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80-525: (Redirected from Ruby Shoes ) Ruby shoes may refer to: Ruby slippers , the shoes worn by Dorothy Gale (played by Judy Garland) in the movie The Wizard of Oz "Ruby Shoes", a song from the B-side of Papermoon (song) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Ruby shoes . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

160-592: A deus ex machina scenario. The Cowardly Lion and Truckle, the Wicked Witch of the West's chief Flying Monkey, also briefly wear them. In the 2002 Charmed season 5 episode "Happily Ever After", Piper returns home using the ruby slippers after going to the Fairytale Castle to vanquish the Wicked Witch. The slippers briefly appear in the 2012 season 4 episode "Fractures" of Warehouse 13 in

240-571: A "grudging admiration" that provides for a measure of sympathy when the gangster meets his sordid death in a back alley. LeRoy recalled the topicality of his subject in 1930: " Al Capone was a household word and the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre had happened only a year before." LeRoy further demonstrated his talent for delivering fast-paced and competently executed social commentary and entertainment with Five Star Final (1931), an exposé of tabloid journalism, and Two Seconds (1932),

320-527: A "vicious and disenchanted" cautionary tale of a death row inmate, each starring Robinson. Warner Brothers' most explosive social critique of the 1930s appeared with LeRoy's I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang , dramatizing the harsh penal codes in Georgia and starring Paul Muni as the hunted fugitive James Allen. Historian John Baxter observes that "no director has managed to close his film on so cold

400-630: A National Four Star Club "Name the Best Movies of 1939" contest. In 1988, auction house Christie's sold them for $ 150,000 plus $ 15,000 buyer's premium to Anthony Landini. Landini worked with The Walt Disney Company to start showing them at the Disney/MGM Studios ' Florida Theme Park in the queue for The Great Movie Ride , whose facade and queue area are themed after Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles. They were visible at

480-405: A bucket of water, causing her to melt away. In the end, Glinda reveals that Dorothy can return home by simply closing her eyes, clicking the slippers' heels together three times, and repeating the sentence, "There's no place like home." The slippers were designed by Gilbert Adrian , MGM's chief costume designer. Initially, two pairs were made in different styles. The so-called "Arabian test pair"

560-415: A character study of convicts shot on location at San Quentin prison. The depiction of criminal elements had enjoyed popularity with Josef von Sternberg 's silent classic Underworld (1927), a fantasy treatment of his lone Byronic gangster "Bull" Weed. The gangster film as a genre was not achieved until LeRoy's 1930 Little Caesar , starring Edward G. Robinson , the first time that "any real attempt

640-559: A former vaudevillian who was twenty years his senior. Lasky was a partner with rising movie moguls Samuel Goldwyn and Adolf Zukor at its New York headquarters at Famous Players–Lasky . Lasky furnished LeRoy with note to the employment department at their Hollywood studios. A week later LeRoy began working in the Wardrobe Unit folding costumes for the American Civil War picture Secret Service (1919), earning $ 12.50

720-707: A number of film sets in the greater San Francisco area. From these studies, LeRoy devised a burlesque of the comedian, and perfected his imitation on the local amateur circuit. In 1915 he won a competition that hosted almost a thousand Chaplin imitators at the Pantages Theater . His outstanding performance earned him a slot as "The Singing Newsboy" in Sid Grauman 's vaudeville show at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition titled "Chinatown by Night". In 1916 his father died, leaving

800-847: A number of humorous skits, which were incorporated into the picture by director Alfred E. Green . Green offered him a position as "gag man". LeRoy recalled: I didn't have to think twice. That was what I wanted—a chance to be in on the creative aspect of movie-making. It wasn't directing, but it was getting closer. It was inventing, not interpreting...I abandoned my acting career with no regrets. While working at First National Pictures , LeRoy wrote gags for comedienne Colleen Moore in several films including Sally (1925), The Desert Flower (1925), We Moderns (1925) and Ella Cinders (1926). LeRoy served as acting advisor and confidant to Moore. In 1927 her husband John McCormick , studio head at First National in Hollywood, asked LeRoy to direct Moore in

