Marilyn Monroe fans have won the fight to preserve her mark in Los Angeles and are one step closer to seeing a giant statue of the silver screen icon move to Palm Springs.
Marilyn Monroe fans have won the fight to preserve her mark in Los Angeles and are one step closer to seeing a giant statue of the silver screen icon move to Palm Springs.
The Los Angeles home where Monroe briefly lived and where she died has been declared a historic cultural monument, while a decision by the Palm Springs Planning Commission increases the likelihood that the 26-foot (8-meter) statue called “Forever Marilyn” will remain there.
The Los Angeles City Council voted to rename the historic home on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reports. The decision came after a long debate over whether the home, located in the tony Brentwood neighborhood, would be demolished.
The current owners live next door and wanted to demolish the house to expand their property. However, the council was unanimous in saving it.
“There is no other person or place as iconic in the city of Los Angeles as Marilyn Monroe and her Brentwood home,” Tracy Park, the area’s council representative, said before the vote.
Monroe purchased the house for $75,000 and died just months later on August 4, 1962, apparently of an overdose. The current owners, Brina Milstein and Roy Banks, purchased the house for $8.35 million and received a permit to demolish it but faced opposition.
They argue the house has been altered so much over the years that it is no longer historic, and that it has become a nuisance to the neighborhood because of the tourist traffic.
Milstein and the bank’s attorney, Peter C. Sheridan, said in a statement to the Associated Press that the designation process was “biased, unconstitutional and rigged.”
Sheridan claimed Parks and his staff were unresponsive to the owners’ efforts to find a solution and ignored opposition from civic and homeowner groups.
The attorney also said the city had “issued dozens of permits to more than 14 different owners to remodel the home multiple times, resulting in nothing remaining to represent Ms. Monroe’s brief time here 60 years ago.” In Palm Springs, the “Forever Marilyn” statue depicts Monroe in the famous billowing dress scene from “The Seven Year Itch.” It has been moved around the U.S. and elsewhere, including a previous location in Palm Springs, and is now back. A hotel industry group that owns the statue wants it to remain permanently, but some residents oppose it.
The technical decision about the location by the Planning Commission on Wednesday took a step toward keeping the statue, The Desert Sun reports. The matter will go before the Palm Springs City Council in the future. (AP) GSP
