Of course, she will remain forever ageless but this year they’ll be lighting 100 candles for Marilyn in La-La Land.
Like Bertie Taupin, who wrote the immortal lines for Elton John, I never knew you at all but like the millions of other Marilyn fans.
But I have managed to get as close that anyone now can by visiting your last resting place in Los Angeles.
Marilyn is, of course, all around us but nowhere more so than in LA.
Where you’re always likely to bump into her around the Walk of Fame or anywhere around Hollywood.
But because you can never get too much of a good thing we’re taking you today on our Marilyn tour.
With these whistlestop locations where you can pay homage to the Great Woman.
S0mething new
The Academy Museum’s Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon is a new exhibition that will celebrate Marilyn Monroe as a visionary actor and image-maker, opening on May 31.
The exhibition will display hundreds of original objects, including posters, portraits, photographs, production documents, letters.
And rarely seen personal materials.
While the world premiere of ‘Marilyn: The Immersive Experience’ comes to Hollywood for a limited 16-week engagement from May.
Fans will be taken on a fully interactive, cinematic journey through the life of Marilyn, built by fans, for fans.
Every year’s blonde
And the quirky Hollywood Museum is where you want to go to find where Marilyn became a blond, in Max Factor’s world-famous make-up rooms.
The museum’s Marilyn Monroe collection includes everything from personal items and wardrobe to her limousine.
And, get this, her million-dollar honeymoon dress from her life with Joe DiMaggio, as well as when she entertained troops in Korea in 1954.
While, if you want to walk in her stiletto footsteps, and men you’re allowed to because this is Hollywood.
Then get yourself down to the TCL Chinese Theatre.
Where she put her signature, hand and shoe prints into cement at the famed Forecourt of the Stars.
While Marilyn’s Walk of Fame star is just a block away at 6774 Hollywood Blvd.
Marilyn’s maisons
So, you want to channel Marilyn where she actually lived, then the landmark Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel was Marilyn Monroe’s home for two years.
Just as her modelling career began to take off.
Marilyn stayed in one of the vintage 1950s Cabanas at the time of her first professional magazine shoot, at the Tropicana Pool.
The 750sqft Marilyn Monroe Suite features a loft-like open floor plan, kitchenette, and a balcony that overlooks the pool.
While Marilyn lived at the Beverly Hills Hotel, or ‘Pink Palace, several times during her career.
Marinade with Marilyn
And where she wined and dined too.
In the Fifties, Marilyn and Joe and Elizabeth Taylor, and Steve McQueen were just a few of the Hollywood legends that enjoyed drinks and appetizers in the Back Room of Musso & Frank Grill.
For their classic steakhouse fare and famous Martinis.
While the Formosa Cafe was famously billed as the place where ‘the stars dine.’
Its interior was lined with hundreds of autographed photos of its famous patrons.
Including Marilyn, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, and Elizabeth Taylor.
The Formosa reopened in June 2019 after a stunning $2.4-million
A tour de force
Most of Marilyn’s movies were created at the historic FOX Studio Lot located in Century City and while this isn’t open to the public, visitors can head to the nearby Paramount Studio Tour for a look behind the scenes.
When young Marilyn (then Norma Jeane Mortenson) lived in Los Angeles Orphans Home Society, it is said she would look out her window at the water tower of RKO Studios (now Paramount Studios) and dream of stardom.
Goodbye Norma Jean
And, of course, Marilyn will live forever at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park, her final resting place.
And a Who’s Who of pop culture, including Marilyn, Truman Capote, Farrah Fawcett, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Dean Martin, Roy Orbison, Natalie Wood, Frank Zappa and many more.
Now we know that Marilyn, who is interred in a pink marble crypt (no. 24).
At the Corridor of Memories, has an unsavoury neighbour there in Hugh Hefner.
But we’d rather dwell on Joe DiMaggio’s enduring love, where he had a half-dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times a week for the next 20 years.
Why not do the same this year on her 100th birthday.
Major airlines fly out to LA and as we always recommend, flights out of Ireland come with pre-clearance and Aer Lingus will get you there direct.
