Judy Garland
Ruby Slippers
The ruby slippers are the magical shoes worn by Dorothy (played by Judy Garland) in the 1939 MGM movie The Wizard of Oz. In the film, Dorothy acquires the slippers after her house falls on and kills the Wicked Witch of the East, freeing the Munchkins from the Witch’s tyranny. In return for her unintentional good deed, Dorothy receives the slippers to protect her from the Witch’s vengeful sister, the Wicked Witch of the West. Dorothy knows the slippers are magical, but she is unaware of their specific powers. Only at the end of the film does Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, reveal the slippers’ secret: Whenever Dorothy wishes, she can return home to Kansas by simply clicking her heels three times and repeating, “There’s no place like home”.
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In L. Frank Baum’s original novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy wore silver slippers. The movie’s creators changed them to ruby to take advantage of the chromatic possibilities of the new Technicolor film process.
The ruby slippers were designed by Gilbert Adrian. It is speculated that at least seven pairs were made in Judy Garland’s sizes 5 and 6; four pairs used in the movie have been accounted for today, as well as one ‘Arabian test pair’ that was used in costume tests but not seen in the final picture. One pair is on permanent exhibition at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC[1]. This pair does not match (the right bow is higher than left; see picture), fueling speculation that more of the slippers may exist. The others pairs are owned by private collectors Philip Samuels and David Elkouby. A very elaborate curled-toe pair, not used in the film, is owned by actress and memorabilia preservationist Debbie Reynolds. Another unused, bugle-beaded pair was made while Richard Thorpe directed the film. The whereabouts of that pair are unknown.
The four pairs of shoes used in the film were originally white silk pumps from the Innes Shoe Company in Los Angeles, and bear an embossed gold or silver stamp, or an embroidered cloth label, on the white kid leather sole of the right shoe. At the time, many movie studios used plain white silk shoes because they were inexpensive and easily dyed. It is likely that most of the shoes worn by female characters in The Wizard of Oz were plain Innes shoes with varying heel heights, dyed to match each costume. The shoes used for Dorothy’s slippers were dyed red; then burgundy sequined organza overlays were attached to each shoe’s upper and heel. The film’s early 3-strip Technicolor process required the sequins to be darker than most red sequins found today; bright red sequins would have appeared orange on screen. The Art Deco-inspired bows comprised three large rectangular red glass jewels with dark-red bugle beads, outlined in orange-red glass rhinestones in silver settings. The stones and beads were sewn to a piece of red strap leather, then to the organza-covered shoe. Three pairs of the surviving slippers have orange felt glued to their soles to deaden noise. The remaining, unmuffled pair, the smallest, was used on the feet of the dead Wicked Witch of the East and possibly for close-ups of Dorothy (e.g. in Munchkinland and at the Emerald City gates). Garland wore one primary pair during shooting. This pair can be seen when the Witch tries to grab them, while holding Dorothy and her friends captive at her castle; and at the film’s climax, when Dorothy taps her heels to return to Kansas. The “sister set” to this pair is owned by Michael Shaw, who obtained them from Kent Warner in 1970. This pair can clearly be seen in the final film when Dorothy shows the ruby slippers to the Emerald City doorman. This pair has been missing since it was stolen from an exhibit at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, MN.[2] The last known pair was made for Bobbie Koshay, Judy’s stunt double. This is most likely the size 6B pair (owned by Roberta Bauman, Anthony Landini, and current owner David Elkouby) whose lining says “Double” instead of “Judy Garland”. Judy may have worn this pair for photos and publicity appearances after the film’s primary shooting was finished in 1939.
