BUZZ BEAT MEDIA

This summer, Julien’s Auctions and TCM are breaking out the champagne for their biggest toast to Hollywood yet, commencing with “100 YEARS OF MARILYN,” their centennial celebration of Marilyn Monroe taking place the week of the Hollywood icon’s 100th birthday Thursday, June 4th live at The Peninsula Beverly Hills and online at juliensauctions.com

This extraordinary auction commemorating the milestone birthday of Marilyn Monroe kicks off the industry leading Hollywood memorabilia auction house and Hollywood’s most revered purveyor of classic movies’ event, “JULIEN’S AUCTIONS AND TCM PRESENT: A MONTH OF HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS” taking place throughout the month of June. Coming soon: even more iconic items and collections of Hollywood history heading to “A Month of Hollywood Legends” to be announced in the days ahead! (photo right: Marilyn’s 1952 Jean Lavin gown).

This stunning collection features some of Marilyn Monroe’s most treasured objects and intimate possessions from her estate including pieces from her beloved home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California (photo left) to scripts with her handwritten notes of her famous films, her most glamourous looks and personal clothing, famous and historic photographs, archival material that charts her early and remarkable rise in Hollywood, as well as personal handwritten notes, correspondence, makeup products, and more.

Heading to the auction block for the first time is an outstanding museum-quality artifact of Marilyn Monroe’s lore: the front gates of her Brentwood house. The wooden gates were the dreamy entryway to Marilyn’s first and final home that provided her the calm retreat she sought (photo right). Like Elvis’ Graceland, items from Marilyn’s home hold incredible historical significance as the star’s hacienda-style house was named a Historic-Cultural Monument in 2024–making these gates a rare chance for collectors to own one of the most important and highly sought after pieces of Marilyn Monroe’s life (estimate: $30,000-$50,000).

A wide array of historic artifacts featuring the star’s own handwriting will be offered including her early 1949 William Morris Agency contract (estimate: $4,000-$6,000) (photo left);

Marilyn’s 1956 SAG membership card (estimate: $300-$500); her recipe for stuffing (photo right), and more.

Turning heads once again are instantly emblematic pieces of Marilyn’s iconic style such as a 1950s Jeanne Lanvin / Paris elegant ivory silk evening gown embellished with gold-tone sequins rhinestones and faux pearls (photo top right). The floor length show stopper was originally sold in the now-historic 1999 Christie’s New York sale of the star’s personal property and at Julien’s Auctions “Property from the Estate of Lee Strasberg” in 2016 (estimate: $20,000-$30,000).

Also on offer are Marilyn’s personal garments such as her 1950s tan cotton brassiere inherited by Lee and Paula Strasberg that helped create her unique postwar American feminine style and her allure and iconography as Hollywood’s ultimate sex symbol (estimate: $1,000-$2,000) 

Never-before-seen photographs and slides of Marilyn Monroe, as well as rare and hard-to-find images hidden for decades will reappear such as: a 1954 signed small black and white photograph of the star and her then new husband, Joe DiMaggio, walking off an airplane in Japan in February, 1954 when the couple was on their “working” honeymoon (estimate: $4,000-6,000)

 a 1962 never-published black and white photograph by Allan Grant (estimate: $4,000-$6,000) whose photographs of Marilyn, taken less than one month before her death are now in the realm of legend; a 1955 signed black and white snapshot of Marilyn on her way to Jackie Gleason’s birthday party in NYC from the collection of Frieda Hull, a “Monroe Six” member of young fans who followed Marilyn around town and whom Marilyn maintained a friendship with for the rest of her life (estimate: $4,000-6,000);

a rare black and white photograph of Marilyn on the set of her 1955 comedy, The Seven Year Itch as her make-up and hairdressing team attend to her (estimate: $300-$500)

e of Marilyn’s first professional headshots circa 1944 taken when she was a teenager before she transformed into Marilyn Monroe (estimate: $1,000-2,000)  plus, photographs taken of Marilyn by Nat Dallinger (photo right), Frank Powolny and more.

Marilyn’s legendary beauty that embodied the Golden Age of Hollywood glamour continues to captivate audiences today as a new generation of Marilyn fans and followers on social media seek out the same regimen and brands, she herself used more than a half century ago. A number of Marilyn’s personal make-up products will be on offer including: her orange shade Max Factor lipstick “Lip Pomade 7-22” that Marilyn used during the production of her last and unfinished film 1962’s Something’s Got To Give and was gifted by the star to her stand in Evelyn Moriarty to wear for lighting and camera purposes (estimate: $3,000-5,000) (photo right); her circa 1962 “Helena Rubinstein” mascara, one of the star’s favorite make-up brands (estimate: $600-$800); and more.

Other highlights that will provide endless fascination to her millions of her fans and further insight into her legacy include:

Marilyn’s annotated script of Something’s Got to Give with extensive notes penciled in Marilyn’s hand along with Paula Strasberg’s notes analyzing how the star would approach her role as Ellen, reading in part “About Ellen / …she has been living in the jungle for the last five / years / …but Ellen like a person who has come / close to death has a new certain / vigor / we must break the chains that bind her still / but how?” (estimate: $6,000-$8,000);

• a 1952 handwritten counter check from her “Bank of America.” account paid to Standard Stations, Inc., in the amount of “$68.14,” her residence noted in part as “Beverly Carlton Hotel” (estimate: $1,000-$2,000);
• a 1960 signed check for $3,913.70 from the star’s “Marilyn Monroe Productions, Inc.” account to the “Beverly Hills Hotel / Bungalow 16 / Room 204,” the famous hotel where Marilyn and Arthur Miller stayed during the entire production of her 1960 romantic comedy, Let’s Make Love, (estimate: $600-$800);
• a 1960 Schwab’s Pharmacy receipt for “Mrs. A. Miller” at the “BH Hotel #16 Bg” [Bungalow], for an unspecified prescription from “Dr. Seigel,” the 20th Century Fox studio physician who treated Marilyn countless times throughout her employment there and more.

“There was a world before Marilyn Monroe and a profoundly different one after. She remains a once-in-a-generation star whose influence reshaped culture and continues to resonate today,” said Martin Nolan, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Julien’s Auctions. “As we approach what would have been Marilyn’s 100th birthday, Julien’s Auctions and TCM join audiences around the globe in honoring her extraordinary life and enduring legacy as one of the twentieth century’s defining cultural icons. We are proud to offer an exceptional collection of her most personal belongings, objects that capture the glamour, talent, vulnerability, and sensuality that cement her status as an everlasting legend of Hollywood.”

Julien’s Auctions has made headlines and broken records with the sale of Marilyn Monroe’s artifacts including costumes from her biggest films There’s No Business Like Show Business to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, her 1956 Ford Thunderbird, and Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday Mr. President” dress which sold for a record $4.8 million, the world’s most expensive dress ever sold at auction. (photo right: George Barris’ 1955 photo of Marilyn on the set of The Seven Year Itch)

*All Photos from JULIEN’S AUCTIONS