0:00:02 > 0:00:04- Are you ready now?- Yes.
0:00:04 > 0:00:06Say goodbye, Toto.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11Yes, I'm ready now.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13Then close your eyes
0:00:13 > 0:00:15and tap your heels together three times...
0:00:17 > 0:00:23And think to yourself, there's no place like home...
0:00:26 > 0:00:29There's no place like home.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33There's no place like home. There's no place like home.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39The 1939 MGM film, The Wizard Of Oz, has been seen
0:00:39 > 0:00:44by more people more times than any other film in the history of cinema.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48You can't tear yourself away from it.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50And that's the power of a good narrative.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Adapted from a story by American author L Frank Baum,
0:00:55 > 0:00:59in which a scarecrow talks, a woodman is cast in tin, a lion weeps
0:00:59 > 0:01:04and a young girl journeys to a strange land in a farmhouse
0:01:04 > 0:01:05uprooted by a cyclone.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Well, Baum said he wanted to write
0:01:11 > 0:01:17a fairytale without the European witches and giants and goblins.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20And all his supernatural figures
0:01:20 > 0:01:24were taken from the America of his own day in 1900.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26The story has come to define
0:01:26 > 0:01:31America to Americans and America to the world.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33An 18th century novelist said America was meant
0:01:33 > 0:01:35to mean everything.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38And in the sense it holds the projections
0:01:38 > 0:01:39of all people's longings.
0:01:39 > 0:01:44I think The Wizard Of Oz catches that.
0:01:46 > 0:01:52L Frank Baum's ambition was to create the first genuine
0:01:52 > 0:01:54American fairytale.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06L Frank was a story teller and he loved children.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10And he used to tell bedtime stories to the kids, they would gather around
0:02:10 > 0:02:15him to hear the stories and he lived in a kind of fantasy world, or could
0:02:15 > 0:02:16access that really easily.
0:02:18 > 0:02:23The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz reflects the American experience.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Less well known is how much it owes to the life of its author.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31L Frank Baum's life was the embodiment of the American dream.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33An entrepreneur who left
0:02:33 > 0:02:36New York to find success on the plains of South Dakota.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40Two failed businesses later, he moved onto Chicago
0:02:40 > 0:02:42and the glamour of the World's Fair.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48The lessons learned from his triumphs and disasters
0:02:48 > 0:02:51and his extraordinary adventures all found their way into the pages
0:02:51 > 0:02:53of his book.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59It's really kind of amazing how much of a part he was of what seem like
0:02:59 > 0:03:00the major events of
0:03:00 > 0:03:03the late 19th century.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07You never knew where he was going to end up next
0:03:07 > 0:03:08but he always made a name for himself no matter
0:03:08 > 0:03:10what career he took.
0:03:10 > 0:03:15Baum had a fascination with science that led to his magical inventions,
0:03:15 > 0:03:20and an empathy with women, which inspired strong female characters.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22Both became fundamental to his
0:03:22 > 0:03:27creation of Dorothy's adventure in the fantastic parallel world of Oz.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32This film follows Baum's personal journey to the emerald city
0:03:32 > 0:03:35and back home again.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37The man was a born entertainer.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39And all of these fanciful stories,
0:03:39 > 0:03:44the Oz stories and so many of his early things developed out of that
0:03:44 > 0:03:46compulsion I think he had to actively,
0:03:46 > 0:03:53pleasantly engage people's hearts and minds and imagination.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz is a fairytale about a young girl
0:04:03 > 0:04:05on a journey of self discovery.
0:04:05 > 0:04:11Along the way she meets a scarecrow, a tin woodman and a cowardly lion,
0:04:11 > 0:04:15and together they travel to a city made of emeralds.
0:04:15 > 0:04:21It begins in the United States, goes off to another country
0:04:21 > 0:04:23and then comes back to America.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27Dorothy and her party are pretty much getting themselves out things
0:04:27 > 0:04:31and they find that the Wizard of Oz himself is really this humbug.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35But there is more to this story than it seems.
0:04:35 > 0:04:41It's about American politics and American dreams and hopes
0:04:41 > 0:04:43and American pluck.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48I think Baum identified with the wizard himself.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51I think he thought of himself as a bit of a humbug
0:04:51 > 0:04:55that, you know, that everybody was expecting him
0:04:55 > 0:04:58to do all these marvellous things and he was just a man.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02He may have been a very good man but he wasn't a great wizard.
0:05:02 > 0:05:03- He failed at so many things.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz as
0:05:07 > 0:05:11a fantasy, but like many authors he was drawing on his own experiences.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14He certainly had to face a lot of hardships in his life
0:05:14 > 0:05:18and he was very persistent in turning around and trying to deal with those.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21And I think you see that in the story.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25And you see that in the way he lived his life - he never stopped.
0:05:25 > 0:05:30Frank Baum's energy mirrored Dorothy's -
0:05:30 > 0:05:34a surprising choice for the story's central character.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37Dorothy is unique because
0:05:37 > 0:05:43at the time a little girl who was so determined and adventurous
0:05:43 > 0:05:50would be looked down on as not being really feminine enough.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54And in this, of course, Baum was influenced by
0:05:54 > 0:05:57his wife and his mother who were both
0:05:57 > 0:05:59very serious feminists.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03Born in Chittenango New York in 1856, it was the values of
0:06:03 > 0:06:04this small-town community,
0:06:04 > 0:06:09which would have a lasting influence on Frank Baum's writing.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12At home it was the dominance of the women
0:06:12 > 0:06:16in his family that helped shape the strong-minded heroines he created.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19L Frank Baum grew up in a house of women.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22He had two older sisters, he had
0:06:22 > 0:06:25his mother who was evidently a very strong character as well.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27His father wasn't home a lot.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31His father was in the oil business and the land business
0:06:31 > 0:06:34and the banking business, whatever was going on.
0:06:34 > 0:06:40Benjamin Baum made his fortune in the oilfields of Pennsylvania.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44An inveterate risk taker, he would find himself broke more than once.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48A tendency he would pass on to his son.
0:06:48 > 0:06:49I think it was feast or famine - when things were great they were
0:06:49 > 0:06:54great and when they were bad, you know, things were in trouble.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57Frank Baum grew up at Rose Lawn,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01a rambling house surrounded by acres of flowerbeds and fields.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Like other well-to-do families,
0:07:05 > 0:07:09the Baum children were home-schooled by English tutors.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12He makes up all kinds of silly words.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Not only does he do puns and play with English language
0:07:15 > 0:07:17but he makes up his own.
0:07:17 > 0:07:18It's how Oz came to be, you know,
0:07:18 > 0:07:24look around at the file cabinet and O to Z and now it's a word.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29Frank's natural ability and love of language was encouraged.
