A spectacular trove of more than 1, 200 different Marilyn Monroe personal items will go on auction. This is considered to be the last opportunity to acquire such historic Marilyn Monroe belongings.
Two auctions of items which belonged to the Hollywood icon who passed away aged at age 36 from overdose will be held in November.
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One collection of more than 1, 200 personal items, the largest of Marilyn Monroe’s ever offered at auction, was shown on Tuesday to Chinese collectors in Beijing before they will be going up for sale in November 17-19 in Los Angeles, at Juliens Auctions.
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Racy Letters from Arthur Miller to Marilyn Monroe on Display
Around 800 of the items come from the personal collection of Lee Strasberg, an acting great and mentor to many famous stars such as Al Pacino. He was said to be be sort of a father figure to the starlet. The items include her the Happy Birthday Mr. President iconic dress which she wore when singing the song a a birthday party for JFK, the shoes she wore at her wedding to Arthur Miller (Monroe converted to Judaism before the marriage), a designer wardrobe, jewelry, personal notes and letters and even her checkbook.
In another auction a mink stole with Western Costume Co. label sewn within it reading ”Marilyn Monroe” will go on sale tomorrow, September 29 by Nate D. Sanders.
Monroe’s walk-on scene in the 1949 film Love Happy, which came right before her big breakthrough as a sex symbol, featured her wearing a mink stole while she slowly and sexily walked past Groucho Marx with the intention of catching his attention. The bidding on Monroe’s mink stole begins at $20, 000.
The Daily Mail cited one letter written to her therapist in March, 1961, in which Marilyn explained how she had been struggling with sleep problems, something which many celebrities who recently passed away suffered from which led to their addictions to narcotics. “Sometimes I wonder what the night time is for. It almost doesn’t exist for me — it all seems like one long, long horrible day, ” she said, also describing a harrowing time in a mental hospital.
“Oh, well, men are climbing to the moon but they don’t seem interested in the beating human heart, ” she wrote.
Personal checks made from her final checkbook to a cleaner and a telephone company as well as personal photos will also be up for bidding.
Highlights from Marilyn Monroe Property From The Collection of David Gainsborough-Roberts include:
A sheer black beaded and sequined dress worn by Monroe in her Golden Globe winning role Sugar Kane as she crooned “I’m Through With Love” in the award winning 1959 film Some Like it Hot.
An elaborate embellished stage gown worn by Monroe as she sang “After You Get What You Want You Don’t Want It” in the 1953 comedy There’s No Business Like Show Business which was designed by one of Marilyn’s all-time favorite designers, William Travilla
A pink linen halter wiggle dress designed for Monroe by Dorothy Jenkins for the 1953 thriller Niagara; a green satin one-piece with black sequins and gold fringe worn by Monroe as she sang “That Old Black Magic” in the 1956 film Bus Stop and more.
Ephemera in this collection include documents that represent remarkable moments in Marilyn’s life and career, from a taxi receipt dated February 2, 1960 listing the trip details as simply “From: 904 To: 20th Century” to a check dated July 25, 1952 written in Monroe’s hand to her mother Gladys Eley in the amount of $150.00 endorsed by her mother signed, “Mrs. Gladys P. Eley.”
In addition to household items like food, fur, books, beauty, and clothing receipts, there are tax documents listing the star’s expenditures in great detail, a collection of recipes given to her by friends, and of certain interest is her 1962 checkbook containing the filled out stubs of every check written from her account in the final year of her life, as well as the checks written from her account immediately after her death, correspondence, poems and intimate notes featured in the appropriately titled 2012 book Fragments. The book helped to piece together a more even-handed view of the icon demonstrating her intellectual curiosity, vulnerability and humanity. Many of the writings featured in the book are contained in notebooks that are included in the auction as well as lighter material like her now famous recipe for stuffing scrawled on a sheet of “City Title Insurance Company” notepaper.
So if you have a great deal of disposable income to waist you can soon own a part of Hollywood history.
