Some of Joseph Maddalena most treasured childhood memories are of him and his family huddled around the television set watching the 1939 cinematic classic, The Wizard of Oz. So much about the movie captivated him - from Dorothy and her ruby slippers, to the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man - but one thing stood out to him above all else; the Wicked Witch's broomstick.
Forbes recently interviewed Maddalena, an avid collector of Trading Cards and Memorabilia since childhood, about his quest for the broomstick, which has been long at hard. Maddalena told Forbes, "To me the broomstick was the central plot device and the coolest thing in the movie."
Maddalena, now 47 years old, owns Profiles in History, a Los Angeles dealer in historical documents and movie memorabilia. He has bought and sold some impressive historical documents, including two letters from Abraham Lincoln that went for $660,000 each. But in the last decade the company's business has moved more in the direction of Hollywood keepsakes. He sold Luke Skywalker's light saber from Star Wars for $200,000.
He started young. At 12 Maddalena rented out an American Legion Post with $25 he'd made from his paper route and put on a baseball card memorabilia show. By 14, he had amassed a collection of more than 1 million baseball cards and autographs. While still a teenager he began corresponding with members of the Oz cast, hoping to home in on props.
After he moved to California in the late 1970s to attend Pepperdine University, he befriended Jack Haley (the Tin Man) and Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow). Haley's costume, he learned, had been lost or destroyed, Bolger's donated to the Smithsonian. Though he came across many other pieces of valuable memorabilia from the movie, his efforts to find the broomstick were fruitless.
"Most of the time, over the years, your leads get better and better," he says. But not in this case. Even though close inspection of the MGM film suggests that three broomsticks were used in the shooting, Maddalena could not find proof that any had survived. "But I just knew it had to be out there, somewhere."
Enter Michael Shaw, a 72-year-old acting coach in Los Angeles who had been a child actor at MGM. In the world of Oz memorabilia, Shaw is best known for having owned one of the four existing pairs of Dorothy's ruby slippers. Rhys Thomas, author of The Ruby Slippers of Oz, an exposé of the Hollywood memorabilia industry, says Shaw's pair was of higher quality than the pair that now resides in the Smithsonian.
In 2005 Shaw lent his slippers to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minn. They were stolen a week later. No one has ever been charged, and the slippers remain at large. Shaw claims he received $1 million in insurance money.
"I'm so furious that the slippers are gone," he says. "It's very frustrating that they haven't caught that obsessed, fanatic, selfish bastard who stole them." He was left with some other Oz memorabilia that he had bought in the 1970s, displaying the collection in his home, 10 miles away from Maddalena's.
Maddalena had known of Shaw for 30 years and had helped appraise Shaw's slippers when they were stolen. It never occurred to him to ask about the broomstick. Then, in August, Profiles in History received a phone call. It was from Shaw. He was interested in selling some of his non-Oz movie stuff. Maddalena sent his procurement expert, Brian Chanes, to Shaw's house. Chanes saw something out of the corner of his eye. Leaning on a wall was a broomstick nearly 6 feet long.
"I said, 'Oh my God, is that what I think it is?'" says Chanes, mindful of his boss' obsession. "The first thing Michael said was, 'Yes.' The second thing he said was, 'It's not for sale.'" Shaw, he learned, had painstakingly refinished the broomstick and replaced missing bristles. "I told Michael that this is something I've been looking for forever. I made it clear that if he ever wanted to sell it, I'd be there," says Maddalena.
Says Shaw: "He's more than welcome to see it anytime he wants. But I will not be selling it." What's it worth? Easily $200,000, thinks Maddalena--if it's legit. Shaw now says that after some reflection, he's not absolutely sure it is. Other Oz experts also have doubts. "I'm skeptical," says Rhys Thomas. "There's no proof that it exists."
Thomas believes it's likely that MGM reused the broomstick in a later movie. Glenn Brown, an MBM archivist, says: "I tend to think it might not be the actual broom."
Both Brown and Thomas say the only way to authenticate it would be to carefully match it to still images from the film. Neither has seen Shaw's broomstick.
Maddalena remains hopeful,"I feel confident that one day Michael will pick up the phone and say 'It's time; come and get it.'"
