The Wizard of Oz saga of Dorothy's ruby red slippers

From silver to red

It all began with the 1939 film adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". In the book, Dorothy's shoes were silver, but in the movie they were ruby red slippers.

The shoes were on the feet of the Wicked Witch of the East until she was killed by Dorothy’s flying house. Glenda the good witch waved her magic wand and the old black shoes of the little girl from Kansas were replaced by the red shoes.

The Ruby Slippers

These ruby foot coverings are among the most valuable items of film memorabilia and could have been lost forever. Here is the story of their adventures for nine decades.

For many years, movie studios were not concerned with old scripts, props, and costumes. They were either unaware of or indifferent to the growing value of such items due to the increasing demand for memorabilia.

Kent Warner accidentally located several pairs of the ruby slippers in February or March of 1970. He was assisting with the setup of a huge auction of MGM wardrobe props and found the items that were to be sold had been stored in the basement of MGM's wardrobe department

The traveling shoes

It's difficult to imagine today that the ruby slippers were cast off as old, worn-out shoes, but in the midst of the forgotten gems in the collection, there they were.

Five pairs of the famous slippers were found that day, and no one knows for certain how many were used during the filming of The Wizard of Oz. One pair of red shoes became the focal point for the auction, and Kurt Warner is said to have kept the best pair a size 5B, for himself. He sold the others, which were size 5C.

Another pair of slippers that were in the MGM auction was purchased for $15,000 by a lawyer who was acting on behalf of an unidentified client. This is the pair believed to be on permanent display in the Smithsonian Institution's Popular Culture wing of the National Museum of American History.

Dr. Brent Glass, the museum director, appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on January 23, 2008, discussing this pair of ruby slippers. He said, "They were worn by Judy Garland on the Yellow Brick Road because there's felt on the bottom of these slippers".

According to Rhys Thomas, author of "The Ruby Slippers of Oz," there were four pairs of shoes with orange felt on the soles, and only one pair without it. This particular pair that Brent Glass spoke of was experiencing rapid deterioration because of how old they were, and the museum began raising money to fund research on how to best preserve them.

The value in the slippers

The pair of ruby slippers that Kurt Warner kept were referred to as the "Witch's Shoes", and they were in the best condition. Warner sold the slippers in 1981 for $12,000.

They went to an unknown buyer through Christie's East, and resurfaced two weeks later. The shoes were offered privately through Christie's to Philip Samuels of St. Louis, Missouri, who was the underbidder for Bauman shoes.

Samuels bought the ruby slippers for $165,000 and has used them for fundraising for children's charities and also lends them to the Smithsonian when their slippers are cleaned, repaired, or previously had been on tour.

Auction house Profiles in History announced that this pair would be the highlight of its December 15–17, 2011 Icons of Hollywood auction. They were offered at 2 million dollars but did not attract any buyers.

In February 2012, Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, and other famous benefactors made it possible for the shoes to be acquired by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The slippers were sold for an undisclosed sum of money and were to be placed in a forthcoming museum. In 2018, the Smithsonian announced that a pair of the ruby slippers had been restored for 300,000 dollars.

On September 4 of that year, the FBI revealed that a pair of the famous shoes that were stolen in 2013 had been recovered, but they did not offer any details.

A pair of the ruby slippers went missing in August 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minn. This was Garland’s hometown, and the residents were troubled.

The incident made international headlines when someone had broken into the museum, smashed a plexiglass case, and escaped with the iconic ruby shoes.

The stolen items returned

On September 4, 2018, after searching for 13 years the FBI announced the stolen pair had been recovered. No one knows who took them, where they had been or how they were found.

The Western Costume Company in Hollywood claims to have made the original slippers that were worn by Judy Garland, but there are no records to either disprove or validate the claim.

Western produced the only authorized reproduction of the slippers in 1989, to commemorate the film's 50th anniversary.

The reproduction was hand-blasted on Judy Garland's original foot mold, which means the leather upper was stretched over the last by hand and tacked down to the insole.

The reproductions were completely jeweled and sequined and were almost identical to the originals. Only 16 pairs were made, and one of them sold for$35,000 at an auction on November 25, 2013.

An update to the story

On May 17, 2023, the Associated Press reported the following:

Federal prosecutors say a man has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of stealing a pair of ruby red slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz.” The FBI recovered the slippers in a sting operation in 2018.A grand jury indicted Terry Martin on Tuesday on one count of theft of a major artwork, federal prosecutors in North Dakota announced Wednesday. The indictment did not provide any further information about him

The indictment alleges that in 2005, Martin stole an authentic pair of shoes that Garland’s character, Dorothy, wore in the 1939 MGM musical. Online records do not list an attorney for Martin.

Associated Press