Originally published in The Baum Bugle, vol. 31, no. 1 (Spring 1987), pgs. 24–29
Citations
Chicago 17th ed.:
Fricke, John. “The Radio Road to Oz (Part II).” Baum Bugle 31, no. 1 (1987): 24–29.
MLA 9th ed.:
Fricke, John. “The Radio Road to Oz (Part II).” The Baum Bugle, vol. 31, no. 1, 1987, pp. 24–29.
(Note: In print, this article was supplemented with photographs and vintage advertising that have not been reproduced here.)
(Read Part I here.)
NBC’s interest in Oz as possible network radio material had its inception at least as early as 1927. At that time, a small Cleveland radio station made inquiry as to the availability of the Junior League Play adaptations of the Oz stories (published by Samuel French) for local broadcast presentation. Their Oz radio program ultimately went out on the airwaves with original scripts, however; WTAM chose finally to deal directly with Maud Gage (Mrs. L. Frank) Baum for rights to the Oz stories. The shows ran three times a week, 15 minutes per episode, and endured for a full 13-week cycle (and part of the succeeding one) until sponsorship was withdrawn. During the run of the show, the NBC network evidently acquired WTAM and began its own investigation as to the possibility of doing a full-network Oz broadcast The idea was gradually abandoned, although the realization that the stories were prime material for such treatment must have remained (however subliminally!) with some executives.
By October 1929, two local NBC programs out of New York regularly featured Oz books as part of their read-aloud format. The Sunday “Children’s Hour” was offering Grampa in Oz at that time—and every Wednesday was “Oz Day” on the “Jolly Bill and Jane” show.
Frank Baum’s oldest son, Colonel Frank J. Baum, wrote NBC circa 1931 to tell the network he had prepared four 15-minute Oz radio scripts which he then had performed and transcribed for audition purposes. According to Colonel Baum, there was some CBS interest in these shows at the time; in any event, he wanted to write the show himself and use it as a marketing device for Tweety in Oz, a full-length Oz book he said he had also written.
However, nothing came of his material or plans, and it remained for NBC—already offering radio dramatizations of “Winnie the Pooh” and the “Dr. Dolittle” stories—to clear away a maze of legal underbrush between 1931 and 1933 and actually put their own scripted-and-acted Oz on the network on a regular basis. (That the “radio road to Oz” was fraught with red tape is clearly reflected in the surviving correspondence between NBC, Maud Gage Baum, Frank Joslyn Baum, Reilly & Lee, and Ruth Plumly Thompson; there’s even a notation in the files that NBC heard from a lawyer representing Mrs. Dorothy Federlein, heir to the W.W. Denslow estate.)
As noted in Part One, the Oz program was heard three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons at 5:45 o’clock (EST). Our week-by-week synopsis of Jell-O’s “Wizard of Oz” continues, beginning on Monday, December 25:
Week 14: The party from Oz is on its way to the dominions of the Nome King to rescue the Queen of Ev and her children. (Cast includes Nancy Kelly as Dorothy, Junius Mathews as Billina, Williams Adams as the Scarecrow, Jack Smart as the Cowardly Lion, Parker Fennelly as Tik-Tok, Irma Uran as Ozma, and Bradley Barker as the Nome King.) They successfully pass the Giant with the Hammer (although Tik-Tok is dealt a glancing blow and has to be rescued). There is a truncated version of the original book scene wherein Ozma and Dorothy request the presence of the Nome King. He appears, wearing the Magic Belt, and informs them that the Queen and her children are imprisoned in “the King’s Room of A Thousand Statues.” The cliffhanger for the episode comes when he also threatens to turn the six travelers into statues by nightfall if they can’t guess the identities of the Evian captives. There is a segue into the day’s special Christmas party, with the Lion dressed as Santa Claus; he provides jokey gifts for them all—except for the