The shoes were dyed red, then burgundy sequined organza overlays were attached to each shoe's upper and heel. There is an embossed gold or silver stamp or an embroidered cloth label bearing the name of the company inside each right shoe. 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. At the time, many movie studios used plain white silk shoes because they were inexpensive and easy to dye. The four surviving pairs were made from white silk pumps from the Innes Shoe Company in Los Angeles. 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." Rhys Thomas speculates that they were likely made by Joe Napoli of the Western Costume Company, and not all at once, but as the need arose. Four pairs used in the movie have been accounted for. The wardrobe woman who worked on the film claimed "six identical pairs" had been made. According to producer Mervyn LeRoy, "We must have had five or ten pairs of those shoes". It is believed that at least six or seven pairs of the final design were made. The red bugle beads used to simulate rubies proved too heavy, so they were mostly replaced with sequins, about 2,300 for each shoe. The second design was approved, with one modification. The so-called "Arabian test pair" 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. Initially, two pairs were made in different styles. The slippers were designed by Gilbert Adrian, MGM's chief costume designer. The curled-toe "Arabian" ruby slippers on display at the auction of the collection of Debbie Reynolds in Beverly Hills on June 18, 2011 In the end, Glinda reveals that Dorothy can return home by simply closing her eyes, clicking the heels of the slippers together three times and repeating the phrase, "There's no place like home." Before she does, however, Dorothy accidentally splashes her with a bucket of water, causing her to melt away. She then realizes that the slippers will only come off if the wearer is dead, so she decides to kill Dorothy. When she captures Dorothy, she tries to take the slippers, but receives a painful shock. Throughout the rest of the film, the Wicked Witch schemes to obtain the shoes. Glinda tells Dorothy to never take them off, as the slippers must be very powerful or the Wicked Witch would not want them so badly. When the Wicked Witch of the West comes to claim her dead sister's shoes, Glinda magically transfers them to Dorothy's feet. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, arrives via magic bubble and shows Dorothy the dead woman's feet sticking out from under the house with the ruby slippers on them. The house falls on and kills the Wicked Witch of the East, freeing the Munchkins from her tyranny. In the MGM film, an adolescent farm girl named Dorothy Gale (played by Judy Garland), her dog Toto, and their farmhouse are swept away from Kansas by a tornado and taken to the magical Land of Oz. Film screenwriter Noel Langley is credited with the idea. 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. Frank Baum's original 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, on which the film is based, Dorothy wears Silver Shoes. Five pairs are known to have survived one pair was stolen from a museum in 2005 and recovered in 2018. A number of pairs were made for the film, though the exact number is unknown. Because of their iconic stature, they are among the most valuable items of film memorabilia. The ruby slippers are a pair of shoes worn by Dorothy Gale as played by Judy Garland in the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical film The Wizard of Oz.
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