Coincidental Oz

Joseph Kline Emmet, Sr.

The Tik-Tok Man of Oz composer Louis F. Gottschalk, early in his career, acted as musical director for the tour of the play Fritz in Ireland. The show starred Joseph K. Emmet, Jr., carrying on his father’s legacy as the well-known character Fritz. In 1870, Emmet, Jr.’s father, Joseph Kline Emmet (1841–1891), made Fritz famous in the show Fritz, Our Cousin German and played the character for the rest of his life. His son took up the role after his father’s death.

In May 1884, the senior Emmet, through his manager, Phil H. Lehnen, bought “two beautiful Jersey cattle” from the Syracuse, New York, area farm of Benjamin W. Baum, the father of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz writer L. Frank Baum. Lehnen paid $1000 for the cattle and sent them to Albany, New York, where they joined the “many attractions on and about” Joe Emmet’s property.

How’s that for an unexpected connection to The Tik-Tok Man of Oz?

Notes

“Joe Emmet Buys Two Cows,” Syracuse (NY) Standard, 19 May 1884, 4; “Amusements,” Daily Picayune (New Orleans, LA), 9 January 1893, 3; “This and That,” Buffalo (NY) Enquirer, 25 March 1893, 5. Image credit: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection.

Copyright © 2024 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

Blue Mule

The Democratic National Convention looked different back in 1932 than it looks this week. Both conventions were held in Chicago, Illinois. But back then the convention welcomed a delegate from the Land of Oz—Hank the Mule.

Former Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels met Hank the Mule at the 1932 Democratic National Convention, as you can see in the photo. Daniels was a delegate at large from North Carolina. Hank was played by Tex Morrissey, third wife of the originator of the role, Fred Woodward. Morrissey played Hank throughout the USA from the late 1920s until the early 1950s.

Hank the Mule impressed then-Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt so greatly that Roosevelt asked Hank to accompany his presidential campaign. No surprise that a mule—even a foreign mule from the Land of Oz—would be a Democrat.

Copyright © 2024 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

A Melody Played in a Penny Arcade

I recently re-watched the motion picture Paper Moon. Such an excellent movie. Director Peter Bogdanovich tells the story with admirable confidence and restraint. The acting of both Tatum O'Neal and Ryan O'Neal in the leading roles is superb.

What's Paper Moon got to do with The Tik-Tok Man of Oz?

Toward the end of the movie, when Tatum O'Neal's character, Addie, has at long last reached her aunt's house, clearly visible on the piano in the aunt's parlor is a copy of the sheet music of "Forgotten," a song which basso Eugene Cowles as Ruggedo the Metal Monarch interpolated into The Tik-Tok Man of Oz on opening night.

I've noticed the appearance of "Forgotten," by Flora Wulschner and Eugene Cowles, in Paper Moon before, and I associate it strongly with the end of the movie. Seeing the movie again prompted me to post about it.

The "Forgotten" sheet music visible in two Paper Moon camera shots is the standard cover seen here. Notice it first in the background when the camera enters Addie's aunt's house. And it's prominent enough during the moment Addie faces her final big decision, that the title and Eugene Cowles's name are perfectly legible.

A lot of period music can be heard in Paper Moon. But not "Forgotten." It's inappropriate, since it dates from about three decades before the time of the story. However, as an old piece of sheet music, it's appropriate for the setting of the aunt's home. And most importantly, as foreshadowing of a possible future for Addie's relationship with Ryan O'Neal's character Moze, it's spot on.

Copyright © 2024 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

Eugene Cowles as the Metal Monarch

Throughout All Wound Up: The Making of the Tik-Tok Man of Oz and its two companion volumes (script and score), I included all the photos I could find of the actors costumed as their characters in the original 1913-14 production of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz.

But I didn't find all the available photos before publication. I missed this lovely image of Eugene Cowles as Ruggedo, the Metal Monarch. Here it is for you now. Notice the detail of the costume, particularly the Magic Belt.

I suspect this photograph was shot during the same session as the photos of the Metal Monarch on pages 92 and 103 in All Wound Up. Those photos were originally published in newspapers. It looks to me as if the designer who prepared those newspaper-published photos misinterpreted the Metal Monarch's crown and left in protuberances that weren't actually part of the crown.

Copyright © 2024 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

Ice Skating in The Winsome Widow

 

Click to enlarge.

In 1912, the composer of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, Louis F. Gottschalk, worked on his final Broadway project before his permanent household move to Los Angeles, California. That final show was A Winsome Widow, touted for its third act scene featuring the chorus ice skating on real ice, as seen in the photo above.

