*NEW BOOK* THE RUBY SLIPPERS OF OZ 30 YEARS LATER

Exposing the clandestine and often treacherous underground of movie memorabilia, this Hollywood mystery may be the film industry's most bizarre account of ambition, greed, obsession, and deception.

Something's afoot here as a colorful group of characters are spellbound by the charm and curse of the screen's most indelible and iconic image: The Ruby Slippers of Oz. Updated for the first time in 30 years, with many new revelations, this is a fascinating read for any Oz movie buff and those who love a good mystery.

The Ruby Slippers of Oz Thirty Years Later

WIZARD OF OZ TRIBUTE TONIGHT ON THE ACADEMY AWARDS®

This is positively the finest exhibition ever to be shown! The Academy Awards® is celebrating the 75th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz! Tune in tonight at 7e/4p on ABC.

THE HISTORY OF THE FLYING MONKEYS OF OZ...

As a child, those flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz always scared the crap out of me. I'm NOT scared of flying monkeys anymore. If I ever encounter any... I'll stomp on them with my ruby slippers....Be gone flying monkeys...You have no power here LOL.....

In the original Oz novels, winged monkeys were just what the name implies: intelligent monkeys with wings. The Winged Monkeys were once a free people, living in the forests of Oz. They were carefree, but rather mischievous.

One day the King of the Winged Monkeys, as a prank, tossed a richly dressed man into a river, ruining his costume of silk and velvet. The man whose name was Quelala was good natured enough, but his fiancée Gayelette was furious and punished the Winged Monkeys by making them the slaves to the Golden Cap she had prepared as a wedding present for her betrothed. The cap allows its possessor to command the winged monkeys three times.

Quelala used the Golden Cap only once, commanding the Winged Monkeys to stay away from Gayelette. Eventually the cap fell into the hands of the Wicked Witch of the West, who used the Winged Monkeys to conquer the Winkie Country, defeat the armies of the Wizard of Oz, and capture Dorothy Gale and the Cowardly Lion, destroying the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman in the process.

In the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, the monkeys are apparently intelligent enough to obey commands, but do not speak, as in the book. They kidnap Dorothy and dismantle the Scarecrow, but do nothing to the Tin Man or the Cowardly Lion, leaving them free to put the Scarecrow back together and rescue Dorothy.

There is no mention of any three wishes in the film, suggesting that the monkeys serve the witch unconditionally. Nikko (the head monkey) is shown again after the Witch orders him to throw a basket containing the dog Toto in the river (an order that Dorothy prevents him from carrying out), with the Witch as she angrily throws down the hour glass after the trio rescues Dorothy, and once more after the Witch has been melted.

There is only a brief glimpse of the Golden Cap in the film: after Dorothy and the Lion reawake after Glinda breaks the spell on the poppies conjured by the Witch, she is seen watching them in anger in her crystal ball. Nikko hands her the Golden Cap and she utters the "somebody always helps that girl" line, before throwing the cap across the room angrily.

RETRO KIMMER LOVES INCURABLE COLLECTORS

 Guinness World Record holder for the biggest Vintage Barbie Collector

What is a collector? The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. 

Collecting is a huge global hobby...Around the world people collect everything from the tiniest postage stamps to luxury automobiles and jets.  And beyond...

Usually collecting begins in childhood and is left behind as we grow up..ala rock collecting, insect and butterfly collecting, dolls, miniature toy cars and thousands of other items were coveted by children.

But as the "baby boomer" generation has grown older their vintage collections are still a huge hobby for many.  From the very inexpensive collections of things like swizzle sticks and match books to the more high end vintage Barbie's and Star Wars collections, we are a generation of collectors....

This man is a true Barbie lover.  Notice that all of his Barbies are out of their boxes.  That makes his collection less valuable but loved by the collector none the less.

Actress Debbie Reynolds amassed a huge Hollywood memorabilia collection over the years.  The Ascot dress from "My Fair Lady" is one of her pieces. Debbie sold her collection in 2011 for over 18 million dollars!

