They stop the demolition of Marilyn Monroe's last home, the mansion in Los Angeles where the actress died and the only one she considered her home.
The actress became a trend in recent hours after the publication of Joan Collins' explosive memoirs, in which the protagonist of Dynasty recalled how her partner warned her of the danger of "the wolves of Hollywood." Just a few days ago, 'blonde ambition' was also making headlines, this time for the imposing mansion in which she lived her happiest time (and in which she was also found dead).
Norma Jean's life was far from happy, and simplicity eluded her. She moved from one residence to another, and it could be said that she never truly discovered her place of belonging. However, everything changed in the early 1960s when she became enamored with a historic Spanish Colonial-style mansion nestled in Brentwood, an upscale neighborhood situated to the west of Los Angeles.
A place of pilgrimage for her fans, the home at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive was the first and only real property that Marilyn Monroe had. Apparently, the Hollywood star purchased it in February 1962 for $77,500 and took out a mortgage for half its value. Six months later, the protagonist of 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' was found dead there due to an overdose of barbiturates. As if it were a metaphor for Marilyn's own life, the house was at a dead end.
The house that Marilyn Monroe fell in love with in Los Angeles had nothing to do with the imposing mansions of the rest of the stars of the time: it only consisted of one floor, three bathrooms, and four bedrooms housed in a modest garden of less than 1,000 square meters. with a swimming pool, garden, and guest house.
The goddess whom everyone adored but whom no one loved ("I'm just a little girl in a big world trying to find someone to love," she once said) seemed to not need more and, according to the chronicles of the time, who was excited about her first property. Spanish colonial style, it featured white walls with wooden windows and balustrades, flowers, and plants.
Simple and cozy, Marilyn wanted to make it her home and traveled to Mexico to buy furniture and local crafts in Toluca, Taxco, and Cuernavaca. She also fell in love with its colors and tiles and planned a comprehensive renovation that never came because that house, the only home she had ever known, was also her grave.
Now, 12305 Fifth Helena Drive has been making headlines again for months as its new (and mysterious) owners, who paid a hundred times more for the house than Norma Jean once made (about $8 million), wanted to demolish the property to build it again, thus erasing with a stroke of the pen the last traces of the history of one of the most famous women in the world.