A Winsome Widow, directed by Wizard of Oz director Julian Mitchell, was a new musical version of the longest-running Broadway show at that point, Charles Hoyt's 1891 A Trip to Chinatown, which Mitchell had also directed.

I discuss A Winsome Widow in the context of composer Gottschalk's life and career on page 325 of my book All Wound Up: The Making of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz.

Copyright © 2024 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

Baum Closes on Broadway

Program for Baum's "Fairylogue" and "Radio-Plays," 1908.

Some months ago, a prominent Oz fan organization posted a curious statement on a social media forum. The posting claimed that L. Frank Baum’s “The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays” [sic] closed in New York City on December 16, 1908, earlier than the run’s scheduled end. This caught my attention.

Baum’s “Fairylogue” and “Radio-Plays” were a combined multi-media stage presentation, including motion pictures, narrated by L. Frank Baum himself. The show toured the US upper Midwest and northeast during the fall of 1908. In December 1908, the show ran for three weeks at the Hudson Theatre in New York, New York, with Baum performing on Broadway for the second time in his life. Though often reviewed positively during its run, the show drained thousands of dollars from Baum’s pocket and was one of the reasons he later declared bankruptcy in 1911.

During my research for All Wound Up, I traced the history of the “Fairylogue” and “Radio-Plays,” since it’s pertinent to Baum’s stage works for children. Newspaper ads for the show indicate that it ran through December 31, 1908, so the claim of a December 16 early closure posted on the social media forum puzzled me. It seemed to be another Hanging Munchkin (my term for Oz-related misinformation, inspired by the urban myth that a little person hanged himself on the set of the 1939 MGM Wizard of Oz movie). In a bid for clarity, I commented on the social media posting, requesting identification of the source for the claim that the “Fairylogue” closed early.

A prominent Oz collector replied with a response from a longtime Oz and Baum historian. The historian said—and I’m quoting the comment on the post—that: “NYC mayor George B. McClellan, Jr. canceled all moving-picture exhibition licenses due to safety concerns, abruptly ending Baum’s tour.”

I fully agree with the first part of that response. Mayor McClellan’s Christmas Eve 1908 order to close theatres was widely reported in the New York press. But I disagree that the mayor’s order ended Baum’s “Fairylogue” tour. Five hundred five-cent “nickelodeon” movie theatres closed, as well as several vaudeville houses, but the Hudson Theatre, where Ethel Barrymore was appearing in the play Lady Frederick during the evenings after Baum’s “Fairylogue” and “Radio-Plays” matinees, doesn’t seem to have been affected.

The very next day, Christmas Day 1908, Judge Abel E. Blackmar of the Supreme Court of New York issued a temporary injunction that blocked Mayor McClellan’s order. The following day, December 26, Justice William J. Gaynor of the Supreme Court of New York issued a blanket injunction restraining police from taking action against all of the affected theatres. Theatres re-opened, more legal actions followed, and eventually, in January 1909, Blackmar struck down McClellan’s order.

New York Supreme Court Justice Abel E. Blackmar, 1922

Baum stayed on top of the early developments as they occurred. That’s clearly demonstrated by the Christmas Day 1908 letter he wrote to Mayor McClellan. Baum’s letter addressed a major issue that prompted the mayor’s order to close theatres: safety. In the letter, Baum suggested “a plan for safe-guarding moving-picture apparatus” and described features he used for the “Fairylogue” and “Radio-Plays.”

A discussion of Baum's letter to Mayor George McClellan, New York Times, Dec. 26, 1908.

After Christmas, newspaper advertisements for the “Fairylogue” and “Radio-Plays” continued, including ads on December 27, 28, and 29. I’m reluctant to believe that advertising money would have been spent if performances had been cancelled. Maybe by some strange chance, Baum and the Hudson Theatre management never bothered to stop the ads for a closed show. But I find the idea that they preferred to kiss that ad money good-bye highly unlikely.

See lowest lines advertising Baum's show, New York Times, Dec. 29, 1908.

In addition to advertisements, at least one newspaper publicity column announced performances Baum would give after December 16, which is the date the social media posting claimed the show closed.

Announcement from New York Sun, Dec. 20, 1908.

In the face of the evidence, I see no reason to conclude that the show closed early. More likely the “Fairylogue” and “Radio-Plays” ran as advertised and continued until the scheduled end of the Broadway run, Thursday, December 31, 1908.

