A three-month-long photographic exhibit of screen siren Marilyn Monroe has opened at the Coronado Museum of History and Art featuring photos from the Edward Weston Collection of Los Angeles. Some photos have never before been displayed.
The Balboa Theater Foundation will host several events celebrating “Marilyn at 80: Some Still Like It Hot.” The nonprofit organization has been granted unprecedented access to more than 1,000 Marilyn photos. The priceless and rare photos will be auctioned on eBay and at live venues over the next few months.
Now on view at the Coronado Museum until Jan. 15, 2007, are photos by photographer George Barris, who shot a series of stunning photos of Marilyn in the weeks before her death in 1962. Included is what is thought to be the last professional photograph of Marilyn. The bombshell actress liked Barris as a photographer, and she also loved to sit for Milton Greene, Laszlo Willinger, Tom Kelly and Bert Stern.
Kelly became famous for shooting the nude calendar photo of Marilyn back in the 1950s that created a sensation. Marilyn was just a starlet then, and there was a storm of publicity about her appearing nude but she only endeared herself to her growing public by admitting she posed for the beautiful photograph. She displayed some of her sense of humor when asked what she was wearing during the photo shoot. “Chanel No. 5,” she said with a wink. Everybody fell in love with Marilyn from that point. She was paid $50 for the session and said the money was used for a payment on her convertible.
The tribute to Marilyn continues Nov. 24 with an exclusive preview of MM’s raciest photographs at Stingaree, San Diego’s hottest nightclub. While dancing through the night, guests can participate in electronic, live and silent auctions of many of the well-known images taken by Stern.
The final tribute to “Marilyn at 80: Some Still Like It Hot” will be held Jan. 14, 2007, at the Hotel Del Coronado. More limited edition photos will be on display, and a series of historic newsreels will be shown, along with a VIP screening of the Billy Wilder smash comedy “Some Like It Hot.” Surprise celebrities will appear.
My heart is particularly close to the movie “Some Like It Hot” and to Marilyn herself. When the film company arrived in Coronado to film some beach sequences and scenes inside the historic hotel in the summer of 1958, this writer couldn’t resist the excitement. On assignment from my college magazine, for which I was a writer and cartoonist, I made my way to the film’s unit publicist and managed to get a pass onto the set. Being only 19 years old at the time, it was a thrilling event for me and was the beginning of my Hollywood writing assignments.
Marilyn was the most famous movie star in the world at the time. Everything she did was news. She was the epitome of the glamorous blonde movie star and played that role to the hilt for her millions of fans. She always thought of Marilyn Monroe as a part she played. She was not Marilyn; she was Norma Jean Baker/Dougherty.
I spent an entire week on the set and observed Marilyn and her co-stars, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, as they filmed various scenes on the beach.
Whenever Marilyn would emerge from her cottage ” hours late ” she would draw a huge crowd as she walked across the sand. Police guards surrounded her. I would get caught in the inner circle with her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, and we would all walk to the set while screaming fans created pandemonium.
Once during the filming I managed to have a few moments of quiet with Marilyn herself. Always surrounded by a massive number of studio people, it was difficult to get her alone. However, she had her own tent on the beach and I simply walked over and began talking to her. She was happy to see I was working for my college magazine and offered to pose for pictures right at the water’s edge. Imagine posing for me, a college kid with stars in his eyes. This was too good to be true! I couldn’t believe how sweet and accommodating she was to me. I was so nervous and excited I barely got the lens cover off my 35mm camera.
Marilyn was more beautiful in person than she was on screen, if that is believable. She radiated, she glowed. Totally sweet and adorable during our conversation, she said, “You know, Jimmy, no studio made me a star. It wasn’t the Hollywood system. It was the fans who made me famous. I love my fans.”
The Coronado Museum of History and Art is located at 1100 Orange Ave. For information about the Marilyn Monroe exhibition, call (619) 435-7242.