Ruby Slippers - Dorothy's Shoes from The Wizard of Oz

Photo: Olivier Duquesne, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.

In the Entertainment Nation exhibition, on the third floor, West Wing, is one of the few surviving pairs of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in 1939. Several pairs were made for filming; this one shows wear on the soles that suggests it was used in the dance scenes.

In the book by L. Frank Baum, the shoes were silver. The studio changed them to red to show off the new Technicolor film. They are covered in sequins and glass beads sewn onto silk.

The slippers were given to the museum anonymously in 1979. By 2015 the colors had faded and the threads were weakening, so the Smithsonian raised money for their conservation through a Kickstarter campaign, and they returned to view in a new climate-controlled case. From here, head back to the stop and continue along the Mall.

More on Wikipedia: Ruby slippers · Judy Garland · The Wizard of Oz

Ruby Slippers - Dorothy's Shoes from The Wizard of Oz

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