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A pair of red ruby slippers worn by the actress Judy Garland while playing Dorothy in the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz sold at auction for $28 million on Saturday. Heritage Auctions, based in Dallas, slapped a $3 million estimate on the slippers. Pre-sale bidding had taken the price up to $1.55 million before fierce phone bidding propelled it to $10 million within three minutes. After 15 minutes of drama, the gavel finally came down at the astonishing sum. With the auction house’s fee tagged on, the unknown buyer will pay a total $32.5 million for the sequinned...

A pair of iconic ruby slippers that were worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” and stolen from a museum nearly two decades ago sold for a winning bid of $28 million at auction Saturday. Heritage Auctions had estimated that they would fetch $3 million or more, but the fast-paced bidding far outpaced that amount within seconds and tripled it within minutes. A few bidders making offers by phone volleyed back and forth for 15 minutes as the price climbed to the final, eye-popping sum. Including the Dallas-based auction house's fee, the unknown buyer will ultimately pay $32.5...

Wicked, the upcoming big-screen adaptation of the beloved Broadway show that is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, received its first trailer at Super Bowl LVIII. It's a dreamy trailer that gives us our first real look at a cinematic take on one of the most beloved musicals of the last few decades. Of course, the footage also serves as an introduction to some of the music the prequel is known for. Wicked Trailer (1min) Wicked, which will be a two-part theatrical event, is set to fly into theaters for the first time on November 27, 2024. Wicked: Part...

On PBS's Cinema Classics, host Reese De'What (Kenan Thompson) presents the never-before-seen alternate ending of The Wizard of Oz

Somewhere over the rainbow, indeed! Kenya Barris tells me that LGBTQ representation will be featured in his “Wizard of Oz” remake. “The original was an allegory and a reflection of the way the world was at the time with things like the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl,” says Barris, who will write and direct the reimagining for Warner Bros. “Now we’re going to turn a mirror on where we’re at right now and take disparate characters from the LGBTQ community, from different cultural communities and socioeconomic communities, and tell a story that reflects the world. I think this is...

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Nazi Mind Control Amidst the subtle cerebral circumvention of the gullible populace, through a multitude of manipulated mediums, lies one of the most diabolical atrocities perpetrated upon a segment of the human race; a form of systematic mind control which has permeated every aspect of society for almost fifty years.To objectively ascertain the following, one may need to re-examine preconceived ideologies relating to the dualistic nature of mankind. . . . . .This exposition is substantiated by declassified U.S. government documents, individuals formerly connected to the U.S. intelligence communities, historical writings, researchers knowledgeable in mind control, publications from mental health...

A lecturer at Catholic University discovered the rare costume wrapped in a trash bag in a drama department office Four people, a scarecrow, Tin Man, Dorothy and a lion, walk arm in arm down a yellow brick road A publicity still from The Wizard of Oz. A lecturer at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. recently stumbled onto one of the costumes worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale in the 1939 film. (Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images) By Nora McGreevy SMITHSONIANMAG.COM JULY 12, 2021 9:58AM 45 For decades, members of the Catholic University of America (CUA) drama department traded...

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is charged with overseeing the critical battleground's response to the coronavirus, said the frequent protests overwhelming the state's capital against her stay-at-home order are undermining the effort to stem the spread of the deadly virus. "These protests, they do undermine the effort, and it's very clearly a political statement that is playing out where people are coming together from across the state, they are congregating, they're not wearing masks, they are not staying six feet apart, and then they go back home into communities and the risk of perpetuating the spread of COVID-19 is real,"...

Apologies to Margaret Hamilton! Nancy Pelosi passing a budget is D.O.A. with the help of her Flying Monkeys deserves some criticism - especially with so many not receiving paychecks in the government. For background, the character in the Wizard of Oz was a dual role: Miss Gulch, who came to take Toto away; and the Wicked Witch of the West when Dorothy found herself in the land of Oz. We really don't need a bunch of flying monkeys in DC being led by a Wicked Witch.

The case of the missing red ruby slippers is closed. Minneapolis FBI agents and local law enforcement will hold a news conference Tuesday afternoon to announce they've recovered one of four known surviving pairs of ruby slippers worn by actress Judy Garland in the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz." ...