serious gift of a shiny bowl of strawberry Jell-O. Wednesday’s episode opens with the characters worrying about becoming statues; the announcer bemoans the fact that statues cannot eat Jell-O. Billina lays an egg which the Nome King shrieks is “poison”; the Scarecrow puts it in his jacket pocket with the others he has accumulated. The King offers one of them the chance to go into the room of statues and make 11 guesses; it is decided that Dorothy will go. She is unsuccessful and becomes a china grasshopper. The King leaves the remaining members of the party to consider what kind of statue each will become; Billina sneaks off with him (to lay another egg) and overhears him telling his soldier (voiced by Edwin Whitney) that all the Ev statues are royal purple in color; she also learns that it’s the Magic Belt that enables him to make his transformations. The rest of the party from Oz is enchanted, except for Billina, who lays her egg under the King’s throne and refuses to have it removed unless she can take a turn guessing the statues. She, of course, pronounces the word “Ev” and is successful; the king goes into a rage—end of episode. At the top of Friday’s show, Billina disenchants the party from Oz. The Nome King looks in the magic mirror he wears around his neck and sees that the Evians have all been returned to their own kingdom (a condition of their disenchantment, as specified by Billina). The King, in a fury, breaks the looking glass. The Ozians decide to leave, although realizing that the Cowardly Lion is still missing. The King summons 10,000 nomes to prevent their departure; there is a scene similar to that in the book: the Scarecrow throws the eggs at the King, Dorothy acquires the Magic Belt, and the Oz people escape—still without the Lion. End of episode.
Week 15 (January 1st; there is no New Year’s Day program and, as a consequence, only two episodes are presented, on Wednesday and Friday): The Nome King disguises the exit from his palace and sends his soldiers after the party from Oz; Dorothy turns the front ranks to goose eggs and, ultimately, the Magic Belt provides as well the way out. Tik-Tok runs down and has lost his key. He has, however, picked up a green china key from the Nome palace which, of course, turns out to be the Lion; the Magic Belt also provides Tik-Tok with a new key. Ozma, Tik-Tok, and Billina decide to return to the Emerald City; the Scarecrow suggests that he, Dorothy, and the Lion go off to visit the Tin Woodman. Dorothy sends the Oz party home via Magic Belt, but the whirlwind that gets them on their way also continues to blow—and the remaining three characters are confronted by a horse and carriage flying through the air. End of episode. On Friday, we learn that this is Jim, the Horse—a friend of Dorothy’s from the Kansas farm. (Jim is voiced by Bradley Barker.) His character trait is that of garbling his speech; this gambit continues throughout his scenes. (It is explained that he has trouble talking because he is just learning how.) Jim is pressed into service to take them to the Tin Woodman. Before they go very far, they discover the Woodman, rusted on the side of the road. (Parker Fennelly does the voice of the Tin Woodman.) They oil him and he thinks at first that they are all ghosts; he had heard that the Nome King had destroyed them and was, indeed, on his way to try to effect their rescue. They decide to have the Belt transport them to the Land of the Winkies; Jim chants an inappropriate charm and, instead, the ground opens up beneath them. They fall into an underground city, made of glass, and land on a roof, breaking a hole in it. Vegetable people approach them—these new characters can walk on air and have human heads on top of vegetable bodies. They are led by a string bean (voiced by Junius Mathews) who demands that the travelers leave the Vegetable Kingdom of the Mangaboos; he threatens to take them to the Palace of the Sorcerer. Our friends decide to escape and the Lion has to be pushed off the roof; end of episode.
