In its understated way it’s one of the most famous outfits in movie history, and now Marlon Brando’s wedding day tuxedo from the opening scenes of the Godfather has a new owner.
The buyer paid $106,250 at a sale on September 21.
The winner saw 11 other bids push the price up over $100,000 from a $60,000 opening bid.
The wedding section of the Godfather is a masterpiece, establishing Don Corleone’s character, his influence, and power.
“You come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married and you ask me to do murder – for money,” Brando tells a guest who comes asking for a favour tradition demands he must grant.
The Brando tuxedo today, complete with model of the great actor. Image courtesy of Studio Auctions.
And through it all, Brando wears a 1972 three-piece black tuxedo set of a single-breasted wool jacket, a matching wasitcoat, and a pair of trousers.
Brando owned the suit himself, refusing to be fitted for a costume tuxedo for the film. When it was mistakenly sent to the film’s main costume supplier after shooting Brando chased it down via his personal assistant Alice Marchak, who helped authenticate the suit for this sale.
The ensemble was one of the standout lots in An Auction You Can’t Refuse at Studio Auctions.
Topping realisations was the wand wielded by Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, which sold for $109,375 from an opening bid of $75,000.
Movies may be under threat from digital media but there is still a vibrant collecting scene that has lost no appetite for artefacts from previous eras of visual entertainment.
The Wizard of Oz was filmed in 1939, but is still a part of everyday life nearly a century later.
The Godfather series is godfather to a whole genre of modern mob films that didn’t treat gangsters as one-dimensional bad guys. It was re-released in cinemas as recently as 2022.
Collectors with a yen for classic movies have lots of choices.
If original props like this are stretch your budget, then perhaps original posters might be a better buy, though these can also realise hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Brando fans should stay tuned to Studio Auctions who are hosting a Brando Collection sale in November. That will celebrate one of the greatest ever film actors who also lived an extraordinary life.