0:07:29 > 0:07:30He enjoyed the work of authors
0:07:30 > 0:07:35who created character-led stories, which mixed fantasy with reality.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41Well, Baum was very influenced by the
0:07:41 > 0:07:43English novelists, he was a great fan
0:07:43 > 0:07:45of Dickens, no question about that.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47He liked fairytales and folklore.
0:07:47 > 0:07:52But he had certain reservations about them because they also
0:07:52 > 0:07:56contained elements that he thought were very frightening for children,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59because he himself said that he had nightmares
0:07:59 > 0:08:01after reading some of these stories.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12At the age of ten, Frank's father sent him to
0:08:12 > 0:08:16Peekskill Military Academy in order to instil discipline in his son.
0:08:19 > 0:08:24After two unhappy years, Frank returned to Rose Lawn.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29He and his brothers could go out in the fields and the mountains
0:08:29 > 0:08:32and valleys and so forth and just let their imagination roam.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35And I'm sure that's where a lot of it came from.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39And he saw a lot of different things around him. Scarecrow in particular.
0:08:39 > 0:08:45One episode he supposedly got pretty scared by one and it stuck with him.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51In 1869, Frank's interest in books,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54led to a curiosity about how they were produced.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01He goes on a trip with his dad to town, sees a printing press,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04is intrigued with that and his dad buys him a little printing press.
0:09:04 > 0:09:11In the late 1860s, early 1870s, amateur journalism was all the rage.
0:09:11 > 0:09:17Young men, young women were able to purchase a cheap printing press,
0:09:17 > 0:09:21and they issued all of these little newspapers that they exchanged with
0:09:21 > 0:09:24one another and they talked about each other in these newspapers.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26And L Frank Baum was one of the first of these.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30The Rose Lawn Home Journal enabled Frank Baum to get
0:09:30 > 0:09:33his words in print. But it was the equipment,
0:09:33 > 0:09:35which made it possible that really interested him.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39His fascination with science and its practical applications would last
0:09:39 > 0:09:43a lifetime. It would feature in everything he wrote.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47You see it with Glinda and her magic book.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51She reads in the book what's happening as it's going on.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53Now we do that with computers.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55We turn on the computer, we turn on the news, we
0:09:55 > 0:09:57see what's happening right now.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00I think he would love what's happening in the world right now.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03He'd be intrigued with the computer and the possibilities
0:10:03 > 0:10:08and the travel and the things he didn't see in his lifetime,
0:10:08 > 0:10:12but I'm sure he would be just, you know, captivated by it all.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17He chose not to go to college, he did not feel that he would
0:10:17 > 0:10:20learn anything, he really felt he had to learn by doing things.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22And I think this is one of the great themes that goes
0:10:22 > 0:10:25throughout the Oz books and certainly throughout his life.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28He never thought he couldn't learn
0:10:28 > 0:10:31something and he would just jump in from
0:10:31 > 0:10:34one profession into another, whether he had any background in it or not.
0:10:34 > 0:10:40Frank Baum was a born storyteller, always in search of an audience.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42So writing and performing in the theatre was an obvious outlet
0:10:42 > 0:10:44for his talents.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46Baum loved theatre.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48He grew up loving acting and writing for the stage,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51composing songs for the stage.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53He started doing this is in his teens and in his 20s,
0:10:53 > 0:10:55and was doing it very successfully for a while.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58He wrote the scripts and then he directed the scripts and then he
0:10:58 > 0:11:02produced the plays, and his parents were sort of appalled at all this.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06But his parents supported his artistic endeavours.
0:11:06 > 0:11:12Benjamin Baum invested in theatres so his son could stage his plays.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16The Maid Of Arran, described as an Irish melodrama with music,
0:11:16 > 0:11:19was Frank's first success.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24Dad owned a lot of the theatres and helped pay the bills,
0:11:24 > 0:11:26until of course the theatres burned down.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28Fortunately,
0:11:28 > 0:11:33by this time Frank had more than burnt-out theatres on his mind.
0:11:33 > 0:11:34He was in love with Maud Gage,
0:11:34 > 0:11:36a 20-year-old college student.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Maud's mother, Matilda Joslyn Gage,
0:11:39 > 0:11:43was one of America's foremost campaigners for women's rights.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48She disapproved of actors and didn't want her daughter to quit college,
0:11:48 > 0:11:50but Maud was determined to marry Frank.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54Everybody talks about how
0:11:54 > 0:11:58strong their love was from the very beginning.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01And I think they really appreciated and supported each other
0:12:01 > 0:12:04and the role that they played in each others lives.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07Once they got married and he was starting to raise a family, I think
0:12:07 > 0:12:12he realised the responsibility of having a steady home life.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16Instead of travelling with his theatre company, Frank was now
0:12:16 > 0:12:21on the road selling axle oil as a salesman for the family business.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24The Castorine Company was doing very well
0:12:24 > 0:12:28until the money was gambled away by the bookkeeper.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32Things went from bad to worse.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34Frank was about to lose his income
0:12:34 > 0:12:39and, after the birth of their second child, Maud became ill.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42While he sought a way to look after his growing family,
0:12:42 > 0:12:47he found time to discover the emerging world of photography,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50with which he would record the next chapter of his life.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53Frank moved his family from New York to the remote farming community of
0:12:53 > 0:12:57Aberdeen, South Dakota.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01The major reason why
0:13:01 > 0:13:06he left New York state and moved to South Dakota was because of Maud.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11Her brother and her two sisters had already moved away and she was close
0:13:11 > 0:13:13to them and missed them so much.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Their letters talking about, she wrote
0:13:16 > 0:13:20to them how she missed them, how painful it was not to be with them.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25By 1888, Aberdeen was the hub for seven train lines
0:13:25 > 0:13:27and looked set to boom.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36The frontier city's roads may have been unpaved,
0:13:36 > 0:13:41but when the Baums arrived there were electric street lights.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45Some of the only telephones west of New York city.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49An opera house and ladies' reading groups.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56Frank wanted to bring a luxury store to South Dakota that would rival
0:13:56 > 0:14:03one of those fancy palaces in Chicago or in Minneapolis
0:14:03 > 0:14:07and he was hoping that he would slowly expand the business into this
0:14:07 > 0:14:09incredible department store.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14Baum's Bazaar opened in October 1888.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17It sold luxury goods and even cut flowers.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20The business was an overnight success.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24Delighted, Frank opened another branch and he and Maud
0:14:24 > 0:14:27launched themselves on Aberdeen society.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32He was very charismatic, he was very funny, he liked to engage people,
0:14:32 > 0:14:35he liked to get involved, he liked
0:14:35 > 0:14:39to have the whole family get together and go on family picnics.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42So there was that place in him where he really wanted to gather people
0:14:42 > 0:14:46together and give a space for them to enjoy each other.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50He was head of a baseball team in Aberdeen.
