BABES IN TOYLAND Glen MacDonough, Anna Chapin; Illust. Ethel Betts 1st/1st, 1904

  Babes in Toyland by Glen MacDonough and Anna Alice Chapin; Illustrated by Ethel Franklin Betts — First Edition First Printing 1904

 Publisher: Fox Duffield and Company, New York (1904)

Very rare first edition, first printing copy of "Babes in Toyland" by Glen MacDonough and Anna Anna Chapin from 1904. Illustrated in color by Ethel Franklin Betts. The boards and binding are solid and tight save for some shelfwear to spine ends and corners. The pages are crisp and clean save for a smudge or two and some wear to one illustration along the of the fore-edge. Former owner's name on first two blank pages. 

Description

 Babes in Toyland is a 1903 operetta by Victor Herbert, which wove together various characters from Mother Goose nursery rhymes into a musical — mainly because librettist Glen MacDonough wanted to cash in on the Wizard of Oz phenomena sweeping Broadway that year. It features some of Herbert's most famous songs - among them "Toyland", "March of the Toys", "Go To Sleep, Slumber Deep", and "I Can't Do The Sum". The title song "Toyland" and "March of the Toys" occasionally show up on Christmas compilations. A new book and lyrics for the show were written for the Light Opera of Manhattan (LOOM) in the 1970s by Alice Hammerstein-Matthias (the daughter of Oscar Hammerstein II) and director-producer William Mount-Burke. LOOM played this operetta as a Christmas show for several weeks each year thereafter for about a decade with considerable success, and the rewritten book and lyrics has since been used by other companies. The ensemble becomes a mechanical militia of toys for the "March of the Toys," and children from the audience are brought up to help "wind-up" the toy dancers.