] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 31 - FEBRUARY 2, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 08:26:15 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest ps Well, so I looked around, and "To Please a Child" (the biography of Baum by Frank J. Baum and Russell MacFall) explains that both Charlotte Greenwood and Josie Intropidi played Queen Anne. Greenwood played it when the show opened in Los Angeles, March 31, 1913, and Intropidi replaced her sometime after. They didn't have information on when, but I'd imagine that a likely time for cast changes would have been five weeks later, when the show closed in LA and started on tour. Intropidi was in the cast in May, when they played Chicago, and August, when they played the Twin Cities. The photograph of Anne in the "Bugle" article and in "The Oz Scrapbook" is the same person, although identified in the one as JI and in the other as CG. Considering that the "Scrapbook" came out some 10 years later, and so was probably working from a larger accumulation of information, and considering that publicity photos are usually taken at the start of a run, I'd assume that it's actually Greenwood in the photo. Incidentally, although I don't find direct confirmation of the point, there was evidently a similar cast-change for Private Files. Both the "Bugle" article and the "Scrapbook" identify Files as Charlie Ruggles, but the reviews in Chicago and the Twin Cities refer to Files as played by Charles Purcell. Very likely also a cast-change made at the start of the tour. The show played in the west and midwest for most of a year, and came back to LA January 18, 1914, where it played several weeks more before closing. The gnomes in "Zauberlinda" do have names. King Goldemar, his son Prince Kuno, and Grubel are all named gnomes in the story. I think I may have been confusing it in my memory with "The Jewelled Toad," by Isabella Johnstone, illos by Denslow (1907), in which the Fire King of Gnomeland is not given a name. There's one named gnome in the story, Sir Aureus Lapides. Sir Aureus and the other gnomes are little people, smaller than the child heroine, but their Fire King is as tall as a human man (perhaps we're meant to assume that he's some kind of a fire-spirit, and of a different species from the gnomes he rules). Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 15:52:42 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-30-98 Bear, > On the continuing discussion of the location of Oz. In > Baum's day there were still unexplored parts of the world. > The idea that there was a little chunk containing Oz that > hadn't been found probably wasn't so far fetched as in our > day. Is this a possibility? It's hard to imagine Baum > thinking in terms of parallel universes or other worlds > with exotic connections. Another application of Occam's > Razor. Good thought. Similar to Hilton in "Lost Horizon" and Haggard (H. Ryder, not Merle) in "She" and "King Solomon's Mines". What's the time frame for both of those authors compared to Baum? Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 20:59:31 -0800 From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff Subject: Ozzy Digest Bear: >In Baum's day there >were still unexplored parts of the world. The idea that there was a >little >chunk containing Oz that hadn't been found probably wasn't so far >fetched >as in our day. Is this a possibility? Indeed it is, especially in the earlier books. When Baum started introducing places like the Nonestic Ocean and Tititi-Hoochoo's country, however, it becomes a little more doubtful that an area of the world large enough to contain all of these places would not have been explored, even in Baum's time. Thompson's view on this matter is interesting. In her books, the area containing Oz is large enough to contain at least two continents (not counting Tititi-Hoochoo's country, which never really appears in her books, except in casual references). Also, consider the following exchange from _Pirates_: "Say, I didn't know there were polar regions around here," called Peter. "Is there a north or south pole in these waters, Roger?" "Certainly," coughed the Read Bird, dancing up and down on the cross piece to keep warm. "We must be near it, too, judging from this wind." This suggests that Nonestica has its own poles, suggesting that it is on an alternate world. Consider, however, this quote from Ato, which appears later in the same book: "We're halfway over the Munchkin Country now and if we keep this up we'll shoot straight out of this Imagi-Nation and land in some real country where no one will believe in us at all." Along the same lines, Waddy occasionally flies Umbrella Island into the "realms of Reality," the Parashuter drills a hole to Oz right next to the hole to Long Island, and the Balloon Bird flies Peter from Philadelphia to the Nonestic. It seems that Thompson considered the "Imagi-Nation," as she called it, to be sort of on our Earth and sort of not, if that makes any sense. In _Yankee_, the title character suggests that Oz is on a level somewhere between Earth and space. I'm not sure if I like that idea myself, but it might be worth considering. Scott: >That's because Thompson was looked at the map with the "corrected" >compass >rose that R&L put out. I think she got the directions right in Royal >Book, but never again. The directions were also correct in _Kabumpo_ and _Giant Horse_. One interesting case occurs in _Ozoplaning_. IIRC, in this book, the Winkies are described as living in the east, but having been ruled by the Wicked Witch of the West. Dave: >One Oz book that really *is* mistitled is Shanower's _Forgotten Forest >of >Oz_. (Burzee isn't *of* Oz at all!) Neither is the (G)Nome King, even though there's a book called _The Gnome King OF Oz_. Thompson also gave some "in Oz" titles to characters who live in Oz, such as Kabumpo, Grampa, and Ojo. >BTW, am I wrong or was Zurline a no-show at Ozma's birthday party in >_Road_? No, you're quite right. Lulea didn't come to the party either, and neither did anyone from Mo or Yew. -- Nathan Mulac DeHoff vovat@geocities.