The Hollywood icon remains in the hearts of movie fans all over the world

Marilyn Monroe has been gone many more years than she was alive and yet remains in the hearts of movie fans all over the world. June 1 marks 100 years since the birth of the Hollywood icon and fans are celebrating all year. Marilyn was born in Boyle Heights and spent most of her life in Los Angeles, including a stint inspecting parachutes at an airplane factory in Burbank during World War II.

All this month, you can gaze upon her legendary pink gown from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at the exhibition Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon at the Academy Museum. Visit her onetime haunt (forever haunt if you believe) at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, where Some Like It Hot is screening at the Cinegrill on June 1.

Lauren Bacall, producer Nunnally Johnson and Marilyn at the How to Marry a Millionaire premiere in 1953Credit: Herald Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public LIbrary

More than 1,000 fans gathered in Palm Springs, braving the triple-digit heat while wearing identical platinum blonde wigs and flouncy white dresses to set a new Guinness Book of World Records listing for largest gathering of people dressed as Marilyn, quadrupling the previous record.  

Marilyn Monroe: The Immersive Experience is a “multi-sensory exhibition” that launched in London and promised to bring its 3-D rizz to L.A. this spring until it was recently postponed. The new coffee table book, Marilyn: The Lost Photographs, the Last Interview features unseen photos by Life magazine photographer Allan Grant at her last formal shoot and text by his Life colleague, journlist Richard Meryman.

Ultimate fans can break the bank on June 4 when they have the chance to take home artifacts that once belonged to the star during the 100 Years of Marilyn sale by Julien’s Auctions. A large pair of green wooden gates that once adorned her landmark home in Brentwood (much despised by its current owners) is expected to go for as much as $50,000. That’s two-thirds as much as Marilyn paid for the home itself in 1962.

Press photo of Marilyn Monroe in 1952Credit: Herald Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library