Marilyn Monroe 1926-1962
The Associated Press and British Movietone have now uploaded their entire archives to Youtube. Media coverage of this announcement has focused heavily on Marilyn, with the Mirror highlighting a vintage newsreel about her 1954 marriage to Joe DiMaggio on their website today.
The Associated Press has been investigating missing FBI files on Marilyn, as reported in the Washington Post.
“Like many of the stars of her era, Marilyn Monroe’s movements, relationships and comments weren’t just devoured by fans — they were followed closely by the FBI.
Records kept on Monroe, many of which were filed under “Foreign Counterintelligence,” have intrigued many who have sought to learn more about the film star, including those who investigated her death.
In connection with the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s death on Aug. 5, The Associated Press has attempted under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the most complete record of the bureau’s monitoring of Monroe.
Nearly nine months later — after several requests and an appeal — obtaining a more complete record of how the FBI investigated Monroe in the months before she died have been stymied by an effort to simply find the files.
The FBI says it no longer has the files it compiled on Monroe; the National Archives — the usual destination for such material — says it doesn’t have them either.
Finding out precisely when the records were moved — as the FBI says has happened — required the filing of yet another, still-pending Freedom of Information Act request.
The most recent version of the files, all heavily redacted, is publicly available on the bureau’s website, The Vault, which periodically posts FBI records on celebrities, government officials, spies and criminals.”