Week 16 (January 8): (Junius Mathews also does the voice of Gwig.) The Lion floats through the air; unfortunately, the group floats into the Palace of the Sorcerer, Gwig. They also encounter a mushroom who is unhappy at constantly being mistakenly called a toadstool. Gwig orders them thrown into the garden of the twining vines; the party from Oz asks the Magic Belt for help and, suddenly, a huge balloon floats from the air and lands (to “Wizard of Oz” theme music). Dorothy recognizes the little Wizard with delight; end of episode. (Ian Wolfe joins the cast as the Wizard on the Wednesday episode). There are general introductions; when the string bean returns to condemn them to the vines, the Wizard claims that he is “worth three sorcerers”—dialogue from the original Oz book—and challenges Gwig. The latter causes magic bells to ring; the Wizard produces the nine tiny piglets. Gwig attempts to stop the Wizard from breathing. End of episode, as the fact is pointed out that if the Wizard can’t breathe, he can’t eat Jell-O, either. Friday’s show opens with a discussion on the unpleasantness of the Mangaboos (although it’s stressed that, in the right place—i.e. Jell-O—vegetables are very nice). The aforementioned mushroom chases a taunting carrot into the room; they upset the horse’s carriage and a carving knife falls out. The Scarecrow suggests the Tin Woodman should cut Gwig in two; the Wizard agrees to do it, and there is an explosion. They are all led off to the garden by the bean so that he can plant Gwig and all the rest of them. (The Woodman would grow into a can opener, suggests the Lion; and the Tin Man counters that the Lion would probably blossom as cat-tails.) They encounter the ripe (but unpicked) Princess Potato, rightful ruler. She is broken from her stem during a chase sequence, but even she condemns them immediately. The Wizard creates a lake of fire to display his magic and the Princess (voiced by Marian Hopkinson) threatens to have them cast into it. End of episode.
Week 17 (January 15): The Wizard’s lake of fire flares out of control and begins to burn the vegetables. The Princess calls for poison roots and fighting trees to destroy our friends; they fly off in the carriage, pulled by Jim. Ultimately, they crash, as they leave the magic air of the Mangaboo kingdom. They enter a cave in the side of a mountain and discover that this is the Cave of the King of the Winds (voiced by Junius Mathews). He blows the Lion up into the air like a balloon; end of episode. A new storybook is offered at the conclusion of Monday’s show: “Ozma and the Little Wizard,” available for the front of one Jell-O package. The plot of the booklet is discussed briefly, and it is plugged again at the top of Wednesday’s show. The King of the Winds sends the rest of the characters into the air, and they are blown into the throne room of the Wind King; the Lion is temporarily deafened by the winds. The King serenades them and, when the Tin Man interrupts his song, the monarch becomes irate and begins to blow them around again. The piglets fall out of the Wizard’s pocket in the process and, ultimately, they are all blown out of the cave and into a new country. An unseen voice warns them about the Valley of Voe and Dama Tree; the latter is better than candy or ice cream but will ruin them if they even touch it. Before they can fathom this, Jim, the carriage, and the piglets have disappeared. (The leading piglet is voiced by Junius Mathews). End of episode; plug for storybook. The characters next get into the invisible carriage; the Lion and Woodman have also disappeared by the opening of the next show. The unseen voice warns them all about the approaching invisible bears. Our friends ask the Magic Belt to help them keep from getting wet in an adjoining river. As a result, they and the carriage float along on top of the water, and all become visible once more. As they approach Pyramid Mountain, a voice warns them that they are nearing the Country of the Gargoyles; cliffhanger and storybook plug.
Week 18 (January 22): Storybook plug. On the way up Pyramid Mountain, the Wizard explains that gargoyles are wooden figures fastened on buildings. The travelers meet the Braided Man (voiced by Ian Wolfe) and he tells them about himself and his products (in rhyme). Much of the book dialogue here; the Man also manufactures strings for string beans, eyes for potatoes, etc. The group leaves him and enters the land of gargoyles. One of the gargoyles invites them to prison, but the Lion decides he should first go back for his toothbrush; he roars, however, when Dorothy is beset by one of the creatures. The gargoyle releases her (gargoyles can’t stand noise) and summons help. Cliffhanger. The concluding storybook plug features the three imps who, in the story, become pigs. The gargoyles capture our friends when we next encounter them; the Wizard loses his coat (the nine tiny piglets are in the pocket) during the flight through the air to a huge tower. Jim tries to summon the Queen of the Field Mice for help but gets the charm wrong. The piglets return with the news that the gargoyles are sleeping and have taken off their wings. Jim’s harness is used as a rope as the party descends the tower to get the wings, which they attach to the horse and carriage so as to fly out of the country. The gargoyles chase them, but the travelers escape into the den of the hungry dragonettes. Cliffhanger—as it is opined that hungry dragonettes should eat Jell-O and not scarecrows, tin woodmen, or lions. The group avoids the dragonettes and are warned to beware their returning mother. One dragon sends a spurt of fire after them as they retreat; the Wizard throws his coat over the dragon’s head so they can escape. But the piglets are once again in the coat pocket and must be (and are} rescued. Meanwhile, the Lion can’t talk at the moment as he has burned his mouth trying to eat a dragonette. The mother dragon is heard approaching; our friends try to escape her by jumping across a ravine, but the Woodman falls out of the carriage into the river below. End of episode; storybook plug.