880-444: A numbered plaque. In 2023, a limited edition of 1500 replica pairs were created by Paragon FX Group for the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros. Warner Bros. and Turner Entertainment currently hold the copyright to the 1939 film . In the 1990–1991 animated TV series The Wizard of Oz (produced by DiC Animation City ), the ruby slippers' powers are significantly enhanced. Not only do they retain their movie-inspired ability to repel

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960-534: A pair of level 70 epic cloth shoes dropped by the Wizard of Oz-themed "opera event" in the Karazhan raid instance. The shoes function similarly to the hearthstone that all characters start with, allowing them to teleport from their current location to the inn where the hearthstone is set. The caption under the statistic lines is "There's no place like home." The slippers are part of the twelve "Foundation Elements" in

1040-464: A proto- screwball comedy with William Powell and Evelyn Brent , and The Heart of New York (1932) with Joe Smith . LeRoy embarked on a period of enormous productivity and inventiveness at Warner Studios, creating "some the most polished and ambitious" films of the Thirties. His only rival at Warner's was fellow director Michael Curtiz . Film historian John Baxter observes: Warners films were

1120-490: A romantic effect, LeRoy devised a technique in the lab: I had an idea. That night I stayed late in the lab...I got a big wooden box about twelve feet square and lined it with tar paper. Then I filled it with distilled water...I got a spotlight and carefully set it up so the light played upon the surface of the water...I took one of the studio's Pathé cameras, found a supply of raw film and shot some five-thousand feet of my pseudo-moonlight-on-the-water. Despite LeRoy suffering

1200-436: A single parent. His mother moved to Oakland, California with Percy Teeple, a travel agent and former journalist, who would later become LeRoy's stepfather after the death of Harry LeRoy in 1916. LeRoy visited his mother as a child, regarding her more as "a grandparent or a favorite aunt." "A LeRoy-Armer family legend maintains that the newborn—delivered on the kitchen table and weighing only two-and-half pounds—was placed in

1280-522: A solid anchor for his speculation, and it was when he had this that his films reached heights at least as lofty as those scaled by Curtiz." – Biographer John Baxter, from his Hollywood in the Thirties (1970) ...While the world was struggling out of the Depression , I turned out film after film after film. It was a period of tremendous activity for me —- and for Hollywood in general...I threw myself into my work...we had to keep working to stay up with

1360-545: A starting reserve price of two million dollars on December 16, 2011, but did not sell. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and other benefactors, including director Steven Spielberg , made it possible for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to acquire the pair for an undisclosed price in February 2012 for their forthcoming museum. Kent Warner sold one pair to Michael Shaw in 1970. These were stolen from an exhibit at

1440-443: A stern reprimand, DeMille was delighted with the effect and used the footage in the film. LeRoy was immediately promoted to assistant cameraman. After six months behind the camera, LeRoy experienced a disastrous contretemps when he improperly adjusted the camera focus settings, ruining footage on several scenes on a DeMille production. LeRoy describes it as "a horrible mess" which led to his dismissal in 1921 as cameraman. LeRoy

1520-516: A turkey roasting pan and put in a warm oven to improve his chances of survival. The doctor who advised this procedure cautioned LeRoy's parents: "Make sure the flame is real low, however." The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire devastated the city when LeRoy was five-and-a-half years old. He was sleeping in his bed on the second floor when the quake struck in the early morning causing the house to collapse. Neither LeRoy nor his father suffered serious physical injury. His father's import-export store

1600-519: A version of Peg O' My Heart . When the project was cancelled studio president Richard A. Rowland , with Moore advocating, authorized LeRoy to direct a comedy, No Place to Go , starring Mary Astor and Lloyd Hughes and launching LeRoy's filmmaking career at age twenty-seven. His success with No Place to Go (1927), was followed by "a string of comedies and jazz-baby dramas" that served as vehicles for actress Alice White and allowed LeRoy to hone his skills as director. His prolific output in

