Friday, March 12, 2010

Where did the Ruby or Silver Slippers come from?

I'd prefer answers based on L. Frank Baum and not Gregory

Where did the Ruby or Silver Slippers come from?
The original novel by L. Frank Baum was actually a satirical look at the populist movement of the late 1800s. This was when the issue between using a money system based on gold was better than using a money system based on silver. Dorothy's silver slippers represented the silver system, while the yellow brick road was meant to symbolize the gold standard. The gold standard led to the Emerald City, which in the novel, wasn't actually green--it was white, and everyone wore green tinted glasses, thus symbolizing the Americans' faith in the government and the "greenbacks" (paper money) that were being used. Since paper money has no real value, people trust that the government is telling them the truth when they say it's worth X amount of dollars, the same way the people of the Emerald City trusted that their city was actually green. I don't recall if it says in the book where the Wicked Witch of the East got the silver slippers from, but Dorothy ended up receiving them to represent the "little people" and the silver standard side of the populist movement.





When the movie was made, a lot of the similar concepts were shifted towards the Dust Bowl era issues (Toto being the same type of dog as FDR's is a major statement in and of itself), but the slippers were in fact changed to ruby in the movie because the silver didn't show up as well in Technicolor.
Reply:I've read Frank L. Baum totally refute the symbolism people were reading into his stories. I collect old Wizard of Oz books and he put it in a foward. In his own words he wrote that it was strictly entertainment and children's books and not political. Report It

Reply:From the wicked witch of the EAST
Reply:Silver Slippers were in the Wizard of Oz books - but MGM used ruby slippers for the big screen.
Reply:I vaguely recall that the ruby slippers were added by the film studio, not Mr. Baum. ( could be wrong tho...but thats what I recall)
Reply:From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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The original ruby slippers used in The Wizard of Oz; now on display at the Smithsonian.The ruby slippers are the shoes worn by Dorothy in 1939 MGM movie The Wizard of Oz which give her the power of returning home any time she wishes. She acquired the shoes after her house fell on the Wicked Witch of the East, killing her and liberating the Munchkins. The slippers protected Dorothy from the evil magic of the Wicked Witch of the West. In the original novel by L. Frank Baum, they were silver slippers, but this was changed for the movie to take advantage of it being in color.





According to the revisionist version of the Oz history chronicled in Gregory Maguire's Wicked, the slippers were given to the wicked witch of the east (Nessarose) by her father. At the time the shoes appeared silver. After being enchanted by her sister Elphaba (the wicked witch of the west), they become items of power which allow Nessarose to walk (being that she was crippled). The energy of Elphaba's spell gave the shoes their famed ruby glow. Maguire's invention thus bridges between Baum's silver slippers and the ruby slippers of the film.





Dorothy knew that the slippers were powerful, but was unaware of their powers. It was only at the end of the film that she learned the formula: click your heels together three times, and repeat "There's no place like home."





The actual slippers worn by Judy Garland in the film were designed by Gilbert Adrian. Several pairs of slippers were constructed for the film. One pair is on permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in the United States, the others are owned by private collectors. As can be seen in the above picture, the pair featured at the Smithsonian are not matching (the right pair's bow is placed higher on the shoe). This has led to the theories that there are more pairs of ruby slippers that have yet to surface.





Several variances in sizes exist, between sizes 5 and 6 (Judy Garland's foot size in 1938). At a 1970 MGM auction, a pair sold for $15,000. On May 24, 2000, a pair of ruby slippers was auctioned for $666,000 (including a $66,000 commission). A pair was originally shown at The Great Movie Ride in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, but have since been sold to a man named David Elkouby who owns a memorabillia shop in Hollywood and who has been convicted of allegedly selling costumes stolen from movie sets. A pair of ruby slippers from the film was exhibited in the Oz museum in Wamego, Kansas. They were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum, part of the Children's Discovery Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in August, 2005.





An obviously fake pair of ruby slippers were shown in the 2002 movie, The Master of Disguise.
Reply:I think it was from The Wizard of Oz.



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