Follow the yellow brick road!
Bonhams will put up for auction the signature “Dorothy” dress that Hollywood legend Judy Garland wore for The Wizard of Oz.
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The blue-and-white gingham dress values between $800,000 and $1.2 million. It is one of only two existing dresses to retain the white blouse.
“Important costumes from this iconic movie rarely appear on the auction market. And to be able to pinpoint the scene in which this was worn by Judy Garland is thrilling,” Helen Hall, director of popular culture at Bonhams in Los Angeles, said.
This particular costume corresponds with the scene where Dorothy faces the Wicked Witch of the West in her castle.
The Bonhams Classic Hollywood: Film and Television sale will present the dress in Los Angeles on May 24. Proceeds of the auction will benefit The Catholic University of America’s Department of Drama, which offered the dress for auction.
Actress Mercedes McCambridge originally gifted the costume to former university head of drama, Reverend Gilbert Hartke. However, it later went missing in the 1980s only for a retired professor to find it only recently.
Jacqueline J. Leary-Warsaw, dean of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art, said that discovering the historic dress was a memorable moment for the university.
“While parting with this dress is bittersweet, the proceeds are going to help support future generations training for professional careers in theatre. It might just be that the funding helps to prepare the next Mercedes McCambridge or Judy Garland!”
To scale, Bonhams previously sold the other Dorothy dress for over $1.5 million in 2015.
Banner Photo via Bonhams’ website
