Marilyn Monroe Personal Beverly Hills Hotel Letterhead

From the Personal Files of Marilyn Monroe: Three sheets of letterhead 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 letterhead was probably acquired during one of her many stays at the hotel.

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The Beverly Hills Hotel
9641 West Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills

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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 Angeles; 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.

Above:  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.”  Click on a photo for an enlargement.

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Provenance: Christie’s New York: Film and Entertainment Auction, June 22, 2006

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