Editing L. Frank Baum (section)

==Later life and work==
With the success of ''Wizard'' on page and stage, Baum and Denslow hoped for further success and published ''[[Dot and Tot of Merryland]]'' in 1901.<ref>Rogers, pp. 95–96.</ref> The book was one of Baum's weakest, and its failure further strained his faltering relationship with Denslow. It was their last collaboration. Baum worked primarily with [[John R. Neill]] on his fantasy work beginning in 1904, but Baum met Neill few times (all before he moved to California) and often found Neill's art not humorous enough for his liking. He was particularly offended when Neill published ''The Oz Toy Book: Cut-outs for the Kiddies'' without authorization.

Baum reportedly designed the chandeliers in the Crown Room of the [[Hotel del Coronado]]; however, that attribution has yet to be corroborated.<ref>{{cite news|title=Life of 'Oz' creator coming to big screen|publisher=San Diego Tribune|author=Bell, Diane|url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/sdut-frank-baum-coronado-movie-oz-wizard-golden-warner-2014sep22-story.html|date=September 22, 2014|access-date=March 30, 2019}}</ref> Several times during the development of the Oz series, Baum declared that he had written his last Oz book and devoted himself to other works of fantasy fiction based in other magical lands, including ''[[The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus]]'' and ''[[Queen Zixi of Ix]]''. However, he returned to the series each time, persuaded by popular demand, letters from children, and the failure of his new books. Even so, his other works remained very popular after his death, with ''[[The Master Key (Baum novel)|The Master Key]]'' appearing on ''[[St. Nicholas Magazine]]'''s survey of readers' favorite books well into the 1920s.

In 1905, Baum declared plans for an Oz amusement park. In an interview, he mentioned buying "Pedloe Island" off the coast of California to turn it into an Oz park. However, there is no evidence that he purchased such an island, and no one has ever been able to find any island whose name even resembles Pedloe in that area.<ref name="thewizardofoz">{{cite web|url=http://thewizardofoz.info/wiki/Miscellaneous_questions |title='Miscellaneous Questions' about L. Frank Baum, see heading 'Has there ever been any sort of Wizard of Oz-themed amusement park or tourist attraction?' |publisher=thewizardofoz.info|access-date=May 27, 2015}}</ref><ref name="sandiegohistory">{{cite web |title='L. Frank Baum's La Jolla, Halfway to Oz' by Bard C. Cosman, in The Journal of San Diego History, Fall 1998, volume 44, Number 4 |url=http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/98fall/oz.htm |url-status=dead |access-date=May 27, 2015 |publisher=sandiegohistory.org |archive-date=July 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150712203106/http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/98fall/oz.htm }}</ref> Nevertheless, Baum stated to the press that he had discovered a Pedloe Island off the coast of California and that he had purchased it to be "the Marvelous Land of Oz," intending it to be "a fairy paradise for children." Eleven-year-old Dorothy Talbot of San Francisco was reported to be ascendant to the throne on March 1, 1906, when the Palace of Oz was expected to be completed. Baum planned to live on the island, with administrative duties handled by the princess and her all-child advisers. Plans included statues of the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Jack Pumpkinhead, and [[Woggle-Bug|H.M. Woggle-Bug, T.E.]]<ref>"First Princess of Oz and Owner of Island." June 18, 1905, unidentified Chicago newspaper clipping in the L. Frank Baum file at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts</ref> Baum abandoned his Oz park project after the failure of ''[[The Woggle-Bug (musical)|The Woggle-Bug]]'', which was playing at the Garrick Theatre in 1905.
[[File:L. Frank Baum and characters in The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays 1908.png|thumb|right|200px|Baum surrounded by the characters in ''The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays'']]

