In 1959 a young US Naval officer was a guest on the set of the Marilyn Monroe/Jack Lemmon/Tony Curtis movie Some Like It Hot after a visit from Monroe to his San Diego Naval base.  While on the set he took a short amount of 8mm film footage of the sex symbol, that also included a little bit of Curtis and director Billy Wilder.  Forty-nine years later, the lucky military man had passed away, leaving that 2.5 minutes of film, in its original Kodak box, to his daughter, now living in Australia.  She decided to sell.

The rare, 2.5-minute-long footage, which shows Monroe and co-star Tony Curtis on the set, was purchased by an anonymous Australian buyer during the Melbourne sale, auctioneer Charles Leski told Reuters.

“We’re surprised there weren’t more bidders, but we are happy that it sold,” Leski, managing director of Leski Auctions, said. “It was a stab in the dark what price the footage would go for.”

The footage was discovered in Australia last month and Leski had set a pre-sale estimate of 20,000 to 30,000 Australian dollars ($17,000-$25,500).

Reuters

The anonymous purchaser also acquires full commercial rights.  Let’s hope we don’t see this in a commercial for a soft drink or Florida travel agency.  That would certainly be giving Sugar Kane the fuzzy end of the lollipop, again.

An amateur film lasting 47-minute long, taken on the set of the Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable movie The Misfits, sold at auction for $60,000 earlier this year.  That footage was shot by a cast member with a small part in the dramatic western. 

“Considering what Misfits reached in the U.S., we are happy, as this means we got A$7,000 per minute,” Leski said.

The lot included a CD copy and DVD copy as well.

Leski had expected the footage, which unlike the film is in color, to generate a lot of interest, as “Some Like It Hot” is listed by the American Film Institute as the greatest American comedy film of all time.

Reuters

Some Like It Hot is also listed as the greatest American comedy film of all time in Ceilidh’s extensive DVD collection.  Maybe not as prestigious as the American Film Insitute, but very important in my household!

In related news, a New York City photographer, Bert Stern, is suing over a series of “unique and irreplaceable images” of Monroe  that he loaned to Eros Magazine, which is now out of business, and were never returned.

He says the photos are now held by Michael Weiss and Donald Penny.

Stern is seeking the photos, or at least $700,000 in repayment, plus $1 million in punitive damages and legal fees.

Messages left at Weiss’ photography studio and at Penny’s home were not immediately returned.

Movies.msn.com

A silent black and white tape of Marilyn Monroe engaging in oral sex with an unknown man has sold for $1.5 million to a NY businessman, according to a report in the NY Post. It’s said to be 15 minutes long and is obviously of Marilyn. She never looks at the camera but the man’s head is not visible, which may suggest that he planted the camera and she didn’t know it was there.

The movie was shot on 15mm film sometime in the 1950s and it first attracted the interest of the FBI in the mid 60s. The FBI under J. Edgar Hoover spent “two weeks futilely trying to prove that Monroe’s sex partner was either John F. Kennedy or Robert F. Kennedy, according to declassified agency documents and interviews.”

A NY memorabilia dealer, Keya Morgan, bought the only known copy of the film from the son of the informant who gave it to the FBI over 40 years ago. Morgan is now $1.5 million richer after selling it. Supposedly the guy who bought it doesn’t have any plans to sell or release it to the public:

The feds eventually confiscated the original footage - but not before the informant made a copy of it, which is what was just sold by his son, Morgan said.

There are heavily redacted, declassified FBI documents talking about a “French-type” film.

They state the informant “exhibited [to agents] a motion picture which depicted deceased actress Marilyn Monroe committing a perverted act upon a unknown male,” Morgan said.

The informant was with at least one mobster at the time, the documents state.

According to the documents, “Former baseball star Joseph DiMaggio in the past had offered [the informant] $25,000 for this film, it being the only one in existence, but he refused the offer.

“Source advised that [redacted name of the mole] informed them that he had obtained this film prior to the time Marilyn Monroe had achieved stardom.”

Morgan said he got the deceased informant’s name from the former FBI agent who tipped him off to the flick - and was floored after he found the mole’s son in Washington, DC, and the man retrieved a film canister from a safe-deposit box and spooled it up.

“You see instantly that it’s Marilyn Monroe - she has the famous mole,” Morgan said.

“She’s smiling, she’s very charming, she’s very radiant, but she’s known for being radiant,” he said. “She moves away, and then it [the footage] stops.”

Last month, he brokered its sale, leading the informant’s son to a wealthy New York businessman who wants to keep this unseemly part of Monroe’s past buried.

“He said he’s just going to lock it up,” Morgan said.

“He said, ‘I’m not going to make a Paris Hilton out of her. I’m not going to sell it, out of respect.’ “

[From The NY Post]

This brings up all sorts of questions about who the man was in the film and who actually bought it - like whether it’s just some super rich guy who wanted it for his collection or if he has some connection to Marilyn or the man she was filmed with. Either way, we’ll probably never see it and that’s a good thing. She had enough image problems without a sex tape coming out 45 years after her death.

Marilyn is shown below with her second husband of just 10 months in 1954, Joe DiMaggio. Given the fact that DiMaggio offered so much money for the tape and that he was married to her around the time it was shot, it was possibly him in the film.

