Lifestyle
Judy Garland’s hometown hopes a good witch will help purchase Dorothy’s ruby slippers
One pair of Dorthy’s slippers, worn by Judy Garland in 1939, are displayed at a viewing at the Plaza Athenee on December 5, 2011 in New York City.
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GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. – This weekend, Grand Rapids, Minnesota will honor its best-known former resident – Judy Garland.
And at its annual Judy Garland Festival, the city will fundraise to bring back a prized prop that the actress made famous. But, it won’t be an easy stroll down the Yellow Brick Road.
Minnesota lawmakers set aside $100,000 this year to help the Judy Garland Museum purchase the coveted ruby slippers of “The Wizard of Oz” fame. Experts expect the shoes could sell for a much higher price.
“They could sell for $1 million, they could sell for $10 million. They’re priceless,” Joe Maddalena, Heritage Auctions executive vice president, says. “Once they’re gone, all the money in the world can’t buy them back.”
The ruby slippers are one of four sets remaining.
This pair’s unique story
The shoes were on display at Garland’s namesake museum in Grand Rapids in the summer of 2005 when a burglar struck. John Kelsch, the museum director at the time, says a man broke in through the back door and snatched the slippers.
All that was left behind was a single sparkling red sequin.
“It was devastating,” Kelsch says. “Unfortunately, local people thought that the museum benefited somehow from it, that we got the insurance money, which was not the case at all.”
The Judy Garland Museum now features an exhibit detailing the story of the theft of the ruby slippers and the investigation to find them.
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Investigators spent years searching for the missing slippers before they recovered them during a sting operation in Minneapolis in 2018.
Curators at the Smithsonian Museum then compared the shoes to another pair on display in Washington D.C. to ensure they were authentic.
Earlier this year, the slippers were returned to their owner Michael Shaw, who had loaned them to the Grand Rapids museum, during a private ceremony.
Now, the slippers will go on a world tour with stops in Beverly Hills, New York, London and Tokyo before coming up for auction at the end of the year.
Maddalena, with Heritage Auctions, has sold two other pairs of ruby slippers. He convinced actor Leonardo DiCaprio and a group of the actor’s friends to help purchase one for the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences.
This time, he says the advance notice could help venues like the Judy Garland Museum have a stronger shot.
“We wanted to enable places that might not normally be able to raise the funds so quickly to have plenty of time to think about it,” Maddalena says. “That’d be an amazing story. I mean, if they ended up back there, that’d be a fantastic story.”
The museum, lawmakers and the governor come together
Judy Garland Museum officials, state legislators and Minnesota’s governor say they’re hopeful that a benevolent figure will wave their magic wand to help.
“Our goal is to get the word out to the world that we need them. They belong here,” Kelsch says. “Somebody out there is going to help us. I just know it.”
In a social media post, Gov. Tim Walz noted the state’s effort to buy “the damn slippers to make sure they remain safe at home in Grand Rapids – on display for all to enjoy – under 24/7, ‘Ocean’s 11’-proof security.”
Judy Garland Museum Director Janie Heitz says Garland had fond memories of her hometown. And it would make sense for the Grand Rapids community to have them on display.
Two people sitting with photo: John Kelsch, left, and Janie Heitz, right, holding a framed photo of a young Judy Garland. They are the former and current directors of the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. They posed for a photo in the actress’ childhood home on May 30.
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“Yes, we’re the place where they were stolen, and yes, we’ll have to get better security. But you know, Judy Garland is the one that made them famous,” Heitz says.
“We just think it would be a really full circle story on the importance of home and that’s exactly what ‘The Wizard of Oz’ represents,” Heitz says. “She was always trying to get home. And so maybe that’s where the slippers should go, is in Judy’s hometown, where her childhood home is.”
In the movie, the ruby slippers and a wish got Dorothy back to Kansas.
Heitz is clicking her heels and hoping that her wish – to bring the slippers back to Grand Rapids – comes true, too.
Sunday Puzzle
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On-air challenge
I’m going to give you two words starting with the letter B. You give me another word starting with B that can follow my first one and precede my second one, in each case to complete a compound word for a familiar two-word phrase.
Ex. Boot Box –> BLACK (bootblack, black box)
1. Beer Button
2. Blue Binder
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7. Baby Brothers
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Last week’s challenge
Last week’s challenge came from listener Michael Pickard. Name something in 10 letters that’s found in a kitchen. Drop its sixth letter to name something on a keyboard. Then drop the new word’s fifth letter to name something no one wants to get. What words are these?
Answer: Backsplash –> backslash –> backlash
Winner
John Blakelock of Yellow Springs, Ohio
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from Evan Kalish, of Bayside, N.Y. Take the name of a nocturnal creature, in two words. The first word is a spooky sound. Move the last letter of the first word to the start of the second word and you’ll get another spooky, nocturnal sound. What is the creature and what are the sounds?
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, June 25 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.
Lifestyle
Exclusive | Paul Kueker ID’d as beloved dad of 2 who tragically plunged to death at Madison Square Garden concert
The 51-year-old rock fan who fell to his death during a weekend Goose concert at Madison Square Garden was a beloved married dad of two from Connecticut, his weeping mom told The Post on Sunday.
Paul Kueker fatally plunged 150 feet from the Chase Bridge in the World’s Most Famous Arena while the event was in full swing shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday — the day before Father’s Day.
“He was the greatest kid in the whole wide world,” Kueker’s mother, Patricia Finelli, said through tears. “He’d give you the shirt off his back.
“He has two children, a beautiful wife, and he took care of me like I was a piece of gold.”
Kueker was with his wife at the time, according to Fox News.
The Niantic man was rushed to Bellevue Hospital after the fall, where he was later pronounced dead, police said.
He was on the Chase Bridge, an elevated seating section that was added to the arena in 2013, when he fell, Fox said.
Goose, a Connecticut-based jam band, was booked for a two-night gig at MSG as part of their summer tour and on their second night there when the tragedy struck.
They completed their full 16-song set around midnight Saturday, after the fall.
“We are deeply saddened and heartbroken to learn of the tragic event that occurred at tonight’s show,” the band later said in a statement.
“We extend our deepest sympathies to everyone affected. Thank you to the emergency personnel and venue staff who stepped in with care and support.”
Alzo Slade and Peter Sagal on stage at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago
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This week’s show was recorded in Chicago with host Peter Sagal, judge and scorekeeper Alzo Slade, Not My Job guest Caro Claire Burke and panelists Karen Chee, Peter Grosz, and Shane O’Neill. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.
Who’s Alzo This Time
Tourists Embrace The USA; The Wedding of the Century; Advances in Parenting
Panel Questions
Stolen Flavor
Bluff The Listener
Our panelists tell three stories about 80’s band A-ha making the news this week, only one of which is true
Not My Job: Caro Claire Burke, the author of Yesteryear, joins us to answer questions about yearbooks
This week, Caro Claire Burke, author of the book of the summer, Yesteryear, joins us to play a game called, “Yesteryear, meet Yearbook.” Three questions about yearbooks.
Panel Questions
Bookmarks and Beaches; One Man’s Trash
Limericks
Alzo Slade reads three news-related limericks: Jurassic Purse; Viper Visions; Humanity’s Tilt
Lightning Fill In The Blank
All the news we couldn’t fit anywhere else
Predictions
Our panelists predict, what would be the big surprise at Taylor Swift’s wedding
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