We watched "American Oz" last night on the PBS show "American Experience". It is the story of L. Frank Baum and his "The Wizard of Oz". I hadn't realized how much his story is a good example of the dream of success of many men. I guess I also didn't notice how much the story of Dorothy's trip to Oz was in my memory. "Amercan Oz" is also available on Amazon video.
I am pretty sure I never read the L. Frank Baum book. I don't think I had watched the movie until I was 30 or 40 years old. I had heard "I don't think we are in Kansas anymore", "If I only had a brain" and "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" and I knew what kind of situation they were spoken in. I am not sure how I learned that but I don't think I had read the story nor had it read to me. I had heard the iconic Judy Garland singing of "Over the Rainbow."
I would not have selected that show to watch, especially if I had realized that it was about the Wizard of Oz. But the life story of the author and his hopes and goals and the story of the movie and its production were certainly worthwhile. Lynn has been a librarian in an elementary school, a high school and in the public library. She traveled with a group to England to meet children's authors there and was a professor of library science. I asked her to name one or two books that have really mattered to children. The first thing she said was that the age of a child really matters in what is likely to be of interest. Then, she said the Harry Potter books are a good example. I know she is right. I have wondered if J.K. Rowling ever gets embarrassed at how her books totally dominate the Amazon reading lists. Seven of the current Amazon Chart of what fiction is read are Harry Potter books.
It seems possible that no work of fiction has stretched over so many years and touched the lives of so many Americans as The Wizard of Oz. The story has shown strength and ability to continue and rebound. From the Wikipedia about the novel and show "Wicked":
Wicked is a Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, itself a retelling of the classic 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film The Wizard of Oz.
The musical is told from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz; its plot begins before and continues after Dorothy Gale arrives in Oz from Kansas, and includes several references to the 1939 film and Baum's novel. Wicked tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (whose name later changes to Glinda the Good Witch), who struggle through opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's private fall from grace.
