Marilyn Monroe

June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962

Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

 

Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe

 

For years people have requested that Marilyn be profiled on Find a Death.  I’ve always refused because she is so well documented; just a quick online search will give you any information you could possibly want or need on this unfortunate woman. Since this week (August 2010) is the 48th anniversary of her death, with the help of Mark Langlois and friends, I’ve dug up a lot of the information, photographs and facts that I’ve collected over the years.  So is Find a Death’s attempt to give Marilyn some recognition in our pages.

In her 36 years, Marilyn Monroe had over 70 addresses. She is easily the biggest movie star of all time. If you walk down Hollywood Boulevard, you will see her presence everywhere. In supermarkets, on t-shirts, posters, plates, chocolates…

 

 

“I’ve never liked the name Marilyn.  I’ve often wished that I had held out that day for Jean Monroe.  But I guess it’s too late to do anything about it now.”

Almost 5 decades have passed since the death of this beloved sex symbol, and she has morphed into an almost beyond the realm of comprehension – icon.  Her life and death fall into myth perpetuated by a cottage industry of licensing, conspiracy books, and attention seekers with tall-tales. She becomes the “little girl lost” to new generations who believe that if somehow they had been her friend – she could have been saved.

You can see all the images you want of her life and times here. This amazing “dictionary” has worked as a bible for me over the years.

 

Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortensen on June 1, 1926

and baptized Norma Jean Baker at the Angeles Temple (possibly by Sister Aimee Semple McPherson herself) a year before talking films became all the rage.

A child of Hollywood, her divorced mother Gladys Monroe Baker Mortensen worked as a film cutter at RKO Pictures.

 

At 12 days old, baby Norma Jeane was taken to live with a foster couple, Ida and Wayne Bolender in Hawthorne, CA. The deeply religious couple agreed to raise the child for $5 a week from Gladys. Gladys visited on weekends, and Ida Bolender informed the child that Gladys was her real mother.

Her mother informed Marilyn that her real father was Charles Stanley Gifford, a salesman for RKO (who resembled Clark Gable). There are stories that he later owned a dairy in Hemet, CA, and once when Marilyn attempted to telephone him, he hung up on her.

Mental illness (ie: manic depression / schizophrenia) was rampant in Gladys’s family and when Norma Jeane was briefly living with her mother at age 7, Gladys had a nervous breakdown. Norma Jeane became a ward of the state and her mother’s friend Grace McKee-Goddard became Norma Jeane’s legal guardian.

Aunt Grace became financially strapped and needed to send the 9-year-old child to the LA Orphans Home (now Hollygrove with a new main building).

 

 

Aunt Grace visited on weekends and took Norma Jeane to the movies. When their day trip was over, Norma Jeane returned to the drudgery of the orphanage.

“No one ever told me I was pretty when I was a little girl. All little girls should be told they’re pretty, even if they aren’t.”

Norma Jeane knew she wasn’t technically an orphan since her mother was alive (crazy and committed to a Norwalk CA asylum – but alive).

“At nights when all the kids were asleep, I’d perch on the dormitory window sill and look across at the RKO water tank (Now Paramount), with RKO in big letters, and light shining like a Hollywood premier.  “My mother used to work there,” I’d whisper.  “Someday I’d like to be a star there.”

 

 

Aunt Grace always told her she was going to be in the pictures.

Gladys never called for her daughter – however she hindered permanent adoption of Norma Jeane to wanting families, by not signing final papers. Instead, Norma Jeane was tossed to 12 foster homes, and then settled in with Grace’s elderly aunt Ana Lower for several years. Aunt Ana gave Norma Jeane unconditional love and shared her Christian Science faith. It was Aunt Ana who gave bride Norma Jeane away when she married Grace’s neighbor’s 21-year-old son Jim Dougherty in 1942.

Norma Jeane dropped out of high school in 10th grade at age 16 and married Jim to stay out of foster care when the Goddard’s moved across country. Norma Jeane invited the Bolenders to attend the ceremony and they came. The reception was held at The Florentine Gardens in Hollywood.

 

 

Within a year, Jim was shipped out to the Pacific with the Merchant Marines and his bride was working in a war-time defense plant. A stable family life eluded her once again.

