A pair of jeans worn by Marilyn in River of No Return (1954) will go under the hammer on Thursday, March 27, as part of ‘Bold Luxury: The Limelight Edit‘ at Julien’s Auctions. (As you can see, the jeans are very faded in front but less so at the back.)
SOLD for $52,000
And sold separately, the print shown above comes from a photo from the collection of Marilyn’s makeup artist, Allan ‘Whitey’ Snyder.
SOLD for $2,275
An inside label shows the name of Helen Thurston, Marilyn’s stand-in for River of No Return. The jeans must have been worn interchangeably by both women, as this pair was found among Marilyn’s estate when she died. Thurston was also a stunt double for Katherine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby (1938), Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again (1939), Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun (1951), Ethel Merman in It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), and Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins (1964.)
Tommy Hilfiger purchased the jeans with two other pairs for $42,550 at the Christie’s auction of Marilyn’s personal property in 1999. He gave the others to pop star Britney Spears and supermodel Naomi Campbell.
The estimated value of the remaining pair is set at $30,000 – $50,000, with a portion of the sale going to autism charity NEXT. However, the jeans were originally manufactured by JC Penney – the global fashion chain which launched a fashion line in partnership with Marilyn’s estate in 2022.
Continuing with the Western theme, Marilyn’s Hyer cowboy boots – worn for her role in The Misfits (1961), and purchased by Hilfiger for $85,000 at Christie’s in 1999 – will also go under the hammer on Thursday.
SOLD for $78,000
The cocktail dress designed by Jean Louis and worn by Marilyn at a press conference for The Misfits is among the other highlights. It was last sold at Julien’s for $65,000 in 2024.
SOLD for $78,000
And listed separately, a rare snapshot shows Marilyn wearing the same dress at a birthday party for leading man Clark Gable. Director John Huston is seated to her left, while the other blonde lady facing away from the camera may be Gable’s wife, Kay.
SOLD for $260
And finally, a Marilyn-owned evening purse from Tommy Hilfiger’s collection – purchased for $187,500 at the Julien’s Auctions sale, ‘Property From the Estate of Lee Strasberg‘, in 2016.
UNSOLD
“A small cylindrical-shaped piece made of gold-tone metal, either end adorned with an elaborate citrine floret, opens to reveal three compartments: the first holds a tiny hair comb and a tube of lipstick [by Dorothy Gray, shade is called ‘Jewel of India’]; the second is a compact [some powder still intact], a powder puff, and an affixed mirror; the third is concave to hold other items — in Marilyn’s case, eight Philip Morris cigarettes and two Mercury dimes dated 1943 and 1945; piece is marked on the compact’s lid ‘Wadsworth / Made in U.S.A.’; together with its original black velvet cover and its box reading ‘Pandora by Wadsworth.'”
The Marilyn Report 
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