Movie costumes worn by Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe will go up for sale in June from a collection belonging to fellow actress Debbie Reynolds.
Monroe’s subway dress from The Seven Year Itch, Judy Garland’s blue cotton dress and ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz and Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp bowler hat are among the 3,500 items up for auction in Beverly Hills on June 18.
Barbra Streisand’s sleeveless gold velvet, jeweled gown from Hello, Dolly – said to be the most expensive dress ever made for a film – will also be up for sale as will Audrey Hepburn’s Ascot dress from My Fair Lady and Julie Andrews’ costumes from The Sound of Music.
Reynolds, 79, who starred in such films as “Singin’ in the Rain” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” has been collecting film memorabilia for more than 50 years.
Aside from the iconic items above, there are also many costumes from musicals, iconic for those who have seen the routines over and over throughout the years. Here are some of the costumes made for the leading ladies, astonishingly owned by one of them, Debbie Reynolds.
From top to bottom: American in Paris (Leslie Caron); The Barkley’s of Broadway (Ginger Rogers); Broadway Melody of 1940 (Eleonor Powell); Bye Bye Birdie (Janet Leigh); Cover Girl (Rita Hayworth); Easter Parade (Ann Miller); Funny Girl (Barbra Streisand); Hello Dolly! (Barbra Streisand); Million Dollar Mermaid (Maria Tallchief); Pal Joey (Kim Novak); Salomé (Rita Hayworth); Singin’ in the Rain (Cyd Charisse); Singin’ in the Rain (Debbie Reynolds); The Sound of Music (Julie Andrews); There’s No Business Like Show Business (Marilyn Monroe); There’s No Business Like Show Business (Mitzi Gaynor)
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.
