ONGallery Presents – “Happy Birthday, Miss Monroe"

The images span sixteen years of Marilyn’s short life, from 1946 as an ambitious young ingénue known as Norma Jean Baker to the famous “Last Sitting” images by Bert Stern taken just six weeks before her death. Many of the over 50 images are truly iconic and include the famous billowing white dress pictures from “Seven Year Itch”, which was formerly owned by Debbie Reynolds and sold at auction in 2011 for a staggering $4.6million (a record for an Item of clothing, beating the previous record of $1.3 million which was also for a Monroe dress, the famous Jean Louis beaded gown she wore to sing Happy Birthday to President Kennedy). The show will also include pictures of the hauntingly prophetic Crucifix shots from the “Last Sitting”, pictures she never wanted published, which was why she put a cross through them. And what exhibition of Marilyn Monroe would be complete without a selection of Andy Warhol’s classic vibrant Marilyn portraits.

It should be a fun night, as the Playboy Club will be providing a number of their iconic Bunny girls and a roulette table, so be ready to place your bets! As many will know, Playboy was founded by Hugh Hefner, so the collection includes very rare images signed personally by Hef, including a nude Marilyn as Playboy’s first ever “Sweetheart of the Month”, the photograph that was instrumental in launching the magazine to become a global phenomenon. Indeed Hef became so enamoured with the star, that in 1992, he even purchased the burial vault adjoining Marilyn’s at the Westwood Memorial Park in LA for $50,000.