At a 1970 MGM auction, a pair sold for $15,000 (the pair now on permanent exhibition in the Popular Culture wing; The American History Museum; The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.). Another pair was originally owned by a Tennessee woman named Roberta Bauman who won them in a “Name the Best Movies of 1939″ Contest at her high school. She owned them until 1988, when she sold them to the auction house Christie’s East for $165,000 plus commission. Anthony Landini bought the shoes, and immediately started showing them at The Disney/MGM Studios The Great Movie Ride in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Two weeks after Landini bought his pair, yet another authentic pair surfaced, previously owned by Kent Warner, who found most surviving pairs of slippers while working in the Hollywood costume industry. This pair was offered privately through Christie’s to the under-bidder of the Bauman shoes. Philip Samuels of St. Louis, Missouri bought them for the same price that Anthony paid, $165,000. Samuels has used his shoes for fund raising for children’s charities as well as lending them to The Smithsonian when their slippers are cleaned, repaired or (previously) on tour. Landini auctioned his pair of slippers off, yet again at Christie’s East, on May 24, 2000 for $666,000, which included the buyers premium and commission to the auction house. They were sold to David Elkouby and his partners, who own memorabilia shops in Hollywood. Elkouby has been convicted of selling costumes stolen from movie sets.[citation needed] Elkouby and Co. have yet to display the shoes again. Yet another pair of ruby slippers from the film, owned by Michael Shaw, was exhibited in the Oz museum in Wamego, Kansas. They were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum, part of the Children’s Discovery Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in August, 2005 and have yet to be recovered. Further information about the history of the shoes can be found in the book The Ruby Slippers of Oz, by Rhys Thomas (1989).
The Ruby Slippers play yet another integral role in the 1985 Disney film “Return to Oz”, for which Disney had to obtain rights from MGM to use reproductions in the film.[3] Unlike the slippers used in the 1939 film, the hand-made British spool-heeled shoes for Return to Oz were covered in hundreds of red crystals.[3] The stones were soaked in sulphuric acid to remove the silver backing,[3] and two types of glue were used to affix them to the shoes (a spray glue and an optical glue). No matter what was done, the stones would not stay in place, and kept falling off during filming.[3] Effects were later added in post production to give the slippers their magical glow. Simple, red grosgrain ribbon with additional stones were used for the bows. Four pairs were made for the filming: one pair, size one, for Ozma (Emma Ridley), two pairs, size 2, for Dorothy (Fairuza Balk), and one pair, men’s size 10, for The Gnome King (Nicol Williamson). Stagehands were specifically hired to sweep up loose “rubies” that would fall off the slippers after a scene was shot. Fairuza and Emma, being the little girls they were, couldn’t keep from playing, skipping and tapping their heels, so eventually they were required to take off the slippers between takes. In 1985, the Walt Disney Company gave away a pair of slippers to promote the film. They were won by a British family, who sold them to prominent Oz collector Willard Carroll in a 2001 eBay auction.
The Western Costume Company in Hollywood claims to have made Garland’s original slippers. While it is likely that Western would have been contracted to make some of The Wizard of Oz’s many costumes, no records of the original slippers exist to validate their claim. In 1989, to commemorate the movie’s 50th anniversary, Western produced the only authorized Ruby Slipper reproductions. Hand-lasted on Judy Garland’s original foot mold and completely sequined and jeweled, the reproduction slippers were nearly identical to the originals. Western planned a limited edition of 500 pairs at $5000 each, but halted the project after selling only 16 pairs.
An imitation pair of Ruby Slippers appeared in the 2002 movie, The Master of Disguise. Another pair appeared in an Oz sequence in the cult comedy Kentucky Fried Movie.
According to the revisionist version of the Oz history chronicled in Gregory Maguire’s Wicked, the slippers were given to the Wicked Witch of the East (Nessarose) by her father. At the time the shoes appeared silver. After being enchanted by Glinda (the Good Witch of the North) they become items of power that allow Nessarose to walk without the assitance of a wheelchair. The energy of Glinda’s spell gave the shoes their famed ruby glow. Maguire’s invention thus bridges Baum’s silver shoes and the ruby slippers of the film. In the musical adaptation of Wicked, like the novel, the slippers are given to Nessarose by her father. Unlike the book, however, Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, is the one that enchants the shoes, giving Nessarose the ability to walk. This shows the underlying reason why Elphaba wanted the shoes from Dorothy so badly.
The Ruby Slippers of Oz by Rhys Thomas. Tale Weaver Publishing. 1989. A true Hollywood mystery story about the most famous shoes in the world, and the definitive work on the Hollywood Memorabilia Underworld and the man who created it.
In World of Warcraft, the Ruby Slippers are a pair of epic-level cloth shoes dropped by the Wizard of Oz-themed “opera event” in the Karazhan raid instance. The shoes function similarly to the hearthstone that all characters start out with, allowing them to teleport from their current location to the inn where the hearthstone is set. The caption under the statistic lines, much like in the movie, is “There’s no place like home.”
About the Author
Himfr is a scholar, focusing his research on Chinese cultures. If you are interested in purchasing China goods, please visit www.himfr.com
JUDY GARLAND “GET HAPPY” (SUMMER STOCK, 1950)
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