0:14:50 > 0:14:55They were very civic-minded, they were very involved with the community
0:14:55 > 0:14:56and people liked them.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Aberdeen's social life was exceedingly rich.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02If you read the newspaper,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Baum just kind of goes from one party to another.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09And he took full advantage of it, he loved it, he loved
0:15:09 > 0:15:13a good play or a good musical, he was in several of them.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16For the most part this is a time of prosperity.
0:15:16 > 0:15:22We think of... Looking at it fairly broadly, the last quarter century
0:15:22 > 0:15:25about 1875 to 1900 as a time of incredible prosperity.
0:15:25 > 0:15:31The age of big business where America became a first rank industrial power.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34But farmers were kind of left behind by a lot of this.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41In 1890, after three years of drought, an acre of land that once
0:15:41 > 0:15:45produced 20 bushels of wheat now yielded only four.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49Agricultural prices crashed and farmers went bust.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55Everything they owned was in hock, they owed money on it.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59They couldn't even... The only way they could leave was to walk out.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04For someone who usually did his research,
0:16:04 > 0:16:09Frank Baum missed the early warning signs that disaster was imminent.
0:16:11 > 0:16:16He saw the promise. What he didn't see at that time,
0:16:16 > 0:16:21I believe was the fact that they'd had a very bad crop.
0:16:21 > 0:16:28And so by the time Baum came in 1888 the boom was over.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30They just didn't all know it yet.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35Aberdeen's cultured population was not prepared for hard times.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40Where some predicted disaster, Frank saw only opportunity.
0:16:40 > 0:16:46It's comparable in some ways to the real estate bust or
0:16:46 > 0:16:48the mortgage bust that we're experiencing,
0:16:48 > 0:16:53or have been experiencing, in the last couple of years.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58Those who stayed couldn't afford food, let along luxury goods.
0:16:58 > 0:16:59When the bank called in its loans,
0:16:59 > 0:17:04Frank was forced to close Baum's Bazaar.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07I think the store was great, the timing was terrible with
0:17:07 > 0:17:09depressions and droughts.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12His business idea,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15I won't say it was grandiose but with money tight and so forth it
0:17:15 > 0:17:18didn't work out.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21Instead of returning east as others were doing, Frank Baum
0:17:21 > 0:17:23decided to take on a new challenge.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26Selling off the stock from Baum's Bazaar, he decided to become
0:17:26 > 0:17:29a newspaper editor and bought in to the Dakota Pioneer,
0:17:29 > 0:17:34changing its name to the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40I think he very much had the notion that he would be more
0:17:40 > 0:17:43of a society literary newspaper.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46So the newspaper just sparkles from the very beginning.
0:17:46 > 0:17:53It's an illustrated newspaper for that time period in that place.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56I went back and read all his editorials in the newspaper
0:17:56 > 0:17:59which were, you know, one of the few places he wrote for adults.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02There was a tornado that came through and it lifted a house
0:18:02 > 0:18:07and dropped it two miles away, and he wrote about that for about two weeks.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11He'd write and then he'd come back to it and talk about it again.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13Then he'd come back to it and talk about it again.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17I think he was absolutely intrigued that that could happen.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22So you see some of that imagery that developed in the story.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25Baum wrote the paper's editorials
0:18:25 > 0:18:28and a satirical column called Our Landlady.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33In them he wrote about the many issues of the day.
0:18:33 > 0:18:38There was an incredible progression of ideas
0:18:38 > 0:18:42that were bursting out on the plains at that time.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47You had women's suffrage, the first big women's suffrage campaign
0:18:47 > 0:18:50in South Dakota took place.
0:18:50 > 0:18:55In 1890, leading women's rights campaigners convened in south Dakota
0:18:55 > 0:18:57to lobby for the right to vote.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01Matilda Gage, Frank's mother-in-law, was one of them.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04And she moved next door to Frank and Maud.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10He and Mother Gage,
0:19:10 > 0:19:14as we sometimes call her, I think they got along and I
0:19:14 > 0:19:18think they respected each other. I'm sure it did have some influence.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22He was a big supporter of women getting out into the market place
0:19:22 > 0:19:26and men connecting more with the children and spending time at home.
0:19:29 > 0:19:34In Aberdeen in 1890, suffragettes were fighting for their rights and Frank Baum enthusiastically
0:19:34 > 0:19:38supported them through the pages of his newspaper.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42It would take nearly 30 years for American women
0:19:42 > 0:19:44to earn the right to vote.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47A year more than women in Britain.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51But Frank Baum's faith in the cause never wavered.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56He was impressed by women on the great plains. Their determination
0:19:56 > 0:20:00would inspire his central character in The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz.
0:20:02 > 0:20:09Well, Dorothy Gale in The Wizard Of Oz is probably the first important
0:20:09 > 0:20:12child character in American children's literature.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17Dorothy is really the first feminist role model.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19She's, you know, typical mid-westerner.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23She goes out, she solves her problems and then comes home again.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27Dorothy is tough and brave and independent
0:20:27 > 0:20:31and she's really a child version of the pioneer woman
0:20:31 > 0:20:37who went out in the covered wagon and worked side by side with her husband to
0:20:37 > 0:20:40establish a farm and raise a family.
0:20:40 > 0:20:45In The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, the Wicked Witch sends wolves,
0:20:45 > 0:20:49crows and bees to frighten Dorothy and her friends.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Pests that were a menace to livestock and crops in the west.
0:20:53 > 0:20:58But when Frank Baum lived in South Dakota, farmers' greatest fears were
0:20:58 > 0:21:02the threat of foreclosure and an Indian uprising.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05The government broke their treaties with these people,
0:21:05 > 0:21:10we took all the gold out of their hills, which were their spiritual resources,
0:21:10 > 0:21:15and we gave them this dry badlands territory and told 'em to do farming.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18It's crazy what we did to them.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24The Sioux, and other tribes, were confined to reservations.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28They starved while herds of buffalo and other game were hunted for sport.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34Many joined a new religion called The Ghost Dance, which promised a
0:21:34 > 0:21:37return to the old ways,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41the restoration of their lands and the departure of homesteaders.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48I think that L Frank Baum was afraid there was going to be an uprising.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51This was nonsense. They weren't going to attack Aberdeen, South Dakota,
0:21:51 > 0:21:53but he was still afraid of that.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57And when people are afraid they say horrible things.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01Frank Baum believed in the spiritual world himself,
0:22:01 > 0:22:05but in 1890 he wrote two controversial editorials,
0:22:05 > 0:22:08which seemed to condemn Ghost Dance followers
0:22:08 > 0:22:11for practicing their beliefs.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13What they say is that, you know,
0:22:13 > 0:22:16we've been really terrible to the Indians.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19We've not done right by them and
0:22:19 > 0:22:21now look what's happened.
0:22:21 > 0:22:29They've risen up against us, so what are our options?
0:22:29 > 0:22:34And he comes up with an option that most of us wouldn't accept.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Baum wrote that as the government had already
0:22:36 > 0:22:41destroyed the best of this culture, it might as well finish it off.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45An uncharacteristic statement from such an enlightened man and one
0:22:45 > 0:22:49that was not reflected in anything that he had written before or since.
