L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum

University of California, Los Angeles Library

No place like Coronado

For 'Wonderful Wizard of Oz' author L. Frank Baum, city was a winter paradise

By DAVID L. CODDON

Notable American writers who’ve stayed at the Hotel del Coronado include Henry James, Upton Sinclair, playwright Tennessee Williams and Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss). But L. Frank Baum, the author of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” is perhaps most associated with the historic beachfront resort.

Baum’s winter respites at The Del, most of them between 1904 and 1910, were working vacations. During his monthslong residencies at the hotel, he wrote three of his 14 “Oz” books — “Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz” in 1908, “The Road to Oz” in 1909 and “The Emerald City of Oz” in 1910 — as well as part of a fourth, “The Patchwork Girl of Oz,” eventually published in 1913.

Only in 1906, did Baum and his wife, Maud, not spend their winter in Coronado to escape the cold of Chicago. That year, they traveled to Europe and Egypt. And one winter, between 1908 and 1909, the Baums rented a home on nearby Star Park Circle instead of staying at The Del. The Star Park house was owned by Coronado resident George Gay and dubbed the Gay Cottage. It still stands today, with a doormat embossed with the Wicked Witch of the East’s stockinged feet and the lyric “Ding Dong …”

Baum was born in central New York state on May 15, 1856, and lived in South Dakota before settling in Chicago. Prior to finding success in 1900 with the publication of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” Baum went through numerous careers, including journalist, manager of a theater company and founder of a baseball club, according to reports.

Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” Baum went through numerous careers, including journalist, manager of a theater company and founder of a baseball club, according to reports.

en unpleasant to them did they chance to gain admission.”en unpleasant to them did they chance to gain admission.”The couple, who had four sons, first visited Coronado in 1904, initially attracted by the climate. The Coronado Historical Association possesses a collection of “The Baum Bugle,” the official journal of the International Wizard of Oz Club. A “Bugle” article titled “The Coronado Fairyland” recounts an interview Baum gave to the San Diego Union in 1904. “Those who do not find Coronado a paradise,” Baum told the newspaper, “have doubtless brought with them the same conditions that would render heaven unpleasant to them did they chance to gain admission.”

It’s little wonder that the Baums would make Coronado their yearly winter vacation spot. “They must have never experienced anything like it,” said Gina Petrone, heritage manager at the Hotel Del.

There are no photographs of Baum or his wife or son Kenneth (the only one of the sons who traveled with his parents to Coronado) on the Hotel Del premises, but much is known about the winters that the author spent there. Baum’s daily writing regime reportedly was from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., after which “he spent the rest of the day on leisure,” Petrone said.

His leisure activities included golf, sailing on Glorietta Bay and archery. (The Historical Association has a photo, available for public viewing upon request, that shows Baum with his archery companions and another of him reading to a group of Coronado children.)

While at The Del, Baum was great friends with the hotel manager, Morgan Ross, about whom he wrote a poem. According to Petrone, Baum stayed in several different rooms at the hotel throughout his vacations.

“It’s so wonderful to sit there and think this is where he wrote,” Petrone said about one of the rooms where Baum had stayed.

The hotel is explicitly referenced in one of the children’s books Baum wrote under the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne, titled “Aunt Jane’s Nieces and Uncle John” and published in 1911: “The Major smiled benignantly when he reached his appointed room in the magnificent Hotel del Coronado, which is famous throughout the world. ‘This,’ said he, ‘reminds me of New York, and it’s the first thing that has since I left home.’” Whether the Hotel Del or Coronado itself directly inspired Baum’s work up until the time of his death in 1919 is a subject of continuous speculation among academics and Baum fans alike. One of his characters, the Woggle-Bug from “The Woggle-Bug Book,” supposedly sprung from a meeting Baum had on the beach with a Coronado child and her description of a sand crab.

The Hotel del Coronado's registration ledger from Jan 11, 1905, shows the signatures of Frank Baum, Mrs. Baum and their youngest son, Kenneth Baum. The elder Baums were checked into Room 48, while Kenneth had Room 47.

Baum’s best-known and documented connection to the Hotel del Coronado is his contribution to the Crown Room.

“He thought the lighting in the dining room could be improved, and he designed it,” Petrone recounted. The resulting crown chandelier bore a whimsical resemblance to the Cowardly Lion crown in “Oz” books illustrated by William Wallace Denslow. That original chandelier can only be seen today on guided tours of the hotel.

In addition to the “Oz” books, Baum wrote more than 40 other novels, numerous short stories and some 200 poems. One poem, his 1905 “Empress of the Sea,” praised Coronado for “her tropic palms,” “her brilliant flowers” and “the songbirds sweet that warble in her bowers.”

It was a magical place for him to which he would return even after moving with his family to Hollywood in 1911 and a home they called Ozcot. ■

Baum found success as a writer with "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," published in 1900.

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