29 April 2022
Due to the likes of Instagram and the public’s insatiable interest in celebrity, we have become accustomed to seeing rappers, music moguls, and film stars luxuriating and travelling in a plethora of the most resplendent of motor cars.
But not for Marilyn Monroe; she only owned one motor car, a pretty impressive car, it has to be said, a 1956 Ford Thunderbird painted in Raven Black.
It is said she bought the T-Bird to console herself following her divorce from Joe DiMaggio after nine long months of marriage.
According to rumour, the T-Bird was a Christmas gift from her business partner and photographer Milton Greene, with whom it, rumour has it she had an affair when they first met.’ But they parted ways in 1957, after Monroe’s then husband, Arthur Miller, grew edgy about Milton’s role.
I digress; back to the T-Bird, in 1962, Marilyn decided to give the T-Bird away. She gifted it to Jason Strasberg, son of movie director Lee Strasberg, who was Marilyn’s acting coach.
When she died, Marilyn Monroe left her belongings to her father figure Lee Strasberg; as to the car, Jason Strasberg held onto the 1956 Ford Thunderbird until 1970, when he traded it in.
In 2018 the car was sold at auction. The new owner’s identity has been kept private, and there have been no public sightings of the T-Bird since.
On a final note, Marilyn suggested to Albert Einstein that they would create perfect children. Albert’s response, ‘What if they get my looks and your brain?’