The Rare ‘Wizard of Oz’ Item That Was Found in a Trash Bag

Released in 1939, the film “The Wizard of Oz”, an adaptation of the children’s book written by Lyman Frank Baumis one of the great classics of international cinema, known for being one of the first successful color features in history.

The production presents the story of Dorothy (Judy Garland), an orphan girl who is raised by her uncles, and ends up being taken alongside her dog, Totó, to a fantasy world after the place where they live is hit by a cyclone. Once there, the duo will need to follow the yellow brick path and ask the powerful Wizard of Oz for help to get back home.

Although the behind-the-scenes of the film were marked by a series of controversies, the film was a huge success on the big screen, being responsible for helping to further catapult the career of Judy Garlandwho used the film as a way to showcase his acting and singing skills.

With its success, “The Wizard of Oz” became a cinema classic, making everything related to the film something of great interest to the public, including the items used in the recordings, which came to be considered rarities.

Dressed in the trash?

Even with the historical importance that the film carries, some original items from the production ended up not receiving the necessary care. Dorothy’s memorable blue checkered dress, for example, worn by Judy Garlandspent years lost at the Catholic University of America, in the United States.

The garment was donated to the university in the 1970s by Mercedes McCambridgean Oscar-winning actress, who was friends with the director of the institution’s theater department, Father Gilbert Hartkeand was serving as artist-in-residence at the college at that time.

As ScreenRant explains, after the dress was donated, it was never seen again, only being found again in 2021, when the professor and operations coordinator of the Theater Department, Matt Ripaaccidentally found the historic item while cleaning the building before renovation.

However, unlike what many might imagine, the piece used by Judy Garland in the recordings of “The Wizard of Oz” in the 1930s it was not stored in a hidden drawer or at the bottom of a closet — it was found in a trash bag on top of teachers’ mailboxes.

“I had looked through our archives, storage cabinets, etc. to no avail. I assumed it was a fantastic story (of which many exist for Father Hartke),” Ripa said in an interview at the University library. “Our building is in renovations and upgrades process, so I was cleaning out my office to prepare. I noticed on top of the college mailboxes a trash bag and asked my coworker to give it to me. In the trash bag was a note for our old one. president stating that he had found ‘it’ in his office and that he must have moved it when he left the president’s office I was curious about what was inside and I opened the trash bag and inside was a shoe box and inside the box. shoes was the dress!! I couldn’t believe it. My coworker and I quickly grabbed some gloves and looked at the dress and took a few photos before putting it back in the box and heading to the archives.”

After discovering the dress, Maria Mazzengacurator of the American Catholic History Collections at UCA, began work in search of the necessary documentation to prove the authenticity of the costume. To do this, the professional contacted Ryan Lintelmanan expert on Oz memorabilia, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, who provided additional information about the dresses used in the filming.

“All the dresses have certain verifiable features, including, for example, a ‘secret pocket’ on the right side of the pinafore skirt for Dorothy’s scarf, ‘Judy Garland’ handwritten in a specific script for a single person who labeled all the dresses. existing dresses in the same hand. Apparently, the blouse’s thin material was prone to tearing when Garland took it off after filming, and a seamstress often repaired it before putting it on for the next shoot,” the organization said in a statement (via CNN).

The Catholic University of America highlights that the dress found shared all these characteristics, and that Lintelmanalongside two other colleagues from the National Museum, stated that “evidence surrounding the dress was strong”.

Also read: Wicked and the Wizard of Oz: understand the connection between the two stories