Marilyn Monroe’s Personal Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Invoices

July, 1955

From the Personal Files of Marilyn Monroe:  Two original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Invoices, covering the period July 12-24, 1955. An astounding look into the life of this superstar, with charges referencing cash, telephone calls, air conditioning, medications and even a “Women’s Haberdasher.”

Marilyn-Monroe-Personal-Waldorf-Astoria-Hotel-Invoices

Marilyn-Monroe-Waldorf-Astoria-HotelThe Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
301 Park Avenue, New York

From April 1955 Marilyn’s New York home was at this luxurious New York Hotel. Milton Greene, as a partner in Marilyn Monroe Productions, sublet the twenty-seventh floor three-room suite, number 2728 from its owner, actress Leonora Corbett, for the sum of $1,000 per week. Biographer Fred Lawrence Guiles writes, “She was often acutely lonely in her Waldorf Towers apartment, as only a famed movie star cut off from ordinary mortals can be.”

An excerpt from the Book “Marilyn: The Ultimate Look at the Legend” by James Haspiel describes Marilyn’s living quarters:

You entered Marilyn’s apartment directly into the living room, and on a bulletin board there on the right-hand was…were items that stay even today in my memory. Pages from foreign magazines; a picture of Albert Einstein, of his face; and another picture of Einstein walking down a road, seen from behind. There was another page that appeared to me to be a picture of a cluster of hungry orphans all huddled together. Sitting on a little table on the left side of the room was a sketch of Marilyn that was quite wonderful…executed by actor Zero Mostel…Marilyn’s bed was against the wall that bordered the living room, and hung over her bed was this enormous painting of Abraham Lincoln…Marilyn’s telephone was turned into the bed’s headboard, so that her private number was not readily obvious to just anyone who might be passing through.

By the end of 1955, this luxurious suite was too much of a financial drain for Marilyn Monroe Productions, so Marilyn moved to an apartment on Sutton Place. Over the following years she had occasion to return for a radio show recording (1956), for the post-premiere party for The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), and a fashion show held by the March of Dimes (1958).

Marilyn-Monroe-Waldorf-Astoria-InterviewColumnist Elsa Maxwell with Marilyn in her suite at the Waldorf-Astoria

 

Marilyn-Monroe-Waldorf-Astoria-Radio-InterviewA rare radio broadcast from the Waldorf Astoria December 18th 1956

Important activities in Marilyn’s life around this time include:
-Edward R. Murrow interviews Marilyn live on “Person to Person” – April 8
-Marilyn briefly dates Marlon Brando, and when they split up they remain friends
-World premiere of “The Seven Year Itch” – June 1
-Marilyn moves away from Famous Artists, and signs an agency contract with MCA – July 26
-Marilyn attends Miller’s, “A View from the Bridge,” on opening night at the Coronet Theater – September 29