I found this history of Dorothy's house on Roadside America: In 1978 Liberal businessman Max Zimmerman found himself in California for an insurance convention, and asked a waiter what he'd expect to see if he visited Kansas. The waiter answered, "Dorothy's house," and Zimmerman returned to Liberal with a mission. A small, old farm house outside of town was hauled in and christened "Dorothy's House," since it sort of resembled the one in the movie. It opened as an attraction in 1981. In front of the tiny porch were laid pathways of yellow bricks, radiating from a still-revered pair donated by Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
I don't know how close the movie is to the book. I found the written book, which was written by L. Frank Baum in 1907. If you are interested in reading the book, here is the link. Here is another link to the book through the Library of Congress.
The movie with Judy Garland was done in August 1939. The history and legacy of the Wizard of Oz before it was ruined by Wicked.
Outside on the grounds there was a small building with a plaque inside telling a bit about Dorothy's House and the storm shelter that the family went into during the tornado.
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| Storm Shelter |
Dorothy's House was originally built in 1907 and has been carefully restored to replicate the house shown in The Wizard of Oz. After visiting Dorothy's home, we took a journey down the Yellow Brick Road and into 5,000 square feet of animated entertainment in the Land of Oz.
Upon entering we see this beautiful piano.
Local girls dress as movie Dorothys and serve as guides for the tour. It starts in the gift shop, which shows the film continuously and sells Ruby Slipper snow globes and foam Yellow Bricks.
By modern standards, Dorothy lived in a horror home of privation. The floors squeak, the wallpaper is ghastly, and Dorothy told us that Auntie Em saved hair in a jar and Uncle Henry had only one pair of shoes. The sitting room also had a small sewing machine in the corner.
In the kitchen, there is an ironing board, hutch, ice box, a small oven, and a separate pantry.
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| Ironing board |
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| Hutch |
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| Water pump and ice box |
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| Small oven |
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| Pantry |
"This is our cream separator," she said, pointing to a mechanical contraption in the kitchen. "We would have to turn this handle 48 times a minute, and if we were going too slow a bell would ring and we would have to start all over."
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| Cream separator |
Dorothy showed us the family chamber pot ("It was my responsibility to dump it in the morning") and a Sears catalog that doubled as toilet paper.
During the frozen winter months, she said cheerily, "we didn't have to use an ice box because we could have our food and drinks by the window." The window in Dorothy's bedroom opens onto a painting of an approaching tornado.
Toto is laying in his little bed.
"Is everyone ready to go to the Land of Oz?" Dorothy asked. "Yes!" everyone answered.
Dorothy Gale was a young girl living on a farm in Kansas with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. She is trying to stay out of the way of the workers and is upset with their mean neighbor, Miss Gulch, who has a sheriff's summons to take her cherished dog, Toto. Toto escapes from Miss Gulch and joins Dorothy as she runs away from the farm. Professor Marvel convinces her to go back home. As she is arriving back home, a cyclone hits the area, Dorothy is hit on the head, and this begins their journey into the Land of Oz.
(The Land of Oz recently got even better with the addition of a Tornado Simulation Room to start off the tour. Oz's overseers wanted a "transition area" to put visitors in the proper frame of mind, so the twister acts as a kind of airlock between the real world and you-know-where.)
The Land of Oz is a walk-thru series of dioramas of the film, created by Kansas native Linda Windler, who wanted to go over the rainbow and realized she would have to build it herself. The exhibit spent ten years in a Topeka shopping mall before it was moved here and set up in a big storage building next to Dorothy's House. "Oz was not built by some huge corporation with an unlimited budget," reads a sign written by Linda. It's "a monument to good old American ingenuity."
(The Land of Oz recently got even better with the addition of a Tornado Simulation Room to start off the tour. Oz's overseers wanted a "transition area" to put visitors in the proper frame of mind, so the twister acts as a kind of airlock between the real world and you-know-where.)
The Land of Oz is a walk-thru series of dioramas of the film, created by Kansas native Linda Windler, who wanted to go over the rainbow and realized she would have to build it herself. The exhibit spent ten years in a Topeka shopping mall before it was moved here and set up in a big storage building next to Dorothy's House. "Oz was not built by some huge corporation with an unlimited budget," reads a sign written by Linda. It's "a monument to good old American ingenuity."
