I have been a fan of these books since I first came across The Elvis Treasures five years ago, a magnificent book with interesting replicated documents and artifacts from his life and career.
So far there’s been quite an impressive line up in the series, from Tutankhamen to Frank Sinatra and Audrey Hepburn to erm… Celine Dion, an unusual choice I thought?
Marilyn is perfect fodder for such a book, there’s been so much of her personal stuff exposed to the media over the years in auction catalogues and exhibitions all over the world that one could have the pick of items to include. There’s the obvious things like birth certificate, marriage certificates and around twenty removable items in total but if you compare this to other books like Hepburn’s with thirty-four and Sinatra’s with thirty, there’s a bit of a shortfall.
It’s a slimmer volume to those two. Of the more interesting artifacts is a watercolour she apparently did for JFK’s birthday although curiously it has her own birth date on it and says Happy Birthday Marilyn; a sketch of Marilyn by Jane Russell; the letter to Lee Strasberg asking for help in 1961. Perhaps the reason it’s not as full as previous volumes may be down to Marilyn’s estates control over ownership of certain items.But what it lacks in one area it makes up for in others. The photographs that are used to illustrate the book are among the best I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a really fantastic choice, from childhood to some of the shots from the Allan Grant session for Life’s last interview.
Lovely crystal clear shots from the nude calendar photos and some stunning snapshots taken by a soldier in Korea are the highlights of the book, some classic images and some that are shown here for the first time. A fascinating mix with Marilyn’s own personal favourite of herself by Cecil Beaton at the end.Jenna Glatzer’s biography is not too bad either although she’s consulted with people who claim to have been closer to Marilyn than they were, like Nancy Bacon, John Gilmore and Mamie Van Doren for quotes & information so you can make up your own mind if you choose to believe it or not. She also claims there was an affair with Peter Lawford, very early on before she was famous, but that’s something that has been alleged and denied in previous books.
Despite this she writes well and uses Marilyn’s own quotes to tell the story and snippets of conversations she may have had. She’s used alot of information from previous articles and books which I thought was interesting as it will make me look up some these books myself that I’m not familiar with. The highlight of the text for me is some kind, sympathetic words from Bette Davis, which to me is praise indeed, for she was a lady who did not mince her words or speak too kindly of most other actress’s.
Marilyn was one exception (the other was Olivia de Havilland) so that was great to read. Jenna ends the book in Marilyn’s own words: If I am a star, the people made me a star. No studio, no person, but the people did.”This is the perfect gift book, just in time for Christmas, it’s glitzy and glamorous like the subject herself and would make any Christmas tree twinkle!
By Fraser Penney
