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Early Oz

There were a number of film adaptations of The Wizard of Oz and other Oz stories by L. Frank Baum that predate the famous 1939 version starring Judy Garland.

The first was produced by L. Frank Baum in 1908, called The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays. This was a multimedia performance including film and live elements. Unfortunately nothing survives from this version except a few still images.

The next version was Wizard of Oz produced in 1910 by the Selig Polyscope Company, with no Baum involvement:

The same company also made films called: Dorothy and the Scarecrow in Oz, The Land of Oz, and John Dough and the Cherub, but none have survived.

In 1914 Baum started his own film company, The Oz Film Manufacturing Company which produced a number of shorts, none of which have survived, and five feature-length films, of which only four survive, and three of those are Oz-related. All three were released in 1914.

The Patchwork Girl of Oz

Magic Cloak of Oz

His Majesty The Scarecrow of Oz

The Wizard captures Mombi the Witch:

The Tin Woodsman decapitates Mombi the Witch:

Later, another feature length adaptation, Wizard of Oz, was made in 1925, directed by Larry Semon. This version is the least Oz-like in some ways. The Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman, and Lion are all normal people in disguise, in the story. There is very little that is actually magical or fantastic in the movie.

But it does include some nice barnstorming sequences: