Way before Walt Disney Pictures' newest movie incarnation, Oz the Great and Powerful, was a twinkle in the eyes of Hollywood; the creator of this man who leaves Kansas and becomes a wizard in the land of Oz lived the final years of his life in Hollywood.
L. Frank Baum (the L. was short for Lyman) wrote the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900. The book was an instant success. Baum had a collaborator for this first in the Oz series of books, William Wallace Denslow a.k.a. W. W. Denslow.
W. W. Denslow, an illustrator and caricaturist, provided the "color". Denslow and Baum shared the copyright to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The two also collaborated on other books until they had a falling out over the rights when The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was adapted as a musical that enjoyed a long run on Broadway in 1903.
L. Frank Baum and his family moved to Hollywood in 1910. Baum continued to write. He started the Oz Film Manufacturing Company. The company folded a year later. Baum also acted in an amateur group called The Uplifters.
Baum had very much desired to see his Wizard spun into movie gold in his lifetime. The book's movie version, The Wizard of Oz, wasn't finished and released until 1939 with the emphasis on Judy Garland's character, Dorothy, with an "all a dream" ending that didn't match the book.
Alas, Baum died from a stroke on May 6, 1919. He is buried in Glendale, California's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, 1712 S Glendale Ave. His grave marker denotes his burial plot. Baum is one of many notable people laid to rest at Forest Lawn. Among the public areas are a number of statues and reproductions of famous works of art.
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