MOVIES - May 23, 1989

“Fine art has gotten so expensive that people are looking for another area to invest in, and movies are a common denominator,” said Camden House Auctioneers President Barry Vilkin after a memorabilia auction held this weekend in Los Angeles. Among the 80 costumes auctioned off were Dorothy’s gingham pinafore from the “The Wizard of Oz,” which sold for $9,000, Rhett Butler’s coat from “Gone With the Wind,” which brought $6,000, and James Cagney’s satin shirt from “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” which sold for $4,500. Other items included police badges worn by the Keystone Kops, Robert De Niro’s boxing trunks from “Raging Bull,” dozens of animation celluloids and drawings from such early Disney films as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Sleeping Beauty,” and Julius Caesar’s throne from “Cleopatra.” Two pair of scuffed black patent leather dance shoes worn by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers went for $9,000. However, many of the items in the sale failed to bring the hoped-for prices. A set backdrop of eyeball images created by surrealist Salvador Dali for the dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 “Spellbound” went for $10,000, half the minimum estimated sale price.