Week 19 (January 29): Storybook plug. The Wizard can’t rescue the Woodman as the little man from Omaha is only a humbug. Ultimately, the whole troupe climbs down to the river; the Lion effects the rescue—falling into the water, cooling his throat and regaining his voice in the process. A frog approaches them and wants to fry them in butter or oil as punishment for muddying up his river; he is the leader of the Furious Frogs and, when he goes for his skinning knife, the travelers get into the carriage and run away, smack into a barbed wire fence. The Woodman is thus scratched, and the Scarecrow’s stuffing is leaking. The piglets reappear, and a voice suddenly informs them all that they’ve reached The Land Where Wishes Come True. Storybook and Jell-O plugs. After some business at the top of the next show, the Wizard, piglets, and Jim wish themselves to the Emerald City; the Lion wishes himself back to the forest where he’s King. Dot, the Scarecrow, and Tin Man wish merely that something exciting would happen, and a whirlwind rushes them away. When they land, they are approached by a Shaggy Man (voiced by Jack Smart) who invites them to walk along with him as he avoids the road to Butterfield (dialogue from The Road to Oz). They meet a giant turkey who wants to fatten them up for Thanksgiving; Shaggy offers Dorothy the Love Magnet as a life-saver. Cliffhanger/storybook plug. The turkey sees the Love Magnet and becomes Dot’s friend but chases the Scarecrow up a tree. When the latter tumbles down, his head splits open and he loses his brains. The turkey eats the brains (thus presaging by several decades an entire motion picture genre), chokes and runs away. The Scarecrow is reassembled, but he no longer has a brain. Our friends continue down the road and are confronted by an army of foxes who threaten to eat the entire party as there is no food in the pantries of Foxville. The Scarecrow (even without a brain) thinks to show them the Love Magnet, and all become immediate friends. The travelers are invited to meet King Dox and then encounter Billina, who has escaped from the pantry. Can they rescue her, too? Cliffhanger; during the plug and tag, it is predicted that the first thing the returning Billina will do is lay an egg.
Week 20 (February 5): (Edwin Whitney is the voice of the Fox; Bradley Barker is the voice of King Dox.) Billina is given the Love Magnet to ward off her captors, and it is revealed that she was stolen by the foxes during a night raid on the Emerald City henhouse. The King introduces himself; when Shaggy makes an impudent comment, the King threatens to turn him into a fox. Billina is sent scurrying to find the Magnet (which she has dropped} but returns too late: the King works his enchantment. End of episode; storybook plug. Shaggy has only been given a fox’s head instead of becoming an entire fox as the King saw the Magnet after all. The travelers leave Foxville and are soon beset by donkeys—King Kik-a-Bray and company. The former offers Shaggy a new head; he accepts, thinking it will be an improvement . . . and his fox head becomes a donkey head. His friends object, which angers the King; he threatens to kick the Tin Woodman. The Scarecrow suggests that Dorothy save them all with the Magic Belt, but Billina interrupts – it’s time for her to lay her egg. End of episode, with plugs. The Tin Woodman is broken wide open by the kicking of the King. The Scarecrow throws Billina’s egg into Kik-a-Bray’s face as a parting shot, and the Magic Belt whisks them all away from the donkeys. When they float down to earth, the Woodman discovers he has lost his heart during the flight. The Belt repairs him, but he remains heartless. The party next encounters the Musiker (or Music Man, as he’s called; voiced by Ian Wolfe); he delivers many of the rhymes from the fifth Oz book and warns them of the approaching Scoodlers who will make the travelers into soup: “Here they come!” Cliffhanger; final storybook plug.
