Costume owner James Comisar is auctioning off the Cowardly Lion costume worn by Bert Lahr in 1939’s The Wizard Of Oz. The costume—up for sale as part of “TCM Presents: There’s No Place Like Hollywood,” at New York auction house Bonhams—has been verified as authentic, and includes a sculpted likeness of Lahr. A similar costume used in the film sold for nearly $1 million dollars. Comisar is selling the costume to finance an exibition of his other memorabilia, which includes pieces from Lost and I Love Lucy.
While the costume—which is being auctioned off alongside other classic movie memorabilia, such as Sam’s piano from Casablanca—will probably just end up in the hands of another collection, there’s plenty of other uses for your investment, including:
- Cubicle decoy.
- Children’s birthday entertainer.
- Learning what Bert Lahr smelled like.
- Automatic first place in every Halloween costume ever.
- Bringing red hair-ribbons back into style.
- Staying warm while filing taxes.
- Showing that brontosaurus who’s king of the forest.
- Making sure traffic stops take a turn for the strange.