You may have heard that one of the dresses Judy Garland wore in the Wizard of Oz is up for auction. The dress was recently found in a box at The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., after it went missing sometime in the 1980s. What you may not know is that iconic gingham dress has a connection to Maine! Now I know what you’re thinking, “Chuck Billy, not everything has a Maine connection!” But I can prove Dorothy’s dress is three degrees of Maine!

According to Bonhams which is conducting the auction, this dress has a distinctive seam in the pattern. After watching the movie frame by frame, they were able to match the dress to the scene in which Dorothy confronts the Wicked Witch of the West in the witch’s castle. Margaret Hamilton played the role of the Wicked Witch of the West. Margaret Hamilton called Cape Island and Southport, Maine her summer home for many years!

Margaret Hamilton first became bewitched with Maine while performing at the Lakewood Playhouse outside Skowhegan where she did summer stock in 1940. After World War II, Hamilton returned to perform at the Ogunquit Playhouse, the Brunswick Summer Theater and the Maine State Theater. In 1961 Margaret, along with her son Hamilton (Ham) and his wife, Helen Meserve, purchased Cape Island off the tip of Southport where she summered from 1962 to 1975. After that she spent her summers in Southport with Ham and Helen, until her death in 1985. According to Ham, she would arrive in early spring, and stay late into the fall. Margaret enjoyed her time in the ca. 1852 farmhouse, which coincidentally was painted “ruby red!” Although neighbors may have been worried about the wicked reputation of their new neighbor, she soon had them at ease with her kindness. In fact, local lobstermen enjoyed seeing her rowing between the island and the mainland. Today tour boats entertain passengers by calling it the “Witch’s Island.”

So there you have it – Dorothy’s dress is three degrees of Maine! To learn more about Dorothy’s dress that is up for auction, visit Bonhams. For more of Ham’s memories of Margaret Hamilton’s time in Maine, we recommend, “Wizard of Oz ‘Witch’ Loved Her Maine Island.”