1680-400: A week. According to film historian Kingley Canham, LeRoy's "enthusiasm, energy and push", in addition to a further appeal to Jesse Lasky, earned LeRoy promotion to lab technician in the film tinting unit. LeRoy's next advancement was achieved through his own initiative. Discovering that director William DeMille wished to create an illusion of moonlight shimmering on a lake to produce

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1760-421: Is an embossed gold or silver stamp or an embroidered cloth label bearing the name of the company inside each right shoe. The shoes were dyed red, and burgundy sequined organza overlays were attached to each shoe's upper and heel. The film's early three-strip Technicolor process required the sequins to be darker than most modern red sequins; bright red sequins would have appeared orange on screen. Two weeks before

1840-758: Is believed to be the pair on permanent exhibition in the Popular Culture wing of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. , though the donor insisted on anonymity. Dr. Brent Glass , the director of the museum, appeared on the January 23, 2008 The Oprah Winfrey Show with the slippers and informed Oprah Winfrey that "they were worn by Judy Garland during her dance routines on

1920-426: Is likely that Western would have been contracted to make some of The Wizard of Oz' s many costumes, no records of the original slippers exist to either validate or disprove their claim. Western produced the only authorized reproductions in 1989 to commemorate the movie's 50th anniversary. Hand-cast on Judy Garland's original foot mold and completely sequined and jeweled, the reproduction slippers were nearly identical to

2000-549: Is the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz . LeRoy was born on October 15, 1900, in San Francisco, California , the only child of Edna (née Armer) and Harry LeRoy, a well-to-do department store owner of Jewish descent. Both his parents' families had fully assimilated , residing in the Bay Area for several generations. LeRoy described his relatives as "San Franciscans first, Americans second, Jews third." LeRoy's mother

2080-530: The Harry Winston jewelry company created a size-four pair of slippers using "about 25 carats of diamonds and 1,500 carats of rubies". Valued at $ 3 million, they are reportedly the most expensive pair of shoes in the world. During the fall 2008 New York Fashion Week , the Swarovski company held a charity contest to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the film, with nineteen designers redesigning

2160-426: The 15-year-old LeRoy responsible for providing his own financial support. Now a show-business professional, LeRoy left his newsboy job. Pairing with the 16-year-old actor-pianist Clyde Cooper, they formed a vaudeville routine "LeRoy and Cooper: Two Kids and a Piano." The duo struggled to find engagements, and LeRoy recalled "we would have played toilets if they had offered us some money." Soon they were discovered by

2240-645: The 1939 film on the cover of their fourth studio album, Eldorado , released in 1974. The cover, designed by John Kehe, is a mirrored still frame of Dorothy's ruby slippers. This still was also used for the picture sleeve of " Can't Get It Out of My Head ", the single release from the Eldorado album. In Wizard101 , the slippers are a wearable item given after completing the sidequest "Not in Kansas Anymore". Once worn, they give +1 resistance to damage from Death spells. In World of Warcraft , they are

2320-431: The 2015 toys-to-life video game LEGO Dimensions . Mervyn LeRoy Mervyn LeRoy ( / l ə ˈ r ɔɪ / ; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director, producer and actor. In his youth he played juvenile roles in vaudeville and silent film comedies. During the 1930s, LeRoy was one of the two great practitioners of economical and effective film directing at Warner Brothers studios,

2400-527: The Dark Vault, seemingly having a life of their own, accompanied by a witch's cackle and a few notes of " Over the Rainbow ". They are supposedly an "Artifact" – a potentially dangerous and malicious object that grants the wearer dangerous powers – since many artifacts are based on works of fact and fiction. The season 9 episode "Slumber Party" of the series Supernatural features Dorothy and

