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Marilyn Monroe's Secret Files in Vanity Fair's 25th Anniversary Issue
The Things She Left Behind
The tragic 1962 overdose … two filing cabinets holding many of her secrets: keys to the mystery that was Marilyn Monroe. As her estate battles for control of her image, the author describes the cache’s revelations—papers, furs, jewelry, and other items—which have cast a spell over several people, including photographer Mark Anderson, who spent more than two years documenting the disputed collection. Related: “The Marilyn Files,” more than 500 images from Anderson’s archives.
by Sam Kashner October 2008
Dr. Ralph Greenson, her psychiatrist, was probably the first to arrive, in the early-morning hours of August 5, 1962. Her personal physician, Dr. Hyman Engelberg, was also summoned to her bungalow, at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive. One of her lawyers, Milton “Mickey” Rudin, came and started working the phones. Arthur Jacobs, her chief publicist, was called away from the Hollywood Bowl, where he and his future wife, Natalie Trundy, were attending a concert on that warm summer night. In later years, Jacobs would never speak about the scene in her bedroom, because it was “too horrible to talk about.” The police got there around 4:30 a.m. And then there was the curious sight of Eunice Murray, the housekeeper who had discovered the body, washing the bedsheets in the middle of the night.
The actor Peter Lawford, President Kennedy’s brother-in-law, was not there, but he had been troubled by the way Monroe sounded in their last phone call, just before her death: “Say good-bye to Pat [Lawford]. Say good-bye to the president. And say good-bye to yourself because you’re a nice guy.”
Marilyn Monroe, the most famous movie star in the world, had succumbed to a prescription-drug overdose at the age of 36. Since then, the rumors and confusion about what happened before and after her death have never gone away: Was it suicide or an accident? Was she in fact murdered? The mystery has fueled her legend as much as any of the 30-plus films she made in her 15-year career, or the famous men she married—Yankee great Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller—or her relationships with John and Robert Kennedy. Conflicting accounts of her last hours and the actual time and means of her death have served only to deepen the mystery.
The entire article is lengthy and can be found at the source.
Sugar Kane
The Marilyn Files
At Frank Sinatra’s suggestion, Marilyn Monroe kept her life inside two filing cabinets—letters, invoices, financial records, and the mementos that meant the most to her. After her tragic death, in 1962, at the age of 36, the cabinets, together with an assortment of jewels, fur coats, and other personal belongings, were stashed away by the actress’s business manager, Inez Melson. This secret trove would remain virtually unknown to the world for more than four decades, until photographer Mark Anderson began an epic two-year project of documenting it. His photographs, made public for the first time, offer new insights into the life of Hollywood’s most iconic figure.
WEB EXCLUSIVE September 2, 2008
Discover 586 unseen artifacts in our exclusive slide shows:
1. The Auction The two locked filing cabinets took different routes to Inez Melson. The gray cabinet—which features a hidden safe—was among the items put up for auction by Melson in November 1963 as “Personal Property Likely to Depreciate in Value.” It was bought under the name of her nephew (without his knowledge) and delivered to her office. In 1969, the brown cabinet was delivered to Melson’s home by Monroe’s second husband, Joe DiMaggio.
2. Joe DiMaggio Monroe married Yankee great Joe DiMaggio on January 14, 1954, and the two divorced only nine months later. But DiMaggio became increasingly important in her life again as her marriage to Arthur Miller was coming apart.
3. Arthur Miller Monroe and playwright Arthur Miller were married from 1956 to 1961. The actress became very close with Miller’s father, Isidore, and children, Jane and Robert.
4. Mother Issues Monroe’s mother, Gladys Baker Eley, suffered from schizophrenia and was institutionalized off and on throughout her life. One of Inez Melson’s responsibilities was to look after Eley, which she dutifully did, providing Monroe with updates on her condition.
5. Inez Melson Hired as Monroe’s personal business manager, Inez Melson ended up serving her in a wide variety of ways. She may have felt slighted not to have been included in Monroe’s will, but she became a key figure in the actress’s legacy anyway.
6. The Actors Studio In 1955, Lee and Paula Strasberg welcomed Monroe into the Actors Studio, the school renowned for training Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Montgomery Clift. In her will, Monroe left the most valuable part of her estate to Lee Strasberg, who, with his wife, was an important mentor and friend to her.
7. The Letters She WroteMonroe’s letters to Arthur Miller’s children are playful, poignant, and intimate. Her letters to friends and acquaintances reveal her to be gracious, witty, and courteous, if occasionally slow in getting back to them.
8. The Letters She Received Monroe’s mail from friends, family, and acquaintances demonstrates that she was constantly in demand and yet maintained close relationships with many people.
9. Taking Care of Business The correspondence between Monroe and her employers and employees, as well as among her lawyers and assistants, reveals the hectic schedule and delicate balance behind a career that was at its prime when Monroe suddenly died.
10. The Telegrams Telegrams were one of the methods of communication Monroe’s friends and acquaintances relied on to reach her during her frequent travels.
