There is a $1 million reward for the ruby slippers Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz. They were stolen 10 years ago from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. An anonymous donor just offered the reward for the slippers, perhaps worth over $2 million today.
Photo Credit: Entertainment Weekly
No one knows for sure how many pairs actually exist. I have also heard of an Arabian pair with curled toes.
There are five pairs of ruby slippers known to have been worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. The original slippers were sparkling silver, as described in L. Frank Baum’s classic book. But the shoes were changed to the ruby hue by George Cukor. Cukor stepped in as a creative adviser to producer Mervyn LeRoy, who fired the initial director, Richard Thorpe, after the first nine days of shooting. Cukor felt that the silver slippers didn’t take advantage of the potential of the Technicolor process, which gives the film’s dream sequence its fantastic, luminous, saturated colors. He also changed Garland’s costume and baby doll makeup and axed the blond wig she wore in Thorpe’s footage. But Cukor was never intended to direct any new footage. He left after one week to begin directing Gone with the Wind, and Victor Fleming was brought in to direct The Wizard of Oz. When Cukor was subsequently fired from GWTW by producer David O. Selznick, Fleming took over again.
The Smithsonian Museum of American History has the pair used in the dancing scenes of the movie.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/press/fact-sheets/ruby-slippers
According to a high end collector in California, there may be at least 2 pairs of the shoes floating around. He has one pair and they weren’t ruby red originally but more burgundy. The film processors pushed the colors to make the shoes show up beautiful ruby red instead of burgundy. Irregardless, I hope the pair that was stolen is recovered and returned to the museum. Definitely cinematic holy grail material!