From the pair that sold for $28 million at auction to the 2,400 sequins that adorn each shoe, go inside the turbulent history of Dorothy's slippers.
SmithsonianDorothy’s ruby slippers are among the most coveted pieces of movie memorabilia in the world.
Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz are an iconic piece of film history. While they never really traveled to the magical land of Oz, the legendary slippers have gone on an incredible journey of their own.
Experts have estimated that anywhere from seven to 10 pairs of ruby slippers were made for Judy Garland during filming, but only four film-worn pairs are accounted for today. One pair recently sold for a record-breaking $28 million at auction in 2024 to an anonymous buyer. And before that sale made headlines, those same slippers had been stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota in 2005 and only recovered by the FBI in 2018.
But before that pair — and the other pairs — found their place in Hollywood lore, they were simply costume props for the 1939 MGM film.
Creating The Ruby Slippers For The Wizard Of Oz
Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Alamy Stock PhotoThe Wizard of Oz slippers, as seen in the famous 1939 movie.
In the original Oz series of books by L. Frank Baum, Dorothy’s slippers were silver. However, the color was changed to ruby red for the 1939 film to take advantage of the new Technicolor technology. Of course, this meant the slippers looked especially striking on the Yellow Brick Road.
MGM Studios’ chief costume designer Gilbert Adrian played a key role in designing the soon-to-be-iconic shoes. Initially, two different styles of the slippers were made for the film: one heavily adorned with jewels and curled toes, and a simpler design with a bow, red stones, and sequins.
The studio chose to film with the latter, though they removed some of the stones that were meant to resemble real rubies, as they were too heavy, and they mostly relied on sequins to bring the sparkle.
Wikimedia CommonsThe alternative design of the ruby slippers that were dubbed the “Arabian” test pair.
Judy Garland, who famously portrayed Dorothy Gale in the 1939 movie, was given numerous pairs of ruby slippers to wear during filming. It’s unknown exactly how many shoes were created, but scholars have suggested anywhere from seven to 10 pairs were made for Garland.
As for the four known surviving pairs, they were made from a base of white silk pumps, a common practice at the time because the material was easy to dye. The shoes were dyed red and embroidered with deep crimson sequins. The Technicolor used by the filmmakers required a slightly darker color than what they intended to have appear on screen. Had they used true ruby red sequins, the shoes would have looked orange in the film.
Each individual shoe had about 2,400 sequins attached to it, and cotton buckram bows, which were all decorated with red rhinestones and beads, were added to the vamp toplines of the slippers. Other alterations were made throughout filming, including felt that was glued to the bottom of the shoes to prevent extra noise from Garland’s dancing on the set floors.
The Rediscovery Of The Iconic Shoes Decades After The Filming Of The Wizard Of Oz
Wikimedia CommonsNot all the ruby red slippers used during filming can be tracked down today.
After the filming of The Wizard Of Oz wrapped, the ruby slippers were put away in storage, where they apparently remained for decades.
A costumer named Kent Warner was the first to rediscover multiple pairs of the famous shoes in 1970, as he’d been assigned to select one film-worn pair for an upcoming MGM Studios auction. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, he was ordered to destroy the rest of the pairs. But he refused to do so — and he took the other red slippers with him.
The pair that Warner picked for the auction sold for $15,000 to an anonymous buyer, a remarkable amount for the time. This was the same pair that was donated to the Smithsonian Institution nine years later. On display at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., the pair is one of the museum’s most popular artifacts.
Interestingly, the pair is mismatched, and it was later revealed that these shoes were the mates of another mismatched pair.
Wikimedia CommonsThe Wizard of Oz remains a beloved classic to this day, and Dorothy’s red slippers are arguably just as widely adored.
Warner sold the other mismatched pair to collector Michael Shaw, who later fatefully lent those slippers to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. For a while, Warner kept the “best” pair of slippers for himself, but he was sadly diagnosed with HIV in 1981, leading him to sell those shoes to help pay for his medical bills before he died of AIDS in 1984.
The “best” pair passed through a number of hands before the shoes were eventually donated to the Motion Picture Academy. The Academy Museum in Los Angeles sometimes displays this set, but the exhibit is never a permanent one, and museum workers often keep the shoes out of sight to ensure that they remain in the best condition possible.
Finally, the last known film-worn pair was the one in Roberta Jeffries Bauman’s possession. Bauman had won this pair in a 1940 contest, where she selected her choices for the best films of 1939. These shoes were eventually sold to Anthony Landini for over $150,000 in 1988. For some time, they were displayed at Disney’s Great Movie Ride, but they were later sold to David Elkouby, who has yet to put them on display anywhere.
The Movie-Worthy Journey Of The Stolen Ruby Red Slippers
Wikimedia CommonsJudy Garland, who played Dorothy, was originally from Minnesota, where a pair of the ruby slippers was stolen.
Perhaps the most famous of the four known surviving film-worn pairs of ruby slippers is the set that Kent Warner gave to Michael Shaw. After Shaw lent the shoes to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, a thief or thieves broke into the museum and stole the slippers in 2005.
A bat was used to smash the glass of the display case before the shoes were snatched, and no fingerprints were left behind. No alarm was triggered during the shoe heist, and a single sequin was all that was left behind.
The iconic shoes remained missing until 2018, when the FBI successfully tracked them down and recovered them during a sting operation.
Heritage AuctionsCollector Michael Shaw being reunited with the stolen pair of ruby slippers.
A Minnesota man named Terry Martin was later charged in connection with the theft. Martin, who allegedly believed that the shoes were made with real rubies, eventually pleaded guilty to the theft. Later on, another Minnesota man named Jerry Hal Saliterman was also charged in the case.
After the long-lost shoes were recovered, they were found to be a mismatched set — the mates of the other mismatched pair on display at the National Museum of American History. Interestingly, experts believe that the mix-up between the two pairs happened around the time they were created, not after the filming of the movie had wrapped.
But the recovered shoes’ journey wasn’t over just yet. In 2024, they sold for $28 million at auction to an anonymous buyer — the largest amount of money ever spent at an auction on a piece of movie memorabilia.
After their incredible journey, these ruby slippers are now safe and sound in the hands of their new owner. While no stolen shoes are known to be on the loose now, there are still a number of pairs of the red slippers left unaccounted for. Only time will tell if they’ll ever resurface.
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