Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers
The absolutely iconic movie The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, was actually not the first colour film but everyone remembers the moment Dorothy steps into Oz and emerges in colour, complete with her ruby slippers. So it makes sense that this iconic pair of shoes would be a target for collectors and thieves alike.
The Ruby Slippers
So let’s talk about these shoes for a second. Interestingly enough, in L.Frank Braum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, on which the movie is based, Dorothy wears silver shoes (of course stolen from the Wicked Witch of the East after she crushes her with her house). But when they were making the movie in 1939 they wanted to take advantage of the new colour film technology and thought that red slippers would be more dramatic and effective on screen.
The shoes were designed by chief MGM costume designer Gilbert Adrian. Originally Adrian made two pairs to test on screen, one was referred to as the Arabian test part which had curled toes and were completely encrusted with jewels. Ultimately it was decided that these didn’t fit with Dorothy’s Kansas farm girl image and they were too heavy because of the jewels so the final design was much more simple and they achieved the sparkle mostly using sequins.
The exact number of pairs of ruby slippers made for the film is unknown, some people think that it must have been around seven, as of today five pairs have survived that were used in the filming of the movie. As you can imagine with the success of the movie and of Judy Garland herself these shoes are huge collectors items and are extremely valuable. In 1970, in the first auction of MGM memorabilia from movies, one of the pairs sold for $15,000, for example, but they have all changed hands a lot over the years.
The Theft
Now that we all know the history and cinematic importance of these shoes let’s move closer to the present. On the morning of August 29, 2005 curators at the Judy Garland Museum, located in her home in Grand Rapids Michigan, entered the building to start their day. However, they were dismayed to find that the glass display case containing one of these pairs of remaining slippers had been smashed during the night and the slippers were gone. All that the thieves left behind was a single red sequin.
This pair of slippers didn’t even belong to the museum, they belonged to a collector named Michael Shaw who purchased them for $2,000 in 1970 and who also owns one of Dorothy’s dresses from the movie, a witch’s hat, and a munchkin outfit. He was in the habit of loaning the slippers to raise money for different charitable causes, to the Smithsonian to display while their pair was being cleaned, and, in 2005, to a 10-week traveling tour across the country.
According to a press release by the Grand Rapids police, a thief, or thieves broke into the museum’s back door, smashed the case, and took off with the slippers. Since there were no cameras in the building, and the alarm failed to go off they really didn’t have much to go on.
The Investigation
As the investigation dragged on, the police were getting nowhere. Rumours started to circulate that local kids had stolen the slippers and threw them in the river or an abandoned iron-ore pit. The police chased down every lead, including those rumours, and eliminated people and potential dump sites one by one. Grand Rapids police sergeant Robert Stein said, “Over the years, our officers investigated numerous tips as they came in, eliminating each one. The problem is that there are a great many reproductions out there and people believed that these were the stolen slippers. Each proved not to be the missing slippers. As recently as two weeks ago, we received a telephone call from a psychic telling us that she was sure she knew where the slippers were” (Daley, 2018).
Then, finally, in the summer of 2017 the police received a credible tip about the slippers. An individual had approached the company that insures the slippers claiming that he had information about the whereabouts of the shoes and how they could be returned. It became clear that he was trying to extort the owners of the slippers and the insurance company contacted the police.
It’s annoying because every source I look at says the police conducted a year-long sting operation and they were eventually able to recover the shoes. However, I’m not able to find the details of this undercover operation unfortunately. The good news is that the shoes were found safe and sound. The weird news is that at that time, 2018, no arrest was made.
After the slippers were recovered the police took them to the Smithsonian who confirmed that they were indeed the pair that had been stolen. Two main details confirmed this, “First, it’s difficult to fake 80 years of aging on a pair of shoes. Second, the pair in the Smithsonian’s collection is actually a mismatched pair of ruby slippers, with the left sized "5C" and the right sized "5BC." The pair recovered by the F.B.I. turned out to be the mates of the museum’s shoes” (Daley, 2018).
After their recovery, Shaw (their owner at the time of the theft and memorabilia collector) was paid $800,000 for them meaning that the insurance company now owns them. It’s unknown what they plan to do with this pair of slippers that could be worth up to $1 million.
The Arrest
Now fast forward again to 2023. On May 17 a grand jury indicted a man named Terry Martin with one count of theft of a major artwork. There is literally no more information than that on who Martin is, his connection to the case, and what his sentence could be for this crime. I guess we’ll wait and see and of course I’ll keep you in the loop.
Works Cited
Daley, Jason. “After 13-Year Chase, FBI Nabs Pair of Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers”. Smithsonian Magazine. 2018. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fbi-nabs-dorothys-ruby-slippers-after-13-years-run-180970196/
“Man Indicted for Stealing Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers from Wizard of Oz”. The Guardian. 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/17/ruby-slippers-wizard-of-oz-stolen
Wolfson, Sam. “FBI Finds Stolen Ruby Slippers from Wizard of Oz After 13 Years”. The Guardian. 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/sep/04/judy-garland-stolen-ruby-red-slippers-recovered-fbi