Fun Facts and Information About the Ruby Slippers From The Wizard of Oz

The book the movie was adapted from had silver shoes, not red. The decision to make the change (using rich burgundy sequins no less) was likely due to a desire to ensure they popped on screen. "The film was shot on a special Technicolor process that was very expensive, and MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer ordered them changed to something more colorful."

They were lost prior to being auctioned off in 1970.

The pair that now lives in the Smithsonian—and started the craze for collecting—was sold for $15,000 in 1970. Before they could hit the auction block they had to be located though, a feat that proved difficult. "During the auction preparations nobody could find the shoes. It took costumer Kent Warner months to find them among the 450,000 costumes that were there," White told us. "Eventually he found them in a dusty old barn that used to exist on the MGM lot."

There's still a missing pair—and the reward is $1 million.

Stolen from Minnesota's Judy Garland Museum in 2005, the pair was never recovered (even with a hefty reward on the table). White recounted action that happened last summer: "The museum sent of team of divers to an old mine pit to search for the shoes, believed to have been discarded there, but in the end they found nothing."

Leonardo DiCaprio bought a pair.

Leo was named the prime benefactor for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' move to buy a pair back in 2012. In good condition, the shoes are thought to have been used for close-ups and will eventually live at the Academy Museum.

Cleaning them is not easy.

A behind-the-scenes video reveals that the sequins are made of gelatin, a material that doesn't play nice with most cleaners. Instead, restoration techs have to clean each individual sequin with cotton dipped in ice water.

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