Week 21 (February 12): After the customary synopsis, the party meets a Scoodler {voiced by Bradley Barker). Shaggy’s braying infuriates the creature and his companions; they reverse their heads and then throw them at our friends. Ultimately, the group from Oz is surrounded and led away to meet the Queen (as the Scoodlers sing “The Soup Song”). End of episode, with a special Valentine Jell-O recipe. The Love Magnet doesn’t work on the Scoodlers or their Queen (the latter voiced by Agnes Moorehead); she gives orders for preparation of the soup and the travelers are imprisoned. The Tin Man cries at the prospect of Dorothy becoming soup {even though he no longer has a heart). Billina lays her egg, as egg noodles can be used in soup. Shaggy empties the potatoes from a sack; then Billina flies into the face of a Scoodler, who throws his head in retaliation. Shaggy bags it, brays to infuriate the other Scoodlers, and begins catching and capturing the flying heads. The prisoners begin their escape, but the Scarecrow drops the bag as they cross a bridge, and there is no longer a place to hide the oncoming heads. Cliffhanger; Dorothy would like to send everyone a huge heart Valentine made of strawberry Jell-O. As the final episode of the week begins, the brainless Scarecrow comes up with the idea of throwing the Scoodlers’ heads into the ravine. Off go the travelers! When Billina retreats to lay her egg, she discovers the Deadly Desert and warning sign. {Another sign notes that beyond the desert is the wonderful Truth Pond.) A Camel (voiced by Ian Wolfe) comes across the desert to greet them; he can walk upon the Sands because he’s not made of ordinary flesh. The Camel refuses to carry them to safety but, in exchange for the egg, agrees to summon Johnny Dooit to help them (using the verse from the book). Johnny Dooit appears through the air as the episode ends. Plug for a lime Jell-O fruit cup—a real Emerald City dessert.
Week 22 (February 19): (Johnny Dooit and the Fish are both voiced by Bradley Barker.) Johnny Dooit charms up a sandboat for the group and disappears. They set off across the desert; the Scarecrow is sailing the boat but is caught off-balance when Billina tries to put her newest egg in his pocket. He blows off the boat; it crashes into the rocks. The egg drops out of the Scarecrow’s pocket and turns to dust in the sand, but the Strawman himself lands on safe ground. The Shaggy Man and Billina argue; she chases him and he falls into the Truth Pond. The Fearful Fish appears from the depths of the pool; he is its guardian and tells the travelers that one’s real self appears when one is submerged in the water. He also tells them that Shaggy is at the bottom of the pond; cliffhanger and commercial. The Scarecrow decides that Billina should dig up some worms for the fish in order to bribe him to retrieve the Shaggy Man. Shaggy returns with his own head but has left the Love Magnet at the bottom of the Pond. He dives in to find it as the party is attacked by an army of Whimsies (described as in The Emerald City of Oz). The Scarecrow takes· one look at them and opines that Shaggy had the right idea when he jumped back into the water. Ian Wolfe voices the leader of the Whimsies, who captures and tells them that he and his band are off to join the army of the Nome King in conquering the Emerald City. Billina holds up the procession to lay her egg, and the Scarecrow suggests that Dorothy use the Magic Belt to conjure up a rain storm and spoil the Whimsies’ pasteboard heads. The episode concludes with a downpour; Friday’s show opens with a summarization that notes Shaggy has decided to live in the Truth Pond, the Tin Man is rusting in the rain, and the Whimsies’ heads are being ruined. Dorothy uses her Belt to whisk them away from the Whimsies and, once safe, our friends decide to rush to the capital to warn Ozma of the approaching armies. The Scarecrow trips in a hole in the road dug by Button Bright (voiced by Jack Smart); their meeting is followed by the “Don’t know” dialogue from The Road to Oz. The group is suddenly captured by an army of spoons led by a soup ladle (voiced by Bradley Barker). They are also off to join the Nome King. The party is thrown into a punchbowl prison; will they be punch when we meet again?
