When Marilyn Monroe sang “I Wanna Be Loved by You,” she would have never expected that one day, 1,037 people would gather beneath her giant statue in downtown Palm Springs to dress as her in celebration of her 100th birthday.
In doing so, they set a Guinness World Record in the very place where her career began. Palm Springs — whose identity is inextricably linked with the star — likes to claim Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortensen, and the feeling was mutual.
“This was always her escape,” said Mariah Pryor, a Palm Springs resident who was carrying a Marilyn-themed handbag she once rescued from a lost-and-found box.
Not only do fans remain devoted to Monroe 100 years after her birth, but it seems as if each person carries a personal version of her.
Gays and lesbians. Trans people. Straight men and women. Retirees. Teenagers. Couples. Families, big and small. Single people. Palm Springs residents. Visitors who drove for hours just to be here (a few even flew in!). They all converged at the sculptor Seward Johnson’s “Forever Marilyn” statue, depicting the film legend in her famous scene in “The Seven Year Itch” (1955), each of them dressed like her, wearing a blonde wig and white dress, items that were provided by Palm Springs Pride, the organizers of the citywide birthday party.
Joshua John Miller is the grandson of Bruno Bernard, the pinup photographer known as Bernard of Hollywood, who famously introduced Marilyn Monroe to the talent agent Johnny Hyde at the Racquet Club in Palm Springs. Soon after, Monroe signed her first studio contract. “It paid $125 a week, plus a $20 bonus,” Miller said.
The transformation from everyday Monroe fans into her look-alikes began long before the official Guinness world record count. People arrived with Marilyn handbags, Marilyn necklaces, Marilyn earrings, Marilyn umbrellas and — thanks to Shelley Michelle, a longtime Marilyn impersonator, body double and founder of Billion Dollar Marilyn Lipstick — enough red lipstick to supply the entire city.
“We knew there would be a lot of women and gays,” said Jason Backe, the business partner and husband of the celebrity hairstylist Ted Gibson, whose team is responsible for the sea of white wigs throughout the weekend. “But seeing all these straight couples fully commit has been really inspiring.”
All the wigs here are the same,” Gibson said. “Every transformation reveals a different Marilyn.” After all, he has fitted at least 1,037 wigs over the course of two days.
And yet no one appeared to be celebrating the same Marilyn Monroe.
I asked dozens of participants what Marilyn Monroe meant to them. They began by talking about the cinematic legend — and ended up talking about themselves.
Christina Dahling, who performs as Marilyn Monroe every week at the Hyatt Palm Spring’s I Heart Drag Brunch, put it simply: “I always felt like I was her reincarnation.”
Richard Alegre, a Palm Springs stylist who wore a custom Marilyn Monroe-inspired outfit, said her influence could still be felt in the city’s fashion, film and cultural traditions.
That said, Pryor, the local resident, surmised that Monroe “was more introverted than people realize” and would be stunned by all the adulation. Pryor re-created Monroe’s subway-grate pose at the “Some Like It Shop” photo station inside Marilyn Boutique 100, a pop-up boutique offering Marilyn costume necessities and memorabilia.
Tracy Burwell celebrated by attending a Monroe-themed yoga class wearing a floral jumpsuit that belonged to her mother in the 1960s. She said the film icon has been a part of her life since childhood. “When I think of Marilyn, I don’t usually feel sadness,” she said. “I always feel happy.”
Monroe Rose, who came to the event from Mississippi, feels similarly. “She means the world to me,” Rose said. “She helped me through so many dark times.”
Judging by the 1,037 blondes gathered beneath her statue, the Hollywood icon got exactly what she wanted. To be loved.
Boop-boop-be-doo.
The photographs in this feature were made using a star filter.
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