Bid for "You'll Never Get Rich" shoes mirrors Fred's priceless dancing

Want Fred's Shoes? You'll Need to Tap into a Half a Million! 

Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire in "You'll Never Get Rich," 1941

Beginning tomorrow, you can bid on Fred’s shoes from “You’ll Never Get Rich” through Heritage Auctions’ Entertainment Signature auction in Dallas. Be forewarned – unless you happen to have a cool $500,000 burning a hole in your pocket, you’ll have to smash a pretty big piggy bank.

"Fred Astaire is a peerless figure in the entertainment world and these shoes are an important part of Hollywood history," said Margaret Barrett, Director of Entertainment & Music Memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, "not so much because of what they are, but because of who wore them and what was done in them! The film You'll Never Get Rich gave Astaire the ideal platform to showcase his mind blowing dance moves that still impress 72 years later!”

“You’ll Never Get Rich” was Astaire’s 14^th musical film out of a total of 33.

The bidding for Fred Astaire’s 1940 brown leather tap shoes, autographed by the man himself, opens up at more than 58 times the price for a vest worn by John Wayne in ‘The Cowboys.’ Fred’s shoes were the highest priced items we found in the auction. We saw no other Fred Astaire, or even period or ballroom, dance items in this auction, but there are hundreds of other star-owned pieces. Plenty of them are mainstream, but others are bit more bizarre. We listed a few opening bids here, just for fun and price comparison:

A photograph of Michael Jackson holding his pet monkey, Bubbles, signed by Kenny Rogers ($1,000)

A Hard Day’s Night souvenir program signed by the Beatles ($13,000)

A Marilyn Monroe Gifted Sterling Silver Money Clip ($3,500)

A brown plastic Valium prescription bottle that Elvis Presley owned ($2,600)

See the story (and the shoes) here – scroll down to Today’s News to link to the auction site.