Lloyd and Roach on Their Way

Harold Lloyd

Hal Roach

In early 1913, silent movie superstar Harold Lloyd, then unknown, popped into a rehearsal for The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, but decided not to audition, as detailed in my book on the history of the show, All Wound Up. In July 1914, Lloyd and his good friend Hal Roach, later a major Hollywood movie producer, acted in the Oz Film Manufacturing Company’s first feature film, The Patchwork Girl of Oz. As Lloyd later told the story in the San Francisco Call and Post on October 9, 1925:

Finally Hal Roach and I caught on with the “Wizard of Oz” Company. . . . I played things nobody ever heard of—Gillikens [sic, Gillikins] and Mauchkims [sic, Munchkins] and Kalidahs.

One day Hal and I were sitting on a little bench in the sun made up as Hottentots [sic, Tottenhots]. All we had on was a lot of terrible colored grease paint and some grass skirts. He said to me, “Some day I’m going to make a picture myself. I’m going to make a comedy. People like to laugh and there’s always room for real comedy.” I was terribly impressed, though I couldn’t show it through my makeup. “And when I do, Harold,” he said, “you’ll be in it.”

I was. A couple weeks later he called me up and said that some distant relative of his had died and left him some money. I suspected for a while that he had robbed a bank or something, but I found out eventually that it was on the level. It was only a few hundred dollars, but it was the beginning of things for us.

Thus began the movie careers of two early Hollywood giants.

Copyright © 2025 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

Temperamental L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum, playwright

As a playwright, L. Frank Baum seemed to have little patience with editorial interference. When a script doctor revised Baum’s script of the stage version of The Wizard of Oz in 1902, Baum objected strenuously. In 1905, when The Wogglebug was being staged, Baum refused to let anyone else touch his script.

So in 1913, when producer Oliver Morosco wanted to make changes to The Tik-Tok Man of Oz script early in the rehearsal period, he approached Baum carefully. Morosco spoke softly and flatteringly before suggesting the possibility of condensing Act Two.

To anyone aware of Baum’s past displays of temperament, his reply was a surprise: “Oh, you want to cut it,” said Baum. . . . “Well, then, go as far as you like.”

Oliver Morosco, producer

This may have been when the part of the Ugly Man was cut down, turning it into a minor role. Charles Ruggles, originally cast as the Ugly Man, was shifted to the role of Private Files.

Of course, following opening night, The Tik-Tok Man of Oz changed even more. Baum seems to have been content for several months to work with Morosco, tightening and sprucing up the script while the production ran in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. Serious conflict seems to have arisen only toward the end of the 1913 summer season, when it grew evident that the show would not open the regular theatre season on Broadway and Baum relinquished creative control over the script.

For a complete history of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, see the book All Wound Up, available here.

 

Notes

J. Rex James, “Morosco’s Invasion of New York Announced; Edison’s Kinetophone Replaces Bernhardt,” Daily Tribune (Los Angeles, CA), 15 March 1913, 13, 16; “Objects to Changes,” Syracuse (NY) Daily Journal, 3 June 1902, 6; O. L. Colburn, “Telegraphic News; Chicago,” New York (NY) Dramatic Mirror, 22 July 1905, 12; “Heard Back of the Curtains,” Los Angeles (CA) Daily Tribune, 20 March 1913, 15; “Behind the Scenes by the Genial Grouch,” Los Angeles (CA) Express, 5 May 1913, 10; Memorandum of Agreement among Oliver Morosco, L. Frank Baum, and Louis Gottschalk, Los Angeles, CA, 9 September 1913.

Copyright © 2025 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

Photo Shoot for Forthcoming Show

Here's another photo from the series taken by a newspaper photographer, likely in January 1913. Composer Louis F. Gottschalk and author L. Frank Baum pose amid work on their forthcoming musical The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. The location is the studio of Lou Gottschalk's best friend and brother-in-law, painter John Bond Francisco.

Both Gottschalk and Baum had plenty of experience acting on stage, so presenting the photographer with engaging expressions probably came naturally to the men. The playfulness of their poses suggests that they had a good working rapport. 

This photo appeared in the Los Angeles Sunday Tribune on March 30, 1913, the day before The Tik-Tok Man of Oz opened at Los Angeles's Majestic Theater. Hank the Mule, a character from the show, invades the picture area from the right. A newspaper publicity push for the show included both these photos and more.

Other photos from this shoot appear on pages 4, 56, and 58 in my book All Wound Up, which contains the complete history of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz.

Copyright © 2025 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

West and Denslow

Paul West

Paul Clarendon West (1871-1918) wrote the lyrics to the song “One! Two! Three! All Over,” which was interpolated into The Tik-Tok Man of Oz during the final months of the show. West also had a long association with William Wallace Denslow, illustrator and co-creator of the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

A letter from West to Denslow provides details of their earliest connections. West was editor of the Comic Section of The World, a major New York City newspaper in the late 1880s and early 1900s. At the time West wrote his letter, Denslow had recently illustrated the children’s book of verse by L. Frank Baum Father Goose: His Book, the first critical and popular success produced by the Denslow-Baum team.

