In late 1945, nineteen year-old Norma Jeane Dougherty visited her mother in Portland, Oregon, while on a road trip with photographer Andre de Dienes. More than seventy years later, Portland Art Museum will host the largest-ever Andy Warhol exhibit in the region from October through December – with a 1967 screen-print of Marilyn among the artefacts, reports Architectural Digest.
In an article for Boulder City Review, Tanya Vece traces Marilyn’s fleeting visit to the Nevada town in 1946.
“Before she was the blonde bombshell known as Marilyn Monroe, a dark-haired Norma Jeane Mortenson came through Boulder City with a man named Bill Pursel.
Mortenson was living on Third Street in Las Vegas in 1946 while seeking a quick Nevada divorce from her first husband, James Dougherty. Norma was on the brink of becoming a global icon as Fox Studios promised her a movie contract…
Boulder City played a small yet pivotal role when Norma Jeane came through to visit Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam because it was right around the time that she was starting to morph into Marilyn. In the book Marilyn Monroe: Private and Undisclosed, author Michelle Morgan highlights what seemed to be Mortenson’s struggle to fit into the mold of what was expected from women at the time …
Most people stop here on their way to somewhere else — be it for sightseeing or to grab a bite to eat. While Mortenson was passing through our city she knew that she was on her way to somewhere else and as someone else.”
“In the final weeks of the exhibition, the gallery is presenting a number of programs to complement the exhibition:
Curator’s introduction, noon, Thursday, June 23. Join exhibition curator Tansy Curtin for a special overview, as she discusses the exhibition and the life of Marilyn Monroe. Free with valid exhibition ticket.
Film marathon, Monkey Business, 2.30pm, Saturday, July 9. Enjoy access to some of the highlights from Marilyn’s career with successive film screenings at the La Trobe University VAC. Limited numbers. First in best dressed.”
The showgirl costume worn by Marilyn while riding a pink elephant at a charity circus in 1955 is the centrepiece of Profiles in History’s Hollywood Auction 83, with a starting price of $250,000. Other Marilyn-related items up for bidding on June 30 include an original costume sketch by Travilla for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, rare candid photos from 1957, and batches of production stills, press photos and portraits.
UPDATE: Marilyn’s ‘showgirl’ costume didn’t reach its reserve price, and thus went unsold. However, this Grecian-style dress owned by Marilyn reached its maximum estimate of $15,000.
A very special 90th birthday party for Marilyn went down last night at Heritage Auctions in Beverly Hills, as part of a Limited Runs pop-up exhibition. Among the guests were collectors Greg Schreiner and Scott Fortner, impersonator Holly Beavon, Tom Kelley Jr (whose father photographed Marilyn’s nude calendar), actress Kathleen Hughes (widow of River of No Return producer Stanley Rubin), and Marian Collier (who played Marilyn’s bandmate Olga in Some Like it Hot.) Photos and videos from the evening have been posted on the Facebook page for Marilyn Remembered.
Marilyn Monroe: 90th Anniversary – A Life in Pictures, featuring images by various photographers at every stage of her career, is currently on display at In Focus Galerie in Köln, Germany (by appointment) until June 30. A catalogue is also available by request, here.
UK boutique New Look are currently selling a multi-coloured, striped vest top for £7.99, not dissimilar to the one sported by Marilyn in Eve Arnold’s 1955 photo of her reading James Joyce’s Ulysses. So why not give yourself an early Bloomsday treat?
Marilyn photographed on Santa Monica Beach by George Barris, 1962
One of Marilyn’s first memories was visiting Santa Monica Pier with her mother, and she held an affection for the area throughout her life. Her friends the Lawfords lived nearby, and she would be photographed on the beach by George Barris just weeks before her death in 1962. As the Santa Monica Hippodrome (the Pier’s original name) celebrates its centenary, Julia Bennett Rylah investigates its history in an article for LAist.com.
“It was June 12, 1916 when the Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome opened its doors. Charles Looff was a carousel carver who had previously worked on the first two carousels at Coney Island. Jim Harris, Santa Monica Pier historian and author of Santa Monica Pier: A Century on the Last Great Pleasure Pier, tells LAist that Looff had expanded beyond carousels and into building whole amusement parks across the country. The Santa Monica Looff Pleasure Pier, now simply the Santa Monica Pier, would be Looff’s last park before he died in 1918.
Santa Monica Pier
‘When the Santa Monica Municipal Pier was built—the long part that goes over the ocean—the citizens of the northern part of the Santa Monica wanted an amusement park built next to it. And so, seeing the opportunity and realizing that the Red Cars stopped right at this location and that there was an electric tram running up and down the beach, Looff thought it would be an excellent location.’
Only three months after the carousel opened, Looff added a fourth row of horses to accommodate additional riders at the popular attraction. Back then, it cost five cents for a ride. Today, it’s $2 for adults and $1 for children.
The pier in 1924, two years before Marilyn’s birthA young Norma Jeane on the beach (Los Angeles area, exact location unknown)
The Looff family sold the amusement pier and the Hipppdrome to a group of local relators in 1924, and the Security First National Bank took the over both in 1939. In 1943, Walter Newcomb leased the pier and the Hippodrome, hiring the Gordon family to manage it in 1955. The Gordon family took ownership in 1956…
Santa Monica Pier, late 1960s
In the 60s, the building had a very famous visitor, though many who encountered her were probably oblivious. ‘Towards the end of her life, Marilyn Monroe was living in Brentwood and hung out at the Santa Monica Beach a lot,’ Harris says, noting that many of the iconic photos George Barris took of the actress were shot here.
Harris continues:
‘She would come to the Hippodrome to find solace. She’d sit on a bench and watch the horses go round and round. Being sensitive to who she was, she would come in disguise wearing a scarf and overcoat and sunglasses. One day, the gentleman who was operating the carousel walked up to her and said something along the lines of, Why do you come here every day? You’re young and you should get a job. She then revealed [her identity] and said, I do have a job, I’m Marilyn Monroe.‘”
The short-lived but highly influential 1960s magazine, Avant Garde, has been digitised in its entirety, as Dan Colman reports for Open Culture. Issue 2, released in March 1968, featured ‘The Marilyn Monroe Trip by Bert Stern‘, and is now highly collectible.
Mortenson was living on Third Street in Las Vegas in 1946 while seeking a quick Nevada divorce from her first husband, James Dougherty. Norma was on the brink of becoming a global icon as Fox Studios promised her a movie contract…
Boulder City played a small yet pivotal role when Norma Jeane came through to visit Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam because it was right around the time that she was starting to morph into Marilyn. In the book Marilyn Monroe: Private and Undisclosed, author Michelle Morgan highlights what seemed to be Mortenson’s struggle to fit into the mold of what was expected from women at the time …