Week 23 (February 26): The Army is from the Kingdom of Pot and Pan. Button Bright suggests that our friends get out of the bowl by cutting a hole in its bottom; the Scarecrow borrows a pocketknife from him and so effects their escape. They are chased through the forest by the spoons and lose them, only to come upon the army of Growleywogs {leader voiced by Edwin Whitney). The latter are 60 feet tall and all covered with hair. The travelers hide in the bushes until Button Bright sneezes and Billina lays her egg, which gives away their location. They are thrown into a gunnysack and carried off by the Growleywogs. The Scarecrow suggests that they all jump up and down so that the bag will be dropped. They do, it is, and they roll away—still in the bag—down a hill. Cliffhanger and commercial. On Wednesday’s episode, the bag hits a tree, breaks open . . . and the Ozians are free to be confronted by King Bristle, the cry-baby rabbit {voiced by Bradley Barker). He leads them to the Rabbit Kingdom to hide them from the pursuing Growleywogs, using magic to reduce the size of our friends so that they can pass through the entrance gate. The party is entertained by the dancing Whiskered Friskers and the Rabbit Warbler {voiced by Ian Wolfe). The King shows them out of the kingdom and thanks them for making him much happier; he points out that they’ll find Bunbury straight ahead and restores them to their natural sizes (all except Button Bright, who has wandered off and returns—still in miniature—too late). A voice suddenly warns them that all strangers to Bunbury are put into an oven and baked; end of episode. The travelers are next surrounded by the Bunbury contingent of rolls, buns, cakes, etc. Johnny Cake {voiced by Bradley Barker} is the leader and threatens to bake them. The Woodman cries and rusts, and melted butter is used to oil him (as his oil can—for some reason—has not returned to its regular size after being miniaturized on Wednesday’s show}. They are placed in the oven; Button Bright expands in the heat and returns to his regular size. They call out to Johnny Cake to open the oven door for moment; he does, and Billina pecks out his eyes as they make their escape. They are pelted by crusts of bread, fired by slingshots, as they climb over the city wall. Once on the other side, they hear a voice screaming, “You’ve broken my leg!” Then the voice claims the leg isn’t actually broken but might have been . . . the group has reached the Country of the Flutterbudgets. End of episode.
Week 24 (March 5): Announcer Ben Grauer kicks off the week by introducing a premium of four Oz storybooks. The Flutterbudget {voiced by Ian Wolfe) explains the unusual worrying traits of his countrymen. A long rhyme reveals the personal paranoias of the Oz characters; they are becoming Flutterbudgets, too, and escape the area (encountering the Flutterbudget with the baby en route}. They next meet an army possessing the heads of different animals and led by a red alligator: The Phanfasms of Phantastico. Cliffhanger; the announcer tells the listeners that, for four Jell-O fronts, they may send for the entire set of “Little Wizard” story booklets offered individually earlier in the series. A storybook plug also opens the Wednesday show. The Scarlet Crocodile {who had been an alligator on Monday’s program and is voiced by Bradley Barker) sings a song and plans to turn the Ozians into Phanfasms with animal heads. Dot is off to fetch Billina, who has gone to lay an egg, so the two of them miss the enchantment, but Button Bright, the Scarecrow, and Tin Man all get mouse heads. The Phanfasm begins crying crocodile tears because they don’t like the new heads; the tears form a river, and our friends float away in it as the Phanfasms go off to join the Nome King. The travelers devise a raft from floating debris and decide they need to return to the Truth Pond to be disenchanted; they will also use the opportunity to search for the Shaggy Man. They use the Magic Belt to wish themselves away and go flying through the air. Cliffhanger and plug for the storybooks (“they’d make a dandy present!”). The final episode of the week sees the characters splash into the Truth Pond; Dorothy and Billina head for shore as the Fearful Fish reappears to explain the others are at the bottom of the Pond getting their real heads back. {The Truth Pond has no effect on Dorothy, the Fish explains, because she has always been her real self.) The Scarecrow and Tin Man reappear with their own heads; they’re not even soggy or rusty because the water is magic. The Shaggy Man comes out of the water as well—it is revealed that, when he dove into the Pond to search for the Love Magnet (seven episodes earlier), the fishes in the Pond enchanted him and turned him into Button Bright. Shaggy has thus been Dot’s companion all along, in the guise of a little boy. The party decides to move on to warn Ozma of the approaching armies, and they call on Johnny Dooit for help. He agrees to blow giant soap bubbles around them so that they can float to the Emerald City. (Jack Smart is the voice of the Shaggy Man; Bradley Barker is the Fish and Johnny Dooit.) Storybook plug.
