Description
Outside the 1939 Hollywood premier of "The Wizard of Oz", a young reporter recognizes Maud Baum, widow of the author L. Frank Baum. He sits her down to tell the story of how this most famous book came to be written.
Frank is an unsuccessful but enthusiastic young actor in New York state when he is introduced to Maud, daughter
Outside the 1939 Hollywood premier of "The Wizard of Oz", a young reporter recognizes Maud Baum, widow of the author L. Frank Baum. He sits her down to tell the story of how this most famous book came to be written.
Frank is an unsuccessful but enthusiastic young actor in New York state when he is introduced to Maud, daughter of women's rights suffragette Matilda Gage. Frank and Maud fall in love, but they must move away from the disapproving mother to marry. The young couple try to live the life of the theatre, but the strain prove too great as Maud is expecting her first child. Frank gives up the theatre to become a father and take on shopkeeping jobs. He moves the family to South Dakota when he hears that Maud's relatives are doing well there. Frank is ever optimistic as he opens a mercantile and then a newspaper, but both fail. All the while, Frank enjoys telling his children and their friends many stories about a magical land that can only be reached by a boy who is lifted in his house by a cyclone. Strange beings live there in this land which comes to be called Oz, including a scarecrow without a brain. When Frank's niece Dorothy Gage falls ill, Frank tries to cheer her with the stories, changing the boy to a girl named Dorothy Gale. After Dorothy sadly dies, Frank moves the family to Chicago, where he works hard as a salesman until his heart condition prevents further travel. Maud encourages Frank to write down his stories, and eventually Frank approaches publishers. Frank is given Mother Goose books to write, and in collaboration with illustrator William Denslow they achieve some good success. But it is not until Frank gambles the family's money and makes a deal to self-publish the first Oz book that history is truly made.
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