Marilyn Monroe was what the big star of the moment who had just taken her own life looked like.
It was a scene that the two people in charge of the funeral home that transported the mortal remains of Marilyn Monroe to a cemetery in Los Angeles could contemplate, the morbid retelling of a tragedy that both have recounted in a book.
It is a curious journey through death aboard the first hearse that two young people, Allan Abbot and Ron Hast, bought for $40 as a fun way to go camping and which ended up becoming the transport of the stars. In addition to the tormented Monroe, they were in charge of the funeral of Ernie Kovacs, Clark Gable and Natalie Wood, among other big names of golden Hollywood.
But no one like Monroe, a woman who could be seen in a morgue after having passed through the meticulous hands of a forensic doctor. Abbot entered the room where the embalmer known as Frenchie was already working.
"When they removed the sheet that covered her, it was impossible to believe that it was Marilyn Monroe's body," the businessman recalls in the pages of his book. "She looked like an ordinary, aging woman who hadn't taken much care of herself. Obviously, the circumstances surrounding her death had exacerbated her poor appearance and she was unrecognizable."
She remembers that she had purple blood clots on her face and that her neck was very swollen, in addition to the fact that her true hair color, brown, was beginning to show, and that she had not shaved her hair. her legs in more than a week.
Then came the process of working on the actress's image so that she would be presentable for her funeral, dressing her and doing her makeup. She remembers that those in charge of such a task had problems finding panties in her closet since she did not usually wear them and that they used a blonde wig that fit the image that the public had of her.
Present for the vigil was one of the great lovers - and ex-husbands - of the actress, baseball star Joe DiMaggio, who was present during the vigil and who remained next to her coffin throughout the funeral procession. Monroe currently lies in Westwood Cemetery, one of the most visited graves in Los Angeles.