0:22:51 > 0:22:52I see in his stories
0:22:52 > 0:22:55about Oz, all the different characters and all the friendships
0:22:55 > 0:22:56that Dorothy makes
0:22:56 > 0:23:01with very strange people and befriends them
0:23:01 > 0:23:04and rescues the underdog.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06And the interesting thing is that they
0:23:06 > 0:23:10don't interfere with these societies even if they're rather unpleasant.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14They pass through and leave them alone.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17Some of them they have to escape from, but they don't go back
0:23:17 > 0:23:19and reform them.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22It's what you might call an anti-colonial attitude.
0:23:22 > 0:23:27Frank Baum's editorials predicted what was to follow.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Before the year was out, Chief Sitting Bull was shot dead
0:23:32 > 0:23:35in a botched arrest attempt.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40At Wounded Knee, 250 of his followers were massacred.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46And for the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, the end had come, too.
0:23:48 > 0:23:54Loss of advertising revenue and subscriptions forced its closure.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56He came out with such high expectations.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Those hopes were dashed twice.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03I mean, they were just thoroughly throttled.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07He didn't really talk much about the different careers he went through.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11I think some of the very difficult periods he didn't talk about at all.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14But he was always looking forward,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17always looking for new opportunities.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24Now aged 35, a string of failures behind him,
0:24:24 > 0:24:31disillusioned and in poor health, Frank Baum headed back east to seek work.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34In Chicago, his optimism was restored.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38All around him, he could see a great white city rising.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44In 1893, Chicago would become the site of the
0:24:44 > 0:24:47largest world's fair ever held.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51A magical place that would later inspire the Emerald City
0:24:51 > 0:24:57in the Land of Oz. But before then, Frank had to find work.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00From what I understand, when he first started out,
0:25:00 > 0:25:04he would try anything. Worked for Pitkin and Brooks, selling crockery.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07It was an experience that inspired
0:25:07 > 0:25:10a little-known chapter in The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12In it, Dorothy and her companions
0:25:12 > 0:25:16cross what Baum called "the Dainty China Country."
0:25:16 > 0:25:22In 1891, it also gave him the idea for a new source of income.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24He started a home magazine about window-decorating.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27When he went on the road after Aberdeen and was selling crockery,
0:25:27 > 0:25:34he would go into these retail stores where they had, in their windows, boxes of stuff.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36And he said, "Let's design it,"
0:25:36 > 0:25:40and, you know, that presumably is where the Tin Woodman came from.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45Took a pie pan, took a funnel, made the character of a man out
0:25:45 > 0:25:49of tin, stuck it in the window, designed the windows so they'd be
0:25:49 > 0:25:52attractive to people and people would want to come in and buy the products.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57Income from the magazine came just in time.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59Frank was exhausted from travelling.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04Worn out by lifting and carrying heavy sample cases filled with crockery.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07Doctors now ordered him to rest.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10His health wouldn't let him travel, so he started writing.
0:26:10 > 0:26:15So I think it was all part of that getting him to a place where he really said,
0:26:15 > 0:26:17"OK, I'm just going to write stories now."
0:26:19 > 0:26:26When the Chicago World's Fair opened in 1893, Frank got all the inspiration he needed.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32More than half the country's population attended and, like them,
0:26:32 > 0:26:36he was amazed by what he saw.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38Electricity powering lights
0:26:38 > 0:26:42which made magnificent structures sparkle like diamonds.
0:26:42 > 0:26:48The first Ferris Wheel - an engineering marvel 80 metres high.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54And the prototype for a motion picture camera, that Frank dreamt of using himself one day.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02He was fascinated about so many different things.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04He loved photography, he was into science,
0:27:04 > 0:27:09you know as much as he could be in those days, when he went to the world's fair.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11I mean, electricity fascinated him.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15I think there was just a fascination for the world around him.
0:27:15 > 0:27:21The spirit and substance of the Chicago World's Fair found their way into The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24Frank always thought of the fair's white city,
0:27:24 > 0:27:28built of wood but painted to look like marble, as a fabulous fake.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32A grand illusion, like the Emerald City he would soon write about.
0:27:32 > 0:27:38An example of how easily appearances can deceive, proof that things are not always what they seem,
0:27:38 > 0:27:40and that nothing lasts forever.
0:27:40 > 0:27:46I think this is what he also felt with his own life. Things would always get better.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48That he would eventually triumph
0:27:48 > 0:27:51over all the stumbling blocks throughout his life.
0:27:51 > 0:27:56For America, the fair was a great source of wonder and national pride.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58For Frank Baum, it also represented the
0:27:58 > 0:28:03beginning of the most magical and exciting chapter in his life so far.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05This turn of the century was rich
0:28:05 > 0:28:08with all of the creative impact of what was happening.
0:28:08 > 0:28:15I'm sure he heard Thomas Edison at the World's Fair he went to in Chicago, and got intrigued with film.
0:28:15 > 0:28:22He was a big fan of imagination. He talks about that, how important it is to be able to imagine something
0:28:22 > 0:28:26and that gives it the possibility of coming into material form.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31In The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, Dorothy and her companions use
0:28:31 > 0:28:33their imagination and ingenuity
0:28:33 > 0:28:37just as Frank Baum would do after the fair closed.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39You know, Maud complained about it, his wife.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42He would wake up in the middle of the night and he'd get ideas about things
0:28:42 > 0:28:47to do and he'd write on the wallpaper and she was just furious cos she had
0:28:47 > 0:28:49to keep changing the wallpaper.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55In 1898, after a series of rejections from publishers,
0:28:55 > 0:28:59Frank decided to publish his own work, a book of poems.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03He collaborated with local artists who provided the illustrations.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06And he printed and bound the book himself.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08By the Candelabra's Glare
0:29:08 > 0:29:11proved to be the best investment Frank Baum ever made in himself
0:29:11 > 0:29:16and it would soon lead to his first publishing deal.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz was not the first book L Frank Baum wrote.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23Actually, he used to tell stories to his children, bedtime stories.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27He also told stories based upon Mother Goose rhymes
0:29:27 > 0:29:30and this became his very first book.
0:29:30 > 0:29:31Mother Goose in Prose.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35It was also the very first book illustrated by Maxfield Parrish, one
0:29:35 > 0:29:37of the great American illustrators.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40Mother goose received good reviews.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42It was all the encouragement Frank needed.
0:29:42 > 0:29:47Now, he turned to William Wallace Denslow, one of the illustrators of
0:29:47 > 0:29:49By the Candelabra's Glare.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53They formed a unique partnership, and together would change children's
0:29:53 > 0:29:54publishing in America forever,
0:29:54 > 0:29:58beginning with their first book, Father Goose.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03And they were illustrated by Denslow, and very
0:30:03 > 0:30:05lush poster-like illustrations
0:30:05 > 0:30:11with the verse hand lettered incorporated into the illustration.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15The two of them wanted the book to be published in colour.
