Bill Thomas: in the late 1970's, Bill Thomas had two pairs of slippers in his possession. The first was a replica pair he had made, the other pair was Kent Warner's #7 pair. Bill told the story about how he found them - which was actually how Kent found them. When Kent got his pair back and sold them, Bill continued to claim ownership, but said they were in a safe deposit box until he "deserved to see them." Larry McQueen, Bill's friend, explained that the whole thing was a "lie that got out of hand."
Ted Smith, Humpty Dumpty and Sons: it was documented in Rhys Thomas' book "The Ruby Slippers of Oz" that Ted Smith did not have an authentic pair of slippers. Old newspaper ads reveal the replicas he was trying to pass off as authentic, and had even attempted to sell them via Los Angeles Times classified ads.
Glenn Beck: Western Costume replicas, as evidenced by the yellow lining, and bow components being too large.
Toronto Mark/Mark in Ontario/MarkTheModel: poor quality replicas made with translucent sequins.
Hollywood Museum Pair: replica. Made by costumer Donald "Don-Ya" Ortiz.
Joseph Randall, San Diego Search Warrant Shoes: replicas. The base shoes were made of a wood composite.
Eddie Marks, Late President of Western Costume Company: a friend of Eddie's told me that he had one of the "five or six pairs" of slippers thad had been used during production of the film. Eddie would not comment, but his wife did let me know that the only pair in his collection was a set from Western Costume Company.
Debbie Reynolds: while Debbie did indeed own the authentic 'Arabian test' pair, she also owned two replica pairs. The first was a set made by Western Costume, which Debbie's short lived Hollywood museum exhibited and claimed to be authentic. The other pair was made by Steve Jarett and used in filming of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.
