THE BOYS FROM PHILADELPHIA

by Barbara S. Koelle

Originally published in The Baum Bugle, vol. 60, no. 1 (Spring 2016), pgs. 9, 12–14

Citations

Chicago 17th ed.:

Koelle, Barbara S. “The Boys from Philadelphia.” Baum Bugle 60, no. 1 (2016): 9–14.

MLA 9th ed.:

Koelle, Barbara S. “The Boys from Philadelphia.” The Baum Bugle, vol. 60, no. 1, 2016, pp. 9–14.

(Note: In print, this article was supplemented with illustrations that have not been reproduced here. However, typographical errors have been left in place to accurately reflect the printed version.)

 

Philadelphia— World Heritage City, one-time capital of the United States, whose City Hall Tower topped by a statue of Pennsylvania founder William Penn was once, before the advent of skyscrapers, the tallest building in the world—will be the site of the upcoming Democratic National Convention. Oz fans may be more aware, however, that it also will be host to the 2016 National Convention of the International Wizard of Oz Club. Voyagers to the latter event might even walk over a buried yellow brick road, one of many colored roads in the old city that have been covered with asphalt.[1] It seems fitting, therefore, to discuss the three boys from Philadelphia who appear in Oz books by L. Frank Baum and Ruth Plumly Thompson plus one of Baum’s non-Oz books, Sky Island —Button-Bright, Bob Up, and Peter.

Philadelphia has many Oz associations. Illustrators John R. Neill and William Wallace Denslow both made it their business home, the latter with a partner on Chestnut Street.[2] Thompson lived in or around Philadelphia all her life and made very specific allusions to parts of the city in her Oz books. I do not know if Baum ever visited there, but in Sky Island he refers to Germantown, an old section of Philadelphia, as the home of Button-Bright’s Uncle Bob, and perhaps of the boy. Certainly in Sky Island it is made clear in the first paragraph that he hails from that city.[3] And there is a most appealing two-page spread by John R. Neill depicting Button-Bright soaring over Germantown houses with his Magic Umbrella as an astonished spectator looks up from below.[4]

Author and Oz historian Daniel P. Mannix[5] lived outside of Philadelphia in Malvern, Pennsylvania, and in 1967 he threw open his farm for what became the first of many Munchkin conventions. Prominent among the many delighted visitors to that first convention were the second Royal Historian Ruth Plumly Thompson and Mrs. John R. Neill, widow of the Oz illustrator. These two ladies enjoyed a reunion, while Oz fans enjoyed them, as well as the many Ozian artifacts scattered throughout the farm. Later, Mannix put on one more spectacular convention; other Munchkins in the greater Philadelphia area found hosts for subsequent yearly gatherings.

It is possible that Button-Bright, both the earliest to appear and the longest-lasting of the Philadelphia boys, might have visited Malvern with his family as a summer vacation spot. In those days, when Sky Island was published in 1912, it was the custom of wealthy families in the area to use the suburbs as a retreat in the summer, when heat enveloped the city. And Button-Bright’s family must have been well-off, since Baum refers to the boy’s governess, his expensive-looking clothes, and his fancy name.[6] But the Button-Bright of Sky Island bears little resemblance to the Button-Bright of The Road to Oz, in which he makes his first appearance in the Oz books. That Button-Bright seems to be of pre-school age, and his conversation consists mainly of the phrase “don’t know.” Neill pictures him as a curly-haired cherub clad in a babyish sailor suit. In his introduction to the book, Baum even calls him “stupid,”[7] though Button-Bright is capable of some shrewd questions. He seems unperturbed by his new surroundings, though he does become upset when King Dox of Foxville gives him a fox’s head. He asks Santa Claus to send him home at Road’s end, though he never says where he lives; fortunately, Santa knows and sends him back to his family (to Philadelphia) in a bubble.[8]

