy Man, the Patchwork Girl, Polychrome, the Bumpy Man, the Braided Man, Tommy Kwikstep, the Frogman, Rinkitink, and probably a few others as well. And by the way, those short people with the fur hats? Those are the Munchkins, sporting a new design for this film.<br />
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==Will there ever be a film version of ''Wicked''?==<br />
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It's difficult to predict, as Hollywood is fickle. If some executive were to approve a film version of ''Wicked'', there's no guarantee that another executive wouldn't come in, take his place, and cancel it. There are no current plans for a film version of ''Wicked'', but one of the producers of the show is Universal Pictures, and musicals are becoming big at the movies again. So it's not only possible, but likely that there will be a film version. When, however, I couldn't even begin to tell you. It will probably be some time still, however, so that the play can run its course on tour and around the world (the play hasn't even opened outside of North America yet). If anything concrete comes up, I'll put it up on WWOOW's news page (http://thewizardofoz.info/oznews.html).<br />
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==Was there ever a movie called ''The Wizard of Oz 2''?==<br />
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Not by that name, no. But there have been several sequels to ''The Wizard of Oz'' made as movies, or released direct to video. The one most people seem to be thinkning of, however, when they ask me this question is the 1985 Disney movie ''Return to Oz''. See the question [[#Have_there_been_any_Oz_movies.3F|Have there been any Oz movies?]] for more details on Oz movies.<br />
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==Was there ever an Oz radio show?==<br />
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Yes. Back in 1933, Jell-O sponsored a fifteen minute ''Wizard of Oz'' radio show on NBC's red network, which was broadcast Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons. It ran for six months, but then Jell-O decided to switch their sponsorship to Jack Benny instead, so that was it for Oz. The series pretty much followed the books, getting as far as ''The Emerald City of Oz'', with some allowances made for radio, and lots of songs and advertisements for Jell-O thrown in. No episodes of this series are known to survive, but NBC's archives still hold the scripts. Also, there exists two episodes of an adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' from the same era, broadcast on CBS, but nobody's been able to find out any more about them. More recently, the BBC produced its own version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' for British radio in the 1990s. This is currently available in Great Britain and North America in a two CD set or audio download from the BBC Radio Collection. A second BBC adaptation was played on BBC Radio and the bbc.co.uk website during the 2009 holiday season. And during the holiday season in 2000, many public radio stations in the United States broadcast a new radio adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' with an all-star cast, including Michelle Trachtenberg as Dorothy, Harry Anderson as the Wizard, Rene Auberjonois as the Scarecrow, Nestor Serrano as the Tin Woodman, and Robert Guillaume as the Cowardly Lion. This production is available as a four-CD set from LodesTone Audio Theatre, http://www.lodestone-media.com/wizard.html, and other outlets. Mention should also be made here of the Colonial Radio Theatre's audio adaptations of the first five Oz books. Although never actually broadcast on radio, they're presented, on ten audio cassettes, as if they were. You can find information about this set, and hear some samples, at http://www.colonialradio.com/titles.html#ozbox.<br />
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Two Oz-related episodes of radio shows also need to be mentioned here. An installment of the ''Maxwell House Good News'' show broadcast in June of 1939 was devoted to a sneak peek at The Movie, which was due to be released later that summer. It featured Judy Garland, Frank Morgan (a regular ''Good News'' cast member), Ray Bolger, and Bert Lahr, and was the public debut of the songs from The Movie. It featured many behind-the-scenes vignettes (mostly made up for the show), a "Baby Snooks" routine where her Daddy reads the story to her, and an appearance by Fred Stone, who played the Scarecrow in the 1902 stage play. (A snippet of this show can even be heard in the opening audio montage of the science fiction movie ''Contact'', as it's one of the few examples of radio from that time period that's been preserved.) The CD version of the ''Good News'' episode includes the original commercials, and MGM's ''Wizard of Oz'' edition of ''Leo Is On the Air'', an extended radio advertisement. Both shows are also available as audio-only tracks on the current American DVD and Blu-Ray releases of The Movie. On Christmas Day, 1950, Judy Garland recreated her role as Dorothy for an adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' on ''The Lux Radio Theatre''. Garland was the only original cast member, but her then-four-year-old daughter, Liza Minnelli, makes a cameo appearance at the end. Both of these radio episodes have been released on record, audiocassette, and CD, the latter available from Radio Spirits at http://www.radiospirits.com/. The Lux Radio Theatre production is also available as part of the current DVD and Blu-Ray releases of The Movie.<br />
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==Have there been talking book versions of any of the Oz books?==<br />
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Yes, quite a few. Most have been adaptations of the story for very young children of ''The Wizard of Oz'', many of which are still available today. One, from Caedmon, was read by Ray Bolger, who also read adaptations of ''The Land of Oz'', ''Queen Zixi of Ix'', and some of the "Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz" comic stories. These are currently available on cassette in a boxed set as ''The Oz Audio Collection''. Another notable version came out from Columbia Records in 1969, with the entire book recorded on seven records, read by George Rose and Mildred Dunnock. More recently, Piglet Press has put out large cast readings of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''The Emerald City of Oz'' on cassette. In the 1960s, Disney put out book-and-record editions of ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Scarecrow of Oz'' (narrated by Ray Bolger), ''The Tin Woodman of Oz'', and a new story called ''The Cowardly Lion of Oz'' — not to be confused with the Ruth Plumly Thompson story of the same name, despite the claims of the album notes that it is an adaptation. And there have been many other audio adaptations of ''The Wizard of Oz'' on records, cassettes, CDs, and now CD-ROM. Gregory Maguire's novels ''Wicked'' and ''Son of a Witch'', and Stuart Kaminsky's ''Murder on the Yellow Brick Road'' have been recorded as audiobooks.<br />
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A number of free audiobooks are available from [http://librivox.org Librivox], including a number of Oz and Baum books, recorded by volunteers. [http://uvulaaudio.com/kids.html Uvula Audio Books] also has a number of Baum titles available for free downloading.<br />
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==Has there ever been an Oz TV show?==<br />
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Yes, quite a few now. Again, here's an incomplete checklist of what's been shown:<br />
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* SERIES:<br />
** ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz''. A series of 130 short (less than five minutes each) cartoons about the adventures of Socrates the Straw Man, Rusty the Tin Man, Dandy Lion, and other characters very loosely based on ''The Wizard of Oz'', with many liberties taken. Produced in 1961, these were probably shown between other cartoons on Saturday mornings or on local independent stations. They seem to have been especially widespread in Canada, as many people have written to me having seen them there. I've heard that some episodes have been released on home video, but these aren't generally available any more. Episodes have also been available on some cable system's digital "on demand" systems. You can find out a little more at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3584.<br />
** ''Off to See the Wizard''. This series was MGM's answer to ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', in that it was an anthology of old movies, short subjects, etc., from the studio's archives. The animated Oz segments were used to introduce the show and as bumpers going into commercial breaks. The animation was done by Chuck Jones, and voices included Mel Blanc, June Foray, and Daws Butler. Some samples are included on recent North American releases of The Movie on DVD and Blu-Ray. More information is available at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=2673.<br />
** ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. This 1987 animated series, made by Cinar, Inc. in Canada, was made up of four stories: ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', and ''The Emerald City of Oz''. In the United States the fifty-two episode series has been shown on HBO and other cable channels, but only the edited movie versions have been released on VHS and DVD. It was released in its entirety, uncut, on DVD in other countries around the world. The English version is available for online viewing in a serial format at [http://www.jaroo.com/shows/about/the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz Jaroo.com].<br />
** From 1987 to 1990, Jim Henson's company produced ''Jim Henson's Mother Goose Stories'', a series of short vignettes that told the story behind several of the classic Mother Goose rhymes. A number of the stories (but not all) were based on stories written by L. Frank Baum in his first published children's book, ''Mother Goose in Prose''. Some of the stories have been released on VHS and DVD.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz''. In 1990, to capitalize on the publicity surrounding The Movie's fiftieth anniversary, Turner Entertainment Co. and DIC produced this thirteen episode animated series, based on The Movie. In the Unites States it ran on ABC Saturday mornings during the 1990-91 TV season. Some episodes have been released on VHS. Three DVD collections are currently available, meaning only two episodes have not been released on DVD. More information about the show is available at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3962.<br />
** Some time in the 1990s, Tokyo Broadcasting Service broadcast ''Shonen Santa no Daibouken'', or ''The Adventures of Young Santa Claus'', an animated adaptation of Baum's ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus''. This ran for twenty-four episodes. More information (but not much!) can be found at http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rllew/santa.html. So far, nobody has been able to track down any video or DVD release in either Japan or the United States.<br />
* SPECIALS AND ONE-TIME EVENTS:<br />
** ''The Land of Oz''. This adaptation of the second Oz book was an episode of Shirley Temple's weekly 1960 NBC series, and featured Temple as Tip and Ozma, Jonathan Winters as General Nikidik, and Agnes Moorehead as Mombi. (It was this role, incidentally, that convinced the producers of the series ''Bewitched'' to cast Moorehead as Endora, Samantha's mother, on that series.) In 2005, it was released on DVD as part of a set of Shirley Temple adaptations. More information can be found at http://www.buyshirleytemple.com/.<br />
** ''Return to Oz''. The producers of ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' used many of the same characterizations for this 1964 animated TV special, shown on NBC. It has previously been released on VHS, but isn't currently generally available. It was more recently released on DVD, but this is no longer available new. You can find out more about this special, and Susan Conway, who provided the voice of Dorothy, at http://www.rankinbass.com/schome.html.<br />
** ''The Making of The Wizard of Oz''. Aljean Harmetz, author of the book of the same name, hosted this short 1979 documentary, shown on PBS in the United States, about the making of the movie. Includes interviews with Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Margaret Hamilton, among others.<br />
** ''Thanksgiving in Oz'' (AKA ''Dorothy in the Land of Oz'', ''Christmas in Oz'', ''Dorothy and the Green Gobbler in Oz'', or just plain ''Oz''). Animated holiday special first shown in 1980. Very loosely based on ''Ozma of Oz''. It has previously been released a number on VHS, and on DVD in 2007 (coupled with ''Peter and the Magic Egg'' with Ray Bolger).<br />
** ''The Whimsical World of Oz''. 1985 documentary about the Oz phenomenon, partly used to publicize Disney's film ''Return to Oz'', and shown on PBS stations.<br />
** ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' (1985). Another holiday special, this one was made by Rankin-Bass and faithfully adapted from Baum's book of the same name. The animation uses stop-motion puppets, like other famous Rankin-Bass specials such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer''. It is available on VHS and DVD (the latter coupled with another old Rankin-Bass special, ''Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey''), and shown during the Christmas season on the ABC Family Channel.<br />
** ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic''. As part of The Movie's fiftieth anniversary, Angela Lansbury hosted a documentary about the history and making of The Movie, shown after the movie's TV broadcast in 1990 and 1996, and in conjunction with many of The Movie's recent cable airings. It has also been shown on its own on PBS stations, and was released on video as part of ''The Ultimate Oz'' collector's set of The Movie, and the 1999, 2005, and 2009 DVD (and Blu-Ray) reissues of The Movie. The home video version is a bit longer, featuring more material.<br />
** ''The Dreamer of Oz''. This 1990 TV movie was a biography of L. Frank Baum, starring John Ritter as Frank and Annette O'Toole as Maud. While some of the details are inaccurate, this was, overall, a faithful telling of Baum's early life and career and how he came to write ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. It was never released on VHS in the United States, but it was in Australia. It finally made its home video release in 2009 as part of the new DVD and Blu-Ray releases of The Movie that year (see the question [[#Where_can_I_find_The_Dreamer_of_Oz_on_home_video.3F|Where can I find ''The Dreamer of Oz'' on home video?]] for more details.)<br />
** ''In Search of Oz''. In 1994, the BBC's Arena documentary series produced this examination of Oz, which concentrated more on the books than most others. Shown in the United States, with a few cuts, on A&E.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz in Concert''. This 1995 concert, filmed for television, was a benefit for the Children's Defense Fund, and shown on TNT. It is available on home video, and has since been shown on VH1 and some PBS stations. Performers include Jewel as Dorothy, the Harlem Boys Choir, Joel Grey as Professor Marvel and the Wizard (predating his portrayal of the Wizard in ''Wicked'' on Broadway), Jackson Browne as the Scarecrow, Roger Daltrey as the Tin Man, Nathan Lane as the Cowardly Lion, Natalie Cole as Glinda, and Deborah Winger as the Wicked Witch of the West.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz on Ice''. This 1996 production, shown on CBS, was an abbreviated version of the touring production of the same name, with Oksana Baiul as Dorothy and Viktor Petrenko as the Scarecrow (neither of whom appeared in the touring show), and narrated by Bobby McFarrin, who does the same on tour. McFarrin also played the Wizard in this production, the only non-skater in the cast. It was released on VHS, but is no longer available.<br />
** ''Lion of Oz''. This animated movie was made by Sony in 2000, and is based on the book ''Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage'' by Roger S. Baum. It's a prequel about how the Wizard and the Lion came to Oz. It was shown on the Disney Channel and Toon Disney, and released on home video and DVD.<br />
** ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' (2000). This is a different animated version of the Baum story, produced by Sony, released on VHS, and shown on Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel.<br />
** ''The Muppets' Wizard of Oz'' was a 2005 TV movie shown on ABC. It featured Ashanti as Dorothy, Kermit the Frog as the Scarecrow, Gonzo as the Tin Thing, Fozzie as the Cowardly Lion, Miss Piggy as all four (!) witches, Jeffrey Tambor as the Wizard, and a cameo by Quentin Tarantino as himself. It was later released on video and DVD with additional footage and extras.<br />
** ''Tin Man'', the 2007 SciFi Channel miniseries, features Zooey Descanel as DG, a Kansas waitress who turns out to be the lost princess of the O. Z., a land overrun by a wicked witch named Azkadellia. Believe it or not, this show turned out to be both a sequel and a reimagining of ''The Wizard of Oz''. It is available on DVD and Blu-Ray.<br />
<br />
Numerous Oz references have made their way into any number of TV series, movies, and specials, and some shows have even had special ''Wizard of Oz'' episodes, such as ''Fame'', ''Alf Tales'', ''Beetlejuice'' (the cartoon), ''The Guiding Light'', ''That 70s Show'', ''Life with Bonnie'', a segment of ''Futurama'', and ''That's So Raven'', to name but a few. A 1970 episode of ''Death Valley Days'' entitled "The Wizard of Aberdeen" featured L. Frank Baum as a character, dramatizing an incident that took place while he was editing a newspaper in South Dakota. The soap opera ''Passions'' devoted an entire week to a ''Wizard of Oz''-themed storyline in the summer of 2002. And in Russia, at least two television versions of ''Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda'' have been shown, one live-action (which may have also had a theatrical release), one stop-motion animation.<br />
<br />
==I remember an Oz cartoon, can you tell me more about it? It had a catchy theme song that started out, "They're three sad souls, Oh me, oh my..."==<br />
<br />
"No brains, no heart, He's much too shy..." Yes, I'm familiar with that song. That's the theme song for ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' (see the question [[#Has_there_ever_been_an_Oz_TV_show.3F|Has there ever been an Oz TV show?]] for more information). Despite what many people think, it's not a Canadian show, but American, produced by Rankin-Bass in the United States in the early 1960s. It just seems to have been shown in Canada a lot in the 1980s and '90s. The complete theme song lyrics are:<br />
<br />
: They're three sad souls<br />
: Oh me, oh my,<br />
: No brains, no heart,<br />
: He's much too shy.<br />
: But never mind you three,<br />
: Here's the Wizard as you can see.<br />
: He'll fix that one, two, three<br />
: In that funny place called the world of Oz.<br />
: Oh the world of Oz is a funny, funny place<br />
: Where everyone has a funny, funny face.<br />
: All the streets are paved with gold,<br />
: And no one ever grows old.<br />
: In that funny land lives the Wizard of Oz. <br />
<br />
More information about ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' can be found on the WWW at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3584. If you'd like to download the theme as a Real Media file, go to http://www.toontracker.com/realaudio/ttra60-1.htm and scroll down about a third of the way. Or you can just listen to it by going to http://www.toontracker.com/waves/waves.htm and finding the show's name on the second page.<br />
<br />
==Where can I find ''The Dreamer of Oz'' on home video?==<br />
<br />
''The Dreamer of Oz'' was available as a VHS rental in Australia, but was never released in North America. In 2009, it was finally made available as a special feature on certain editions of the 2009 DVD and Blu-Ray release of The Movie (The Ultimate Collector's Edition, the Emerald Edition, and a special 2-disc set made exclusively for Wal-Mart). It should be noted, however, that the video quality is far from pristine, and the Blu-Ray only contains a standard definition version.<br />
<br />
==Have any Oz productions been directly released to home video?==<br />
<br />
A few animated versions of ''The Wizard of Oz'', and one of ''Ozma of Oz'', have been released straight to video. These are of varying quality, from so-so to all right, with some being straight adaptations and some a little more irreverent. One of the most notable of these is a Japanese version of ''The Wizard of Oz'', which was released on home video in North America with a dubbed English soundtrack, featuring Aileen Quinn as Dorothy and Lorne Greene as the Wizard. A series, ''The Oz Kids'', was also released straight to VHS, from Paramount, although it has been shown on television in other countries. The main characters are the sons and daughters of the familiar Oz characters (Dorothy's children Dot and Ned, Scarecrow Jr., Tin Boy, and so on), but the stories are based on Baum's books, including some of his non-Oz writings. Characters from later books — or rather, their children — appear, such as Jackie Pumpkinhead, Nome Prince Otto, and the Patchwork Baby. The videos are available through Paramount Home Video, and the titles are ''Toto, Lost in New York'', ''The Nome Prince and the Magic Belt'', ''Virtual Oz'', ''Who Stole Santa?'' ''Christmas in Oz'', ''Journey Beneath the Sea'', ''Underground Adventure'', ''The Monkey Prince'', and ''The Return of Mombi''. The two Christmas stories were also released on DVD in Great Britain. A play was recorded and released on video, the 1981 Minneapolis Children's Theater production of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz''. Also, two documentaries were released on video in 1997, ''Oz: The American Fairyland'' and ''Charles Santore Illustrates The Wizard of Oz''. Both were produced by Leonard A. Swann and released by Sirocco Productions, Inc., which no longer appears to be in business.</div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Dramatic_presentations_of_Oz&diff=69Dramatic presentations of Oz2010-07-09T02:12:57Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* 9.14. Have there been talking book versions of any of the Oz books? */ Added information about online audio books. (Avoided TMOHH)</p>
<hr />
<div>[A word here about video formats: All references to home video in this section, unless otherwise noted, refer to what's been released in North America on the NTSC VHS format, and Region 1 (United States and Canada) DVDs in NTSC. Outside of the United States and Canada, you will probably have to do some looking on your own. I'd love to include anything you find out in future editions of this FAQ, so please write me if you have information.]<br />
<br />
==9.1. Was ''The Wizard of Oz'' or any other Oz story ever performed as a play?==<br />
<br />
Most certainly! In fact, almost as soon as it was published, there was talk of turning it into a play. Under the guidance of stage manager Julian Mitchell, ''The Wizard of Oz'' debuted in Chicago in 1902, and a year later it was playing on Broadway, where it racked up one of the longest runs of its day. Touring productions of the play were on the road as late as 1909, and regional theaters were putting it on as late as 1918. Its original stars, Fred Stone and David Montgomery, who played the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, went on to become successes in other shows. Despite bearing little resemblance to the book — Dorothy's pet dog Toto became her pet cow Imogene, for instance, other characters were added, there was no Wicked Witch of the West, the Lion's part was greatly reduced and he couldn't talk, and many musical numbers that had nothing to do with the plot were thrown in — it was a great success which Baum tried to duplicate twice. His first attempt was ''The Woggle-Bug'' in 1905, a dramatization of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'', which "failed to woggle," as one observer put it. The critics said it was too similar to ''The Wizard of Oz'', and not as good, and it failed to draw an audience. It only played a few weeks in Milwaukee and Chicago. In 1913, Baum tried again with a dramatization of the third Oz book, ''Ozma of Oz'', but he made enough changes to make an entirely new story called ''The Tik-Tok Man of Oz''. Although successful in its Los Angeles and Chicago runs, it never made it to Broadway, and so Baum used the story instead as the basis for his next Oz book, where it became ''Tik-Tok of Oz''.<br />
<br />
With the exception of the 1928 Jean Gros marionette show ''The Magical Land of Oz'', which was an adaptation of ''Ozma of Oz'' written by Ruth Plumly Thompson, and the Junior League adaptations of several Oz books in the 1920s and 1930s, for the most part that was it for Oz stage shows for some time. The success of The Movie, however, changed that, and in the 1940s the St. Louis Light Opera put on a version of ''The Wizard of Oz'', adapted by Frank Gabrielson and with songs from The Movie. It was successful enough that other regional theaters put it on as well, and are continuing to do so to this day.<br />
<br />
In 1974, producer Ken Harper put on a new staging of ''The Wizard of Oz'' with all new music and an African-American cast. The storyline of ''The Wiz'' stayed fairly close to the original book, and after out-of-town tryouts, it opened on Broadway in 1975, where it picked up seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Director of a Musical. It has been revived, performed in community theaters, and loosely adapted into a movie.<br />
<br />
Since then, most of the major stage productions have been tied in with The Movie. A lavish arena show toured much of North America in 1989, and in 1995 a one-time show, ''The Wizard of Oz in Concert'', emphasizing the music, was presented in New York City with an all-star cast to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. The latter was recorded and broadcast on American cable channel TNT, and has been released on videotape and reshown on PBS stations and VH1. In Great Britain, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged ''The Wizard of Oz'', a closer adaptation of The Movie than the St. Louis Light Opera show, for several Christmas seasons beginning in the 1980s, and this version has now been performed on both sides of the Atlantic, and is available for companies to put on. ''The Wizard of Oz on Ice'' toured a number of North American cities in the 1990s, and there were also Oz productions in many earlier editions of the Ice Follies and Ice Capades. And a major production, produced by Madison Square Garden and featuring Mickey Rooney as the Wizard, toured throughout the United States and Canada.<br />
<br />
In 2003, a new show opened on Broadway after a successful tryout that summer in San Francisco. ''Wicked'', based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, is the story of what happened in Oz before Dorothy dropped in, and focuses on the relationship between Glinda the Good and Elphaba, who became the Wicked Witch of the West. It opened to mixed reviews, but the audiences were enthusiastic, and ''Wicked'' went on to become one of the biggest recent success stories on Broadway. It won many awards, including one for Best Actress in a Musical for Idina Menzel, who played Elphaba. Also, the cast album won a Grammy. As of this writing (December 2005), there are three Wicked companies: Broadway, Chicago (both with open-ended runs booked well into 2006), and a touring company that has dates booked throughout the United States and Canada into at least 2007. There will likely be a West End production in London, a European tour, or both in the near future.<br />
<br />
There have also been several school, community, and children's theater stage productions of not only ''The Wizard of Oz'', but also ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', ''The Yellow Knight of Oz'', ''Merry Go Round in Oz'', and probably other books as well, over the years, as well as the Oz-themed novel ''Was'' and new Oz stories written especially for the stage. ''Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda'' (see [[question 2.15]]) has also been performed on stage in Russia.<br />
<br />
==9.2. Our school/local community theater group wants to put on ''The Wizard of Oz''. Where can we get a script and the rights to do it?==<br />
<br />
The current source for the amateur stage rights of The Movie is Tams-Witmark. You must go through Tams-Witmark and pay their royalties if you want to use the music from The Movie, even if you don't use their script. They have two different versions, one based on the 1940s St. Louis show (http://www.tamswitmark.com/musicals/wizard.html), and one based on the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation (http://www.tamswitmark.com/musicals/wizardrsc.html). They can be reached on the WWW at http://www.tamswitmark.com. Music Theatre International also has a musical version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' available to theater companies, but the music is not that from The Movie. They are on the WWW at http://www.mtishows.com/default_home.asp, and they have a web page about their version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' at http://www.mtishows.com/show_home.asp?ID=000028. The MTI website includes contact information, including for countries outside North America, at http://www.mtishows.com/contact.asp. Another version is available through Classics on Stage (http://www.classicsonstage.com/scriptswizardofoz.html), and Pioneer Drama Services (http://www.pioneerdrama.com/headings/catalog.html) has five (!) different versions available. Yet another version (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/4326 — this is the non-musical Junior League version from the 1920s), along with ''The Wiz'' (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/2772) is available through Samuel French (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/). Still more versions of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and other Oz scripts can be found at Dramatic Publishing (http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/). A number of scripts for ''The Wizard of Oz'' and other Oz shows are available for sale through (TMOHH) the WWOOW's bookshop, aisle 10 (http://thewizardofoz.info/aisle10.html), and these generally contain performance and royalty information. If you are willing to forego the famous songs from The Movie, the story itself is in public domain, so you can always write your own script, as long as it's not a direct rip-off of The Movie or any other script. ''Wicked'' is not yet available for local productions yet, and likely won't for some time yet. And no, there's no readily-available version of the 1902 stage play, either, and I don't know why.<br />
<br />
==9.3 How can we make sets, costumes, and so forth for our production of ''The Wizard of Oz''?==<br />
<br />
That's a very big, long question, and difficult to answer in a document of this type. Let's just say that it all depends on your performance area, budget, available materials, what crafts people you have available and what they can do, and what the director wants. You'd be better off looking for information on stagecraft rather than trying to get answers here. Some Oz-specific suggestions can be found, however, at http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/stagethewizard.html. Some sketches, plans, and scene designs used by the St. Louis Municipal Light Opera are available at http://www.trinity.edu/sgilliam/sd/oz.html. And the approach of a British school show touring Germany is detailed in an article beginning at http://www.schoolshows.demon.co.uk/resources/articles/oz.htm. Moonstruck Dramatic Books has pages on their site devoted to both ''The Wizard of Oz'' (http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm6.htm) and ''The Wiz'' (http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm59.html). Information on Oz costumes and costume patterns can be found in [[question 19.7]]. Good lu... — er, I mean, break a leg!<br />
<br />
==9.4. Who are Gloria, Lord Growley, and Tibia? I don't remember them from The Movie. What can you tell me about them?==<br />
<br />
All three are new characters created for the St. Louis Light Opera's script for ''The Wizard of Oz''. Lord Growley is the prime minister of the Emerald City. He serves the same role in that show as the Soldier with the Green Whiskers does in the book, or many of the characters played by Frank Morgan in The Movie. Gloria is his daughter, who shows Dorothy the sights. Gloria, some of her friends, and Dorothy have a song in the show that is not from The Movie. (This Gloria is not the same character as Princess Gloria, from Baum's ''The Scarecrow of Oz''.) Tibia is a live skeleton who acts as the Wicked Witch's butler and henchman. Since none of these characters appear in The Movie or any other version or adaptation of Oz, actors playing these roles are free to interpret them in any way they care to.<br />
<br />
==9.5. What can you tell me about ''Wicked''?==<br />
<br />
Right now, not much, as I haven't seen the show yet. As of this writing (late 2005), this musical show is playing on Broadway and Chicago, with a North American touring company booked well into 2007, and rumors of a West End (London) production opening in late 2006. I do know it is based on the novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire, which is one of those Oz books that's not really written for children. ''Wicked'' tells the story of Elphaba, a young woman with green skin and a strong independent streak, how she becomes friends with Galinda (who later shortens her name to Glinda and becomes a good witch), and how she eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. The novel is very dark, which has surprised some of the younger fans of the play when they seek it out. I understand the play, while following the basic storyline, is lighter. For more details about the show, take a look at the ''Wicked'' pages on the website of the composer, Stephen Schwartz, at http://www.musicalschwartz.com/wicked.htm.<br />
<br />
==9.6. Have there been any Oz movies?==<br />
<br />
Oh, yes! Thanks to television, and now home video, for many people Oz is a movie, shown annually on American television and one of the most famous, beloved, and watched films of all time. Yet from the earliest days of filmmaking there have been Oz movies. In 1911 the Baums moved to a sleepy little suburb of Los Angeles called Hollywood, and Frank got caught up in the fledgling movie industry there, going so far as to organize his own film studio. Here is a partial, annotated list of Oz movies that have been made over the years:<br />
<br />
* ''The Fairylogue and Radio Plays''. This was an elaborate multimedia show that toured the midwestern and eastern United States in 1908, and L. Frank Baum himself presented it. Using hand-tinted films, slides, live actors, and a full orchestra, Baum presented dramatizations of ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', and ''John Dough and the Cherub'', and a preview of his then-forthcoming new book, ''Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz''. No film from this show is known to exist, but the slides and scripts do.<br />
* ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', ''Dorothy and the Scarecrow of Oz'', ''The Land of Oz'', ''John Dough and the Cherub''. When the ''Fairylogue'' ran into financial trouble, Baum assigned the film rights to some of his books to the Selig Polyscope Company, which had made the films, and as a result these one-reelers were released in 1910. These are not the Fairylogue films, but new versions. Thought lost for years, the first film turned up at the Kodak Film Archives in Rochester, New York, in the early 1990s. Clips were featured in the made-for-video documentary, ''Oz: The American Fairyland''. ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' has been shown on Turner Classic Movies, and is part of the 3-DVD collector's set of The Movie. It was also released as part of the DVD set ''More Treasures from the American Film Archives''.<br />
* ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', ''The Magic Cloak of Oz'', ''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz''. These were produced by Baum's own Oz Film Company in 1914, and were not terribly successful. They were based on, respectively, ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', ''Queen Zixi of Ix'' (with its location changed from Ix to Oz), and a number of elements of Baum's other books. The latter was written up a year later as the novel ''The Scarecrow of Oz''. ''The Magic Cloak of Oz'' was released as two two-reelers in Great Britain, ''The Witch Queen'' and ''The Magic Cloak'', and the only prints currently available just give the title as ''The Magic Cloak''; while ''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'' was later released as ''The New Wizard of Oz''. The Oz Film Company also made some films based on Baum's non-Oz writings, none of which are now known to exist, although parts of ''The Last Egyptian'' were recently found. The complete Oz movies are currently available on home video, and the last one is also available as a single DVD. ''The Magic Cloak of Oz'' and ''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'' are part of the 3-DVD collector's set of The Movie. (''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' was probably left off for time reasons, and because it's the one that has suffered the most damage. The only known print has considerable nitrate deterioration in the first reel, which makes one key scene unwatchable.)<br />
* ''The Wizard of Oz''. This 1925 release, co-written by Baum's eldest son, had a character named Dorothy living in Kansas and a house transported to Oz via cyclone, but the resemblance to the book ends there. This is a slapstick farce that served mainly as a vehicle for comedian Larry Semon, who played the Scarecrow. This film is most notable today for a set of farmhands who later become Dorothy's three friends in Oz, an idea MGM may have borrowed for The Movie; and the appearance of a young Oliver Hardy, somewhat slimmer than when he teamed up with Stan Laurel two years later. Hardy played the farmhand who disguised himself as a Tin Man. Currently available on home video and DVD, and a cleaned-up and restored version is part of the 3-DVD collector's set of The Movie. (This movie and the three Oz Film Company movies are all available on VHS, individually or in an attractive boxed set, from American Home Entertainment, and in a 3-DVD set from Brentwood Home Video.) There are also a few British DVDs in PAL format; one has it as part of a Laurel and Hardy collection (even though Stan Laurel wasn't in it), paired up with the Laurel and Hardy movie ''Hustling for Health''.<br />
* ''The Wizard of Oz''. A 1933 cartoon short directed by Ted Eshbaugh, it was originally made in Technicolor. Unfortunately, soon thereafter, Walt Disney signed an exclusive agreement with Technicolor, thus holding up release of Eshbaugh's short. Black and white copies eventually made it into the hands of collectors, and in the late 1980s it was finally released on home video. An excerpt was included on the 1998 DVD release of The Movie, and the whole cartoon is part of the 3-DVD collector's set of The Movie.<br />
* ''The Wizard of Oz''. This is it, the big one, MGM's 1939 Judy Garland vehicle, the most watched movie in history. For many people, this movie ''is'' Oz. There have been so many questions, legends, rumors, half-truths, and speculations surrounding this movie that the following six (!) sections of this FAQ are devoted to it. Besides its annual television showings, it's been released on home video, laserdisk, and DVD in several versions, including as both a standard 2-DVD and 3-DVD collector's edition in 2005.<br />
* ''The Wonderful Land of Oz''. A 1969 low-budget musical adaptation of Baum's second book, poor acting and poor production values let this one down. It is also available on VHS and DVD (paired with ''Jack and the Beanstalk'' on the latter) from Something Weird Video, http://www.somethingweird.com/. (It is not recommended that children be allowed to visit this website unsupervised.)<br />
* ''Journey Back to Oz''. Released in Europe in 1972 and North America in 1974, this was the first full-length animated Oz theatrical release, and boasted a stellar cast of voices, including Liza Minnelli as Dorothy, Mickey Rooney as the Scarecrow, and Ethel Merman as Mombi, the Wicked Witch. Although loosely based on ''The Land of Oz'', it introduced a number of its own elements, including an army of marauding green elephants. To date, probably the most successful animated Oz film, although it still leaves much to be desired. It has been released on home video, but is currently not generally available.<br />
* ''Oz'' (North American title: ''Twentieth Century Oz''). A 1976 Australian film that transplanted the story of ''The Wizard of Oz'' to Melbourne and its environs, with the Scarecrow becoming a dim surfer, the Tin Woodman a greasy mechanic, the Lion a braggart biker, and the Wizard a rock star. It was rated "R" in the United States, so this is not a film for kids! Not available on North American home video, but it has been shown on local television in Canada, and is now available on DVD in Australia.<br />
* ''The Wiz''. The 1977 movie version of the Broadway play, although Oz is transplanted to New York City, and much of what made the play a success is lost. It stars Diana Ross as a rather mature Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, and Richard Pryor as the Wiz. It is available on home video and DVD.<br />
* ''Return to Oz''. This 1985 film was Disney's attempt to get in on Oz. (An elaborate Oz production number, starring the Mousketeers, was shown on the ''Disneyland'' television show in the 1960s as a preview for ''The Rainbow Road to Oz'', which was never made.) Loosely based on ''The Land of Oz'' and ''Ozma of Oz'', it was too dark and gloomy for many, and critics unfamiliar with the books made unfavorable comparisons to The Movie. It has been released on home video and DVD, and been shown on the Disney Channel, the Family Channel, the Hallmark Channel, and premium movie channels on cable, and independent television stations around America.<br />
* ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', ''The Emerald City of Oz''. These animated films, made by Cinar Films Inc. in Canada in 1987, were released direct to videotape and DVD in North America, but were shown in theaters in several other countries around the world. These were edited compilations of the TV series (see [[question 9.10]]), but they've also been shown by themselves on cable. <br />
<br />
You can find more information about these and many other Oz and Oz-related films at Scott Andrew Hutchins' Oz Filmography website at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/scottandrewh/OZFILMS.HTM.<br />
