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

In an indelible scene from “The Wizard of Oz,” the vivid inexperienced Wicked Witch held a frightened Dorothy captive by threatening hurt to her canine Toto if she did not give up her ruby-red slippers.

The scene was unforgettable not only for the brilliant pink of Dorothy’s shoes, but also for her striking white-and-blue gingham pinafore dress — a single of numerous that the teenage Judy Garland wore in one of the very first important films filmed in Technicolor, in 1939.

“The gown was a legend, but no one experienced seen it since the late 1980s,’’ Jacqueline Leary-Warsaw, the dean of the school of audio, drama and artwork at the Catholic College of America in Washington, D.C., claimed on Friday. A priest who headed the drama department had been provided the costume in 1973, but the college misplaced track of it.

Now the college hopes to auction it off for at least $1.2 million, with the dollars heading to shell out for a new movie application. It goes on show on Saturday at Bonhams New York, 580 Madison Avenue in Manhattan, exactly where the community can see it as a result of April 29. Then, on Might 24, it will be offered at the “Bonhams Classic Hollywood: Movie and Television” auction in Los Angeles, Bonhams declared this week.

Garland wore many versions of the fragile blue-and-white gown, but only 1 other — utilised elsewhere in the film — is known to nevertheless exist. Julien’s Auctions marketed it for $480,000 in 2012. Bonhams offered the similar dress once more for almost $1.6 million in 2015. The auction residence also bought the Cowardly Lion costume worn by actor Bert Lahr for more than $3 million the preceding yr.

This next dress was found by chance previous yr, in a shoe box, inside of a bag, sitting down on best of some college mailboxes. It had been “a legend close to the drama department,” Dean Leary-Warsaw mentioned, but no a person definitely knew if the story was true.

The tale was that a buddy of Garland’s, Mercedes McCambridge, who was then an actress and artist in home at the university, had supplied it to the school’s former head of drama, Father Gilbert Hartke, in 1973.

Photographs existed of it from that time, but the gown was “tucked away” in the 1980s and the university evidently missing monitor of it, the dean mentioned.

That improved previous yr when Matt Ripa, a lecturer and functions manager at the drama faculty, was cleansing up in preparation for renovations of the Hartke Theater and identified the bag on leading of the mailboxes.

“I opened the bag and inside the bag was an old shoe box and within of the shoe box, I noticed the blue-and-white gingham dress,” Mr. Ripa recalled on Friday. “And I understood specifically what it was.”

His first response? “‘Oh my God!’”

He instructed a co-worker to get some latex gloves, and he took some photographs of the dress, which he stated he had read about because he was hired in 2014.

“It was one of individuals tall tales,’’ he claimed. “You listened to tales from previous pupils and school members about Father Hartke staying gifted this dress,” adding “I had in no way laid eyes on it.”

Following he folded the gown and put it back into the box, he took it to campus archivists. They achieved out to the Smithsonian’s Countrywide Museum of American Heritage to assist with authentication, Dean Leary-Warsaw mentioned. She famous that the museum has the popular ruby slippers.

When she go through about the come across last year, Helen Corridor, director of well known culture at Bonhams in Los Angeles, stated on Thursday that she was astounded and instantly achieved out to the college.

“These costumes are exceptionally scarce and the amassing community considered that all extant attire had been accounted for,’’ Corridor mentioned. “For a person to floor over 80 a long time after the release of the movie is unbelievable.”

The dress consists of a fitted bodice, a high-necked shirt and a comprehensive skirt, with a fabric label inside of inscribed “Judy Garland 4223.” Bonhams claims the gown has been matched to the scene in which Dorothy faces the Wicked Witch of the West in her castle.

In addition to having to pay for the new film system, the proceeds of the auction will be used to endow a faculty chair placement in Father Hartke’s name, Dean Leary-Warsaw said.

“We really like the costume, but it has never been displayed or shared broadly above the earlier 50 a long time and we hope now it will be,’’ she additional. “And, maybe this will inspire other folks who study about it to check their have closets and offices for concealed treasures.”