Fans of Marilyn Monroe will gather Monday at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood for a celebration marking what would have been the screen legend’s 100th birthday.
The event, scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday in the theater’s famed forecourt, will include a rededication of the Marilyn Monroe fountain, a visit to Monroe’s handprints and footprints, a birthday cake, a fan singalong of “Happy Birthday” and the distribution of 100 red roses to the first 100 attendees.
Organizers said free postcards commemorating Monroe’s 1953 handprint ceremony will also be available while supplies last, and Marilyn Monroe look-alike Sugar Kiper is expected to greet fans.
Photographer Lawrence Schiller, who documented Monroe during the final years of her life and is among the few surviving photographers who worked closely with her, is expected to attend. Schiller is also scheduled to sign copies of his Marilyn Monroe photography book at an event at the theater at 6 p.m., followed by a screening of the Monroe film “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”
Monroe and co-star Jane Russell cemented their handprints, footprints and signatures in the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, now the TCL Chinese Theatre, on June 26, 1953, as part of the promotion for “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”
According to organizers, Monroe often visited the theater as a child and later recalled the significance of leaving her own imprint there. Her handprints and footprints remain among the most visited attractions in the theater’s forecourt.
Born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926, Monroe rose from a troubled childhood to become one of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars through films including “The Seven Year Itch” and “Some Like It Hot.” She died on Aug. 4, 1962, at age 36 from an apparent overdose at her Brentwood home, but remains one of the most enduring icons of American film and popular culture.
She was the last of the best!
There will never be another Marilyn Monroe……..
I have been a huge fan of Marilyn as long as I can remember and have a large collection. Am now going to be 90 years old on the 1st August, and somehow she has always seemed to be part of my life. The most exciting was attending the Marilyn Monroe Auction sale, coming all the way from Cape Town to New York when I was interviewed on TV and the excitement of actually touching her personal possession in 1999. Eve Fuchs.