<br />
Oz and Ozian themes have also been a part of other films, most notably ''Zardoz'', ''Wild at Heart'', and ''Under the Rainbow'', a poor Chevy Chase comedy about Nazi spies infiltrating Hollywood during the filming of ''The Movie''. Oz jokes and references, usually referring to The Movie, often pop up in other films, such as ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'' ''Batman'' (1989), ''Kentucky Fried Movie'', ''Top Secret'', and ''One True Thing'', to name but a few. And if you look carefully, you can see Oz books in ''Rambling Rose'', ''You've Got Mail'', and perhaps other movies.<br />
<br />
==9.7. Why doesn't Hollywood make more Oz movies?==<br />
<br />
In a nutshell, it's already been done. The Movie is so well known that studio executives are generally reluctant to even consider another movie based on the Oz books. The generally poor reception of ''The Wiz'' and ''Return to Oz'' only adds to the perception. Plus, Oz just doesn't seem to fit into the current Hollywood movie-making climate, which expects lots of aliens, laser battles, car chases, and the like for a movie — at least one that would cost as much as a live-action Oz film — to be even considered for production.<br />
<br />
==9.8. I've heard about a new Oz movie being made. What can you tell me about it?==<br />
<br />
It looks as if enough time has passed since ''The Wiz'' and ''Return to Oz'' for Hollywood to think about Oz movies again, because several potential Oz movies have been rumored to be in the works. One was entitled ''Somewhere'', and was to feature Elizabeth Taylor playing Dorothy, now a grandmother, returning to Oz. Another project, overseen by Drew Barrymore, was called ''Surrender, Dorothy'', and would feature Barrymore playing Dorothy's great-granddaughter, who went to Oz and faces the Wicked Witch's granddaughter. And ''Pamela West'' has been mentioned, which would make the Witch the heroine and Dorothy the evil interloper. One may note that at least some of these projects appear to be sequels to The Movie, rather than based on the books or any other version of Oz. It must be emphasized that, as of this writing (December, 2005), none of these films has actually gone before the cameras, and it appears unlikely that any of them will be made. You'll just have to keep watching your local movie listings to see if any Oz movies get made and come to your local theater. For all the latest rumors and updates on Oz movie productions, keep an eye on http://thewizardofoz.info/oznews.html#rumors.<br />
<br />
==9.9. Hey, am I missing a scene in the 1914 silent version of ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''? Where is it? What happens in it?==<br />
<br />
Yes, you are missing a key scene in ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' — but so is everyone else, as it's missing from the only known original print. Early film stock was fragile, and could rot or fall apart if not properly cared for, which was the case with the first reel of ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''. You can see the damage creep in as a white blob on the right hand side of the screen, and it progressively gets worse and worse as the reel keeps going. Finally, the key scene of the Patchwork Girl coming to life, and Unk Nunkie, Margolotte, and Danx turning to stone when the Liquid of Petrification falls on them is so badly damaged that I have never seen it intact in any film print or video or DVD release. Oz fans around the world would be extremely happy if another, intact copy of the first reel was to ever turn up.<br />
<br />
==9.10. I hear there's a big scene with lots of other Oz characters in ''Return to Oz''. Where is it, and who's in it?==<br />
<br />
Right at the end of the 1985 Disney movie, once the Emerald City has been restored, there is a joyous celebration that leads up to Ozma's liberation and Dorothy returning home. The makers of ''Return to Oz'' paid homage to the Oz stories by slipping in many, many characters from the books into the crowds in these scenes, all based on the original Denslow and Neill illustrations. Sharp-eyed viewers can find the Guardian of the Gates, the Shaggy Man, the Patchwork Girl, Polychrome, the Bumpy Man, the Braided Man, Tommy Kwikstep, the Frogman, Rinkitink, and probably a few others as well. And by the way, those short people with the fur hats? Those are the Munchkins, sporting a new design for this film.<br />
<br />
==9.11. Will there ever be a film version of ''Wicked''?==<br />
<br />
It's difficult to predict, as Hollywood is fickle. If some executive were to approve a film version of ''Wicked'', there's no guarantee that another executive wouldn't come in, take his place, and cancel it. There are no current plans for a film version of ''Wicked'', but one of the producers of the show is Universal Pictures, and musicals are becoming big at the movies again. So it's not only possible, but likely that there will be a film version. When, however, I couldn't even begin to tell you. It will probably be some time still, however, so that the play can run its course on tour and around the world (the play hasn't even opened outside of North America yet). If anything concrete comes up, I'll put it up on WWOOW's news page (http://thewizardofoz.info/oznews.html).<br />
<br />
==9.12. Was there ever a movie called ''The Wizard of Oz 2''?<br />
<br />
Not by that name, no. But there have been several sequels to ''The Wizard of Oz'' made as movies, or released direct to video. The one most people seem to be thinkning of, however, when they ask me this question is the 1985 Disney movie ''Return to Oz''. See [[question 9.6]] for more details on Oz movies.<br />
<br />
==9.13. Was there ever an Oz radio show?==<br />
<br />
Yes. Back in 1933, Jell-O sponsored a fifteen minute ''Wizard of Oz'' radio show on NBC's red network, which was broadcast Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons. It ran for six months, but then Jell-O decided to switch their sponsorship to Jack Benny instead, so that was it for Oz. The series pretty much followed the books, getting as far as ''The Emerald City of Oz'', with some allowances made for radio, and lots of songs and advertisements for Jell-O thrown in. No episodes of this series are known to survive, but NBC's archives still hold the scripts. Also, there exists two episodes of an adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' from the same era, broadcast on CBS, but nobody's been able to find out any more about them. More recently, the BBC produced its own version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' for British radio in the 1990s. This is currently available in Great Britain on two cassettes under the BBC Radio Collection imprint. And during the holiday season in 2000, many public radio stations in the United States broadcast a new radio adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' with an all-star cast, including Michelle Trachtenberg as Dorothy, Harry Anderson as the Wizard, Rene Auberjonois as the Scarecrow, Nestor Serrano as the Tin Woodman, and Robert Guillaume as the Cowardly Lion. This production is available as a four-CD set from LodesTone Audio Theatre, http://www.lodestone-media.com/wizard.html, and other outlets. Mention should also be made here of the Colonial Radio Theatre's audio adaptations of the first five Oz books. Although never actually broadcast on radio, they're presented, on ten audio cassettes, as if they were. You can find information about this set, and hear some samples, at http://www.colonialradio.com/titles.html#ozbox.<br />
<br />
Two Oz-related episodes of radio shows also need to be mentioned here. An installment of the ''Maxwell House Good News'' show broadcast in June of 1939 was devoted to a sneak peek at The Movie, which was due to be released later that summer. It featured Judy Garland, Frank Morgan (a regular Good News cast member), Ray Bolger, and Bert Lahr, and was the public debut of the songs from The Movie. It featured many behind-the-scenes vignettes (mostly made up for the show), a "Baby Snooks" routine where her Daddy reads the story to her, and an appearance by Fred Stone, who played the Scarecrow in the 1902 stage play. (A snippet of this show can even be heard in the opening audio montage of the science fiction movie ''Contact'', as it's one of the few examples of radio from that time period that's been preserved.) The CD version of the ''Good News'' episode includes the original commercials, and MGM's ''Wizard of Oz'' edition of ''Leo Is On the Air'', an extended radio advertisement. Both shows are also available as audio-only tracks on the current American DVD release of The Movie. On Christmas Day, 1950, Judy Garland recreated her role as Dorothy for an adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' on The Lux Radio Theatre. Garland was the only original cast member, but her then-four-year-old daughter, Liza Minnelli, makes a cameo appearance at the end. Both of these radio episodes have been released on record, audiocassette, and CD, the latter available from Radio Spirits at http://www.radiospirits.com/. The Lux Radio Theatre production is also available as part of the 2005 DVD release of The Movie.<br />
<br />
==9.14. Have there been talking book versions of any of the Oz books?==<br />
<br />
Yes, quite a few. Most have been adaptations of the story for very young children of ''The Wizard of Oz'', many of which are still available today. One, from Caedmon, was read by Ray Bolger, who also read adaptations of ''The Land of Oz'', ''Queen Zixi of Ix'', and some of the "Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz" comic stories. These are currently available on cassette in a boxed set as ''The Oz Audio Collection''. Another notable version came out from Columbia Records in 1969, with the entire book recorded on seven records, read by George Rose and Mildred Dunnock. More recently, Piglet Press has put out large cast readings of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''The Emerald City of Oz'' on cassette. In the 1960s, Disney put out book-and-record editions of ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Scarecrow of Oz'' (narrated by Ray Bolger), ''The Tin Woodman of Oz'', and a new story called ''The Cowardly Lion of Oz'' — not to be confused with the Ruth Plumly Thompson story of the same name, despite the claims of the album notes that it is an adaptation. And there have been many other audio adaptations of ''The Wizard of Oz'' on records, cassettes, CDs, and now CD-ROM. Gregory Maguire's novels ''Wicked'' and ''Son of a Witch'', and Stuart Kaminsky's ''Murder on the Yellow Brick Road'' have been recorded as audiobooks.<br />
<br />
A number of free audiobooks are available from [http://librivox.org Librivox], including a number of Oz and Baum books, recorded by volunteers. [http://uvulaaudio.com/kids.html Uvula Audio Books] also has a number of Baum titles available for free downloading.<br />
<br />
==9.15. Has there ever been an Oz TV show?==<br />
<br />
Yes, quite a few now. Again, here's an incomplete checklist of what's been shown:<br />
<br />
* SERIES:<br />
** ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz''. A series of 130 short (less than five minutes each) cartoons about the adventures of Socrates the Straw Man, Rusty the Tin Man, Dandy Lion, and other characters very loosely based on ''The Wizard of Oz'', with many liberties taken. Produced in 1961, these were probably shown between other cartoons on Saturday mornings or on local independent stations. They seem to have been especially widespread in Canada, as many people have written to me having seen them there. I've heard that some episodes have been released on home video, but these aren't generally available any more. Episodes have also been available on some cable system's digital "on demand" systems. You can find out a little more at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3584.<br />
** ''Off to See the Wizard''. This series was MGM's answer to ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', in that it was an anthology of old movies, short subjects, etc., from the studio's archives. The animated Oz segments were used to introduce the show and as bumpers going into commercial breaks. The animation was done by Chuck Jones, and voices included Mel Blanc, June Foray, and Daws Butler. Some samples are included on the 1999 and 2005 North American releases of The Movie on DVD. More information is available at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=2673.<br />
** ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. This 1987 animated series, made by Cinar, Inc. in Canada, was made up of four stories: ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', and ''The Emerald City of Oz''. In the United States the fifty-two episode series has been shown on HBO and other cable channels.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz''. In 1990, to capitalize on the publicity surrounding The Movie's fiftieth anniversary, Turner Entertainment Co. and DIC produced this thirteen episode animated series, based on The Movie. In the Unites States it ran on ABC Saturday mornings during the 1990-91 TV season. Some episodes have been released on home video, but now aren't generally available. Three DVD collections are currently available, meaning only two episodes have not been released on DVD. More information about the show is available at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3962.<br />
** ''Some time in the 1990s, Tokyo Broadcasting Service broadcast ''Shonen Santa no Daibouken'', or ''The Adventures of Young Santa Claus'', an animated adaptation of Baum's ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus''. This ran for twenty-four episodes. More information (but not much!) can be found at http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rllew/santa.html. So far, I have been unable to track down any video or DVD release in either Japan or the United States.<br />
* SPECIALS:<br />
