Slipper Fever

	Slipper Fever

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Ruby Slippers Stolen!

The famous Ruby Slippers have been stolen. One of the most powerful expressions of “Ozmania” comes in the form of “slipper fever”, an obsession with Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers. In August 2005 they were snatched from The Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The valuable slippers were on loan from Michael Shaw, former MGM child star and Hollywood memorabilia collector, who has owned the shoes since 1970. When Shaw discovered that his most precious possession had been stolen he was furious. The shoes are insured for $1 million. “But I don’t want the money”, he screamed at a group of startled journalists brought in to the museum for a press conference, “I want the shoes!” Detectives examined the scene and noted that nothing else had been stolen. The thief had run past Garland’s valuable jeweled gloves, oblivious to her famous blue and white gingham dress. The robbery was clearly well planned and professional. The slippers are worth very little on the criminal, underground market. “Some fanatic”, said Shaw “has paid to have the slippers stolen”. “People are obsessed with these shoes”, he added. Detectives working on the case still have no significant leads. They have opened a “Ruby Slipper Tip Line” for anyone with useful information. Rumors are being whispered around the shadier edges of the world of memorabilia collectors but nobody seems to know anything.

Somebody obsessed with Oz, transfixed by the glittering slippers, has ordered them to be stolen. But this crazy fan, willing to risk imprisonment to possess the magic shoes, will not be able to openly display them. Only a few trusted friends will occasionally be ushered into a dimly lit basement, where an impenetrable safe will be unlocked with a twenty digit code, and opened to reveal the glistening, sequined shoes. Perhaps this wealthy fanatic, in the grip of “slipper fever”, will now and then place their feet inside the delicate red shoes, stand up, close their eyes and then click their heels together, one, two, three times. What is harder to imagine is whether they will be wishing to be magically whisked away over the rainbow to Oz, that colourful and fantastic other place, or whether they will be suffering from a powerful sense of uprooted placelessness, and wish to be taken back to Kansas, to Aunt Em, to a long lost home; whether their willingness to risk everything for a pair of shoes stems from nostalgia for home or a desire to escape from it.