2480-689: The Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, on the night of August 27–28, 2005. In 2015, the Associated Press reported that an anonymous donor had offered a $ 1 million reward for information about the stolen slippers. On September 4, 2018, the FBI announced the stolen pair had been recovered after a 13-year search. On March 16, 2023, a federal grand jury indicted a Minnesota man on one count of theft. He pleaded guilty and

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2560-458: The North), they become items of power that allow the armless and handicapped Nessarose to magically stand and walk independently without any additional support. In the musical adaptation Wicked , it is Elphaba , the Wicked Witch of the West, who enchants the shoes, giving crippled Nessarose the ability to walk without a wheelchair. The progressive band Electric Light Orchestra used a frame from

2640-415: The Wicked Witch of the West's touch, as well as the capability to teleport their user (and an unspecified number of companions) to any location desired, but they also demonstrate numerous other attributes and capabilities as well. Among them are the ability to: In this series, Dorothy remains inexperienced and unfamiliar with the shoes' magic, calling upon their power only as a last resort, often resulting in

2720-428: The Wicked Witch. Here portrayed as a hard-as-nails fighter, Dorothy realizes the shoes are the only thing that can kill the seemingly invincible witch. At one point, she admits she never really wore the iconic shoes, having considered it "tacky" to wear the shoes of a dead witch. Near the end of the episode, Charlie Bradbury uses the shoes to kill the Wicked Witch and foil her plot to bring her armies to Earth and take over

2800-479: The Yellow Brick Road because there's felt on the bottom of these slippers." However, according to Rhys Thomas, all but one pair had an orange felt on the soles. This pair is undergoing rapid deterioration from aging, and the museum is raising money to fund research on preservation. Another pair was initially owned by a Tennessee woman named Roberta Bauman (1922–2009), who got them by placing second in

2880-484: The age of twelve, with few prospects to acquire a formal education and his father financially strained, LeRoy became a newsboy and earned his first money. His father supported him in this endeavor. LeRoy hawked newspapers at iconic locations, including Chinatown , the Barbary Coast red-light district and Fisherman's Wharf , where he became educated as to the realities of life in the city: I saw life in raw on

2960-836: The air by a tornado and transported to the Land of Oz . The house falls on and kills the Wicked Witch of the East , freeing the Munchkins from her tyranny. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North arrives via a magic bubble and shows Dorothy the dead woman's feet sticking out from under the house with the ruby slippers on them. When the Wicked Witch of the West comes to claim her dead sister's shoes, Glinda magically transfers them to Dorothy's feet. Glinda tells Dorothy never to take them off, as

3040-565: The decade (Curtiz filmed an astounding 44 features during the same period). Baxter adds: "No genius could function without variation under such pressure." The social perspective of films favored at Warner Brothers was distinct from those of its chief rivals: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (M-G-M), uncontested for its "technical virtuosity" aimed to serve "middle-class tastes" and Paramount studios identified for its "sophisticated dialogue and baroque settings" that catered to European sensibilities. In contrast, Warner Brothers films carried themes appealing to

3120-430: The demand. The public was voracious in its appetite for movies...Neighborhood theaters had double features, and the bill usually changed twice a week. That means they were showing four new pictures a week, 208 a year, and that's only one theater. LeRoy admits in retrospect that "I shot them so often and so fast that they tend to blend together in my memory." LeRoy's social realism mocked corrupt politicians, bankers and

3200-496: The early 1920s. The youthful and diminutive LeRoy (at 5 feet 7 inches [170 cm] and just over 115 pounds [52 kg]) was consistently cast in juvenile roles. appearing with film stars Wallace Reid , Betty Compson and Gloria Swanson (See Film Chronology table) He performed his last role in The Chorus Lady (1924) as "Duke". During the filming of The Ghost Breaker (1922), bit actor LeRoy suggested