"The Incurable Collector," A&E TV show, had no problem finding people who collected interesting, unique and bizarre items.  This was one of my favorite tv shows but sadly it went off the air.  There are a few video clips which I'll share in this story.

One show featured the woman who collects swizzle sticks. "She has a thousand swizzle sticks," said the series' executive producer Pam Burke. "It is one of the more inexpensive [hobbies] to get involved in."

Each episode featured three experts: "Garage Sale Susan" Goldberg, "The Instant Appraiser" Niles Grace and Usha Subramanian, who focuses on "fantastic finds."

Host and narrator was Emmy Award-winning actor John Larroquette, who is an incurable collector of first editions by 20th century writers.

Larroquette has approximately 3,000 books. "Everything is well-protected and on display," he says. "I love reading them. My wife gets irritated sometimes when I fall asleep in bed with a signed William Faulkner on my chest."

A lot of boys in my neighborhood collected Match Box cars.  I recently interviewed a 60 year old Hot Wheels car collector!

I have never met an unhappy collector!  Most people who are incurable collectors find great joy in finding new things and displaying them in their homes.

A mighty happy Wizard of Oz collector.

I have a some W of Oz  things , a Wicked Witch of the West clock, Ruby Slippers snow globe, an 18" tall Tin Man,  and lots of refrigerator magnets. I also have a small Barbie Collection, glass animal figurines, rock memorabilia/posters most autographed.  What do you collect??

Some of my favorite episodes featured Wizard of Oz collectors as this video shows...

THE BEST PAIR OF RUBY SLIPPERS TODAY

"The Witches Shoes"

They are the most famous shoes in the world, a piece of Hollywood culture so iconic that all you have to say is “Click your heels three times” and everyone will know what you’re talking about.

The ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.” Only four sets remain: those in the Smithsonian, the pair stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minn., a mismatched pair owned by collector Michael Shaw and the “beauty pair” used for close-ups such as Dorothy’s exit scene with Glinda the Good Witch. The latter sells this week on the season premiere of “Hollywood Treasures.”

Hank Azaria

Memorabilia magnate Joe Maddalena fetches a princely sum for the sequined shoes — we’re talking $2 million — but first he has to wrest them out of the hands of former owner Philip Samuels. Samuels bought the slippers at Christie’s in 1988 for $180,000, and then hid them away in a place called Hollywood Vaults.

Sounds like the name of a cemetery or a post-Botox recovery room for A-list actors, but it’s really a climate-controlled, high-end storage facility in the mid-Wilshire neighborhood with security cameras and guards with muscle T-shirts and Popeye arms. Maddalena is escorted to the vault along with ruby-slipper expert Rhys Thomas.
 

One of the vaults is unlocked and a black briefcase is removed. Maddalena says he felt like he was in an episode of “Mission: Impossible,” but instead of being handed the test tube of nitroglycerin, he was given a pair of white gloves and allowed to touch the precious slippers. For the Hollywood collector, this is a religious moment.

“They are the most famous movie artifacts in the world,” Maddalena says.

Read Full Story Here

JUDY GARLAND TV SHOWS AND RUBY SLIPPERS NEWS!

For Immediate Release: Contact: Jeff Abraham/Jonas PR

310-656-3355 - jeff@jonaspr.com

For The Ultimate Judy Garland Fan ‘The Judy Garland Show’ Goes Up For Auction Bidding Starts at $1 Million Dollars

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acquired one of the four known surviving pairs of the iconic shoes made for the 1939 movie, with the help of Leonardo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg.

The shoes, regarded as one of the world's best-known film props, are believed to have been worn by Garland's character Dorothy when she clicked her heels three times to return to Kansas from the fantasy land of Oz near the end of the film.

The slippers were previously due to be sold by Los Angeles auction house Profiles in History in December, with an estimated selling price of $2-$3 million. But auction house officials said they did not sell at that time.

In the last few months, Judy Garland memorabilia has earned record-high prices at auction; The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acquired a pair of the iconic ruby slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" for their forth-coming museum at a price of more than $2 million dollars and Dorothy’s signature blue gingham dress fetched nearly a half million dollars.

And now, The Royalty Exchange launches the auction for Full Ownership to the US Rights of The Judy Garland Show with bidding starting at $1 million dollars. These rights include: Broadcast, Home Video/DVD, Video On-Demand, Streaming, Clip Clearance and Sync License.

This astounding offering is for all 26 classic episodes of Garland’s 1963-964 CBS one hour variety show. For the first time, the general public will be able to own the rights to a piece of Judy Garland's historic entertainment career. This auction will end on Saturday, December 22nd.

After winning a bidding war in 1963 involving all three of the major television networks, CBS emerged the winner and agreed to pay Garland $24 million for the show – one of the largest television deals in history, at that time.

This was much needed income for Garland, due to her troubles with the IRS at that time. First broadcast in September of that year, The Judy Garland Show was a weekly series that not only featured performances by this legendary artist at the peak of her career, but also featured performances by a roster of special guests defying any kind of superlative description.

Guests on the show included: Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, Count Basie and many others, as well as Garland’s daughter Liza Minelli, then only 17 years old but clearly already a rising star.

In addition to the complete episodes, the masters in the auction also include out-takes from the show, a behind-the-scenes photo gallery, press and glamour shots from the show, and an audio commentary with those involved in the original broadcast of the series.

THE HISTORY OF THE RUBY SLIPPERS OF OZ

I found this book called The Ruby Slippers of Oz by Rhys Thomas. It reads like a suspense filled detective novel. Keeping up with who just ran off with which pair of shoes...There were many pairs of shoes created for the Wizard of Oz movie. Miss Garland had several pairs and her stand ins had their own Ruby Slippers as well. The Witches shoes were the Slippers on the feet of the deceased Wicked Witch of the East. Her slippers had a much higher heel. (See the photo below)

With the disappearance of the traveling slippers

This pic above shows the "Witches" Shoes (higher heel)

Back to my personal fascination with the Ruby Slippers. All my life I have longed to own, touch, see, feel, and try on a pair of those slippers! They are a totem for my life. I have always made jokes in reference to OZ. "Somebody always helps that girl..." "These things must be handled delicately..."

Purchase the Book 

Click the links below

The Ruby Slippers of Oz

The Ruby Slippers of Oz tells a fascinating story of all the designers that worked on making those shoes and the drama behind the scenes of people trying to snatch them for their own financial gain.

Interesting is that there were possibly more than 12-17 pairs or slippers created for the movie. Judy Garland had several, the dead witch wore a pair with higher heels than Judy's. Margaret Hamilton wore a pair in the tornado scene (as the witch of the East). Debbie Reynold's has the the first prototype pair. (ugly ones) The first ones were supposed to be silver but they didn't photograph very well.

The fine print says: Protruding feet of the recently squished Wicked Witch of the East, shortly before she loses her shoes. Slipper fanatics will note a higher heel than on shoes worn by Judy Garland in the film

Arabian Ruby Slippers once owned by Debbie Reynolds

Arabian style ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz. Gilbert Adrian designed two different style for Dorothy's shoes but this arabian pair were too exotic and didn't suit the look of a Kansas farmer girl. In the original novel of L. Frank Baum Dorothy wore a silver pair of slippers but it was changed in benefit of the Technicolor.

This book though is a fascinating read with all the background drama that happened to all of these shoes. Drama continues to this day. And the fact that any of them exist is pretty miraculous as they were made of flimsy materials.

They weren't much of a shoe to begin with, just a plain cloth pump but the sequins, bow and red dye made the magic and all the difference...

Western Costume designer Joe Napoli is credited with designing the slippers.

Kent Warner found a few pairs of them while working on a back lot that were supposed to be discarded. He was smart enough to hang on to those slippers!

Smithsonian Ruby Slippers

How the Ruby Slippers were obtained by the Smithsonian

Read more about the drama behind the 2 different shoes that are on display in the Smithsonian ... Rumor has it that these are a mismatched pair of the slippers..(2 different sizes)