Dorothy’s Missing Ruby Slippers

Via the ABC News blog The Blotter: Anna Schecter reports that the case of the missing ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz may be coming to a close.

The ruby slippers were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minn., (that's Garland's hometown) in Aug. 27, 2005. The thief is apparently either some Oz-Dorothy-Judy-ruby-slipper fanatic — and there are plenty of those out there — or a savvy (if unscrupulous) investor. The bejeweled footwear is officially valued at US$1 million. (The most recent sale price of another pair of Judy's Oz slippers, however, were sold at auction at Christie's for $666,000 in 2000).

The stolen slippers' rightful owner was Hollywood acting coach Michael Shaw, who had loaned them to the museum. (Shaw had paid $2,500 for his pair in the early 1970s; he received $666,000 from the museum's insurance company.) When the theft took place, the museum alarm system had been shut off. The wicked thief of the Upper Midwest broke a back window in order to swipe the precious objects. The thief then clicked his/her heels and disappeared.

Three other pairs are known to have been used in The Wizard of Oz: One such pair is on display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., another belongs to collector Philip Samuels of St. Louis, and the third pair is owned by a memorabilia collector who, according to Schecter, "plans to open his own museum in Hollywood."
Debbie Reynolds owns "a test pair" that was made for the movie but that never felt Dorothy's feet while the cameras were rolling.

Needless to say, fans of Dorothy have been in a uproar.

"Everybody's accusing everybody of stealing them," the lead investigator on the case said.