Items from Icons: Playboy, Hugh Hefner and Marilyn Monroe – including the red umbrella from Marilyn’s Tobay Beach layout, a Jean Louis dress and an Andy Warhol portfolio – are now on display at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, as the three-day sale begins today.
Continuing a series of posts, today I’m looking at items which tell us more about Marilyn’s life in the spotlight. (You can read all my posts on the auction here.)
A Rolleiflex camera owned by Andre de Dienes, used in his 1949 Jones/Tobay Beach session with Marilyn
SOLD for $19,500
A ‘celestial’ vintage print based on a photo of Marilyn from that session superimposed onto an image of clouds (believed to have been made in the early 1960s.)
SOLD for $1,040
Above, at top: Original 1948 negative from Marilyn’s yoga layout with Edward Cronenweth while under contract at Columbia Pictures.
SOLD for $3,810
At bottom: Signed magazine page featuring photo of Marilyn [taken by Laszlo Willinger ca 1950-51], signed and inscribed in ink at lower left to child actress Linda Bennett, ‘To Linda / Love & Kisses / Marilyn Monroe.’
SOLD for $5,200
Sold separately, two original negatives taken by G. Fred Lukens at the Miss America pageant and opening of Monkey Business in Atlantic City on September 2, 1952, showing Marilyn riding in the Twentieth Century-Fox automobile promoting the movie at the Stanley Theatre.
SOLD for $1,625 (left) and $2,925 (right)
At left: Artist proof print featuring an image of Marilyn Monroe from Tom Kelley‘s famous 1949 Red Velvet photo session initialed lower right in by Hefner ‘HMH’.
SOLD for $15,875
At right: “An original copy of the first issue of Playboy magazine featuring Marilyn on the cover. She also appears on the interior of the premiere issue of Hugh Hefner’s famous magazine in an article on pages 17 and 18 titled ‘What Makes Marilyn’ and Tom Kelley’s 1949 photo is published on page 19. Monroe is called ‘Sweetheart of the Month,’ which evolved into Playmate of the Month. The magazine hit newsstands in December 1953 and sold for 50 cents a copy.”
SOLD for $6,500
“A group of vintage typewritten carbon copies of internal studio memos on Twentieth Century Fox letterhead that circulated in 1953 following the release of Tom Kelley’s nude calendar photos and how they should handle the ensuing controversy. [This was an ongoing concern, as Marilyn had publicly confirmed the photos were of herself in March 1952; and in June, she had testified in court against a mail-order company selling nude photos under her name.]
The memos are dated February 6-23, 1953 and are between Harry Brand, Twentieth Century Fox’s publicity director, and Frank H. Ferguson, the studio’s assistant secretary, and the subject field is typed with the words ‘Marilyn Monroe.’ Attached are two vintage newspaper clippings, one with the headline ‘Marilyn Monroe Calendars’ and the other ‘Miss Monroe (on Calendar) Causes Arrest.'”
SOLD for $5,200
Above, at top: ‘A signed copy of a letter to the Screen Actors Guild on MCA letterhead, that’s dated January 1953 and signed by Marilyn and Lew Wasserman … The letter requests an acknowledgement of the change in representation for Monroe from the William Morris Agency to MCA under the supervision of Lew Wasserman, who later became the president of the Screen Actors Guild. Johnny Hyde, executive vice president of William Morris and the man credited with launching Marilyn’s film career, had passed away in 1950. The loss of Hyde may have precipitated the change.”
SOLD for $4,550
At bottom: “A signed personal cheque handwritten in ink by Marilyn to the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company in the amount of $62.83, dated April 27, 1953. Her signature appears at bottom right.”
SOLD for $11,700
At left: A 2000s-era print of Marilyn with radio/TV host Ralph Edwards at a charity baseball game in 1952, stamped in the lower right corner ‘Frank Worth Estate / Limited Edition.’
