Judy Garland’s dress from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ up for auction

The gingham pinafore dress that American actor-singer Judy Garland’s character Dorothy wore in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz is going up for auction after being lost for nearly four decades.

Dorothy wore the dress in the scene in which she confronts the Wicked Witch of the West in her castle. The iconic blue and white gingham dress is one of the two remaining with the white blouse and one of four blue and white dresses from the movie’s original wardrobe. It was found last year in the collections of the drama department at the Catholic University of America.
The dress will be auctioned Bonhams in Los Angeles on May 24 as part of their ‘Bonhams Classic Hollywood: Film and Television’ sale, as per their official release.

The dress, estimated to be priced between $800,000-1,200,000, was gifted to the University’s former Head of Drama, Reverend Gilbert Hartke. After it went missing in the 1980s, the costume was recovered just last year.
The proceeds from the auction will go towards the Drama Department in the Catholic 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,” said Jacqueline J. Leary-Warsaw, Dean of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art.
The other dress with the blouse was also sold Bonhams back in 2015. The “Dorothy” dress fetched a record price of over $1.5 million.
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