Friday Story for June 10, 2022

Written and recorded by Gretchen Anthony
Sound production by Connor Anthony

Hey there, readers. It’s Gretchen. Back again with a Friday Story for June 10, 2022.

Today we celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of Minnesota native and American icon, Judy Garland. She was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota as Francis Ethel Gumm. Her parents, Frank and Ethel Gumm, were vaudeville performers who, seeing an opportunity, bought the New Grand motion pictures house in town and, with their three daughters including Judy, formed a family act that performed live between picture showings. Which is why we Minnesotans claim, rightfully so, that Miss Judy Garland (a.k.a. Ethel Gumm) started her showbiz career right there on the shores of Lake Itasca.

Now, why am I so excited to share today’s story with you? Because Judy, herself, makes a number of pivotal cameo appearances in my new novel. The Book Haters’ Book Club tells the story of the Over the Rainbow Bookshop, a magical shop that takes its motto literally: Books and rainbows are where dreams come true. And, yes, you better believe it got its name from Judy Garland’s iconic film, The Wizard of Oz.

So… our story. The Mystery of the Missing Ruby Slippers.

On an August night in 2005, a thief who remains unknown to this day, slipped into the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, smashed the plexiglass case that held one of the five remaining pairs of authentic ruby slippers worn by Garland herself, and stole away into the night. The slippers would remain missing for thirteen years.

News of the robbery spread worldwide within days (this was pre-social media). Wizard of Oz fans became obsessed. Late-night comedians cracked jokes (Letterman said, “The thief is described as being armed and fabulous.”) Grand Rapids residents accused each other of the crime, convinced it had to be an inside job.

How did the ruby slippers come to Grand Rapids, anyway?

You may or may not know that there are actually five pairs of ruby slippers remaining from the film.

One pair has been on nearly continuous display at the Smithsonian since 1979. They are on loan from the men who bought what was at the time believed to be the only remaining pair at a California auction in 1970.

However, a second pair surfaced soon after when a woman named Roberta Bauman in Tennessee revealed that she had won a pair in an MGM studio promotion in 1939. She later sold her pair to a set of California collectors who have reportedly kept them locked away ever since.

Fellow movie icon, Debbie Reynolds (bless her) owned a third pair that came to be known as the “Arabian test slippers.” They were a more ornate pair, and do not actually appear in the film.

The fourth pair is owned by collector Kent Warner. They are known as the “Witch’s pair” because they’re the slippers seen on the Wicked Witch of the East after she’s crushed under Dorothy’s spinning house.

And finally, we come to the fifth pair. This is the pair stolen from Judy’s hometown museum. At the time of the theft, they were owned by collector Michael Shaw, who traveled the country with them, putting them on public display wherever he went. Thus, this fifth pair came to be known as the “Traveling slippers.”

And this is how they came to Grand Rapids. The Judy Garland Museum requested Shaw’s slippers in 1989 for a special display in honor of the 50th anniversary of the film. He obliged, and then obliged a few times more over the following years. So it was that they were to be on display again for two months in the summer of 2005.

The night they were stolen, there was no alarm set, no security cameras in use, and the slippers were protected by only plexiglass. All that was left when the robbery was discovered was one red sequin.

Twelve years passed without leads. Until July 2017 when a man called the FBI claiming to be a middle man with knowledge of the slippers’ whereabouts. It took a full year of investigative work, but the FBI took possession of the slippers in a Minneapolis coffee shop the following summer.

We, the public don’t know what the FBI knows, of course. But to this day, there is still no record of who took the shoes, where they were, or what happened to them along the way. We do know that the Smithsonian was able to confirm their authenticity. We also know that they have never since been loaned to the Judy Garland Museum in beautiful Grand Rapids.

The Washington Post published a wonderful and fascinating article on the theft and trust me, it’s worth a read. The story is so much more complex than I’m able to capture here.

If you want to visit the Judy Garland Museum, it’s open. And it still has plenty to enjoy, including the carriage that carries Dorothy and her fellow travelers into the Emerald City.

But as for me, I can’t resist wondering about the rest of the story. It’s a curious one, no? Maybe I’ll write that book someday, too.

Are you a Wizard of Oz or Judy Garland fan? Tell me your stories. I’d love to hear them.