Here’s West’s letter:

The World
Sunday Edition – Editorial Dept.,
Pulitzer Building, Park Row, N. Y.

Dec. 6 1899

Dear Denslow,

Maybe you remember one or two evenings we spent together in Chicago, when I was with Camille D’Arville. That is the reason I write so familiarly – also, I think I’m entitled to after having made up that page from “Father Goose” for the Sunday World, for you.

All of which leads me to ask you if we can’t get something from you at a rate commensurate with the limited amounts the World allows me to pay for comic pictures. If I should send you a good idea, and, on your working it up for a page, give you full credit as author of “Father Goose’s” pictures, wouldn’t you be willing to do the drawing “very reasonable” for us? Let me know, and I will send you some material on hearing from you? [sic]  With best wishes for the success of “Father Goose,” of which, by the way, I haven’t a copy, I am yours very truly,

Paul West,
Ed. Comic Supplement.

The famous actress Camille D’Arville, mentioned by West, was well known for her stint with the celebrated theatrical company the Bostonians. D’Arville employed West as her theatrical company’s advance agent in 1894. In December of that year, D’Arville played Chicago while touring in the comic opera Madeleine; or, The Magic Kiss. This engagement likely provided the “one or two evenings” when West met Denslow, who frequented Chicago theatrical circles, both socially and professionally, while he resided in that city.

The “page from ‘Father Goose’ for the Sunday World” that West “made up” for Denslow likely refers to a November 12, 1899, World's comic section feature on Denslow and Baum’s best selling Father Goose: His Book.

Denslow evidently complied with West’s request in the letter’s second paragraph. A month and a half after this letter, on January 1, 1900, a full-page comic illustration by Denslow graced the first page of “The Funny Side,” the World’s comic section. The delicate, detailed color artwork featured the character of Father Goose speeding on a sled while other characters from Father Goose: His Book flee from the sled’s path.

Copyright © 2025 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

Reviewed by The Baum Bugle

Reviewer Atticus Gannaway recently had nice things to say about All Wound Up in the Winter 2024 issue of The Baum Bugle, the journal of The International Wizard of Oz Club. Gannaway's discussion of various aspects of the book makes a review of some length--which makes sense, since the book's long, too--but the following choice bits summarize the reviewer's overall opinion:

All Wound Up is the indispensable Oz reference work we didn’t know we needed. . . . Shanower has now plumbed the depths of this musical’s history with the same remarkable thoroughness and tenacity he brings to all his projects. . . . The biggest surprise of All Wound Up was the perspective I gained on the significance of [The] Tik-Tok Man [of Oz], in terms of both Baum’s career and how it affected him personally. . . . Shanower is to be commended for both the yeoman’s work involved in such deep research and his careful analysis of his findings.

I appreciate Gannaway's considered opinion, since I respect the Oz and Baum research he's done. In the spirit of full disclosure, I point out that I've known Gannaway for years. He contributed to the Kickstarter campaign that raised money for the 2014 production of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. Also, I thanked Gannaway in the acknowledgements of All Wound Up, since he contributed several images to the book and helped my research by providing me with access to some Tik-Tok Man of Oz theatrical programs in his collection.

He also roller skates much better than I do.

Copyright © 2025 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

Meet the Clock Girl Chorus

 

Here's another delightful photograph I turned up after All Wound Up was published. Three members of the Clock Girl Chorus pose to have their photo taken. The publication date of the photo is April 7, 1913, while the show played in Los Angeles, California, at the end of its first week of production.

The Clock Girls supported James Morton as Tik-Tok while he sang the musical number "The Clockwork Man" in Act One of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. Their costumes were supplied by Orange of New York.

Such a nice clear photo makes identifying these women easier than usual in chorus photos. That sure looks like Willie Mai Smoller on the left, the longest surviving member of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz cast. And I'm pretty certain Gene Ward is on the right. Ward later helped introduce the Woozy toy produced by the Oz Toy Manufacturing Company. Neither Smoller nor Ward were credited during the initial Los Angeles run as members of the Clock Girl Chorus, but here they are. I'm not sure of the central woman's identity, but I'll take a guess and say that's Gladys Munson, who was credited as a Clock Girl.

Copyright © 2025 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

Work, Lads, Work

 

The Metal Monarch, Ruggedo, played by Eugene Cowles, on right (stage left), commands his Metal Imps in song. Flash, played by Ethel Pierce, stands center. The chorus of Metal Imps hammers at musical anvils all around the stage. The Metal Imp at left front (downstage right) looks like Fay Hartley to me.

This photograph of the Act II opening musical number, "Work, Lads, Work," of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz is unique in showing the original cast in a full stage setting from March 1913 in Los Angeles. I know of no other full stage photographs from this show before July 1913, when the White Studio took photos of the Chicago production. Other full stage photos must have been taken before opening night, but none survives to my knowledge.

Compared with later July 1913 photographs of this scene, (for instance, the upper right photo on page 148 of All Wound Up) the set of the Metal Monarch's underground throne room seems to be the same, though costuming and make-up show some differences.

I was delighted to find this photo recently in the Los Angeles Daily Tribune for April 1, 1913, the day after the show opened.

Copyright © 2025 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.