Cowardly Lion Costume (Wizard of Oz)

A costume that could not be copied

In 1938 there was no convincing synthetic fur, so MGM's costume designer Gilbert Adrian, known on screen simply as Adrian, made the Cowardly Lion out of real lion skins. His plan was to find several hides that matched closely enough that a set of identical costumes could be made and swapped in and out during filming.

The plan failed. Every hide had its own hair patterns, swirls, coloring, scars and patches of fur loss. With no way to make true duplicates, the studio had Lahr wear one costume for almost all of his scenes, while stunt and stand-in performers wore another. At least one more lion costume was built in pre-production and used for test shots, but it was not used in filming.

The finished suit has a hidden zipper up the front and an attached tail at the back. Lahr's son Herbert later recalled that it was real lion skin, weighed 60 pounds, and that his father had to wear it all day.

Bert Lahr, the lion who made Garland laugh

Bert Lahr was born Irving Lahrheim on August 13, 1895, in the Yorkville section of Manhattan, the son of German-Jewish immigrants. He began performing on vaudeville stages at 14, left school at 15 to join a juvenile act, worked his way to top billing in burlesque and made his Broadway debut on November 28, 1927, in Harry Delmar's Revels.

MGM signed him to play the Cowardly Lion on July 25, 1938. He also played the Lion's Kansas counterpart, the farmhand Zeke, and is known to have written some of his own dialogue for the Kansas scenes. The Lion is the only character in the film with two solo songs, 'If I Only Had the Nerve' and 'If I Were King of the Forest.'

His ad-libs were so funny that many of his scenes needed several takes because other cast members, especially Judy Garland, could not get through them without laughing. Director Victor Fleming slapped Garland during the Lion's introduction scene when she could not stop laughing at Lahr's performance.

Lahr spent the rest of his career mostly on the stage. He played Estragon in the American premiere of Waiting for Godot in 1956 in Miami, starred on Broadway in S. J. Perelman's The Beauty Part in 1962 and won a Tony Award for the musical Foxy. He died on December 4, 1967.

Under the Technicolor lights

The Oz sequences were shot in three-strip Technicolor, which demanded enormous, daylight-bright lighting. The main Technicolor shoot ran for more than six months, from October 1938 to March 1939. Cast members worked six days a week, some arriving as early as 4 a.m. for makeup and costumes and staying until 7 p.m. or later, and the lights could push the set past 100 degrees.

For the man in the lion suit it was brutal. After each day of filming, the costume went into an industrial drying bin overnight so his sweat could dry before the next morning. Because of the heavy facial makeup, Lahr could manage only soup and milkshakes during breaks; his son Herbert remembered him eating lunch through a straw. After a few months Lahr insisted on normal meals and a makeup redo after lunch.

The film opened nationwide on August 25, 1939, after a Hollywood premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on August 15. It was made on a budget of about $2.77 million and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning for the song 'Over the Rainbow' and for Herbert Stothart's score. It did not turn a profit until its 1949 re-release, and a 1956 television broadcast introduced it to a new generation. The Library of Congress calls it the most seen film in history.

From a studio storeroom to $3 million

This costume was discovered carefully bundled up in one of the oldest buildings on the MGM lot. It was acquired by James Comisar, whose Comisar Collection is described as the largest collection of television artifacts in the world, and he oversaw its conservation and care for about two decades.

The restoration was extensive. The suit had torn in many places along the back under the weight of the tail and was sent to Cara Varnell, a textile conservator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The mane was re-created from human hair imported from Italy at a cost of $22,000, and more than 21 artisans worked on the project over two years. Because the Lion's original facial pieces had been glued directly onto Lahr's face, Comisar asked Lahr's son Herbert, who closely resembled his father, to sit for a face cast. The costume is now displayed on a figure with a photo-realistic head cast from Herbert, with glass eyes and a human-hair wig.

It went to auction in New York on November 24, 2014. Bidding opened at $1.6 million, and the costume sold to a telephone bidder for a $2.6 million hammer price plus a $477,000 premium, for a total of $3,077,000. The buyer was not named. On the same day the piano from Casablanca also sold for more than $3 million, and a blue gingham 'test' dress and pinafore worn by Judy Garland sold for $245,000. Comisar said he planned to use the proceeds to exhibit his collection.

