Marilyn Monroe’s Personal Copy of Daily Variety, May 16, 1958

From Monroe's Personal Files, Featuring a Back Cover Advertisement Congratulating Her on Her Académie du Cinéma de France Award and Announcing Some Like It Hot

This copy of Daily Variety, dated Friday, May 16, 1958, was preserved among Monroe’s personal files.

The back cover carries a full page advertisement placed by The Mirisch Company congratulating Monroe on her Académie du Cinéma de France award for Best Foreign Actress of 1957 for The Prince and the Showgirl, and announcing her next film, Some Like It Hot, to be produced and directed by Wilder for United Artists release.

The Mirisch Company congratulates Marilyn Monroe on her Academie du Cinema of France award for Best Foreign Actress of 1957 in “The Prince and The Showgirl” …and we are proud that she has selected for her next film “Some Like It Hot” to be produced and directed by Billy Wilder for United Artists Release.”

The advertisement was prepared by Monroe’s publicist Arthur P. Jacobs, who sent her an advance copy of the design before publication with a brief memo reading:

“Dear Marilyn, This is the ad which we prepared for you. I hope you like it.”

That memo, along with a proof of the advertisement, is also part of The Marilyn Monroe Collection (see it here). The Variety issue represents the published result, the advertisement as it appeared in the industry’s most widely read trade publication.

The Académie du Cinéma de France

The Académie du Cinéma de France award was the French equivalent of the American Academy Award. Monroe received it for her performance in The Prince and the Showgirl, the film she produced through Marilyn Monroe Productions in partnership with Laurence Olivier. That the award came from France rather than Hollywood was not incidental. European critics and institutions had long taken Monroe’s acting more seriously than the American industry establishment.

The advertisement served a dual purpose. It acknowledged the international recognition Monroe had received for her dramatic work while simultaneously announcing Some Like It Hot, the Billy Wilder comedy that would become one of the most successful films of her career and one of the most celebrated American films ever made. The pairing of those two facts in a single advertisement was a deliberate statement about Monroe’s range and her continued commercial value.

Monroe was in the early stages of production on Some Like It Hot when this issue was published. Filming began in August 1958.

Category:

Personal Possessions

Item:

Marilyn's Personal Copy of Daily Variety

Date:

May 16, 1958

Provenance:

Julien's Auction
Icons & Idols: Hollywood
Dec 2 - 4, 2021

Collector’s Note

The Jacobs memo and this issue of Variety belong together, and both are in the collection. The memo documents the preparation. The magazine documents the publication. That complete sequence from publicist to print to Monroe’s own files is unusual to have intact.

What the advertisement captures is a specific professional moment. Monroe had just won a major international acting award for a film she had produced herself, and was about to begin one of the most important productions of her career. Jacobs understood the significance of placing both facts in the same advertisement in Variety. The industry read Variety. This was a message directed at the people who made decisions about her career, placed at precisely the right moment.

That Monroe kept the issue is consistent with how she maintained her personal archive. She saved things that documented her professional record. This one documented it well.