Her unconventional childhood (in which she was reportedly sexually assaulted in various homes) left Norma Jeane as an insecure, eager to please young woman with a slight nervous stammer. She was also quite lovely. She caught the eye of a factory photographer and Norma Jeane Dougherty began her modeling career. Cheesecake was her specialty. She learned that she could use her sex appeal for a more exciting career and set her sights on becoming an actress. She wrote husband Jim to inform him that she was getting a Las Vegas divorce. She became a platinum blonde at Frank and Joseph’s Salon in Hollywood that was located here.

 

 

Sylvia Barnhart was her hairdresser.

Marilyn (as she was now called) knew that there were plenty of older men in Hollywood willing to help an eager young girl rise from starlet to star. She was savvy and found the right ones, including old Joe Schenck, the Fox studio mogul; and Johnny Hyde, VP of The William Morris Agency. The latter paid for cosmetic surgery on her nose and chin.

After several years of living at the Studio Club in Central Hollywood (near her old orphanage) and floundering in B- films, Marilyn was now the flawless beauty in two hit 1950 films: All About Eve and The Asphalt Jungle.

 

 

Marilyn didn’t attend the premiere of the latter film which was held at Grauman’s Egyptian Theater. If she had she would have seen her 1st husband Jim Dougherty (now on the LAPD) assigned to crowd control. (Awkward!!)

The year 1952, brought several changes to her personal life. That August, Marilyn placed her mother Gladys in the Rockhaven Sanitarium  in Glendale.

 

 

Other residents of that “rest home” over the years included: Billie Burke, Flo Zeigfield and Frances Farmer.

This was also the year that Marilyn first went out with retired superstar baseball player Joe DiMaggio – on a blind date at the Villa Nova Restaurant (Now The Rainbow) on the Sunset Strip.

 

(sign still exists within the restaurant today)

 

With a new contract with 20th Century Fox, Marilyn was ready for her big breakout year. That year was 1953, when she starred in 3 Technicolor hits: Niagara, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry A Millionaire.

While Marilyn was enjoying her first taste of superstardom, she received the news that her surrogate mother Aunt Grace Goddard had committed suicide with an overdose of barbiturates. Marilyn planned the funeral services and Grace’s remains were buried near Aunt Ana Lower in Westwood Memorial Park – where Marilyn would join them 9 years later.

That December, Playboy Magazine debuted with a centerfold of nude Marilyn on red velvet – photos from a 1949 shoot for $50 cash needed for rent. The nude calendar photo shoot happened at Tom Kelley’s Studio with his wife acting as assistant.

 

 

 

Marilyn never denied she had modeled nude – in fact she even made jokes about it. Her unapologetic tongue-in-cheek sexuality coupled with her publicized rise to stardom from a sad childhood in foster care just made Marilyn more popular with audiences.

“If you’re gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.”

Despite some bitchery from hypocritical prudes like Joan Crawford, Marilyn had many celebrity well wishers including co-star and former Fox Studio queen Betty Grable who said that Marilyn was a shot in the arm (boost) for Hollywood. There certainly was nobody more famous than MM that year.

In 1954, Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio and tried playing housewife at homes in San Francisco and Beverly Hills.

 

 

It lasted 9 months. Marilyn wasn’t about to give up the spotlight that she had waited for her whole life, and for as famous and successful as Joe was then, he was always going to be “Mr. Marilyn.”  “It’s no fun being married to an electric light.” During her time with DiMaggio, she had to endure the jealousy and resentment of her lesbian acting coach Natasha Lytess (whom MM had placed on the Fox payroll). Marilyn just wanted an acting mentor not another possessive lover. She told Natasha, “Don’t love me. Teach me!”

As the couple was heading into divorce proceedings, Joe DiMaggio was having MM followed by a detective to try to catch her being adulterous. On November 5, 1954, DiMaggio, his buddy Frank Sinatra, and the private detective barged into the 8112 Waring Ave building that they heard Marilyn was visiting.

 

 

Instead they raided the wrong apartment (Marilyn was visiting friend Sheila Stewart in another unit) and a horrified tenant named Florence Kotz pressed charges. Flo eventually settled for $7500 in damages.

“Dogs never bite me. Just humans.”

The next year, MM left Hollywood to study acting in Manhattan with Lee Strasberg who became a parental figure (along with his yenta wife Paula).