3280-468: The film is based, Dorothy wears Silver Shoes . However, the color of the shoes was changed to red to take advantage of the new Technicolor film process used in big-budget Hollywood films of the era. Film screenwriter Noel Langley is credited with the idea. In the MGM film, an adolescent farm girl named Dorothy Gale (played by Judy Garland ), her dog Toto , and their Kansas farmhouse are swept into

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3360-456: The film. Unlike the originals, the hand-made British French-heeled shoes for Return to Oz were covered in hundreds of dark red crystals. The stones were soaked in sulfuric acid to remove the silver backing, and two types of glue were used to affix them to the shoes (a spray glue and an optical glue). No matter what was tried, the stones kept falling off during filming. Stagehands were specifically hired to sweep up loose "rubies" that fell off

3440-483: The final design are believed to have been made. According to producer Mervyn LeRoy , "We must have had five or ten pairs of those shoes". 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. Rhys Thomas speculates that they were likely made by Joe Napoli of the Western Costume Company, and not all at once, but as

3520-425: The final years of the silent film era included the box-office successes Harold Teen with Arthur Lake and Oh, Kay! with Colleen Moore. Warner Brothers acquired First National in 1925 as a subsidiary studio and producer Jack Warner became a mentor and in-law to LeRoy in subsequent years. LeRoy eagerly anticipated his first sound picture assignment, Naughty Baby (1929): My fifth picture, in 1929,

3600-604: The heels together. An imitation pair of ruby slippers appeared in the 2002 movie The Master of Disguise . Another pair appeared in an Oz sequence in the cult comedy Kentucky Fried Movie . Reproductions were also featured in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian , in which character Kahmunrah tosses them away after discovering the rubies are fake. In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of The Wizard of Oz ,

3680-528: The idle rich, while celebrating the Depression Era experiences of "hard-working chorus girls...taxi-drivers and bell-hops struggling to make ends meet in the brawl of New York...gloss and polish were considered useless affectation." " Mother of mercy—Is this the last of Rico? —Iconic last words of fictional mob boss Enrico Bandello in "Little Caesar" LeRoy first departed from his comedy-romance themed films with his drama Numbered Men (1930),

3760-447: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ruby_shoes&oldid=933098704 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Ruby slippers In L. Frank Baum's original 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , on which

3840-562: The military-run tent city on the Presidio for the next six months. The elder LeRoy obtained work as a salesman for the Heinz Pickle Company, but his business losses had left him "a beaten man." The young LeRoy emerged from the traumatic event with a sense of pride that he had survived the ordeal and to regard it as fortuitous: "The big thing in my life was the earthquake...it changed my life before I knew I even had one." At

3920-474: The most perfectly economical exercises in cinematic mechanics of which Hollywood was capable. There was no fat on them, either as art or entertainment...as a filmmaking tool, it functioned best in the hands of two great directors, Mervyn LeRoy and Michael Curtiz. In the studio's competitive crucible produced by the Great Depression demanding profitable entertainment, LeRoy directed 36 pictures during

4000-718: The need arose. According to Rhys Thomas in his Los Angeles Times article, "all the ruby slippers are between Size 5 and 6, varying between B and D widths." The four surviving pairs were made from white silk pumps from the Innes Shoe Company in Los Angeles. Many movie studios used plain white silk shoes at the time because they were inexpensive and easy to dye. It is likely that most of the shoes worn by female characters in The Wizard of Oz were plain Innes shoes with varying heel heights dyed to match each costume. There

4080-404: The originals. Western planned a limited edition of 500 pairs at $ 5000 each, but halted the project after selling only 16 pairs. One of these pairs fetched $ 35,000 (including buyer's premium) at a November 25, 2013, auction. Super Mario Bros. is a 1993 science-fiction/adventure homage to The Wizard of Oz featuring red-accented 'Thwomp "Air" Stompers' that allow the wearer to fly upon clicking

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4160-407: The other his colleague, Michael Curtiz . LeRoy's most acclaimed films of his tenure at Warners include Little Caesar (1931), I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) and They Won't Forget (1937). LeRoy left Warners and moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in 1939 to serve as both director and producer. Perhaps his most notable achievement as a producer

