Original Ruby Slippers stolen

[Popular]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 1:01am

I know some of you may be interested to know...
Yahoo News

[luvliza89]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 1:23am

I just started to tear up.

I am THAT gay.
Really though, thats sad.

Ok, which of you queen's have a foot fetish!

[kasim]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 9:13am

"I just started to tear up.

I am THAT gay.
Really though, thats sad.

Ok, which of you queen's have a foot fetish!"

well i am sad and i'm straight and it brought a glimmer to my eye.

Course i am just waiting for someone to come in here and blame a wicked fan :)

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 9:25am

Weep not.

There were several pairs of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in THE WIZARD OF OZ. One pair is still on display at the Great Movie ride in Disney's MGM Studio in Orlando.

[KChenowethfan]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 9:31am

There is also a pair on display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 9:41am

Hmmm, ONE MILLION DOLLARS? Can we say "Insurance Fraud?" How desperate is that museum (or whoever holds the policy?)

[IdinaRocks]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 9:57am

Can anybody copy and paste? The link won't work on my computer!

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 10:01am

You think 1 Mill$ is a lot? I actually was shocked to see how LITTLE the insurance on the shoes were...

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 10:02am

"GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. -- A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz" and insured for $1 million is missing from a Grand Rapids museum.

Police Chief Leigh Serfling said the slippers were stolen late Saturday or early Sunday. Someone entered the museum through a window and broke into the small display case holding the slippers...


...Children's Discovery Museum director John Kelsch said the slippers belong to a Los Angeles man who loaned them to the museum for several weeks this summer.

The children's museum houses the Judy Garland museum, which displayed the same pair of slippers last year. Garland was born in Grand Rapids in 1922...


...Four pairs of ruby slippers worn by Garland in the movie are known to exist, including one pair on display at the Smithsonian Institution. Another pair sold at Christie's auction house in 2000 for $666,000."

-MSN.com News/The Associated Press


(Cuts made for copyrighting legalities.)

Updated On: 8/30/05 at 10:02 AM

[JHartnow]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 10:03am

Dollypop, that pair of ruby slippers, formally owned by Anthony Landini, were sold in 2000 at Christies East for $666,000.00. They are now owned by David Elkouby of Los Angeles and have been in a bank vault since he took ownership of them. The Great Movie Ride hasn't been the same since.

There are 4 other pairs known to exist:

• There is a pair owned by Philip Samuels in St Louis, MO, who brings them out occasionally to raise money for the MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION. This pair was used on the dead feet of the Wicked Witch of the East.

• The pair at the Smithsonian were the primary pair that Judy Garland wore throughout production #1060. They were donated to the American History museum in the late 1970's after the anonymous owner found out they weren't the only pair used in the film.

• In 1970, Michael Shaw privately purchased an original pair of ruby slippers and one of Judy Garland's pinafore dresses for $2,500 from Hollywood wheeler-dealer costumer Kent Warner. That must have been the DEAL of the century. This is the pair that has now been reported stolen by The Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, MN. Controversy has surrounded this pair of shoes since 1970 when Shaw acquired them, because they were supposed to go to Debbie Reynolds when he was her unofficial curator of her Hollywood memorabilia collection. He has been noted as saying "I will BURN the ruby slippers before I give them to her...".

• The 5th pair of ruby slippers are owned by Debbie Reynolds, and they are a pair of curly-toed, arabian styled slippers that Judy Garland tested in the spring of 1938 but never wore on film. Her collection is being featured on ANTIQUES ROAD SHOW tomorrow night, August 31 on PBS.




Updated On: 8/30/05 at 10:03 AM

[lildogs]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 10:14am

What the f*** kind of security is that? Someone opens a window, breaks a glass and heads out with a pair of $1 million shoes. I don't care if it is Grand Forks, they can't be that naive! It does sound a little fishy...

[kasim]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 10:18am

i was in michigan this weekend ... :)

(course i was in ann arbor and lansing)

[wickedobsessed]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 10:19am

Its a pair of shoes... not to mention theres like 25 pairs of them.

[kasim]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 10:26am

"Its a pair of shoes... not to mention theres like 25 pairs of them."

Did you even read the article?

it said there were FOUR of them

[Mamie]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 10:31am

I'm sorry - you can't read? There's not 25 pairs like them.