0:30:15 > 0:30:16They went to a printer
0:30:16 > 0:30:20who said that he would publish the book but only if they
0:30:20 > 0:30:23paid for the colour plates, because they were so expensive to produce.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25They did, and the gamble paid off.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29Father Goose was the best-selling picture book of 1900.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33This book was a huge hit, so the public,
0:30:33 > 0:30:35at least the the book-buying public,
0:30:35 > 0:30:39was waiting for the next Baum and Denslow collaboration.
0:30:39 > 0:30:44Buoyed by this success, Frank came up with an original fairytale
0:30:44 > 0:30:47which evolved as he told it to his children.
0:30:47 > 0:30:52His wife and his mother in law were there and they said, "You need to write this story down.
0:30:52 > 0:30:53"This is a great story."
0:30:53 > 0:30:58The story was called The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. The first edition
0:30:58 > 0:31:02quickly sold out to become America's first publishing phenomenon.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06It's no exaggeration to say that Oz and Oz books were the Harry Potter
0:31:06 > 0:31:10books of their day, and it's even more impressive when
0:31:10 > 0:31:14you look back at what there wasn't in the last century.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17They didn't have this huge, churning
0:31:17 > 0:31:24promotional machine. The Oz books, it was a word of mouth, read aloud
0:31:24 > 0:31:27fascination that kids just never tired of.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30Parents were drawn to the book as well.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34They had never seen anything like it before.
0:31:34 > 0:31:36Baum and Denslow did plan the book
0:31:36 > 0:31:41to be an object as much as the experience of the story.
0:31:41 > 0:31:46It's a beautiful object in and of itself. The careful colour choices,
0:31:46 > 0:31:50the integration of the text with the illustrations.
0:31:50 > 0:31:57Of course Baum's text makes great use of colour within the story.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59Denslow's illustrations were drawn
0:31:59 > 0:32:03in black and white, and later he worked with printers to add colour.
0:32:03 > 0:32:08In chapter one about Kansas, Baum uses the word grey nine times
0:32:08 > 0:32:11to refer to the grass, to the sky, to the way
0:32:11 > 0:32:15the paint is peeled off the building, the way Aunt Em and Uncle Henry
0:32:15 > 0:32:18are old and worn and grey from this,
0:32:18 > 0:32:21from the basic drought that is going on at the beginning of that story.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25And it wasn't just the colour that made the book such a success.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28Baum and Denslow were masters of using humour to
0:32:28 > 0:32:33make threatening situations entertaining for children.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35I've heard of kids who, when they watch the movie,
0:32:35 > 0:32:38they're really scared of the witch or the winged monkeys or other aspects.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41But the book is...
0:32:41 > 0:32:43There's always humour in it.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45The witch in the books looks very funny.
0:32:45 > 0:32:51The Denslow illustrations of the witch are quite humorous. She's this little old lady with a raincoat
0:32:51 > 0:32:56and an eye patch and three braids sticking out of her head at bizarre angles.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02Denslow's artwork brought people to The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05but it was Baum's story that held their interest.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09Their partnership was unique but it wasn't destined to last.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13After one other book, the collaboration ended, the chief reason,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17a dispute about who deserved more credit for their success.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27Frank Baum wrote 13 more Oz books, only these would be illustrated by
0:33:27 > 0:33:29John R Neill.
0:33:29 > 0:33:34Neill's style couldn't have been more different from Denslow's.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37Denslow obviously was influenced by
0:33:37 > 0:33:40the poster movement in the late 19th century.
0:33:40 > 0:33:45The design, the flat shapes, the solid colours, the use
0:33:45 > 0:33:52of very little perspective - that's all evident in his work.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54John R Neill, on the other hand,
0:33:54 > 0:34:02was much more influenced by magazine and newspaper illustration.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05Neill's drawings transformed Dorothy.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09She was older, a modern girl who wore the fashions of the day.
0:34:09 > 0:34:12What remained the same was her approach to life
0:34:12 > 0:34:15and that of her companions.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18I think it's certainly true that it's the characterisation
0:34:18 > 0:34:22that made this book popular, one of the things.
0:34:22 > 0:34:28These are immediately loveable and interesting characters, and they all
0:34:28 > 0:34:34have their own specialty and they're all real and alive.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37It's possible for people to see themselves
0:34:37 > 0:34:43as a cowardly lion or a scarecrow
0:34:43 > 0:34:47or of course for children to identify with Dorothy.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52All the themes, having a heart, or having a brain,
0:34:52 > 0:34:56being courageous or being afraid is the thing that
0:34:56 > 0:35:03universally...touches, goes deepest, I think, into an audience's heart.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09Baum's characters were a contradiction in themselves -
0:35:09 > 0:35:10a woodman made of tin,
0:35:10 > 0:35:15a lion without courage, a figure made of straw who had an intellect.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19Readers could care about them,
0:35:19 > 0:35:23identify with them and the challenges they faced.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz presents complex
0:35:25 > 0:35:28philosophical ideas in a simple way
0:35:28 > 0:35:31by asking readers to consider what
0:35:31 > 0:35:35true courage, intelligence, kindness and compassion are.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45Dorothy loses her temper. She throws the bucket of water at the wicked witch
0:35:45 > 0:35:47and then she's just washed away.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51L Frank Baum creates an easy way of getting rid of the wicked witch.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53She melts and Dorothy sweeps it out the door
0:35:53 > 0:35:58just gets rid of the last bit of the wicked witch and then everybody's happy.
0:35:58 > 0:36:03It's almost as if a nightmare has suddenly just ended.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06Allowing a child to express their emotions without fear
0:36:06 > 0:36:09of censure was a breakthrough in American children's literature.
0:36:09 > 0:36:14He doesn't moralise, he doesn't tell you what to think of his story.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16The 19th century tradition
0:36:16 > 0:36:20of children's books is that little boys and girls
0:36:20 > 0:36:27are improved and transformed, and they learn to be good and they learn
0:36:27 > 0:36:29to be kind,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32and they learn to work hard and
0:36:32 > 0:36:37do their duty, and Dorothy doesn't learn any of these lessons.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41She's OK the way she is.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45I think one of the greatly attractive things about the story is that a
0:36:45 > 0:36:50child character, a powerless character, through no
0:36:50 > 0:36:56fault of its own, using only what little power that child may have,
0:36:56 > 0:37:00achieves a great amount and becomes powerful by the end.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02Children embraced Baum's books
0:37:02 > 0:37:05set in the land of Oz, but some adults did not.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09There were a lot of people who did not like the book,
0:37:09 > 0:37:15who felt it was frivolous, who felt that it did not uplift children.
0:37:15 > 0:37:21There was an unofficial ban of The Wizard Of Oz throughout many of the
0:37:21 > 0:37:23children's libraries throughout the country.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28Despite disapproval from some people, book sales rose.
