American Road Magazine Spring 2021 Back Issue

Pack up your ruby slippers and bring your little dog, too: We’re off to see the wizard!

Everything in the Spring 2021 issue of American Road is Oz-themed, beginning with our lead feature, “Return to Oz,” which showcases eleven sights around the US that take visitors over the rainbow. Did you know there exists a California hotel that inspired Oz author L. Frank Baum to dream up the Emerald City? Or a town in Kansas wherein young girls audition to play Dorothy tour guides? Have you seen that giant copy of the original Wizard of Oz novel in a Michigan grown wholly of flowers? Or the famous Oz Museum in the corner of the Sunflower State?

The movie The Wiz was a wonder when it was released in 1978—an urban retelling of The Wizard of Oz set against a dystopian New York. In “The Wiz Revisited,” we explore the movie’s filming locations. Afterward, we head into the wilds with “Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!”—a compendium that takes a fearful phrase from the MGM musical and flips it on its fuzzy sides. Here are Vegas cats that once were the wards of Siegfried and Roy and Orlando bears who’ve sung “Mama, Don’t Whip Little Buford” since 1971. Oh, and don’t forget the charming lion-and-mouse statue sculpted by Detroit artist Marshall Fredericks in 1957.

So, join us as we set off down the yellow brick road. Bring a mind for discovery, a heart for adventure, and your courage to explore!