I work at the Smithsonian and when I saw the topic I thought there'd been a robbery there. The American History museum holds the original Star Spangled Banner, the first ladies gowns, objects belonging to each president, from George Washington on up to what's-his-name, etc. Still, it wouldn't surprise me if someone breaking in wouldn't go right for the ruby slippers!

[JHartnow]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 10:31am

There are four "identical" pairs and one test pair that have survived. Nobody knows what happened to the bugle-bead test shoes that Judy wore during the Richard Thorpe footage. Wickedobsessed is just taking part of the line from WICKED, obviously..."...let it go! It's just a pair of shoes..."

-John

[JHartnow]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 10:34am

Mamie,

Are you at the American History Museum? I did a portion of my college thesis on the ruby slippers and spent 2 months there in research. Sad or not, one of the highlights of my life was getting to hold the slippers...

-John

[JHartnow]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 10:52am

Ruby Slippers owned by Philip Samuels in St. Louis.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 11:00am

God, I feel so bad for Michael Shaw...

He's what I would classify as a "fringe acquaintance" of mine from years ago. I met him through a mutual friend. I was invited to his place one time back then and saw his amazing pair of Ruby Slippers. He didn't normally keep them so readily available. They were usually locked up in a bank vault somewhere. But he regularly loaned them out for display, saying he thought they should be seen by the public as often as possible, and I must have caught him on a "good day" when he had them with him.

Michael has one of the most amazing collections of movie memorabilia ever seen. He and Debbie Reynolds tried for years to get their two collections together, but sadly each one thinks the other is crazy, and it's not likely to ever happen. Our loss.

Debbie's collection is far bigger, but Michael has some "holy grail" Hollywood items: Scarlett's "curtain" dress from GWTW, Cyd Charisse's green spangled dress from "Singin' in the Rain" (a sore-spot with Debbie, apparently) the Maltese Falcon bronze statue, the painting of Gene Tierney used in "Laura," plus more indredible Oz items: One of Judy Garland's Dorothy dresses in immaculate condition, I might add (There were 10 of these identical dresses made for her during production of "Oz"), Margaret Hamilton's black witch hat, and a Munchkin soldier's uniform.

The ruby slippers were the crowning glory of his collection, though. He's been offered enormous amounts of money in the past for them, but never sold them, fearing they would disappear into someones private collection forever, never to be seen by the public again. Michael's biggest thrill was getting to share them with other people. I haven't spoken to him since he showed me the shoes several years ago... but I'm sure he's totally devastated right now. The insurance money won't help fix that either. He could sell some of his other items and reach that amount. He fancied himself a curator of the Ruby Slippers' "Hollywood magic" and that's gone now.

An interesting note: His pair of shoes and the Smithsonian's pair are actually mixed together. They had catalogue numbers of some kind sewn into them, and his left shoe number matches their right shoe, and vice-versa. There is actually a slight difference in their shapes as well, if you look closely. I asked him about that when I saw them, and he explained the reason.

[alli2]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 11:22am

if I had more money than God, I would probably try to buy a pair. I just think they're really cool.

But honestly, what is the point of stealing a pair?! You can't do anything but look at them! If you try to sell them off as the 'original' slippers, somebody somewhere is going to hear and be like, 'step off, thief, these aren't yours!' so he basically gets to hide them in a vault now too.

[Jon]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 12:42pm

I think "Ruby Slippers" would be a great name for a female impersonator.

[Mamie]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 12:55pm

LOL - I agree Jon. I hadn't thought of it until you said it. I love that name!

John - I work with VIARC which is a branch of the main Smithsonian that provides support to all the museums. For the last 6 years I've worked exclusively at the Castle. This year I started 'roving' and I move around, as needed, at all the museums. This year I've worked at American History, Natural History, American Indian, Freer, Sackler, and Renwick. VIARC no longer supports Air and Space.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 12:57pm

I'm straight and this made me upset.

[wickedobsessed]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 1:01pm

Mamie~ I didnt waist my time to read this article. Just forget what I said.

[ShuQ]

Posted: 8/30/05 at 1:01pm

I would have thought they would have had better security on those things. But I bet the person wearing them right now is having a blast.