0:37:28 > 0:37:33These books were selling and kids were going crazy and Baum wrote a book a year.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37Once he really got going and he had more and more ideas
0:37:37 > 0:37:40and saw how the kids loved it, and actually incorporated
0:37:40 > 0:37:44what some of the children wrote to him in the letters of, "More Oz, Mr Baum,"
0:37:44 > 0:37:46I think it was easier for him to do.
0:37:46 > 0:37:48That's when I think he started to branch out
0:37:48 > 0:37:50into other forms of writing.
0:37:50 > 0:37:55In 1902, Baum's original Oz story was adapted for an entirely new form
0:37:55 > 0:37:59of theatrical entertainment - an extravaganza.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02Which is what they called big musical shows in those days.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06And these musical shows were a combination of comic opera
0:38:06 > 0:38:09and vaudeville turns. You could pretty much throw anything in.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12Somebody would say, "Oh, do you remember the song about...?"
0:38:12 > 0:38:16And this would have nothing to do with the plot or the characters.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18There'd just be a song so that somebody could entertain.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32I think the characters that he created were eminently adaptable for
0:38:32 > 0:38:35the stage, because they had a level of dimension that made it possible
0:38:35 > 0:38:40for an actor to find something in the role that it was a different
0:38:40 > 0:38:44animal off the page of a book, putting character on the stage.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52Toto became Imogen the cow.
0:38:52 > 0:38:57There was a whole chorus line of dancers. He thought it was great.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01He could have been really offended - I'm sure they did all kinds of things
0:39:01 > 0:39:03to the story -
0:39:03 > 0:39:08but he wasn't, so I think his openness was, you know,
0:39:08 > 0:39:12when the creativity gets stimulated, how fun that is, how delightful that
0:39:12 > 0:39:15is, to see what comes of that.
0:39:15 > 0:39:20The extravaganza toured for more than eight years across America.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23It made the Baums very rich and enabled them to travel
0:39:23 > 0:39:25and enjoy a luxurious lifestyle.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29Now Baum wanted to try something very different.
0:39:29 > 0:39:31In 1908 he began to give
0:39:31 > 0:39:36public readings of his works, as Charles Dickens had done before him.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40Only Baum set his performance to music, had a large cast with him
0:39:40 > 0:39:44on stage and called it a fairylogue.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49Which was the same thing as a travelogue.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52Instead of going to China or Japan, he went to the Land of Oz.
0:39:52 > 0:39:57He was not happy with the conventional. He wanted everything.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01He wanted to change things. He believed in the concept of progress.
0:40:01 > 0:40:02But Frank's productions
0:40:02 > 0:40:06were extravagant, expensive and impractical.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11The costs for the manufacture and transportation of costumes,
0:40:11 > 0:40:13scenery and props far exceeded the show's income
0:40:13 > 0:40:17and emptied Frank's bank account.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20Now Maud took control of the family finances.
0:40:20 > 0:40:22She was a strong woman, she was an independent woman,
0:40:22 > 0:40:24she ran the house, she did the practical things.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28Apparently she handled the money. He wasn't very good with money.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31He made money, he spent it as freely as he felt.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39By 1909, their finances in tatters,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42the Baums decided to move to California to start over.
0:40:42 > 0:40:47They rented a small house near the palatial Del Coronado hotel,
0:40:47 > 0:40:50where once they could afford to stay.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55I think the overwhelming theme of Baum's life
0:40:55 > 0:41:00and The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz is that one solves one's own problems.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05The wizard says, "The scarecrow has his brains, he's always had them.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07"The tin woodman always has had a heart.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10"The cowardly lion doesn't have to be afraid,
0:41:10 > 0:41:12"he still has courage within himself.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14"As long as they draw on it."
0:41:16 > 0:41:19The Baums' efforts to solve their financial problems
0:41:19 > 0:41:20weren't successful.
0:41:20 > 0:41:25In 1911, aged 55, Frank Baum was declared bankrupt.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27But all was not lost.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31Maud inherited money from her mother. This was used to buy land.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34The Baums built their last home in an area
0:41:34 > 0:41:36which was once an orange grove.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38Their house was called Ozcot
0:41:38 > 0:41:42and the orange grove became known as Hollywood.
0:41:44 > 0:41:48The garden was basically just a weed lot when I was there,
0:41:48 > 0:41:51but I had seen pictures and so forth
0:41:51 > 0:41:54and I'd always been told this was where he grew his flowers.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56You could sense how, if he had all of that
0:41:56 > 0:42:00around him and a little pergola and he would write out there,
0:42:00 > 0:42:05it was his own little world, which kind of mimicked his early life.
0:42:05 > 0:42:10Frank continued writing, but with war in Europe approaching,
0:42:10 > 0:42:11book sales fell off
0:42:11 > 0:42:15and publishers were less willing to invest in new books.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19But the Baums' lifestyle didn't reflect the state of their finances.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23They entertained family and friends at Ozcot,
0:42:23 > 0:42:25and Frank was accepted
0:42:25 > 0:42:29into the socially exclusive Los Angeles Athletics Club.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37It wasn't long before he became a member of its inner circle,
0:42:37 > 0:42:41the lofty and exalted Order of Uplifters.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43There's a picture of him
0:42:43 > 0:42:47joining the Uplifters Club of these old guys that were his buddies.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51They would put on skits, silly skits that he would write.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54The picture of him jumping on the table
0:42:54 > 0:42:56and having a chance to act it out,
0:42:56 > 0:43:00pulling from what he did when was in his early 20s again in his life when
0:43:00 > 0:43:04he's towards the end of his life... He was a ham.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09The vivid colours of California and the warm climate
0:43:09 > 0:43:13led Frank to believe he'd finally found the Land of Oz.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17There, like Dorothy and her companions, he was excited
0:43:17 > 0:43:20and hopeful of getting his wish -
0:43:20 > 0:43:23the opportunity to tell his stories in a new way,
0:43:23 > 0:43:28using technology he first saw at the Chicago Worlds Fair.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32He suddenly realised there was this whole film industry
0:43:32 > 0:43:35growing up around him, and he contacted a number of friends.
0:43:35 > 0:43:40Members of the Uplifters Club were already financing film projects.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43All Frank had to do was convince them to back his.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47The phenomenal success of his books and the musical extravaganza
0:43:47 > 0:43:49made it an easy sell.
0:43:49 > 0:43:55Baum thought he could create his own film company producing his Oz books,
0:43:55 > 0:43:59and so he formed the Oz Manufacturing Company.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02In 1914, Frank Baum was president
0:44:02 > 0:44:06and chief scriptwriter of the Oz Film Manufacturing Company.
0:44:06 > 0:44:11He set out to conquer Hollywood, making films based on his books.
