Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers are Up for Sale: Heritage Auctions
Gary Roskin –
Roskin Gem News Report –
They say that this pair of ruby slippers, the Michael Shaw ruby slippers, are the “Holy Grail” of Hollywood Memorabilia… the ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.”
This pair of ruby slippers were mismatched with another pair of ruby slippers back when they were uncovered in an old movie warehouse in the late 1960s.
This pair of ruby slippers were seen in the film during several iconic scenes!
This pair of ruby slippers were stolen in 2005, and then recovered by the FBI in 2018.
YES…THAT pair of ruby slippers! The “Holy Grail” of Hollywood Memorabilia!
Hollywood Movie Memorabilia and Music Memorabilia Auctions
And you can buy them from the Heritage Auction coming up on December 7th! (current bidding is over $1 million!)
Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers, Stolen in 2005 and Returned to Owner,
Come to Heritage Auctions Before World Tour and December Auction
FBI reunited owner Michael Shaw with his treasure from The Wizard of Oz
during ceremony at the Judy Garland Museum
The Michael Shaw Slippers
The Michael Shaw ruby slippers have a history unlike any other pair of ruby slippers used in the filming of the Wizard of Oz. They are documented as being the slippers worn in the film during iconic moments. They are only one of 6 (or 7?) pair. They have a connection to the ones now at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and more!
The Movie
The Wizard of Oz (MGM, 1939), starring Judy Garland as “Dorothy Gale,” is a Hollywood classic. Dorothy is caught up in a Kansas tornado, transported to the land of Oz, where she is confronted by a wicked witch, a good witch, Munchkins, a talking scarecrow, a cowardly lion, a rusty tin man, and a not so wizardly wizard. The ruby slippers play a key role in Dorothy’s path to find her way back home.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road – The Stolen Pair
The Michael Shaw slippers were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota (Minnesota, not Michigan). You may not have heard that story, as it happened on the same day that hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Anyway, long story short, they were recovered by the FBI in 2018. (You know they are important in American history when you have the FBI working the case of the stolen ruby slippers.)
Toto, I Have a Feeling We’re not in Kansas Anymore – The Mismatched Pair!
One can only imagine (because there is no paper trail) that when the multiple pairs of slippers were uncovered in MGM’s backlot costume warehouse decades after the movie was filmed (some time in the 1960s), that two of those pairs got separated – a left slipper for another left slipper. And so it was with Michael Shaw’s ruby slippers and another pair. But not just another pair! The pair that are now in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History were mixed with Shaw’s. Yes, the FBI contacted the Smithsonian to confirm the authenticity of the stolen pair – by comparing the mismatched pairs.
Ruby Sequins and Rhinestones
The spool-heeled shoes are made of red silk faille overlaid with hand-sequined silk georgette and include flat-jeweled bows made of dyed leather. Each bow is covered with rhinestones—approximately 42 round single cuts and three large red rectangular scissors cuts surrounded by approximately 36 bugle beads. The soles are painted red and affixed with red-orange felt, which muffled the sound of Garland skipping down the yellow brick road. The white kid leather lining is stamped and labeled “Innes Shoe Co., Los Angeles, Hollywood, Pasadena.”
The Famous Scenes
To confirm that the Shaw slippers were actually used in the filming of the movie, Randy Struthers, a Ruby Slipper forensic expert and Smithsonian consultant, studied each scene of the film in which the Ruby Slippers are visible frame-by-frame using high-definition technology. Based on subtle differences among the bows and heels, Struthers determined, collectively, Michael Shaw’s shoes are screen worn by Judy Garland throughout most of the film, including three iconic close-up shots: the shocking of the witch’s hands; the close-up at the Gates of Oz; and the climactic heel tapping scene near the end of the film.
Minnesota Public Radio
Ruby slippers from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ are for sale nearly 2 decades after they were stolen
Courtesy photo of FBI Minneapolis
In Case You Were Wondering – Why Ruby Slippers?
It’s 1938, and Technicolor film is just being used in Hollywood. Making the Wizard of Oz even more dramatic, filming in Kansas is all in black and white, but when Dorothy arrives in the land of Oz, it’s now in Technicolor! So who wants black and white or silver slippers? Louis B. Mayer wants color! Hence, the ruby slippers.
Roskin Gem News Report
We have been following the ruby slippers for over 24 years now, as is evidenced by our feature in JCK Magazine’s GemNotes from August 1, 2000.
Ruby Slippers Prove There’s No Place Like Oz
JCK GemNotes
August 1, 2000
by Gary Roskin
We noted in our GemNotes feature that the pair of ruby slippers that sold at Christie’s on May 24th, 2000 for $666,000, were not Shaw’s. Nor were they the pair on display at the Smithsonian. “The ruby slippers are one of the most widely recognized icons of American popular culture,” said Ellen Roney Hughes, a cultural historian at the museum, from our interview back in 2000. “They have special meaning for the thousands of visitors each year who ask specifically to see them.”
Harry Winston’s Tribute
While the movie ruby slippers do not have a single ruby, we reported on a pair that did have rubies – 4,600 of them to be exact.
“There was another pair of ruby slippers that was covered with them. In 1989, in honor of The Wizard of Oz’s 50th anniversary, Ronald Winston of New York’s Harry Winston designed a $3 million pair of genuine ruby-set slippers – 4,600 rubies (1,350 cts. t.w.) and 50 cts. of diamonds, set into Lucite model shoes.”
Winston’s ruby slippers were used as a traveling showcase for tours benefiting children charities such as the Make-a-Wish Foundation, the Starlight Foundation, and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.
Tap here to learn more about the ruby slippers and of the Heritage Auction coming up in December!
