No, leave her alone. She hasn't done anything wrong. I'm the one you want. I'm the one you want. It's me. It's me. So if you care to find me.

No, that's not the Brian Lariselle theme song. It's the climax of Defying Gravity,

sung by Cynthia Arrivo in the new film version of Wicked, but I'm sure many of you know that already.

Wicked belongs as well to a broader universe, a broader world of literature, music, theater,

and film, and that world is, of course,

course, Oz.

So now we'll continue our centennial series, 100 Years of 100 Things, and today it's thing number 46,

100 years of the Wizard of Oz, with the release and the immediate popularity of the film

version of Wicked being our hook for

this. Joining me now is John Fricky. He's a historian focused on The Wizard of Oz and Judy Garland

and author of The Wonderful World of Oz and Illustrated History of the American Classic,

which came out in 2014.

John, thanks so much for joining us.

Welcome to WNYC.

Thank you, and congratulations on your centennial.

Thank you very much.

Why don't we start a little bit ahead, in fact, of our 100 years timeline back in 1900,

because that's the year that L. Frank Baum published the book,

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the first out of 14 books in the Oz series.

But that's the original story that eventually was made into the movie and everything.

So where did it come from?

Like I've read that maybe it was an allegory for inequality in the gilded age

...