STUDIO INSCRIPTION: UNKNOWN

DESCRIPTION: BUGLE BEAD

SIZE: 5 C / 6 B (SUSPECTED)

HEEL: UNKNOWN

SOLE: UNKNOWN
INNES PRODUCTION NUMBERS: UNKNOWN

 

Worn by Judy Garland while the film was under the direction of Richard Thorpe

Visible:
Production stills from the Thorpe era
Any surviving film from the Thorpe era, although none is believed to still exist

A bugle beaded shoe is NOT visible in the costume test photos taken on October 31, 1938

Notable differences:

The pair was covered in glass bugle beads instead of sequins
This pair had no bows

Notes:

This pair was deemed too heavy for dancing, and was changed to a lighter sequin version when production shut down to replace Richard Thorpe and Buddy Ebsen. 

It is unknown why only one pair is rumored to exist, when the studio had a procedure of creating backups for all important costumes. It is possible that MGM discarded duplicate pairs during one of their costume purges, but for that to have happened the other pairs would have had to have been stored somewhere other than where the sequined slippers were.

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It is my personal belief that Kent Warner found multiple pairs of the bugle bead slippers and distributed them as he did the sequined pairs. Nearly all information on these shoes can be traced back to Michael Shaw, as the first printed reference to them came from a 1982 college paper by Tod Machin where Shaw spoke about them. Kent may have just told Michael (and others) that there was only one pair.

Current location:

According to Michael Shaw, the bugle bead pair went to a friend of Kent Warner who also received a screen used pair, and Michael "doesn't know what happened to them" from there.