MM formed her own production company in search of better roles and married superstar playwright Arthur Miller in 1956. Marilyn said Arthur reminded her of Abraham Lincoln (part of an idolatry fetish she had for the 16th President).  For a few years they were happy and “the beauty and the brain” hoped to have many children but it was not to be. MM suffered a second miscarriage during the shooting of Some Like It Hot (1959). The marriage unraveled on the set of The Misfits (her final completed film), where MM lost her marbles and Miller found his sanity in set photographer Inge Morath – who would become his next wife.

Joe DiMaggio had come to Marilyn’s rescue on her final Christmas of 1961 and they met up in Florida that February 1962. (“Thank God for Joe, thank God”, she told friends).

Marilyn also rebounded from the painful Miller divorce with the help of pals Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford and an affair with Peter’s brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy. The pair met frequently at Lawford’s ocean front home.

 

 

MM was enamored with the womanizing JFK to say the least. (“I think I make his back feel better,” she told pals.) MM sang “Happy Birthday” to the President at his 1962 Madison Square Garden birthday gala (staged and directed by William Asher). To attend the JFK event, MM had defied the studio and skipped town and her film production of Something’s Got to Give.

 

 

“I’ve been on calendars but never on time.”

Fox was hemorrhaging money that year with Liz Taylor’s Cleopatra and they were also fed up with Marilyn’s tardiness. Something had to give, and it was Marilyn (not Liz). Fox informed Marilyn that she was fired and they shut down the production.

 

Summer 1962, found the unemployed MM living in her newly purchased, sparsely furnished Brentwood home (phone number 476-1890) that she was in the process of remodeling. Her closest companions were all on her payroll: publicist Pat Newcomb; business manager: Inez Melson; physician Dr. Hyman Engleberg; psychiatrist: Dr Ralph Greenson and his brother in law, MM’s attorney Milton Rudin; and Dr Greenson’s patient babysitter Mrs. Eunice Murray as MM’s new housekeeper.

 

 

The only companion around the house she wasn’t paying was her small white poodle from Sinatra named “Maf”
(short for Mafia).

 

 

On June 2, the day after her 36th birthday, Marilyn had an emotional breakdown. Dr. Greenson’s son and daughter were summoned to cheer her. Marilyn said she felt old, unwanted and used by people. She declared that her life wasn’t worth living.

In one of the better MM books (Barbara Leaming’s “Marilyn Monroe”) the author had access to Dr. Greenson’s personal correspondence, and he diagnosed Marilyn as “borderline paranoid addict.” All summer Marilyn was eating less, drinking more champagne, and totally reliant on pills for insomnia.

On Friday August 3rd, Marilyn’s LIFE Magazine interview and pictorial was published. MM appeared gaunt and tired in the photos, and the interview focused on her now troubled career.

That weekend was also the 5th anniversary of her first miscarriage with Arthur Miller. To make things more upsetting for MM, Miller’s new wife Inge was due to have their baby (daughter Rebecca) within a few weeks.

Marilyn had plenty of reasons to be depressed. Dr. Greenson spent the day with her after she had complained about a miserable sleepless night.

She was distraught and emotional and appeared to Greenson as “somewhat drugged and unsteady.” She wanted to go walk on the Santa Monica pier but Dr. Greenson talked her out of it. She decided to stay home with housekeeper Mrs. Murray.

Marilyn spoke to former step-son Joe DiMaggio Jr. by phone that day.

She also reportedly spoke with hairstylist Sidney Guilaroff and told him: “I’m very depressed.” 

“What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.”

Marilyn Monroe retired by 7 p.m. to her locked bedroom with her record player and her phone. She called Dr. Greenson around 7:30 p.m. to assure him that she was “feeling better.” Marilyn’s final timeline.

The next day she was found (WARNING, DEAD PIC) dead from an overdose of about 25 Nembutal and a few chloral hydrate pills. 15 pill bottles were found nearby. Here is a smattering of them.

 

   

Marilyn at the Pierce Bros. Westwood doors.

 

Pierce Brothers Westwood Village removed the remains from the home and took them toPierce Brothers Westwood Village . The Coroner then dispatched two Coroner employees to pick up the remains from Pierce Brothers -Westwood Village and take her to the Halls of Justice Coroner Office (basement).  Sending suicides to private mortuaries for examination by a Deputy Medical Examiner was not uncommon in those days.  It was an afterthought to order the body into the Coroner’s office.

 

 

She was placed in (WARNING, DEAD PIC) drawer 33.  Yes, that is her toe tag.  An autopsy was performed.  This is an actual post autopsy photograph of Marilyn Monroe. (WARNING) It’s pretty gruesome.  This is the real deal.  No mistaking it.  This is Marilyn Monroe, dead.

The coroner ruled it a “probable suicide” (as opposed to “accidental overdose” or “homicide”).

Autopsy notes:  Dr. Noguchi went over every inch of  Marilyn’s body with a magnifying glass, and found no injection marks.  Had one been administered within 24 hours, it would have shown up.  Had she been poisoned by injection, her death would have been rapid, therefore they wouldn’t have found the toxicology evidence that they had.

There was no capsule residue in her stomach, because there didn’t have to be.  She didn’t die suddenly, therefore the capsules had time to dissolve.  There was no yellow dye from the Nembutol, because there didn’t have to be.  3 independent autopsy surgeons were questioned about the yellow dye and Nembutol deaths, and neither has seen it.  The drug company (Abbott) that manufactured the drug stated that they had heard the theory as well, but there had been no study or scientific papers at that time, to support it.

 

Marilyn Monroe's Death Certificate

 

A 1982 re-investigation by LA Coroner’s Dept and a 2003 independent study by Dr. John Chamberlain (for Discovery Channel special “The Death of Marilyn Monroe”) come to the same conclusions that Marilyn ingested the fatal overdose which was consistent with the amounts available to her. The condition of her stomach and drug levels in the blood and liver are consistent with the idea she took the drugs through her GI tract and was alive for some period afterwards. There was no physical evidence of lung or heart trauma or inflammation of the colon to suggest the overdose was administered by direct injection or by suppository/enema.

It was estimated again that the excess of 25 pills taken in her locked room point to “probable suicide” (as opposed to “accidental overdose” or “homicide”).

A few years ago, I had the amazingly good fortune to be able to interview Allan Abbott, one of the mortuary employees at the time of Marilyn’s service.  Thank you, David, for making that happen.  Rest in Peace.  Allan opened the doors of his home to me, and spent several hours recounting this story, which no doubt he has done dozens of times.  He could not have been more friendly or kind.

 

 

“When the family brought in the clothing for her, they didn’t bring any panties for her to wear, since she never wore them in life.  Fortunately someone at the coroner’s office had the dignity to tear a sheet and make sort of diaper for her.  It was the only body I’ve ever seen come out of the coroner’s office that was not totally nude.  Somebody was very respectful and did that for her. They also brought these funny little falsies.

[At the Coroner] they made a Y incision they cut the rib cage, and everything kind of caves in.  I was helping the embalmer.  The first thing the embalmer had me do was to get rid of a horrible swelling in her neck.  She died face down so there was lividity.

I’d held Marilyn up on her side while [the embalmer] made a cut in the back of her neck and he pulled all the skin very tight, and sewed it up  To sew it, he had to cut some of the hair off, and he threw it in the trash can.  He got her neck looking very good.

When we got her dressed in this chartreuse Pucci gown, (she still looked terrible, her face was still a mess), Mrs. Hamrock who owned half of the mortuary, just had to come out to the mortuary to see Marilyn. We had just finished dressing Marilyn, Mrs. Hamrock walked into the embalming room and looked at the body and said, “That doesn’t look like Marilyn to me!  Where are her breasts?”  The embalmer said that an autopsy was performed on her, and that’s why she was flat.  We even used the falsies that the family brought in, but they were way too small.  Mrs. Hamrock reached in and grabbed the falsies and threw them in the trash can.  We’d put a bra on her because they brought in a bra, not panties.  Mrs. Hamrock walked over to the cotton dispenser (most mortuaries have them) and she began stuffing the bra so it was all filled up like it should be.  She backed up and took a look, she said, “That looks like Marilyn Monroe,” and she turned around and walked out the door.

The embalmer didn’t feel qualified to do her hair and makeup (standard in mortuaries that the embalmer would/could do this) so FOX sent over a wig box with the wig from the last movie Marilyn was working on.  Whitey Snyder did her makeup.

 

 

Alan continues, “I was in my early 20’s and I really wanted to get a souvenir, but I would have been mortified if the embalmer saw me do something like that.  As the embalmer was washing his hands, I never took my eyes off of him, but I walked over to the trash, reached down and grabbed the falsies and put them in my pocket.  When I got outside, I took the falsies out, some of the hair that had been thrown out earlier was squeezed between them.  That’s how I ended up with a lock of her hair.”  He still has it.  I nearly cacked myself when he brought it out.

 

 

SIDE STORY:  People might wonder why Marilyn wore falsies at all.  Alan Abbott told me that he asked Whitey Snyder himself.  Whitey explained that Marilyn was 36 and her breasts were starting to sag a little, so she would put on a bra, then put on a sweater.  She would then put the falsies between the sweater and the bra, and it gave the illusion that she wasn’t wearing a bra at all, because you would see the bumps of her nipples.

 

 

Mr. Abbott sold her falsies and the original funeral program, but kept this copy.  He still has the boutonniere he wore on the day, and a lot of affection for Marilyn. This is the business card that the night manager gave me and said, “When you get here, the security won’t let you in unless you show them this card.”

 

 

DiMaggio made the decisions and the invite list.  He paid the bill.  All of the funeral home had a strict 9 p.m. closing time. My wife asked me to take her to Westwood to see Marilyn.  I called Pat and told her that I’d like to bring my wife up to see her, and Pat said ‘sure’ and we went down to the mortuary. We got there at 9 p.m. and Joe was still there with his entourage.  He stood at the casket and cried, then walked outside for a few moments.  Then he returned and stood at the casket and cried again.  Finally, it was about 11 p.m. and I said to Pat, “what about this 9 p.m. curfew?”  Pat replied with, “I’m not about to go and tell Joe DiMaggio that he has to leave.”  Finally they did leave.

Allan recommended getting security to stay overnight, because press were staking the place out for that picture.  He went to Pinkerton and hired 6 armed uniformed guards to patrol the grounds, and they stayed around the clock, for the duration.  Pat Spinelli took a rollaway bed and spent the night next to Marilyn, to protect her from the paparazzi.  Word was out that there was a $30,000.00 offer for a photograph of Marilyn in the casket.

 

 

Marilyn’s funeral was held on August 8th, 1962.  Her funeral arrangements were made by Joe DiMaggio, her half-sister Bernice Miracle and business manager Inez Melson.  There were 31 invitees (and LOADS of press allowed on the grounds), but no Hollywood types. “But for those friends, she’d be alive.”. Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald and several more were refused entry at the gates.  During the service Lee Strasburg read the eulogy.

Alan Abbott was working the funeral.  He was positioned at the door to check invitations for the funeral service.  30 guests attended the private service, which was one of the first to be held in the newly completed chapel.

 

 

In fact it was so new, it had no drapery, so FOX sent set dressers over to make it look nice.

Inside the chapel,

Marilyn’s open bronze casket with the champagne satin lining,

was placed on a platform in front of the group.

 

She dressed in one of her favorite dresses by the designer Pucci, in fact, the very dress you see her in below.  Also, she had on a green chiffon scarf.  Interesting to note, Marilyn owned several versions of this dress, which came with a matching belt.

 

 

Whomever brought the dress to the mortuary, failed to bring the matching belt which was recently on display here in Hollywood.

 

 

 

 

Lee Strasberg delivered the eulogy.  Afterwards, the casket was carried to the hearse waiting outside the door, and driven the hundred yards or so, to Marilyn’s wall crypt.  Alan Abbott added that when the hearse stopped near Marilyn’s crypt, the silence was deafening.  They opened the hearse, and the second Marilyn’s casket became exposed, the press erupted into an ocean of clicks and flashes.  It was so out of control, you couldn’t even hear Reverend A. J. Soldan read the 23rd psalm at the crypt.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me…

 

 

Abbot was a pallbearer as was his business partner Robert Hast, “hairdresser to the stars” Sidney Guilaroff and Marilyn’s makeup man and good friend “Whitey” Snyder.  Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” was played as Marilyn was placed in the wall, head first.

 

 

When Marilyn died, she was virtually flat-broke, and her estate didn’t start generating income until the early 1980’s. Prior to her death, Joe DiMaggio loaned her $5,000, an amount which he also sued her estate for and received. I’ll bet that paid for a lot of those flowers he had delivered to her crypt! For the record:  The flowers were sent from the Parisian Florist on Sunset.

 

 

DiMaggio had a standing order – six red roses with babies breath, 3 times a week for 20 years. He was billed monthly. He gave the florist a cool baseball autographed to “The Flower Man.”

 

 

Visit them.  They couldn’t be nicer.

As well, Marilyn had not paid numerous people on her staff for months. Whitey Snyder, her make-up man, had not been paid for his services for over one year.

Marilyn’s little “Maf” went to Sinatra’s secretary.

 

 

Once the image licensing money started pouring in for MM in 1980s, the estate beneficiaries were Dr. Marianne Kris (and various child welfare charities) and Lee Strasberg.

In 1999, Lee Strasberg’s third wife Anna (who has never even met Marilyn) had an end of millennium sale of the MM stuff she held in storage for decades. It went to Christie’s NYC for a huge auction. I saw a tour of this in London, and got about a foot from the “Happy Birthday” dress – which was pretty amazing to see in person.  Odd story, I was looking in the glass case at the engagement ring Joe gave her, and on the other side of the glass case was Mick Jagger looking in.  Mariah Carey now owns the white baby grand piano that MM treasured that belonged to her mother Gladys (who interestingly outlived Marilyn by 22 years).

 

 

Fun facts: 

Marilyn’s stand-in on The Misfits was named Evelyn Moriarty. She went onto to double for Barbara Eden on I Dream of Jeannie and often played the back of her evil twin sister’s head.

Both Marilyn’s housekeepers (Lena Pepitone and Eunice Murray) wrote exploitive books about their time with MM. Lena’s trashy book talks about a slobby Marilyn living with grimy hair, stains on her clothes, and dirty plates piled up next to her bed.

Marilyn helped break down racial barriers by getting her favorite singer Ella Fitzgerald booked at LA’s The Mocambo. MM agreed to sit front and center for all shows if they booked her.  They did, and Ella was always publicly thankful to Marilyn.

Marilyn’s Social Security number was 563-32-0764

What Marilyn might look like, if she were still alive.  Well, 20 years ago anyway.

 

 

Despite her attempts to find non-sexpot dramatic roles…she became a studio brand. What had put her on the map at age 22 would be her assigned role to play through age 36. She began her career singing “Every Baby Needs a Da-Da-Daddy” in Ladies of the Chorus(1948) and ended her career singing “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” in Let’s Make Love (1960). The feminist film roles for actresses of the late 60s and 70s were still a distant dream.

 

You can still visit Marilyn’s footprints at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood,

and see the only theater that Marilyn actually pays for.

 

Profile by Mark Langlois with summary info supplied from James Hunter (of the DD Group —  fans who investigated her death from a logical, well researched, point of view ) and myself.

A little about Dr. Greenson.

Over the years several people have stepped up to help with Marilyn’s story.  Unfortunately with various computer crashes I’ve lost these documents and the hard work that went into them.  I do want to thank Eric Woodard author of Marilyn Monroe –  Hometown Girl, Emma Breacain, Mark from Denmark, and a woman who just went by the name Marilyn Monroe.  Thank you also, Craig.

Marilyn had a vulnerability to her. Someone said that guys wanted to have sex with her, and girls wanted to be her friend.  Everyone wanted to take care of her, some wanted to be her.  Even 48 years on, Marilyn fans can get downright psychotic.  I KNOW EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD ABOUT MARILYN AND YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY CARE ABOUT HER MORE THAN I DO fans.  I have a huge interest in her, and I know other humans that are Marilyn experts that are completely sane and don’t need to make everything about Marilyn, about them.

In 2010 her Brentwood home went on the market for $3.6 million.  This is up from the $900,00 price tag 15 years ago.  Crazy.  Marilyn’s bedroom looks much more cheerier these days, but the bed is still in the same place.

 

 

Speaking of, did you know Anna Nicole Smith lived in Marilyn’s house for awhile?  True story.  Anna slept in the same bedroom

that Marilyn died in,

and they were both Playboy models.

 

The thing they really had in common was being used, taken advantage of, shat on and spat out.

