Lost Judy Garland ‘Wizard of Oz’ Dress Up for Auction

In an indelible scene from “The Wizard of Oz,” the vivid inexperienced Depraved Witch held a frightened Dorothy captive by threatening hurt to her canine Toto if she didn’t hand over her ruby-red slippers.

The scene was memorable not just for the brilliant pink of Dorothy’s sneakers, but in addition for her putting white-and-blue gingham pinafore gown — one in all a number of that the teenage Judy Garland wore in one of many first main motion pictures filmed in Technicolor, in 1939.

“The gown was a legend, however nobody had seen it for the reason that late Eighties,’’ Jacqueline Leary-Warsaw, the dean of the college of music, drama and artwork on the Catholic College of America in Washington, D.C., mentioned on Friday. A priest who headed the drama division had been given the gown in 1973, however the college misplaced monitor of it.

Now the college hopes to public sale it off for not less than $1.2 million, with the cash going to pay for a brand new movie program. It goes on show on Saturday at Bonhams New York, 580 Madison Avenue in Manhattan, the place the general public can see it by way of April 29. Then, on Might 24, it will likely be introduced on the “Bonhams Basic Hollywood: Movie and Tv” public sale in Los Angeles, Bonhams introduced this week.

Garland wore a number of variations of the delicate blue-and-white gown, however just one different — used elsewhere within the film — is thought to nonetheless exist. Julien’s Auctions offered it for $480,000 in 2012. Bonhams offered the identical gown once more for almost $1.6 million in 2015. The public sale home additionally offered the Cowardly Lion costume worn by actor Bert Lahr for greater than $3 million the earlier 12 months.

This second gown was discovered by likelihood final 12 months, in a shoe field, inside a bag, sitting on prime of some college mailboxes. It had been “a legend across the drama division,” Dean Leary-Warsaw mentioned, however nobody actually knew if the story was true.

The story was {that a} buddy of Garland’s, Mercedes McCambridge, who was then an actress and artist in residence on the college, had given it to the college’s former head of drama, Father Gilbert Hartke, in 1973.

Images existed of it from that point, however the gown was “tucked away” within the Eighties and the college apparently misplaced monitor of it, the dean mentioned.

That modified final 12 months when Matt Ripa, a lecturer and operations supervisor on the drama college, was cleansing up in preparation for renovations of the Hartke Theater and located the bag on prime of the mailboxes.

“I opened the bag and contained in the bag was an outdated shoe field and inside the shoe field, I noticed the blue-and-white gingham gown,” Mr. Ripa recalled on Friday. “And I knew precisely what it was.”

His first response? “‘Oh my God!’”

He informed a co-worker to seize some latex gloves, and he took some photographs of the gown, which he mentioned he had heard about since he was employed in 2014.

“It was a kind of tall tales,’’ he mentioned. “You heard tales from former college students and college members about Father Hartke being gifted this gown,” including “I had by no means laid eyes on it.”

After he folded the gown and positioned it again into the field, he took it to campus archivists. They reached out to the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of American Historical past to assist with authentication, Dean Leary-Warsaw mentioned. She famous that the museum has the well-known ruby slippers.

When she learn in regards to the discover final 12 months, Helen Corridor, director of standard tradition at Bonhams in Los Angeles, mentioned on Thursday that she was astounded and instantly reached out to the college.

“These costumes are exceptionally uncommon and the gathering neighborhood thought that each one extant attire had been accounted for,’’ Corridor mentioned. “For one to floor over 80 years after the discharge of the movie is unimaginable.”

The gown features a fitted bodice, a high-necked shirt and a full skirt, with a cloth label inside inscribed “Judy Garland 4223.” Bonhams says the gown has been matched to the scene the place Dorothy faces the Depraved Witch of the West in her fort.

Along with paying for the brand new movie program, the proceeds of the public sale might be used to endow a school chair place in Father Hartke’s title, Dean Leary-Warsaw mentioned.

“We love the gown, nevertheless it has by no means been displayed or shared broadly over the previous 50 years and we hope now it will likely be,’’ she added. “And, possibly it will encourage others who find out about it to verify their very own closets and workplaces for hidden treasures.”