Because of his lifelong love of theatre, he financed elaborate musicals, often to his financial detriment. One of Baum's worst financial endeavors was his ''[[The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays]]'' (1908), which combined a slideshow, film, and live actors with a lecture by Baum as if he were giving a [[Travel literature|travelogue]] to Oz.<ref>Rogers, pp. 162–163; Hearn, ''Annotated Wizard'', pp. lxvi–lxxi.</ref> However, Baum ran into trouble and could not pay his debts to the company who produced the films. He did not get back to a stable financial situation for several years, after he sold the royalty rights to many of his earlier works, including ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. This resulted in the M.A. Donahue Company publishing cheap editions of his early works with advertising which purported that Baum's newer output was inferior to the less expensive books that they were releasing. He claimed bankruptcy in August 1911.<ref>{{cite news |title='Wizard of Oz' Bankrupt |access-date=July 5, 2020 |work=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380255853/?terms=wizard%2Bof%2Boz |date=August 15, 1911 |page=22}}</ref> However, Baum had shrewdly transferred most of his property into Maud's name, except for his clothing, his typewriter, and his library (mostly of children's books, such as the fairy tales of [[Andrew Lang]], whose portrait he kept in his study)—all of which, he successfully argued, were essential to his occupation. Maud handled the finances anyway, and thus Baum lost much less than he could have.

{{anchor|pseudonyms}}Baum made use of several pseudonyms for some of his other non-Oz books. They include:
* Edith Van Dyne (the ''[[Aunt Jane's Nieces]]'' series)
* Laura Bancroft (''[[The Twinkle Tales]]'', ''[[Policeman Bluejay]]'')
* Floyd Akers (''The Boy Fortune Hunters'' series, continuing the ''Sam Steele'' series)
* Suzanne Metcalf (''Annabel'')
* Schuyler Staunton (''[[The Fate of a Crown]]'', ''[[Daughters of Destiny (novel)|Daughters of Destiny]]'')
* John Estes Cooke (''Tamawaca Folks'')
* Capt. Hugh Fitzgerald (the ''Sam Steele'' series)

Baum also anonymously wrote ''[[The Last Egyptian]]: A Romance of the Nile''. He continued theatrical work with Harry Marston Haldeman's [[gentlemen's club|men's social group]] [[The Uplifters (club)|The Uplifters]],<ref>Rogers, pp. 182–183.</ref> for which he wrote several plays for various celebrations. He also wrote the group's parodic [[by-laws]]. The group also included [[Will Rogers]], but was proud to have had Baum as a member and posthumously revived many of his works despite their ephemeral intent. Many of these play's titles are known, but only ''The Uplift of Lucifer'' is known to survive (it was published in a limited edition in the 1960s). Prior to that, his last produced play was ''The Tik-Tok Man of Oz'' (based on ''[[Ozma of Oz]]'' and the basis for ''[[Tik-Tok of Oz]]''), a modest success in Hollywood that producer [[Oliver Morosco]] decided did not do well enough to take to Broadway. Morosco, incidentally, quickly turned to film production, as did Baum.

In 1914, Baum started his own film production company [[The Oz Film Manufacturing Company]],<ref>Rogers, pp. 110, 177, 181, 202–205 and ff.</ref> which came as an outgrowth of the Uplifters. He served as its president and principal producer and screenwriter. The rest of the board consisted of [[Louis F. Gottschalk]], Harry Marston Haldeman, and Clarence R. Rundel. The films were directed by [[J. Farrell MacDonald]], with casts that included [[Violet MacMillan]], [[Vivian Reed (silent film actress)|Vivian Reed]], [[Mildred Harris]], [[Juanita Hansen]], [[Pierre Couderc]], Mai Welles, Louise Emmons, [[J. Charles Haydon]], and early appearances by [[Harold Lloyd]] and [[Hal Roach]]. Silent film actor Richard Rosson appeared in one of the films (Rosson's younger brother [[Harold Rosson]] was the [[cinematographer]] on ''[[The Wizard of Oz]]'', released in 1939). After little success probing the unrealized children's film market, Baum acknowledged his authorship of ''The Last Egyptian'' and made a film of it (portions of which are included in ''[[Decasia]]''), but the Oz name had become box office poison for the time being, and even a name change to [[Dramatic Feature Films]] and transfer of ownership to [[Frank Joslyn Baum]] did not help. Baum invested none of his own money in the venture, unlike ''The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays'', but the stress probably took its toll on his health.