Eternally Marilyn

photo by Milton Greene

Like so many summer days in Los Angeles, this one began as a balmy and sunlit morning. It would grow warmer and sunnier, but the languid summertime mood was shattered by news of a shocking event in one of the city’s most elite enclaves. It was Sunday, August 5, 1962, the day Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her West Los Angeles home, an empty pill bottle nearby. The story broke early and was soon burning up newswires and airwaves across the globe. Frenzied news crews were camped out around her hacienda-style house in Brentwood, a posh neighborhood that, with Beverly Hills and Bel Air, is known as the city's "Platinum Triangle.” It was the first home Marilyn Monroe ever owned on her own and she had moved in just five months earlier.

Art and Life: Autumn Sonata (1978), Ingrid Bergman's Final Film

One of the most beloved of Hollywood’s Golden Age stars, Ingrid Bergman lit up screens large and small in an acting career that spanned 50 years, included 54 onscreen performances and brought three Oscars and two Emmys among her many awards and accolades. On the American Film Institute’s most recent list of Great Screen Legends, Bergman ranks #4 among actresses.

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When she was taken to her first play as a child in Sweden, young Ingrid had blurted out, “That’s what I’m going to do!” during the performance. In that moment she’d become utterly stagestruck. Strong-willed and ambitious, she held fast to her dream and when she was accepted into Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic Theatre School at 18, she’d already appeared in her first film.