11. The Fan Mail Perhaps no star in movie history has inspired the kind of following that Monroe had. Her fans frequently laid bare their own lives to her in letters and reached out for some sort of connection with their idol.
12. Posthumous Letters Monroe’s death stunned the world and produced an outpouring of mourning and eulogy. Gay Talese reported in The New York Times that a record 12 suicides occurred in one day in New York a week after her overdose, and Truman Capote wrote, “Cannot believe that Marilyn M. is dead. She was such a good-hearted girl, so pure really, so much on the side of the angels.”
13. The Keepsakes Monroe kept all kinds of mementos and baubles—from her childhood, from her travels, from her friendships—that held special meaning for her.
14. The Clothes The clothes and accessories in the collection are a reminder of Monroe’s expensive tastes and unique glamour.
15. The Jewels Monroe was a prolific collector of jewelry who wore precious stones and fine costume pieces alike. Her tastes tended toward the modern, including a 1960s necklace with stylized lily drops and a pair of pineapple-shaped earrings.
16. Keeping in Touch Monroe was an expressive writer and busy traveler who maintained updated address books and stayed close to friends around the country.
17. The Stationery A prolific correspondent, Monroe had her stationery embossed in glamorous, yet subtle, capitals.
18. The Prescriptions Inez Melson claimed to have removed 15 bottles of prescription medicine from Monroe’s bedside table after her death. Pharmacy receipts show that Monroe was prescribed barbiturates and sedatives, and that Arthur Miller was prescribed drugs, too.
19. The Receipts Monroe’s receipts shed light on her personal tastes and buying habits—everything from books to boas.
20. The Finances Monroe’s financial records reveal that she both made and spent great sums of money. Her frequent debts were a constant cause of concern to her retinue of managers, lawyers, and assistants.
21. The Legal Documents Monroe’s birth certificate, divorce papers, and lease agreements are among the files in this collection.
22. Handling the Press Represented by the public-relations firm Rogers & Cowan and publicity agent Pat Newcomb, Monroe, with her constant press, arguably set the modern standard for celebrity.
23. Posthumous PressMonroe’s death was front-page news around the world. The Los Angeles Times’s coverage was particularly thorough.
24. The Will Monroe’s will established a trust to provide her mother with $5,000 a year and left $10,000 to her half-sister, Berniece Baker Miracle; $10,000 to her friend and secretary May Reis; and $5,000 to the playwright and poet Norman Rosten and his wife, Hedda. Lee and Paula Strasberg inherited what would become the most valuable part of her estate, including all of her personal effects, to be distributed “among my friends, colleagues and those to whom I am devoted.”
The Things She Left Behind
The tragic 1962 overdose … two filing cabinets holding many of her secrets: keys to the mystery that was Marilyn Monroe. As her estate battles for control of her image, the author describes the cache’s revelations—papers, furs, jewelry, and other items—which have cast a spell over several people, including photographer Mark Anderson, who spent more than two years documenting the disputed collection. Related: “The Marilyn Files,” more than 500 images from Anderson’s archives.
by Sam Kashner October 2008
Dr. Ralph Greenson, her psychiatrist, was probably the first to arrive, in the early-morning hours of August 5, 1962. Her personal physician, Dr. Hyman Engelberg, was also summoned to her bungalow, at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive. One of her lawyers, Milton “Mickey” Rudin, came and started working the phones. Arthur Jacobs, her chief publicist, was called away from the Hollywood Bowl, where he and his future wife, Natalie Trundy, were attending a concert on that warm summer night. In later years, Jacobs would never speak about the scene in her bedroom, because it was “too horrible to talk about.” The police got there around 4:30 a.m. And then there was the curious sight of Eunice Murray, the housekeeper who had discovered the body, washing the bedsheets in the middle of the night.
The actor Peter Lawford, President Kennedy’s brother-in-law, was not there, but he had been troubled by the way Monroe sounded in their last phone call, just before her death: “Say good-bye to Pat [Lawford]. Say good-bye to the president. And say good-bye to yourself because you’re a nice guy.”
Marilyn Monroe, the most famous movie star in the world, had succumbed to a prescription-drug overdose at the age of 36. Since then, the rumors and confusion about what happened before and after her death have never gone away: Was it suicide or an accident? Was she in fact murdered? The mystery has fueled her legend as much as any of the 30-plus films she made in her 15-year career, or the famous men she married—Yankee great Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller—or her relationships with John and Robert Kennedy. Conflicting accounts of her last hours and the actual time and means of her death have served only to deepen the mystery.
The entire article is lengthy and can be found at the source.
Sugar Kane
The Marilyn Files
At Frank Sinatra’s suggestion, Marilyn Monroe kept her life inside two filing cabinets—letters, invoices, financial records, and the mementos that meant the most to her. After her tragic death, in 1962, at the age of 36, the cabinets, together with an assortment of jewels, fur coats, and other personal belongings, were stashed away by the actress’s business manager, Inez Melson. This secret trove would remain virtually unknown to the world for more than four decades, until photographer Mark Anderson began an epic two-year project of documenting it. His photographs, made public for the first time, offer new insights into the life of Hollywood’s most iconic figure.
WEB EXCLUSIVE September 2, 2008
Discover 586 unseen artifacts in our exclusive slide shows:
1. The Auction The two locked filing cabinets took different routes to Inez Melson. The gray cabinet—which features a hidden safe—was among the items put up for auction by Melson in November 1963 as “Personal Property Likely to Depreciate in Value.” It was bought under the name of her nephew (without his knowledge) and delivered to her office. In 1969, the brown cabinet was delivered to Melson’s home by Monroe’s second husband, Joe DiMaggio.
2. Joe DiMaggio Monroe married Yankee great Joe DiMaggio on January 14, 1954, and the two divorced only nine months later. But DiMaggio became increasingly important in her life again as her marriage to Arthur Miller was coming apart.
3. Arthur Miller Monroe and playwright Arthur Miller were married from 1956 to 1961. The actress became very close with Miller’s father, Isidore, and children, Jane and Robert.
4. Mother Issues Monroe’s mother, Gladys Baker Eley, suffered from schizophrenia and was institutionalized off and on throughout her life. One of Inez Melson’s responsibilities was to look after Eley, which she dutifully did, providing Monroe with updates on her condition.
5. Inez Melson Hired as Monroe’s personal business manager, Inez Melson ended up serving her in a wide variety of ways. She may have felt slighted not to have been included in Monroe’s will, but she became a key figure in the actress’s legacy anyway.
6. The Actors Studio In 1955, Lee and Paula Strasberg welcomed Monroe into the Actors Studio, the school renowned for training Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Montgomery Clift. In her will, Monroe left the most valuable part of her estate to Lee Strasberg, who, with his wife, was an important mentor and friend to her.
7. The Letters She WroteMonroe’s letters to Arthur Miller’s children are playful, poignant, and intimate. Her letters to friends and acquaintances reveal her to be gracious, witty, and courteous, if occasionally slow in getting back to them.
8. The Letters She Received Monroe’s mail from friends, family, and acquaintances demonstrates that she was constantly in demand and yet maintained close relationships with many people.
9. Taking Care of Business The correspondence between Monroe and her employers and employees, as well as among her lawyers and assistants, reveals the hectic schedule and delicate balance behind a career that was at its prime when Monroe suddenly died.
10. The Telegrams Telegrams were one of the methods of communication Monroe’s friends and acquaintances relied on to reach her during her frequent travels.
11. The Fan Mail Perhaps no star in movie history has inspired the kind of following that Monroe had. Her fans frequently laid bare their own lives to her in letters and reached out for some sort of connection with their idol.
12. Posthumous Letters Monroe’s death stunned the world and produced an outpouring of mourning and eulogy. Gay Talese reported in The New York Times that a record 12 suicides occurred in one day in New York a week after her overdose, and Truman Capote wrote, “Cannot believe that Marilyn M. is dead. She was such a good-hearted girl, so pure really, so much on the side of the angels.”
13. The Keepsakes Monroe kept all kinds of mementos and baubles—from her childhood, from her travels, from her friendships—that held special meaning for her.
14. The Clothes The clothes and accessories in the collection are a reminder of Monroe’s expensive tastes and unique glamour.
15. The Jewels Monroe was a prolific collector of jewelry who wore precious stones and fine costume pieces alike. Her tastes tended toward the modern, including a 1960s necklace with stylized lily drops and a pair of pineapple-shaped earrings.
16. Keeping in Touch Monroe was an expressive writer and busy traveler who maintained updated address books and stayed close to friends around the country.
17. The Stationery A prolific correspondent, Monroe had her stationery embossed in glamorous, yet subtle, capitals.
18. The Prescriptions Inez Melson claimed to have removed 15 bottles of prescription medicine from Monroe’s bedside table after her death. Pharmacy receipts show that Monroe was prescribed barbiturates and sedatives, and that Arthur Miller was prescribed drugs, too.
19. The Receipts Monroe’s receipts shed light on her personal tastes and buying habits—everything from books to boas.
20. The Finances Monroe’s financial records reveal that she both made and spent great sums of money. Her frequent debts were a constant cause of concern to her retinue of managers, lawyers, and assistants.
21. The Legal Documents Monroe’s birth certificate, divorce papers, and lease agreements are among the files in this collection.
22. Handling the Press Represented by the public-relations firm Rogers & Cowan and publicity agent Pat Newcomb, Monroe, with her constant press, arguably set the modern standard for celebrity.
23. Posthumous PressMonroe’s death was front-page news around the world. The Los Angeles Times’s coverage was particularly thorough.
24. The Will Monroe’s will established a trust to provide her mother with $5,000 a year and left $10,000 to her half-sister, Berniece Baker Miracle; $10,000 to her friend and secretary May Reis; and $5,000 to the playwright and poet Norman Rosten and his wife, Hedda. Lee and Paula Strasberg inherited what would become the most valuable part of her estate, including all of her personal effects, to be distributed “among my friends, colleagues and those to whom I am devoted.”
