Button-Bright (Saladin von Smith)

Button-Bright (real name: Saladin Paracelsus de Lambertine Evagne von Smith) first appears in the 1909 book The Road to Oz.[3] When Button-Bright first appears, he is shown as a little boy who answers most questions with "Don't know." In the story Button's head is temporarily changed into a fox's head by King Dox of Foxville; upon arriving in the Land of Oz, Billina and Tik-Tok took Button-Bright to the Truth Pond so that he could regain his head. He later makes an appearance at Princess Ozma's birthday party. Baum brought Button-Bright back for his 1912 novel Sky Island, where he encounters Trot and Cap'n Bill for the first time. In this novel he is shown to be older and more verbal. Button reveals that he is from Philadelphia, and that his real name is Saladin Paracelsus de Lambertine Evagne von Smith. He was given the nickname "Button-Bright" by his parents as his name is rather long, and because they think that he is "bright as a button". In The Scarecrow of Oz (1915), Button-Bright becomes the first American to accidentally emigrate to the Land of Oz. In the sequel Oz books, he is often the main character in subplots that deal with him getting lost and being found again. In the non-canon stories of March Laumer, Button-Bright is depicted as an adult and married to Glinda. In the Dorothy Must Die multi-volume series, he is married to Polychrome. Button-Bright appears in the 1985 film Return to Oz in the background at Princess Ozma's coronation.