Description
Here is a scarce piece of Wizard of Oz ephemera–an original playbill (program) from the Wizard of Oz musical play. L. Frank Baum was a theatre aficionado and wrote the play after the great success of his book in 1900. Composer Paul Tietjens wrote the music. Heavily modified from Baum’s original work, the play premiered at the Grand Opera House in Chicago in June of 1902. Very successful, by Jan 1903, it had moved to the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. Later it ran throughout the country for a few years. This program from the Lyceum Theatre in Syracuse, NY is from Jan 13-14th, probably 1903 or 1904. Players and scenes are listed on 6 different pages of the 16-page program. Very detailed, and it does credit all the original players for the 1902 play–Hamlin, Baum, Tiejans and Mitchell, with the original cast–Laughlin, Faust, Montgomery and Stone, and even members of the chorus. Also with all the song titles and some interesting period advertisements! This story is very different from the 1939 movie adaptation– in this play, Dorothy has a pet cow, Imogene, instead of Toto! Much of the play’s success was also due to vaudeville comics Fred Stone and Dave Montgomery as the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman.
~ 5.5″ by 8″ in size. This is not just a collectible, but an important historical record of every act, actor and scene in the play, as well as every song used at the time (these were changed periodically throughout the long run and touring of the play). It even lists every chorus actor in every scene–for example, the “Poppy Flowers” and the “Wizard’s Wise Men”. WW Denslow is still credited for his costume design, which was dropped in some later programs.
The program cover is in nice condition, all pages are present; the staples have some oxidation and a few of the pages have closed edge tears. Overall a wonderful and rare find, particularly since the Wizard seemingly only played at this theatre for 2 days.
