LOL
Public Sale of Original ‘Wizard of Oz’ Outfit Stopped
Back in her iconic portrayal as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz from 1939, actress Judy Garland donned several dresses, all crafted in the same blue-and-white checked design. While most of these outfits have vanished over time, a rare surviving dress was unearthed last year from a simple shoebox at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. This dress was in pristine condition, estimated by experts to be worth between $800,000 to $1.2 million.
Initially intended to be auctioned off as part of Bonhams’ Hollywood memorabilia auction in Los Angeles, the sale of the dress has encountered a delay. The auction was put on hold by US District Judge Paul Gardephe of Manhattan subsequent to a legal action brought forward by Barbara Ann Hartke. Hartke, the niece of the late Father Gilbert Hartke, a member of staff at Catholic University, filed the lawsuit upon learning of the dress’s discovery, asserting her rightful claim to the property.
Hartke alleges that the dress was bestowed upon her uncle in 1973 by actress Mercedes McCambridge as a personal present. Consequently, the university “holds no legal claim to the dress as … there is no evidence verifying that the deceased ever formally or informally gifted the dress to Catholic University.”
A federal judge banned Catholic University from selling a checkered dress worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz,” just a day before it was due to be put up for auction, with some anticipating bids of up to $1.2 million meant for the institution’s theater department. https://t.co/d5xMa2DrrZ
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 23, 2022
The university’s legal representatives have refuted Hartke’s assertions, labeling them as inaccurate, and highlighting that, being a Dominican priest, her uncle was bound by a religious vow “that prohibited him from accepting gifts on a personal basis.” Hence, irrespective of its origin as a personal gift, the dress cannot be deemed as the property of his family.
An official schedule for the court proceedings has yet to be determined.
(function() {
var loaded = false;
var loadFB = function() {
if (loaded) return;
loaded = true;
(function (d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s);
js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v3.0”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
};
setTimeout(loadFB, 0);
document.body.addEventListener(‘bimberLoadFbSdk’, loadFB);
})();
