An auction at Heritage Auctions in Dallas this weekend features more than 400 items that have appeared in movies dating back to The Wizard of Oz in 1939. Bidding has opened and continues until a live auction Saturday at 11 am.
Among items are the Santa suit worn by Edmund Gwenn in Miracle on 34th Street. Also available is his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
"You don't see a lot of Oscars come to auction," says Heritage Auction's Robert Wilonsky. "You cannot sell them at auction post-1950, so this is one of the few that can come to auction."
From Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West's hourglass and an "Emerald City townsman jacket" are up for bid. The hourglass is expected to sell for at least $800,000.
Also available is the Moses robe worn by Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments.
"I saw this movie a hundred times as a kid," Wilonsky said. "My parents loved it, my father loved the big sweeping epic of it. Every time it came on, no matter how small the screen, it was still the biggest movie I've ever seen."
Wilonsky says many of these items are drawing interest because people develop such emotional connections with movie characters that might remind them of their childhood or a fond memory.
"That's the extraordinary thing about this auction," he says. "I would wager this is probably our most recognizable auction. Everything in this auction, every costume, every prop, every piece, you go, 'I remember that movie. It was my favorite movie. I remember watching with my mom and dad.'"
"Whether it's Dick Van Dyke, Julie Andrews, Sound of Music or the Wizard of Oz, Santa Claus, Titanic, it's a retrospective of Hollywood," says Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena.
Dick Van Dyke's jacket from Mary Poppins in 1964 will be auctioned off along with Julie Andrews' dress and guitar from Sound of Music.
"It's that desire to own it, it's that desire to be around it," Maddalena said of why some items may sell for close to $1 million. "It brings something back to you, whether it's nostalgia or a memory."
From the Indiana Jones films, a Sankara Stone from Temple of Doom will be auctioned along with the Holy Grail tablet from Last Crusade and the grail itself.
"That's the extraordinary thing about what we do here," Wilonsky said. "These are museum pieces in a lot of ways, but they're also very tangible pieces of memories and magic we had as a kid."
The Holy Grail is expected to sell for at least $30,000.
The newspaper from Back to the Future Part II showing Martin McFly Junior being arrested in 2015 is included in the auction along with the hat worn by Doc Brown in Back to the Future Part III and letter he wrote himself on how to repair the Delorean.
Fans of Rocky IV can bid on Sylvester Stallone's boxing gloves, expected to sell for $24,000. Also up for bid is Dolph Lundgren's script with notes he made for his character in the margin.
On one page, he wrote, "forcing myself [Ivan Drago] to hate Apollo. More and more desperate because of plan."
"He writes notes to himself," Wilonsky said. "It's fascinating. He's got all these other tabs in there as well. I love the paper we sell, the scripts, the production notes, the memos, the letters, the drafts. Anywhere in this building at any time are probably ten books waiting to be written."
Heritage Auctions is taking bids online now. The live auction begins at 11 a.m. Saturday. A complete list of items is available here.
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