70th Anniversary of "Wizard of Oz" Brings Back 1990 TV Biopic on L. Frank Baum

While fans of "The Wizard of Oz" expected a lavish box set for the film's 70^th anniversary this year, they didn't necessarily expect Warner Bros. to throw in the kitchen sink. Other than a needless crystal watch and commemorative book included in the Blu-Ray box set released on September 29 (no official Oz-themed kitchen sink), it's the bonus features that are the reason to buy this in limited-edition form. Out of many new features analyzing the film itself, it's the inclusion of the forgotten TV movie gem "Dreamer of Oz" that tops it all off. When this movie debuted on NBC right before the Christmas holiday season of 1990, the immediate thought of an L. Frank Baum biopic was one that likely brought only mild interest for families merely familiar with the "Oz" movie rather than the original books.

But what initially sold it was the star name of John Ritter as Baum and reminding America through the title that this was the man responsible for the world assimilating the Oz universe. Along with a stunning resemblance to the real L. Frank Baum, Ritter and the impressive cast managed to attract curious viewers during the opening minutes with enough charm to sustain giving a vivid and believable account of what inspired all the Oz characters.

This isn't to say that the movie didn't conform to the usual problem with biopics: Fiction for the sake of entertainment. Although keep in mind that "Dreamer of Oz" only had some fictional accounts rather than a complete fabrication Baum's life would have received had Hollywood made a biopic about him in the 1940's or 50's. Then there's the parts that were rumor for decades, yet never verified enough to be placed in a biopic. That never stops biopics from presenting them anyway.

Case in point: The scene where L. Frank Baum first concocts the name of Oz while extemporaneously crafting the crux of the tale to a group of kids. When one of the kids questions Baum on the name of his Magic Land, he looks around the room and sees the letters O-Z on a file cabinet.

Whether it really happened that way or not, the opening at least provides mostly truth in a typical biopic flashback fashion. Opening during the L.A. premiere of 1939's "The Wizard of Oz", Baum's aged widow, Maud (Annette O'Toole) is shown attending and remembering decades back to when she was newly married to her late husband. What we don't see is Baum's childhood upbringing that might surprise some as being from wealth. Only when we see him married to Maud do we see him as a frustrated theater writer who eventually has to open a general merchandise store due to continuous failures with his plays.

Despite having much beforehand handed to him on a silver platter, it's fascinating to see his drive for cultivating his imagination prosper in writing rather than fester. That drive only increases when the theater he has built with his father's money burns down during the debut of a play--leading to that foray into running a store. The store also gets him into bankruptcy when his generous nature loans out much of his merchandise on credit.

It was perhaps the best thing that happened to him as the struggle to sell his new children's book amid other subsequent jobs gives a semi-fictional emotional sheen on why Oz became a reality.
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After having written two moderately successful children's books of rhymes on Father and Mother Goose, it was Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" that becomes the archetype of strong vision and frustration in selling. The movie details Baum's strong attachment to "Oz" and working with his illustration partner (W.W. Denslow) to pitch the book to publishers, with little to no interest. We even see a scene any writer desperate to sell their novel will relate to: Baum nearly destroying his manuscript of "Oz" because dozens of publishers have turned it down. Also typical: His wife Maud rescuing the papers because she knows "Oz" has potential and will probably interest a publisher eventually.

Of course, she's right and the book becomes the best-selling children's book of 1900 and 1901. Yet the real charm of this TV movie comes in depicting the first expansion of the Oz franchise. Baum goes back to his love of theater where bringing the Oz characters to life in a hybrid play/musical makes this movie's magic come to life. The introduction of the actors playing Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Lion are presented in a private family gathering that presents early prototypes for the eventual character personas we know from the movie.

This scene might remind you somewhat of a pivotal and emotional scene in "Finding Neverland." Here, the play gets acted out in a living room and becomes so enchanting in that room and beyond the fourth wall, all sense of reality disappears.

Prior, we find out that L. Frank Baum based Dorothy on a little girl who was the niece of his wife, Maud. The movie gets the name only partially right: Dorothy Leslie Gage rather than the real name of Dorothy Louise Gage. Another fiction is that we see Dorothy playing Dorothy in the play and then dying at perhaps the age of six. In truth, Dorothy Gage died at the age of two. Nevertheless, L. Frank Baum did use the real Dorothy Gage as his inspiration for Dorothy Gale from Kansas in the books.

It's this type of emotion that paints Baum as a bit of an American J.M. Barrie where love for children and childhood imagination provided the direct impetus in his writing books for kids rather than adults. You'll have to look elsewhere for any of the political metaphors in his Oz books, even though they do seem to be there in the abstract. Baum dealt with political issues when he ran a newspaper a decade before writing the first Oz book--albeit interpretations of those political allusions not happening until decades later by other interpreters.

If it's true when Baum said he merely wrote his books to make children happy, then it's all the more perplexing why "Dreamer of Oz" and its message didn't become a family favorite year-round on NBC or syndication. It only had one re-airing a few years after its debut, then right into obscurity. There wasn't even a showing after John Ritter's untimely death in 2003.

Memo to Warner Bros.: Release this separately on DVD from the "Oz" box set so it can get a wider audience. As with "Finding Neverland", audiences will be enlightened at how much emotion and magic resided in the sometimes bleak outside world where the greatest children's books were written...

Sources:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099464/

http://thewizardofoz.warnerbros.com/