Jeans worn by Brooke Shields in a controversial ad, a wand waved in the Wizard of Oz, and Marlon Brando’s Godfather suit are going to the auction block next month.
The snappily named From Bombshells to Blasters: An Auction You Can’t Refuse is hosted by Studio Auctions in Burbank, California from September 20 to 22 and October 25 to 27.
Brooke Shields’ Calvin Klein jeans are attracting a lot of pre-sale publicity. The ad in which the model and actor wore them is controversial because she was just 15 at the time and it was considered inappropriately sexual by some.
The jeans are valued at as much as $50,000.
They are the star item from a large collection of Shields’ personal items that include a high school cheerleading sweater and a script from The Blue Lagoon, probably her most famous movie.
Shields described the sale as the result of her children leaving home to People magazine.
“I am going to be an empty nester! I’m so sad,” she said. “But now I’m going through all my closets and my things and am ready to give some of my special pieces away, like my Calvin Klein jeans. Can you imagine my waist was ever that small? It’s terrifying! But I hope that somebody enjoys these just as much as I have and finds them as meaningful as I do. I can’t wait for someone to show these off!”
Also selling is a wand from The Wizard of Oz.
It’s possible that this is the same wand, wielded by Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (played by Billie Burke) that was sold in 2018 for $400,000.
Its price today will be an interesting index of the market for big movie collectibles.
Brando surrounded by his fictional family at the wedding of Connie, his character’s daughter, in The Godfather. You could wear his tux.
New to auction is Marlon Brando’s tuxedo from the opening wedding sequences in The Godfather.
There’s an estimate of $200,000 on the suit, from a private collection. The scenes at Don Vito Corleone’s daughter’s wedding are among the most well remembered in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 Mafia masterpiece.
Women’s costumes are usually the most valuable. Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe gowns are the most expensive movie apparel yet sold, with Monroe’s Seven Year Itch dress realising $4.6 million in 2011. Aubrey Hepburn’s fancy Ascot dress from My Fair Lady made just shy of that at auction in 2017.