A guide to the Land of Oz with tour guides. The story is condensed into a crisp 15 minutes. We followed a Yellow Brick Road painted on the concrete floor as Dorothy stopped at displays and recited key plot points and dialog from the film. Our tour guide was good; she knew the history of the house and ran around scared when the tornado hit and she looked for her family. We know that Dorothy would never mislead anyone on purpose.
This is the bike that Mrs. Gulch came to take Toto away from Dorothy.
The Land of Oz seems to include everyone from the film, even minor characters such as Mrs. Gulch, Professor Marvel, the green-faced Winkie guards, and the Emerald City repair crew in their OZ shirts. We passed slowly spinning Munchkins and a Wicked Witch whose dress flapped in a breeze from a nearby air vent.
Dorothy's house fell on the Wicked Witch of the West.
When Dorothy wakes up in Oz, she is greeted by Glinda, the Witch of the North, who tells Dorothy that her house inadvertently landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East. This frees the Munchkins and the Wicked Witch of the West comes to avenge her sister's death and to claim her sister's magic ruby slippers only to find that Glinda has already put them on Dorothy's feet. Dorothy wants to go back home to Kansas and is told by Glinda that she needs to go see the Wizard of Oz at the Emerald City.
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| Glinda, the Good Witch |
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| Munchkins |
Along the way she meets three friends and travel companions -- the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion. Each agree to accompany Dorothy to see the Wizard and ask for gifts only he can give.
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| Scarecrow |
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| Tin Man |
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| Apple Tree Forest |
Upon arriving at the Emerald City and talking to the Wizard, they are told that they must prove themselves worthy by bringing him the Wicked Witch of the West's broomstick. So off they go to the Land of the Winkies and the Wicked Witch's castle.
Emerald City is a green-lit assemblage of chrome tanks and plywood tubular skyscrapers. The forced-perspective throne room of the Wizard features his bellowing movie face projected onto a head-shaped screen, flanked by lava lamps.
Before meeting with the Wizard, the group takes a carriage ride to be groomed before the meeting.
The DIY nature of the Land of Oz adds to its trippy charm. Backgrounds are painted onto the walls, the hand-made dummies don't always fill their clothes correctly, and Toto often resembles a pile of black yarn. Dorothy mannequins are everywhere, instantly recognizable in their gingham dresses and red shoes, but she shifts in age from scene to scene from a child to a grown woman and then back again.
The group heads out into the Haunted Forest filled with jitterbugs that spook them and they all collapse from exhaustion. The Wicked Witch's flying monkeys swoop down and capture Dorothy and Toto.
The Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man make it to the Witch's Castle to rescue Dorothy and Toto. The Foursome are reunited but the Wicked Witch prevents their escape and takes a torch to light the Scarecrow on fire. Dorothy grabs a bucket of water to throw on the Scarecrow and ends up throwing some on the Witch. She screams and melts into nothing. The foursome then take the broomstick and head back to the Wizard of Oz.
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| Wizard of Oz |
When they get back to the Emerald City, the Wizard does not want to see them but they go in front of him anyway and hand him the broomstick of the Witch. Toto starts wandering around and finds the curtain where the Wizard is standing and pulls the curtain aside. They discover that the Wizard is an ordinary man (Professor Marvel) speaking into a microphone. As the Wizard grants all of their wishes and gets ready to take Dorothy back to Kansas in his balloon, it accidently takes off without Dorothy and Toto.
Glinda arrives to save the day by telling Dorothy that she had the power to return home all the time. All she has to do is close her eyes, tap her heels together three times and repeat to herself, "there's no place like home."
Dorothy wakes up very confused with a bump on her head and tells her family of the big and strange place where she and Toto were.
The tour ends in a small museum displaying memorabilia, such as the miniature house that was used in the movie's tornado scene, a ukulele owned by one of the Munchkins, a replica of the filing cabinet whose O-Z drawer supposedly inspired the Oz name, and a pair of imitation Ruby Slippers.
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