719

Marilyn Monroe

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:15,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
Marilyn Monroe

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2017 Nov 08 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Rare ALS signed “Norma Jeane,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 5.25 x 8.25, January 14, 1944. Letter to her legal guardian, Grace (McKee) Goddard, in full (spelling and grammar retained): “I'm sorry I havn't written sooner but honestly I've been so busy. At the present time I’m having a two weeks vacation. (without pay). Jimmie hasn't come home yet but expects to be home most any time. He sent me $100.00 for Christmas so I put some more with it and I am now the happy owner of a Gold Coast monkey coat. Oh its simply beautiful! I got the finest quality obtainable because I thought I might as well get something that would last. (I don’t want everyone to know that it cost as much as it did in the first place its my own business, don’t you think? Everyone says they can't get over how much I've changed since I've come back from the East. At work they all say I'm full of life, pep and vitality. I havn’t been working very hard, just sort of taking it easy but I still get all of my work finished. Radioplane Company layed almost half of its worked off. But I’m still there although I’m having a vacation now so is everyone in my dept, its only for two weeks. Please send me the English and Grammar book, you said you would. I hope that you liked your robe. Was it the right size? Did you get slippers to go with it? I’m glad you are not working at wilding’s because you were just working too hard. I hope you are getting a lot of rest. Please give Daddy and Bebe my love, I certainly do miss all of you. Dan Hill is really swell, I havn’t had much time to see him. But I do like him very much. I can hardly wait to see Daddy in February. Every time I see Dan he keeps asking ‘When is ‘Doc’ coming back?’ Today I went to church and Mrs. Dougherty went with me. Golly I can hardly wait until all of you move back here, I hope it will be soon.” Monroe adds a brief postscript: “I shall write later.” Includes a custom-made display folder. In fine condition, with intersecting folds.

At the age of 17, Norma Jeane Doughtery worked 10-hour days at the Radioplane Company in Burbank, California, a World War II defense plant that tasked her with checking and spraying parachutes. She was the wife of James “Jimmie” Dougherty, a young United States merchant seaman assigned overseas, and she lived with his parents during his deployment. In June 1944, Army photographer David Conover arrived at Radioplane to snap morale-boosting pictures of female workers for the First Motion Picture Unit. He discovered the bubbly redhead and took several photos of her holding a propeller; the images and resulting attention spurred Jeane to quit her job from the factory in early 1945, and, not long after, she signed on with the Blue Book Modeling Agency. By the fall of the following year, Norma Jeane had become Marilyn Monroe, newly divorced and on the payroll at 20th Century Fox. Written to her legal guardian with a bright, tangible optimism, this incredible handwritten letter not only predates the self-styled creation of Hollywood’s greatest sex symbol, but it also offers unique insight into Monroe’s early desire for the finer things, as well as to the beginnings of her now legendary metamorphosis—“Everyone says they can't get over how much I've changed.”