Kate Durbin: from Ravenous Audience

MARILYN: LEFTOVERS

The Clothes

a black embroidered handbag     a pearlescent Bakelite clutch     a jewel-encrusted evening bag with a chain strap     a Lucite handbag     a clear bejeweled handbag with an embellished closure      the same bag filled with matching accessories     a red patent-leather handbag with a gold closer     an arrangement of 13 of Monroe’s bags     a wool hat with two ostrich feathers     a white wool hat with a large satin bow     two lacquered fans      a white fox-fur collar     a sable collar     a black broadtail jacket with a brown mink collar shown with a brown leather handbag     a three-quarter-length black mink coat     a three-quarter-length cheetah-print coat     a cream-colored cardigan with a two-toned mink collar and a diamenté closure     a 1954 appraisal slip valuing a black mink coat at $10,000

The Jewels

a collection of necklaces bracelets earrings and brooches   a gold necklace possibly by Paul Flato from the early 1960s the long chain is hung with stylized “lily” drops     a necklace with a diamond center stone      a jade beaded necklace     a link necklace with a square clasp      a jade beaded necklace with a gold flower clasp     a diamond necklace with a diamond and ruby pendant     a pearl necklace with a pearl and diamond pendant     a pearl necklace        a diamond Art-Deco style necklace     a pearl necklace with a flower clasp     a Blancpain diamond watch     a Marvin diamond and gold watch     gold ear clips     pearl and gold cluster earrings     pearl drop earrings     diamond and pearl cluster earrings     pearl and gold pineapple earrings     diamond and gold starburst brooches     a pearl and gold brooch     a pearl brooch     a pearl and gold pineapple brooch     a diamond and gold brooch        a diamond and gold link bracelet     a four-strand pearl bracelet with a gold clasp      a diamond and ruby bracelet     a jade and gold bracelet

The Keepsakes

an army-issue sewing kit likely given to Monroe in Korea in 1954     a typewriter belonging to Monroe with a letter to Arthur Miller’s father     the bottle of Chanel No. 5 that Melson found on Monroe’s nightstand after her death    a cookbook of Mexican and Spanish recipes along with recipes of Monroe’s     a tin box filled with stamps     three of Monroe’s cookbooks     six coins found with Monroe’s belongings     an Autobridge set     a Blockhead! game set     a hairbrush comb and mirror set     two silver candelabras      a sequined brown and tan case     a porcelain parakeet figurine     a pair of green dice     a silver tea set   a recording of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs song “Some Day My Prince Will Come”     a black leather stamp case     a floral china set with gold trim        a holiday calendar     a folder marked “Photographs/Stills on ‘Something’s Got to Give’”        the back of Monroe’s favorite photograph of herself which shows her standing in a jeep taken by a soldier in Korea during her U.S.O. trip there           a 1958 report card for Robert (Bobby) Miller Arthur’s son    

The Prescriptions

receipts for medications purchased by Monroe and Arthur Miller including Seconal a barbiturate and Noludar a sedative     prescription receipts from Schwab’s Pharmacy     a collage of prescription receipts     a Schwab’s receipt from May 1960     another Schwab’s receipt     more prescription receipts from Schwab’s      receipts from Fairfax Drug Company in Los Angeles      more receipts from Fairfax Drug Company and one from the Prescription Center in Beverly Hills     receipts from the Prescription Center and one from the Westside Hospital Pharmacy     a file folder with pharmacy information

The Legal Documents

a document certifying Monroe’s divorce from James Dougherty dated September 1946     a 1947 letter from Monroe to Twentieth Century-Fox     a 1949 William Morris Agency contract     another page of the contract     a telegram from Twentieth Century-Fox assistant secretary Frank Ferguson     a 1954 letter from Frank Ferguson     an unsigned contract with Ben Hecht from 1954     a contract signed by Hecht and Monroe on March 18, 1954        a 1954 letter from RCA     a 1954 letter to Jacques Chambrun        a telegram from Frank Ferguson     a 1960 sag-Theatrical Agency contract between Monroe and MCA Artists       a 1961 memo from Aaron R. Frosch     page 2 of the memo     page 3 of the memo     page 4 of the memo     page 5 of the memo     page 6 of the memo     Monroe’s birth certificate and other documents     an envelope containing the birth certificate and other materials

The first of two posts featuring Kate Durbin. *“Marilyn: Leftovers” is excerpted from The Ravenous Audience, selected by Chris Abani for the Black Goat Imprint of Akashic Books. Purchase the book on Kindle or in paperback from Amazon.com.

  

Bio: Kate Durbin is a Los Angeles-based writer and transmedia artist. She is author of The Ravenous Audience (Akashic Books), E! Entertainment (Blanc Press Diamond Edition, forthcoming), and the post-conceptual fashion magazine The Fashion Issue (Wonder, forthcoming). She has also written five chapbooks, including FASHIONWHORE (Legacy Pictures) and Kept Women (Insert Press, forthcoming). Her projects have been featured in Spex, Huffington Post, The New Yorker, Specs, Salon.com, AOL, Poets and Writers, TMobile's Your Digital Daily, Poets.org, VLAK, Lana Turner: A Journal of Poetry and Opinion, Black Warrior Review, Joyland, berfrois, SUPERMACHINE, Drunken Boat, NPR, Bookslut, 1913, LIT, Fanzine, and The American Scholar, among others. She is founding editor of Gaga Stigmata, an online arts and criticism journal about Lady Gaga, which will be published as a book from Zg Press in 2012.