Publication At Last!

I'm happy to be able to finally say that my three volumes on The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, the 1913 stage musical by L. Frank Baum and Louis F. Gottschalk, are published and available from Hungry Tiger Press.

First is All Wound Up: The Making of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. This hefty softcover volume of 440 full-color pages contains the complete history of the show with a generous load of images and photographs. It also includes L. Frank Baum's complete 1913 script for The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, Baum's earlier complete scenario titled The Rainbow's Daughter, a full biography of composer Louis F. Gottschalk, an account of Hank the Mule's career across the world, and more. You can purchase the book by clicking here.

Next is The Tik-Tok Man of Oz Performance Script. This 114 page volume features the script I synthesized from Baum's surviving materials to create a version that can be performed today. The words are L. Frank Baum's in this two-act musical play for nine principal roles, three minor roles, and a chorus, in a running time of about 2 hours. You can purchase the script by clicking here

The third book is The Tik-Tok Man of Oz Piano-Vocal Score. Its 194 pages hold 26 core musical numbers by Gottschalk/Baum and Schertzinger/Morosco, originally written for the show. Also included are 2 optional numbers by Cowles/Wulschner and Waters/West, interpolated into the 1913 production. The music is arranged for piano. You can purchase the score by clicking here.

All three volumes are offered as a set with a $10 discount of the total price. Click here for the complete set.

Whether you want to act, sing, or just read about Tik-Tok the copper clockwork man of Oz, here's your chance.

Copyright © 2023 Eric Shanower. All rights reserved.

Verse by Vera

Vera Doria, 1932

Actress and singer Vera Doria (1882-1957), born Veronica Fosbery Eyton in Tasmania, Australia, originated the role of Ozma the Rose Princess in The Tik-Tok Man of Oz.

After a short motion picture career and a couple marriages, Doria moved to Shanghai, China, about 1921. She returned to the USA in 1932 from living more than a decade in Shanghai. Doria, now known as Veronica Eyton Wavell, no longer an actress, wrote poetry.

Much of her poetry reflects her strong affinity for spirituality, in particular the Christian religion, though her subject matter varied widely. For instance, during World War II, she composed verses in support of the Allied cause. The following examples show her range.

ENGLAND CAN TAKE IT

In this great New World we’ve heard the call
And the Sons of Freedom are working all;
In plant and factory and full workshop
We’re building a whirring, soaring crop
Of wings that laugh at the Tyrant’s claim
And engines that sing the Tyrant’s shame,
Of fighting ships for the mighty deep,
And ships for cargoes the farmers reap.

England can take it when England must,
Almighty God will reward her trust;
St. George will slay the Dragon again,
And Michael will heal old England’s pain,
The blazing love of the Empire’s sons,
Civilians, and women, behind the guns,
By grace, and a service whose limit’s the sky
Will keep the old flag proud and high.

 PRAYER TO ST. MICHAEL

Lend me your shield, St. Michael,
And give me the valiant word;
For the battle begins, Great Angel:
St. Michael, lend me your sword.

Gird me with holy armour,
The Tempter is on the field;
Breathe strength into me, Contender;
St. Michael, I must not yield.

Hear me celestial soldier,
Who led the angelic host;
O bring me power from the Father,
The Son, and the Holy Ghost.

 

HOMESICK

Oh I long for a home of my own,
A garden and home of my own!
For I’ve been
To tropical countries and green,
To lands where the sun hardly ever is seen,
And I dream
Of a simple small home of my own
On that side of the world which my forebears have known, 
Where the flesh of my flesh and the bone of my bone
Were born and were cradled and nourished and grown,
And were part of that race whose first watchword was “home.”

Oh I long for a home of my own!
But I’m reaping the harvest I’ve sown,
And I’ve seen
That the lure which first led me to roam
Brought results of a kind that could never atone
For the dream
Unfulfilled, and the magical tone
Of youth’s song, which has changed to a gray minor drone
In the chant of the wanderer who wanders alone,
Who loves every blossom and even each stone
Of the homeland that’s calling him, calling him home.


Sources: “England Can Take It,” Los Angeles (CA) Times, 7 February 1941, II 4; “Prayer to St. Michael,” Los Angeles (CA) Times, 1 August 1947, 6; “Homesick,” Los Angeles (CA) Times, 15 June 1942, II 4.

Copyright © 2023 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.

