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Gaga for Marilyn

This month’s Vanity Fair interview with singer Lady Gaga took place close to one of Marilyn Monroe’s old haunts….

“Bungalow 9, the Beverly Hills Hotel…the pink stucco bungalow stands between No. 10 – where Marilyn Monroe had a torrid affair in 1960 with her ‘Let’s Make Love’ co-star Yves Montand – and No. 8, home at one time to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.”

Photo by Bruce Davidson, Beverly Hills Hotel, 1960

During the interview, Gaga referenced MM while discussing her controversial ‘Paparazzi’ video of 2009.

“And while my fascination with celebrity has almost left the building, I had this incredible fascination with how people love watching celebrities fall apart, or when celebrities die; I wanted to know, what did they look like when they died? Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, JonBenet Ramsey…I think about all those dead girls, all those dead blonde icons. What did they look like when they died? So then I thought, well maybe if I show what I look like when I die, people won’t wonder. Maybe that’s what I want people to think I’ll look like when I die.”

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A Lesson from Marilyn

‘Jon Dosa of Palm Springs, former TV talk show producer, will forever remember what Marilyn Monroe taught him about sex. Well, who wouldn’t?

Monroe was 35. Dosa was 19 when he snuck onto the set at Harrah’s in Reno, Nev. “The Misfits” was shooting.

The most beautiful creature he had ever seen was on a slant board awaiting her next scene, unblinking and staring straight ahead.

Nervously, young Dosa edged toward Monroe. “Standing within inches of her luminescent face,” Dosa said, “her lovely, vacant, blue-green eyes made contact with my soul.”

He told the blonde goddess the usual pronouncements about enjoying her work. Then trying for more sophisticated and intimate conversation, he said in a chummy voice, “You know, I think Jayne Mansfield depends too much on sex.”

Monroe looked at him and said, “Well, don’t discount it.”

So that was Marilyn Monroe’s advice about sex. Don’t discount it. And Dosa never has.’

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Marilyn and Monty in Dayton, Nevada

“Not far from Virginia City is the former mining town of Dayton. However, Dayton — immediately off Highway 50 — became famous not for gold and silver, but for its role as a backdrop for The Misfits, a 1961 movie starring Clark Cable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift.

In the movie, Mia’s restaurant in Dayton was used, and if you take a little time to visit the restaurant’s contiguous bar, you’ll see life-size photographs of Marilyn Monroe.

Knowing about the movie’s impact on the area, we camped one night in Dayton and then watched the movie on DVD. With a little direction from the bartender, we found the setting for a major scene in which Marilyn Monroe had sat on a pile of trash, listening as Montgomery Clift poured out his tales of broken-hearted loves. Clift played a masterful role as a cowboy working rodeos, and Gable had the role of an aging cowboy determined at times to lose himself in the empty space of Nevada. Here, we soon discovered, you can easily do that better than most any place else in America, definitely making Highway 50 the road to ride.”

Marilyn and Monty

Source

Footage from The Misfits

If you remember The Misfits filming in Dayton, please share your memories – more info here