** ''The Land of Oz''. This adaptation of the second Oz book was an episode of Shirley Temple's weekly 1960 NBC series, and featured Temple as Tip and Ozma, Jonathan Winters as General Nikidik, and Agnes Moorehead as Mombi. (It was this role, incidentally, that convinced the producers of the series ''Bewitched'' to cast Moorehead as Endora, Samantha's mother, on that series.) In 2005, it was released on DVD as part of a set of Shirley Temple adaptations. More information can be found at http://www.buyshirleytemple.com/.<br />
** ''Return to Oz''. The producers of ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' used many of the same characterizations for this 1964 animated TV movie, shown on NBC. It has previously been released on home video, but isn't currently generally available. (This production should not be confused with the Disney movie of the same name.) You can find out more about this special, and Susan Conway, who provided the voice of Dorothy, at http://www.rankinbass.com/schome.html.<br />
** ''The Making of The Wizard of Oz''. Aljean Harmetz, author of the book of the same name, hosted this short 1979 documentary, shown on PBS in the United States, about the making of the movie. Includes interviews with Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Margaret Hamilton, among others.<br />
** ''Thanksgiving in Oz'' (AKA ''Dorothy in the Land of Oz'', ''Christmas in Oz'', ''Dorothy and the Green Gobbler in Oz'', or just plain ''Oz''). Animated holiday special first shown in 1980. Very loosely based on ''Ozma of Oz''. It has previously been released a number of times on home video, but is now not generally available.<br />
** ''The Whimsical World of Oz''. 1985 documentary about the Oz phenomenon, partly used to publicize Disney's film ''Return to Oz'', and shown on PBS stations.<br />
** ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' (1985). Another holiday special, this one was made by Rankin-Bass and faithfully adapted from Baum's book of the same name. The animation uses stop-motion puppets, like other famous Rankin-Bass specials such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer''. It is available on home video, and shown during the Christmas season on the ABC Family Channel.<br />
** ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic''. As part of The Movie's fiftieth anniversary, Angela Lansbury hosted a documentary about the history and making of The Movie, shown after the movie's TV broadcast in 1990 and 1996, and in conjunction with some of The Movie's recent cable airings. It has also been shown on its own on PBS stations, and was released on video as part of ''The Ultimate Oz'' collector's set of The Movie, and the 1999 and 2005 DVD reissues of The Movie. The home video version is a bit longer, featuring more material.<br />
** ''The Dreamer of Oz''. This 1990 TV movie was a biography of L. Frank Baum, starring John Ritter as Frank and Annette O'Toole as Maud. While some of the details are wrong, this was, overall, a faithful telling of Baum's early life and career and how he came to write ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. It has been reportedly rerun on the Lifetime cable network, but is not available on home video (see [[question 9.17]]). It was released on video in Australia, but is now hard to find there.<br />
** ''In Search of Oz''. In 1994, the BBC's Arena documentary series produced this examination of Oz, which concentrated more on the books than most others. Shown in the United States, with a few cuts, on A&E.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz in Concert''. This 1995 concert, filmed for television, was a benefit for the Children's Defense Fund, and shown on TNT. It is available on home video, and has since been shown on VH1 and some PBS stations. Performers include Jewel as Dorothy, the Harlem Boys Choir, Joel Grey as Professor Marvel and the Wizard (predating his portrayal of the Wizard in ''Wicked'' on Broadway), Jackson Browne as the Scarecrow, Roger Daltrey as the Tin Man, Nathan Lane as the Cowardly Lion, Natalie Cole as Glinda, and Deborah Winger as the Wicked Witch of the West.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz on Ice''. This 1996 production, shown on CBS, was an abbreviated version of the touring production of the same name, with Oksana Baiul as Dorothy and Viktor Petrenko as the Scarecrow (neither of whom appeared in the touring show), and narrated by Bobby McFarrin, who does the same on tour. McFarrin also played the Wizard in this production, the only non-skater in the cast. It is available on videotape from http://www.skatetape.com/.<br />
** ''Lion of Oz"". This animated movie was made by Sony in 2000, and is based on the book ''Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage'' by Roger S. Baum. It's a prequel about how the Wizard and the Lion came to Oz. It was shown on the Disney Channel and Toon Disney, and released on home video and DVD.<br />
** ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' (2000). This is a different animated version of the Baum story, produced by Sony, released on VHS, and shown on Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel.<br />
** ''The Muppets' Wizard of Oz'' was a 2005 TV movie shown on ABC. It featured Ashanti as Dorothy, Kermit the Frog as the Scarecrow, Gonzo as the Tin Thing, Fozzie as the Cowardly Lion, Miss Piggy as all four (!) witches, Jeffrey Tambor as the Wizard, and a cameo by Quentin Tarantino as himself. It was later released on video and DVD with additional footage and extras. <br />
<br />
Numerous Oz references have made their way into any number of TV series, movies, and specials, and some shows have even had special ''Wizard of Oz'' episodes, such as ''Fame'', ''Alf Tales'', ''Beetlejuice'' (the cartoon), ''The Guiding Light'', ''That 70s Show'', and ''Life with Bonnie'', to name but a few. A 1970 episode of ''Death Valley Days'' entitled "The Wizard of Aberdeen" featured L. Frank Baum as a character, dramatizing an incident that took place while he was editing a newspaper in South Dakota. The soap opera ''Passions'' devoted an entire week to a ''Wizard of Oz''-themed storyline in the summer of 2002. And in Russia, at least two television versions of ''Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda'' have been shown, one live-action (which may have also had a theatrical release), one stop-motion animation.<br />
<br />
You can find more information about these and many other Oz and Oz-related television shows at Scott Andrew Hutchins' Oz Filmography website at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/scottandrewh/OZFILMS.HTM.<br />
<br />
==9.16. I remember an Oz cartoon, can you tell me more about it? It had a catchy theme song that started out, "They're three sad souls, Oh me, oh my..."==<br />
<br />
"No brains, no heart, He's much too shy..." Yes, I'm familiar with that song. That's the theme song for ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' (see [[question 9.15]] for more information). Despite what many people think, it's not a Canadian show, but American, produced by Rankin-Bass in the United States in the early 1960s. It just seems to have been shown in Canada a lot in the 1980s and '90s. The complete theme song lyrics are:<br />
<br />
: They're three sad souls<br />
: Oh me, oh my,<br />
: No brains, no heart,<br />
: He's much too shy.<br />
: But never mind you three,<br />
: Here's the Wizard as you can see.<br />
: He'll fix that one, two, three<br />
: In that funny place called the world of Oz.<br />
: Oh the world of Oz is a funny, funny place<br />
: Where everyone has a funny, funny face.<br />
: All the streets are paved with gold,<br />
: And no one ever grows old.<br />
: In that funny land lives the Wizard of Oz. <br />
<br />
More information about ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' can be found on the WWW at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3584. If you'd like to download the theme as a Real Media file, go to http://www.toontracker.com/realaudio/ttra60-1.htm and scroll down about a third of the way. Or you can just listen to it by going to http://www.toontracker.com/waves/waves.htm and finding the show's name on the second page.<br />
<br />
==9.17. Where can I find ''The Dreamer of Oz'' on home video?==<br />
<br />
''The Dreamer of Oz'' was available as a VHS rental in Australia, but was finally made available as a special feature on certain editions of the 2009 DVD and Blu-Ray release of The Movie. (The Ultimate Collector's Edition, the Emerald Edition, and a special 2-disc set made exclusively for Wal-Mart.) It is noted, however, that the video quality is far from pristine, and the Blu-Ray only contains a standard definition version.<br />
<br />
==9.18. Have any Oz productions been directly released to home video?==<br />
<br />
A few animated versions of ''The Wizard of Oz'', and one of ''Ozma of Oz'', have been released straight to video. These are of varying quality, from so-so to all right, with some being straight adaptations and some a little more irreverent. One of the most notable of these is a Japanese version of ''The Wizard of Oz'', which was released on home video in North America with a dubbed English soundtrack, featuring Aileen Quinn as Dorothy and Lorne Greene as the Wizard. A series, ''The Oz Kids'', was also released straight to video, from Paramount, although it has been shown on television in other countries. The main characters are the sons and daughters of the familiar Oz characters (Dorothy's children Dot and Ned, Scarecrow Jr., Tin Boy, and so on), but the stories are based on Baum's books, including some of his non-Oz writings. Characters from later books — or rather, their children — appear, such as Jackie Pumpkinhead, Nome Prince Otto, and the Patchwork Baby. The videos are available through Paramount Home Video, and the titles are ''Toto, Lost in New York'', ''The Nome Prince and the Magic Belt'', ''Virtual Oz'', ''Who Stole Santa?'' ''Christmas in Oz'', ''Journey Beneath the Sea'', ''Underground Adventure'', ''The Monkey Prince'', and ''The Return of Mombi''. The two Christmas stories were also released on DVD in Great Britain. A play was recorded and released on video, the 1981 Minneapolis Children's Theater production of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz''. Also, two documentaries were released on video in 1997, ''Oz: The American Fairyland'' and ''Charles Santore Illustrates The Wizard of Oz''. Both were produced by Leonard A. Swann and released by Sirocco Productions, Inc. Those interested in these videos can check out their website at http://www.siroccovideo.com.<br />
<br />
Besides movies and television, Scott Andrew Hutchins' Oz Filmography website at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/scottandrewh/OZFILMS.HTM also has information about Oz and Oz-related direct-to-video releases.</div>Jaredofmohttp://thewizardofoz.info/w/index.php?title=Dramatic_presentations_of_Oz&diff=68Dramatic presentations of Oz2010-07-09T02:03:01Z<p>Jaredofmo: /* 9.17. Where can I find The Dreamer of Oz on home video? */ It's on DVD and Blu-Ray now...</p>
<hr />
<div>[A word here about video formats: All references to home video in this section, unless otherwise noted, refer to what's been released in North America on the NTSC VHS format, and Region 1 (United States and Canada) DVDs in NTSC. Outside of the United States and Canada, you will probably have to do some looking on your own. I'd love to include anything you find out in future editions of this FAQ, so please write me if you have information.]<br />
<br />
==9.1. Was ''The Wizard of Oz'' or any other Oz story ever performed as a play?==<br />
<br />
Most certainly! In fact, almost as soon as it was published, there was talk of turning it into a play. Under the guidance of stage manager Julian Mitchell, ''The Wizard of Oz'' debuted in Chicago in 1902, and a year later it was playing on Broadway, where it racked up one of the longest runs of its day. Touring productions of the play were on the road as late as 1909, and regional theaters were putting it on as late as 1918. Its original stars, Fred Stone and David Montgomery, who played the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, went on to become successes in other shows. Despite bearing little resemblance to the book — Dorothy's pet dog Toto became her pet cow Imogene, for instance, other characters were added, there was no Wicked Witch of the West, the Lion's part was greatly reduced and he couldn't talk, and many musical numbers that had nothing to do with the plot were thrown in — it was a great success which Baum tried to duplicate twice. His first attempt was ''The Woggle-Bug'' in 1905, a dramatization of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'', which "failed to woggle," as one observer put it. The critics said it was too similar to ''The Wizard of Oz'', and not as good, and it failed to draw an audience. It only played a few weeks in Milwaukee and Chicago. In 1913, Baum tried again with a dramatization of the third Oz book, ''Ozma of Oz'', but he made enough changes to make an entirely new story called ''The Tik-Tok Man of Oz''. Although successful in its Los Angeles and Chicago runs, it never made it to Broadway, and so Baum used the story instead as the basis for his next Oz book, where it became ''Tik-Tok of Oz''.<br />
<br />
With the exception of the 1928 Jean Gros marionette show ''The Magical Land of Oz'', which was an adaptation of ''Ozma of Oz'' written by Ruth Plumly Thompson, and the Junior League adaptations of several Oz books in the 1920s and 1930s, for the most part that was it for Oz stage shows for some time. The success of The Movie, however, changed that, and in the 1940s the St. Louis Light Opera put on a version of ''The Wizard of Oz'', adapted by Frank Gabrielson and with songs from The Movie. It was successful enough that other regional theaters put it on as well, and are continuing to do so to this day.<br />
<br />
In 1974, producer Ken Harper put on a new staging of ''The Wizard of Oz'' with all new music and an African-American cast. The storyline of ''The Wiz'' stayed fairly close to the original book, and after out-of-town tryouts, it opened on Broadway in 1975, where it picked up seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Director of a Musical. It has been revived, performed in community theaters, and loosely adapted into a movie.<br />
<br />
