The Wizard of Oz (1942 musical) his new rocket ship. "The Wizard of Oz" was first turned into a musical extravaganza by L. Frank Baum himself. It was a loose adaptation of Baum's 1900 novel that had no Wicked Witch, Toto, magic slippers or yellow brick road, but had several new characters and subplots. It first played in Chicago in 1902 and was a success on Broadway the following year. It then toured for seven years. Other early stage and film adaptations and versions of the novel followed, including a 1925 film. The 1939 film adaptation of the novel bore a closer resemblance to the novel's
The Wizard of Oz (1902 musical) by the popular play. The Wizard was presented as various ethnic stock character stereotypes, depending upon who played him. He was assisted by Sir Wiley Gyle and General Riskitt. David L. Greene and Dick Martin erroneously captioned a picture of General Riskitt as "Sir Wiley Gyle" in "The Oz Scrapbook", and Donald Abbott carried this mistake over into his illustrations for "How the Wizard Saved Oz". The animals in the play, including the Cowardly Lion, did not speak, based on pantomime tradition. Although the lion costume was realistic, far more so than Bert Lahr's in the MGM film, his main