Creepy 1903 Wizard of Oz Characters

Long before the classic 1939 film “Wizard of Oz” with Judy Garland, there were the books by L. Frank Baum and the theatrical production that quickly followed. The original book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, appeared in 1900 and encapsulated the story we all know well of a girl named Dorothy who was transported to the Land of Oz by a Kansas cyclone. She befriends the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion–but she only wants to go home.

The book was so successful that the author immediately worked on a musical version for the theater. That production debuted in Chicago in 1902, then was revised for a New York production in 1903. After a successful nine-month run on Broadway, the original cast and a second unit toured the country, appearing here in Portsmouth, NH at the Music Hall in 1904.

Although the story line is recognizable today, the original musical score was entirely different. The early stage characters, however, may be less familiar. The Cowardly Lion, for example, was an actor in a suit with a giant head and no lines. Toto too was an actor in a suit. Instead of Munchkins, the theatrical version included a line of chorus girls. Onstage the Wizard of Oz looked a lot like Gene Wilder’s character in the film version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  

And then there was the creepy Scarecrow, seen here with the Tin Man, as played by turn-of-the-20th-century actors Fred A. Stone and David C. Montgomery. But he was, as the author intended, supposed to scare crows. To his credit, the first stage actor developed the wobbly spineless movements of a straw figure later perfected by screen actor Ray Bolger. But what you see here is precisely what appeared on the Music Hall stage when the first touring company arrived, direct from Broadway.

The stage production was abridged into a ten-minute silent film version in 1910. Currently available on YouTube, the film offers a chance to visualize the stage version as our ancestors saw it. After the play appeared, Frank Baum went on to write 13 more books about Oz and the Emerald City.  The stage version reappeared in Portsmouth at least once more and was still being performed in 1939 when the hit movie launched.  Theater buffs may want to obtain the complete soundtrack of the 1903 production that was released on two compact disks in 2003 by Hungry Tiger Productions.

Copyright J. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved.