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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: David's City, Elizabeth Dutton, Hey Dave the other Zarin, How

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Speaker 2: are you today?

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Speaker 3: I'm all right, I'm sweating a little bit. Sweat are

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Speaker 3: the oldies, But I'm good.

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Speaker 2: Oh, hiy same. You know it's ridiculous, I do, Oh

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Speaker 2: you do?

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Speaker 3: Do you know anything about how crazy McDonald land is?

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Speaker 2: No, is like McDonald land in actual place or like

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Speaker 2: the fictional universe of it.

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Speaker 3: Like imagine you know the origins of where McDonald land

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Speaker 3: came from.

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Speaker 2: Okay, No, I don't know anything about this.

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Speaker 3: Well, first it comes out of Willard Scott's work as

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Speaker 3: Boza the clown. He's the original Ron McDonald right right,

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Speaker 3: And McDonald's goes to an ad agency. Of course, this

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Speaker 3: was like it used to be. It's now DDB. It

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Speaker 3: used to be Needham, Harper and Steers. They're like, hey,

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Speaker 3: can you make us like a whole thing out of this,

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Speaker 3: just like do a whole thing? Yeah, and they're like, okay.

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Speaker 3: So the first commercial comes in nineteen seven, and at

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Speaker 3: this time, you know the purple dude Grimace. Yeah, back then,

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Speaker 3: his name, his official government name is Evil Grimace.

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Speaker 2: Oh you're kidding me.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So they're like.

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Speaker 2: We need a land, a mythical mystical land surrounding our Hamburgers.

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Speaker 2: Let's have an evil character involved.

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Speaker 3: Not just one, there's like multiple the Hamburgler and you've

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Speaker 3: got Captain Crook at the time, who you know, like

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Speaker 3: you can't miss the name. Their whole thing is all

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Speaker 3: like shoplifting, and Ronald stops them from shoplifting. And so

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Speaker 3: that's supposed to get you into the restaurants.

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Speaker 2: Running from shoplifters.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, like I don't know, like are you like, oh

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Speaker 3: that that must be in high demand because people keep

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Speaker 3: five fingering all their food. But like, just to give

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Speaker 3: you a sense of how weird the whole thing was

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Speaker 3: in seventy one, In seventy three, side Marty Kroft, those

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Speaker 3: of you know, HR puff and stuff and like Sid

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Speaker 3: Marty Cross World of like World of Puppets in Atlanta,

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Speaker 3: which was before CNN Center was CNN Center was in

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Speaker 3: that building. Anyway, they did some real trippy stuff, right.

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Speaker 3: They sued McDonald's successfully, they got a fifty thousand dollars

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Speaker 3: settlement and then it was appealed and they got a

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Speaker 3: million dollars settlement from McDonald because the McDonald's stuff looked

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Speaker 3: too much like the Croft's hr puffin stuff. Weird stuff.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I had no idea.

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Speaker 3: But that's not the only weird thing. Oh, so evil Grimace.

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Speaker 3: Much later, people are trying to find out, like, hey,

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Speaker 3: what is Grimace? Right? This has been like even before

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Speaker 3: the Internet, there was lore of like, well, what the

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Speaker 3: hell is Grimace? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the gum drop.

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Speaker 3: As far as we can tell. From official McDonald's spokesperson

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Speaker 3: Official McDonald's Twitter account, they said, quote, Uh, are you

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Speaker 3: ready for this? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: I'm totally ready.

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Speaker 3: Grimace Lare says he is the embodiment of a milkshake

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Speaker 3: or a taste bud.

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Speaker 2: Grimace is a taste bud?

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Speaker 3: How gross is that?

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Speaker 2: That's so disgusting? But is there a bunch of Grimace

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Speaker 2: stuff out now?

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Speaker 3: Like, yeah, I think he's hitting it big now for

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Speaker 3: some reason?

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Speaker 2: Is there a shake? Is there a Grimace shake?

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Speaker 3: Well, Grimace's uncle Grimymple's name is O Grimacy. Uh, and

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Speaker 3: he's the one promoting the shamrock shake.

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Speaker 2: This is Irish slander over here.

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Speaker 3: Well, I don't know if like, is is O Grimacy

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Speaker 3: like a bad taste bud? And that's why he's promoting

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Speaker 3: the Shamrock shake and Grimace is like a pretty good

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Speaker 3: taste bud.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if you're drinking a Grimace shake, is

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Speaker 2: there a Grimace shake? Why do I feel like there is?

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Speaker 2: I keep thinking I see this stuff on social media.

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Speaker 3: Twenty twenty one, so I think this is the Shamrock

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Speaker 3: the o Grimacy shake.

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Speaker 2: So it's basically liquefied taste buds, is what you're trying

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Speaker 2: to say to me, David, Well.

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Speaker 3: What freaks me out is like, imagine you're a little

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Speaker 3: kid and you're just going to hug this big purple

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Speaker 3: thing and it's a taste bud, like taste hugging up

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Speaker 3: on saliva.

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Speaker 2: On someone's tongue. Because then is this just an independent

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Speaker 2: taste bud or does it have an invisible tongue?

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Speaker 3: It leaves a lot of questions.

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Speaker 2: I have a lot of questions about the McDonald's universe.

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Speaker 2: That is ridiculous, pretty ridiculous, Right, that's ridiculous. You want

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Speaker 2: to know what else is ridiculous? I would stealing sequined shoes.

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Speaker 4: Ooh, this is ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons.

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Speaker 2: It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred

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Speaker 2: percent ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: That's fact check.

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Speaker 2: Totally, Dave. You've seen the movie The Wizard of Oz.

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Speaker 3: Right, yeah, and I've seen The Whiz so sure.

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Speaker 2: But like Wizard of Oz, the original came out in

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Speaker 2: nineteen thirty nine, it was still really popular when I

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Speaker 2: was a kid.

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Speaker 3: Originally in black and white, right, and they had to

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Speaker 3: colorize it later.

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Speaker 2: No, that's part of the whole thing in the film

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Speaker 2: is that, like when she goes to oh yeah, the

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Speaker 2: other side, it's color right. So, but it was like

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Speaker 2: a spectacular it was. It was incredible, Like it used

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Speaker 2: to come on TV once a year and like I'd

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Speaker 2: get all excited. I don't think young people these days

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Speaker 2: are as familiar with Wizard of Oz.

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Speaker 3: They could just tell them the creepy urban myth, yeah right,

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Speaker 3: that would get them.

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Speaker 2: Well. So here, I think cable pushed The Wizard of

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Speaker 2: Oz out of the mainstream. That's my theory because like

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Speaker 2: in my house, we were really really late adopters of cable,

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Speaker 2: so we were still relying on like network movies. But

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Speaker 2: I feel like it kind of fell off sometime, like

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Speaker 2: I don't know, in the nineties. It's just it's not

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Speaker 2: just me, our researcher Andrea. She mentioned it too that

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Speaker 2: kids these days don't seem to know the media that

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Speaker 2: like we or our parents or our grandparents knew. Like

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Speaker 2: the Internet gives us too much choice, is what she

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Speaker 2: was thinking.

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Speaker 3: Kind of like when when I was little and we

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Speaker 3: finally got HBO and they showed Savannah Smiles over and

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Speaker 3: over and over again. I don't know why it's not

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Speaker 3: a good movie. I think it's like one of the

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Speaker 3: O'Neills or something. But yeah, I hear it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it just it murders it. So we don't do

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Speaker 2: murder here, Zaren. He actually talks about this sometimes that

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Speaker 2: like each generation seems to have a shorter and shorter

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Speaker 2: range of historical or cultural knowledge. So keeping that in

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Speaker 2: mind anyway. The Wizard of Oz the movie is based

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Speaker 2: on a book by L. Frank Baum called The Wonderful

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Speaker 2: Wizard of Oz and that was written in nineteen hundred

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Speaker 2: and In the movie, Dorothy Gale lives in Kansas with

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Speaker 2: her aunt and uncle. Some ladygoon in town wants to

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Speaker 2: have Dorothy's dog, Toto put down, and it's a Karen Terrier.

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Speaker 2: And I can tell you that they are an acquired taste.

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Speaker 3: Did you say, did you say a Kring Terrier.

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Speaker 2: A Karen like c A, I R N got it? Okay,

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Speaker 2: so it's of Scottish origin.

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Speaker 3: It's a thoughtful terrier.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Well they're just nasty little dogs for the most part.

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Speaker 2: But Toto, he didn't deserve a visit to the executioner.

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Speaker 2: My mom had a car and terrier named Finn, who

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Speaker 2: could be such a jerk but then super sweet. And

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Speaker 2: I have a scar on my shin from where he

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Speaker 2: bit me once, but I probably deserved it anyway.

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Speaker 3: That's how I feel about my dog bites too.

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Speaker 2: Right, You're like I pushed the wrong buttons. So Dorothy,

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Speaker 2: she legs it with Toto and gets caught in a tornado,

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Speaker 2: wakes up in the Land of Oz. Her house landed

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Speaker 2: on one of the batties, the Wicked Witch of the East,

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Speaker 2: and then Dorothy helps herself to the Witch's red ruby

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Speaker 2: slippers heads off to get help returning home from the

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Speaker 2: Great Oz Over in Emerald City. So that's just brief recap.

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Speaker 2: The slippers are the key to her being able to

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Speaker 2: get home. She has to tap her heels together three

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Speaker 2: times and say there's no place like him. You remember

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Speaker 2: that yll.

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Speaker 3: It was always a little confusing because like the ruby slippers,

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Speaker 3: but she's they got heels, right.

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Speaker 2: They got heels. Yeah, yeah, they're like little you know,

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Speaker 2: sensible pumps. Uh. The next thing you know, she's back

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Speaker 2: home and everyone's like chuckling about her bonked out dream

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Speaker 2: and we don't know if the sheriff has lifted the

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Speaker 2: bounty on Toto's head. The movie gave us the song

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Speaker 2: over the Rainbow that won an Oscar for Best Original

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Speaker 2: Song on Hollywood's Bigest Night. I've got a totally unpopular opinion.

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Speaker 2: I can't stand that Hawaiian guys version of oh yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: that makes me want to commit crimes. Anyway. The slippers,

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Speaker 2: the sensible pumps, the kitten heels, they're iconic, iconic. In

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Speaker 2: the book, they're silver, though, but MGM changed the color

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Speaker 2: of the magical slippers to ruby red. And this would

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Speaker 2: have a much more visual impact on film because color

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Speaker 2: film was really rare when the movie came out in

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Speaker 2: thirty nine, and the color in the movie is, like

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Speaker 2: I said, a key part of the plot. So in

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Speaker 2: the screenplay you can actually see where the writer crossed

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Speaker 2: out silver and wrote ruby. Oh wow, Yeah, these shoes.

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Speaker 2: They're covered in glittering red sequins. They're fabulous.

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Speaker 3: It's kind of like the last time when a technical

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Speaker 3: innovation will actually like meaningfully be used in a movie

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Speaker 3: instead of meaninglessly like Jaws three D when they're like, oh,

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Speaker 3: we just got to throw things at the screen.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean I must. It must be sort of

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Speaker 2: like the bullet time and the matrix when all of

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Speaker 2: a sudden it was everywhere, but then you'd never seen

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Speaker 2: it before and it's so crazy. Yeah, yeah, okay, so

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Speaker 2: we have like the yeah, this changeover to color these iconic,

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Speaker 2: fabulous shoes. Who was the iconic woman who wore the

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Speaker 2: iconic slippers? Miss Judy Garland, mother of Liza Minelli. So

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Speaker 2: Judy Garland. She was born Francis ethel Gum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota,

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Speaker 2: in nineteen twenty two. Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Timbertown, population seventy

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Speaker 2: seven hundred. Do you know who else was from Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

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Speaker 2: Hugh Beaumont, who played Ward Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver. Okay,

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Speaker 2: so in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, there's the Judy Garland Museum.

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Speaker 2: I don't believe there's a Hugh Beaumont Museum.

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Speaker 3: What about in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In case people get confused.

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Speaker 2: That's what I keep saying.

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Speaker 3: Does that two museums?

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Speaker 2: I kept typing out Grand Rapids, Minnesota. So anyway, we know,

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Speaker 2: when I was little and I would watch reruns of

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Speaker 2: Leave It to Beaver, you know, come home after school

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Speaker 2: and they got all these reruns on. I thought his

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Speaker 2: name was Hubo Mont.

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Speaker 3: That's a better name.

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Speaker 2: I was a very smart child. So Judy Garland Museum.

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Speaker 2: It opened in nineteen seventy five. It describes itself thusly quote.

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Speaker 2: The Judy Garland Museum is home to an eclectic Judy

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Speaker 2: Garland and Wizard of Oz collection, Judy's nineteen twenties restored

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Speaker 2: birthplace home the Children's Discovery Museum on two acres of

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Speaker 2: Minnesota beauty. The museum hosts thoughtfully curated exhibits and artifacts,

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Speaker 2: including the original carriage featured in The Wizard of Oz,

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Speaker 2: a Dorothy Gale test dress worn by Judy Garland, and

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Speaker 2: many personal Judy Garland items collected over the last forty years.

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Speaker 2: Don't forget to take home a souvenir at the museum.

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Speaker 3: Store old Q tips and.

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Speaker 2: Collected. It makes it sound like they snuck into a trash.

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Speaker 2: So Judy Garland died though I hate to say June

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Speaker 2: twenty second, nineteen sixty nine. A man named Michael Shaw.

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Speaker 2: He bought those ruby slippers in nineteen seventy, a year

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Speaker 2: after she died from costumer Kent Warner. So Michael Shaw

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Speaker 2: buys them. Who is Michael Shaw? I'm glad you asked that.

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Speaker 2: He's an acting coach. He's also the voice of Kit

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Speaker 2: of Night Rider, but on the show, not on the show,

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Speaker 2: just for the Universal Studios tour, so they couldn't get

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Speaker 2: the same person, so they had they have Michael Shaw

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Speaker 2: do it. He was a child actor at MGM and

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Speaker 2: he played one of the kids in the Halloween scene

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Speaker 2: and Meet Me in Saint Louis, another Judy Garland film.

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Speaker 2: So when traveling to conferences, he would share stories with

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Speaker 2: the audience about his time as a child during the

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Speaker 2: Golden Age of Hollywood, sitting on Judy Garland's lap. Yes,

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Speaker 2: David over there, Yes, I can take this question.

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Speaker 3: Would you do it in the sound of Kit? We

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Speaker 3: like it. I'll take your question, Michael, Michael Judy Garland

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Speaker 3: was it?

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Speaker 2: I would hope that would I'd be disappointed but so

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Speaker 2: he's talking about Golden Age Hollywood. He's like sitting on

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Speaker 2: Judy Garland's lap. They watch movies together. She's super nice

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Speaker 2: to all the kids. She's like, you know, takes care

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Speaker 2: of them all. And so Michael Shaw. He's also an

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Speaker 2: avid collector of film memorabilia. He owns a gown from

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Speaker 2: the nineteen thirty eight film Marie Antoinette, I bet you

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Speaker 2: didn't know that, and the Golden Calf, and tablets from

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Speaker 2: Cecil B. De mills nineteen fifty six film The Ten Commandments.

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Speaker 3: Wow, I wonder if they're like they look gold at all,

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Speaker 3: or if they're right.

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Speaker 2: It's just all like like beige color.

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Speaker 3: Now, yes, Hollywood.

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Speaker 2: So he collects all this stuff. I don't know if

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Speaker 2: it's on display in a home, he refuses.

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Speaker 3: Shaw, it's over his kitchen table. He's got the.

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Speaker 2: Above, the fireplace is the is the Golden Calf, and

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Speaker 2: then the kitchen table has it you know with like

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Speaker 2: it says like gather and then those.

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Speaker 3: Shell commandments in this house thou shalt not.

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Speaker 2: So in this house we watched The Ten Commandments. He

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Speaker 2: didn't He didn't want to tell anyone how much he

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Speaker 2: paid Kent Warner for the Ruby slippers quote. I never

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Speaker 2: talk about prices. Okay, okay, it's good for you. However,

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Speaker 2: there were reports that he paid twenty five hundred dollars

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Speaker 2: for the Ruby slippers. So keep that, keep that ballpark. Okay,

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Speaker 2: that's good.

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Speaker 3: We'll talk about a Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so Shaw thought of himself as a sort of

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Speaker 2: protector of the slippers and an ambassador to Judy Garland's legacy.

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Speaker 3: Quote.

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Speaker 2: I have been given the responsibility of taking care of

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Speaker 2: this pair of shoes, and I'd like to think that

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Speaker 2: Judy is looking down smiling, knowing that her famous pumps

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Speaker 2: are being used for such good causes.

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Speaker 3: I like it. He's like theop kids.

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Speaker 2: Oh totally, so Shaw. He tells this story so many

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Speaker 2: times over the years. The story I'm going to tell

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Speaker 2: you right now. You ready. He said that he found

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Speaker 2: out at a friend of his was battling aids at

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Speaker 2: UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. And this is this

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Speaker 2: is like in the early days of the epidemic, when

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Speaker 2: people thought that they could get it from just like

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Speaker 2: shaking hands. The stigma's incredible. Yeah yeah, so Shaw. He

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Speaker 2: brings the Ruby slippers to this friend's room. He rests

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Speaker 2: the slippers on his friend's chest, and the man goes

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Speaker 2: from absolutely just like terrible anguish and pain to just

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Speaker 2: overcome with joy. And then the friend died a few

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Speaker 2: hours later. That friend, according to Shaw, was Kent Warner,

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Speaker 2: the costumer and former owner of the slippers.

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Speaker 3: Oh wow, so this was like.

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Speaker 2: He would tell this to show how important the ruby

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Speaker 2: slippers are to people, like I said icon Nick. When

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Speaker 2: he was working as a Hollywood costumer, Kent Warner found

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Speaker 2: three pairs of prop shoes as well as an off

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Speaker 2: screen test pair of ruby slippers, just you know, in

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Speaker 2: a warehouse season there, oh crap. MGM was getting ready

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Speaker 2: to auction off pieces in costumes like from old movies.

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Speaker 2: So Shaw picks up the slippers as well as Dorothy's

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Speaker 2: Gingham dress, Munchkin costume, and the Wicked Witch of the

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Speaker 2: West hat and her broomstick. He just like gets all

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Speaker 2: the good stuff.

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Speaker 3: That's a haul.

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Speaker 2: And so then he sold a pair of the test

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Speaker 2: slippers to that they were the ones that weren't worn

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Speaker 2: in the film. He sells them to Debbie Reynolds for

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Speaker 2: three hundred bucks bargain.

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Speaker 3: She got a deal. Yeah, she was a friendly right,

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Speaker 3: it was.

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Speaker 2: Oh Yeah, yeah, there were pals. So then he was

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Speaker 2: going to sell another pair to Reynolds. She wanted to

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Speaker 2: open her own Hollywood memorabilia museum, and like she had

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Speaker 2: an assistant who was there who was helping her with this.

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Speaker 2: So the assistant bought the Ruby slippers but kept them

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Speaker 2: for himself. Who was that assistant? Michael Shaw, voice of

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Speaker 2: Kit at Universal Studios. Tim Gearing of the Minnesota Monthly

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Speaker 2: wrote this really good article about this whole escapade. In it,

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Speaker 2: he writes, quote and by all accounts, he Warner remained

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Speaker 2: furious with Shaw right up to his death because he'd

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Speaker 2: intended for the slippers to go to Debbie Reynolds. So

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Speaker 2: Michael Shaw made up that whole story about visiting Warner

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Speaker 2: in the hospital. Oh it's terrible. That's terrible because apparently

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Speaker 2: Warner hated him. There's no way he did this. Everyone's like,

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Speaker 2: there's absolutely no way. You know, if he visited on

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Speaker 2: my on his deathbed, then I'm a flying monkey, says

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Speaker 2: one insider. I don't know who that is. So anyway,

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Speaker 2: we have this like this character Shaw, who's got, you know,

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Speaker 2: gott in his hands on these things. And I'm not

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Speaker 2: so sure it was in the best means. Let's take

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Speaker 2: a break. When we come back, I'm going to tell

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Speaker 2: you a little bit more about these slippers, all right.

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Speaker 2: So Michael Shaw got the ruby slippers supposed to go

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Speaker 2: to Wie Reynolds. Didn't happen. Warner, though, the costumer. He

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Speaker 2: kept a pair of ruby slippers for himself, and then

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Speaker 2: he gave a pair away to an auctioneer, and he

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Speaker 2: told the auctioneer, these are the only pair of slippers

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Speaker 2: that exist. So, you know, everyone's kind of telling stories

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Speaker 2: around here. They had this multi day auction at MGM

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Speaker 2: where they filmed The Wizard of Oz. There was another

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Speaker 2: auction that was like marking the end of the glory

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Speaker 2: days of old Hollywood, and it was described as a

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Speaker 2: giant eighteen day wake for Hollywood in the nineteen eighty

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Speaker 2: nine book The Ruby Slippers of Oz. So the ruby

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Speaker 2: slippers that went to auction were apparently the star of

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Speaker 2: the show, and they sold for fifteen thousand dollars. Good

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Speaker 2: appreciation on that.

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Speaker 3: Any way, These are the backups or these are the actual.

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Speaker 2: These are the backups that he told the auctioneer were

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Speaker 2: the only parent existence. But there are a couple other

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Speaker 2: pairs floating around. So the auction ends. A Memphis resident

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Speaker 2: comes forward to reporters and tells them, guess what I

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Speaker 2: won the authentic ruby slippers in a contest in nineteen forty,

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Speaker 2: And then they start putting it all together. There weren't

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Speaker 2: just one pair of ruby slippers. There's a bunch of them.

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Speaker 2: So over time, all these people that are trying to

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Speaker 2: tabulate it up, it turns out that there are four

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Speaker 2: on screen pairs and one off screen. Tech Rhys Thomas,

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Speaker 2: author of The Ruby Slippers of Oz, quote, these shoes

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Speaker 2: are the holy grail of all Hollywood memorabilia. There isn't

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Speaker 2: anything else that does more to evoke the power of belief.

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Speaker 3: If that's still.

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Speaker 2: True, I doubt probably not. So Shaw told told this

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Speaker 2: guy quote, the shoes themselves are worthless. It's what they

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Speaker 2: are and what they represent. Okay, so they aren't worthless.

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Speaker 3: It's the friends along the way exactly.

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Speaker 2: So there's this appraiser Laura Woolley of Antiques Road Show.

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Speaker 2: She said, quote, there's a much deeper emotional connection with memorabilia.

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Speaker 2: Most people encounter these objects or develop a fondness for

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Speaker 2: them in childhood. It sounds like a like a a

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Speaker 2: psychological yeah, but it sounds like you know, they have

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Speaker 2: in childhood and when you grow up and suddenly you're

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Speaker 2: an adult with money to spend, you can recapture something

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Speaker 2: from you if most of these things kind of turn

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Speaker 2: people back into children. Okay, lady, sound funko pops Yes, popsys.

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Speaker 2: She probably sounds like a totally normal person in my

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Speaker 2: majors sound marginally AI Anyway, Thomas he spent decades researching

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Speaker 2: the history of all these various pairs of ruby slippers

376
00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:18,760
Speaker 2: flying around. In nineteen seventy nine, the purchaser of the

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00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:22,120
Speaker 2: auction slippers, the one that for fifteen thousand donated those

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Speaker 2: to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and then

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Speaker 2: a curator at the Smithsonian said that they're kept in

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Speaker 2: a locked case with an alarm, and they're under twenty

381
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Speaker 2: four hour guard surveillance. So these things are to be protected, Dave.

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Speaker 2: They're they're a major part of pretty much, you know,

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Speaker 2: I mean, that's who we are, it's what we believe.

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Speaker 3: So when people say we're bigger than this talking about those.

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Speaker 2: Slippers, precisely precisely so this they said that any tampering

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Speaker 2: would immediately send a message to the guard's office. So

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Speaker 2: it's just wired, can't get in there. That Memphis woman

388
00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:02,080
Speaker 2: who won the pair in the forties or whatever, she

389
00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:04,479
Speaker 2: sold them in nineteen eighty eight to a collector at

390
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Speaker 2: an auction for one hundred and sixty five thousand dollars.

391
00:20:09,359 --> 00:20:11,760
Speaker 2: That's a come up, Yeah it is. I mean, she's

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Speaker 2: a good job lady.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and she won them, right, she previously she's.

394
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Speaker 2: Won them, so now she's got one hundred and sixty

395
00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:21,480
Speaker 2: five grand. She's you know, sells them to this collector.

396
00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:25,240
Speaker 2: The collector was a huge Garland fan and that he'd

397
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Speaker 2: seen her in concert thirty five times and even attended

398
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Speaker 2: her funeral. And so that person turned around and loaned

399
00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:35,080
Speaker 2: the ruby slippers to Disney World for display before selling

400
00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:38,800
Speaker 2: them at auction in two thousand and four six hundred

401
00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:40,760
Speaker 2: and sixty six thousand dollars.

402
00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:43,879
Speaker 3: Wow, and if you're large, Disney, you're getting some serious

403
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:44,560
Speaker 3: rent on the one thing.

404
00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:49,040
Speaker 2: Oh totally totally, so six sixty six k right. A

405
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Speaker 2: group of collectors and investors, one of the Slipper Consortium.

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Speaker 4: David L.

407
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:58,719
Speaker 2: Koubi, said to Newsweek, quote, we were collectors, and for us,

408
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,560
Speaker 2: that's the ultimate press. So, now where do they live

409
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:04,240
Speaker 2: in a bank vault? They live in a bank.

410
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Speaker 3: Oh, perfect, that's exactly where.

411
00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:09,960
Speaker 2: There's no place like home. So nineteen eighty one, three

412
00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:13,680
Speaker 2: years before he died at UCLA Medical Center, most likely

413
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Speaker 2: not clutching the Ruby slippers, Kurt Warner sold his pair

414
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:19,520
Speaker 2: of ruby slippers at auction for twelve thousand dollars in

415
00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:23,000
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty one. Then in twenty twelve, the person who

416
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:26,960
Speaker 2: bought them sold those for two million, two million dollars

417
00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:30,040
Speaker 2: million a shoe to a group of people who bought

418
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Speaker 2: them for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

419
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Speaker 3: I mean that's like a grand a sequin pretty much.

420
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Speaker 2: But you know who is in this group that paid

421
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Speaker 2: two mil Leo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg.

422
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Speaker 3: Of course, Oh Steven Spielberg, of course.

423
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Speaker 2: You knew Leo and Stevie. Yeah.

424
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Speaker 3: Yeah, Like he's just small, like you'd be likedt Yeah,

425
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Speaker 3: I need that.

426
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Speaker 2: So twenty eleven, Debbie Reynolds sold her test pair that

427
00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:56,800
Speaker 2: she did get for six hundred twenty seven thousand at

428
00:21:56,840 --> 00:22:00,320
Speaker 2: an auction. Those shoes were called the Arabian test hair,

429
00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:03,560
Speaker 2: and they got their name because they had an experimental

430
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Speaker 2: design with curled toes.

431
00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:07,600
Speaker 3: Whoa ooh hello. Yeah.

432
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Speaker 2: So this is what Debbie Reynolds had to say. Quote,

433
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Speaker 2: I know Judy wore them, and I know she liked them.

434
00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:16,320
Speaker 2: Best of all, she said, I want the pair with

435
00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:21,080
Speaker 2: the pointy toe. Apparently Judy didn't get what Judy wanted.

436
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:24,520
Speaker 2: So here's the thing though, Like Dorothy's dress is that

437
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:27,639
Speaker 2: of a simple farm girl gingham for days. And they

438
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:30,240
Speaker 2: thought that the Arabian style shoes were just too ornate,

439
00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:34,320
Speaker 2: as if like sequined pumps aren't. But okay, you know,

440
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:36,640
Speaker 2: I get it. So now that we have a better

441
00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:39,600
Speaker 2: understanding of the high stakes world of ruby slippers, let's

442
00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:43,920
Speaker 2: head back to Grand Rapids, Minnesota and the Judy Garland Museum. Dave,

443
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:45,240
Speaker 2: close your eyes.

444
00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:48,520
Speaker 3: What okay, now what you do here? I'm picturing it.

445
00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:50,119
Speaker 2: I want you to picture it.

446
00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:51,080
Speaker 3: Eyes are closed.

447
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:54,800
Speaker 2: It's August twenty eighth, two thousand and five, and you're

448
00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:57,800
Speaker 2: a haunted porcelain doll sitting on display at the Judy

449
00:22:57,840 --> 00:22:59,919
Speaker 2: Garland Museum in Grand Rappit's Minnesota.

450
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 3: Oh my god, you.

451
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:06,399
Speaker 2: Are one of one of Judy's childhood favorite toys. Maybe

452
00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:09,360
Speaker 2: because you are haunted even way back then, you sit

453
00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:13,280
Speaker 2: on your shelf watching judging. It's been a long day

454
00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:16,240
Speaker 2: at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. But

455
00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:18,600
Speaker 2: night has fallen and the rest of the haunted items

456
00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:21,640
Speaker 2: are going about their business, whimpering or plotting to shove

457
00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:25,880
Speaker 2: a vase to the floor. It's just past two am.

458
00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:28,760
Speaker 2: Suddenly you hear a commotion at the back of the museum.

459
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:32,640
Speaker 2: Then glass breaks. Your creepy glass eyes shift in your

460
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:35,959
Speaker 2: haunted porcelain skull to peer at the hallway. A figure

461
00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:39,359
Speaker 2: approaches the teddy bear next to you, senses trouble, and

462
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:42,119
Speaker 2: its eyes begin to glow. You use your esp to

463
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:45,080
Speaker 2: tell the bear to knock it off. Lolo. Now is

464
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:46,960
Speaker 2: not the time to use your powers to slash the

465
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:49,399
Speaker 2: human with a broken bottle. You guys are saving all

466
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:52,720
Speaker 2: that for the uprisings. For now. You and the other

467
00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:55,880
Speaker 2: haunted Sundrys watch as a person tiptoes into the room.

468
00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:59,679
Speaker 2: The burglar approaches the plexiglass case directly across the room

469
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:02,920
Speaker 2: from you. This should be interesting, you think. The robber

470
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:06,520
Speaker 2: gently whistles a tune and lifts a crowbar high above

471
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,600
Speaker 2: their head. The haunted typewriter begins to slack out some

472
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:12,760
Speaker 2: ribbon for a garat no you signal, ever so slightly.

473
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:15,719
Speaker 2: That display has been getting all the attention late lately.

474
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:18,600
Speaker 2: Let the criminal do their work with a great force.

475
00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:22,000
Speaker 2: The burglar brings the crowbar down onto the plexiglass case,

476
00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:25,399
Speaker 2: splintering it. The haunted random cassette tape stacked in a

477
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:30,240
Speaker 2: bookcase hiss yes yes. The large carriage in the next

478
00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:33,240
Speaker 2: room creaks with delight at the chaos. The burglar hears

479
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:37,080
Speaker 2: the noise and freezes dead silence. The person goes back

480
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:39,400
Speaker 2: to the job at hand. They gently lift the pair

481
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 2: of iconic ruby slippers from the destroyed case and tiptoe

482
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:47,000
Speaker 2: back out. There's much silent chatter among all the haunted

483
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:49,480
Speaker 2: items at the museum about who that was and where

484
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:52,960
Speaker 2: the slippers would go. Unfortunately, the slippers weren't haunted. There's

485
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,040
Speaker 2: no way to get a message to them and track them.

486
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:58,600
Speaker 2: This is when it pays to be haunted, Dave. Come morning,

487
00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:01,520
Speaker 2: when the staff open the museum to the Garland loving public,

488
00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:05,640
Speaker 2: all hell broke loose. The stolen ruby slippers weren't part

489
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:08,159
Speaker 2: of the museum's permanent collection. They were on loan to

490
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 2: the museum on display for the annual Judy Garland festival.

491
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:19,879
Speaker 2: Who owned these stolen ruby slippers, Michael shaw Kit He

492
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:22,439
Speaker 2: would often lend the slippers for thousands of dollars to

493
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:25,040
Speaker 2: museums to display, and then he would turn around and

494
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:27,600
Speaker 2: he said, donate the money to children's charities, which he

495
00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:29,119
Speaker 2: may have, you know, let's give them the benefit of

496
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:30,080
Speaker 2: the doubt. This is what he said.

497
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 3: Quote.

498
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,399
Speaker 2: I literally felt like I was hit in the stomach

499
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,320
Speaker 2: when I got the call. My knees buckled and I

500
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 2: went right to the floor. I had taken care of

501
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:44,080
Speaker 2: those shoes for thirty five years. John Miner, who co

502
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,400
Speaker 2: founded the museum and was also the treasurer, He said, quote,

503
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:50,560
Speaker 2: I cried, I couldn't believe this happened to us, because

504
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:52,080
Speaker 2: it was the stupidest thing.

505
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 3: This is like the most dramatic thing that could happen

506
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:56,960
Speaker 3: to the most dramatic people in the world.

507
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:00,160
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it's so wonderful. I love this so much.

508
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:03,640
Speaker 2: Christopher Myers, who is a US attorney in North Dakota,

509
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,679
Speaker 2: he was somehow involved in the case. I don't know

510
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:10,200
Speaker 2: why he was working in Minnesota whatever so quote there's

511
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:14,400
Speaker 2: a certain romance in these types of schemes and sometimes sophistication,

512
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 2: but at the end of the day, it's theft. These

513
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:20,680
Speaker 2: types of offenses not only deprived the owner of their property,

514
00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:24,240
Speaker 2: but all of us. This type of cultural property is

515
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:27,240
Speaker 2: important to us as a society. It reflects culture, It

516
00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:32,040
Speaker 2: holds our memories, it reflects our values. He's totally running

517
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:34,720
Speaker 2: for office, right like he's running baby.

518
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,480
Speaker 3: I mean, people would not even know that the ruby

519
00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:39,600
Speaker 3: slippers were gone. First of all, there's like a million

520
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:42,800
Speaker 3: pairs of them. And second of all, right, like everyone

521
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:45,119
Speaker 3: has that copy of Life magazine with a picture of them,

522
00:26:45,119 --> 00:26:46,240
Speaker 3: and that's all they need in their lives.

523
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 2: They need They're done. So they are the slippers, the

524
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 2: ones that bring so much joy uniting our culture. They

525
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,680
Speaker 2: are sitting in the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota,

526
00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden, they're not. Shaw had

527
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,800
Speaker 2: declined the museum's off to store the ruby slippers in

528
00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:04,280
Speaker 2: a vault because he said he didn't like the idea

529
00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:06,600
Speaker 2: that the guards would be touching these shoes on a

530
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:10,480
Speaker 2: daily basis. He said all he cared about was having security,

531
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:13,320
Speaker 2: even just like as a baseline, So there was no

532
00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:16,680
Speaker 2: security camera footage of the break in and no fingerprints,

533
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,159
Speaker 2: just a lone speck of red sequin left behind. The

534
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:24,000
Speaker 2: museum did have both an alarm system and video surveillance equipment,

535
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:27,840
Speaker 2: but neither one we're working at the time of the burglary.

536
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:29,040
Speaker 3: Inside job.

537
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:33,000
Speaker 2: That's exactly job. Oh everyone's saying it's an inside job. Well,

538
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,440
Speaker 2: here's what the museum said. They said that they told

539
00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 2: the alarm company to turn off the alarm during the

540
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:41,399
Speaker 2: day because museum visitors kept using the back door. So

541
00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:44,640
Speaker 2: instead of saying do not open, like, ah, just give

542
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:47,440
Speaker 2: him free egress out the back, turn off the alarm.

543
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 2: So and because the thing is is like when the

544
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:52,439
Speaker 2: alarm would go off, it would alert the police and

545
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:54,679
Speaker 2: then if you have enough false alarms, they start charging

546
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:57,439
Speaker 2: you and the musium couldn't afford it. So the alarm

547
00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:01,040
Speaker 2: company was like, that's totally not what happened. We were

548
00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:04,040
Speaker 2: told to disable the alarm completely, not just during the day.

549
00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:09,720
Speaker 2: And then with CCTV everyone knew. They turned the CCTV.

550
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 3: Off at night save energy.

551
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:13,240
Speaker 2: What I don't know, it's like peak hours.

552
00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:16,480
Speaker 3: Who else I feel like when you know, when Indiana

553
00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:19,320
Speaker 3: Jones said this belongs in a museum, this is not

554
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:20,040
Speaker 3: what he had in mind.

555
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:23,720
Speaker 2: No, this is totally not handly. So the museum director

556
00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:26,600
Speaker 2: John kel She said, quote, everyone knew we didn't have

557
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:29,680
Speaker 2: any security staff. Michael Shaw knew that. It's just sad

558
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:32,720
Speaker 2: that it happened here. It is like, yeah, everyone knew.

559
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 2: It's just so sad. There was like people thought that

560
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:39,120
Speaker 2: the ruby slippers were actually a fake pair that was

561
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:42,560
Speaker 2: set up to be quote stolen, and that Shaw paid

562
00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 2: someone in the museum to kind of like facilitate this

563
00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:48,680
Speaker 2: whole thing, you know, uh, insurance money and all saw.

564
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:53,800
Speaker 2: Shaw totally denies this. There's this private investigator, Kip Alexander Kyp.

565
00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:56,520
Speaker 3: Now I'm picturing Kip from Futurama.

566
00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:58,440
Speaker 2: Kip Alexander. This is what he said.

567
00:28:58,520 --> 00:28:58,960
Speaker 3: Quote.

568
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:01,520
Speaker 2: There's a lot of theories surrounding this. You could say

569
00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:04,240
Speaker 2: there's as many as Area fifty one had as far

570
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:07,600
Speaker 2: as conspiracies or theories. There's a lot of distrust and

571
00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 2: distaste left in their mouth, for sure. So he's putting

572
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:13,000
Speaker 2: it on par with Area fifty one.

573
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:15,880
Speaker 3: He's just speaking directly to like the History Channel special

574
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:17,600
Speaker 3: right now, completely.

575
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:20,400
Speaker 2: Completely and what did Shaw say about all this? Don't

576
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:24,280
Speaker 2: forget Shaw voice of kit quote I'm so furious that

577
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:27,120
Speaker 2: the slippers are gone. It's very frustrating that they haven't

578
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:35,320
Speaker 2: caught that obsessed, fanatic, selfish bastard who stole them. Saw Shaw,

579
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 2: and there was a theory swirling around this is I love.

580
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:41,440
Speaker 2: I don't know how this theory came to life, but

581
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:43,000
Speaker 2: I love it, and I feel like I would have

582
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 2: started it as a rumor if I lived in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

583
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:50,880
Speaker 2: A lot of people thought that the theft was pulled

584
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,200
Speaker 2: off by teenagers who are just trying to pull a

585
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:56,480
Speaker 2: plant up prank, and then they panicked and threw the

586
00:29:56,520 --> 00:30:01,200
Speaker 2: slippers away, but not just away away. So like ten years,

587
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:03,120
Speaker 2: well wait ten years.

588
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:06,080
Speaker 3: That's what happened to those baseball uniforms in that other

589
00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:06,760
Speaker 3: ridiculous cross.

590
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:07,560
Speaker 4: Well that is true.

591
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:10,360
Speaker 2: Maybe they're yeah, I don't know, maybe they're onto something.

592
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 2: But like, so, ten years after the theft, all these

593
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:17,440
Speaker 2: crowds gathered along the shoreline of the Tioga Mine Pit Lake.

594
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:21,200
Speaker 2: Why what does that have to do with ruby slippers?

595
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 3: Day? Yeah, what does that have do ruby slippers?

596
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 2: Lisebeth, the good folks were there to watch the Atasca

597
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:28,920
Speaker 2: County Sheriff's Office don scuba gear and dive in search

598
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:33,520
Speaker 2: of the ruby slippers the old quarry, so that there

599
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:36,160
Speaker 2: was a fear that the thieves threw them in the lake,

600
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:38,680
Speaker 2: and the lake had depths of up to two hundred

601
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 2: and twenty five feet. So Morgan White is a filmmaker

602
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:46,720
Speaker 2: who's working on a documentary called The Slippers, is one

603
00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:49,360
Speaker 2: of the people who's totally convinced that the teens did it.

604
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:51,959
Speaker 2: Quote all signs seem to point to the fact that

605
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 2: these kids did it. They're probably sitting at the bottom

606
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:57,080
Speaker 2: of the mine pit and nobody will ever see them again.

607
00:30:57,360 --> 00:30:59,760
Speaker 3: Now, were there specific kids who he said when he

608
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 3: says these kids.

609
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:03,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I couldn't tell. I think they had

610
00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:06,840
Speaker 2: their eye on a couple kids. But I have news

611
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,080
Speaker 2: for you, Dave. The ruby slippers were not found in

612
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:10,480
Speaker 2: the Tioga mine pit lake.

613
00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:13,280
Speaker 3: Oh, thank god, totally.

614
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 2: So this private donor in Arizona finds out, Okay, look

615
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:22,680
Speaker 2: that the slippers aren't in the lake. We're getting to

616
00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:24,960
Speaker 2: be this is ridiculous. Someone needs to put a stop

617
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,400
Speaker 2: to it. I offer a million dollars for the recovery

618
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 2: of the ruby slippers, A million dollars on the barrel head.

619
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 2: This announcement that it went in The Guardian, the New

620
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 2: York Times, US Weekly, I mean US Weekly, the Magazine

621
00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 2: of Record, Washington Post. So this this donor like originally

622
00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, I'll do phone interviews, you know, that's cool,

623
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:48,120
Speaker 2: but then at the last minute would cancel the Rhys

624
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 2: Thomas believes that the one who wrote the book that

625
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 2: believes that the museum faked that anonymous donor to get

626
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 2: publicity because they were getting another Oz item in. So

627
00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 2: they're like, okay, we just got the horse drawn carriage

628
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:04,640
Speaker 2: that was apparently it used to be owned by Abraham

629
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:07,960
Speaker 2: Lincoln before it became a movie prop. So there the

630
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,640
Speaker 2: carriage in The Wizard of Oz apparently was originally owned

631
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,040
Speaker 2: by Abraham Lincoln, which is like totally glossed over in

632
00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 2: all this.

633
00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:16,240
Speaker 4: Yeah.

634
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:19,959
Speaker 3: Yeah, that for one thing. That's a real historical relic,

635
00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:23,720
Speaker 3: right right. That's another thing. Yeah, like I'm not trusting

636
00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:25,960
Speaker 3: this museum with anything ever again.

637
00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:27,920
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, Yeah, you're gonna roll that in there. It's

638
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 2: like yeah, a people go out of there. Okay, So

639
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:33,360
Speaker 2: the museum, like you know, Thomas says, I think you

640
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:35,560
Speaker 2: faked it because you just want people to know about

641
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 2: you have this cool carriage. The museum told Newsweek that

642
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,480
Speaker 2: they would provide a notarized letter from the attorney of

643
00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:45,840
Speaker 2: the anonymous donor if he wished to push, you know,

644
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:48,840
Speaker 2: whether or not they existed. Everyone gave up. Who cares?

645
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:49,160
Speaker 3: Who knows?

646
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:52,400
Speaker 2: Who cares? There's a bakery in Minneapolis called the I

647
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 2: don't even know how to say this. You know. Here's

648
00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:56,640
Speaker 2: the thing. I come across these words, and I'm guaranteed

649
00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:58,000
Speaker 2: to say the wrong version of it.

650
00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:00,920
Speaker 3: Yes, and I don't care. Yeah, I don't.

651
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:03,000
Speaker 2: Care people correct me. I'm like, you know, at the

652
00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 2: end of the day, I don't care. It's w U

653
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:11,800
Speaker 2: L L E T wallets, you know, wallets. Anyway, they

654
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:14,640
Speaker 2: sold cakes that had the ruby slippers on it, and

655
00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:19,200
Speaker 2: then in icing they wrote reward one million dollars, like

656
00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:21,720
Speaker 2: just to keep the magic alive, David's part of the culture.

657
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:28,200
Speaker 2: The Marriott offered a reward of one million Marriott Rewards points, which.

658
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:29,120
Speaker 3: Is like worth twenty bucks.

659
00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:33,160
Speaker 2: It's worth twelve fidd dollars to anyone who found the

660
00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:36,240
Speaker 2: ruby slippers by August thirty first, a few weeks shy

661
00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:37,840
Speaker 2: of the tenth anniversary of the theft.

662
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:42,120
Speaker 3: Now probably like just before they expire like the expired.

663
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,920
Speaker 2: After they shut the whole rewards program down, an insurance

664
00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:49,120
Speaker 2: company offered a two hundred thousand dollars reward. A board

665
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:52,480
Speaker 2: member of the museum contributed fifty k to a reward.

666
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:56,280
Speaker 2: They say that they got about a thousand calls regarding

667
00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:59,040
Speaker 2: the whereabouts of the ruby slippers. A yard sale in

668
00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:04,800
Speaker 2: Virginia stapled to a restaurant wall in Missouri. Yeah, it

669
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:08,160
Speaker 2: could be. There were claims that a radio station in

670
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 2: New Hampshire was giving them away as a prize. Can't

671
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:15,320
Speaker 2: trust New Hampshire. In twenty eleven, law enforcement noticed a

672
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:19,200
Speaker 2: pair of ruby slippers in a home in San Francisco

673
00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:21,680
Speaker 2: when they were responding to a home burglary.

674
00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:27,080
Speaker 3: No, no, I mean see it doesn't even seem legal,

675
00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:27,920
Speaker 3: Like you can't.

676
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:31,360
Speaker 2: So but here's the thing, Like, so the cops go

677
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:33,560
Speaker 2: into this house and they're like, oh, cool, ruby slippers,

678
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:35,799
Speaker 2: and someone's like, I heard about the theft. You have

679
00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:37,000
Speaker 2: to say something, yea.

680
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:39,320
Speaker 3: Those individual officers wanted the rewards.

681
00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:41,840
Speaker 2: They got a search warrant after being told like the

682
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 2: home but the homeowners like, you know what, those were

683
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:47,200
Speaker 2: a gift from a past lover, and so they all right,

684
00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:50,520
Speaker 2: never mind. So but they these things have a serial

685
00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:52,839
Speaker 2: number on them and it didn't match the missing pair.

686
00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:55,959
Speaker 2: How do they have serial numbers whatever? So how many

687
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:59,479
Speaker 2: pairs are out there? At one point someone did come

688
00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:03,279
Speaker 2: forward claiming to know about these stolen slippers and how

689
00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:05,279
Speaker 2: they could be returned, but it turned out it was

690
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:08,200
Speaker 2: just someone trying to extort the insurance company. By two

691
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:11,880
Speaker 2: thousand and nine, case was cold, no leads, no clues.

692
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:14,920
Speaker 2: The cops were like, you know, it's not really a

693
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:19,720
Speaker 2: priority right now. Four months after the robbery, Essex Insurance

694
00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:23,240
Speaker 2: Company took Shaw, the museum, and the museum director to court,

695
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:26,759
Speaker 2: claiming the insurance policy was voided by the museum because

696
00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:30,719
Speaker 2: they didn't disclose changes to their security measures. Shaw said

697
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:34,040
Speaker 2: of this quote the insurance company they investigated me upside

698
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:36,840
Speaker 2: down inside out. They realized I had nothing to do

699
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 2: with it, and basically the museum knew it too. They

700
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:41,080
Speaker 2: were reaching its straws to try and throw the guilt

701
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 2: away from themselves. So all these years later, the parties

702
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:47,400
Speaker 2: settled in two thousand and seven. Shaw got eight hundred

703
00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:50,680
Speaker 2: thousand dollars out of it. He said, quote, I'm still

704
00:35:50,719 --> 00:35:54,440
Speaker 2: furious for so many people. They represented home, love and

705
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:57,279
Speaker 2: childhood and security. That's what people saw when they looked

706
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:01,800
Speaker 2: at the slippers. And now they're gone, gone, but not forgotten.

707
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:05,680
Speaker 2: So the FBI Art Crime Unit and agents from Atlanta, Chicago,

708
00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:08,960
Speaker 2: and Miami. They went undercover because they had to lead

709
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:12,239
Speaker 2: a strong one. The sting operation was set. One of

710
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 2: them took them all the way to Minneapolis. Let's take

711
00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:18,359
Speaker 2: a break. When we come back, I'm going to tell

712
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:19,120
Speaker 2: you how this went down.

713
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:41,120
Speaker 3: Gotta know, all right, Dave.

714
00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,200
Speaker 2: When we left off, the FBI was about to solve

715
00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:45,760
Speaker 2: the case of the missing Ruby slippers.

716
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:46,560
Speaker 3: I can't wait.

717
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:51,000
Speaker 2: The sting operation in Minneapolis. Remember that it was a success.

718
00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:54,960
Speaker 2: On September fourth, two thousand and nine, the FBI announced

719
00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:57,400
Speaker 2: the stolen Ruby slippers were recovered and taken to the

720
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:02,439
Speaker 2: Smithsonian for authentication. No suspects were named at the time,

721
00:37:02,520 --> 00:37:05,880
Speaker 2: and officials asked that anyone with any information please contact

722
00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:08,800
Speaker 2: the FBI. So I'm guessing they kind of changed hands.

723
00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:12,600
Speaker 2: The recovered Ruby slippers. They were put on display in

724
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:16,120
Speaker 2: a clear case for reporters to photograph during a press conference,

725
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:17,439
Speaker 2: so they like paraded them out.

726
00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:18,960
Speaker 3: It's like when they put all the cash and the

727
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:19,840
Speaker 3: drugs on the table.

728
00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:24,840
Speaker 2: They fanned out all nicely, like this is just no,

729
00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:26,280
Speaker 2: you know what, it's too symmetric.

730
00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:28,000
Speaker 3: A little over here, Can we get some more cleague

731
00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:28,520
Speaker 3: lights in here?

732
00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:32,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, they have like ring lights on the pilot cash,

733
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:35,840
Speaker 2: so they wheel them out. They were guarded by FBI

734
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:39,160
Speaker 2: officials who would tell people, you know, don't get too

735
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:42,160
Speaker 2: close to the glass. This is evidence, you know, hey,

736
00:37:42,239 --> 00:37:45,920
Speaker 2: give it some distance. So click them heels and fast

737
00:37:45,920 --> 00:37:49,840
Speaker 2: forward fourteen years. On Tuesday May fifteenth, twenty twenty three,

738
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:53,520
Speaker 2: Terry Martin, a seventy six year old Minnesotan who lived

739
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:58,080
Speaker 2: twelve miles south of the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota,

740
00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:01,279
Speaker 2: was indicted by a grand jury for one count of

741
00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:05,400
Speaker 2: theft of a major artwork. Wow, he stole the Ruby

742
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:10,920
Speaker 2: Slippers nearly eighteen years prior, And well, no it wasn't.

743
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:13,840
Speaker 2: It was a seventy six year old man, and I

744
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:15,640
Speaker 2: guess he was like in his late fifties at the point.

745
00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:19,439
Speaker 2: So those little tappers, they're now worth an estimated three

746
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:21,680
Speaker 2: point five million dollars.

747
00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 3: Do you think being lost made them more valuable?

748
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:24,880
Speaker 4: Oh?

749
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:27,720
Speaker 2: It has to have. And they're called quote an object

750
00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:30,840
Speaker 2: of cultural heritage from the care, custody or control of

751
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:34,239
Speaker 2: a museum. So it's like, this is museum quality. It's

752
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:37,279
Speaker 2: like I've ever seen antiques roadshow when someone wheels something

753
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:39,120
Speaker 2: out and they're like, oh no, this actually has to

754
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:40,880
Speaker 2: be in a museum. We can't put a dollar amount

755
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:45,000
Speaker 2: on it, Like yeah, yeah, yeah. So the indictment made

756
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:48,680
Speaker 2: people wonder if did this seventy six year old Minnesota.

757
00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:53,640
Speaker 2: Did he act alone? Was he hired by organized crime?

758
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:55,239
Speaker 3: Why does he hate America?

759
00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:58,040
Speaker 2: Why does he hate the culture in America? This is

760
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:01,360
Speaker 2: what the guy had to say to the Minnesota Star Tribune. Quote,

761
00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:03,239
Speaker 2: I gotta go on trial. I don't want to talk

762
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:07,799
Speaker 2: to you. God bless my kind of guy. So this

763
00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:12,880
Speaker 2: is a great name. Seaword Darby Say word again again?

764
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:17,759
Speaker 2: E S E Y W A R D say word.

765
00:39:17,960 --> 00:39:22,279
Speaker 2: Seaword say word Darby. This person is the co host

766
00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:24,800
Speaker 2: of the podcast No Place Like Home. So like, I

767
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:28,080
Speaker 2: don't want to turf step on another prospect. Respect you

768
00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:31,520
Speaker 2: respect mad respect quote. There was a strong suspicion that

769
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:34,160
Speaker 2: there was a quote local connection to the crime, someone

770
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:36,880
Speaker 2: with knowledge of the museum. In fact, that the slippers

771
00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:38,720
Speaker 2: were on loan there in the summer of two thousand

772
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:41,200
Speaker 2: and five, and how easy they were to steal. What's

773
00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:43,760
Speaker 2: interesting is that Martin is just one piece of the puzzle.

774
00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:46,719
Speaker 2: Over the thirteen years the slippers were missing, it is

775
00:39:46,800 --> 00:39:51,400
Speaker 2: possible likely even that they exchanged hands. So that's a

776
00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:53,560
Speaker 2: deep dive if you're interested in no place like home.

777
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:56,960
Speaker 2: Rhys Thomas, the author quote, I have a feeling this

778
00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:59,399
Speaker 2: is just the tip of the iceberg. I don't think

779
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:03,160
Speaker 2: a single end visual would have been have opportunistically grabbed

780
00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:05,760
Speaker 2: the shoes and then sat on them for thirteen years

781
00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:08,360
Speaker 2: and then gotten himself involved in an extortion case.

782
00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:09,520
Speaker 3: What I just deep.

783
00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:12,759
Speaker 2: It goes deep, Dave. He goes so much deeper than

784
00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:13,120
Speaker 2: you know.

785
00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:16,480
Speaker 3: Like there's no so he really he walks out the

786
00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:18,960
Speaker 3: back door one day at the museum, He's like, oh,

787
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 3: there's no alarm here, and realizes he could probably just

788
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:23,160
Speaker 3: walk out with some slippers.

789
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:25,560
Speaker 2: He'd totally they totally fit him.

790
00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:30,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like he goes or he gets home and he's like, honey,

791
00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:32,640
Speaker 3: slipper fence, slipper fence. He's like looking at his Yellow

792
00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:34,520
Speaker 3: Pages and he realizes there's no such thing as a

793
00:40:34,560 --> 00:40:35,759
Speaker 3: slipper fence. Oh, Wow.

794
00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:38,080
Speaker 2: When he got him and he got him for his wife.

795
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:40,640
Speaker 2: His wife is like, these don't fit. Well, okay, well

796
00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:42,120
Speaker 2: just I'll take him back, and he just shoves them

797
00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:45,279
Speaker 2: in the closet. So the pair of ruby slippers that

798
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:48,840
Speaker 2: were stolen are technically not a true pair. The left

799
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:52,680
Speaker 2: and right shoes are different sizes and they actually are

800
00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:55,240
Speaker 2: mates to the left and right ruby slippers on display

801
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:56,239
Speaker 2: at the Smithsonian.

802
00:40:57,080 --> 00:40:59,360
Speaker 4: Wow, it's weird.

803
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:01,840
Speaker 2: Do you know that those are one of the most

804
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:05,359
Speaker 2: asked about artifacts there. I didn't know that, Like, where

805
00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:06,240
Speaker 2: are the Rovie slippers?

806
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:06,799
Speaker 3: Yeah?

807
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:10,160
Speaker 2: Like, hey, hey, where are the ruby slippers? And over there, sir,

808
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:14,239
Speaker 2: Like that's the most asked question at the Smithsonian. So

809
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:16,520
Speaker 2: they made several pairs of these for filming. As we know,

810
00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:19,680
Speaker 2: we many now believe that the original total was seven,

811
00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:23,680
Speaker 2: and that includes one pair that was originally chewed up

812
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:28,320
Speaker 2: by Toto. Something I can vouch is an action of

813
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:31,120
Speaker 2: a car and terrier Like I have to say that

814
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:33,520
Speaker 2: my dog passed away at the end of December twenty

815
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:36,120
Speaker 2: two at the age of fifteen, and I'd had him

816
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:38,360
Speaker 2: since he was three months old. His name was Elliott,

817
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:41,040
Speaker 2: and we counted him as one of the internsier. I

818
00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:43,880
Speaker 2: loved bless up elliott I liked I liked to blame

819
00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:46,719
Speaker 2: things on him in this show, And like sometimes I

820
00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:48,960
Speaker 2: get wistful thinking about what he chewed up when he

821
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:52,719
Speaker 2: was a young pup, baseboards, legs of chairs. He once

822
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:54,920
Speaker 2: chewed a hole in a purse that I had to

823
00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:56,839
Speaker 2: get to a cookie in there instead of like going

824
00:41:56,840 --> 00:42:00,360
Speaker 2: in through the top. So anyway, so when I about

825
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:03,319
Speaker 2: Toto chewing up a pair of iconic ruby slippers, I

826
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:06,279
Speaker 2: kind of like that, Like puppies remind us that things

827
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:08,759
Speaker 2: are just things, right, they're they're impermanent, and then we

828
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:11,600
Speaker 2: get older and they remind us that they and we

829
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:14,000
Speaker 2: are impermanent too. So it's all stuff. It's just stuff.

830
00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:15,640
Speaker 2: And that's why I love these kind of crimes. It's

831
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:17,880
Speaker 2: just stuff. So they may be like part of the

832
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:19,680
Speaker 2: culture and worth three million dollars, but at the end

833
00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:22,640
Speaker 2: of the day, it's just stuff. So ruby slippers. Only

834
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:25,400
Speaker 2: three pairs are said to have survived. Of the seven.

835
00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:28,959
Speaker 2: The stolen pair was what's known as the Quote Traveling pair,

836
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:32,719
Speaker 2: and they were made from a dozen different pieces of

837
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:38,400
Speaker 2: material that included glass, plastic, gelatine, silk, threading, wood, pulp. Okay,

838
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:42,160
Speaker 2: I don't know. So the majority, like the ruby coloring

839
00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:45,120
Speaker 2: really came from the sequins, but they were like bows

840
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:47,840
Speaker 2: on them that were red glass beads, and the show's

841
00:42:47,920 --> 00:42:52,680
Speaker 2: traveling pair were actually burgundy, not ruby red, because that

842
00:42:52,719 --> 00:42:55,719
Speaker 2: would have come out as bright orange in technicolor, and

843
00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:58,400
Speaker 2: so the pair was the one. The stolen ones are

844
00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:00,800
Speaker 2: the ones used for close up shots when Dorothy clicker

845
00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:04,799
Speaker 2: heels together. Shaw said they were absolutely beautiful and he

846
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,600
Speaker 2: would only handle them while wearing white gloves like he

847
00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:11,560
Speaker 2: worked at Sephora. It wasn't until after the stolen pairs

848
00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:14,520
Speaker 2: were recovered that it was learned that they were mismatched

849
00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:18,280
Speaker 2: twins of the pair at the Smithsonium. So the ruby

850
00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:20,960
Speaker 2: slippers are still in custody with the authorities, just like

851
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:24,040
Speaker 2: Funko Batman. They can't be returned to their owner in

852
00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:28,480
Speaker 2: this case Shaw, because Shaw got that insurance payout.

853
00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:31,319
Speaker 3: Yeah, insurance, just.

854
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:34,200
Speaker 2: Like Funko Batman, So the insurance company is the legal owner.

855
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:37,400
Speaker 2: Shaw is at peace with this quote. There's more to

856
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 2: my life than a pair of pumps. I have no

857
00:43:39,719 --> 00:43:42,440
Speaker 2: desire to have them again. After years of bringing joy

858
00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:45,000
Speaker 2: and happiness to so many thousands and thousands of people

859
00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:47,359
Speaker 2: by being able to see them. Now, to me, they're

860
00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:49,800
Speaker 2: a nightmare. I'm not going to talk about it anymore.

861
00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:51,880
Speaker 2: I'm sick of it. They're gone. Frankly, my dear, I

862
00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:52,720
Speaker 2: don't give a dance.

863
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:55,239
Speaker 3: Wait now he says that, Yeah.

864
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:58,959
Speaker 2: He's amazing. Janey Heights, the executive director of the Judy

865
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:02,480
Speaker 2: Garland Museum. There's so many levels, there's like different director

866
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:08,040
Speaker 2: levels and whatever. She wants the recovered ruby slippers to

867
00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:12,120
Speaker 2: stay in federal custody as case evidence, and then hopes

868
00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:14,520
Speaker 2: that they can be like eventually returned to the museum,

869
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:17,279
Speaker 2: so like slippery way to get around to having them

870
00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:20,880
Speaker 2: back at the museum. Quote, it's such an iconic item

871
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:23,759
Speaker 2: that means so much to so many people. And she

872
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:26,960
Speaker 2: said that it represents home and a sense of place. Quote,

873
00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:28,640
Speaker 2: it would be a shame for them to stay in

874
00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:31,319
Speaker 2: a locked case for the rest of time, So let's

875
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:34,600
Speaker 2: send them to the zero security level Judy Garland Museum

876
00:44:34,719 --> 00:44:38,360
Speaker 2: and Grand Rapids, Minnesota. She said she can find no

877
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:41,640
Speaker 2: connection between Martin and the museum and that everyone at

878
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:45,200
Speaker 2: the museum is quote a little bit speechless that someone

879
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:48,680
Speaker 2: was charged almost two decades later, Tim Gerring I mentioned

880
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:51,920
Speaker 2: him Minnesota monthly. I'm going to let him send us

881
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:54,680
Speaker 2: off here with some really incredible observations. This is a

882
00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:59,120
Speaker 2: long quote, but it's worth it. Quote throughout her famously

883
00:44:59,239 --> 00:45:02,120
Speaker 2: up and down career, which ended Elvis Style in nineteen

884
00:45:02,160 --> 00:45:05,960
Speaker 2: sixty nine an accidental overdose of sleeping pills rigor Mortis

885
00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:09,759
Speaker 2: in the London bathroom. Garland was particularly admired by gay men.

