#*mm homes

Sleepovers with Marilyn Monroe. ♡

➳ An ︎Inside look of Marilyn’s home (Part 3): 882 North Doheny Dr. 1953.

This was her thirty-fifth apartment/house she lived in up until this point, and she was twenty-seven at the time. Although she tried to make each place feel like home, this was one of her first official apartments - the others were rooms rented at hotels. When she first moved in, Joe DiMaggio, whom she’d been dating for about a year, helped her move in. After doing so, Jane Russell helped with some ideas for the interior design. The apartment was on the first floor and just a small three-room apartment with a fireplace and white carpeting. 

In her living room, she proudly displayed her baby grand piano, which was newly painted white. Her book collection sat on custom made shelves that lined her wall above her red couch. Her tables, both a side table and chest, has clocks, lamps, flowers, small decor trinkets like candle sticks and drinking glasses that are likely in a silver color. Many of her pieces similar that were auctioned after her death were silver. 

She had a large TV set, likely for Joe as Marilyn rarely watch television, she preferred reading and listening to music, and her fireplace is visual. On the table text to her rests two pictures of her as a little girl. <3 On her wall is an art portrait and lined on the shelves are her three awards: Redbook Award, Henrietta Award, Look Magazine Plaque which was presented to her by Lauren Bacall. On the table in front of her is a dish platter as she looks through some letters. 

In her bedroom, she has the same bedding as she did at her Beverly Carlton apt., and on her bedside table are a small collection of books, likely the ones she was reading at the time. A glass dish is in the center next to a bottle of Chanel No. 5. It was 1953 that she first public stated she slept only in that perfume. Her travel clock by Westclox sits next to her lamp. 

Sleepovers with Marilyn Monroe. ♡ 

➳ An ︎Inside look of Marilyn’s home (Part 2): Beverly Carlton Hotel 1952. 

Photos by Philippe Halsman and Andre de Dienes.

In this next series of Marilyn at home, her artistic side is beautifully highlighted as she surrounded herself with various books and records.

On two twin bookshelves, she has works by Leo Tolstoy, a Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein biography, Peace of Mind, Nana, Men of Music, Arthur Miller’s Focus, Snobs, a collection of pieces by Oscar Wilde, Thomas Wolfe’s Letters to His Mother, art books, and clearly so much more! A photograph of Eleonora Duse rests in the back, whom she looked up to as an actress and artist, as well as flowers that encircle her furniture. Her pieces look to be about a silver grey/white oak color, even a natural or golden oak; of course, this depends on lighting in which the photograph was taken.

She proudly displays her Henrietta Award, which she received on January 26th of that year for “Best Young Box Office Personality” of 1951.

A white pale trash can sits beneath her desks and a very large suitcase sits beside it, with the travel tags still on it, “TWA” aka Trans World Airlines, at LaGuardia airport in Queen, New York City. At that point, Marilyn hadn’t traveled very much. She hoped to see “all the wonders of the world,” she said.

She had a neat collection of records, but clearly seen here is the works of Franz Schubert, an Austrian composer who passed away at the age of 31 in 1928. Marilyn was a huge fan of classical and jazz music. 

Inside Marilyn Monroe’s Home (Part 1): Beverly Carlton Hotel 1951.

After reading a quote in which she told Look Magazine she did not want to be shot inside her and Arthur’s Long Island home, I was inspired to do a mini series on the homes she did allow to be photographed in.

To start, I’ll be doing an in-depth look into her 1951 bedroom at the Beverly Carlton Hotel.

She converted her sofa into a very-comfy makeshift bed with satin/silk bedding. She’s sitting in comfy pajamas reading The Poetry and Prose of Heinrich Heine (1948). Beside her foot is a script, likely for Clash by Night or Don’t Bother to Knock.

The far left table has art books like Michelangelo and Albrecht Dürer, a trinket dish, and a 1949 Year Book with magazines. Taped to the mirror above her is Pieter Bruegel’s “Portrait of an Old Woman” (1593), Amedeo Modigliani’s “A Woman” (1910’s), and Paul Cézanne’s “Card Players” (1890s).

To the right is a framed photo of Eleonora Duse, an Italian actress whom she admired. In the middle rests a standing clock, Anna Karenina on top of Charlie Chaplin, a painting, and a bouquet of flowers. She was known to always have fresh flowers in her home as it gave her a homey feel. A glass of champange with more book rests beside; above is a painting of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam.

On the bottom is a row of books. At the time, amongst her collection, was How to Develop Your Thinking Ability by Keith Keyes Jr., The Loyalty of Free Men by Alan Barth, Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, an Albert Einstein book, An Enemy of the People by Arthur Miller, and more.

Interestingly, in front of her radio, along with more books, is a framed photo of a man that looks like Miller. The two did meet in 1951 but despite their future romance, they were just friends then. She has another clock which was recently auctioned by Juliens. They described it as “a beige metal with a ribbed plastic retractable cover by Westclox.” Beside that is a phone, which she once said, “Do you know who I’ve always depended on? Not strangers, not friends. The telephone! That’s my best friend.”

Sleepovers with Marilyn Monroe. ♡

➳ An ︎Inside look of Marilyn’s home (Part 5): 12305 Fifth Helena Dr, 1962.

What turned out to be the only house Marilyn solely bought and owned on her own, turned out to be her last. She purchased the home for $77,000 and took out a fifteen year mortgage. Her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, quoted her as calling the home as a “fortress where I can feel safe from the world.”

Located on a private cul-de-sac, the property had a long driveway, a garage and a guest house. The home had three-bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kidney shaped pool that Marilyn was excited to have guests take a swim in, and a large lawn area where Marilyn happily gardened. On one of the tiles before entering the home, already in place before she purchased, an inscription read: Cursum Perficio, latin for “my journey ends here,” or “end of my journey.”

Her home wasn’t fully decorated or furnished by the time of her death. In February/March 1962, she traveled to Mexico and visited towns like Taxco, Cuernavaca, Toluca and more

where she purchased several decor and furniture pieces to be delivered.

Still in contact with all her step-children, she wrote to Bobby Miller:

I have just completely bought my new house. As I told you, it is an authentic little Mexican house, but it’s got a gigantic swimming pool, and it looks just like Mexico. You would love it. I have two guest rooms plus a large play room, plus lots of patios, and a big Mexican wall goes all around the place with big high Mexican gates (That’s to keep intruders out, in case anybody gets intrusive.) It’s got a nice garden – not too large to take care of – and, as I told you, the swimming pool is so large it doesn’t leave too much long to take care of.