My book All Wound Up, about The Tik-Tok Man of Oz stage musical, includes two photos of the show's author, L. Frank Baum, and the show's composer, Louis F. Gottschalk, conducting a rehearsal for the female chorus. Here's a different photo of that same scene, originally published January 28, 1913 in the Los Angeles Daily Tribune.
Frank Baum, seated left, holds a cigar, as usual. I know smoking cigars in public was perfectly acceptable back then, but, man, he must have been hard on the olfactory senses to be around. I think this is the only photo I've ever seen of Lou Gottschalk with a smile. Many of his photos have a touch of grimness to them. He should have shown off his pleasant smile in photos more often.
I can identify two of the chorus girls who made the cut. Hazel Purdy stands front and center here, wearing an amazing hat. She has impressed me as the go-getter type, but I don't have a sense whether she was truly cut-throat or simply assertive. The latter, I hope. Fay Hartley stands in the upper row, directly above Purdy's elbow on the right. She was also a go-getter--but not for stage roles, for a husband. All Wound Up includes chorus girl Lenore Peters's amusing account of Fay Hartley and Tik-Tok Man chorus master Victor Schertzinger.
For more about The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, click here to purchase my book about the show, All Wound Up: The Making of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz.
Copyright © 2026 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.
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