All Wound Up

I'm overjoyed to report that my book on the history of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz has finally gone off to the printer. All Wound Up: The Making of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz tells the complete story of the musical extravaganza that L. Frank Baum, Louis F. Gottschalk, and Oliver Morosco first brought to the public stage in March 1913. The 406-page volume is packed full of information on the creation and production of the show. Hundreds of photographs and other images of the actors, the scenes, and artifacts related to the show fill the pages of this big volume.

All Wound Up includes what remains of L. Frank Baum's original 1913 script for The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, which survives unfortunately incomplete, published for the very first time. Also published for the first time is The Rainbow's Daughter; or, The Love Magnet, Baum's 1909 scenario--fortunately complete--for what eventually became The Tik-Tok Man of Oz on stage.

Louis F. Gottschalk, composer of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, has never had a full-length biography published before. So I've included a short one in All Wound Up, covering Gottschalk's career on Broadway before The Tik-Tok Man of Oz and his career as a composer of motion picture scores afterward.

All Wound Up includes the story of Hank the Mule. Fred Woodward, who played Hank the Mule in The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, filled roles created by L. Frank Baum for most of his career. Woodward appeared as both the Cowardly Lion and the Frolicsome Heifer in the original stage production of The Wizard of Oz. After playing Hank the Mule in The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, Woodward appeared in all the Oz Film Manufacturing Company movies, then went on to play Hank the Mule for several decades around the world. And Woodward wasn't the only one to play Hank. A second Hank played throughout the USA and developed a couple surprising ties to the 1939 MGM motion picture version of The Wizard of Oz.

In full color, All Wound Up: The Making of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz will be published about the end of April by Hungry Tiger Press. Also available will be brand new performing versions of the script and score of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, based on my reconstructions for the 2014 revival. I'll post here to announce when all three books are available.

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.

Mystery of the Missing Tik-Tok Man Script

I find it curious that while there are many online references to L. Frank Baum's early draft for The Tik-Tok Man of Oz stage show, titled Ozma of Oz, as being extant, I can find little reference to the existence of the final draft for The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. Why does no one (at least online, other than Wikipedia and me) seem to know of its substantial, albeit fragmentary, existence?

The Tik-Tok Man of Oz script, page one.

I don't know where the original script is now. The original may be in the hands of a descendant of L. Frank Baum. Or it may be in the collection of an Oz collector. I've had access to a photocopy of it for many years. It can't be the only photocopy around. Can it?

Even if it were, I've mentioned the existence of the script on this blog. And I reproduced the first page of it as an illustration in my detailed discussion of the show's history, published in the Winkie Con 50 Program Book, which has been available beyond the convention itself. I don't expect casual Oz book readers to necessarily be familiar with either my article or this blog. But anyone who writes specifically about The Tik-Tok Man of Oz ought to be.

Anyway, what prompted this post was that I recently ran across a delightful blog called Burzee. The bloggers offer their reactions to the Oz books and Baum's other fantasies. One post on the blog discusses Baum's novelization, Tik-Tok of Oz, and claims erroneously that the Ozma of Oz script is the only version of the script extant. I wrote a comment on the post to correct this, but I'm frustrated that this myth is being perpetuated, despite the easily accessible evidence to the contrary. The Burzee blog isn't the only instance of this misinformation I've seen, only the latest. Claims that the Ozma of Oz draft is the final extant version can also be found on more "scholarly" websites, such as here, here, and here (which explicitly and inexplicably states that the final version is lost).

Why do these myths take hold? You'd think a Munchkin hung himself on the MGM set or something.

Ilon Bergere

Ilon Bergere as Mascha in The Chocolate Soldier, 1912.

Ilon Bergere (1871-1944) played Ozma, the Rose Princess, in The Tik-Tok Man of Oz for awhile during the post-Chicago tour. Born in Budapest, Hungary, she married businessman David Bauer of St. Louis, Missouri. When he died, Ilon pursued a stage career to support herself and her two young children. Her first role was in E. Van Alstyne's musical comedy The Broken Idol. She came to prominence on Broadway playing Mascha in Oscar Straus's The Chocolate Soldier with Charles Purcell, who later played Private Files starting in San Francisco. Ilon's pre-Tik-Tok Man career included roles in The Gay Hussars on Broadway as well as in Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado at the Tivoli Theatre in San Francisco. By 1917 she and Charles Purcell were married. She died in San Bernardino, California. Her son Monroe Bauer Purcell was a pianist for Margarita Padula and Co.