One of Scarlett O’Hara’s dresses from “Gone With The Wind” just sold for $137,000 dollars
All right, it’s time to stop making fun of your odd relative for collecting movie memorabilia, your second cousin twice removed might actually be onto something. Such was the case for a collector James Tumbler, a “Gone With The Wind” memorabilia collector who, as CNN reports, bought one of the dresses Vivian Leigh wore as Scarlett O’Hara for only $20 and is now selling that dress for a whopping $137,000 at auction.
The dress, a slate blue jacket and full skirt ensemble in the movie that has, over the years, faded to grey, is worn by Scarlett in the movie in the scene where she ignores warnings and drives alone to her lumber mill, passes through the wrong side of town, is attacked by two men, and saved by her father’s ex-foreman.
Tumbler bought the dress from a costume company in the 1960’s and, here’s the kicker, the company was actually just about to throw the dress out.
“I saw this dress on the floor and a docent told me not to bother to pick it up, because they were throwing it away,” Tumbler told The Telegraph.”I asked if he would sell it to me. I had noticed there was a printed label saying Selznick International Pictures and ‘Scarlett production dress’ was written in ink.”
Tumbler’s $20 investment (about $150 back in the early 60s) is now paying off big time, as he just sold the dress for about 900 times what he purchased it for.
The words “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” have literally never been truer.”
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