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/ "All I know could be defaced by the facts in the life of Chess Piece Face." ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 21:01:49 -0800 From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff Subject: An Ozzy Question Does anyone know if Gili's page still exists? When I try to access it, I get a message saying that the scso server cannot be found. -- Nathan Mulac DeHoff vovat@geocities.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/ "All I know could be defaced by the facts in the life of Chess Piece Face." ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 20:34:38 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-30-98 > I don't know which book was read to me first. The first one I remember > reading is _Road_, but I know Oz was already an established habit by then. I > wonder how much that series has influenced my value system. It sucked me into > IWOC, and that has certainly affected my life. How much has Oz affected your > "real" lives, y'all? --Robin If we disregard my philosophical response (what is a "real" life, is life "real" anyway, do we really exist, etc.), I will say that it generated and spurred on my urge to write. Also, the Utopian ideals that Oz symbolizes represent my idea of a "perfect" world and encourage me to strive toward it. (Not that I expect to have much in the way of positive results, of course...) > On the continuing discussion of the location of Oz. In Baum's day there > were still unexplored parts of the world. The idea that there was a little > chunk containing Oz that hadn't been found probably wasn't so far fetched > as in our day. Is this a possibility? It's hard to imagine Baum thinking > in terms of parallel universes or other worlds with exotic connections. Assuming there really _aren't_ any unexplored parts of the world (and I don't really accept that), and if we overlook little-explored parts (i.e, the Sahara, the North Pole), we still have to consider whether sailors have explored _every_ square mile of sea (including the Arctic Ocean, et al). But just because Baum might not have thought of such an unusual solution doesn't mean we're not allowed to. After all, as many have said, Oz was only vaguely outlined in his mind at first, and he could have just taken it from there. Or we could take David Hulan's idea, which sounds better yet-- > DAvid Hulan once remarked that if you postulate that Oz is actually on our > world, but hidden in such a way that it's position is never constant, it > cannot be seen or felt, and you can only get to it magically, > As you say, every work of fiction takes place in an alternate world -- > one of the factors that notably complicates the game of trying to > discuss fiction-as-if-real is that in some fictional universes there are > works of fiction (Glinda is fictional in the world of Baum's Aunt Jane's > nieces), but in others the characters from different stories exist in the > same world and can visit each other (as in the "Road" banquet). For > copyright reasons, such visiting usually goes on inside one author's > works, although Lewis's look back at the start of Narnia in "The > Magician's Nephew" is set in the days when Holmes lived in Baker > Street and the Bastables were treasure hunting, for instance. The > earliest example I know of a story in which all fictional characters are > imagined as living in a world-of-the-fictional is Walter de la Mare's novel > "Henry Brocken," at the turn of the century, and I think de Camp and > Pratt were the first ("Incompleat Enchanter" series, started in the 40's) > to think in terms of a series of alternate worlds, in which it is possible > to visit in sequence any individual "world" of fiction. Both the literature- > worlds and sequences-of-literary-worlds tend to fudge on the question > of the existence of works of fiction within fictional worlds. Yes, but do I exist or not? My philosophy teacher tells me only, "We have to assume we do," but that doesn't satisfy me. Philosophically, Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "The man who thought his wife was a bicycle tire soon found he'd spoke too soon." ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 21:34:01 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: Oz origins Sender: "J. L. Bell" I was introduced to Oz when my mother, a series fan from her own childhood, read WIZARD to me and my brother when we were in preschool. I wasn't caught up. In 2nd grade, however, our Miss Booth directed my class in a WIZARD play with songs from the movie. I played a Munchkin and a Flying Monkey, and had the crucial task of quietly counting three during the cast's bow so that we all straightened up at the same time. That was when I sought out TIN WOODMAN and LAND, and eased on down the road to the whole series. I first joined the Oz Club in 5th grade, and at a Munchkin Convention a few years later found the last book I had to read: SPEEDY. It was also in 2nd grade that I first saw the MGM movie on TV; we hadn't had a TV before. I remember hiding behind a chair when the Witch arrived, not because I felt scared but because I knew I *should* feel scared by a witch. (I faced the same dilemma with SESAME STREET's monsters.) The next day I was acting out the "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" line to a student teacher and, yanking an imaginary curtain, biffed a blonde twin named Eileen on the head. Regrettably, I was too excited to apologize. Tyler Jones wrote: <