Today’s Really Big News: the Slippers Are Found!!!

[+ bigjoey]

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-us-canada-45411765

 

Judy Garland's stolen ruby slippers found after 13 years

04 September 2018

Getty Images

Multiple pairs of ruby slippers were made for the film, including these ones displayed in Beverly Hills in 2011

A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz has been found 13 years after being stolen, according to US authorities.

 

They were taken from a Minnesota museum in 2005, when someone broke in through a window late at night.

 

Three others pairs of ruby slippers worn by Garland in the 1939 film are known to exist.

 

An anonymous donor once offered a $1m (£775,000) reward for the stolen pair's whereabouts and the thief's name.

 

However, the reward expired on the tenth anniversary of the robbery.

 

It is unknown if the shoes' recovery is related to any tip-offs.

• Renee Zellweger prepares to play Judy Garland
  
• Public urged to help save Oz's ruby shoes
  
• Who stole Burma's royal ruby?
  

The slippers are often said to among the most valued props in movie history.

 

This pair was insured for $1m but experts have said they could be worth two times that now.

 

Getty Images

Judy Garland played the lead role of Dorothy Gale in the classic musical

How were they stolen?

The Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Garland's birthplace, had been loaned the slippers from a collector named Michael Shaw.

 

The theft was described as a simple smash-and-grab, with the glass display case destroyed and the slipper snatched.

 

Almost no clues were left behind, neither footprints nor fingerprints, and the surveillance camera was not working that night.

 

"I literally felt like I was hit in the stomach when I got the call," Mr Shaw told Newsweek in 2015. "My knees buckled, and I went right down on the floor. I had taken care of those shoes for 35 years!"

 

Jon Miner, the museum's co-founder, told the magazine he was also devastated. "I cried," he said. "I couldn't believe this happened to us because it was the stupidest thing."

 

The museum has kept the podium - labelled "Dorothy's Ruby Slippers" - empty since they disappeared.

 

A documentary about the theft - Who Stole The Ruby Slippers? - was released in 2015.

 

The history of the ruby slippers

• The shoes are covered in about 2,300 sequins , according to the Hollywood Reporter
  
• In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum's 1900 book on which the film is based - Dorothy wore silver shoes. However MGM Studios chose to turn them bright red to show off new Technicolor film techniques
  
• In 2016, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington DC raised more than $300,000 for the restoration of a pair they had acquired
  
• In 2012, actor Leonardo DiCaprio was named as the lead benefactor in a group of movie lovers who bought one of the pairs. It will be displayed at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures when it opens in Los Angeles next year
  
• The fourth known pair is owned by a private collector, who bought them from a Tennessee schoolteacher who had won them in a 1940 competition
  
• Actress Debbie Reynolds was also once given some ruby slippers from the movie but these were used for screen tests and never worn by Garland. They sold for more than $500,000 at a 2011 auction
  

More on this story

Renee Zellweger to play Judy Garland on screen

23 October 2017

Dorothy's Wizard of Oz slippers to be saved after campaign hits $300,000

24 October 2016

 

 

Sent from my iPad

[+ WilliamM]

Too bad Judy Garland's kids never received any money for the shoes, or Garland herself.

[+ Avalon]

http://americanhistory.si.edu/press/fact-sheets/ruby-slippers

 

I've seen the shoes in Washington DC. I also saw Archie Bunker's chair.

 

What impressed me most was this statue of George Washington. Worthy to be in a Temple!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_(Greenough)

[samhexum]

Whoop-de-fucking-do! It's too damn hot out to care about an 80 year old prop.

[+ ProGay]

From The Ruby Slippers of Oz by Rhys Thomas (1989):

 

"Slipper fever began when a costumer, Kent Warner, began going through bins where film studios were stashing and trashing costumes once worn by stars in vintage films. He ''liberated'' classic items - like the trench coat Humphrey Bogart wore in ''Casablanca'' - and then sold them to collectors..."

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/24/books/that-s-shoe-biz.html

[Bearofdistinction]

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-us-canada-45411765

 

Judy Garland's stolen ruby slippers found after 13 years

04 September 2018

Getty Images

Multiple pairs of ruby slippers were made for the film, including these ones displayed in Beverly Hills in 2011

A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz has been found 13 years after being stolen, according to US authorities.

 

They were taken from a Minnesota museum in 2005, when someone broke in through a window late at night.

 

Three others pairs of ruby slippers worn by Garland in the 1939 film are known to exist.

