The ‘Tragical’ History of Hollywood

Marilyn by Baron, 1954

Scott Michaels of Dearly Departed Tours has unveiled his latest Hollywood trip, as Mercury News reports.

“If you want to go Hollywood while visiting Los Angeles, you can of course sign on to a tour of studios or the stars’ homes. But why bother when the darker side of Hollywood is so much more fascinating? Instead there’s the Tragical History Tour which ferries you to the sites of celebrity crimes, scandals and tragedies, from the starlet who threw herself to her death from the Hollywood sign in 1932 to the sad tales of talents like Marilyn Monroe, Janis Joplin and Whitney Houston who all died much too young.”

‘Fooling the Eye’ With Marilyn

‘Golden Marilyn’, a hyper-realist portrait of Marilyn created in 2010 by the Tulsa-based artist Otto Duecker (after the iconic Ben Ross photo), is featured in Fool the Eye, a new exhibition at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Arbor, New York until March 2018, as Deidre Geben reports for Newsday.

More of Otto Duecker’s ‘Marilyns’

“At a time when the word ‘fake’ is dominating conversation, the Nassau County Museum of Art presents ‘Fool the Eye,’ an ambitious examination of truth and illusion comprising more than 150 paintings, sculptures and works on paper from the past two centuries.

‘Whether realist or abstract, all the works in the show play with perceptual effects,’ says Franklin Hill Perrell, who, along with Debbie Wells, guest-curated the exhibition. To be sure, Perrell and Wells have gathered a delightfully mixed bag of visual tricks. Prominent among the optical devices on view is trompe l’oeil, a technique that upends rules of linear perspective to convince viewers they are looking at actual objects instead of two-dimensional representations of them.

Museumgoers are likely to be tempted to peel off the pieces of torn and curling tape seeming to secure Otto Duecker’s black-and-white photographic rendering of Marilyn Monroe to a wall — that is, until they realize it’s all a pictorial ruse.”

Greene Archive Kickstarts Holiday Sale

The Milton Greene Archive has begun its holiday sale. Each copy of the new book, The Essential Marilyn Monroe, will come, while stocks last, with a vintage Marilyn calendar – printed in 1983 and overseen by Milton himself, the last before he died. Also, all art prints are on a ‘Buy One Get One Free’ offer – full details here.

TCM Brings Marilyn (and More) to Bonham’s

Marilyn at the St Jude’s Hospital benefit, November 1953

A treasure trove of Hollywood memorabilia will go under the hammer tomorrow at Bonham’s, as part of their latest auction, ‘TCM Presents …. Out Of This World!

Several Marilyn-related items are on offer, including a 1950 memo from Twentieth Century Fox to filmmaker Joseph L. Mankiewicz, confirming her casting as Claudia Caswell in All About Eve; and her contract for Horns of the Devil, a property she purchased in 1954.

Marilyn and Arthur by Janice Sargent, 1958

There is also a group of rare photographs, including some taken by amateur photographer Janice Sargent at a children’s hospital benefit in 1953, and one photo from the 1962 Golden Globes. Two photos of a visibly pregnant Marilyn with husband Arthur Miller, taken by Sargent during filming of Some Like It Hot in 1958, are also featured.

Marilyn with Jose Bolanos (right) at the 1962 Golden Globes

Another lot contains several photos taken during filming of Bus Stop, and an interesting photo of Marilyn and Arthur visiting Montgomery Clift on the set of his 1958 film, Lonelyhearts. Marilyn was working on Some Like It Hot at the time, also on the Samuel Goldwyn Studio lot.

 

Marilyn in Paris Match Exhibit

Photos of Marilyn riding a pink elephant at the circus, taken at an arthritis charity benefit in New York by Walter Carone for Paris Match in 1955, are featured in a new exhibit dedicated to the magazine’s great photographers, at the Argentic Gallery on Rue Daubenton, Paris, until tomorrow, November 19.

Thanks to Eric

Finding Marilyn at the Bus Stop

Marilyn never visited Glasgow, although her ancestors are rumoured to have hailed from Scotland. However, as Ken Smith records in his diary for the Herald, several would-be Monroes have passed through the bus stops of Castlemilk…

“OUR bus stories brought back memories for entertainer Andy Cameron who was a bus conductor in the early 60s. Says Andy: ‘When passengers had no money for their fare they could ask for a Pink Slip on which they wrote their names and addresses so that they could go to the Bath Street office and pay it later.’

‘What always surprised me was the number of famous people who lived in Castlemilk and were skint – Rock Hudson, Perry Como, Willie Henderson, Paddy Crerand, Harold Wilson, Marilyn Monroe – they were all on my bus and signed a Pink Slip.'”