In the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy Gale goes on a journey, one that takes her down the Yellow Brick Road and all the way to the Emerald City with plenty of adventure in between. Now, a pair of the iconic Ruby Slippers Judy Garland wore as Dorothy in the film are about to reach the end of their own Yellow Brick Road — but their journey is wilder than anything Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion ever could have dreamed up. The slippers are currently up for auction, capping off a nearly two-decade adventure after having been stolen.
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Over at Heritage Auctions, a pair of the Ruby Slippers worn on-screen by Garland in the classic MGM musical fantasy film, are up for auction with a current (as of this article’s writing) bid of $1.15 million. The pair is one of only four known to exist and this pair in particular is special even among those known pairs. In terms of their condition, they are unique in that they are a darker color than the other known pairs, likely because they were stored out of direct light. But that’s not the only thing that makes them special. This pair was stolen in 2005, they also aren’t a matched pair, and their entire journey has been a wild ride.
Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.
Let’s take this story back to the beginning. After the making of The Wizard of Oz, no one knew where the Ruby Slippers were and no one really knew how many surviving pairs of the shoes there even were. In 1970, at least four total pairs of Ruby Slippers – three used in the film and one test pair – were discovered by costume designer Kent Warner as part of an effort to identify and organize costumes and props for an MGM auction. That auction is a thing of Hollywood legend, and included numerous items from iconic films, including the Cowardly Lion’s costume from The Wizard of Oz and even chariots from Ben Hur just to name a couple of items. One pair of the shoes was put up for auction, with Warner letting it be believed they were the only pair.
[RELATED: Stolen Ruby Slippers From The Wizard of Oz Have Been Recovered by FBI]
The slippers sold at the auction were donated to the Smithsonian in 1979. Warner, however, had sold one pair to Michael Shaw along with Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West hat from the film. He sold a test pair (the “Arabian” pair that is different in style to the ones worn in the film) to Debbie Reynolds and kept one pair for himself. The fourth screen-worn pair? Turns out they were in a private collection, having been won as a prize as part of an MGM promotional contest – news that came to light after the big MGM auction, shocking everyone as it had been believed the pair sold at auction was the only one.
Shaw’s slippers soon went on display across the country as part of Michael Shaw’s Hollywood on Tour show starting in the 1980s and a few times, they were put on display at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota which is where they were in 2005 for a 10-week viewing as part of the annual Judy Garland Festival. And this is where the story takes a wild turn. After having been on display for just a week, the shoes were stolen, disappearing without a trace. The missing shoes became one of Hollywood’s most interesting mysteries (right up there with the stolen James Bond Aston Martin DB5) until 2017 when a man came forward and told the shoes’ insurer that he knew where the shoes were and could help get them back. In 2018, the shoes were recovered by the FBI in a sting operation with the thief indicted on one count of major artwork theft. Court documents revealed that Terry Martin stole the slippers in 2005 because he had been told they were made from real rubies — the shoes had been insured for $1 million, lending to the idea that they were made with gems. However, once Martin took the shoes, he realized the “gems” were just sequins and got rid of the shoes.
There’s no place like home.
But the story doesn’t end there for the slippers. You see, it was pretty well-known at this point that the pair of Ruby Slippers on display at the Smithsonian was special — and not just because they were worn by Garland on-screen as Dorothy. The shoes were special because they weren’t actually a matched pair. Somehow, ahead of the 1970 MGM auction, the different matched pairs of slippers were separated when Warner took them home with him and re-paired with different shoes. When authorities took the recovered Shaw slippers to the Smithsonian for proper authentication, it was discovered that the Shaw slippers and the Smithsonian slippers crossmatch, or more simply put, are “mismatched twins” — you can read the whole fascinating details of that discovery straight from the Smithsonian.
And of course, there is one more interesting turn in the story of the stolen-then-recovered Ruby Slippers from their authentication. It turns out that the Shaw slippers (specifically the left shoe) were worn on screen in The Wizard of Oz for the majority of the film and are specifically visible in several scenes — including when Dorothy clicks her heels to go back home, something that is oddly fitting considering the long journey the slippers took off-screen to also go back “home”.
As for the four known pair of Ruby Slippers — and this number does not include the “Arabian” test pair — with the stolen slippers recovered, their locations are now finally known. The Shaw slippers will be on display in London from November 28th through December 5th. The Smithsonian’s pair is on display in the National Museum of American History in the Entertainment Nation exhibition. The pair that Warner kept for himself is now on display at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum in Los Angeles. The fourth pair remains in a private collection.
And given that they are each an important part of film and pop culture history? We’re pretty sure this is far from the end of the story.
