Father Goose was created by L. Frank Baum in a book before he wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Father Goose: His Book was the title. Denslow illustrated it. After their falling out over royalties from Baum’s adaptation, with Paul Tietjens, of “The Wizard….” as a successful stage musical, Denslow appropriated Father Goose and the Oz characters, The Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow, as newspaper cartoons. Baum and Denslow had shared in the royalties of the books, I think, and Baum didn’t challenge Denslow’s use of the characters in any case. Denslow was an alcoholic and died destitute after a few years.
Yeah, in practice, Baum wrote the story and Denslow drew the pictures, but legally, both of them owned everything jointly. Baum wrote a rival comic strip “Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz”, illustrated by Walt McDougall, and, when the George M. Hill Company, the original publisher of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” went bankrupt, Denslow purchased some unbound color plates and wrote a whole new story, “Pictures from ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz‘”, a fairly pathetic effort in the “night at the museum” genre, which didn’t make much sense, but managed to jam the pictures into an original, if uninspired plot.
Bramosenos Premium Member over 4 years ago
Father Goose was created by L. Frank Baum in a book before he wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Father Goose: His Book was the title. Denslow illustrated it. After their falling out over royalties from Baum’s adaptation, with Paul Tietjens, of “The Wizard….” as a successful stage musical, Denslow appropriated Father Goose and the Oz characters, The Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow, as newspaper cartoons. Baum and Denslow had shared in the royalties of the books, I think, and Baum didn’t challenge Denslow’s use of the characters in any case. Denslow was an alcoholic and died destitute after a few years.
John W Kennedy Premium Member over 4 years ago
Yeah, in practice, Baum wrote the story and Denslow drew the pictures, but legally, both of them owned everything jointly. Baum wrote a rival comic strip “Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz”, illustrated by Walt McDougall, and, when the George M. Hill Company, the original publisher of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” went bankrupt, Denslow purchased some unbound color plates and wrote a whole new story, “Pictures from ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz‘”, a fairly pathetic effort in the “night at the museum” genre, which didn’t make much sense, but managed to jam the pictures into an original, if uninspired plot.