On April 7, 1995 – ancient history in Las Vegas – wire services ran an item that began, "Missing: Well-mannered dog. Longtime companion of little girl. Last seen with the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion. Reward." It seems that a life-sized statue of Toto, part of a Wizard of Oz attraction, had been swiped from MGM Grand, back in its movie-themed days. That's the problem with displaying a dog-sized statue: They’re easily smuggled off-property. [Just look at how easily a large gold lion and his pink-alligator entourage were were brazenly stolen recently from a prominent street median!]
The statues were part of the non-gaming Emerald City, a family-oriented promenade lined with animatronic figures, leading the way to a theater that hosted a magic show, The Wizard’s Secrets. "We had some of the last living Munchkins signing autographs," says former MGM spokeswoman Michelle Tell, as well as Roger Baum, who carried on great-grandfather L. Frank Baum’s tradition of penning Oz adventures.
Toto was part of a grouping that was a popular spot for MGM visitors to have their pictures taken. (This was decades before the craze of the "selfie," of course.) MGM tried to make light of the incident, with then-spokesman Bill Doak saying, "We're hoping it was an April Fool's joke." In case you're wondering how anybody could make off with a statue (remember, it was the size of only a small dog – a Cairn Terrier, to be precise), "he was screwed down and they had break him off at the paws," Doak recalls.
Once the story made the newswires, a local TV station (KVBC-TV, now KSNV-TV) received "a facetious ransom note" from what turned out to be a group of Canadian college students. "They sent a photo of Toto to Channel 3," Tell recalls, the first of a series of pictures showing Toto in different settings. "It started out as a fun prank and it ended up as a story that the press would not let go of, nationwide." The media frenzy included Clark County Sherriff Jerry Keller going on CNN and calling the incident "a doggone shame."
Tell recalls how the campaign to bring Toto back turned into an epic movement spanning a three-month period. She and Doak were inundated with letters and expressions of sympathy. "I had people sending me $10 checks, $20 checks to … help find Toto," money that was eventually donated to a local animal shelter.
The Canadian kidnappers eventually returned Toto to the Grand, by way of the TV station. The statue was put back on display until 1996, before the Wizard of Oz theme became a casualty of MGM Grand’s reinvention as the "City of Entertainment." (It was at this time that what MGM CEO J. Terrence Lanni called "the papier-mache lion" on the Strip was replaced with the rearing, bronze Leo the Lion who now reigns there.) As for the fate of Toto and his traveling companions, MGM Grand owner Kirk Kerkorian shipped them back to Los Angeles, where they were consigned to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio prop department. Considering Las Vegas’ tendency to obliterate its past, their fate could have been much worse.
You can see the little Toto statue, prior to his theft, in the foreground of the image below.
