Background
The novel is dedicated to "The Uplifters" of Los Angeles. The Lofty and Exalted Order of Uplifters, a select subgroup of the elite Los Angeles Athletic Club, was a social and fraternal organization of prominent southern California businessmen and public figures. Baum had been active in the group since he first moved to Los Angeles in 1909; he served among the Excelsiors, the group's governing board, he wrote and acted in their shows, and he played the bass drum in their band.
A small group of Uplifters were the key investors in The Oz Film Manufacturing Company, organized to make movies of Baum books and stories. The investors put up $100,000; Baum was named president, and received a block of stock in the company in payment for the cinema rights to his works. The company's first project was a film of The Patchwork Girl of Oz; and its second, released in October 1914, was His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz, produced at a cost of $23,500, and with a cast (according to the not-always factually reliable Baum) of 130.
Baum hoped that the movie would be a success, and provide a big publicity boost to the Scarecrow novel to follow in 1915. Things did not quite work out as the optimistic author hoped; the film did not earn enough to cover its costs. The first edition of the novel sold around 14,300 copies, only a couple hundred more than its predecessor, Tik-Tok of Oz — though in the long run The Scarecrow of Oz would be one of the more popular installments in the Oz series.
Like Tik-Tok, Scarecrow contains a significant romantic element — the Rose Princess and Private Files in the former, and Gloria and Pon in the latter — that was not typical of the earlier Oz books. Perhaps this was a factor in the books' limited reception. In adapting his children's stories for stage and film versions, Baum had to compromise between appealing to children and to adults. His films suffered with audiences because of this conflict in audience expectation. Perhaps this confusion affected the sales of the books as well, to some degree.
Although the journey of an American child to Oz had long been a favorite plot for Baum, this work represented its last appearance: no more children would be inducted into Oz for the duration of his work on the series.
The Ork, voiced by Peter MacNicol, appeared in an episode of The Oz Kids.
Read more about this topic: The Scarecrow Of Oz
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