Accounts differ on how the costume was estimated before the sale: one report said it topped a $2 million estimate, while another said the estimate was not made public.

The other lion, and how this one is identified

This was not the only real-lion costume to survive. Another, which turned up just before MGM's landmark 1970 auction, was bought by a California chiropractor for $2,400 and later by sculptor Bill Mack, who had it restored and its head re-created with a sculpted likeness of Lahr. It was offered at auction in December 2006 with a published estimate of $400,000 to $600,000 and reportedly sold for $826,000. For years that costume was promoted as Lahr's one and only lion suit; Lahr's son John had written in his biography of his father, Notes on a Cowardly Lion, that there was more than one.

What sets the costume sold in 2014 apart is that the hides could not be matched. Their distinctive markings let researchers screen-match this suit to more than a dozen scenes: the Lion's first meeting with Dorothy and 'If I Only Had the Nerve,' skipping down the Yellow Brick Road, 'If I Were King of the Forest,' the visit to the Wash & Brush Company, the audience with the Wizard, Dorothy's rescue, the melting of the Witch, the medal for 'conspicuous acts of bravery' and the final goodbye before Dorothy clicks her heels.

The costume was photographed full-page in The Wizardry of Oz, William Stillman and Jay Scarfone's 2004 book on the film, and appeared in their 75th-anniversary companion in 2014, as well as on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Today Show.

The numbers

Release

August 25, 1939 (nationwide), after an August 15 Hollywood premiere

Budget

$2.77 million

Academy Awards

Five nominations including Best Picture; won Best Original Song and Best Original Score

Filming

Technicolor sequences shot October 1938 to March 1939

Lion's solo songs

'If I Only Had the Nerve' and 'If I Were King of the Forest'

Scenes matched to this costume

More than a dozen

Timeline

1. Aug 13, 1895

   Bert Lahr is born Irving Lahrheim in Manhattan.

2. Nov 28, 1927

   Lahr makes his Broadway debut in Harry Delmar's Revels.

3. Jul 25, 1938

   MGM signs Lahr to play the Cowardly Lion.

4. Oct 1938

   The main Technicolor shoot begins; it runs into March 1939.

5. Aug 15, 1939

   The Wizard of Oz has its Hollywood premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

6. Aug 25, 1939

   The film opens nationwide.

7. 1956

   The film's first television broadcast brings it to a new audience.

8. Dec 4, 1967

   Bert Lahr dies.

9. 1970

   A second real-lion costume surfaces just before MGM's landmark auction and is bought for $2,400.

10. 2004

    This costume appears in a full-page photograph in The Wizardry of Oz.

11. Dec 2006

    The second lion costume is offered at auction and reportedly sells for $826,000.

12. Nov 24, 2014

    This costume sells at auction in New York for $3,077,000 to a telephone bidder.

The world in 1939

• Mar 30, 1939

  Batman makes his debut in Detective Comics #27.

• Apr 30, 1939

  The New York World's Fair opens.

• Aug 2, 1939

  Albert Einstein signs the letter to President Roosevelt warning of the potential of a uranium bomb.

• Aug 23, 1939

  Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

• Sep 1, 1939

  Germany invades Poland, the opening of World War II; Britain and France declare war on September 3.

• Dec 15, 1939

  Gone with the Wind premieres. Victor Fleming had left Oz to take over its direction.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Cowardly Lion Costume (Wizard of Oz) is number 26 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (32 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• MGM wanted several identical lion costumes, but every hide had its own swirls, scars and bald patches, so Lahr wore essentially one suit for the whole film.
• The costume was dried in an industrial drying bin every night to get the sweat out before the next day's shoot.
• Lahr's son Herbert said his father had to eat lunch through a straw because of the mask.
• The re-created mane cost $22,000 in imported Italian human hair, and the conservation took more than 21 artisans two years.
• The face on today's display figure was cast from Lahr's son Herbert, because the original facial pieces had been glued directly onto Lahr.
• The Cowardly Lion is the only character in the film with two solo songs.
• A second real-lion costume, bought for $2,400 around MGM's 1970 auction, was marketed for years as the only one Lahr wore.