Letter to Marilyn Monroe from Former Father-In-Law Isidore Miller

This one page typed letter, dated February 22, 1962, was sent to Marilyn Monroe by her former father-in-law, Isidore Miller, on stationery from the Sea Isle Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. The letter is preserved together with its original transmittal envelope, addressed to Marilyn at her Brentwood residence at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive.

Written just weeks after Marilyn’s visit to Florida, the letter reflects the deep affection and enduring bond between Marilyn and Isidore, despite her divorce from Arthur Miller in January 1961. In it, he expresses his heartfelt gratitude for her visit, writing:

“Dear Marilyn,
I can’t tell you in mere words just how much your trip to Florida meant to me… the guests of the Sea Isle Hotel can’t get over how beautiful you looked…”

His closing words are especially revealing of the closeness they continued to share:

“Again, many, many thanks for a WONDERFUL visit. With love, Dad.”

That Isidore continued to address Marilyn as “Dad” underscores the genuine familial connection that remained between them. Their relationship had begun in 1955, when Arthur Miller first introduced Marilyn to his parents, and it endured long after her marriage to Arthur ended.

This letter stands as a poignant and deeply personal record of one of Marilyn Monroe’s most meaningful and lasting family relationships. Preserved from the final year of her life, it offers rare insight into the private bonds she maintained beyond her public career.

Also part of The Marilyn Monroe Collection, the original letter Marilyn sent to Isidore immediately prior to their visit in Florida. Click here for details.

Isidore Miller

Marilyn was introduced by Arthur to his parents one day in the fall of 1955, at their modest apartment in Flatbush, as “the girl I’m going to marry.” For the occasion, Marilyn dressed demurely in a plain gray skirt, a high-collar black blouse, and she wore no makeup. They hit it off right away. Arthur’s sister Joan said, “She adored my father. She was comfortable with my father and he adored her…She felt she could tell him anything and if she said, ‘I’d like this to be between you and me,’ it would only be between her and him.”

On many occasions Isidore and August visited Marilyn and Arthur at their Fifty-seventh Street apartment, where Marilyn would cook food for Isidore, and dote on him if he was unwell; a luxury she had never had with her own father.

Isidore was proud of his friendship with Marilyn. Marilyn kept in regular touch with him, writing him long letters which began “Dear Dad.” In February 1962 she visited him in Florida, concerned that he was lonely after his wife had died. For three days she took him out and about. After she left, Isidore found $200 stuffed into an overcoat pocket. “You see, Marilyn wanted me to protect her, but she also protected me.”

Three months later he was thrilled when Marilyn invited him to be her escort as she went to Madison Square Garden to sing the breathiest and most famous rendition of “Happy Birthday” ever sung. That evening she proudly introduced Isidore to the president as “my former father-in-law,” and brought him along as an escort to the party afterward.