The month of May is come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom and to bring forth fruit! If you're literary enough to recognize that quote from Thomas Malory, you might also know that May is one of the best months of the year to be a bookworm, what with Independent Bookstore Day and National Library Legislative Day, not to mention the birthdays of Whitman, Emerson, and Thomas Pynchon. But you might be surprised by how much of what you think you remember about American literature is wrong. Luckily, Jeopardy! champ and man of letters Ken Jennings is here to set us straight. Let every lusty brain begin to blossom and bring forth fruit!
The Debunker: In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Does Dorothy Wear Ruby Slippers?
Dorothy's ruby slippers from the 1939 MGM musical The Wizard of Oz are one of the most famous props in movie history. Not only do they protect the wearer from wicked witches, but clicking the heels together will transport you magically to Kansas. There's no place like home! No wonder one of the few surviving pairs of slippers sold at auction in 2000 for $660,000. That's not a record for a movie prop (Marilyn Monroe's dress from The Seven Year Itch sold for a cool $4.6 million in 2011) but it's still pretty impressive.
Many Oz fans would probably be surprised to learn that the magical shoes worn by Dorothy in L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz were not ruby in color. The magical "Silver Shoes" from the novel are sought by the Wicked Witch of the West and deliver Dorothy home safely, just as in the movie. They're just made of a different valuable substance: silver, not rubies. Screenwriter Noel Langley made the decision to brighten up the shoes for the movie, probably to take greater advantage of shooting in Technicolor.
The Silver Shoes are a crucial element behind another popular misconception about The Wizard of Oz: that it's a satirical allegory about the U.S. monetary policy of its era. According to this theory, Dorothy's silver shoes represent the movement for the free coinage of silver, the Yellow Brick Road is the gold standard, the Scarecrow is the American farmer, and so on. This interpretation, dreamed up by historian Henry Littlefield in 1964, is widespread today, despite the facts that Baum never mentioned it during his lifetime, that there is no evidence of layered political allegory in any of his other novels, and that his own politics didn't align with the Populism suggested by Littlefield. Nevertheless, the theory is still beloved by a certain kind of semi-informed pedant who enjoys correcting people as to what one of their favorite books is really about. This "Debunker" column is completely different, of course. It's written by an incredibly informed pedant who doesn't enjoy correcting people at all, but sees it as an unpleasant but necessary duty.
Quick Quiz: What is Dorothy's last name in the Oz books—not a surprising one, given her propensity to travel by tornado?
Ken Jennings is the author of six books, most recently his Junior Genius Guides, Because I Said So!, and Maphead. He's also the proud owner of an underwhelming Bag o' Crap. Follow him at ken-jennings.com or on Twitter as @KenJennings.