The last living Munchkin from The Wizard of Oz has died. Jerry Maren, who memorably welcomed Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) to Munchkinland in the classic 1939 film as part of the Lollipop Guild, died last week at a San Diego nursing care facility, TMZ reported. The actor was laid to rest over the weekend at Forest Lawn in Hollywood, said the outlet. According to the Chicago Tribune, Maren was the final surviving Munchkin actor from the 124 little people who starred in The Wizard of Oz. The bio on his Instagram page also states, “Last living munchkin from the Wizard...

The Scarecrow isn't a scarecrow, but he is introduced in a crucifixion pose. The tin man isn't The Tin Man, either, but he is the result of a horrifying, Frankenstein-style experiment. The lions aren't cowardly--the citizens of Oz speak of them as if they'll tear your throat out. The Munchkins have swapped out dandy fashions for tribal facepaint. The Wicked Witch Of The West runs a brothel. Welcome to Emerald City, the dark reimagining of L. Frank Baum's Oz stories that debuts on NBC after a nearly three-and-a-half-year trek down the yellow-brick development road.

An Oklahoma magazine is stirring up controversy. Inside Friday’s Daily Ardmoreite edition was this season’s Southern Oklahoma Living magazine. When Gene Autry’s mayor, Kyle Lawson, saw the cover his jaw nearly dropped. “My first initial reaction was I almost spit my coffee out when I first saw it,” Lawson said. On the cover is a baby in a costume supposed to resemble the tin man. “Just the way that the hood kind of goes up and the handle for the tin man`s hat is kind of hidden behind the 'I',” Lawson said. “And just the way the flap comes down...

History records that The Wizard Of Oz was edited by one Blanche Sewell, an Oklahoman and thwarted actress who also cut together such memorable films as Red Dust, Go West, and Grand Hotel during her 25-year career in Hollywood. But what if Oz had been assembled instead by an extremely diligent file clerk, one who cherished order and neatness over meaning and context? That is the unlikely scenario behind "Of Oz The Wizard," a bizarre and thorough alternate edit of the 1939 family classic by filmmaker Matt Bucy. He has chopped The Wizard Of Oz, all 101 minutes of it,...

Ohio State's marching band performs during the Sept. 27 Buckeyes game. Theme: The Wizard of Oz.

Margaret Pellegrini, one of the latest surviving munchkins from the "Wizard of Oz," died Wednesday from complications from a stroke at the age of 89, her close friend Bunny McCloud confirmed to TODAY.com. Known as the "Flowerpot Munchkin," Pellegrini spent her later years living in Glendale, Ariz., and attending "Wizard of Oz"-themed events and festivals. She was a regular at the Oztoberfest held each year at the Oz Museum in Wamego, Kan. -snip Pellegrini, who would have turned 90 in September, was only 16 years old when she acted alongside Judy Garland in the 1939 film. In March 2013, during...

L. Frank Baum‘s classic “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” published amid the economic and political chaos of the 1893 financial panic, has “eerie parallels to today,” according to Loyola University political science professor Michael Genovese. Genovese‘s theory is that Dorothy (representing the Midwestern farmer or “The Everyman”) is swept from home in a tornado (representing the Industrial Revolution); her landing kills the Wicked Witch of the East (bankers and capitalists) who kept the munchkins (the little guys) in bondage. To return home, she travels through the Land of Oz wearing silver slippers (Hollywood later made those slippers ruby-colored) — a...

David Parker in his article, “The Rise and Fall of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a ‘Parable on Populism” looks closer at the many interpretations of the Wizard of Oz and gives us his opinion that sometimes a book is just a book and that interpretations pulled out of thin air are often just as ephemeral.  I have always been very interested in what adults think about children’s literature. More often than not they read into the stories political, religious, and even topical themes of their own time or the time in which the story was written.

Karl Slover, one of the last surviving actors who played Munchkins in the 1939 classic film, "The Wizard of Oz," has died. He was 93. The 4-foot-5 Slover died of cardiopulmonary arrest Tuesday afternoon in a central Georgia hospital, said Laurens County Deputy Coroner Nathan Stanley. According to friends, as recently as last weekend, Slover appeared at events in the suburban Chicago area. Slover was best known for playing the lead trumpeter in the Munchkins' band but also had roles as a townsman and soldier in the film, said John Fricke, author of "100 Years of Oz" and five other...