Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 14:58:30 -0600
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] ozmapolitan

Dick Martin's "The Ozmapolitan of Oz" is loosely plotted, with essentially
none of the episodes really needed for Tim to fulfill his quests of getting
stories to put in upcoming issues of the newspaper (the episodes will do
that, but any events along the road will) and showing that he's too
competent in holding down a job to hold down the job some expected (dealing
with the loss of the boat and a couple of other moments are directly
relevant to letting him prove himself, but most of the episodes are there
for more general travelog comedy). All the same, the general travelog comedy
is enjoyable, and the idea of using the kind of weekly paper Baum had run
himself and implied with his "Ozmapolitan" ad for the Oz books as existing
in Oz as a paper literally existing in Oz and central to this story has a
lot of charm. Jinx the Mifket's scowling good will also has a lot of charm.

And maybe that's enough comment for openers -- I'll probably add some more
later.

Ruth Berman

Date: Tue, 01 Mar 2005 19:10:23 -0500
From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" <xornom at hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: [Regalia] ozmapolitan

Ruth:
>Dick Martin's "The Ozmapolitan of Oz" is loosely plotted, with essentially
>none of the episodes really needed for Tim to fulfill his quests of getting 
>stories to put in upcoming issues of the newspaper (the episodes will do
>that, but any events along the road will) and showing that he's too
>competent in holding down a job to hold down the job some expected (dealing 
>with the loss of the boat and a couple of other moments are directly
>relevant to letting him prove himself, but most of the episodes are there
>for more general travelog comedy).

I wish I could find my copy of this book.  It's been a while since I last
read it, so I don't think I'll be able to offer that many comments on it.  I
do remember liking it, though.  It bore a certain resemblance to the Neill 
books, in that it fleshed out the Emerald City, but it did so much more
realistically than Neill did.  I think there was also quite a bit of
similarity to EMERALD CITY, in that a lot of it is simply a tour of Oz. 
Martin came up with some clever ideas, including the Trade Wind and Skipper
Sally's fortunes.  I remember one of the more amusing parts in the book
being Eureka tricking the Tyrannicus Terrificus with grammatical terms. 
Eureka's interaction with Jinx was also amusing, and Jinx was a good
character in general.  It was also nice to see the Scarecrow and Tin
Woodman's homes again, and the whole newspaper concept was a clever one.
--
I'll still be right where you left me, if you manage to forget me,
Nathan
DinnerBell at tmbg.org

Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2005 15:14:23 -0600
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] ozmapolitan

"Nathan Mulac DeHoff" <xornom at hotmail.com> wrote:
> I wish I could find my copy of this book.  It's been a while since I last
> read it, so I don't think I'll be able to offer that many comments on it.
> I do remember liking it, though.  It bore a certain resemblance to the
> Neill books, in that it fleshed out the Emerald City, but it did so much
> more realistically than Neill did.  I think there was also quite a bit of
> similarity to EMERALD CITY, in that a lot of it is simply a tour of Oz.  <

In terms of Tim's quest, it's a sort of up-side-down version of RPT's
"Purple Prince." Sir Hokus is the character who is most obsessive about
going a-questing, but he goes questing on his own hook, not to fulfill
requirements that others have set him. I had thought that Tim's quest
included some specific accomplishments, such as vanquishing a dragon
(Tyranicus the dinosaur standing in for a dragon), but I see in re-reading
that I must have been over-reacting to the resemblance to "Purple Prince" -- 
Tim's quest doesn't actually get specific about what he needs to do. But I
think Dick was probably enjoying the resemblance/contrast between
getting-past-Tyranicus and the kind of traditional slay-the-dragon scene
that Randy and Hokus accomplish. (Hokus's slay-the-dragon scene is rather
odd, because it's a small dragon, and doesn't seem to have been doing
anything evil unless you count hanging around with the villain as the
villain's pet. The accomplishment makes Hokus happy, but it is something of
a parody itself as heroic-dragon-slaying goes.)

The Art Colony scene is fun, although it's maybe a pity to encourage kids to
go along with the "Modern Art -- oh ugh!" reaction. Anyone know if the Art
Colony family of four artists are parodies of specific famous artists? The
fractalized portrait of Eureka reminds me of an artist whose name I can't
recall who was famous for his paintings of cats done while he was crazy.
During his sane intervals, he painted cats in a conventionally realistic way
that doesn't seem to have impressed viewers at all, but the ones he did
while crazy were glaring-eyed and jagged-outlined and quite memorable. Even
once restored to herself, Eureka gets so jaggedy when she's frightened by
the Spinner of the games as to look a good deal as she did in the art
colony, although the narrative doesn't mention the resemblance, and it may
not be something Dick had in mind consciously in doing the illo. Jinx's
portrait, I think, is a parody of cubism, but I don't know what movements or
artists are spoofed in the shortened, thuggish Tim, or the elongated,
wrathlike Dorothy portraits.

Ruth Berman

Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 14:40:06 -0600
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] printer's devils

A friend of mine who is active in Tolkien fandom sent me a copy of a posting
from a list he's on where people were discussing the forthcoming Narnia
movie. Someone was expressing concern about a promo he'd seen where a
staffer talked about how proud they were of the level of backgrounding they
were putting into the details -- the commenter felt that this approach,
appropriate to the "Lord of the Rings" films, would spoil much of the humor
in the Narnia books, and suggested that if the film, perhaps, put that kind
of level of backgrounding into the books on Mr. Tumnus's shelf in "The Lion
the Witch and the Wardrobe" to try to tell us anything consistent about the
Narnian printing industry, that would be meaningless. I told Ed that
although that sounded like a reasonable concern,  I thought someone could
have fun writing a fan-story about the Printer's Devil of Narnia! (Thanks to
our current focus on Dick Martin's "Ozmapolitan of Oz," I had printer's
devils on my mind anyway.) He said he would pass this suggestion on to some
fans who might be interested in trying it. I'll be curious to see if any
fanfiction grows out of this

I wonder where Dick might have had a second Ozmapolitan expedition go if
he'd gone on to the sequel he left room for. Exploring Oz by balloon sounds
like a good way to get blown off course -- I wonder if he might have wanted
to visit Jinxes fellow Mifkets, or maybe put in a scene for the otherwise
never-used Kingdom of Dreams from Baum's map of Oz and the borderlands.

Ruth Berman

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 15:08:14 EST
From: AGannaway7 at aol.com
Subject: [Regalia] OZMAPOLITAN Magic Picture

Before the OZMAPOLITAN discussion winds down completely, I thought I'd 
mention a detail of the story that was discussed in Kenneth R. Shepherd's article
"Communications and Oz" in the Spring 1988 BAUM BUGLE.

Shepherd talks about how, in OZMAPOLITAN, the Picture is used as  a means of
two-way communication between Tim's family and people in the Emerald City.
This is the only instance in the "main" series in which this occurs; 
previously, the Wizard had employed special magic to overhear conversations, but  not to
communicate with anyone visible in the Picture. Throughout the series, the
details of how the Magic Picture works have varied somewhat.

Since I don't have a copy of that BUGLE here in New York, I can't comment in
further depth, but someone else may wish to.

Best,
Atticus Gannaway

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 10:54:31 -0600
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] stage oz, shaggy's telegraphy

AGannaway7 at aol.com wrote:
> Before the OZMAPOLITAN discussion winds down completely, I thought I'd
> mention a detail of the story that was discussed in Kenneth R. Shepherd's
> article "Communications and Oz" in the Spring 1988 BAUM BUGLE.  Shepherd
> talks about how, in OZMAPOLITAN, the Picture is used as  a means of
> two-way communication between Tim's family and people in the Emerald
> City. This is the only instance in the "main" series in which this occurs;
> previously, the Wizard had employed special magic to overhear
> conversations, but  not to communicate with anyone visible in the Picture.
> Throughout the series,  the details of how the Magic Picture works have
> varied somewhat. <

I looked at this article again. It's a nice one -- doesn't actually say more
about "Ozmapolitan" than you already mentioned, but a couple of points
occurred to me in connection with the illustration of the Shaggy Man
contacting Baum by "wireless telegraph" it discusses. One is that readers
may have been surprised that the article discusses sparks flying up from the
contraption and forming letters, while no such sparks or letters are to be
seen in the accompanying illo. That's because Neill experimented in
"Patchwork Girl" with relying more on color in the colors illos and not
providing a black outline to all details. The sparks and letters are color
details, and do not show up in the later b&w-only editions of the book.
(We've talked in the past about how much Neill may have left to the
publishing-house colorist in supplying colors to the color illos. At the one
extreme is the illo which became a color plate of Tip and Jack Pumpkinhead
in the Gillikin Country in "Land," where the original illo survives -- 
belonging to Robin Olderman -- and has as its single written instruction a
marginal notation, "Purple." Either he was leaving almost complete freedom
to the printers, or any instructions must have been separate from the illo,
in that example. But this PG illo is one where Neill obviously must have
provided complete instructions, and either a b&w version that included all
the details with indication of which ones should be omitted on the black ink
plate, or an overlay-sheet to show where the spark-and-letter details would
go.)

The other point is that I'm not sure what Baum or Neill meant by a "wireless
telegraph," and the article doesn't explain. Neill's illo looks as if the
machine is a telegraph, sending individual letters in sequence, but I would
have thought a "wireless telegraph" was the same as a "wireless," and the
same in turn as a "radio," and would have been broadcasting a voice.  Baum's
preface doesn't actually say one way or the other.
 

Ruth Berman

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 13:57:57 -0600
From: David Hulan <dhulan at wideopenwest.com>
Subject: [Regalia] Wireless telegraph

Ruth -

"Wireless telegraph" was the term used for radio transmission of
dot-dash codes, which are the way radio was transmitted in the early
days. Voice radio didn't come about for some years after PATCHWORK GIRL
- I'm not sure just when, but I think it was around 1920. (I think it
needed the invention of the vacuum tube before it was feasible -
wireless telegraphy used continuous wave radio, either on or off, but
voice required high-frequency modulation.) Since PG was published in
1912, Baum might have been inspired by the TITANIC tragedy, which was
less of a tragedy than it might have been because by then wireless
telegraphy was common on shipping, and the TITANIC's radio operator had
been able to call for help and a significant number of the passengers
and crew were rescued by some other ships in the area. Stories about
that undoubtedly put wireless telegraphy into the news in 1912. The
TITANIC went down April 14-15, which might have been early enough to
have inspired Baum, though it might be that he'd had the idea before
that.

Incidentally, the key used for wireless telegraphy produces sparks,
which is why the ship's radio operator in those days (and even later
after voice took over, though I don't know if it's still the case) was
always known as "Sparks." My wife's stepmother's father was a ship's
radioman before he retired, and nobody ever called him anything but
"Sparky."

David Hulan

Dick Martin, Dick Martin

Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 10:37:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: Alan Wise <alanmacwise at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Regalia] Back to OZMAPOLITAN

--- Ruth Berman <berma005 at umn.edu> wrote:

> We don't seem to have gone back to further
> discussion of "Ozmapolitan."
> Ivan, maybe it's time to set a time to move on to
> Rachel Cosgrove Payes'
> "Wicked Witch"? (April 20? May 1?)

My copy of OZMAPOLITAL has alos seemed to disappear
into the depths of some box during my move, but I
thought I might add a few comments before things shut
down full on the topic. 

I got OZMAPLOITAN just when it came out and liked it
very much while reading it, as well as on subsequent
re-readings.   I remember thinking it "felt" very
Ozzy, that the characters all seemed recognizable as
themselves and not as some off-brand version of Oz as
sometimes happens.  I seem to recall that Phyllis Ann
Karr wrote a review of it in the Bugle stating that
she had added it to her personal canon of the Baum 14
and MERRY GO ROUND, which seemed appropriate to me at
the time, although now I wonder if it feels
extravagant praise to claim such a distinction for
such a slight (although enjoyable) book over some of
Thompson's best.  That said, OZMAPOLITAN is a book I
often return to because it does feel so familiar which
it not something that can be said about about some
Baum or Thompson contributions which might be better
books, although the atmosphere is less friendly
somehow (TIN WOODMAN comes to mind, or HANDY MANDY). 

Clearly Eloise McGraw had an influence on the
composition of the book, but did she actually edit it
the way she had for the Centennial competition? 

As a hero, Tim had a lot more personality than a lot
of Thompson princes probably because his quest was
more mysterious than theirs, and the inversion at the
end added to his appeal.  (The problem I often felt
with Thompson heroes was that they had their
adventures, then married, then were never heard from
again.) 

As for Dick Martin's art, I generally think it's quite
good: funny and dramatic as it needs to be.  The only
real qualm I had about it was that Dorothy seemed so
old to me, much more an adolescent than the little
girl nshe had appeared in MERRY GO ROUND. 

Alan Wise

Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 16:19:35 -0400
From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" <xornom at hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: [Regalia] Back to OZMAPOLITAN

Alan Wise:
>I got OZMAPLOITAN just when it came out and liked it
>very much while reading it, as well as on subsequent
>re-readings.   I remember thinking it "felt" very
>Ozzy, that the characters all seemed recognizable as
>themselves and not as some off-brand version of Oz as
>sometimes happens.  I seem to recall that Phyllis Ann
>Karr wrote a review of it in the Bugle stating that
>she had added it to her personal canon of the Baum 14
>and MERRY GO ROUND, which seemed appropriate to me at
>the time, although now I wonder if it feels
>extravagant praise to claim such a distinction for
>such a slight (although enjoyable) book over some of
>Thompson's best.

It strikes me as somewhat odd that someone could have a "personal canon"
that includes MERRY GO ROUND but none of the Thompson books, when MGR
mentions Sir Hokus.  Besides, didn't Karr write a story about Snif from JACK
PUMPKINHEAD?

>That said, OZMAPOLITAN is a book I
>often return to because it does feel so familiar which
>it not something that can be said about about some
>Baum or Thompson contributions which might be better
>books, although the atmosphere is less friendly
>somehow (TIN WOODMAN comes to mind, or HANDY MANDY).

I can see that.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that a
significant part of it takes place in the Emerald City, and the celebrities
are all quite friendly to Tim, who is meeting them for the first time.  The
book also seems to be about a more mundane matter than many Oz books, with
the plot of trying to make a newspaper more interesting not carrying the
same gravity as an invasion of Oz, or even Nick Chopper's search for his
estranged fiancee.
--
I'll still be right where you left me, if you manage to forget me,
Nathan
DinnerBell at tmbg.org

Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2005 10:48:17 -0500
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] wireless, wicked witch, ozmapolitan

Alan Wise <alanmacwise at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I got OZMAPLOITAN just when it came out and liked it very much while
> reading it, as well as on subsequent re-readings.   I remember thinking it
> "felt" very Ozzy, that the characters all seemed recognizable as 
> themselves and not as some off-brand version of Oz as sometimes happens.
> I seem to recall that Phyllis Ann Karr wrote a review of it in the Bugle
> stating that she had added it to her personal canon of the Baum 14 and
> MERRY GO ROUND, which seemed appropriate to me at the time, although now I 
> wonder if it feels extravagant praise to claim such a distinction for such 
> a slight (although enjoyable) book over some of Thompson's best. <

Maybe extravagant, as you say, but probably an appropriate way to praise its
success in catching characterizations.

> Clearly Eloise McGraw had an influence on the composition of the book, but 
> did she actually edit itthe way she had for the Centennial competition?  >

Not that I've heard, and I think there would have been comment on the input
if she had. What aspects strike you as showing McGrawishness? (After working
closely with her in illustrating her books, it wouldn't be surprising if
Dick was influenced by her -- of course, he'd also had to work closely with
RPT in illustrating "Yankee" and "Enchanted Island," too.  And although Baum
wasn't around to provide feedback, illustrating the abridged versions of the
first few Oz books meant that he would have had fairly recent and intense
immersion in Baumishness, too. So some influence from all of them might seem
to be as likely as the one influence.)

> As a hero, Tim had a lot more personality than a lot of Thompson princes
> probably because his quest was more mysterious than theirs, and the
> inversion at the end added to his appeal.  (The problem I often felt with
> Thompson heroes was that they had their adventures, then married, then
> were never heard from again.)  >

Interesting point. We get some brief glimpses of Pompadore and Hokus, and
brief mentions of Randy and of Marygolden, but that's about it. Of course,
there are two important practical problems in using married characters as
main characters in Oz books. One is that someone old enough to be married is
old to be considered grown-ups, and Oz books are expected to be intended to
be attractive to young readers, who in turn are expected to find main
characters their own age (or only slightly older) attractive.  The second
problem is that characters who are married and (likely enough) raising a
family have reasons to find staying home more attractive than going
adventuring. So having Tim side-step the throne (and whatever princess might
be expected to show up eventually to go along with it) means having him
available for more adventures later. Then again, getting the throne, if he'd
decided to do that, would have left him available for at least one more
adventure, if he'd followed the model of RPT's Randy, who had separate
adventures for winning a throne and winning a bride. There are some
characters in the Oz books of the fat-old-comic-king type who do get to
leave their thrones behind, at least once in a while, to go adventuring
(notably Baum's Rinkitink and RPT's Ato), but that's a different sort of
set-up for a story.

Ruth Berman

Date: Sat, 09 Apr 2005 23:07:48 -0500
From: "J. L. Bell" <jnolbell at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Regalia] OZMAPOLITAN overall

I recall liking OZMAPOLITAN, and feeling no trouble fitting it into my
vision of Oz. That's not just because its story is innocuous about
making major changes or deviations or discrepancies that I might or
might not adopt. Rather, Martin clearly knew the Oz traditions, and
seemed to draw on the best of the major authors.

From Baum, we have Dorothy the adventurer, and the Scarecrow and Tin
Woodman as a pair. Martin even draws Dorothy with an old-fashioned
sunbonnet. (This made Eric Shanower's choice to draw her in contemporary
clothing, as Neill usually did, seem so striking a contrast.)

From Thompson, Martin may have taken the "everyone's a royal" ending,

but with a twist. From Neill, he took the idea of a Mifket in the
Emerald City, hard-working but hot-tempered, and the focus on daily
working life for young people in the capital outside the palace.

I wonder how much young Prince Tim reflects Martin's own life. I don't
know anything about his relationship with his family; as a gay man of
his age, he may have felt alienated from them. Whatever the history,
Martin went off to work for newspapers like Tim--not as an editor but as
a cartoonist. The newspaper background seems like what's most original
and memorable about OZMAPOLITAN.

J. L. Bell                  JnoLBell at earthlink.net

Date: Sat, 09 Apr 2005 23:08:00 -0500
From: "J. L. Bell" <jnolbell at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Regalia] Re: OZMAPOLITAN Magic Picture

Atticus Gannaway wrote:
> in Kenneth R. Shepherd's  article
> "Communications and Oz" in the Spring 1988 BAUM BUGLE.
> 
> Shepherd talks about how, in OZMAPOLITAN, the Picture is used as a means of
> two-way communication between Tim's family and people in the Emerald City.
> This is the only instance in the "main" series in which this occurs; 
> previously, the Wizard had employed special magic to overhear conversations, but  not to
> communicate with anyone visible in the Picture. Throughout the series,  the
> details of how the Magic Picture works have varied somewhat.

I've never been fond of these handy discoveries about the Magic
Picture's previously unknown but oh-so-immediately-convenient
properties. I know Baum started the tradition in EMERALD CITY when
people can suddenly hear through the canvas, and that might make the
innovations venerable.

But if this power appears once, I have to ask, why doesn't it reappear?
And why doesn't it reappear toward the START of an adventure, when it
might be convenient for the characters in addressing their questions,
rather than usually at the END, when it's convenient only for the author?

Like the little communication devices in TIK-TOK, or Scalawagons, or
Ozoplanes, these innovations could cause severe changes in how Ozians
solve problems and live their lives. So, for the most part, authors end
up ignoring them entirely--at least until they need the power at the end
of another book.

I don't mind the innovations per se. But when they appear and disappear
for the sake of the plot (or, as in this case, a quicker, more dramatic
resolution than would be possible through an exchange of letters), they
end up seeming less realistic to me. And that, in turn, decreases the
verisimilitude of the series as a whole.

J. L. Bell                  JnoLBell at earthlink.net

Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 12:45:03 -0500
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] dwj, marconi, ozmapolitan, bugle, rundelstone

"J. L. Bell" <jnolbell at earthlink.net> wrote:
> The newspaper background seems like what's most original and memorable
> about OZMAPOLITAN.<

Maybe "original" isn't quite the term, since Dick took the newspaper itself
from Baum, and knew about Baum's background in newspaper work. But it's
certainly one of the most striking aspects of the story, and your guess that
as a cartoonist he had done enough work in comparable publications to be
bringing an insider's view to his portrait of the paper sounds likely.

> I've never been fond of these handy discoveries about the Magic Picture's
> previously unknown but oh-so-immediately-convenient properties. I know
> Baum started the tradition in EMERALD CITY when
people can suddenly hear through the canvas, and that might make the
innovations venerable. <

The varying properties are each individually plausible, and even not so
inconsistent with each other as to be hard to "explain" -- but you're right
that the sudden changes of "properties" can be jarring.

Ruth Berman

Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 18:25:58 -0500
From: "J. L. Bell" <jnolbell at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Regalia] Re: more thoughts on magical picturings

Ruth Berman wrote:
> The varying properties are each individually plausible, and even not so
> inconsistent with each other as to be hard to "explain" -- but you're right
> that the sudden changes of "properties" can be jarring.

It's a little jarring when the Picture or some other familiar magical
device suddenly develops new power at a convenient time. But I can
handle that; after all, every day I find new things my web browser can
do (usually when I don't want it to).

What I find undercuts verisimilitude is when such a device apparently
*loses* that power during the next emergency, or people lose their
memory of it. For instance, in EMERALD CITY Dorothy and Ozma learn they
can hear through the Magic Picture. In SCARECROW they watch the
adventures of Trot and Cap'n Bill in the Picture for days, starting from
the travelers' arrival in Jinxland. Yet Dorothy never learns Trot's name
until she reaches Glinda's castle, instead thinking of her as "the
strange little girl."

Perhaps in SCARECROW Dorothy and Ozma weren't trying hard enough to
hear. But in TIN WOODMAN, Baum tells us that Dorothy "was curious to
know where the three [Tin Woodman, Scarecrow, Woot] were going" at the
outset, and later that she and Ozma wonder "who the Canary was." But
again, there's not a word about them trying to find out by listening
hard to the conversation.

J. L. Bell                 
JnoLBell at earthlink.net

Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 19:01:31 -0500
From: "J. L. Bell" <jnolbell at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Regalia] OZMAPOLITAN forebears

Ruth Berman wrote:
>>The newspaper background seems like what's most original and memorable
>>about OZMAPOLITAN.<
>
> Maybe "original" isn't quite the term, since Dick took the newspaper itself
> from Baum, and knew about Baum's background in newspaper work.

I agree the OZMAPOLITAN newspaper existed in a couple of forms before
Martin. But I've moved away from something I'd long believed: that Baum
might have written the first newspaper of that name, the parody that
promoted the QUEER VISITORS comic page.

In the first edition of ANNOTATED WIZARD Hearn wrote that that
OZMAPOLITAN was "perhaps written by Baum." If so, that could lend some
"canonicity" to its remarks that Dorothy's home is near Topeka and that
the route from Oz to America goes via outer space. At the very least,
the newspaper could be included as part of the WIZARD/LAND/QUEER
VISITORS/WOGGLEBUG branch on the Oz family tree.

But in the revised edition of ANNOTATED WIZARD, Hearn dropped that
possibility. He didn't include the OZMAPOLITAN in the bibliography of
Baum's works. And in discussing the publication of LAND in the latest
BUGLE, he mentions the newspaper as part of Reilly & Britton's all-out
promotional efforts, apparently created while Baum was on vacation in
California. So while Hearn hasn't stated who wrote OZMAPOLITAN, it feels
increasingly unlikely that Baum did.

I recall a second incarnation of OZMAPOLITAN in the 1920s, perhaps
around the time of GIANT HORSE. And the sample I dimly remember (from OZ
SCRAPBOOK?) had a strong Thompson flavor. So she might have been the
first Oz author to actually contribute to this newspaper.

Either way, I don't recall either Baum or Thompson mentioning a
newspaper in their actual descriptions of the Emerald City. And neither
of them paid as much as attention as Neill did to how goods were
actually produced in that city. For all Baum and Thompson say,
newspapers might have grown on trees. (And this being Oz, somewhere they
probably do.)

J. L. Bell                 
JnoLBell at earthlink.net

Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:19:37 -0400
From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" <xornom at hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: [Regalia] OZMAPOLITAN forebears

J. L. Bell:
>I recall a second incarnation of OZMAPOLITAN in the 1920s, perhaps around
>the time of GIANT HORSE. And the sample I dimly remember (from OZ
>SCRAPBOOK?) had a strong Thompson flavor. So she might have been the first
>Oz author to actually contribute to this newspaper.

There were a few from around that period, I think.  I'm pretty sure there
was one promoting GIANT HORSE, and another one promoting JACK PUMPKINHEAD. 
I'm not sure how many others there were.

>Either way, I don't recall either Baum or Thompson mentioning a newspaper
>in their actual descriptions of the Emerald City.

HANDY MANDY has a reference to the Scarecrow sitting in Ozma's palace garden
and reading the paper, so such things must have existed there.  The paper is
not identified, though.  Interestingly, Thompson also gives the Nomes a
newspaper (The Gnome Man's Daily) in GNOME KING, a book that also has many
chapter titles that read like newspaper headlines, and Peter eventually
seeing the headline he invented in his grandfather's paper.

RUNDELSTONE, which was published after OZMAPOLITAN, but much of which was
apparently written BEFORE Martin's book, mentions that Slyddwyn has a
subscription to the GILLIKIN TIMES.
--
I'll still be right where you left me, if you manage to forget me,
Nathan
DinnerBell at tmbg.org

Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 11:55:15 -0500
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at umn.edu>
Subject: [Regalia] ozmapolitan issues

"J. L. Bell" <jnolbell at earthlink.net> wrote:
> In the first edition of ANNOTATED WIZARD Hearn wrote that that OZMAPOLITAN 
> was "perhaps written by Baum." If so, that could lend some "canonicity" to
> its remarks that Dorothy's home is near Topeka and that the route from Oz
> to America goes via outer space. At the very least, the newspaper could be 
> included as part of the WIZARD/LAND/QUEER VISITORS/WOGGLEBUG branch on the 
> Oz family tree. But in the revised edition of ANNOTATED WIZARD, Hearn
> dropped that possibility. He didn't include the OZMAPOLITAN in the
> bibliography of Baum's works. And in discussing the publication of LAND in 
> the latest BUGLE, he mentions the newspaper as part of Reilly & Britton's
> all-out promotional efforts, apparently created while Baum was on vacation 
> in California. So while Hearn hasn't stated who wrote OZMAPOLITAN, it
> feels increasingly unlikely that Baum did. >

Less likely, but there's no reason he couldn't have mailed in the suggestion
and some text for it, so not so unlikely as to seem to make it a clearly
not-Baum's. (Hmm. It might be worthwhile to try comparing the style against
some issues of Baum's Dakota paper.)

> Either way, I don't recall either Baum or Thompson mentioning a newspaper
> in their actual descriptions of the Emerald City. <

No, they don't.

> For all Baum and Thompson say, newspapers might have grown on trees. (And
> this being Oz, somewhere they probably do.) >

Possibly in Oogaboo, where the books and lots of other goods do.

Ruth Berman