Imelda Marcos at 77
In 1986, the Marcos regime of the Philippines was overthrown in a people’s revolt and the dictator Ferdinand and wife Imelda Marcos were forced to flee the Malacañang Palace. (See last post.) Imelda fled wearing her espadrilles. Because she was flying to Hawaii in an American helicopter provided by U.S. President Reagan and paid with American tax dollars, she was unable to take her enormous wardrobe. In the palace closet, she left behind between 2 and 3 thousand shoes. Imelda Marcos was the First Lady of the Philippines, a country deep in poverty. The outrage was immediate and the news went international. President Marcos’ successor, Corazon Aquino, ordered many of Mrs Marcos’ shoes to be put on display as a demonstration of her extravagance.
In 1988, the band Big Audio Dynamite wrote this song about Imelda Marcos and her enormous collection of shoes. Click below to hear:
2000 ShoesArtist: Big Audio Dynamite
Phillipine star greedy girl
Took the money to buy the world
First a little then the lot
Others’ needs were soon forgot
Heard you like a love song
This here one is just for you
In keeping with your taste we hope
It’s called 2000 shoesNever had a conscience
Or any moral views
Even any kind of taste
Just 2000 shoes
If I had the world to sell
Could strike a deal with you
I know you haven’t got the cash
Just 2000 shoesCatwalk at the embassy
Supplied by human rights
Qadahafi and George Hamilton
Mao Tse Tung and disco lightsNever had a conscience
Or any moral views
Even any kind of taste
Just 2000 shoes
If I had the world to sell
Could strike a deal with you
I know you haven’t got the cash
Just 2000 shoes
2000 shoesPhillipine star greedy girl
Took the money to buy the world
First a little then the lot
Others’ need were soon forgot
Heard you like a love song
This here one is just for you
In keeping with your taste we hope
It’s called 2000 shoesSo here it is Imelda
Sorry it’s the blues
Would have done it different
If I were in your shoesNever had a consience
Or any moral views
Even any kind of taste
Just 2000 shoes
If I had the world to sell
Could strike a deal with you
I know you haven’t got the cash
Just 2000 shoes
2000 shoes
The world's best-known shoe collector, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos, has opened a museum in which most of the exhibits are her own footwear.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. In 2001, Imelda returned to Manila in the Philippines, reentered politics (although still facing corruption charges for looting the national coffers for over 20 years), and opened a shoe museum to house some of her shoe collection. “They went into my closets looking for skeletons, but thank God, all they found were shoes, beautiful shoes,” a smiling Mrs. Marcos said that year, wearing a pair of locally made silver shoes for the day. The exhibits include shoes made by such world-famous names as Ferragamo, Givenchy, Chanel and Christian Dior, all size eight-and-a-half.
“More than anything, this museum will symbolise the spirit and culture of the Filipino people. Filipinos don’t wallow in what is miserable and ugly. They recycle the bad into things of beauty,” she said.
Imelda Marcos is a classic example of a person who, when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade.
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