In July of 1960, Marilyn Monroe reported to Fox Studios in Manhattan to begin principle photography for The Misfits.
The film, written by her husband, Arthur Miller, would prove to be Monroe’s final completed project before a barbiturate overdose claimed her life at the age of 36.
For decades, the actress’ final years have been a subject of profound fascination for Hollywood historians and conspiracy theorists alike, and now, newly uncovered photos are certain to set off yet another wave of scrutiny and speculation.
While on set at Fox, Monroe posed for a number of photographs taken by her friend Frieda Hull.
The photos were auctioned off in Hollywood last year and purchased by a friend and neighbor of Hull’s named Tony Michaels for the surprisingly paltry sum of $ 2,240.
Michaels says the reason he took such an interest in the images, while others saw nothing noteworthy about them, is that he was in on a secret few others were aware of:
According to Michaels, Marilyn was pregnant when she posed for Hull.
Michaels says Monroe went to great lengths to conceal the pregnancy, as she was expecting a child not by Miller, but the French actor Yves Montand, with whom she had starred in a film (perhaps rather aptly) titled Let’s Make Love.
In August of 1960, legendary director John Huston shut down production on The Misfits to send Monroe to a Nevada hospital for detox treatment.
Between the timing of her hospitalization and her appearance in the Hull photos, many are now convinced that Monroe was hiding a pregnancy that was either lost or terminated some time in the summer of that year.
Hull says the so-called “pregnancy slides” (some of which were published today by UK tabloid The Daily Mirror) offer conclusive evidence that Marilyn was, at one point, several months along in a pregnancy she successfully hid from her husband and adoring public.
New mementos or documents that purport to shed some light on the screen icon’s dark final days seem to surface every year or two.
In 2013, auctioneers claimed to have gotten ahold of Monroe’s plastic surgery records.
In 2014, a former Hollywood bodyguard put what he described as a sex tape featuring Monroe and John F. Kennedy on the market.
(Not surprisingly, his claims were later debunked.)
The demand for such items is a testament to the enduring fascination with Monroe’s life and untimely death.
In all likelihood, they’ll continue to surface and promise “evidence” about her life that will become more and more dubious as the years pass by.
It seems improbable that the remaining mysteries surrounding Monroe’s life, health, emotional state, and death will ever be solved.
But it also seems certain that her fans will never stop looking for the answers.