Wizard of Oz First Editions Lead Auction of Film's Memorabilia

A complete set of first edition L. Frank Baum ‘Oz’ titles will feature in Heritage Auctions' July 28 sale offering the largest selection of memorabilia from The Wizard of Oz available in more than 50 years.

The Hollywood/Entertainment auction's nine lots from Munchkinland and the Emerald City go all the way back to Oz's literary beginnings, with a complete set of first edition Oz books by L. Frank Baum. The auction comes on the heels of the December 2022 Heritage event that saw the Wicked Witch of the West's hourglass from the Victor Fleming-directed film sell for $495,000.

In May 1900, the George M. Hill Company published a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was an instant hit and later spawned 13 additional Oz titles, a Broadway musical adaptation and, of course, the live-action version. The complete collection of first editions of all 14 Oz books is joined by a 1921 Oz-themed board game from Parker Bros.

Other Oz memorabilia includes:

• the screen-worn hat designed by the well-known costume designer Adrian and donned by Meinhardt Raabe as the Munchkin coroner who pronounces the Wicked Witch of the East "really, most sincerely dead"
• the Adrian-designed pink-and-gray townsman jacket worn by Tommy Cottonaro during the sequences 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road' and 'Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead'
• an Emerald City jacket with Munchkin soldier pants, an Emerald City townsman jacket and an Emerald City long coat seen in the film's 'Surrender Dorothy' sequence 

Non-Oz highlights in the auction include various books belonging to Orson Welles, including his personal 1917 hardback edition of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice signed by Welles with hand-drawn sketches by him on front and back endpapers; Peter Lawford's Personal Annotated Address and Phone Book from the 1950s-60s; and a collection of The Three Stooges memorabilia including numerous scripts belonging to Moe Howard.