Since then, most of the major stage productions have been tied in with The Movie. A lavish arena show toured much of North America in 1989, and in 1995 a one-time show, ''The Wizard of Oz in Concert'', emphasizing the music, was presented in New York City with an all-star cast to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. The latter was recorded and broadcast on American cable channel TNT, and has been released on videotape and reshown on PBS stations and VH1. In Great Britain, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged ''The Wizard of Oz'', a closer adaptation of The Movie than the St. Louis Light Opera show, for several Christmas seasons beginning in the 1980s, and this version has now been performed on both sides of the Atlantic, and is available for companies to put on. ''The Wizard of Oz on Ice'' toured a number of North American cities in the 1990s, and there were also Oz productions in many earlier editions of the Ice Follies and Ice Capades. And a major production, produced by Madison Square Garden and featuring Mickey Rooney as the Wizard, toured throughout the United States and Canada.<br />
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In 2003, a new show opened on Broadway after a successful tryout that summer in San Francisco. ''Wicked'', based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, is the story of what happened in Oz before Dorothy dropped in, and focuses on the relationship between Glinda the Good and Elphaba, who became the Wicked Witch of the West. It opened to mixed reviews, but the audiences were enthusiastic, and ''Wicked'' went on to become one of the biggest recent success stories on Broadway. It won many awards, including one for Best Actress in a Musical for Idina Menzel, who played Elphaba. Also, the cast album won a Grammy. As of this writing (December 2005), there are three Wicked companies: Broadway, Chicago (both with open-ended runs booked well into 2006), and a touring company that has dates booked throughout the United States and Canada into at least 2007. There will likely be a West End production in London, a European tour, or both in the near future.<br />
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There have also been several school, community, and children's theater stage productions of not only ''The Wizard of Oz'', but also ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', ''The Yellow Knight of Oz'', ''Merry Go Round in Oz'', and probably other books as well, over the years, as well as the Oz-themed novel ''Was'' and new Oz stories written especially for the stage. ''Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda'' (see [[question 2.15]]) has also been performed on stage in Russia.<br />
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==9.2. Our school/local community theater group wants to put on ''The Wizard of Oz''. Where can we get a script and the rights to do it?==<br />
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The current source for the amateur stage rights of The Movie is Tams-Witmark. You must go through Tams-Witmark and pay their royalties if you want to use the music from The Movie, even if you don't use their script. They have two different versions, one based on the 1940s St. Louis show (http://www.tamswitmark.com/musicals/wizard.html), and one based on the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation (http://www.tamswitmark.com/musicals/wizardrsc.html). They can be reached on the WWW at http://www.tamswitmark.com. Music Theatre International also has a musical version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' available to theater companies, but the music is not that from The Movie. They are on the WWW at http://www.mtishows.com/default_home.asp, and they have a web page about their version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' at http://www.mtishows.com/show_home.asp?ID=000028. The MTI website includes contact information, including for countries outside North America, at http://www.mtishows.com/contact.asp. Another version is available through Classics on Stage (http://www.classicsonstage.com/scriptswizardofoz.html), and Pioneer Drama Services (http://www.pioneerdrama.com/headings/catalog.html) has five (!) different versions available. Yet another version (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/4326 — this is the non-musical Junior League version from the 1920s), along with ''The Wiz'' (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/2772) is available through Samuel French (http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/). Still more versions of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and other Oz scripts can be found at Dramatic Publishing (http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/). A number of scripts for ''The Wizard of Oz'' and other Oz shows are available for sale through (TMOHH) the WWOOW's bookshop, aisle 10 (http://thewizardofoz.info/aisle10.html), and these generally contain performance and royalty information. If you are willing to forego the famous songs from The Movie, the story itself is in public domain, so you can always write your own script, as long as it's not a direct rip-off of The Movie or any other script. ''Wicked'' is not yet available for local productions yet, and likely won't for some time yet. And no, there's no readily-available version of the 1902 stage play, either, and I don't know why.<br />
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==9.3 How can we make sets, costumes, and so forth for our production of ''The Wizard of Oz''?==<br />
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That's a very big, long question, and difficult to answer in a document of this type. Let's just say that it all depends on your performance area, budget, available materials, what crafts people you have available and what they can do, and what the director wants. You'd be better off looking for information on stagecraft rather than trying to get answers here. Some Oz-specific suggestions can be found, however, at http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/stagethewizard.html. Some sketches, plans, and scene designs used by the St. Louis Municipal Light Opera are available at http://www.trinity.edu/sgilliam/sd/oz.html. And the approach of a British school show touring Germany is detailed in an article beginning at http://www.schoolshows.demon.co.uk/resources/articles/oz.htm. Moonstruck Dramatic Books has pages on their site devoted to both ''The Wizard of Oz'' (http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm6.htm) and ''The Wiz'' (http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm59.html). Information on Oz costumes and costume patterns can be found in [[question 19.7]]. Good lu... — er, I mean, break a leg!<br />
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==9.4. Who are Gloria, Lord Growley, and Tibia? I don't remember them from The Movie. What can you tell me about them?==<br />
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All three are new characters created for the St. Louis Light Opera's script for ''The Wizard of Oz''. Lord Growley is the prime minister of the Emerald City. He serves the same role in that show as the Soldier with the Green Whiskers does in the book, or many of the characters played by Frank Morgan in The Movie. Gloria is his daughter, who shows Dorothy the sights. Gloria, some of her friends, and Dorothy have a song in the show that is not from The Movie. (This Gloria is not the same character as Princess Gloria, from Baum's ''The Scarecrow of Oz''.) Tibia is a live skeleton who acts as the Wicked Witch's butler and henchman. Since none of these characters appear in The Movie or any other version or adaptation of Oz, actors playing these roles are free to interpret them in any way they care to.<br />
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==9.5. What can you tell me about ''Wicked''?==<br />
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Right now, not much, as I haven't seen the show yet. As of this writing (late 2005), this musical show is playing on Broadway and Chicago, with a North American touring company booked well into 2007, and rumors of a West End (London) production opening in late 2006. I do know it is based on the novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire, which is one of those Oz books that's not really written for children. ''Wicked'' tells the story of Elphaba, a young woman with green skin and a strong independent streak, how she becomes friends with Galinda (who later shortens her name to Glinda and becomes a good witch), and how she eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. The novel is very dark, which has surprised some of the younger fans of the play when they seek it out. I understand the play, while following the basic storyline, is lighter. For more details about the show, take a look at the ''Wicked'' pages on the website of the composer, Stephen Schwartz, at http://www.musicalschwartz.com/wicked.htm.<br />
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==9.6. Have there been any Oz movies?==<br />
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Oh, yes! Thanks to television, and now home video, for many people Oz is a movie, shown annually on American television and one of the most famous, beloved, and watched films of all time. Yet from the earliest days of filmmaking there have been Oz movies. In 1911 the Baums moved to a sleepy little suburb of Los Angeles called Hollywood, and Frank got caught up in the fledgling movie industry there, going so far as to organize his own film studio. Here is a partial, annotated list of Oz movies that have been made over the years:<br />
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* ''The Fairylogue and Radio Plays''. This was an elaborate multimedia show that toured the midwestern and eastern United States in 1908, and L. Frank Baum himself presented it. Using hand-tinted films, slides, live actors, and a full orchestra, Baum presented dramatizations of ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', and ''John Dough and the Cherub'', and a preview of his then-forthcoming new book, ''Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz''. No film from this show is known to exist, but the slides and scripts do.<br />
* ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', ''Dorothy and the Scarecrow of Oz'', ''The Land of Oz'', ''John Dough and the Cherub''. When the ''Fairylogue'' ran into financial trouble, Baum assigned the film rights to some of his books to the Selig Polyscope Company, which had made the films, and as a result these one-reelers were released in 1910. These are not the Fairylogue films, but new versions. Thought lost for years, the first film turned up at the Kodak Film Archives in Rochester, New York, in the early 1990s. Clips were featured in the made-for-video documentary, ''Oz: The American Fairyland''. ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' has been shown on Turner Classic Movies, and is part of the 3-DVD collector's set of The Movie. It was also released as part of the DVD set ''More Treasures from the American Film Archives''.<br />
* ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', ''The Magic Cloak of Oz'', ''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz''. These were produced by Baum's own Oz Film Company in 1914, and were not terribly successful. They were based on, respectively, ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', ''Queen Zixi of Ix'' (with its location changed from Ix to Oz), and a number of elements of Baum's other books. The latter was written up a year later as the novel ''The Scarecrow of Oz''. ''The Magic Cloak of Oz'' was released as two two-reelers in Great Britain, ''The Witch Queen'' and ''The Magic Cloak'', and the only prints currently available just give the title as ''The Magic Cloak''; while ''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'' was later released as ''The New Wizard of Oz''. The Oz Film Company also made some films based on Baum's non-Oz writings, none of which are now known to exist, although parts of ''The Last Egyptian'' were recently found. The complete Oz movies are currently available on home video, and the last one is also available as a single DVD. ''The Magic Cloak of Oz'' and ''His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz'' are part of the 3-DVD collector's set of The Movie. (''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' was probably left off for time reasons, and because it's the one that has suffered the most damage. The only known print has considerable nitrate deterioration in the first reel, which makes one key scene unwatchable.)<br />
* ''The Wizard of Oz''. This 1925 release, co-written by Baum's eldest son, had a character named Dorothy living in Kansas and a house transported to Oz via cyclone, but the resemblance to the book ends there. This is a slapstick farce that served mainly as a vehicle for comedian Larry Semon, who played the Scarecrow. This film is most notable today for a set of farmhands who later become Dorothy's three friends in Oz, an idea MGM may have borrowed for The Movie; and the appearance of a young Oliver Hardy, somewhat slimmer than when he teamed up with Stan Laurel two years later. Hardy played the farmhand who disguised himself as a Tin Man. Currently available on home video and DVD, and a cleaned-up and restored version is part of the 3-DVD collector's set of The Movie. (This movie and the three Oz Film Company movies are all available on VHS, individually or in an attractive boxed set, from American Home Entertainment, and in a 3-DVD set from Brentwood Home Video.) There are also a few British DVDs in PAL format; one has it as part of a Laurel and Hardy collection (even though Stan Laurel wasn't in it), paired up with the Laurel and Hardy movie ''Hustling for Health''.<br />
* ''The Wizard of Oz''. A 1933 cartoon short directed by Ted Eshbaugh, it was originally made in Technicolor. Unfortunately, soon thereafter, Walt Disney signed an exclusive agreement with Technicolor, thus holding up release of Eshbaugh's short. Black and white copies eventually made it into the hands of collectors, and in the late 1980s it was finally released on home video. An excerpt was included on the 1998 DVD release of The Movie, and the whole cartoon is part of the 3-DVD collector's set of The Movie.<br />
* ''The Wizard of Oz''. This is it, the big one, MGM's 1939 Judy Garland vehicle, the most watched movie in history. For many people, this movie ''is'' Oz. There have been so many questions, legends, rumors, half-truths, and speculations surrounding this movie that the following six (!) sections of this FAQ are devoted to it. Besides its annual television showings, it's been released on home video, laserdisk, and DVD in several versions, including as both a standard 2-DVD and 3-DVD collector's edition in 2005.<br />