By contrast, the Button-Bright of Sky Island is a resourceful, intelligent, energetic boy, loyal to his friends, attached to his Magic Umbrella, and eager to get back to earth. (Though he does not mention Philadelphia, Baum makes it clear that that is where Button-Bright is going).[9] In fact, the umbrella is vital to starting the plot of that book, and Button-Bright is a major character. It seems he has matured, or, perhaps, merely grown older. By the book’s end, he is thoughtful enough to write Trot of his safe arrival. Though appearing in several later Oz books, he never again achieves the prominence of that one book, although he plays a vital role in The Lost Princess of Oz in rescuing Princess Ozma. He retains one characteristic of his former self—a certain placid acceptance of the strange things that happen to him.[10] For an excellent article on this intriguing character see Daniel P. Mannix’s “The Enigma of Button-Bright” in the Christmas 1972 Baum Bugle,[11] and also Martin Gardner’s afterward[12] to the Oz Club edition of The Scarecrow of Oz.

Another character, Bob Up (alias Bobbie Downs), a creation of Ruth Plumly Thompson, is an orphan, and has spent most of his life in the stifling atmosphere of an orphanage where meals, lessons, and punishments are the order of the day. At the beginning of The Cowardly Lion of Oz, he is “a very solemn little boy. Living in an orphan asylum had made him that way and, as for adventures, he had never had an adventure in his life.”[13] Alas, this orphanage is in Philadelphia—according to Thompson’s later statement.[14]

In any case, Bob does not stay solemn very long. Between the antics of Notta the clown and his amazing adventures in Oz to which he was magically transported by the clown’s verses on Mudge, Bob begins to laugh, wonder, and exhibit courage, such as when he refuses to leave Notta to the mercies of the Mudgers. He is starting to enjoy life, and Notta “could scarcely believe that this merry little boy hugging the Cowardly Lion was the same Bobbie Downs who had fallen into Mudge.”[15] Who can blame Bob if he decides to leave Philadelphia and stay in Oz at Ozma’s invitation? Thompson tells us that he made many friends, especially with Button-Bright, with whom he traded stories about the Skyle of Un and Sky Island… and perhaps about Philadelphia? Neill’s illustration on page 290 shows Bob with Notta and Nickadoodle the Snorer standing in front of the tent that the Scarecrow has provided them at Notta’s request. They do not appear in Thompson’s later Oz books, except for a brief reference in The Wishing Horse of Oz to their living outside the Emerald City,[16] so presumably they are living there happily yet.

If the second Royal Historian had a favorite character, it must have been Peter Brown, the third little boy from Philadelphia to appear in the Oz books. He is featured in three of them: The Gnome King of Oz, Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz, and Pirates in Oz, having traveled to that magical land via balloon bird, enchanted pirates’ gold, and a hurricane, respectively. In these books, Thompson also specifies Philadelphia locations: “Peter’s home was in Philadelphia, facing on a large public square,”[17] presumably one of five such city squares, which historians says were planned by William Penn. She mentions Willow Grove[18], a popular amusement park in the suburbs at the time she was writing, and even indulges in a pun on the word “scrapple,” a popular Philadelphia breakfast food,[19] though she gives the reader a hint by having Piecer, the Prime Minister of Patch, order eggs for his meal.

Unlike our other two protagonists, Peter is an all-American boy, captain of his junior baseball team, energetic, courageous, and ingenious, qualities he possesses before he ever gets to Oz. Surely, not just his grandfather but his Philadelphia background has contributed to this boy’s generosity and capacity for making new friends in a strange and unfamiliar country. And in the history of Oz, Peter will go down as having helped to save Oz and its colorful inhabitants three times, most dramatically in The Gnome King where he used his pitching skills to silence the Gnome King with the pirate’s Silence Stone. In Jack Pumpkinhead, Peter helps Ozma get rid of the Scares of Chimneyville, while Jack is tending to Mogodore’s army; and in Pirates, he does his best to warn the Emerald City inhabitants of danger from an old adversary: “‘Prunes and pretzels!’” shouted the Gnome King. ‘If it isn’t that meddlesome Peter from Philadelphia.’”[20]

Thompson seems ambivalent about Peter’s ultimate destination, who resembles Baum’s Button-Bright in having to choose between two homes. But unlike the other two boys, Peter does not remain in Oz. It is clear that he will miss his shipmates from Pirates, Samuel Salt and King Ato, and his comrades from Jack Pumpkinhead, Jack and the Iffin. But his grandfather, baseball team, and life in Philadelphia call him back to the United States. As he states in Gnome King, “If your Majesty will just transport me to Philadelphia, why that will be reward enough.”[21] Peter passes up a chance to become Prince Peter.