Some people are extremely disrespectful of her grave, which is bad juju.

 

 

I understand the cemetery keeps a spare nameplate handy for this very type of activity.  Hugh Hefner bought the grave next to Marilyn.  The guy above her was flipped over in his casket so he’d be forever on top of Marilyn, facing her.

 

 

True story.  His widow tried auctioning off the grave recently.  In fact, there has been a lot of movement on that wall as of late.  Marilyn was the first “big” name to be buried in Westwood Memorial Park, and has set a precedent in LA cemetery real estate.  You can’t get near her for less than $750,000.  A grave which costs more than Marilyn was worth when she died.  Everyone wants a piece of poor Marilyn.

“Ever notice how ‘What the hell’ is always the right answer?”

Rest in Peace, Marilyn.

 

Marilyn’s autopsy, Will and divorce documents from her first marriage are available at Celebrity Archive.

 

 

13 thoughts on “Marilyn Monroe

  • June 19, 2023 at 1:33 pm
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    Sea como fuera la realidad de lo que fue su muerte, es un hecho irrefutable que ella fue una mujer extraordinaria, que reflejaba en su rostro una sinigual belleza melancólica y a la vez una asombrosa picardía de mujer empoderada. No habrá otra Marilin. No así.

  • February 26, 2023 at 10:17 pm
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    In the late 80s, I watched a show that went over the night MM died. The host was A.J. something or other and was like an Unsolved Mysteries, but dedicated to celebs.
    Anyway…while I don’t remember all of it, the things that still stand out to me are:
    The sightings of one or both of the Kennedy brothers in the area of her home that night.
    The odd behavior said to have been displayed by Eunice Murray that night.
    An interview that was done with someone on the ambulance who stated MM had been removed from the home with a weak pulse, driven away (without lights and sirens meaning non-emergency), then returned to her home.
    There was also something about the bedroom window that seemed odd but I can’t remember the exact details.
    Something I read recently makes me question things. Fired Eunice, who was supposed to be gone by the end of the day, was still there at 3 a.m.? She called Greenson because a light was on and MM hadn’t answered her knock? At 3:50, her physician Dr. Engleberg shows up and declares her dead. He calls the police and tells them she committed suicide? Umm…HOW does he know this is how she died? He’s not a coroner, no autopsy was preformed in her bedroom, no note was said to be found so…how does he know? LAPD don’t show up until 4:25? Call me a conspiracy theorist but….almost an hour and a half?!?!
    We’ll never know what actually happened to her that night but, in my opinion, there are still a LOT of weird things that went on that should be questioned.

  • February 11, 2023 at 3:08 pm
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    Marilyn’s former psychiatrist, Dr. Marianne Kris, received 25% of her estate. Marilyn had been estranged from Dr. Kris, as she was the one who arranged for Marilyn to be institutionalized in 1961, which proved to be a a traumatic experience. Whether Marilyn and Dr. Kris reconnected or Marilyn simply didn’t update her will is unclear. In any event, Dr. Kris’ 25% eventually went to the Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families. I think Marilyn would be happy to know that she has helped support the mental health of children.
    RIP, Marilyn.

  • January 16, 2022 at 10:59 pm
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    A well-researched book by Donald Spoto titled “Marilyn Monroe: The Biography “ details another theory about her death. The author claims MM did NOT commit suicide, but was administered medications from two different doctors, resulting in a toxic combination of drugs. The author also states that MM was planning to remarry Joe DiMaggio, so had no reason to kill herself. We’ll probably never know the full truth, but it was an interesting and plausible theory. (https://www.amazon.com/Marilyn-Monroe-Biography-Donald-Spoto/dp/0060179872/ref=asc_df_0060179872_nodl/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312144142951&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10089619179739032852&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9012297&hvtargid=pla-547704514514&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=62149175956&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312144142951&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10089619179739032852&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9012297&hvtargid=pla-547704514514)

  • January 29, 2021 at 5:29 pm
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    Not sure if I believe the “falsies outside of her bra” story. Any movement and they would move and/or slip. I suppose she could have glued them onto her bra, but still sketchy. More likely, she wore a peekaboo bra over her falsies (if she used them at all).
    Too bad we’ll never know what happened to cause her demise.
    A naturally beautiful woman! No photoshopping needed. RIP Norma Jean.