* ''The Wonderful Land of Oz''. A 1969 low-budget musical adaptation of Baum's second book, poor acting and poor production values let this one down. It is also available on VHS and DVD (paired with ''Jack and the Beanstalk'' on the latter) from Something Weird Video, http://www.somethingweird.com/. (It is not recommended that children be allowed to visit this website unsupervised.)<br />
* ''Journey Back to Oz''. Released in Europe in 1972 and North America in 1974, this was the first full-length animated Oz theatrical release, and boasted a stellar cast of voices, including Liza Minnelli as Dorothy, Mickey Rooney as the Scarecrow, and Ethel Merman as Mombi, the Wicked Witch. Although loosely based on ''The Land of Oz'', it introduced a number of its own elements, including an army of marauding green elephants. To date, probably the most successful animated Oz film, although it still leaves much to be desired. It has been released on home video, but is currently not generally available.<br />
* ''Oz'' (North American title: ''Twentieth Century Oz''). A 1976 Australian film that transplanted the story of ''The Wizard of Oz'' to Melbourne and its environs, with the Scarecrow becoming a dim surfer, the Tin Woodman a greasy mechanic, the Lion a braggart biker, and the Wizard a rock star. It was rated "R" in the United States, so this is not a film for kids! Not available on North American home video, but it has been shown on local television in Canada, and is now available on DVD in Australia.<br />
* ''The Wiz''. The 1977 movie version of the Broadway play, although Oz is transplanted to New York City, and much of what made the play a success is lost. It stars Diana Ross as a rather mature Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, and Richard Pryor as the Wiz. It is available on home video and DVD.<br />
* ''Return to Oz''. This 1985 film was Disney's attempt to get in on Oz. (An elaborate Oz production number, starring the Mousketeers, was shown on the ''Disneyland'' television show in the 1960s as a preview for ''The Rainbow Road to Oz'', which was never made.) Loosely based on ''The Land of Oz'' and ''Ozma of Oz'', it was too dark and gloomy for many, and critics unfamiliar with the books made unfavorable comparisons to The Movie. It has been released on home video and DVD, and been shown on the Disney Channel, the Family Channel, the Hallmark Channel, and premium movie channels on cable, and independent television stations around America.<br />
* ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', ''The Emerald City of Oz''. These animated films, made by Cinar Films Inc. in Canada in 1987, were released direct to videotape and DVD in North America, but were shown in theaters in several other countries around the world. These were edited compilations of the TV series (see [[question 9.10]]), but they've also been shown by themselves on cable. <br />
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You can find more information about these and many other Oz and Oz-related films at Scott Andrew Hutchins' Oz Filmography website at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/scottandrewh/OZFILMS.HTM.<br />
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Oz and Ozian themes have also been a part of other films, most notably ''Zardoz'', ''Wild at Heart'', and ''Under the Rainbow'', a poor Chevy Chase comedy about Nazi spies infiltrating Hollywood during the filming of ''The Movie''. Oz jokes and references, usually referring to The Movie, often pop up in other films, such as ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'' ''Batman'' (1989), ''Kentucky Fried Movie'', ''Top Secret'', and ''One True Thing'', to name but a few. And if you look carefully, you can see Oz books in ''Rambling Rose'', ''You've Got Mail'', and perhaps other movies.<br />
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==9.7. Why doesn't Hollywood make more Oz movies?==<br />
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In a nutshell, it's already been done. The Movie is so well known that studio executives are generally reluctant to even consider another movie based on the Oz books. The generally poor reception of ''The Wiz'' and ''Return to Oz'' only adds to the perception. Plus, Oz just doesn't seem to fit into the current Hollywood movie-making climate, which expects lots of aliens, laser battles, car chases, and the like for a movie — at least one that would cost as much as a live-action Oz film — to be even considered for production.<br />
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==9.8. I've heard about a new Oz movie being made. What can you tell me about it?==<br />
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It looks as if enough time has passed since ''The Wiz'' and ''Return to Oz'' for Hollywood to think about Oz movies again, because several potential Oz movies have been rumored to be in the works. One was entitled ''Somewhere'', and was to feature Elizabeth Taylor playing Dorothy, now a grandmother, returning to Oz. Another project, overseen by Drew Barrymore, was called ''Surrender, Dorothy'', and would feature Barrymore playing Dorothy's great-granddaughter, who went to Oz and faces the Wicked Witch's granddaughter. And ''Pamela West'' has been mentioned, which would make the Witch the heroine and Dorothy the evil interloper. One may note that at least some of these projects appear to be sequels to The Movie, rather than based on the books or any other version of Oz. It must be emphasized that, as of this writing (December, 2005), none of these films has actually gone before the cameras, and it appears unlikely that any of them will be made. You'll just have to keep watching your local movie listings to see if any Oz movies get made and come to your local theater. For all the latest rumors and updates on Oz movie productions, keep an eye on http://thewizardofoz.info/oznews.html#rumors.<br />
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==9.9. Hey, am I missing a scene in the 1914 silent version of ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''? Where is it? What happens in it?==<br />
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Yes, you are missing a key scene in ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' — but so is everyone else, as it's missing from the only known original print. Early film stock was fragile, and could rot or fall apart if not properly cared for, which was the case with the first reel of ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''. You can see the damage creep in as a white blob on the right hand side of the screen, and it progressively gets worse and worse as the reel keeps going. Finally, the key scene of the Patchwork Girl coming to life, and Unk Nunkie, Margolotte, and Danx turning to stone when the Liquid of Petrification falls on them is so badly damaged that I have never seen it intact in any film print or video or DVD release. Oz fans around the world would be extremely happy if another, intact copy of the first reel was to ever turn up.<br />
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==9.10. I hear there's a big scene with lots of other Oz characters in ''Return to Oz''. Where is it, and who's in it?==<br />
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Right at the end of the 1985 Disney movie, once the Emerald City has been restored, there is a joyous celebration that leads up to Ozma's liberation and Dorothy returning home. The makers of ''Return to Oz'' paid homage to the Oz stories by slipping in many, many characters from the books into the crowds in these scenes, all based on the original Denslow and Neill illustrations. Sharp-eyed viewers can find the Guardian of the Gates, the Shaggy Man, the Patchwork Girl, Polychrome, the Bumpy Man, the Braided Man, Tommy Kwikstep, the Frogman, Rinkitink, and probably a few others as well. And by the way, those short people with the fur hats? Those are the Munchkins, sporting a new design for this film.<br />
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==9.11. Will there ever be a film version of ''Wicked''?==<br />
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It's difficult to predict, as Hollywood is fickle. If some executive were to approve a film version of ''Wicked'', there's no guarantee that another executive wouldn't come in, take his place, and cancel it. There are no current plans for a film version of ''Wicked'', but one of the producers of the show is Universal Pictures, and musicals are becoming big at the movies again. So it's not only possible, but likely that there will be a film version. When, however, I couldn't even begin to tell you. It will probably be some time still, however, so that the play can run its course on tour and around the world (the play hasn't even opened outside of North America yet). If anything concrete comes up, I'll put it up on WWOOW's news page (http://thewizardofoz.info/oznews.html).<br />
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==9.12. Was there ever a movie called ''The Wizard of Oz 2''?<br />
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Not by that name, no. But there have been several sequels to ''The Wizard of Oz'' made as movies, or released direct to video. The one most people seem to be thinkning of, however, when they ask me this question is the 1985 Disney movie ''Return to Oz''. See [[question 9.6]] for more details on Oz movies.<br />
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==9.13. Was there ever an Oz radio show?==<br />
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Yes. Back in 1933, Jell-O sponsored a fifteen minute ''Wizard of Oz'' radio show on NBC's red network, which was broadcast Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons. It ran for six months, but then Jell-O decided to switch their sponsorship to Jack Benny instead, so that was it for Oz. The series pretty much followed the books, getting as far as ''The Emerald City of Oz'', with some allowances made for radio, and lots of songs and advertisements for Jell-O thrown in. No episodes of this series are known to survive, but NBC's archives still hold the scripts. Also, there exists two episodes of an adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' from the same era, broadcast on CBS, but nobody's been able to find out any more about them. More recently, the BBC produced its own version of ''The Wizard of Oz'' for British radio in the 1990s. This is currently available in Great Britain on two cassettes under the BBC Radio Collection imprint. And during the holiday season in 2000, many public radio stations in the United States broadcast a new radio adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' with an all-star cast, including Michelle Trachtenberg as Dorothy, Harry Anderson as the Wizard, Rene Auberjonois as the Scarecrow, Nestor Serrano as the Tin Woodman, and Robert Guillaume as the Cowardly Lion. This production is available as a four-CD set from LodesTone Audio Theatre, http://www.lodestone-media.com/wizard.html, and other outlets. Mention should also be made here of the Colonial Radio Theatre's audio adaptations of the first five Oz books. Although never actually broadcast on radio, they're presented, on ten audio cassettes, as if they were. You can find information about this set, and hear some samples, at http://www.colonialradio.com/titles.html#ozbox.<br />
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Two Oz-related episodes of radio shows also need to be mentioned here. An installment of the ''Maxwell House Good News'' show broadcast in June of 1939 was devoted to a sneak peek at The Movie, which was due to be released later that summer. It featured Judy Garland, Frank Morgan (a regular Good News cast member), Ray Bolger, and Bert Lahr, and was the public debut of the songs from The Movie. It featured many behind-the-scenes vignettes (mostly made up for the show), a "Baby Snooks" routine where her Daddy reads the story to her, and an appearance by Fred Stone, who played the Scarecrow in the 1902 stage play. (A snippet of this show can even be heard in the opening audio montage of the science fiction movie ''Contact'', as it's one of the few examples of radio from that time period that's been preserved.) The CD version of the ''Good News'' episode includes the original commercials, and MGM's ''Wizard of Oz'' edition of ''Leo Is On the Air'', an extended radio advertisement. Both shows are also available as audio-only tracks on the current American DVD release of The Movie. On Christmas Day, 1950, Judy Garland recreated her role as Dorothy for an adaptation of ''The Wizard of Oz'' on The Lux Radio Theatre. Garland was the only original cast member, but her then-four-year-old daughter, Liza Minnelli, makes a cameo appearance at the end. Both of these radio episodes have been released on record, audiocassette, and CD, the latter available from Radio Spirits at http://www.radiospirits.com/. The Lux Radio Theatre production is also available as part of the 2005 DVD release of The Movie.<br />
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==9.14. Have there been talking book versions of any of the Oz books?==<br />
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Yes, quite a few. Most have been adaptations of the story for very young children of ''The Wizard of Oz'', many of which are still available today. One, from Caedmon, was read by Ray Bolger, who also read adaptations of ''The Land of Oz'', ''Queen Zixi of Ix'', and some of the "Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz" comic stories. These are currently available on cassette in a boxed set as ''The Oz Audio Collection''. Another notable version came out from Columbia Records in 1969, with the entire book recorded on seven records, read by George Rose and Mildred Dunnock. More recently, Piglet Press has put out large cast readings of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''The Emerald City of Oz'' on cassette. In the 1960s, Disney put out book-and-record editions of ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Scarecrow of Oz'' (narrated by Ray Bolger), ''The Tin Woodman of Oz'', and a new story called ''The Cowardly Lion of Oz'' — not to be confused with the Ruth Plumly Thompson story of the same name, despite the claims of the album notes that it is an adaptation. And there have been many other audio adaptations of ''The Wizard of Oz'' on records, cassettes, CDs, and now CD-ROM. Gregory Maguire's novels ''Wicked'' and ''Son of a Witch'', and Stuart Kaminsky's ''Murder on the Yellow Brick Road'' have been recorded as audiobooks.<br />
