Fans of screen icon Marilyn Monroe have won a battle to preserve her mark on Los Angeles.
The LA home where Monroe briefly lived and died has been declared a historic cultural monument, while a Palm Springs planning commission decision boosted chances that an 8-meter statue called "Forever Marilyn" will stay in place.
The Los Angeles City Council voted for the historic designation after a lengthy battle over whether the Spanish Colonial-style house would be demolished, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The current owners live next door and wanted to raze the house in order to expand their estate. The council, however, was unanimous in moving to save it.
"There’s no other person or place in the city of Los Angeles as iconic as Marilyn Monroe and her Brentwood home,” Traci Park, the area's council representative, said before the vote.
The LA Conservancy celebrated the decision on X: “** SUCCESS ** The Marilyn Monroe Residence in Brentwood is now a Historic-Cultural Monument! Today, L.A. City Council unanimously approved the nomination for Marilyn Monroe’s final home. Thanks to all who voiced their support and a HUGE thanks to Councilwoman Traci Park & team!”
Monroe bought the house for $75,000 and died there just months later on 4 August 1962, from an apparent overdose.
The current owners, Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank, bought the house for $8.35 million and obtained a demolition permit but ran into opposition.
They contend the house has been changed so much over the years that it no longer is historic, and that it has become a neighborhood nuisance due to tourist traffic.
Milstein and Bank have sued the city of Los Angeles, and a trial for the case is due for 13 August.
In Palm Springs, the “Forever Marilyn” statute depicts Monroe in the famous billowing dress scene from The Seven Year Itch. It has been moved around the US and is now back in Palm Springs. A hotel industry group that owns the statue wants it to remain permanently but some residents oppose it.
A technical decision about the location by the planning commission earlier this week marked a step toward keeping the statue in Palm Springs.
The life of Marilyn Monroe was most recently depicted in Andrew Dominik’s 2022 film Blonde, starring Ana de Armas as Monroe.
In our review of the film, we wrote: "However you feel, there’s simply no denying that Blonde brands its viewers. Dominik has clearly understood that a legacy is fashioned by those who believe they have ownership of a story, and those willing to disregard his film as unnecessarily brutal and voyeuristic may wish to question their initial reaction. Blonde is these things by design, and since no book, documentary or film can ever hope to give a definitive portrait of a life which contained multitudes, it offers its singular and purposefully uncomfortable vision of the fetishization and weight of being Marilyn Monroe. And in a seemingly endless sea of dully sanitized biopics (see: Bohemian Rhapsody, Respect, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, King Richard and countless others), Blonde ’s expressionistic ambition won’t leave anyone feeling cold. That only deserves applause."
