Monroe plastic surgery notes, X-rays up for auction

They are expected to fetch between $15,000 and $30,000.

LOS ANGELES:

A physician’s notes on Marilyn Monroe, which indicate that the Hollywood sex symbol had undergone cosmetic surgery, will be up for sale next month along with a set of her X-rays, an auction house said on Tuesday.

The set of six X-rays and a file of doctors’ notes that offer a partial medical history of the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes actor from 1950 to 1962, are expected to fetch between $15,000 and $30,000 at auction on November 9 and 10, said Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, California.

The notes written by Hollywood plastic surgeon Michael Gurdin appear to confirm speculation that Monroe, who epitomised glamour and set a standard of movie star beauty during the latter part of Hollywood’s golden era, went under the knife for cosmetic reasons.

The seller, who is so far unnamed, received the items as a gift from Gurdin. “Nobody really thought about Marilyn Monroe having plastic surgery. It was always speculation – did she or didn’t she?,” said Martin Nolan, Executive Director of Julien’s Auctions. “They thought she was such a natural beauty, they didn’t want to believe [the truth],” he said.

Gurdin’s notes include references to a 1950 cartilage implant in Monroe’s chin, which he observed to have slowly begun to dissolve. Monroe’s biggest films, such as How to Marry a Millionaire, The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot, were all shot after 1950.

“Also at that time, going back to the ‘50s, people didn’t go for plastic surgery procedures,” Nolan added. “This is very new.”

X-rays include Monroe’s frontal facial bones, a composite right and left X-ray of the sides of her nasal bones and dental X-rays of the roof of her mouth. A set of three chest X-rays of Monroe from 1954 sold for $45,000 at a 2010 auction. 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2013.

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