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==9.15. Has there ever been an Oz TV show?==<br />
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Yes, quite a few now. Again, here's an incomplete checklist of what's been shown:<br />
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* SERIES:<br />
** ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz''. A series of 130 short (less than five minutes each) cartoons about the adventures of Socrates the Straw Man, Rusty the Tin Man, Dandy Lion, and other characters very loosely based on ''The Wizard of Oz'', with many liberties taken. Produced in 1961, these were probably shown between other cartoons on Saturday mornings or on local independent stations. They seem to have been especially widespread in Canada, as many people have written to me having seen them there. I've heard that some episodes have been released on home video, but these aren't generally available any more. Episodes have also been available on some cable system's digital "on demand" systems. You can find out a little more at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3584.<br />
** ''Off to See the Wizard''. This series was MGM's answer to ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', in that it was an anthology of old movies, short subjects, etc., from the studio's archives. The animated Oz segments were used to introduce the show and as bumpers going into commercial breaks. The animation was done by Chuck Jones, and voices included Mel Blanc, June Foray, and Daws Butler. Some samples are included on the 1999 and 2005 North American releases of The Movie on DVD. More information is available at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=2673.<br />
** ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. This 1987 animated series, made by Cinar, Inc. in Canada, was made up of four stories: ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The Land of Oz'', ''Ozma of Oz'', and ''The Emerald City of Oz''. In the United States the fifty-two episode series has been shown on HBO and other cable channels.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz''. In 1990, to capitalize on the publicity surrounding The Movie's fiftieth anniversary, Turner Entertainment Co. and DIC produced this thirteen episode animated series, based on The Movie. In the Unites States it ran on ABC Saturday mornings during the 1990-91 TV season. Some episodes have been released on home video, but now aren't generally available. Three DVD collections are currently available, meaning only two episodes have not been released on DVD. More information about the show is available at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3962.<br />
** ''Some time in the 1990s, Tokyo Broadcasting Service broadcast ''Shonen Santa no Daibouken'', or ''The Adventures of Young Santa Claus'', an animated adaptation of Baum's ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus''. This ran for twenty-four episodes. More information (but not much!) can be found at http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rllew/santa.html. So far, I have been unable to track down any video or DVD release in either Japan or the United States.<br />
* SPECIALS:<br />
** ''The Land of Oz''. This adaptation of the second Oz book was an episode of Shirley Temple's weekly 1960 NBC series, and featured Temple as Tip and Ozma, Jonathan Winters as General Nikidik, and Agnes Moorehead as Mombi. (It was this role, incidentally, that convinced the producers of the series ''Bewitched'' to cast Moorehead as Endora, Samantha's mother, on that series.) In 2005, it was released on DVD as part of a set of Shirley Temple adaptations. More information can be found at http://www.buyshirleytemple.com/.<br />
** ''Return to Oz''. The producers of ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' used many of the same characterizations for this 1964 animated TV movie, shown on NBC. It has previously been released on home video, but isn't currently generally available. (This production should not be confused with the Disney movie of the same name.) You can find out more about this special, and Susan Conway, who provided the voice of Dorothy, at http://www.rankinbass.com/schome.html.<br />
** ''The Making of The Wizard of Oz''. Aljean Harmetz, author of the book of the same name, hosted this short 1979 documentary, shown on PBS in the United States, about the making of the movie. Includes interviews with Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Margaret Hamilton, among others.<br />
** ''Thanksgiving in Oz'' (AKA ''Dorothy in the Land of Oz'', ''Christmas in Oz'', ''Dorothy and the Green Gobbler in Oz'', or just plain ''Oz''). Animated holiday special first shown in 1980. Very loosely based on ''Ozma of Oz''. It has previously been released a number of times on home video, but is now not generally available.<br />
** ''The Whimsical World of Oz''. 1985 documentary about the Oz phenomenon, partly used to publicize Disney's film ''Return to Oz'', and shown on PBS stations.<br />
** ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' (1985). Another holiday special, this one was made by Rankin-Bass and faithfully adapted from Baum's book of the same name. The animation uses stop-motion puppets, like other famous Rankin-Bass specials such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer''. It is available on home video, and shown during the Christmas season on the ABC Family Channel.<br />
** ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic''. As part of The Movie's fiftieth anniversary, Angela Lansbury hosted a documentary about the history and making of The Movie, shown after the movie's TV broadcast in 1990 and 1996, and in conjunction with some of The Movie's recent cable airings. It has also been shown on its own on PBS stations, and was released on video as part of ''The Ultimate Oz'' collector's set of The Movie, and the 1999 and 2005 DVD reissues of The Movie. The home video version is a bit longer, featuring more material.<br />
** ''The Dreamer of Oz''. This 1990 TV movie was a biography of L. Frank Baum, starring John Ritter as Frank and Annette O'Toole as Maud. While some of the details are wrong, this was, overall, a faithful telling of Baum's early life and career and how he came to write ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. It has been reportedly rerun on the Lifetime cable network, but is not available on home video (see [[question 9.17]]). It was released on video in Australia, but is now hard to find there.<br />
** ''In Search of Oz''. In 1994, the BBC's Arena documentary series produced this examination of Oz, which concentrated more on the books than most others. Shown in the United States, with a few cuts, on A&E.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz in Concert''. This 1995 concert, filmed for television, was a benefit for the Children's Defense Fund, and shown on TNT. It is available on home video, and has since been shown on VH1 and some PBS stations. Performers include Jewel as Dorothy, the Harlem Boys Choir, Joel Grey as Professor Marvel and the Wizard (predating his portrayal of the Wizard in ''Wicked'' on Broadway), Jackson Browne as the Scarecrow, Roger Daltrey as the Tin Man, Nathan Lane as the Cowardly Lion, Natalie Cole as Glinda, and Deborah Winger as the Wicked Witch of the West.<br />
** ''The Wizard of Oz on Ice''. This 1996 production, shown on CBS, was an abbreviated version of the touring production of the same name, with Oksana Baiul as Dorothy and Viktor Petrenko as the Scarecrow (neither of whom appeared in the touring show), and narrated by Bobby McFarrin, who does the same on tour. McFarrin also played the Wizard in this production, the only non-skater in the cast. It is available on videotape from http://www.skatetape.com/.<br />
** ''Lion of Oz"". This animated movie was made by Sony in 2000, and is based on the book ''Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage'' by Roger S. Baum. It's a prequel about how the Wizard and the Lion came to Oz. It was shown on the Disney Channel and Toon Disney, and released on home video and DVD.<br />
** ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'' (2000). This is a different animated version of the Baum story, produced by Sony, released on VHS, and shown on Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel.<br />
** ''The Muppets' Wizard of Oz'' was a 2005 TV movie shown on ABC. It featured Ashanti as Dorothy, Kermit the Frog as the Scarecrow, Gonzo as the Tin Thing, Fozzie as the Cowardly Lion, Miss Piggy as all four (!) witches, Jeffrey Tambor as the Wizard, and a cameo by Quentin Tarantino as himself. It was later released on video and DVD with additional footage and extras. <br />
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Numerous Oz references have made their way into any number of TV series, movies, and specials, and some shows have even had special ''Wizard of Oz'' episodes, such as ''Fame'', ''Alf Tales'', ''Beetlejuice'' (the cartoon), ''The Guiding Light'', ''That 70s Show'', and ''Life with Bonnie'', to name but a few. A 1970 episode of ''Death Valley Days'' entitled "The Wizard of Aberdeen" featured L. Frank Baum as a character, dramatizing an incident that took place while he was editing a newspaper in South Dakota. The soap opera ''Passions'' devoted an entire week to a ''Wizard of Oz''-themed storyline in the summer of 2002. And in Russia, at least two television versions of ''Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda'' have been shown, one live-action (which may have also had a theatrical release), one stop-motion animation.<br />
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You can find more information about these and many other Oz and Oz-related television shows at Scott Andrew Hutchins' Oz Filmography website at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/scottandrewh/OZFILMS.HTM.<br />
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==9.16. I remember an Oz cartoon, can you tell me more about it? It had a catchy theme song that started out, "They're three sad souls, Oh me, oh my..."==<br />
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"No brains, no heart, He's much too shy..." Yes, I'm familiar with that song. That's the theme song for ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' (see [[question 9.15]] for more information). Despite what many people think, it's not a Canadian show, but American, produced by Rankin-Bass in the United States in the early 1960s. It just seems to have been shown in Canada a lot in the 1980s and '90s. The complete theme song lyrics are:<br />
<br />
: They're three sad souls<br />
: Oh me, oh my,<br />
: No brains, no heart,<br />
: He's much too shy.<br />
: But never mind you three,<br />
: Here's the Wizard as you can see.<br />
: He'll fix that one, two, three<br />
: In that funny place called the world of Oz.<br />
: Oh the world of Oz is a funny, funny place<br />
: Where everyone has a funny, funny face.<br />
: All the streets are paved with gold,<br />
: And no one ever grows old.<br />
: In that funny land lives the Wizard of Oz. <br />
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More information about ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' can be found on the WWW at http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=3584. If you'd like to download the theme as a Real Media file, go to http://www.toontracker.com/realaudio/ttra60-1.htm and scroll down about a third of the way. Or you can just listen to it by going to http://www.toontracker.com/waves/waves.htm and finding the show's name on the second page.<br />
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==9.17. Where can I find ''The Dreamer of Oz'' on home video?==<br />
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''The Dreamer of Oz'' was available as a VHS rental in Australia, but was finally made available as a special feature on certain editions of the 2009 DVD and Blu-Ray release of The Movie. (The Ultimate Collector's Edition, the Emerald Edition, and a special 2-disc set made exclusively for Wal-Mart.) It is noted, however, that the video quality is far from pristine, and the Blu-Ray only contains a standard definition version.<br />
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==9.18. Have any Oz productions been directly released to home video?==<br />
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A few animated versions of ''The Wizard of Oz'', and one of ''Ozma of Oz'', have been released straight to video. These are of varying quality, from so-so to all right, with some being straight adaptations and some a little more irreverent. One of the most notable of these is a Japanese version of ''The Wizard of Oz'', which was released on home video in North America with a dubbed English soundtrack, featuring Aileen Quinn as Dorothy and Lorne Greene as the Wizard. A series, ''The Oz Kids'', was also released straight to video, from Paramount, although it has been shown on television in other countries. The main characters are the sons and daughters of the familiar Oz characters (Dorothy's children Dot and Ned, Scarecrow Jr., Tin Boy, and so on), but the stories are based on Baum's books, including some of his non-Oz writings. Characters from later books — or rather, their children — appear, such as Jackie Pumpkinhead, Nome Prince Otto, and the Patchwork Baby. The videos are available through Paramount Home Video, and the titles are ''Toto, Lost in New York'', ''The Nome Prince and the Magic Belt'', ''Virtual Oz'', ''Who Stole Santa?'' ''Christmas in Oz'', ''Journey Beneath the Sea'', ''Underground Adventure'', ''The Monkey Prince'', and ''The Return of Mombi''. The two Christmas stories were also released on DVD in Great Britain. A play was recorded and released on video, the 1981 Minneapolis Children's Theater production of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz''. Also, two documentaries were released on video in 1997, ''Oz: The American Fairyland'' and ''Charles Santore Illustrates The Wizard of Oz''. Both were produced by Leonard A. Swann and released by Sirocco Productions, Inc. Those interested in these videos can check out their website at http://www.siroccovideo.com.<br />
<br />
Besides movies and television, Scott Andrew Hutchins' Oz Filmography website at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/scottandrewh/OZFILMS.HTM also has information about Oz and Oz-related direct-to-video releases.</div>Jaredofmo