886
00:45:10,200 --> 00:45:12,359
Speaker 2: She was less guarded than most stars, and they were

887
00:45:12,440 --> 00:45:16,239
Speaker 2: drawn to this brassy candor. After all, being unguarded wasn't

888
00:45:16,239 --> 00:45:19,120
Speaker 2: an option for gay men in Garland's day. They could

889
00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:23,160
Speaker 2: only long like Dorothy to live in technocolor. They secretly

890
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:26,680
Speaker 2: referred to themselves as friends of Dorothy and took solace

891
00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:30,400
Speaker 2: in Garland's apparent sympathy, not least perhaps because two of

892
00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:33,680
Speaker 2: her five husbands turned out to be gay. Quote. If

893
00:45:33,680 --> 00:45:35,960
Speaker 2: you're afraid to love, if you're afraid to feel emotion,

894
00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:40,400
Speaker 2: you can't know Judy Garland, one fan tells me. Aides

895
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:43,160
Speaker 2: took an outsized bite of Garland's fan base, and as

896
00:45:43,200 --> 00:45:46,920
Speaker 2: gay culture, once closely associated with the cult of Garland,

897
00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:50,879
Speaker 2: is increasingly assimilated into the mainstream, fewer young gay men

898
00:45:50,960 --> 00:45:54,399
Speaker 2: are picking up the torch. In the world of celebrity memorabilia,

899
00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:57,680
Speaker 2: the failure to recover the Ruby Slippers has conjured no

900
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:00,960
Speaker 2: little trepidation, A fear that peace people aren't taking the

901
00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:05,279
Speaker 2: icon's disappearance seriously, fear that the magic is finally wearing off.

902
00:46:05,480 --> 00:46:08,160
Speaker 2: If the Slippers lose their hold on the American imagination,

903
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:12,680
Speaker 2: what other cultural mementos might we deem disposable. It's an

904
00:46:12,719 --> 00:46:15,319
Speaker 2: American national treasure that's been stolen, and no one gives

905
00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:17,960
Speaker 2: a damn, cries Brian Cummings, a New York appraiser of

906
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:21,160
Speaker 2: celebrity memorabilia. It blows my mind to know that they're

907
00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:24,640
Speaker 2: still out there. Yet, in the new status of stolen property,

908
00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:27,280
Speaker 2: the Slippers feel more real than they have in years.

909
00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:30,440
Speaker 2: They are mere objects again to be lost or found,

910
00:46:30,520 --> 00:46:33,040
Speaker 2: and perhaps that is for the best. The old movie

911
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:35,640
Speaker 2: studios we know now were never in the business of

912
00:46:35,680 --> 00:46:39,319
Speaker 2: making magic so much as illusions. Stars like Garland were

913
00:46:39,360 --> 00:46:42,840
Speaker 2: fed pills and cigarettes by their studio bosses and stage

914
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:46,239
Speaker 2: bombs to control their weight. They were products as manufactured

915
00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:48,600
Speaker 2: as the props from the stage names to their public

916
00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:52,640
Speaker 2: lives created for them by studio publicity departments. To treasure

917
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:56,600
Speaker 2: Hollywood memorabilia is to value fantasy over this harsh reality,

918
00:46:56,920 --> 00:46:58,960
Speaker 2: to ignore the man behind the curtain.

919
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:00,920
Speaker 3: Wow, bravo.

920
00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:06,239
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, it's an amazing article. Dave. What's your

921
00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:07,160
Speaker 2: ridiculous takeaway?

922
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:08,319
Speaker 3: Oh?

923
00:47:08,400 --> 00:47:08,600
Speaker 4: Man?

924
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:12,680
Speaker 3: Can I first, I want to thank the Academy. I've

925
00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:16,680
Speaker 3: been waiting for this moment forever, you know. I think

926
00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:19,480
Speaker 3: it's interesting, and that quote really brought it home. Like

927
00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:23,279
Speaker 3: these slippers are far more meaningful to the gay community

928
00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 3: than they could possibly be to quote America writ large.

929
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:29,320
Speaker 3: In fact, I feel like those two things are almost

930
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:33,080
Speaker 3: intention because like what Judy Garland means to that culture

931
00:47:33,520 --> 00:47:35,920
Speaker 3: is different than what Judy Garland means, which is, you know,

932
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:40,200
Speaker 3: equally people who are into musicals. Yeah yeah, And it

933
00:47:40,239 --> 00:47:42,480
Speaker 3: really like speaks to a struggle in a way that

934
00:47:42,800 --> 00:47:47,120
Speaker 3: Judy Garland, this like amazing pop star, movie star and

935
00:47:47,239 --> 00:47:50,719
Speaker 3: musical star, isn't really representative of a struggle for like

936
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:54,600
Speaker 3: most of America. She's just like the pinnacle of Hollywood magic,

937
00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:57,160
Speaker 3: and so like in that context, I get it. And

938
00:47:57,200 --> 00:48:00,960
Speaker 3: it's almost like in that context, things like like this

939
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:04,719
Speaker 3: should be owned by that community and like instead of

940
00:48:04,760 --> 00:48:07,840
Speaker 3: being you know, locked away in a museum somewhere, Like,

941
00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:10,120
Speaker 3: I'm glad they're home, and I get why it's a

942
00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:11,360
Speaker 3: big deal that they were missing.

943
00:48:11,800 --> 00:48:14,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I love the idea that tying it in

944
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:17,120
Speaker 2: with in The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy gets to

945
00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:21,479
Speaker 2: go to Oz and be brave and create her own

946
00:48:21,520 --> 00:48:24,359
Speaker 2: family and community, and like the thing is to live

947
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:27,760
Speaker 2: in technicolor, to like have all these options and brilliance

948
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:30,879
Speaker 2: around her, and so reading that really kind of drove

949
00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:33,080
Speaker 2: it home the importance of it. So, you know, I

950
00:48:33,160 --> 00:48:35,440
Speaker 2: make fun of it. It's not important to me, but

951
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:36,920
Speaker 2: that doesn't make it not important.

952
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:39,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I hate music.

953
00:48:39,680 --> 00:48:41,160
Speaker 2: I'm just going to kind of like who do I

954
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:43,880
Speaker 2: But you know, don't tell anyone.

955
00:48:43,960 --> 00:48:45,960
Speaker 3: I can get down with the shoes like I get it.

956
00:48:46,080 --> 00:48:48,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I totally get it. I totally get it.

957
00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:48,920
Speaker 4: So that's it.

958
00:48:49,080 --> 00:48:53,760
Speaker 2: That's all I have for you today, Hue. You like it.

959
00:48:53,760 --> 00:48:56,000
Speaker 3: It was awesome, Elizabeth, Thank you so much.

960
00:48:55,880 --> 00:48:58,640
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. You can find us online at

961
00:48:58,719 --> 00:49:01,399
Speaker 2: ridiculous Crime dot com. We have t shirts if you're

962
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:04,360
Speaker 2: into that sort of thing. Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter

963
00:49:04,400 --> 00:49:08,120
Speaker 2: and Instagram, Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. We don't

964
00:49:08,239 --> 00:49:11,799
Speaker 2: look at those leave a talkback on the iheartapp Do It.

965
00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:20,160
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Dave Cousten

966
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:23,280
Speaker 2: and sometimes Aaron Burnett, produced and edited by the Great

967
00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:26,760
Speaker 2: Oz Dave Cousten. Research is by Marissa Brown, The Goodwitch

968
00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:30,200
Speaker 2: and the Wickedest Witch of the Southeast, Andrea Song Sharpened Hear.

969
00:49:30,600 --> 00:49:33,600
Speaker 2: The theme song is by Lollipop Guild Ambassadors Thomas Lee

970
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:37,240
Speaker 2: and Travis Dutton. Executive producers are Cowardly Lion, Ben Bollen

971
00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:46,839
Speaker 2: and Tin Man Noel Brown. Ridicous Crime Say It one

972
00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:48,440
Speaker 2: More Times.

973
00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:53,440
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974
00:49:53,520 --> 00:49:56,680
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975
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