4240-676: The premier vaudeville circuits – Pantages , Gus Sun and Orpheum – and provided with regular bookings on national tours. LeRoy relished the lifestyle of a vaudevillian, occasionally appearing in shows that featured iconic performers of the era, among them Sarah Bernhardt , Harry Houdini and Jack Benny . After three years, and now "a fairly well-established act" in theater listings, the duo amicably disbanded after an unexpected death in Cooper's family. LeRoy joined George Choos's mostly female troupe in musical comedies, and Gus Edwards act billed "The Nine Country Kids" in 1922. LeRoy's enthusiasm for

4320-586: The revisionist version of the Oz history chronicled in Gregory Maguire 's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , the slippers were given to Nessarose , the future Wicked Witch of the East, by her father. They were constructed with handmade glass beads and reflected many different colors in the lighting, giving them an almost chameleon effect. After being enchanted by Elphaba's old best friend and roommate, Glinda (the Good Witch of

4400-519: The ride's debut in 1989. Landini auctioned his pair of slippers, again at Christie's East, on May 24, 2000, for $ 666,000 (including the buyer's premium). They were sold to David Elkouby and his partners, who own memorabilia shops in Hollywood. Elkouby and Co. has yet to display the shoes. The pair Warner kept, the "Witch's Shoes," was in the best condition. Warner sold the shoes in 1981 to an unknown buyer through Christie's East for $ 12,000. Two weeks after Landini bought his slippers, this pair resurfaced and

4480-491: The ruby slippers, including Gwen Stefani , Diane von Fürstenberg , and Moschino . The "Arabian" design was displayed with the designer entries. In 2019, Ikon Design Studio released an officially licensed pair of ruby slippers. The replica slippers came in Judy Garland's size of 5B and had her name written inside the shoe. The production was limited to 250 numbered pairs worldwide, including an acrylic display case and

4560-485: The second pair created, therefore explaining the "Double" in the lining, but still worn by Garland and Koshay. Several pairs of Garland's own shoes are size 6 1 ⁄ 2 . Also, Garland can be seen wearing this pair in photos taken after the film's primary shooting was finished in 1939. In the film sequence where trees pelt the Scarecrow with their apples, Garland can be briefly glimpsed wearing black shoes instead of

4640-464: The shoes taken from the feet of the dead Wicked Witch of the East (since the soles are visible in the film), hence their nickname: the "Witch's Shoes". The last known pair may have been made for Bobbie Koshay, Garland's stunt double . This is most likely the size 6B pair (owned first by Roberta Bauman, then Anthony Landini, and currently by David Elkouby) whose lining says "Double" instead of "Judy Garland". However, some believe this pair may have been

4720-479: The situations and surroundings... LeRoy's output in the early Thirties was prodigious. The director attests to the rate of film production at the studios: "If the poorer Curtiz films are disappointing, LeRoy's failures are impossible to watch. When his initial concept was faulty or failed through heavy-handed scripting he could be as banal as Henry King at his worst. It needed a firm central theme to sustain LeRoy,

4800-426: The slippers after a scene was shot. Being little girls, actresses Fairuza Balk (who played Dorothy) and Emma Ridley (who played Princess Ozma ), could not keep from playing, skipping, and tapping their heels, so eventually, they were required to take off the slippers between takes. Effects were later added in post-production to give the slippers their magical glow. A simple red grosgrain ribbon, with additional stones,

4880-440: The slippers in February or March 1970 while helping to set up a mammoth auction of MGM props and wardrobe . They had been stored and forgotten in the basement of MGM's wardrobe department. One pair became the centerpiece of the auction. Warner kept the best pair for himself, size 5B, and apparently sold the rest. The slippers in the MGM auction (size 5C) were bought for $ 15,000 by a lawyer acting for an unidentified client. This

