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.

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.

The "Making of" Book Nearly Here—At Long Last

My new book detailing the history of the stage musical The Tik-Tok Man of Oz was delayed in late April/early May because I ran across new research that was too good not to include. So I revised the book and added 32 new pages.

But good news, at last, All Wound Up is due for release at the end of this month. 

All Wound Up: The Making of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz presents 440 full-color pages bursting with photos and images about the 1913 musical written by Oz-creator L. Frank Baum and composed by Broadway and Hollywood composer Louis F. Gottschalk.

I produced a revival of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz in 2014 at Winkie Con 50 in San Diego, CA. I wrote a long article for the convention program book on the history of the show. That article was the basis for the book, but I greatly expanded on the information I originally wrote (as well as correcting my mistakes). I've been working on the book intensively for the past several years, researching and collecting long-forgotten details of the show and the people involved in it.

The book offers a wealth of treasures, including these features:

• The first publication of L. Frank Baum's original script for the show, newly located
• The first publication of Baum's original scenario for the show, when it was titled The Rainbow's Daughter
• Hundreds of photos and images, showing scenes from The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, the actors and production team, posters, publicity photos, advertisements, and much more
• Capsule biographies of all the principal actors and many of the chorus members--along with photos of as many show participants as I could find
• A biography of Louis F. Gottschalk, the show's composer, detailing his high-profile career on Broadway and in Hollywood
• A biography of Fred Woodward, the actor who played Hank the Mule in The Tik-Tok Man of Oz and who, surprisingly, continued to play Hank the Mule for several decades afterward

In conjunction with All Wound Up: the Making of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, my script for The Tik-Tok Man of Oz and my reconstructed piano-vocal score for the show will also be published. From Baum's and Gottschalk's surviving materials, I prepared these for the 2014 revival, although I subsequently revised a few bits in preparation for publication. For almost ten years now, I've wanted to make this performable version of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz available for others to produce. At last, that plan approaches fruition.

Hungry Tiger Press will release all three books in late July 2023. I'll announce publication and a link to order the books. Look for those here!

 Copyright © 2023 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

Wind Me Up

Playwright L. Frank Baum and composer Louis F. Gottschalk created a spectacular stage show that toured North America in 1913, The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. Though generally forgotten now, remnants of the show still exist in scripts, sheet music, photographs, and published reviews of the show.

I've gathered as many of those remnants as I could find and am currently working on a book to reveal the never-before-told story of how The Tik-Tok Man of Oz came into being. You can get a taste of the forthcoming book in my presentation Tik-Tok People, originally presented at Oz Con International 2021 in July and now available to watch on Youtube.

Here's the link to the presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX_YHvMLQwM

Copyright © 2021 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.