Marilyn Monroe Exhibition

Jersey Heritage extend popular Marilyn exhibition

Jersey Heritage are pleased to announce that the Marilyn exhibition at Jersey Museum has been extended to September 2010.  The exhibition was due to come to an end in December 2009 but due to its popularity, it'll be open for another year.

Owner of the collection, David Gainsborough Roberts, has continued his support of the local heritage charity by extending the loan of his collection.  David said: ‘I already have another poster to add to the exhibition so I am delighted to support Jersey Heritage this way.’

This exhibition brings together an incredible collection of stage and personal costumes worn by the screen idol Marilyn Monroe.

Spare a thought for Lillie Langtry.  Until now, the beautiful actress who became the king’s mistress has been the only ‘femme fatale’ in Jersey’s museum.  Her portrait by the pre-Raphaelite artist Millais used to have pride of place, but it’s been moved to make way for her 20th century counterpart.  Even the ‘Jersey Lily’ can’t compete with the iconic Marilyn Monroe.

For the last twenty years, Jersey resident David Gainsborough Roberts has been gathering the world’s largest collection of Marilyn memorabilia.  And for the first time, he’s put his whole collection on display – exclusively at Jersey Museum.  The exhibition includes personal items of Marilyn’s, things she would have touched, postcards she wrote to friends, jewellery she wore, and the collection of gossip magazines that was by her bed.  But the exhibition highlight has to be those iconic dresses.  “You can’t get more personal than her costumes,” explains David Gainsborough Roberts, “‘she wore that’ you think to yourself.  It takes your breath away”. 

Liz Hurley thought she was being scandalous when she launched her career by wearing that dress, but Marilyn was doing the same thing, many decades before.  The black beaded dress from Some Like it Hot was almost completely see-through with strategically placed sequins - risqué enough to guarantee column inches even today.  It was so tight, she had to be lifted into place on the piano to sing ‘I’m through with love’.  And as for Marilyn’s famous hip-sashaying walk, in dresses fitted as tightly to her hourglass curves as the one from Niagara, you couldn’t have walked any other way.  It’s no wonder it’s called ‘the wiggle dress’.

Marilyn loved her screen costumes, often keeping them to wear again.  If you look closely, you’ll see she’s left her mark – worn insoles, frayed patches and faint rips.  Like the woman herself, her dresses are vulnerable, fragile.

“It’s extraordinary that they’ve survived until now,” explains Val Nelson, the museum’s textile expert, “they were designed for a few film scenes, not real life”.

It’s been nearly fifty years since her death, but the iconic images of Marilyn remain part of our cultural identity - instantly recognisable.  She’s become the original sex symbol.  But even captured in unguarded moments, like Eve Arnold’s backstage shot of Marilyn stretched out in the sun on the set of the Misfits, she’s still mesmerising.  It’s the love affair the world’s never got over.

Visit the exhibition at the Jersey Museum, St Helier. Click here for details.

Read more at The Times Online.
Sara Buys visited the exhibition and asks "Was Marilyn Monroe a size 16?"

I am not interested in money.
I just want to be wonderful.

Marilyn Monroe

Links to Marilyn Packages

The Marilyn Screen Siren Accommodation Package - 1 night from £150 per person.

The Marilyn Screen Siren Package at the Grand Hotel - 1 night by air from £211 per person.