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4960-427: The slippers must be very powerful, or the Wicked Witch would not want them so badly. Throughout the rest of the film, the Wicked Witch schemes to obtain the shoes. She tries to take the slippers when she captures Dorothy, but receives a painful shock. She then realizes that the slippers will only come off if the wearer is dead, so she decides to kill Dorothy. Before she does, however, Dorothy accidentally splashes her with

5040-455: The slippers. For many years, movie studios were careless with old props, costumes, scripts, and other materials, unaware of or indifferent to their increasing value as memorabilia. Often, workers would keep them as souvenirs without permission, aware that their employers did not particularly care. One of the more notorious of these was costumer Kent Warner , who amassed a large private collection and supplemented his income with sales. He found

5120-476: The soles, and has "#7 Judy Garland" written in the lining. According to the Library of Congress , "it is widely believed that they were used primarily for close-ups and possibly the climactic scene where Dorothy taps her heels together." Circular scuff marks on the soles support the theory that they were the ones Garland had on when she clicked her heels together. The lack of felt indicates these were likely also

5200-625: The sound of Garland dancing on the Yellow Brick Road . One pair, known as "the People's Shoes," is on display at the Smithsonian Institution. However, the shoes do not belong together; their actual mates are the mismatched pair (left sized 5C, right 5BC) stolen in 2005 and recovered in 2018. Another pair, the close-up or insert shoes, which is in the best shape of all, appears to be better made, has no orange felt on

5280-513: The stage gradually waned and he left the troupe in 1923. LeRoy accepted a bit role in a scene with former The Perils of Pauline (1914) star Pearl White filmed at Fort Lee, New Jersey . LeRoy was "thoroughly intrigued" by the filmmaking process, recalling "I knew I was finished with vaudeville. I knew, just as positively that I wanted to get into the movie business." In October 1919 LeRoy, just turned 19, approached his cousin Jesse L. Lasky ,

5360-459: The start of shooting, Adrian added butterfly-shaped red strap leather bows. Each of the Art Deco -inspired bows had three large, rectangular, red-glass jewels with dark red bugle beads outlined in red glass rhinestones in silver settings. The stones and beads were sewn to the bows, then to the organza-covered shoe. Three pairs of the surviving slippers had orange felt glued to their soles to deaden

5440-532: The streets of San Francisco. I met the cops and the whores and the reporters and the bartenders and the Chinese and the [commercial] fishermen and shopkeepers. I knew them all, knew how they thought and how they loved and how they hated. When it came time for me to make motion pictures, I made movies that were real, because I knew how real people behaved. Selling newspapers near the Alcazar Theatre , LeRoy

5520-403: The working classes. LeRoy biographer Kingsley Canham writes: The topicality of Warner's material and its direct appeal to the working classes set it apart from other studios. What their films lacked in gloss in comparison to M-G-M or the sophistication of Paramount was more than adequately compensated for by their presentation of everyday material...the working classes could identify with people,

5600-611: The world. The Ruby Slippers of Oz (Tale Weaver Publishing, 1989) by Rhys Thomas is a history of the famous shoes and Kent Warner's part in it. In "At The Auction of the Ruby Slippers", a short story in Salman Rushdie's 1994 anthology East, West , various members of a destitute world attend an auction to bid for the ruby slippers of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz , in the hope their transformative powers will help them achieve personal and political ends. According to

5680-399: Was "a wildly jeweled, Arabian motif, with curling toes and heels." This pair was used in costume tests, but was rejected as unsuitable for Dorothy's Kansas farmgirl image. The second design was approved with one modification. The red bugle beads used to simulate rubies proved too heavy, so they were mostly replaced with sequins , about 2,300 for each shoe. At least six or seven pairs of

