PBS American Experience - American Oz (2021)

Explore the life of L. Frank Baum, the man behind one of the most beloved and enduring American classics. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900, has been reinterpreted through the generations in films, books and musicals.

When L. Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, he was 44 years old and had spent much of his life in restless pursuit of his American dream. With mixed results he dove into a string of jobs — chicken breeder, actor, marketer of petroleum products, shopkeeper, newspaperman and traveling salesman — but continued to reinvent himself, reflecting a uniquely American brand of confidence, imagination and innovation. During his travels to the Great Plains and on to Chicago during the American frontier's final days, he witnessed a nation coming to terms with the economic uncertainty of the Gilded Age. But he never lost his childlike sense of wonder and eventually crafted his observations into a magical tale of survival, adventure and self-discovery. American Oz tells the remarkable story of the man behind one of the most beloved and quintessential American classics, which has been reinterpreted through the generations in films, books and musicals.

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