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The Oz That Almost Was

© Karen Barker Crowley

The screen version of The Wizard of Oz that we have known and loved for more than 60 years could have been very different. A total of 10 screenwriters tried their hand at Oz, including Citizen Kane writer Herman Mankiewicz and poet Ogden Nash. In the end, only three writers were given screen credit: Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf, and Noel Langley. Throughout the many writers' numerous drafts, some downright bizarre characters and plot lines were considered. Here is a sampling:

Lion in Love: The Cowardly Lion is really an enchanted prince named Florizel, who is in love with a beautiful girl named Sylvia. The Wicked Witch of the West has captured Sylvia and wants to force her to marry her son, Bulbo. When Florizel's spell is broken, he kills the witch in a mid-air duel. In later versions, Dorothy kills the witch, and the prince slays a dragon.

Kansas Characters: While in Kansas, Dorothy encounters a lost limosine containing a snobby rich family and their even snobbier Pekingese, Aldophus Ajax Rittenstaufer III. Other characters were created or changed: the farm hand who corresponds with the Tin Man was to fall in love with a woman named Lizzie Smithers; Miss Gulch was to be Mrs. Gulch and have an obnoxious son named Walter; Professor Marvel was once named Dr. Pink, and then Dr. Miffle. In some versions, he had a caged lion, in others, a dwarf assistant.

Travelers in Disguise: After meeting up with the Wizard, Dorothy and friends disguise themselves as a traveling circus and try to start a revolution against the witch.

Munchkin Madness: When Dorothy and the Wizard try to escape the Emerald City, a woodpecker pokes a hole in their hot-air balloon and down they come. Never fear! It's the Munchkin Fire Department to the rescue!

Evil Witch Plots: The Wicked Witch of the West sends an army of "ten thousand men, four thousand wolves, and two hundred winged monkeys" to destroy the Wizard of Oz and place her son on the throne. In some versions, she also creates a magic rainbow with an invisible hole in the middle of it that Dorothy falls through.

A Parrot?: Because some of the writers felt the death of the Wicked Witch of the East would be too terrifying for children, they wanted her to instead transform into "a nice old lady, a parrot, or a white tabby cat."

Information for this article was taken fromThe Making of The Wizard of Oz by Aljean Harmetz.

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