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 additionally for her hanging white-and-blue gingham pinafore costume — one among a number of that the teenage Judy Garland wore in one of many first main films filmed in Technicolor, in 1939.
“The costume was a legend, however nobody had seen it because the late Eighties,’’ Jacqueline Leary-Warsaw, the dean of the varsity of music, drama and artwork on the Catholic College of America in Washington, D.C., stated on Friday. A priest who headed the drama division had been given the costume in 1973, however the college misplaced observe 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 April 29. Then, on Might 24, will probably be introduced on the “Bonhams Traditional 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 costume, however just one different — used elsewhere within the film — is understood to nonetheless exist. Julien’s Auctions bought it for $480,000 in 2012. Bonhams bought the identical costume once more for almost $1.6 million in 2015. The public sale home additionally bought the Cowardly Lion costume worn by actor Bert Lahr for greater than $3 million the earlier yr.
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This second costume was discovered by probability final yr, in a shoe field, inside a bag, sitting on prime of some school mailboxes. It had been “a legend across the drama division,” Dean Leary-Warsaw stated, however nobody actually knew if the story was true.
The story was {that a} good friend of Garland’s, Mercedes McCambridge, who was then an actress and artist in residence on the college, had given it to the varsity’s former head of drama, Father Gilbert Hartke, in 1973.
Images existed of it from that point, however the costume was “tucked away” within the Eighties and the college apparently misplaced observe of it, the dean stated.
That modified final yr when Matt Ripa, a lecturer and operations manager on the drama faculty, 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 previous shoe field and inside the shoe field, I noticed the blue-and-white gingham costume,” Mr. Ripa recalled on Friday. “And I knew precisely what it was.”
His first response? “‘Oh my God!’”
He instructed a co-worker to seize some latex gloves, and he took some photographs of the costume, which he stated he had heard about since he was employed in 2014.
“It was a type of tall tales,’’ he stated. “You heard tales from former college students and school members about Father Hartke being gifted this costume,” including “I had by no means laid eyes on it.”
After he folded the costume 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 stated. She famous that the museum has the well-known ruby slippers.
When she learn in regards to the discover final yr, Helen Corridor, director of standard tradition at Bonhams in Los Angeles, stated on Thursday that she was astounded and instantly reached out to the college.
“These costumes are exceptionally uncommon and the amassing neighborhood thought that each one extant clothes had been accounted for,’’ Corridor stated. “For one to floor over 80 years after the discharge of the movie is unbelievable.”
The costume features a fitted bodice, a high-necked shirt and a full skirt, with a cloth label inside inscribed “Judy Garland 4223.” Bonhams says the costume has been matched to the scene the place Dorothy faces the Depraved Witch of the West in her citadel.
Along with paying for the brand new movie program, the proceeds of the public sale will likely be used to endow a college chair place in Father Hartke’s title, Dean Leary-Warsaw stated.
“We love the costume, but it surely has by no means been displayed or shared broadly over the previous 50 years and we hope now will probably be,’’ she added. “And, perhaps this may encourage others who find out about it to examine their very own closets and places of work for hidden treasures.”
