Three sheets of stationary from the world famous
hotel, reading "BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL / AND BUNGALOWS / BEVERLY HILLS CALIFORNIA /
FEATURING THE FAMOUS LANAI RESTAURANT / CRYSTAL ROOM AND RODEO ROOM,"
Personally owned by Marilyn Monroe, this stationary was probably acquired during
one of her many stays at the hotel.
Marilyn first moved in to a
third-floor room at this hotel in late 1952, after a brief lease had
run out on a Hollywood Hills house she had co-rented with Joe
DiMaggio. It was to this room that she returned from the
studio party that year, to spend what she later told friends was her
best-ever Christmas; rather than spending it alone, as she had
expected, she found DiMaggio had not gone to be with his family in
San Francisco but had flown in as a surprise. He had brought a
tree and decorations, put the champagne on ice, and prepared a
blazing fire to welcome her home. Marilyn was still living at
the Beverly Hills Hotel on March 9, 1953, which was very convenient
for an evening engagement she had to pick up her Photoplay magazine
award for Hollywood's Fastest Rising Star at the hotel's Crystal
Room. That evening, her vampish attire caused great scandal
and, to the more prudish members of the audience, even offense.
Marilyn and Joe stayed at the
hotel soon after they were married, in early 1954, while waiting for
decorators to finish work on their home on Palm Drive. She was
back once more on March 8, 1954 to pick up another Photoplay award -
this time she dressed more demurely and did not cause an outburst.
Later that year, after she split up with DiMaggio, Marilyn may have
stayed a few days at this hotel as she worked out her next move.
During the years she was based in
New York, the Beverly Hills Hotel was where she stayed when filming
commitments took her to Los Angels; in 1958, shooting for Some Like
It Hot, and in 1960 for Let's Make Love - perhaps her longest
sojourn when for four months she and husband Arthur Miller lived in
neighboring bungalows with Yves Montand and his wife, actress Simone
Signoret.
Marilyn at the Beverly Hills Hotel
with then husband Arthur Miller, costar Yves Montand and his wife,
actress Simone Signoret during the filming of "Let's Make Love"
Provenance: Christie's
New York: Film and Entertainment Auction, June 22, 2006
Marilyn first moved in to a
third-floor room at this hotel in late 1952, after a brief lease had
run out on a Hollywood Hills house she had co-rented with Joe
DiMaggio. It was to this room that she returned from the
studio party that year, to spend what she later told friends was her
best-ever Christmas; rather than spending it alone, as she had
expected, she found DiMaggio had not gone to be with his family in
San Francisco but had flown in as a surprise. He had brought a
tree and decorations, put the champagne on ice, and prepared a
blazing fire to welcome her home. Marilyn was still living at
the Beverly Hills Hotel on March 9, 1953, which was very convenient
for an evening engagement she had to pick up her Photoplay magazine
award for Hollywood's Fastest Rising Star at the hotel's Crystal
Room. That evening, her vampish attire caused great scandal
and, to the more prudish members of the audience, even offense. 