Week 25 (March 12): Storybook plug opens the week. Johnny Dooit chants a rhyme for each character as Dot, the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Shaggy, and Billina float off. As they sail through a sudden blizzard toward a snow-capped mountain, Billina has to lay an egg. The bubbles burst as they float down; Dorothy loses the Magic Belt—it blows away. As they land in a drift, they aren’t a bit cold, as the snow is popcorn. The rusted Tin Man is oiled with butter from the popcorn, and Billina lays her egg. The Ork (voiced by Bradley Barker) arrives and challenges her: Who dares to lay an egg in their country of Mo? (The Orks are revealed as exclusive egg-suppliers to Mo.) An army of Orks flies in to bury our friends in popcorn for bringing foreign eggs into the country. Commercial and plug for the storybooks. The Orks wield shovels and sing a song about digging a hole to bury the Ozians. When this has been accomplished and the Orks leave, the Scarecrow suggests that the party tunnel their way out. They chant a little song as they go and encounter a snowbound cow (voiced by Agnes Moorehead)—in reality a witch transformed and buried by the Orks. At the cow’s request, Dot removes a magic powder from the cow’s left ear, sprinkles it, says a rhyme, and the witch reappears. Unfortunately, Dorothy has used too much powder, and a whirlwind has been conjured up as well. They all blow into the air; Billina has to lay her egg. When they land, the witch refuses to help them get to the Emerald City (as she had promised) and plans to enchant them all. Cliffhanger/ plug for storybooks. The Ork flies back at the opening of Friday’s show and decides that the travelers’ heads should be cut off before they are reburied. The witch, planning to transform them all, goes off to work her spell. Billina tells the Scarecrow to convince the Ork that Dorothy restored the witch to her natural form and has the power to enchant the Ork, too, unless he carries our friends to safety and the Emerald City. Shaggy—though he has long since lost his donkey’s head—brays in jubilation at escaping; the witch hears him, and gives the Ork chase on her broomstick. She magically stops the Ork’s propeller, and they all fall into the Land of Perpetual Night where it is always dark, and the witch can’t find them. The Ork wanders off as our friends spy an approaching lantern—it is the firefly brigade, guardians of the Land of Constant Light. Their leader (voiced by Bradley Barker) threatens to burn up the Ozians; Cliffhanger and storybook plug.
Week 26 (March 19): Storybook plugs. The Firefly accuses them of being witches; the party counters that they’re trying to escape a witch. The Scarecrow has already caught on fire, however, and Billina douses the flames with one of her eggs. The Firefly decides to help our friends out of the deep ravine they’re in; a magic rope is provided that extends up the steep side of the mountain like a beanstalk. Fireflies light the way. After an arduous and eventful climb (the Tin Man falls off the rope and lands in the branches of a tree), they achieve again The Land Where Wishes Come True. Dorothy wishes for the rescue of the Tin Woodman; there is a rain of apples and eggs (courtesy Billina and Shaggy), and a final wish launches all through the air to the Emerald City. Will they make it? End of episode; a plug assures that anyone from the outside world can visit the capital of Oz just by reading the storybooks. The travelers land in the Emerald City to be greeted by Ozma {voiced by Betty Wragge} who has been watching them in her magic mirror. She is also aware of the plans of the Nome King. Shaggy goes off to look at the apples in the palace courtyard, thus freeing Jack Smart to voice the Cowardly Lion, who comes running in, terrified of Shaggy’s bray. The Lion then explains that he has run out of courage, and the Wizard is away on a trip with the nine tiny piglets. Billina goes off to lay an egg. Ozma reveals that Jack Pumpkinhead is living in the country where he farms pumpkins; the Sawhorse is assisting him. Jim the Cab Horse (voiced by Bradley Barker) trots in; he still has trouble talking. Then the Woggle Bug joins the group (voiced by erstwhile Billina, Junius Mathews) to tell them about his college where school pills are swallowed. Tik-Tok also appears (voiced by Parker Fennelly), and all adjourn to the throne room. Billina has been