  • December 10, 2020 at 2:07 pm
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    More found inudindo:
    My close friend, the late Sam Yorty, former mayor of Los Angeles, had told me many stories over the years about the affairs of Marilyn and her Kennedys. After Marilyn’s death, Sam told me of the wiretap tapes and other surveillance done by the Los Angeles Police Department showing that Marilyn not only had a phone conversation with Bobby the night of her death, but a visit from him. With Sam’s death a short time ago, I feel released from his request for secrecy to tell some of what he said about the days when the King of Camelot and the Heir Apparent were frolicked in Hollywood. (Were frolicked?)

    As a kid think I fell in love, just a little bit, watching this:
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yFaGHnbcnIs
    Perhaps showing my “long in the tooth age” but I’d choose that (in a NY second) over any surgically enhanced, dental floss wearing, photo shopped android “Influencer” of today –

  • December 10, 2020 at 12:43 pm
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    Don’t remember where I found this, but makes for some interesting speculation; especially given the specific names listed. Just more innuendo to add to the list….

    (Mobster) Mickey Cohen had a string of male studs he used to seduce starlets for his own blackmail use and for stag videos he’d sell coast to coast. Rumor is his goons Sam LoCigno and Georgie Piscitelle filmed themselves with Marilyn Monroe, which Cohen then threatened her with unless she reported back on JFK’s opinions on supporting the Israeli state.

  • July 19, 2020 at 3:24 pm
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    Bravo Mr. Michael, well written summary! Soooo many rumors. Been to her house, which is reportedly the largest lot in the Helena’s, during a relator’s open house (decades ago) and toured the property. Wasn’t creeped out by anything in the house, but was viewing the secluded guesthouse which wasn’t open for viewing. Know conspiracy theories are human nature, but still think a lot doesn’t add up. Her death scene was severely staged. Participant’s took hours to phone authorities. If it was a straight suicide, why the delay? After injesting 25 Nembutols, why wouldn’t there have been pill dye residue found in her stomach? After less than 24 hours? Why was the housekeeper, Eunice Murray, doing laundry when the authorities arrived? Also not mentioned was Murray was fired and that was her last day of employment and that she was not a live in employee but spent the night. Missing phone records, locked filing cabinet broken into, missing red diary, Sinatra explosive argument at the Cal-Neva Lodge the weekend before, RFK reportedly seen by neighbours at the house a few days prior. Professional (FBI grade) bugging devices found in subsequent roof replacement. Entirely possible accidental sucide; given above only fractional “ambiguities” list, I’m still on the fence about this one –

      • May 28, 2022 at 5:47 pm
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        When I toured Marilyn’s house her bathroom, then in its original state when she lived there, had a really beautiful cobalt blue tiled sink. Well guess what some new owner’s did to “improve” the bathroom? Today’s “standard” of course, ripped the whole thing out for some modern garbage! Stuff like this really pisses me off –

        Best site ever seen on 12305 Fifth Helena Drive:
        https://housecrazysarah.life/marilyn-monroes-last-home-in-brentwood-california/

        • May 28, 2022 at 6:13 pm
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          Just read part of “housecrazysarah” post above & immediately noticed a major error. “She paid $650,000 for the property, which may seem like a lot for a modest one-story home in 1962.” Crazy Sarah well named because that’s an insane amount of money for the house in ’62.

          I’d seen docs a long time ago with something like $90k. Even that was mis-remembered. Actual price $69,000!! Crazy Sarah, where DID you get that number?

          https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/17108/lot/6007/?category=list
          (If above doesn’t work, Google “Marilyn Monroe Escrow Documents”)

          • February 26, 2023 at 9:25 pm
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            It looks like she didn’t pay $69,000 for the house, either. From the link you posted,
            “…the second is an ‘Escrow Statement’ from City National Bank of Beverly Hills; dated “Feb. 8, 1962” it appears as though MM was able buy the house for “$57,500;” $11,500 off the original asking price.”
            Of course, I found another site that says she paid $77,500. “She reportedly paid half in cash, with the other half being mortgaged.”
            https://houseandhistory.com/12305-fifth-helena-drive-marilyn-monroe/
            No matter, I agree with you about Sue. She needs to research a little better before blogging. She even wrote that Maf went with the housekeeper?!

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