Everything about Frank Joslyn Baum totally explained
Frank Joslyn Baum (born
3 December 1883 -
2 December 1958) was a
lawyer,
soldier,
writer, and
film producer, though his attempts to continue the legacy of his father brought him lawsuit and estrangement from his family. Nonetheless, he became the first
president of
The International Wizard of Oz Club.
He is best known as the author of
To Please a Child (a biography of his father,
L. Frank Baum) (1962) and
The Laughing Dragon of Oz (1936). He was also involved in the production of
Wizard of Oz (1925), and
The Wizard of Oz (1933), for which he also received writing credit, after which he sold the film rights to
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to
Samuel Goldwyn.
His attempt to
trademark the Oz name distanced him from the rest of his family, and his biography has been suspect from before it was published, as most of his family wouldn't let him confirm anything he didn't know, so he resorted to making things up and building a hero myth around his father.
Early life and work
Baum was born 3 December 1883 to Lyman Frank Baum and Maud Gage Baum, their first son, who was known in the household by the nickname "Bunny". Like his brothers, Robert Stanton, Harry Neal, and Kenneth Gage, he attended the
Society for Ethical Culture Sunday school, which taught
morality without
religion, as the Baums considered religion a mature decision. Despite his father's unflattering caricatures of the military, Baum had always desired to become a soldier, and he attended
Michigan Military School in
Orchard Lake, Michigan. He briefly attended
Cornell University, studying law, and he'd act as his parents' lawyer when they traveled abroad. He enlisted in the
U.S. Army and served in the Philippinies in 1904. He married Helen Louise Snow on 27 June 1906. His first notable contribution to the cinema was when he served as the
projectionist for
The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays (1908). Although he couldn't have the control that writers such as
William K. Everson,
Yuri Tsivian and others have claimed that early cinema projectionists had, due to the presence of the filmmakers in the room each night, it was a foray into the cinema that would pave the way for things to come. He also worked briefly for his father's publisher,
Reilly & Britton, worked in
advertising in
Chicago, and was the first member of the Baum family to move to the
Los Angeles area.
When L. Frank Baum founded
The Oz Film Manufacturing Company in 1914, Frank J. was established as the business director in the
New York City office, at 300 W.
42nd Street in
Times Square. After the company's failure, Frank J. regrouped the organization under the name
Dramatic Feature Films. Exhibitors, however, were aware of the name change and were not interested in the Oz product by any name at all. Frank J. probably wrote the scripts for its two known films,
The Gray Nun of Belgium, a five-reel feature set during "the present war in Europe", and
Pies and Poetry, a short film, probably a slapstick comedy, although little is actually known about it beyond that both starred
Betty Pierce in the lead. Sometimes these scripts are attributed to L. Frank, though this isn't the case. Soon after the venture ended, Baum re-enlisted in the army and fought in the
Great War, achieving the
rank of
Lieutenant Colonel.
After the death of L. Frank Baum,
Ruth Plumly Thompson was selected to continue the Oz series by publishers
Reilly & Lee. Frank Joslyn Baum had some desire to continue the series himself, but he represented his mother, who had turned over the rights to
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to him once she'd gotten them back from
Harrison Rountree, who had acquired them after L. Frank Baum's
bankruptcy, in this decision. After a long separation, Baum divorced his wife in 1921. Baum licensed the novel to
I.E. Chadwick and
Larry Semon, who created
Wizard of Oz (
1925). The film that was ultimately created bears the writing credit "L. Frank Baum, Jr.,
Leon Lee, and Larry Semon", with Lee also credited as title writer, though Frank J. may or may not have actually collaborated on the screenplay. The film bears almost no resemblance to the novel, but certainly seems to borrow on suggestions from
His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz. That film has a King Krewl, this film a Prime Minister Kruel. The novel that followed the film,
The Scarecrow of Oz, also mentions a deceased King Kynd, and there's a Prince Kynd in this film, to which was added a Lady Vishuss for the new film. The film depicts
Dorothy Gale as an eighteen-year-old princess betrothed to Prince Kynd, whose throne is coveted by the Prime Minister and his Lady. A Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman [sic], and Cowardly Lion all appear, but they're nothing more than men who have put on disguises to avoid capture. The film bankrupted the studio,
Chadwick Pictures, and it didn't get a wide release.
A marriage to Rosine Agnes Shafer Brubeck lasted from 29 July 1932 to her death on 2 September 1934. In 1933, Baum, credited as "Col. Frank Baum" may also have written
Ted Eshbaugh's animated short,
The Wizard of Oz, or he may simply have negotiated the license.
The Laughing Dragon controversy
Baum was undaunted, and claimed to have written a 1931 radio drama called
Tweety in Oz, though no script has ever been found, which he followed with a 1934 story,
Jimmy Bulber in Oz, which was printed in order to achieve a
trademark on the name "
Oz" (it would later be reprinted in the International Wizard of Oz Club's
Oziana). He demanded that Reilly & Lee
cease and desist publishing Oz books. Maud, who was the one who made the agreement with the publishers, had to sue him to get the trademark back, and she took Frank J. out of her will.
Finally, as "Frank Baum", he produced a two-part manuscript called
Rosine and the Laughing Dragon that was broken into
The Laughing Dragon of Oz and
The Enchanted Princess of Oz. He barely mentioned Oz in the text, and no
Oz characters were used except for his own and a brief mention of the Wizard. His publisher,
Whitman, was
sued by Reilly and Lee after publishing the first part in its
Big Little Books series in
1936. The book quickly went out of print and Whitman agreed not to publish the sequel. Baum sold the rights to
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to
Samuel Goldwyn on 26 January 1934, for $60,000. Goldwyn sat on the rights, and ultimately sold them to
MGM for the production of
The Wizard of Oz (1939), for which Goldwyn saw a large profit that none of the Baums did.
To Please a Child and Oz Club Presidency
Baum married Margaret Elizabeth Ligon Turner on 19 August 1940.
After Maud died in 1953, he was admitted back into
The Baum Trust, but he'd gained only the tolerance, and not the trust, from his family.
From time to time he'd write articles about his father's work, the most notable being "The Oz Film Co.", which appeared in the August-September 1956
Films in Review, which appeared when the films had been generally forgotten. When
Justin G. Schiller founded the International Wizard of Oz Club, Baum was appointed its first president, and served in that position until his death. He had been friendly with the founding members, who were unaware of his family conflicts. He had been working in near-isolation on a biography of his father, eventually titled
To Please a Child, derived from an inscription L. Frank Baum wrote in his sister Mary Louise's copy of
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, after a suggestion by
Fred M. Meyer, the club secretary. His brother Robert was the only member of his family to provide any information.
Russell P. MacFall became his collaborator, but he'd difficulty speaking with Baum's family. They were willing to discuss family matters only after Baum had died. Reilly and Lee had imposed a 1961 deadline, and the book that appeared is filled with Frank Joslyn Baum's mythologizing about his father, claiming so far as that L. Frank Baum had had a heart attack at age 12 and had marched in a torchlight parade in support of
William Jennings Bryan's presidential candicacy, both of which were fabrications.
Baum died from a
heart attack on 2 December 1958.
Legacy
Frank Joslyn Baum is grandfather of
Roger S. Baum, who similarly writes Oz books within a mythos that appears to be distinct from the one about which L. Frank Baum wrote.
credits
Michael Patrick Hearn as a principal source. While Hearn collaborated with
David Brooks on the original treatment, the final script by
Richard Matheson primarily relied upon
To Please a Child. In the film, Frank Joslyn Baum (called "Frank, Jr." in the credits) was played by three
actors,
Joshua Boyd (age 3),
Tim Eyster (ages 5-9), and
Christopher Pettiet (teenage).
Further Information
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