Here’s a clip from my presentation, “Demystifying Gold and Silver”. Watch the video to learn some fun facts about the “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” book.
Like many of you, I grew up loving the movie Wizard of Oz, the Tin Man, Scarecrow, the Wizard, Dorothy, and the ruby slippers.
I loved the movie, scared of the green witch and the flying monkeys, of course. Now who would’ve thought the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum in 1900 was all about gold and silver?
L. Frank Baum was a bi-metallic supporter, he was a political satirist, and he believed in gold and silver as money, just like it says in the constitution. So in the book, Dorothy’s slippers were actually silver and represented the silver standard. The yellow brick road was actually the analogy to the gold standard or gold as money. So, you could almost look at it as the gold brick road. The wizard represented a crooked politician who wanted to print paper money, and you can call him the Wizard of Ounces, gold and silver ounces, because OZ is short for ounces. Also, the Emerald City represented green printed money. L. Frank Baum was making the analogy to, “Hey, stick with gold and silver, stay away from printed green money.”
There are other analogies in the book. For example, the Tin Man and the oil can represented Rockefeller’s control over industry by controlling the oil market. The Scarecrow represented farmers who the crooked politicians saw as stupid. But if you recall the movie and in the book, it was the scarecrow that came up with all the good ideas. Again, this book is all about gold and silver.