Judy Garland’s slippers from ‘The Wizard of Oz’.Photo:JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty
JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty
There’s no place like auction!
Including the auction house’s fee, the unknown buyer will ultimately pay $32.5 million for the footwear.
That selling price made them the most valuable movie memorabilia ever sold at auction. The previous record-holder — the white dress Marilyn Monroe wore in the 1955 filmThe Seven Year Itch —sold in 2011 for (just) $5.52 million with fees, according to the auction house.
The pumps were one of between 6 and 10 pairs created for the movie.Silver Screen Collection/Getty
Silver Screen Collection/Getty
PerThe Guardian,the “fast-paced bidding” outpaced estimates “within seconds and tripled it within minutes.” The huge winning bid prompted applause in the auction room.
It wasn’t the only piece ofWizard of Ozmemorabilia up for auction. One of Margaret Hamilton’s black Wicked Witch of the West hats sold for nearly $3 million.
But the shoes were the major draw, their sale coming nearly two decades after they werestolenfrom Minnesota’sJudy Garland Museumin 2005.
Martin, meanwhile, plead guilty in October 2023 to stealing them. in January 2024, he was sentenced to time served, one year of supervised release and $23,000 in restitution.
In the original book, Dorothy’s shoes were silver rather than red in color.Astrid Stawiarz/Getty
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty
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Shaw’s slippers — one of between six and 10 pairs that were created for Garland to wear in the movie — are the “cross-matched sister shoes to the pair at The Smithsonian Institution,” according to Heritage Auctions.
Their sale coincides with a fresh interest in the musical following the theater release of the prequel movieWicked,starringAriana GrandeandCynthia Erivo.
If fans are wondering why the legendary shoes are nowhere to be seen inWicked, that’s because L. Frank Baum didn’t originally intend for Dorothy’s shoes to be red when he wroteThe Wonderful Wizard of Ozin 1900.
The silver shoes in ‘Wicked’.Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
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Paul Tazewell,Wicked’s costume designer,recalled to PEOPLE in November that"in the book, they were these odd little silver boots." But becauseThe Wizard of Ozmovie was made in technicolor for 1939, the studio wanted to take advantage of the ability to showcase the many colors it had at its disposal, so MGM’s costume designer Gilbert Adria, strayed outside Baum’s 1900 novel.
Tazewell took the original book concept as his starting point and went from there.
Wickedis in theaters now.
source: people.com
