by Ben Child
They're not in Kansas any more. And if you happen to have a spare $2-3m lying around they could soon be on your mantelpiece. Judy Garland's iconic red slippers from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz are to go under the hammer in Los Angeles later this year.
The shoes are believed to be the pair worn by Garland's Dorothy for the famous scene in which she clicks her heels together and asks to return home to Kansas. Only four pairs of similar slippers are known to have survived the 72 years since the making of The Wizard of Oz, and the other three are beyond the reach of collectors. One pair resides at the Icons of American Culture exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington DC, while another is in a private collection. A third pair was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005 and is unlikely to be recovered.
The $2-3m figure is the guide price being suggested by auctioneers Profiles in History, who will put the slippers on sale during a three-day "Icons of Hollywood" event between 15 and 17 December. The organisation has previously sold memorabilia such as a lightsaber used by Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, which went for $240,000, and a full-size T-800 endoskeleton from Terminator 2: Judgment Day ($488,750).
The slippers are said to be in close to mint condition and are marked #7 Judy Garland inside. Auction organisers say the presence of light, circular scuffs on the sole indicates they were used in the close-up shots for Garland's famous heel-tapping scene at the end of The Wizard of Oz. It's also believed they may have been the slippers seen on the protruding feet of the Wicked Witch of the East after she is squashed by Dorothy's house.
via:
[ed. Probably not my size.]
They're not in Kansas any more. And if you happen to have a spare $2-3m lying around they could soon be on your mantelpiece. Judy Garland's iconic red slippers from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz are to go under the hammer in Los Angeles later this year.
The shoes are believed to be the pair worn by Garland's Dorothy for the famous scene in which she clicks her heels together and asks to return home to Kansas. Only four pairs of similar slippers are known to have survived the 72 years since the making of The Wizard of Oz, and the other three are beyond the reach of collectors. One pair resides at the Icons of American Culture exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington DC, while another is in a private collection. A third pair was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005 and is unlikely to be recovered.The $2-3m figure is the guide price being suggested by auctioneers Profiles in History, who will put the slippers on sale during a three-day "Icons of Hollywood" event between 15 and 17 December. The organisation has previously sold memorabilia such as a lightsaber used by Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, which went for $240,000, and a full-size T-800 endoskeleton from Terminator 2: Judgment Day ($488,750).
The slippers are said to be in close to mint condition and are marked #7 Judy Garland inside. Auction organisers say the presence of light, circular scuffs on the sole indicates they were used in the close-up shots for Garland's famous heel-tapping scene at the end of The Wizard of Oz. It's also believed they may have been the slippers seen on the protruding feet of the Wicked Witch of the East after she is squashed by Dorothy's house.
via:
[ed. Probably not my size.]
