Sondra Farrell Bazrod is the daughter of Samuel Bazrod, pharmacist at one of Marilyn’s regular haunts, Schwab’s Drugstore on Hollywood Boulevard. (Sondra also appeared in a scene from Monkey Business, which was later cut.)
She has spoken about her father, and Marilyn’s death, to LA Weekly, and will be attending today’s memorial service.
“Soon after news of Marilyn Monroe’s death spread around the world, my father received the call from the coroner’s office in Los Angeles. ‘How many pills did you send to Marilyn Monroe’s house?’
My father, Samuel Bazrod, known by store regulars as ‘Good Sam,’ was the right person to get the call and answer the question. He was chief pharmacist at the legendary Schwab’s Drugstore on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood and had, in fact, filled Marilyn’s doctor’s usual prescription for sleeping pills shortly before her death. It was those pills she took the night she died.
When my father came home from work, he told my mother and me about the call. The pills were Nembutal and chloral hydrate, which is what he usually sent to Marilyn.
That was not news to us because my father often complained that Marilyn’s regular doctor would prescribe too many of these same pills at one time for a person who had suicidal tendencies. My father’s good friend, Dr. Ralph Greenson, was Marilyn’s psychiatrist, and he often told my father about his opposition to the number of pills Marilyn received at each refill of her usual prescription.”
