L. Frank Baum's John Dough and the Cherub was published in 1906. Baum almost certainly planned for the book to serve as the basis of a musical Extravaganza. It had a great comic lead in the title character, the Cherub would provide an androgynous trouser-role, and Para Bruin, the rubber bear, was a perfect role for an animal impersonator.Alas, someone beat Baum to Broadway! The musical, The Gingerbread Man, opened on Broadway in 1905--the year before Baum's book was published. The musical featured a live Gingerbread Man named John Dough. The show also featured King Bun, and Sallie Lunn, characters coincidentally foreshadowing Baum's Bunbury town in Oz. Even more coincidentally, W. W. Denslow and John W. Bratton's 1905 musical The Pearl and the Pumpkin featured a song called "Who Makes the Finest Gingerbread?" sung by none other than a character named John Doe! This time Mr. Doe is the Baker not the baked. But he did have a sidekick named Jimmy Gingerbread

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