NY Magazine has released five more photos from Lindsay Lohan’s nude tribute to Marilyn Monroe’s last photo shoot, a chance to give back to her fans that Lohan considered an “honor” and her mother called “artistic.” Lohan is a Marilyn Monroe fan, owns an apartment she once lived in, and has a painting that depicts the blonde bombshell in her last moments, with a bottle of pills spilled nearby. Lohan called Marilyn’s death “tragic” in her accompanying interview. She then made a reference to Heath Ledger’s death, saying “it’s also tragic what just recently happened to someone else.” and adding that “they are both prime examples of what this industry can do to someone.” As for whether hardened addict Lohan will also meet a similar fate, she said “I sure as hell wouldn’t let it happen to me.”

Lohan has been caught driving drunk several times including a high speed car chase in which several guys claim she took them hostage while she swerved and sped, causing her passengers and the person she was chasing to fear for their lives. She may not die from a pill overdose, but the statistics are stacking up against her if she continues to drink and drive. Let’s hope Lindsay gets a driver - who takes her somewhere far away.

These photos are getting a lot of attention, and that’s sure to please Lohan despite the fact that many experts say it’s not a good career move. Many of you noted in the comments that she’s no Marilyn, and at 15 years younger than Marilyn she somehow looks less natural and young than the screen legend did just six weeks before she died.

Lohan:

Marilyn:

Lindsay Lohan didn’t hesitate to pose topless for a photo shoot with photographer Bert Stern, who also shot the iconic photos of Marilyn Monroe in a hotel room just six weeks before she died in an apparent pill overdose. Called “The Last Sitting,” Marilyn’s photos show then then 36-year-old bombshell drunk on champagne and lounging around, with just some sheer scarves as cover. Lohan used the same see-through material as Marilyn in her photo shoot, saying that the decision to pose nearly-nude wasn’t hard. “I didn’t have to put much thought into it. I mean, Bert Stern? Doing a Marilyn shoot? When is that ever going to come up? It’s really an honor.”

Lohan owns one of Marilyn Monroe’s apartments, and said she has “a lot of Marilyn Stuff,” such as a big painting of Monroe that sounds like it depicts her suicide scene, which was a gift. Lohan says of her painting that “It’s eerie… because it’s this picture of her, and it’s kind of cartoony, and there’s a big bottle of pills next to her, and they’ve fallen over.”

The 21-year-old actress better known for her DUIs and for courting the paparazzi also alluded to Heath Ledger’s death in the same breath as Marilyn’s suicide, calling both “tragic”"

Lohan called Monroe’s suicide “tragic,” and then added, elliptically, “You know, it’s also tragic what just recently happened to someone else.” I asked whether she was referring to Heath Ledger. She nodded: “They are both prime examples of what this industry can do to someone.” Why some and not others, I asked, since it has often seemed that the thrice-rehabbed Lohan might meet a similar fate. Lohan replied with a flicker of annoyance: “I don’t know. I’m not them. But I sure as hell wouldn’t let it happen to me.” Still, one wonders whether Lohan’s participation in this project, given all the spooky parallels, isn’t the photographic equivalent of moving into a haunted house. (Which, in fact, she may have already done.)

[From NY Magazine]

Here are the photos of a woman who is all too willing to talk about “what this industry can do,” without actually doing the work of showing up for her job. At least she’ll still take it off for photo shoots. Lohan tried to rationalize the shoot, saying that Monroe was giving back to the public with the last photo shoot that Lindsay is mimicking “She’s saying, ‘Look, you’ve taken a lot from me, so why don’t I give it to you myself.’ She’s taking control back.” I wonder if Lohan thought she was “taking control back” when she flashed her shaved kitty on several occasions. Now she has the benefit of a famed photographer to help use exhibitionism to give back to the public while remaining in control.

Thanks to NYMag.com for these photos of Lindsay.

Lindsay Lohan

Marilyn Monroe

Pulitzer-prize winning 94 year-old photographer Eve Arnold has released a few previously unseen pictures of screen legend Marilyn Monroe. Arnold released some other exclusive as-then unseen photos of Monroe about a year and a half ago. She had a close relationship with the tragically departed star and her pictures are said to show Marilyn as a vulnerable and sympathetic subject.

The photos will be seen for just a few weeks at select galleries in the UK:

The unposed photographs capture the star in her private moments; in front of a mirror, on a plane and in bed.

Limited edition prints have been released to selected galleries across the UK of the eight pictures from the collection of world renowned photographer Eve Arnold.

Now 94 the Pulitzer Prize winner built a bond of trust with the star which shows itself in the intimate shots.

The collection is being opened today at a Marilyn-themed evening event at the Meller Gallery in Witney, Oxfordshire and will be available only until Christmas.

Only a handful of other galleries across the UK are showing the pictures as only 495 prints have been made of each one.

Ms Arnold worked with the star for over a decade and said: “She trusted me and she was a joy to photograph. She liked my pictures and was canny enough to realise that they were a fresh approach to presenting her.

“By seeing Marilyn through photographs - the only way most people ever saw her - it may be possible to get some idea of how she saw herself and perhaps to glean some insight into the phenomenon that was Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn died in 1962 at the age of 36. Her death was ruled an probable suicide with sleeping pills, although there are rumors that she was murdered in a conspiracy. She would be 80 if she were still alive today.

The images shown here were found on The Daily Mail website and are said to be the new photos. I’m not sure if all of them are new because I found other versions of the Marilyn header picture in black and white, and there are posters available of the picture of her lying in bed.

All photos copyright Eve Arnold.