| | Dorothy, the Wizard, the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion, flying monkeys, Munchkins, the yellow brick road, the dream city of Oz, Toto—and especially the Wicked Witch—have become icons of American popular culture. They appear regularly in editorial cartoons and the funny papers, and even in everyday conversation. Political cartoonists used the Wizard image as early as 1906; in recent years Wizard themes appear in editorial cartoons on a weekly basis in the U.S. ''[[Time magazine|TIME]]'' magazine wrote in 1967 that this movie had become “the most popular single film property in the history of U.S. television.”<ref>https://news.yahoo.com/wizard-oz-cursed-truth-behind-200016520.html</ref> | | Dorothy, the Wizard, the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion, flying monkeys, Munchkins, the yellow brick road, the dream city of Oz, Toto—and especially the Wicked Witch—have become icons of American popular culture. They appear regularly in editorial cartoons and the funny papers, and even in everyday conversation. Political cartoonists used the Wizard image as early as 1906; in recent years Wizard themes appear in editorial cartoons on a weekly basis in the U.S. ''[[Time magazine|TIME]]'' magazine wrote in 1967 that this movie had become “the most popular single film property in the history of U.S. television.”<ref>https://news.yahoo.com/wizard-oz-cursed-truth-behind-200016520.html</ref> |
| − | Academics, especially economists and historians, use the story to study the images of [[politics]] and [[economics]] in the [[U.S.]] in the 1890s. Several hundred college level economics courses feature a unit on ''the Wizard of Oz'' to analyze money policy. | + | Academics, especially economists and historians, use the story to study the images of [[politics]] and [[economics]] in the [[U.S.]] in the 1890s. Several hundred college level economics courses feature a unit on ''the Wizard of Oz'' to analyze money policy. "Emerald City," the mythical capital of the Land of Oz, is a term often used today to mean [[Washington, D.C.]] or other self-deluded, illogical centers of power. |
| | The author was L. Frank Baum (1856-1919); the illustrator of the 1900 book and 1902 play was editorial W. W. Denslow (1856-1915).<ref>see Michael Patrick Hearn, "The Man Behind the Man Behind Oz: W. W. Denslow at 150," ''AIGA'' (July 05, 2006) at [http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/the-man-behind-the-man-behind-oz-w-w-denslow-at-150]</ref> The book was a runaway best seller, though the two coauthors became alienated, and both went bankrupt. Baum recouped by moving to Hollywood and writing a new series of Oz books; the series was continued after his death in 1919, with 40 Oz books in all. The first book became a smash Chicago hit musical in 1902 and moved to Broadway in 1903. Best known is the spectacularly successful Hollywood movie adaptation of 1939, starring Frank Morgan as the Wizard, [[Judy Garland]] as Dorothy, and Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West, this movie (along with ''[[Gone with the Wind]]'') was one of the first widely popular successes of Technicolor filmography.<ref>https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-first-movie-made-in-color</ref> | | The author was L. Frank Baum (1856-1919); the illustrator of the 1900 book and 1902 play was editorial W. W. Denslow (1856-1915).<ref>see Michael Patrick Hearn, "The Man Behind the Man Behind Oz: W. W. Denslow at 150," ''AIGA'' (July 05, 2006) at [http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/the-man-behind-the-man-behind-oz-w-w-denslow-at-150]</ref> The book was a runaway best seller, though the two coauthors became alienated, and both went bankrupt. Baum recouped by moving to Hollywood and writing a new series of Oz books; the series was continued after his death in 1919, with 40 Oz books in all. The first book became a smash Chicago hit musical in 1902 and moved to Broadway in 1903. Best known is the spectacularly successful Hollywood movie adaptation of 1939, starring Frank Morgan as the Wizard, [[Judy Garland]] as Dorothy, and Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West, this movie (along with ''[[Gone with the Wind]]'') was one of the first widely popular successes of Technicolor filmography.<ref>https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-first-movie-made-in-color</ref> |