Gregory
Maguire's
1995 novel Wicked: The Life
and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West creates a backstory for Elphaba, the future
Wicked Witch of the West, and explores the world of The Wizard of Oz from
her perspective. Elphaba is modeled after Margaret Hamilton's portrayal in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz: green-skinned,
clad entirely in black and wearing a tall, peaked hat.
The
novel Wicked explains that the ruby slippers a pair of magical shoes which play
a pivotal role in The Wizard of Oz, were given to Nessarose, the future Wicked Witch of
the East, by her father. In the musical Wicked, it is Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, who enchants the
shoes, giving her crippled sister Nessarose the ability to walk.
The ruby slippers worn by Dorothy, played by Judy Garland, in
the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz have achieved iconic stature and are among the
most valuable items of film memorabilia.
In L. Frank
Baum's original 1900 novel, The Wonderful
Wizard of Oz, Dorothy wears silver shoes but the color of the
shoes was changed to take advantage of the introduction of Technicolor to the
movies.
The wardrobe woman who worked on the
film claimed "six identical pairs" had been made. Four pairs used in
the movie have been accounted for. Is it
possible that the other two pair are tucked away in someone’s garage or attic?
Let’s look at the big four:
One pair
is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.
Another
pair was initially owned by one Roberta Bauman who won them in a contest. In 1988, these shoes were sold at auction
to Anthony Landini for $150,000. Landini auctioned this pair of slippers, at
Christie's auction house in 2000, for $666,000. They now belong to a collector
who owns memorabilia shops in Hollywood.
A
third pair were the highlight of the 2011 “Icons of Hollywood auction”. They were offered with a starting reserve price of two million
dollars, but did not sell. Leonardo DiCaprio, Steven Spielberg, and other benefactors
made it possible for the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to acquire the pair for an
undisclosed price in February 2012 for the Academy’s new Museum in Los Angeles.
Michael Shaw acquired the fourth pair in
1970. These were stolen from an exhibit at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand
Rapids, Minnesota, in August, 2005. On
September 4, 2018, the FBI announced the stolen pair had been recovered after
13 years. Five year later, one Terry
Martin was indicted for the crime and pleaded guilty, saying that he thought
the slippers were made from real rubies because they were insured for one
million dollars.
Another iconic piece of Oz memorabilia,
the Wicked Witch’s hat from the 1939 movie, has recently come up for auction
with a whopping price tag of $140,000.