Friday, September 5, 2008

the Marilyn files

vanity fair's october '08 cover story reveals 586 never-before-seen marilyn monroe artifacts. turns out that marilyn kept all of her most prized possessions in two filing cabinets. her manager hid the filing cabinets for 45 years, and the contents are revealed in this month's vanity fair. photographed by Mark Anderson

the artifacts include bars and hotel receipts, joe dimaggio mementos (like his copy of "good fellowship"), letters, slews of pearls, diamonds, and jade, chanel no 5, >15 prescriptions for barbiturates and sedatives, a recording of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs song “some day my prince will come", and her lucky green dice. you can tell a lot by a woman by what she leaves behind.

marilyn has become such an icon that it's hard for me to imagine what she really looked like. yes i've seen her on the silver screen and in hundreds of photos, but its hard for me to view her as a real person. these artifacts really humanized her for me.


read the riveting article in Vanity Fair "The Things She Left Behind"
see the slideshow of her artifacts photo galleries.


and here are some of my favorite artifacts...

A thank-you note for champagne.



authentic marilyn stationary:



marilyn's lucky pair of green dice:


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