With the 50th anniversary of the head-turning bombshell’s demise on Sunday, the eternal Hollywood sexpot remains all tousled blond hair and soft red lips, the voice still breathless and the curves still breathtaking. COURTESY RUNNING PRESS/AP
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But rumors and rumblings linked her romantically to others: Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, Tony Curtis, director Elia Kazan, President John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby.
“Marilyn is the definitive sex icon of our time,” said Hefner, born two months before Monroe. “And there are clear reasons. It’s not simply beauty and sexuality — there’s vulnerability.”
Her links to the high-powered Kennedy siblings fueled endless speculation that Monroe was murdered to permanently keep her silent.
Marilyn-maniacs already marked the 50th anniversary of her coquettish birthday serenade of JFK on May 16, 1962.
JACK CLARITY/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Joe Di Maggio and Marilyn Monroe as they board plane at International Airport.
By the time of her Madison Square Garden appearance with the President, Monroe was a pill-popping mess with just three months to live. Her dress was so tight that Monroe was literally sewn into the outfit, and couldn’t wear anything beneath the barely-there sheer material.
The rhinestone-embroidered sheath dress still packs a wallop: It sold at auction for $1.2 million. And that’s cheap: The Monroe dress worn in the famous subway grate picture for “The Seven Year Itch” sold just last year for $5.6 million.
While the shot of Monroe’s skirt circling her hips seems tame in the era of the sex tape, the slightly risque shot aggravated DiMaggio long after her death.
The Yankee Clipper once appeared for an Associated Press interview in the wire service’s iconic Rockefeller Center headquarters. The photos on the wall included the Monroe shot. The great DiMaggio spotted the picture, turned around, and left the building without uttering a word.
Keeping the Monroe persona both popular and profitable is the job of Nick Woodhouse, chief marketing officer for the estate.
Authentic Brands Group, after buying the account 18 months ago, brought the ’50s sex symbol into the new millennium: Monroe boasts 3.3 million Facebook fans (slightly ahead of rocker Marilyn Manson) and more than 53,000 Twitter followers.
Last year, Forbes put Monroe at No. 3 on its list of highest-earning dead celebrities, with an income of $27 million.
A new MAC Cosmetics limited-edition Monroe makeup line will appear in October, and the estate is also working on deals with fashion giants Dior and Dolce & Gabbana.
A Monroe-themed cafe is set for Toronto, and Marilyn spas will debut next year.
REUTERS
Marilyn Monroe died of a fatal drug overdose in August 1962 at the age of 36. Had she lived, Hollywood's most enduring sex symbol would be turning 75 years old on June 1, 2001. For many people, it is difficult to think of the golden sex goddess in old age since her persona is so dependent on youthful sensuality. Yet, others feel compelled to imagine what the woman born Norma Jeane Baker would have been like if her life had not ended so abruptly. She is shown in this file photo from the early 1950s.
Her endless appeal lies in her style and her story: A California kid who escaped a horrific childhood to become one of Hollywood’s most incandescent stars.
“She completely embodies the American Dream,” said Woodhouse. “She came from nothing, and did what she wanted to do. She wasn’t just some vapid starlet. She knew what she wanted.”
She’s a publishers’ dream, too: More than 200 hardcover Monroe books are available via Amazon.com, with three new additions in the weeks leading up to the anniversary.
“She’s more relevant than ever,” said Woodhouse. “That’s what Marilyn wanted, to live on forever.”
Yet it was her death, still the subject of constant speculation, that helped catapult Monroe into the stratosphere of stars.
“The controversy around Marilyn’s death kind of adds to it,” said Woodhouse. “It’s a tragic story, but it has some intrigue to it.”
After Monroe died, ex-husband DiMaggio flew south from his San Francisco home to handle the funeral arrangements. The former Yankees star blamed certain celebrity pals for contributing to her death — and barred them from the funeral, said DiMaggio biographer Marv Schneider.
The group included Frank Sinatra, fellow Rat Packer Peter Lawford and his Kennedy wife, and columnist Walter Winchell. The still-smitten DiMaggio later had a stone bench with Monroe’s name inscribed installed by her final resting place.
Hefner, oddly enough, never met Monroe — although his brother, an aspiring actor, shared a Manhattan acting class with the starlet. He did speak with her once on the phone, to discuss another Monroe pictorial about a month before her death.
The photos were taken on the set of her famously unfinished movie, “Something’s Got to Give” — permanently shelved by her death. The photos appeared in Playboy a year later, and Hefner said the Monroe image still resonates with up-and-coming models at his mansion today. “Without question, they identify strongly with Marilyn — and for understandable reasons,” he said.
The Playboy exec also revealed the Monroe centerfold was actually Plan B for his new publication back in 1953.
“I actually had a couple of nudes shot in 3-D, and then I discovered how much it would cost to have the glasses bound in the magazine,” he said.
“At the same moment, I found out about the Marilyn Monroe nude and went with that instead. And it was a very fortunate alternative.”
lmcshane@nydailynews.com
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