I outlined this information on the social media thread and got no direct response. But the original posting eliminated the “16” from the claimed closing date of the “Fairylogue” and “Radio-Plays,” leaving the show’s closure listed as merely “December 1908.” I guess that’s a small triumph for truth.

For my account of Baum's "Fairylogue" and "Radio-Plays" and its place in the history of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, see the book All Wound Up.

Notes

“Maud Adams in a New Play,” Sun (New York, NY), 20 December 1908, III 6; “Wage War on Shows,” New-York (NY) Daily Tribune, 24 December 1908, 4; “Moving Picture Men Plan Fight on Mayor’s Order,” Evening World (New York, NY), 25 December 1908, 2; “Moving Picture Shows,” New-York (NY) Tribune, 26 December 1908, 6; “Not Merry for the Film Men,” Sun (New York, NY), 26 December 1908, 4; “Picture-Show Men Organize to Fight,” New York (NY) Times, 26 December 1908, 2; “Courts Come to Aid of Moving Picture Men,” Evening World (New York, NY), 26 December 1908, 1, 2; “Blue Sunday for Theatres if the Police Obey Orders,” Standard Union (Brooklyn, NY), 27 December 1908, 1; “Moving Picture Shows Open by Court Orders,” New York (NY) Herald, 27 December 1908, 5; “Showmen Enjoin Police,” New-York (NY) Daily Tribune, 27 December 1908, 2; “A Blanket Injunction for Moving Pictures,” Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, 27 December 1908, 1, 5; Advertisement, New York (NY) Times, 27 December 1908, VI 9; Advertisement, New York (NY) Times, 28 December 1908, 14; “Would Close 4 Theatres,” Evening Post (New York, NY), 28 December 1908, 1; “Mayor Makes War on Sunday Vaudeville,” New York (NY) Times, 29 December 1908, 3; “Mayor Feared Loss of Life at Picture Shows,” Evening World (New York, NY), 29 December 1908, 18; Advertisement, New York (NY) Times, 29 December 1908, 16; “The Moving Picture Field; Wholesale Revoking of Licenses,” New York (NY) Dramatic Mirror, 2 January 1909, 8; “Picture Shows Still Running,” Variety (New York, NY), 2 January 1909, 10; “Film Men Win Big Victory,” Morning Call (Patterson, NJ), 7 January 1909, 1; “Picture Shows May Go On,” Sun (New York, NY), 7 January 1909, 4; “Court Overrules Mayor,” Variety (New York, NY), 9 January 1909, 12.

Copyright © 2024 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

More About Costumes for The Tik-Tok Man of Oz

In the book All Wound Up, I mentioned that the costumes for The Tik-Tok Man of Oz were supplied by Goldstein & Company of San Francisco. I didn’t discuss the creation of the costumes in detail, because I didn’t have much detail about them. But since the publication of the book, I’ve run across more information.

All the costumes for the initial Los Angeles production of the show were first designed in New York. Names of the designers are unknown, except for Edward Siedle, who designed and constructed the Hank the Mule costume. Possibly Siedle or others in his studio at the Metropolitan Opera designed other Tik-Tok Man of Oz costumes. Maybe his wife, Caroline Siedle, one of the preeminent Broadway costume designers, had a hand in the Tik-Tok Man designs, but if so, I’d expect her name would have been trumpeted in publicity. Since the actual designers of most of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz costumes aren't recorded, I suspect they weren't designers of particular note.

The designs were next sent to Los Angeles for approval by Oliver Morosco and L. Frank Baum. Approved designs went to San Francisco, where Goldstein & Company constructed the costumes based on the designs.

L. Frank Baum traveled from Los Angeles to San Francisco on February 7, 1913, to check the progress of the costumes at Goldstein & Company. Baum likely returned to Los Angeles before The Tik-Tok Man of Oz rehearsals began on February 17. Finished costumes were delivered by March 25, possibly well before that date.

In 1912, Goldstein & Company opened up a branch in Los Angeles to supply costumes to movie studios. I’d previously suspected that the Los Angeles branch also supplied costumes for The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I wish I'd refrained from mentioning my suspicion in All Wound Up.

Notes

Hector Alliot, “Mendelssohn’s Scotch Motif,” Los Angeles (CA) Daily Times, 8 February 1913, II 7; “Not Down on the Program,” Los Angeles (CA) Examiner, 26 March 1913; Anthony Slide, editor, Robert Goldstein and the Spirit of ’76 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1993).

Copyright © 2024 Eric Shanower, All rights reserved.