Garland ‘memory’ auction raises $US¼M

Press, 30 November 1978, Page 9

Garland ‘memory’ auction raises $US¼M

NZPA-Reuter Los Angeles

A pair of Judy Garland’s false eyelashes, has sold for SUS4OO, her bed has fetched SUSSOOO and her 1953 Mer-cedes-Benz has sold for SUS6O,OOO. These and 420 other items left by the actress when she died in 1969 went under the hammer after her third husband, a former pilot, Mr Sid Luft, decided to put his remaining memories of Miss (Garland up for auction.

Auction officials said when the sale ended early today that they did not know exactly how much the sale had brought. But they said the total was probably in the region of $U5250,000. Mr Luft, who said he had arranged the auction so that Miss Garland’s fans could share in her memory, will not know until tomorrow whether he will get the money.

The actress and singer, Liza Minnelli, Miss Garland’s daughter by her second husband, Vincente Minnelli, failed to have a judge stop the auction. But the judge said he would not decide until tomorrow who should receive the money.

About 400 people — some fans and many antique dealers — attended the auction in the ballroom of a Los Angeles hotel. Miss Garland’s scrapbook of reviews and photographs ifrom her most popular film, i“The Wizard of Oz,” sold ‘for SUS6SOO.

A photograph of President John Kennedy inscribed to Miss Garland went for |SUSS7SO.

| The comedienne, Lily ; Tomlin, represented at the auction by an agent, paid BUSI2OO for a pairmf loaded dice given to Miss Garland by Humphrey Bogart, who used them in the film “Casablanca.” Miss Tomlin also paid SUS7OO for a letter written by Joan Crawford to Miss Garland. An invitation to Miss Garland from the Duke and Duchess of Windsor sold for SUS2OO