Debbie Reynolds who is auctioning off her entire collection of Hollywood memorabilia had 700 of items up for sale to the highest bidder this past Saturday. The most well known piece was Marilyn Monroe’s dress from “The Seven Year Itch” sold for an amazing $4.6 million. Debbie had intended to house the collection in a museum, but plans fell through in 2009 Tennessee when the creditors went bankrupt leaving Debbie to pay the bills. The winning bid easily outpaced the estimated sale price of $1 to 2 million for the dress. Another top seller was Audrey Hepburn’s iconic Ascot dress from “My Fair Lady” which sold for an impressive $3.7 million.
The auction was held at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, included 700 items from Reynolds’ collection which included Elizabeth Taylor’s ceremonial headdress from “Cleopatra,” the blue “Dorothy” dress worn by Judy Garland from the “The Wizard of Oz” which sold for $910,000, Judy Garland’s red slippers from the “Wizard of Oz” which sold for $510,000, and a Santa suit worn by Edmund Gwenn from the original “Miracle on 34th Street. There were other well known items like Julie Andrews’ jumper from the Sound of Music which sold for $550,000 and $3,700,000 for Audrey Hepburn’s Ascot dress and hat from “My Fair Lady”. If you had an extra $110,000 plus commission you could have got your hands on Charlie Chaplin’s trademark bowler hat or Harpo Marx’s top hat which sold for $45,000.
A Few Bargains
There were a few bargains including Gary Cooper’s “Lt. John Harkness” tan naval jacket from “Your in the Navy Now” which sold for only $1,800, Angela Landsbury’s “Queen Anne” two piece dress from the “Three Musketeers” which sold for $6,500 and Humphrey Bogart’s “Andrew Morton” brown jacket from “Kock on Any Door” which sold for $6,000.
Sci-Fi Costumes
I was expecting to see some items from Star Wars since Debbie’s daughter Carrie Fisher played princess Leia in the series, but there were only a few posters on auction. There were however quite a number of costumes from the Planet of the Apes including a complete Male Gorilla costume which sold for $7,500, and and Linda Harrison’s “Nova” rag costume which sold for $22,500.
A followup auction will be held in December. If you can believe this the winning bidder for Marilyn’s subway dress will add another $1 million in commission.
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