5760-730: Was a frequent attendee at San Francisco's premier vaudeville venues, the Orpheum and the Alcazar , often socializing with the theater's personnel. She arranged for the six-year-old LeRoy to serve as a Native-American papoose in the 1906 stage production of The Squaw Man . LeRoy attributed his early interest in vaudeville to "my mother's fascination with it" and to that of his cousins, Jesse L. Lasky and Blanche Lasky, vaudevillians during LeRoy's youth. LeRoy's parents separated suddenly in 1905 for reasons that were not divulged to their son. They never reunited and his father Harry raised LeRoy as

5840-527: Was completely destroyed. LeRoy retained vivid mental images of the city's devastation: My memory is a kaleidoscope of pictures. I have always thought in visual terms and when I recall that morning of April 18, 1906, I see a mental album of tragic pictures...many years later in Quo Vadis , I shot the burning of Rome and I drew on my memories of the burning of San Francisco as a grim model. Reduced to virtual penury, father and son lived as displaced persons at

5920-430: Was made by Hollywood to describe the brutal reality of the criminal world." LeRoy's Little Caesar established the iconography of subsequent films on organized crime, emphasizing the hierarchy of family loyalties and the function of violence in advancing criminal careers. LeRoy's adroit cinematic handling of Robinson's Rico incrementally shifts initial audience response from revulsion at the character's homicidal acts to

6000-573: Was my first with sound. I had been watching the experiments with talkies with tremendous excitement...As a veteran of stage and vaudeville, I knew the value of the spoken and sung word. I understood dialogue, because I had been an actor...I couldn't wait until I had a change to direct a talking picture. LeRoy's early directing efforts at First National were largely limited to comedies. His movies from this period include Gentleman's Fate (1931) with John Gilbert (filmed at M-G-M studios), Tonight or Never (1931), with Gloria Swanson , High Pressure ,

6080-728: Was offered privately through Christie's to the under-bidder of the Bauman shoes, Philip Samuels of St. Louis, Missouri. Samuels bought them for the same price Landini had paid, $ 165,000. He has used his shoes to fund children's charities, and has lent them to the Smithsonian when their slippers are cleaned, repaired, or (previously) on tour. Auction house Profiles in History announced this pair would highlight its December 15–17, 2011 Icons of Hollywood auction. In an interview, Joe Maddalena , head of Profiles in History, estimated that they would go for two to three million dollars. They were offered with

6160-575: Was sentenced to time served in January, 2024. The very elaborate curled-toe "Arabian" pair was owned by actress and memorabilia preservationist Debbie Reynolds . She acknowledged she got them from Kent Warner. These slippers were sold for $ 510,000 (not including the buyer's premium) in the June 2011 auction as part of the actress's collection. The ruby slippers play an integral role in the 1985 Walt Disney Pictures film Return to Oz , for which Disney had to obtain rights from MGM to use reproductions in

6240-448: Was soon hired as an extra on Cecil B. DeMille 's 1923 epic The Ten Commandments LeRoy credits Cecil B. DeMille, for inspiring him to become a director: "As the top director of the era, DeMille had been the magnet that had drawn me to his set as often as I could go." LeRoy also credits DeMille for teaching him the directing techniques required to make his own films. LeRoy worked intermittently in small supporting roles in film during

6320-645: Was spotted by stage star Theodore Roberts . A personable and attractive youth at age fourteen, LeRoy was engaged for a bit part in a 1914 stage production of Barbara Frietchie . Gratified by "that lovely feeling—audience approval", he performed in productions with the Liberty Theater in Oakland, playing the lead juvenile roles in Tom Sawyer and Little Lord Fauntleroy . As a 14-year-old, LeRoy carefully observed emerging screen star Charlie Chaplin at

6400-569: Was used for the bows. Seven pairs were made for the filming: two pairs, size three for Ridley, three pairs (size unknown) for Balk, and two men's size 11 for the Nome King , played by Nicol Williamson . In 1985, Walt Disney Productions gave away a pair of slippers to promote the film. They were won by a British family, who sold them to prominent Oz collector Willard Carroll in a 2001 eBay auction. The Western Costume Company in Hollywood claims to have made Garland's original slippers. While it

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