L. Frank Baum
Author, “The Wizard of Oz”
If entrepreneurship is about filling an unmet need, L. Frank Baum is an entrepreneur. His book, “The Wizard of Oz” found lasting fame in the 1939 movie starring Judy Garland and more recently as a blockbuster musical, and the soon to be released (and highly anticipated) movie “Wicked.”
Many entrepreneurs endure numerous failures before finding that magic intersection of supply and demand that represents true value. He ran a bazaar, managed a baseball club, was a reporter for a frontier newspaper and buyer of dishware for a department store before striking it big with his first book. (Think J.K. Rowling and “Harry Potter.)
But Baum’s success was not limited to the book alone. “When The Wizard of Oz was published in 1900 with illustrations by the Chicago-based artist William Wallace Denslow, Baum became not only the best-selling children’s book author in the country, but also the founder of a genre.”
The mark of a great entrepreneur is an enduring offering. It’s been over a century since its publication, 70 years after its debut on the big screen, inspiration for 13 book sequels and incredible success on Broadway and no doubt again on big screen. Very few companies last so long.
It’s easy for the entrepreneur to become obscured in the light of the success of his offering. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to learn more about the life of “Frank Baum, the Man Behind the Curtain”.