 

An anonymous donor once offered a $1m (£775,000) reward for the stolen pair's whereabouts and the thief's name.

 

However, the reward expired on the tenth anniversary of the robbery.

 

It is unknown if the shoes' recovery is related to any tip-offs.

• Renee Zellweger prepares to play Judy Garland
  
• Public urged to help save Oz's ruby shoes
  
• Who stole Burma's royal ruby?
  

The slippers are often said to among the most valued props in movie history.

 

This pair was insured for $1m but experts have said they could be worth two times that now.

 

Getty Images

Judy Garland played the lead role of Dorothy Gale in the classic musical

How were they stolen?

The Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Garland's birthplace, had been loaned the slippers from a collector named Michael Shaw.

 

The theft was described as a simple smash-and-grab, with the glass display case destroyed and the slipper snatched.

 

Almost no clues were left behind, neither footprints nor fingerprints, and the surveillance camera was not working that night.

 

"I literally felt like I was hit in the stomach when I got the call," Mr Shaw told Newsweek in 2015. "My knees buckled, and I went right down on the floor. I had taken care of those shoes for 35 years!"

 

Jon Miner, the museum's co-founder, told the magazine he was also devastated. "I cried," he said. "I couldn't believe this happened to us because it was the stupidest thing."

 

The museum has kept the podium - labelled "Dorothy's Ruby Slippers" - empty since they disappeared.

 

A documentary about the theft - Who Stole The Ruby Slippers? - was released in 2015.

 

The history of the ruby slippers

• The shoes are covered in about 2,300 sequins , according to the Hollywood Reporter
  
• In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum's 1900 book on which the film is based - Dorothy wore silver shoes. However MGM Studios chose to turn them bright red to show off new Technicolor film techniques
  
• In 2016, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington DC raised more than $300,000 for the restoration of a pair they had acquired
  
• In 2012, actor Leonardo DiCaprio was named as the lead benefactor in a group of movie lovers who bought one of the pairs. It will be displayed at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures when it opens in Los Angeles next year
  
• The fourth known pair is owned by a private collector, who bought them from a Tennessee schoolteacher who had won them in a 1940 competition
  
• Actress Debbie Reynolds was also once given some ruby slippers from the movie but these were used for screen tests and never worn by Garland. They sold for more than $500,000 at a 2011 auction
  

More on this story

Renee Zellweger to play Judy Garland on screen

23 October 2017

Dorothy's Wizard of Oz slippers to be saved after campaign hits $300,000

24 October 2016

 

 

Sent from my iPad

 

Now if you can get the Strippers in Ruby Red Slippers -- Then I am in!

[+ WilliamM]

Whoop-de-fucking-do! It's too damn hot out to care about an 80 year old prop.

 

Agree. But, it is wonderful film.

[rvwnsd]

Whoop-de-fucking-do! It's too damn hot out to care about an 80 year old prop.

Now, now. The folks in

 

https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/drag-queen-story-hour.141395/

 

would probably care a lot. Not so sure about the real estate agent, the dog walker, or the shirtless men in

 

https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/hey-you-really-missed-a-great-time.141239/

 

but some of the guys in

 

https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/what-porn-stars-do-you-consider-legendary.140280/#post-1580218

 

might be.

 

The people in

 

https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/do-you-check-on-your-home-remotely.141436/

 

probably don't care at this point, but the dude in

 

https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/hey-you-really-missed-a-great-time.141239/

 

would be wise to check into home monitoring systems.

 

Frankly, I would rather read about ruby slippers than

 

https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/lock-her-up.141315/

 

or

 

https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/lock-her-up.141315/

 

which you originally posted in 2017 and resurrected a couple of weeks ago for who knows why.

[Guest]

Too bad Judy Garland's kids never received any money for the shoes, or Garland herself.

But they weren’t “hers”

[+ WilliamM]

But they weren’t “hers”

 

Agree. Garland had a variety show in prime time, Sunday nights on CBS. Lasted one season, and was pretty good.

[+ WilliamM]

New York Time:

 

It seems unlikely the shoes would be going back to Mr.Shaw, the owner. The company that insured them paid him $800,000 for the loss, and is now the legal owner.

 

Mr.Show in 2015 interview:

 

"There's more to my life than a pair of pumps."

 

Right: $800,000.

[bostonman]

Garland had a variety show in prime time, Sunday nights on CBS. Lasted one season, and was pretty good.

 

And this has nothing to do with the shoes.

 

But no, an actor doesn't get any guaranteed revenue from a prop or costume piece.