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Fashion Maverick: Double Denim Marilyn

Eve Arnold, 1960

‘Is double denim ever acceptable?’ asks Guardian reader Sarita. Style agony aunt, Hadley Freeman, replies, ‘Yes. If you are Marilyn Monroe, and only if you are filming the final scene of The Misfits.’

Pondering why Marilyn got away with this apparent fashion crime, Hadley concludes: ‘…put her in an evening dress, you see, and her prettiness gets lazy. Give her a hurdle that she has to overcome, and her beauty mojo speeds up and bursts past the finishing line. Or, you know, something.’

Marilyn also rocked the denim look in Clash by Night (1952) and River of No Return (1954).

Source

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Gemini Child: Marilyn’s Star Chart

Photo by Bob Willet, 1952

Jennifer Angel has penned an astrological profile of Marilyn from the New York Daily News

“As a Gemini, MARILYN MONROE was not scared of pushing the envelope on creativity, if she could visualize it she could achieve it and would not let many tell her what she could or couldn’t do. As a Gemini, she would have had a knack of communicating her feelings and visions exactly as she saw them, hence, allowing other people to help her fulfill her dream of putting her individual edge on whatever she was working on, which she indeed did.”

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Julien’s Auctions

Julien’s Auctions are offering property from the personal and professional life of Marilyn Monroe to be auctioned on June 26th and 27th at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, Las Vegas.

A collection of items from the estate of Dr Ralph Greenson, Monroe’s psychiatrist in the last two years of her life, are featured, including a therapy couch from Greenson’s Beverly Hills office, and a chest X-Ray of his famous patient from the early 1950s.

(Some Monroe fans, myself included, may find this more than a little morbid…)

Also on offer are handwritten correspondence between Marilyn and Dr Greenson’s daughter, Joan, then a teenager; and a pink Pucci blouse given by Marilyn to Joan: additionally, there is a chair from Marilyn’s home, a Chanel No. 5 bottle owned by the star, an early portrait by David Conover, and snaps taken by servicemen during Monroe’s 1954 trip to Korea.

An interesting sidenote: items from the personal estate of Anna Nicole Smith are also up for auction. Smith, a glamour model and tabloid favourite until her tragic death in 2007, was an ardent Monroe fan and even lived in the star’s last home for a while.

For those unable to attend the auction in person, bids will also be taken online (in real time) and by telephone. Alternatively, interested parties can order a full ‘Hollywood Legends’ catalogue for the rather grand price of $100.

Press Release

Catalogue

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‘Marilyn Remembered’ at the Hollywood Museum

A new exhibition devoted entirely to Marilyn Monroe opened at the Hollywood Museum on June 1st, which also marked the 84th anniversary of Marilyn’s birth in Los Angeles. The exhibit combines the collections of Scott Fortner, and Greg Schreiner (president of the L.A.-based Marilyn Remembered fanclub.)

Some of the highlights are listed here

Scott Fortner talks about his collection here

Exhibition catalogues can be previewed and ordered here

‘Marilyn Remembered: An Intimate Look at the Legend’ continues until August 31st.

WHERE: The Hollywood Museum, 1660 N. Highland Avenue, Hollywood
WHEN: 10 am to 5 pm Thursday through Sunday
PRICE: $15 for adults; $12 for seniors and children under 12.
Public Info: (323) 464-7776

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Bruno Bernard’s Marilyn Wall Graphics

LTL Prints, a US-based wall graphics company, has launched a unique collection of Bernard of Hollywood wall graphics, featuring ‘Larger Than Life’ images from the archives of Hollywood photographer Bruno Bernard. The range includes many images of Marilyn Monroe from her early modelling days to the peak of her fame.

Here’s the blurb…

Bernard of Hollywood premium wall graphics from LTL PRINTS are available in a range of customer-selected sizes (from laptop-size up to seven feet tall), are self-adhesive and will stick to almost any surface (walls, windows, even ceilings), and can be removed and re-hung 100 times without leaving a mark or damaging your walls.

Press Release

LTL Prints

Bernard of Hollywood

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Sarah Churchwell’s Birthday Blog for Marilyn

The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, a critical analysis of Monroe’s treatment at the hands of her myth-makers, has joined the blogosphere with two posts about MM since yesterday.

The first piece, biographical in tone, focuses on some of the popular misconceptions about Marilyn; while the latter post, intriguingly, refers to the eagerly-awaited collection of Marilyn’s writings, Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters.

“Marilyn: Fragments is due for publication in October; I will have more to say about it then. But I will say this: many books (many books) have purported to be ‘in her own words’ since she died. This claim has been everything from highly arguable (such as her ghost-written ‘autobiography,’ My Story, which was co-authored by at least two writers, and probably ghost-revised after her death; it was certainly ghost-edited after her death) to the outright nonsensical (everything else). This book actually is Marilyn’s own words–it reproduces notebook pages, in her handwriting, and then transcribes them. That alone makes it worth reading.”