So why shouldn’t the Smithsonian, as the caretakers of this very potent artifact, ask for our help to make sure they’re in shape for future generations to appreciate them? Among ruby slippers aficionados, each pair of surviving ruby slippers has a nickname. The film and the ruby slippers give us hope. In 1939, when the film premiered, it inspired a famous cartoon in the Utica Observer Dispatch that depicted the Wicked Witch of the West as Hitler. But like many great stories of good and evil, The Wizard of Oz lends itself to this kind of interpretation.
Littlefield, eventually admitted that he created the parable to teach Populism to his American history students. In truth, there’s really no evidence that Baum supported William Jennings Bryan, and even the author of the theory, Henry M.
WIZARD OF OZ RED SLIPPERS FREE
“Her silver shoes, tinkling merrily on the hard, yellow roadbed,” depicted her people’s rallying cry: free silver for all, above the gold that kept workers indigent. According to this theory Dorothy, whose magical shoes were silver in Baum’s story, is the agent of universal goodness sent to rectify conditions for her fellow man. paper money should correspond to a reserve of gold in the federal treasury. Candidate William Jennings Bryan represented the Populist Party, campaigning against the Gold Standard: the economic principle still upheld at the time that all U.S. Frank Baum, who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at the start of the 20th Century, is actually a sharp piece of political writing, describing the presidential election of 1896. As the item that she – a simple teenage farm girl from Kansas – steals from the dictatorial Wicked Witch and ultimately uses to liberate the oppressed people of Oz, they’re nothing less than a symbol of revolution. In the movie, the slippers represent the little guy’s ability to triumph over powerful forces. The Wizard of Oz is one of the most beloved films of all time, and in many ways, it feels like Dorothy and her magical shoes belong to all of us.
The sequins are mussed and the leather insoles, scalloped with old moisture damage, lift away at the heels.īut the allure of the ruby slippers transcends their appearance. They aren’t Technicolor red – they’re actually muted burgundy. These reactions are particularly remarkable given the reality of what the shoes look like in person. “The holy grail,” the admirer whispered, mostly to himself, as he zoomed in. I saw one couple pull out a video camera to record them in their plexiglass case. Everyone who sees them – from small children to their grey-haired grandparents – gush over the shoes.
When I visited the ruby slippers at the Smithsonian for the first time back in 2010, I was surprised by the response they still elicit. A fourth pair was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in her birthplace of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, back in 2005, and hasn’t been found.) Three are accounted for – the Smithsonian’s pair and another two pairs that are privately owned. (It is estimated that a total of four to seven pairs were made for the purposes of shooting The Wizard of Oz. Perhaps it’s appropriate to ask the populace to help preserve the one pair of Dorothy’s shoes that remain in the public eye. More, the ruby slippers have a history as a populist symbol. But there’s also something to be said for honoring a vestige of Hollywood history that’s brought people so much joy. Certainly, there are more meaningful things to do with one’s money - donating to help Syrian refugees and victims of Hurricane Matthew both immediately come to mind.