Here's another item with no real Oz connection, other than my own twisted inter- pretation. This is a pair of Buck Rogers Rocket Roller Skates, produced in 1932 by Marx Toys. These are heavy duty skates with great styling - this particular pair is missing its leather straps and key. The reason I'm including them here is because I've always thought they looked as though they could be L. Frank Baum's silver shoes, taken by Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the East in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In the MGM film the shoes became the ruby slippers. Even the concept of rocket roller skates fits in - maybe that's how Dorothy returned home at the end of the book!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Silver Shoes
Here's another item with no real Oz connection, other than my own twisted inter- pretation. This is a pair of Buck Rogers Rocket Roller Skates, produced in 1932 by Marx Toys. These are heavy duty skates with great styling - this particular pair is missing its leather straps and key. The reason I'm including them here is because I've always thought they looked as though they could be L. Frank Baum's silver shoes, taken by Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the East in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In the MGM film the shoes became the ruby slippers. Even the concept of rocket roller skates fits in - maybe that's how Dorothy returned home at the end of the book!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
It also makes me think of the drawing of Tik-Tok on roller skates from TIK-TOK.
That's a fun idea. I've always thought that was an interesting illustration, since there is no mention of roller skates in the text. It makes me wonder if it was drawn for that point in the story, to give an idea of how quickly the travelers were sliding down the hollow tube, or if it was meant as a generic drawing of Tik-Tok and just happened to get placed in the text.
I don't know, but that certainly wouldn't be the first time Reilly & Britton misplaced an illustration in an Oz book. I have to wonder if it was intended for the front matter, since that's usually where we see familiar characters participating in leisure activities (and often somewhat out-of-character ones, at that).
Post a Comment