BEVERLY HILLS, CA.- Julien's Auctions has announced on offer one of the most personal collections of Marilyn Monroe from the estate of Lee Strasberg. The auction will include a wide variety of documents and personal items once owned by Marilyn Monroe and represents the largest collection of Marilyn Monroe artifacts ever offered at auction.
Besides being an actor and director in his own right, Strasberg is considered the father of method acting in America. Strasberg revolutionized the art of acting by having a profound influence on performance in American theater and movies. A myriad of actors and directors from the United States and around the world gave Lee Strasberg credit for his influence on them, including Mike Nichols, Richard Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Jane Fonda and Robert DeNiro." Stars of Hollywood's silver screen era who trained under Strasberg include Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Jean Stapleton and of course, Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn developed a close personal relationship with Lee and his wife Paula, and she ultimately bequeathed all of her personal effects and clothing to Lee in her will.
"No one person ever really knew every facet of Marilyn Monroe, though countless books have attempted to piece together every first, second and third hand account of each encounter, often embellished through passage of time. Marilyn was a complex and beguiling figure in her lifetime, leaving generations of adoring fans to speculate, infer and debate about her life. What has resulted is a prismatic kaleidoscope image built upon both fact and fantasy." – Anna Strasberg
"This is one of the most important and historic auctions of Marilyn Monroe ever. This diverse collection gives us a most intimate glimpse of the screen legend. Never before have there been so many important artifacts from the life and career of the much loved global icon Marilyn Monroe as in our Nov 19th and 20th auction." – Martin Nolan, Executive Director of Julien's Auctions
Perhaps the highlight of the items is one of just a few pieces of fine jewelry ever owned by Monroe: a ladies platinum and diamond cocktail watch with face reading "Blancpain, and the movement is signed Rayvill Watch Co. 17 Jewels, Unadjusted Switzerland." The sale includes other pieces of costume jewelry, compacts, cosmetics and a few pieces related to Joe DiMaggio. A DiMaggio highlight is an alligator men's accessory case with custom "JDim" initial in brass on lid with a combination lock closure set to "555" — a repetition of DiMaggio's Yankee number 5.
The sale will also include a beautiful 1950's brown alligator ladies handbag from I. Magnin & Co. with matching accessories, a grey pony handbag from Mexico still containing three one peso bills, and a number of other handbags, fur coats and stoles.
Of particular interest is a stunning ladies minaudière with the original box, featuring three compartments including one for loose powder with cotton buffer, mirror, comb, two mercury dimes, eight Phillip Morris cigarettes and a tube of used Revlon lipstick in "Bachelor's Carnation" with a date of 1947, a virtual time capsule of one of the star's nights out on the town.
The items in this collection also include documents that represent signposts containing unbiased factual information placing the star in a certain place on a certain day, the only tangible things left behind to mark simple and remarkable moments in her life and career, from a taxi receipt dated February 2, 1960 listing the trip details as simply "From: 904 To: 20th Century" to a check dated July 25, 1952 written in Monroe's hand to her mother Gladys Eley in the amount of $150.00 endorsed by her mother signed, "Mrs. Gladys P. Eley." In addition to household, food, fur, books, beauty, and clothing receipts, there are tax documents listing the star's expenditures in great detail, a collection of recipes given to her by friends, and of certain interest is her 1962 checkbook containing the filled out stubs of every check written from her account in the final year of her life as well as the checks written from her account immediately after her death.
The items provide an unprecedented look at the daily details of her life, offering yet another perspective of Monroe.
In addition to these extraordinary highlights from the screen icon's life are documents, correspondence, poems and intimate notes featured in the appropriately titled 2012 book Fragments. The book helped to piece together a more even-handed view of the icon, demonstrating her intellectual curiosity, vulnerability and humanity. The poems included in the book offer a deeply personal look into Monroe's thoughts, such as this excerpt: "Only parts of us will ever touch parts of others — one's own truth is just that really — one's own truth…" Many of the writings featured in the book are contained in notebooks that are included in the sale as well as lighter material like her now famous recipe for stuffing scrawled on a sheet of "City Title Insurance Company" notepaper.
