Ahead of what would have been Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday, an auction reveals never before seen photographs and a handwritten secret recipe for Thanksgiving turkey stuffing
Blonde and beautiful, Marilyn Monroe is immortalised in our minds as the Hollywood siren who took the world by storm and won the affection of a president. Now we can reveal a true snapshot of her life – including never before seen photographs and even her handwritten secret recipe for Thanksgiving turkey stuffing. These are just some of her treasured private possessions that will go under the hammer at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, California, to mark what would have been the Some Like it Hot star’s 100th birthday on June 1.
Auction house co-founder Martin Nolan tells The Mirror: “There was a world before Marilyn Monroe and a profoundly different one after. She remains a once-in-a-generation star whose influence reshaped culture and continues to resonate today.” The ‘100 Years of Marilyn’ sale of between 350 and 400 lots will showcase a wide range of her belongings, including documents, items from her wardrobe and even the wooden gates to her California home.
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Ballgowns, private movie contracts, cosmetics and scripts will all be part of the centenary sale on June 4. Mr Nolan says: “As we approach what would have been Marilyn’s 100th birthday, Julien’s Auctions joins audiences around the globe in honouring her extraordinary life and enduring legacy, as one of the 20th Century’s defining cultural icons. We are proud to offer an exceptional collection of her most personal belongings; objects that capture the glamour, talent, vulnerability, and sensuality that cement her status as an everlasting legend of Hollywood.”
The auction comes at a time when prices could not be higher. The trend for ‘Monroe-bilia’ was amplified by Kim Kardashian, after she wore the star’s iconic 1962 ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ dress to the 2022 Met Gala in New York. The gossamer flesh-toned gown was loaned to Kardashian, having been bought for $4.8million at Julien’s in 2016 by Ripley’s Believe It or Not, a global entertainment franchise, famous for displaying unusual artefacts.
Although Monroe died aged just 36, a few months after the famous Madison Square Garden concert where she serenaded JFK, Margaret Barrett, head of Hollywood memorabilia at Julien’s, believes her influence remains so powerful that it justifies a centennial sale. She says: “The star’s possessions reveal her tastes, likes, style, aspirations, work ethic, innermost feelings, close friends and physical place in time.
“For example, we will have a couple of bank cheques she wrote which tell us where she was on that exact day and what she was buying. Minutiae for most of us, but fascinating when it comes to someone like Marilyn Monroe.” One museum-quality artefact from Monroe’s home are her green front gates, bought for $75,000 and emblazoned with her address, 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Los Angeles. It is where she was found dead on August 5, 1962, from a suspected drug overdose – her death later being ruled as a probable suicide.
Other standout pieces include a 1950s Jeanne Lanvin elegant ivory silk evening gown embellished with gold-tone sequins, rhinestones and faux pearls. Her 1949 William Morris Agency contract and her 1956 Screen Actors Guild membership card are also for sale. Personal garments include a 1950s tan cotton brassiere, inherited by Lee and Paula Strasberg. There is a 1954 signed black and white photograph of Marilyn and her new husband, Joe DiMaggio, walking off an airplane in Japan in February, 1954, when the couple were on their “working” honeymoon.
A 1962 photograph by Allan Grant, which is being seen in public for the first time, shows Marilyn less than a month before her death. There’s a rare photo of Marilyn on the set of 1955 comedy, The Seven Year Itch, as her make-up and hairdressing team attend to her. And there’s one of her first professional headshots, circa 1944, taken when she was still teenager Norma Jean – before her transformation into Marilyn Monroe.
Her personal make-up items, including her Max Factor lipstick, Lip Pomade 7-22, which she used during the production of her last and unfinished film – 1962’s Something’s Got To Give – is also within the lots. An insight into her lavish lifestyle is given by a 1952 handwritten counter cheque from her Bank of America account, paid to cover a stay at the Beverly Hills Carlton Hotel – offered alongside a 1960 cheque for $3,913.70 for a stop over at Bungalow 16 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. This is where Marilyn and Arthur Miller stayed during the entire production of her 1960 romantic comedy, Let’s Make Love.
The auction at Julien’s comes 27 years after hundreds of items came up for sale at Christie’s in New York in 1999 – three years before an Andy Warhol portrait of the star sold in the Big Apple for a record breaking $195 million. It was the most expensive 20th Century art work ever sold at auction. If you do choose to bid next month, remember Marilyn’s famous words: “I don’t care about money. I just want to be wonderful!”
* For more information on Julien’s Auctions “100 Years of Marilyn” auction, visit www.juliensauctions.com
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