Not so, Button-Bright, who says in The Scarecrow of Oz, “I’m half way ’round the world from Philadelphia, and I’ve lost my Magic Umbrella … Stands to reason that if I can’t get back I haven’t any home. But I don’t care much.”[22] Button-Bright finds a home in Oz, but the reader suspects this particular boy would feel at home almost anywhere; his environment seems to have little importance to him, as is evident in his frequently getting lost. At home in Philadelphia, Button-Bright was frequently in the care of a governess, and he mentions his parents casually only at the end of Sky Island.[23]

By contrast, the colorful and stimulating Oz background is of immense importance to Bob Up, who has come to Oz from the stultifying world of an orphanage. As he learns to enjoy life and makes Ozian friends, it is easy to comprehend that he feels at home in his new and magical world—even as a native Philadelphian.

Peter is a more dominant character, happier in his original home, possibly more resourceful than the other two boys. But even Peter must have been tempted when, at the end of Pirates in Oz, he begins to take regretful leave of his friends. “Wish me to Oz again,” he sighs to Ozma, who promises to do so, and adds that he might bring his grandfather with him, teach them to play baseball, and then stay in Oz always. “Maybe I could,” muses Peter. “Maybe next time I will stay!”[24] Who knows what he will ultimately decide—Oz or Philadelphia?

 

Notes

  1. Inga Saffron, “Architecture/Changing Skyline/City’s Last Intact Wooden Street now Paved Over,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 25, 2015.
  2. Douglas Greene and Michael Patrick Hearn, W. W. Denslow (Mount Pleasant, MI: Clarke Historical Library/ Central Michigan University, 1976), 12.
  3. L. Frank Baum, Sky Island (Chicago: Reilly & Britton, 1912), 13.
  4. Ibid., 28–29.
  5. Daniel P. Mannix wrote many books, including Step Right Up!, The Secret of the Elms, and The Fox and the Hound.
  6. Sky Island, 18. Trot asks Button-Bright, “What’s your real name?” and he replies, “Saladin Paracelsus de Lambertine Evagne von Smith.”
  7. Frank Baum, The Road to Oz (Chicago: Reilly & Britton, 1909), [10].
  8. Ibid., 256–57.
  9. Sky Island, 287.
  10. L. Frank Baum, The Scarecrow of Oz (Chicago: Reilly & Britton, 1915), 106.
  11. Daniel P. Mannix, “The Enigma of Button Bright,” Baum Bugle 16, no. 3 (Christmas 1972): 18–21.
  12. Martin Gardner, afterward to the International Wizard of Oz Club Special Publications Program’s reprint edition of The Scarecrow of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, 22-23 (Kinderhook, IL: The International Wizard of Oz Club, 1991).
  13. Ruth Plumly Thompson, The Cowardly Lion of Oz (Chicago: Reilly & Lee, 1923), 39–40.
  14. Ibid., 254.
  15. Ibid., 120–21.
  16. Ruth Plumly Thompson, The Wishing Horse of Oz (Chicago: Reilly and Lee, 1935), 85.
  17. Ruth Plumly Thompson, The Gnome King of Oz (Chicago: Reilly and Lee, 1927), 68.
  18. Ibid.
  19. Ibid., 157–58.
  20. Ruth Plumly Thompson, Pirates in Oz (Chicago: Reilly and Lee, 1931), 249.
  21. Gnome King, 278.
  22. L. Frank Baum, The Scarecrow of Oz (Chicago: Reilly & Britton, 1915), 106.
  23. Sky Island, 288.
  24. Pirates in Oz, 279–80.

 

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