Here is a perfect telling of Immortal Marilyn’s 80th Birthday party gathering by IM staffer Shar Daws. The party was shared with the long standing British Marilyn fan club ‘The Marilyn Lives Society’ & was held on June 3rd, 2006.
Well, my version of events are going to start Saturday lunch time I was so excited – John and I had arrived on Thursday and thought we would make a mini holiday of it and I’m so glad we did – we have had such a really wonderful time! Shaney text me when she arrived in London and we planned to meet for lunch (haha! don’t think we ever got round to buying actual food lol) at a pub in Covent Garden – which we did – and the fun really started there! Both Becka and Shaney had prepared so well for the whole thing – organising quizzes raffles & prizes, Marilyn decorations, and goodie bags! After lunch it was quickly back to the hotel to change – and then at around 5.30pm John and I arrived at the venue – Becka, Rob and Shaney had been working hard since about 4pm – there were Marilyn posters and pictures on the wall, a beautiful framed print of Marilyn, pink bowls filled with water to take floating candles, lots and lots of flower candles all pastel shades, an absolutely gorgeous rose tree display with tiny pictures of marilyn woven between the petals, a cake that was completly scrumptious – chocolate and vanilla! with white and pink icing that Shaney – bless her carried on the bus all the the way from her home – probably about a four hour or more journey!!!! and it was STILL in one piece!!!! with a gorgeous Marilyn topping and several candles – the whole room looked lovely! The main feature HAD to be Rob’s magnificant effort – we had a huge screen on the wall and Rob (with Becka’s help – she chose the pics lol) had managed to do a slide show of Marilyn photos with text – which played along to Marilyn songs – so the whole room was alive with our birthday girl! There were two tables crammed to bursting with Marilyn prizes – I wanted every single one!!!! Also, my only bit of help – I must confess was to fill the goodie bags for each IM member, with keyrings, postcards, gift labels, cds, all things Marilyn!!!!! Whilst John blew up the balloons and Shaney taught me how to string them together. Eventually it was done – and the members started to arrive – Dawn arrived first, followed by swiftly by Donna and her extremely gorgeous and glamorous daughter Rachel, and several others and I must be honest it was such a busy evening that I missed some of the names of people as they came in! Valerie arrived looking very glam as our lady in red with hubby John and her lovely son Tam – it was so brilliant to meet everyone – as the girls know I’m a bit shy but it was so nice to know that all those people there love Marilyn as much as I do – there was such a great atmosphere! Soon Roger Taylor arrived – he brought with him some of his friends and artists that had contributed to the book Marilyn in Art II – the book is so exquisitely presented – it’s the most beautiful book of art work on Marilyn – and just to make the evening even better – the artist and contributor Tarantola – brought along one of his art works (one of my favourite!!!!!) if you’re interested his work can be seen at http://www.tarantolaart.com/ This particular piece he brought with him was amazing – and really did add to the presence of Marilyn in the room – smiling over us and enjoying the whole proceedings – that’s how it felt! The guys were so friendly and approachable! Signing books (both the new book and previous books by Roger on Marilyn – and he was just so happy to sign them it was lovely!) and chatting, having their pictures taken with members – and most obviously Marilyn fans – two of the guys had the most wonderful Marilyn suits – pictures of which I believe have already been sent in! What I didn’t realise at first – not only did they design and create their suits themselves – they were made of the softest leather – from a distance they looked like regular material – it was only when you touched them you felt they were leather – just gorgeous!!! The evening just went from strength to strength! We lit candles for Marilyn and set them afloat… though Dawn bless her had a bit of trouble with hers lol it lit up like a torch!!! And we ended up in hysterics! Roger and his friends – to our absolute delight spent the whole evening with us! Even joining in the quizzes prepared and presented by Becka and Shaney! After the food and singing Happy Birthday to Marilyn – we had the quizzes and cake – and as a sign of a good evening – it didn’t finish until time was called. We could have stayed for so much longer! If there wasn’t such a thing as closing time. I do feel as though I can say on their behalf that the girls put in such a big effort and they were so rewarded by the people that turned up and totally made the night! I really am glad and happy that I belong to such a warm and friendly group – that love Marilyn and want to share their interest with others! Immortal Marilyn really is the BEST! and it’s the best because of all of you! Hope I didn’t bore you all if you’ve managed to read this far – it was just the most exciting and inspiring fun evening! Thank you to everyone that came! Lots of Love Shar xxx Immortal Marilyn wishes to thank all the UK girls, Shaney Evans, Becka Staley & Shar Daws for putting together this wonderful celebration. And also a big round of thanks goes to our talented Linda Weevers for creating the official IM graphic used for Marilyn’s 80th birthday!
