Do you have a million dollars lying around? Are you a Wizard of Oz fan? Put these two together, and you might be surprised. A pair of the famed and rare Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz is on the auction block. You could own them!
How About Authenticity?
Actress Judy Garland wore ruby red slippers onscreen in the 1939 classic MGM musical The Wizard of Oz. The shoes are up for auction through Heritage Auctions. The current bid is $812,500. Add to that the buyer’s premium—a fee paid by the winning bidder to the auction house—and the price is currently $1,015,625.
How Long Will This Last?
The auction continues through December 7. Like many auctions, some bidders wait until almost closing to enter their bids.
Movie Use
Four pairs of Ruby Slippers are known to exist, including a pair in the Smithsonian. The shoes up for auction are visible in the most famous scenes of the film, including the “We’re Off to See the Wizard” dances, the Poppy Field scene, the Tap Your Heels scene, and the shot in which the Wicked Witch nearly electrocutes herself by trying to remove the slippers from Dorothy’s feet prematurely.
However, the two slippers—a right and a left—up for auction belong to two separate pairs used in the film. The Smithsonian owns the mismatched “sister” pair. Nevertheless, the auction winner can rest assured of the screen lineage.
The auction description states,
Taken together, these are the primary pairs of shoes worn by Judy Garland through most of the film, including all but a few of the most memorable scenes [1].
And this auction comes just in time for Christmas!
Notes:
- ^ {Million-Dollar Shoes For Sale: {`}The Wizard Of Oz{‘} Ruby Slippers Up For Auction} (go back ↩)