0:44:11 > 0:44:16The first of these was the ambitious Patchwork Girl of Oz.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18These were not your usual kind of
0:44:18 > 0:44:22motion pictures because they all had an original score with them.
0:44:22 > 0:44:27Enormously expensive, unfortunately they were not successful.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29Only five films were produced.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31Costs to build a seven-acre, state-of-the-art
0:44:31 > 0:44:37studio and film lab far exceeded any income the films generated.
0:44:37 > 0:44:42When the Edison Company sued studios like Frank's for breaching patents,
0:44:42 > 0:44:47investors paid the fine and shut the studio down.
0:44:47 > 0:44:51For the first time in his life, Frank Baum was forced to accept
0:44:51 > 0:44:54that there were obstacles not even he could overcome,
0:44:54 > 0:44:58and business problems were the least of them.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01It had to stop. He was getting sick at the end of his life.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05Big film industry came along and started making talking movies,
0:45:05 > 0:45:08and he wasn't equipped to compete with all of that.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15In 1918, Frank Baum's health was failing.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18He urgently required surgery,
0:45:18 > 0:45:21but there were concerns about his weak heart.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26He was pretty much bedridden but the family stories...
0:45:26 > 0:45:28He was still writing his books.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31He did as much as he could, even when he was in bed.
0:45:31 > 0:45:36In constant pain, Frank was obliged to ask his publisher for an advance
0:45:36 > 0:45:38for the operation.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42He returned to Ozcot weaker but with characteristic optimism
0:45:42 > 0:45:43and energy,
0:45:43 > 0:45:47which enabled him to finish the last of three new Oz books.
0:45:48 > 0:45:55L Frank Baum died in 1919, a few days short of his 63rd birthday.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59But his greatest creation, The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02began a remarkable life of its own.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11In 1939 there were indications that America was finally coming out
0:46:11 > 0:46:14of a long economic depression.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16To boost confidence, a world's fair
0:46:16 > 0:46:21was held in New York and it took The World Of Tomorrow as its theme.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29Although war in Europe was becoming inevitable,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32representatives of major powers came in force.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35Through the tough times, Hollywood produced entertaining
0:46:35 > 0:46:38and escapist movies which gave people hope
0:46:38 > 0:46:40that things would get better.
0:46:40 > 0:46:45Now it would get a helping hand from Frank Baum's wizard.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48Only MGM would have made The Wizard Of Oz back in 1938, 39.
0:46:48 > 0:46:54They were the only studio that had that kind of scope and class
0:46:54 > 0:46:59and determination to kind of shine and show off all their resources.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02The movie is not a carbon copy of the book.
0:47:02 > 0:47:06I mean, that's not Hollywood's style. It took a lot of liberties,
0:47:06 > 0:47:10they made a lot of changes, but I think they kept the spirit
0:47:10 > 0:47:13of the book, and I think that's the most important thing.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18The spirit of Frank Baum's book was retained but a key premise was not.
0:47:18 > 0:47:20Unlike the movie - in the Oz books, Oz is
0:47:20 > 0:47:24a real place - the tornado actually takes Dorothy's house to Kansas.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27The shoes actually take her home at the end.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32Frank Baum believed that a spiritual world existed
0:47:32 > 0:47:34alongside the physical one.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36In The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz
0:47:36 > 0:47:40he demonstrates that Dorothy's journey is across both worlds,
0:47:40 > 0:47:43that she and her friends were seeking something that they already
0:47:43 > 0:47:47had within themselves - courage,
0:47:47 > 0:47:51intelligence, kindness and compassion.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55The purpose of their journey was to realise that.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57He says, "The great author has a
0:47:57 > 0:48:01"message to get across, and I was the instrument to deliver that message."
0:48:01 > 0:48:05It was a journey Frank Baum took during his life, and when producers
0:48:05 > 0:48:07paid his family 40,000 for the rights to
0:48:07 > 0:48:09The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz,
0:48:09 > 0:48:13they were buying into Frank Baum's philosophy of life.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17Hollywood delivered his message as only it could, and it did so
0:48:17 > 0:48:20when the world needed it most.
0:48:20 > 0:48:27It is a wonderful amalgamation of spectacle and comedy and melodrama.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31I mean the forces of good versus the forces of evil,
0:48:31 > 0:48:35and incorporated into that is an extraordinary...
0:48:35 > 0:48:39just an enormous number of theatrical genius was part of that.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42When the script was first commissioned, it bore
0:48:42 > 0:48:44little resemblance to Frank Baum's original book.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47Whenever they had a problem with the script,
0:48:47 > 0:48:49they went back to the book and solved it by seeing
0:48:49 > 0:48:53- how L Frank Baum had done it.- But there were memorable differences,
0:48:53 > 0:48:58and one of the most iconic came from setting Frank Baum's story to music.
0:48:58 > 0:49:00There is no rainbow in Baum's book.
0:49:00 > 0:49:02That was again an MGM invention.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06It was EY Harburg, the lyricist of the songs for The Wizard Of Oz,
0:49:06 > 0:49:11who realised, "OK, what would bring colour to Dorothy's life?
0:49:11 > 0:49:14"What would be the only thing in colour that that little girl
0:49:14 > 0:49:15"would see in that grey existence?"
0:49:15 > 0:49:17And he thought of a rainbow.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20So rainbow became
0:49:20 > 0:49:26the movie's literal and figurative arch from reality into fantasy.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29The film was a turning point in cinema in the same way that
0:49:29 > 0:49:32the book had been in publishing in 1900.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35And just as Frank Baum and William Wallace Denslow used colour
0:49:35 > 0:49:38as a storytelling device, so did MGM,
0:49:38 > 0:49:41and now they had technology to help them.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43Technicolor really did something for
0:49:43 > 0:49:47The Wizard Of Oz. The Wizard Of Oz really did something for Technicolor.
0:49:47 > 0:49:52There were nine 35mm cameras used in the making of MGM's Wizard Of Oz.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55These were modified to run three strips of black-and-white film
0:49:55 > 0:50:00at the same time, each through a different colour filter -
0:50:00 > 0:50:03red, green and blue.
0:50:03 > 0:50:08Combining them during processing produced brilliant colours.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11The biggest issue with Technicolor filming was that it required
0:50:11 > 0:50:16very intense light in order to register that same image coming into
0:50:16 > 0:50:21the camera on three different strips of film through coloured filters.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24So it required carbon arc lamps, which produced
0:50:24 > 0:50:27extremely intense light and could also be very expensive.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30Lighting costs increased four fold.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33Other production costs rose, too.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36What's remembered as being the exemplar of the Technicolor
0:50:36 > 0:50:40technology, and the costume designers and set designers
0:50:40 > 0:50:44really did go a little crazy in producing the most vibrant and
0:50:44 > 0:50:47vivid colours they could in order to take full advantage of the process.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52Everything they did in Wizard Of Oz had to be tested.
