When L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" rolled off the presses in May 1900, it instantly became a best-seller.
But who could have predicted its longevity and influence?
Today, 106 years later, Baum's original story of a Kansas farm girl's adventures in the merry old land of Oz is still available in both hard- and soft-cover print editions.
The classic 1939 movie version remains available on DVD and videotape. Several different live stage musical versions make frequent appearances.
The story and its characters are so much a part of our collective cultural consciousness that they make regular appearances in a bewildering variety of cultural references, homages and story lines.
One of these is "Wicked." Both Gregory Maguire's original 1995 book and the musical it spawned turn Oz inside out. It casts familiar characters in a different light as it offers an alternate view of its world and events leading up to Dorothy's arrival there.
"Wicked" might be one of the latest ways that creative artists and commercial interests have tapped into our continuing love for and interest in Dorothy, Toto, a heartless Tin Man, a cowardly Lion, a frightened Scarecrow, a hapless Wizard and witches both good and bad.
But there are plenty of other examples:
A live stage version of "The Wizard of Oz" opened on Broadway in 1903. Since then, there have been a dozen or more non-musical plays featuring some variation on the "Wizard of Oz" title. One licensing agency, Pioneer Drama Services, features five different scripts in its catalog.
Barbie, another pop-culture icon, appears as Glinda the Good Witch in a 1995 collectible edition. What should we make of the fact that Ken is relegated to the Tin Man?
The title song of Elton John's album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," released in 1973, put John's signature spin on Dorothy's longing to return home to Kansas.
"The Wiz," a 1975 Broadway musical by Charlie Smalls and William F. Brown, took an all-black cast down a sassy yellow brick road with a hip, rock beat.
In December 2005, the iconic 1939 MGM film inspired photographer Annie Leibovitz's fashion shoot in Vogue magazine. In the spread, actress Keira Knightley stepped into Dorothy's ruby slippers as well as a progression of gingham creations dreamed up by fashion designers playing off of Dorothy's dress.
Hipsters of a certain age still swear that the music of Pink Floyd's 1972 album "Dark Side of the Moon" operates as a perfectly synchronized alternate soundtrack to the 1939 movie. The band's Web site (www.pinkfloyd.co.uk) denies any intentional links to or influences from the movie. But it does note that to properly judge this for yourself, you should start the album's CD when the MGM lion begins his third roar.
In an editorial cartoon published Feb. 7 in the Tribune-Review, Randy Bish portrayed Glinda, Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man watching as retiring Steeler Jerome Bettis in the role of Dorothy clicked his heels above the caption "There's No Place Like Home."
"Under the Rainbow," a 1981 movie, features Chevy Chase as the temporary manager of an overbooked Los Angeles hotel where the actors who play Munchkins stay while working on the 1939 film.
Toto, an American pop-rock band, named itself for Dorothy's dog. According to its official Web site (www.toto99.com), in 1977 when the band was cutting demos for its first album, band member Jeff Porcaro had just watched the movie and began writing "toto" on demo tapes so they would be easily identifiable. The name stuck when the group later learned that "toto" was Latin for total or all-encompassing. They felt that spoke to their ability to play in any given situation.
"The Muppets' Wizard of Oz" first aired on ABC May 20, 2005, with Miss Piggy playing four witch roles, including Wicked Witch of the West. Kermit the Frog played the Scarecrow, Fozzie Bear was the Cowardly Lion and Gonzo appeared as The Tin Thing. Ashanti played Dorothy, and Queen Latifah played Auntie Em.
Country singer Sara Evans won her first Country Music Academy Award in 2001 for an Oz-inspired music video clip of her song "Born to Fly."
"Oz No Mahoutsukai," a Japanese anime television series, aired there in 1986-87 featuring the Tin Man, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and Doroshi (Dorothy).
"The Wizard of Oz on Ice" aired on TV in 1996 with skating star Oksana Baiul as Dorothy.
A scene in the Coen brothers' 2000 movie "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" in which Delmar, Pete and Ulysses encounter a KKK meeting, mirrors a scene from "The Wizard of Oz" movie. They overpower the guards and don their uniforms in direct parallel to the way the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion overpower the Wicked Witch of the West's soldiers.
In 1975, Electric Light Orchestra featured a shot of Dorothy's ruby slippers just beyond the reach of the Wicked Witch of the West's green hands on the cover of its "Eldorado" album. Soon after, American fans began arriving at the group's concerts dressed as their favorite character from the movie.
A few days after Saddam Hussein's capture, the genuises of "South Park" aired a "Wizard of Oz" episode in which Saddam was exposed as the man behind the curtain.
The 100th episode of "Scrubs," which aired Jan. 16, sent its characters down the yellow brick road. Carla was looking for courage. Turk needed a heart for a transplant patient. Eliot needed brains to help her write a speech. J.D., who, by the way, was listening to Toto on an iPod, was longing to go home.
In 1967, the band The Fifth Estate recorded Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg's "Ding, Dong the Witch is Dead" with a rock beat. -- Compiled by Alice T. Carter with help from the staff
