Hollywood Memorial

Lyman Frank Baum showed a remarkable inclination for journalism from an early age, publishing his own small newspaper and stamp-collecting magazine while still in his teens. His passion for children’s storytelling, however, eventually led to his greatest success. Once, when telling a fabulous story to a group of children, one listener asked the name of the magical land Baum was describing. Looking about the room, Baum’s eyes fell on a file cabinet labeled ‘O-Z.’ The name stuck, and Baum, inspired, published a selection of his stories in his first book, 1899’s ‘Father Goose.’ This book met with great success, and was the best-selling children’s book of the year. Published in 1900, Baum followed this with his greatest successes, ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ and the subsequent musical play ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ Baum would go on to write thirteen more books about Oz, inspiring a legacy perhaps best embodied in the 1939 filming of his work, ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ which, like Baum’s great book, endures as an American classic. Few people know that he founded one of the first movie studios in Hollywood, and lived right in old Hollywood just off Hollywood Blvd. He did not live to see the making of ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ Buried in Forest Lawn in Glendale.