0:50:52 > 0:50:54There was a huge problem getting the yellow brick road
0:50:54 > 0:50:56to photograph yellow.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59They tried this kind of tinting, that kind of dye,
0:50:59 > 0:51:01that kind of lighting effect, and then somebody said, "Why don't you
0:51:01 > 0:51:05"just get a bucket of yellow paint and use that?"
0:51:05 > 0:51:08And there was the yellow brick road.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11As Frank Baum mixed science with magic in his stories,
0:51:11 > 0:51:15MGM did the same to create one of the defining moments in the film.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18For the first time on screen, a cyclone.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21There's a storm blowing up, a whopper to speak in the vernacular
0:51:21 > 0:51:25of the peasantry. Poor little kid, I hope she gets home all right.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36Better get those horses loose. Where's Pickering?
0:51:36 > 0:51:38Pickering! Pickering!
0:51:42 > 0:51:44It's a twister, it's a twister!
0:51:51 > 0:51:53Dorothy?
0:51:58 > 0:51:59Dorothy?
0:52:09 > 0:52:11'The special effects...
0:52:11 > 0:52:14'again, what a challenge. No computers, just what they could
0:52:14 > 0:52:18'create out of the imagination of all these amazing artisans.'
0:52:20 > 0:52:22They used a lot of dust, a lot of wind machines,
0:52:22 > 0:52:27a 35-foot-long muslin stocking from the top of a sound stage
0:52:27 > 0:52:30to a little car underneath so that the bottom of the tornado
0:52:30 > 0:52:32could move around the ground.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35And that is how they created a very, very realistic tornado.
0:52:35 > 0:52:40The magic of Hollywood recreated Frank Baum's landscapes,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43but it was the cast that brought the story to life.
0:52:43 > 0:52:48The actors seem to be in on the illusion that they are creating.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52So therefore they're not playing it just for the face value
0:52:52 > 0:52:56of the character, they're bringing their own persona to the roles.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59I love the cowardly lion.
0:52:59 > 0:53:01And I don't know how much it's
0:53:01 > 0:53:04the writing of the screenplay and how much of it is the work of Bert Lahr.
0:53:04 > 0:53:10The lion, the royal lion who was afraid, incorporated
0:53:10 > 0:53:14all his early vaudeville business,
0:53:14 > 0:53:16the dancing, the "Put 'em up, put 'em up."
0:53:16 > 0:53:21That's all from his cop act in vaudeville.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24The fighting and all that you see in the film, that's all stuff he did
0:53:24 > 0:53:27years before. But all mannerisms fed into that role.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30The MGM movie made Hollywood history,
0:53:30 > 0:53:33but in 1939 it was its underlying message
0:53:33 > 0:53:37that would be embraced by people around the world.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41So you have all that energy focused on telling a story
0:53:41 > 0:53:44to a people who for just about a decade, had seen the collapse
0:53:44 > 0:53:48of capitalism, the collapse of most of their dreams, the change
0:53:48 > 0:53:52of what they thought was going to be the trajectory of their lives.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57Behind all that was the thunder of
0:53:57 > 0:54:00things happening in Europe and perhaps
0:54:00 > 0:54:03the possibility of going to war.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07We'd been through one world war, we were getting ready to
0:54:07 > 0:54:09go into another one.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11People... The world had changed a lot,
0:54:11 > 0:54:14so I think the question of where's home base?
0:54:14 > 0:54:18Where are we? How do we get back to what's important to us?
0:54:18 > 0:54:21How do we discover who we are?
0:54:21 > 0:54:23And that story marks that journey.
0:54:27 > 0:54:32Three weeks after the film premiered, Germany invaded Poland.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35Britain declared that the country was at war.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39And in 1941, America entered the war,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42as did the music from The Wizard Of Oz.
0:54:44 > 0:54:51# Somewhere over the rainbow
0:54:51 > 0:54:55# Way up high
0:54:55 > 0:54:58# There's a land... #
0:54:58 > 0:55:01I don't think anybody realised
0:55:01 > 0:55:04at the time that Over The Rainbow would be the success that it was.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06But it wasn't until World War II
0:55:06 > 0:55:10when she started going around to sing to the troops and she found
0:55:10 > 0:55:14that her most requested song was Over The Rainbow.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Somewhere Over The Rainbow embodied the spirit
0:55:17 > 0:55:19of Baum's story to give the world hope.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23Other songs like We're Off To See The Wizard would rally troops
0:55:23 > 0:55:27as they faced the enemy.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31Winston Churchill mentions in his memoirs that The Wizard Of Oz
0:55:31 > 0:55:36was so popular in Australia that troops went into combat singing
0:55:36 > 0:55:38the song from Wizard Of Oz as they went into battle.
0:55:38 > 0:55:46# Happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow
0:55:46 > 0:55:53# Why, oh, why can't I? #
0:56:06 > 0:56:12L Frank Baum was the greatest fantasy writer for children
0:56:12 > 0:56:14America ever had.
0:56:14 > 0:56:20MGM was the greatest traditional studio system, motion picture-making
0:56:20 > 0:56:22edifice that America ever had.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25And Judy Garland was America's greatest entertainer.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28You put them together, you get The Wizard Of Oz.
0:56:28 > 0:56:33It's a simple story but it's satisfying and it speaks to anybody.
0:56:33 > 0:56:39It resonates throughout time, and as long as people can read,
0:56:39 > 0:56:41people will be reading that book.
0:56:41 > 0:56:47And I think probably because we're in an, at the moment in a very...
0:56:47 > 0:56:51as close probably spiritually to the place
0:56:52 > 0:56:56that the people were when they were making that film, in terms of
0:56:56 > 0:57:03the economic recession and the fear - different kinds of fear -
0:57:03 > 0:57:07but a certain terror imposed from the outside on life,
0:57:09 > 0:57:12that it still plays,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15it still satisfies.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21L Frank Baum may have believed he was the humbug which was his model
0:57:21 > 0:57:24for The Wizard Of Oz.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26But in his later books the wizard
0:57:26 > 0:57:30has learned the art of magic and becomes a wizard after all.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36Baum set out to write an American fairytale
0:57:36 > 0:57:39to give pleasure to a child,
0:57:39 > 0:57:42and produced a story that has been embraced by people of all ages
0:57:42 > 0:57:45across the world.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49He will be best remembered for the journey he and his partners in Oz
0:57:49 > 0:57:53took to show others how to find their way back home.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58He enjoyed pleasing children, and I think he really did it
0:57:58 > 0:58:00to please the child in everyone.
0:58:00 > 0:58:02It's quite an honour.
0:58:02 > 0:58:07I feel quite honoured to be in this family, in this way, at this time.
0:58:07 > 0:58:12And quite fantastic that 100 years later it's still, 110 years later,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16it's still quite popular and dynamic
0:58:16 > 0:58:19and people are really touched by it. It's amazing.
0:58:33 > 0:58:36Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:36 > 0:58:39E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk