An interesting article on the relationship between Disney and the Baum’s Oz stories — on the 50-year anniversary of MGM’s The Wizard of Oz being shown on TV.
CBS executives (Who had aired this Academy-Award winning motion picture as part of a special extended version of the “Ford Star Jubilee” program) were obviously thrilled with those ratings. But you know who was even happier? Walt Disney.
“Why Walt Disney?,” you ask. Well, you see, Walt had long been a fan of L. Frank Baum’s “Oz” books. In fact, back in the mid-1930s, just as Disney Studios was starting to search for a story that would serve as a suitable follow-up to “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Walt had Roy inquire about the movie rights to the original “Wizard of Oz” book.
Unfortunately, the Baum family had just sold the rights to this best-selling fantasy novel to rival mogul Samuel Goldwyn for some $60,000. Which is how Disney Studios missed out on the chance to make an animated version of “The Wizard of Oz.”
But even though this initial opportunity had slipped through Walt’s fingers, he never lost his enthusiasm for the Oz books, their colorful characters and spectacular settings. Which is why — in 1954 — when the movie rights to 11 of Baum’s books became available (I.E. “The Emerald City of Oz,” “Glinda of Oz,” “The Lost Princess of Oz,” “The Magic of Oz,” “Ozma of Oz,” “The Patchwork Girl of Oz,” “Rinkitink in Oz,” “The Road to Oz,” “The Scarecrow of Oz,” “Tik-Tok of Oz” & “The Tin Woodsman of Oz”), Walt
quickly snatched them up.
Interesting stuff.