The Wizard of Oz (1902 musical)
The Wizard of Oz was a 1902 musical extravaganza based on "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum, which was originally published in 1900. Much of the original music was by Paul Tietjens and has been mostly forgotten, although it was still well-remembered and in discussion at MGM in 1939 when the classic film version of the story was made. Although Baum is the credited bookwriter, Glen MacDonough was hired on as jokewriter after Baum had finished the script.
Name of Australia
The "Oxford English Dictionary" records a first occurrence in 1908, in the form "Oss". "Oz" is often taken as an oblique reference to the fictional Land of Oz in the film "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), based on L. Frank Baum's novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1900). In 1988, an American opinion was that Australians' "image of Australia as a 'Land of Oz' is not new, and dedication to it runs deep" but evidence for this view within Australia itself is lacking. The spelling "Oz" is likely to have been influenced by the 1939 film, though the pronunciation was probably always with a /z/, as it is also for "Aussie", sometimes spelt "Ozzie". The Baz Luhrmann film "Australia" (2008) makes repeated reference to "The Wizard of Oz", which appeared just before the wartime action of "Australia". Some critics have even speculated that Baum was inspired by Australia, in naming the "Land of Oz": "In "Ozma of Oz" (1907), Dorothy gets back to Oz as the result of a storm at sea while she and Uncle Henry are travelling by ship to Australia. So, like Australia, Oz is somewhere to the west of California. Like Australia, Oz is an island continent. Like Australia, Oz has inhabited regions bordering on a great desert. One might almost imagine that Baum intended Oz to be Australia, or perhaps a magical land in the center of the great Australian desert."