Reviews
"Swartz has painstakingly researched the history of L. Frank Baum's 1900 best seller, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, from publication to the ultimate film version, the MGM 1939 Technicolor musical... The author examines the nature of popular culture and mass media while showing how changes made in the stage and film versions that followed the initial productions affected latter versions and the 1939 film... This unique study is highly recommended."-- Library Journal, "Thorough and fascinating... A significant achievement and addition to Oz scholarship. It provides interesting and new directions for other researchers to follow, and adds to the cultural, mythical, and historical richness that the Oz tradition encompasses for so many people... Scholars and researchers -- and perhaps those readers who are more than casual fans of the books and/or the 1939 film -- will find themselves returning to this book repeatedly. It is a worthy addition to an Oz lover's library."--Diana Dominguez, Cercles: Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde anglophone, "Fascinating and timely..Swartz has compiled early stage show photographs, posters, movie stills, actors' costume shots and artists' impressions of the story generously enough to make Oz Before the Rainbowa book of lustrous appeal."-- The Age (Melbourne), "The book reprints a wealth of rare illustrations--photos from the various productions, advertisements and posters, program covers, photos and drawings of Baum's collaborators, sheet music, etc."--Ruth Berman, Science Fiction Studies, "Swartz reminds us that Oz, from the turn of the 20th century on, has continued to live in America's consciousness."--Andrew Karp, Utopian Studies, "Swartz artfully achieves his purpose of showing 'that the infiltration of the Wizard of Oz story into our cultural bloodstream was not an overnight process' by tracking the influences and popularity of the many stage and screen productions of the story that preceded the 1939 Judy Garland film. Swartz's scholarship is evident in his many citations of primary source material, which, together with the book's profuse illustrations in both black-and-white and color, makes this book irresistible to dedicated Oz buffs."-- Booklist, "Invaluable. It is well illustrated and is the first major book to show how much of our favorite American fairyland was informed by the early Oz stage shows and films... This book is essential for any Baum scholar's shelf and, indeed, should be informative and enjoyable for those interested in the MGM film, too."--David Maxine, The Baum Bugle, "Like Walt Disney, Baum was ahead of his time with his interest in imaginative visual productions, and this book revisits them in detail, proving that his impact on popular culture is almost unequaled."--Anne Morris, Austin American-Statesman, "A pleasantly scholarly account of the various stage and screen versions that were made of Baum's story before Judy Garland came along."--Herbert Kupferberg, Parade Magazine, ''Thorough and fascinating... A significant achievement and addition to Oz scholarship. It provides interesting and new directions for other researchers to follow, and adds to the cultural, mythical, and historical richness that the Oz tradition encompasses for so many people... Scholars and researchers -- and perhaps those readers who are more than casual fans of the books and/or the 1939 film -- will find themselves returning to this book repeatedly. It is a worthy addition to an Oz lover's library.'' -- Diana Dominguez, Cercles: Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde anglophone
