‘Wizard of Oz’ Ruby Slippers Could Be Yours
They brought Dorothy home to Kansas, and now the iconic red ruby slippers made famous in the “Wizard of Oz” could be brought home by you.
A pair of the ruby slippers worn on-screen by Judy Garland, the actress who played Dorothy in the 1939 film, is scheduled to go on the auction block Dec. 16 in Los Angeles as part of a Hollywood memorabilia sale.
Three clicks of the slippers while repeating the phrase, “There’s no place like home” brought Dorothy back to Kansas from Oz in the movie. In real life, a cool $2-3 million could bring the slippers from the California auction house handling the sale, to you.
The slippers are marked “#7 Judy Garland” on the inside lining, and the leather soles are painted red. Representatives from the California-based Profiles in History auction house have described the shoes as being in “mint condition,” with only light scuffs on the soles.
View slideshow of expensive items auctioned off
Those circular scuffs, according to the auction house, suggest the slippers were used in close-up shots of Garland kicking her heels together three times. It’s also possible they were the same shoes worn by the Wicked Witch of the East when she was crushed underneath Dorothy’s house in another scene from the movie.
The slippers are one of only four pairs used on-screen that are known to have survived since the making of the movie.
One of the pairs of slippers is on exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, one is owned privately and another was stolen from the Judy Garland museum in Minnesota.
The privately-owned pair was sold from the Hollywood collection of actress Debbie Reynolds for $612,000 in May.
The pair of slippers up for auction in December were originally found in the early 1970s by a costume department worker on the MGM lot where the movie was made. They were later sold at auction in 1988 to a private collector.
The auction house has so far declined to reveal the identity of the slippers’ current owner.