SOLD for $1,625
At right: “A group of 12 vintage contact prints of Marilyn Monroe. Two were taken in March 1953 at the premiere of Call Me Madam with radio and television personality Ken Murray but are stamped on the back with ‘Dec 1952.’ Six were taken in 1952 at a Los Angeles drugstore where Monroe was autographing the 1952 Life magazine that featured her photo on the cover. Four were taken in 1956 on location in Phoenix, Arizona, during filming of Bus Stop.”
SOLD for $1,040
At left: a pair of vintage contact prints from negatives of Marilyn in candid poses during her February 1954 tour of US Army bases in Korea
SOLD for $1,300
At right: a press photo of Marilyn visiting Hassan, a palm reader (SOLD. The image was captured by Dave Cicero on November 24, 1954. The official caption titled ‘Marilyn’s Fortune’ is affixed to the verso.
SOLD for $3,575
At left: A contact sheet featuring 12 silver gelatin glossy black and white images of Marilyn Monroe, Laurence Olivier, and Terrence Rattigan taken by Milton Greene at the Plaza Hotel in New York on February 9, 1956.
SOLD for $1,950
At right: A collection of 29 images on 12 vintage glossy contact sheet prints of Monroe, Olivier, and Rattigan taken by Milton Greene on the same day, at a press conference held in the Plaza Hotel to announce their upcoming co-production, The Sleeping Prince (later retitled The Prince and the Showgirl.)
SOLD for $1,950
Above, at top: A small notecard sent to Marilyn by Bus Stop producer Buddy Adler, who replaced Darryl F. Zanuck as production chief at Twentieth Century-Fox from 1956-60. The notecard reads, ‘Darling, It’s wonderful having you home again.’
SOLD for $1,625
At bottom: A small note card with embossed letters sent to Marilyn by actress Joan Blondell, reading ‘WADLEY & SMYTHE, NEW YORK.’ The handwritten note on the card reads, ‘May the days of your years be gentle always.’
SOLD for $910
A Metropolitan Opera playbill from the 1958-1959 season that’s been signed by Marilyn in blue ink and is accompanied by a photo of Marilyn signing a playbill. This is believed to have been signed on February 10, 1959, when Marilyn and her husband Arthur Miller attended a performance of Macbeth.
SOLD for $16,250
At left: Oversize photo taken by Manfred Kreiner on March 18, 1959, as Marilyn arrived at Chicago’s Midway Airport to promote Some Like It Hot.
SOLD for $1,040
At right: Oversize photo of Marilyn with columnists at a ladies’ luncheon in the Ambassador East Hotel during the Chicago trip, with a handwritten caption in German on the verso.
SOLD for $3,250
Sold separately, three vintage oversize photos taken by Gene Daniels, showing Marilyn with screenwriter Jose Bolanos at the Golden Globes on March 8, 1962, where she accepted the award for World Film Favourite (Female).
Clockwise from left: SOLD for $635, $520 and $780
“An original ticket stub and program for the May 19, 1962 event ‘New York’s Birthday Salute to President Kennedy.’ The ticket is for the Orchestra section G row 4, seat 2. The event took place at Madison Square Garden and featured a lineup that included Marilyn Monroe, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Maria Callas, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and Diahann Carroll. The star-studded celebration was held 10 days before Kennedy’s actual birthday, and was sponsored by the Democratic Committees and Citizens for Kennedy as a fundraiser to erase debt incurred during the 1960 presidential election. Monroe famously flew to New York to perform a sultry rendition of ‘Happy Birthday, Mister President.'”
SOLD for $5,850
A portfolio of 10 Sunday B. Morning prints of Andy Warhol‘s art featuring Marilyn Monroe. The verso of each print features an embossed stamp certifying that it was published by Morning. The pop artist created his first portraits of Marilyn – based on a 1952 photo by Gene Kornman, promoting Niagara – in the weeks following her death in August 1962. (The original Sunday B. Morning prints were made in 1967, but the company continued making unauthorised prints after the first limited run.)
SOLD for $7,800
The Marilyn Report 