The ruby slippers worn by Dorothy in the 1939 MGM movie The Wizard of Oz are among the most valuable movie memorabilia around today. The weird part is that the slippers should never have been red at all!
The original novel by L. Frank Baum called for a pair of silver slippers and the movie producers were more than happy to stick to his original colour. However, back in 1916 a film technology known as Technicolor was invented that promised the commercial introduction of colour films into the movie industry.
The technique was improved over the following decades, and by 1930, Technicolor had evolved into an effective process for producing colour films so MGM Studios started to adopt it for all their big budget films.
One of the first of these films was The Wizard of Oz. The producers thought that a pair of silver slippers would not make effective use of this new technology, so a vibrant colour was needed. The Technicolor process favoured rich saturated shades and a deep red colour was eventually chosen.
Hence, Dorothy's slippers became the famous Ruby Slippers.
One of the five surviving pairs, thought to be the actual pair worn by Judy Garland during filming, are now on display in the Smithsonian.
