The Lark
When The Wizard of Oz graced the silver screen in 1939, it changed cinema and popular culture forever. But the true story began decades earlier with the young composer who risked everything to bring it to the Broadway stage.
At the turn of the century, twenty-three-year-old Paul Tietjens is a gifted classical pianist with dreams of greatness and a non-refundable ticket to Europe to study with the master composers of his time.
But when the bank calls in the debt on his family’s Missouri farm, Paul forgoes his dream to save them from financial ruin. Desperate to find a new road to success, he moves to up-and-coming Chicago, where he persuades author L. Frank Baum to collaborate on a comic opera of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, setting the stage for the defining cultural touchstone that we know today.
Paul embarks on his opera with high hopes, but scandal threatens his soaring ambition when he falls in love with his best friend’s beautiful but married sister, and his fears grow as the Wizard of Oz demands not only his talent but his soul.
Inspired by Paul’s 1901 diary, The Lark follows Paul as he journeys from the theaters of Chicago to the streets of Manhattan, from his family’s Missouri farm to the beaches of Michigan, fighting to hang onto the chance of a lifetime, his integrity, and the woman he loves.
The Lark is a poignant biographical historical novel of what can happen when artistic ambition clashes with life’s harsh realities, and how the human spirit can soar above the darkest clouds.
Readers who enjoy richly detailed historical fiction drawn from primary sources, and those who are intrigued by turning points in popular culture, will love this true and previously untold story of the first theatrical adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Paul Tietjens’s character development –
his conflicts, challenges, successes
by Laura C. Rader
Almost everything that I know about the main point-of-view character of my historical fiction, The Lark, I learned from the diary of the real man, Paul Tietjens.
I stumbled across his name and a brief biography in my genealogical research, but the character only came to life through his own poetic words laid down in his diary between 1901 and 1904, donated to the Newberry Library in Chicago by his daughter Janet.
Paul’s character is bound to his prodigious talent on the piano, and his steadfast dream of pursuing that talent to the point of greatness. He always knew what he wanted to be “when he grew up”— a concert pianist. At the turn-of-the-century, that dream, while daunting, was more realistic than it would be today. Before sound recordings, film, radio, or television, a piano was the center of entertainment in middle-class homes. Many people played, a very few were skilled, and those who were exceptionally skilled were revered.
St. Louis revered Paul Tietjens, a young German-American pianist who performed with the newly formed St. Louis Symphony in a town settled by German-Americans, but there he was a big fish in a small pond. He set his sights on Europe, where musicians who had studied under Brahms, Chopin, and Mozart were legendary teachers of music. Paul taught piano and saved every penny for the opportunity to learn from the best.
And then the bank threatened to foreclose on the family farm, and Paul forfeited his savings and his dream.
Moving to Chicago in 1901 to live with his childhood friend Ike gave him independence and a fresh start, but without family or income. A practical man, he was willing to consider composing in addition to performance, and learned musical genres beyond the Romantic Classics he loved. He pounded the pavement searching for a road to his dream of success, a road preferably paved with gold. When he met L. Frank Baum, he thought he’d found both, and proposed they collaborate on an operetta of Baum’s recent bestselling book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
But Baum dismissed that idea, and insisted on writing an original comic-opera, The Title Trust. Paul agreed and labored over song after song, basically learning the art of orchestration by the seat of his pants. Their comic-opera met with rejection.
Meanwhile, Paul fell in love with his best friend’s sister, Kate, a treacherous choice as she was married, her husband missing in the Philippine-American war. Their forbidden romance began tentatively, but soon passion overcame them both. This is where I took poetic license with Paul’s character. In his diary, he mentions Kate often, and hints at their “sentimental” feelings and “making love” (the Victorian euphemism for flirtation and courtship), then erases most of what he wrote.
Paul returned to his original idea, and this time L. Frank Baum agreed to a comic-opera of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Songs from The Title Trust were repurposed, new songs written, and finally, a copyright secured and a famous director, Julian Mitchell, is landed.
Mitchell insists that creative success is not the same as commercial success and seizes creative control. Baum must rewrite the libretto, adding new characters and one-liners, and Paul must compose a slew of new songs in a vaudevillian style he abhors. Their operetta is to be instead an Extravaganza!
At this point, deeply in love, Paul and Kate learn that her husband is still alive, and Paul can’t keep pace with Mitchell’s demands. Alone in New York City, desperate to hang onto everything, Paul suffers a nervous breakdown.
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Laura C. Rader
Laura C. Rader is the award-winning author of the biographical historical novel Hatfield 1677. When she isn’t writing, you can find her conducting research, playing her 1905 antique piano, and spending time with her family, friends, and pets.
A native of Southern California, she now lives north of Raleigh, North Carolina.
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