watching the Nome King, Whimsies, Phanfasms, et al in the magic mirror; the group is nearly through their underground tunnel to the Emerald City and their sinister music can be heard (a rhymed chant about attacking Oz). Ozma refuses to defend herself; fighting is wrong, she declares. Can Oz be saved? Cliffhanger. Friday’s episode—the last of the series—opens with the statement that these visits to Oz have been brought to you by Jell-O. The celebrities adjourn to the palace courtyard, Ozma taking the magic mirror with her. Dorothy comes upon the Forbidden Fountain and asks all about its history. The Princess explains to her that it makes one forget everything he or she knows. The Lion suggests that they all drink it and forget their troubles. The Scarecrow gets his classic idea, and Ozma uses her magic to put dust in the tunnel. A Growleywog (voiced by Ian Wolfe) bursts out of the ground and plans to attack as soon as he’s had a drink; his warriors drink as well and, when the Nome King appears (voiced by Bradley Barker) and demands they kill the Ozians, the soldiers can’t understand why. Their leader marches them home, and the crazed Nome King is thrown into the Fountain by the Scarecrow and Tin Man. When he is pulled out, he is astounded to find out he’s a king and vows to be a good one hereafter. He returns to the tunnel and commands all the massed armies to return to their homes. The Oz people return to the palace for a party—after which they all plan to stay in the Emerald City for a restful visit after all their adventures. (The announcer wagers that the Ozians will enjoy Jell-O for dessert at their celebration.) Then Dorothy and the others close the program by saying goodbye with love and kisses from the Land of Oz; they hope that they will be back soon.
The dedicated Ozophile will have noted the differences between the Oz books and their radio adaptations. The scripts also contain much baiting, teasing, and badinage between some of the principal characters, occasionally alien to their personalities in the original stories. Running gags are frequently employed, i.e. Billina’s penchant for egg-laying, Shaggy’s bray and quirk of offering his companions apples he doesn’t possess, Jim’s fractured speech patterns, etc. The second 13 episodes of the series seemingly feature more rhymed and musical sections of dialogue, but all 26 weeks include top-of-the-program ominous warnings from the announcer about specific Oz dangers to heighten listener tension and suspense. (Conversely, the announcer was always the segue between the cliffhanger moments and final commercials, with such awesome pronouncements as “Maybe the Hammerheads would be in a better mood if they had some Jell-O for dessert.”)
In spite of their hopes to quickly return to their listeners, Dorothy and her companions faded from NBC as of that last broadcast on March 23. The following Monday saw the time-slot filled by a Chicago-based program, “Frank Merriwell . . . and his adventures at his military academy,” produced by The Western Co.
During the summer of 1934, Frank J. Baum inquired as to the possibility of continuing the Oz series during the upcoming new season. Despite NBC’s seeming pleasure with the program—and what was claimed by the network as a popular audience response—NBC replied on September 18, 1934 that there was no sponsor interest. (Jell-O would move on to sponsoring, among others, Jack Benny.) As late as 1935, L.H. Titterton tried (to no avail) to place West Coast rights for the 77 Oz scripts with the San Francisco NBC affiliate; Titterton was manager of literary rights for the network and had been in on the various Oz negotiations earlier in the decade.
However, even in a short 26 weeks, the Jell-O “Wizard of Oz” show provided much entertainment for thousands of children. Whether faithful or imaginative, startling or (to the well-read Oz fan) even slightly disconcerting, “the radio road to Oz” was a solid introduction to Baum’s magic land, its characteristics, and its characters.
[The author wishes to express his sincere gratitude to Marilyn C. Dean, head of Records Administration at the National Broadcasting Company, and her associate Catherine Lim. Their cooperation and curiosity made an article on Jell-O’s “Wizard of Oz” both possible and pleasant; there would have been no Bugle feature on this topic without them.]
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