Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/01/22/mobster-reveals-why-he-stole-wizard-of-oz-ruby-slippers.html
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Why does it say Wizard of Oz 1925? It was released in 1939
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I don’t know, it almost seems like a heart-warming amount of naivete, that someone thought that actual rubies were used.
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AI wrote the summary? There was a 1925 version, just not the Garland one.
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Stranger things have happened (admittedly about 65 years later)
So what they did was, they went to the most popular race of the Formula 1 calendar — the Monaco Grand Prix — and they installed the diamond on the nose of a race car. But this wasn’t just any race car: they put this diamond on the front of an actual race car that would be racing in the actual Formula 1 race. And it wasn’t just one diamond: they did this with two different diamonds on two different race cars, both of which were taking part in the Grand Prix.
Most importantly, this wasn’t just some cheap little diamond your cousin might get from her forklift driver boyfriend after he proposes to her at Red Lobster. The diamonds installed on the front of these race cars were reportedly worth $300,000 each — on loan from Israeli gem firm Steinmetz, who (surprise, surprise!) couldn’t find anyone to insure them, presumably because every possible insurance agent who heard the idea quickly collapsed from a laughing-induced heart attack.
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Yeah, seems like it would be a weird error for a human to make. Especially given which museum the slippers were stolen from; Judy Garland was only 3 years old in 1925 and none of the earlier versions of the story had ruby-covered slippers.
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He obviously never talked to an old-timer in a movie props/wardrobe department. They probably bought a bunch of cheap pairs at the five-n-dime, glossy red paint, sequins and some glue. If they held together through the shooting, it was all good.
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That’s hilarious. I bet they also believe the Maltese Falcon prop is made of solid gold covered in priceless jewels underneath its black veneer.
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I want to see the movie of “Martin the Mobster and the Ruby Slippers of Oz”, where he’s tricked by a witch into thinking the shoes are worth money, not realizing he’d be transported to and trapped in Oz, only escaping by making friends, completing quests, and becoming a better person, finally realizing that upon his return he should own up for his past misdeeds, and to protect his friends, not reveal the truth about the Land of Oz.
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I was hoping that the story behind it was that the mobster was gay and this was done purely for the camp value. Instead he was just an idiot. How disappointing.
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This article includes a few close-up photos of the Smithsonian’s set of shoes. (There are 4 known pairs that were used onscreen.)
Most of the surface is just covered in red sequins but the bow includes some red glass that an idiot might think was real rubies. And a few small pieces seem to be missing from their settings. I wonder if they fell out or if someone pried them loose and tried to fence them at a jewelry store, only to walk away disappointed.
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gormless fact: in the original L. Frank Baum they were silver shoes, (and no indication that they weren’t trivially removable. they even ‘fell off somewhere’ on the return trip to Kansas). Probably went to ruby/red in the 1939 screenplay because of the fancy pants color cinematography (maybe)
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Yup. When Walt Disney made Return to Oz in 1985 it was theoretically a standalone movie based on L. Frank Baum’s novels rather than a sequel to the 1939 MGM movie… but they ended up paying a hefty fee to MGM anyway so they could use the ruby slippers.
In the 1995 novel Wicked the shoes were described as being covered in fine glass beads that mysteriously looked silver or ruby-colored depending on how the light hit them.
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That’s quite an excuse just to avoid saying that he liked to wear them.
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Actually, they just taped a bunch of sparrows together.
Now, I am around and about, and I am hearing a lot of talk about Frankie 12-gauge, who people have been calling ‘Frankie Slippers’, due to a somewhat convoluted caper Frankie is being associated with, much to his chagrin.
Now, the Story Of The Embarrassing Shoe Heist is for another day, when all the parties involved are in the mood for calming down, and taking a good long look at the situation and being very relaxed about it and not pulling equalisers on folks that just wanted some chit-chat whist studying the Form, with no yelling of threats and such like behaviour to spoil the Sport Of Kings
Now, Frankie is also being most vehement in a number of Fashionable Venues that people have misheard, and that Friend of Dorothy is not what people are calling him, it is, according to Frankie, ‘Friend Of Joey Tea’, who you might remember is currently on vacation at Uncle Sam’s very bad hotel on account of all that ruckus at City Hall last year.
This has led to a number of Fashionable Venues becoming Much Less Fashionable due to people pointing out Frankie’s dainty feet and alluding to said Shoe Caper. Which has led to a lot of blind pigs on the lower East Side suddenly doing quite well, for reasons of safety and being a long way away from Frankie.
So the moral of the story is, it’s an ill wind that blows no one any good, even if it is a tornado that once squashed a witch.
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Because there is no place like home?
African or European?
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Was He a friend of Dorothy?
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IT WAS JOEY TEA, DAMMIT!!!
