“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”*…
Between 1900 and 1920, L. Frank Baum published 14 Oz books. Astoundingly popular, the books spawned many theatrical adaptations (well before the classic 1939 movie we all know), as well as saga-themed objects like dolls, figurines– all aimed at an enormous fan base, the early century equivalent of Trekkies or Lord of the Rings freaks. Among the theme merchandise, the 1921 Parker Bros. game pictured above.
The story’s popularity was such that this wasn’t even the first Parker Bros. Oz game. That was the Wogglebug Game of Conundrums, a card game published in 1905 and based on a character from Baum’s second Oz book, the sequel to Wizard. (You can see Wogglebug in the bottom right-hand quadrant of this gameboard.)
Many of the characters and places scattered around the 1921 board will be unfamiliar to people who know the Oz story from the 1939 movie or the original book (by far the most famous of the series). The presence of Woot and Ugu shows how familiar the whole Oz series would have been to the game’s audience…
More (and larger photos) at “The First Wizard of Oz–Themed Board Game, Sold to 1920s Superfans.”
Special Bonus: Freud, Nietzsche, Carnap, and Marx: who would win at Monopoly?
* Dorothy
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As we follow the yellow brick road, we might send mischievous birthday greetings to Beverly Cleary; she was born on this date in 1916. One of America’s most successful writers of children’s literature, she has sold 91 million copies of her books– including Henry Huggins, and the Ramona series– worldwide.
Cleary won the 1981 National Book Award and the 1984 Newbery Medal; for her lifetime contributions to American literature, she has received the National Medal of Arts, recognition as a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the American Library Association.
