A Marilyn Monroe Received Letter from Isidore Miller, Arthur Miller's Father, Dated February 22, 1962

 

A one page note typed on 'The Sea Isle Miami Beach' hotel stationery; dated "February 22, 1962."

 

This touching letter from Arthur Miller's father reads in part "Dear Marilyn, / I can't tell you in mere words just how / much your trip to Florida meant to me...the guests of the Sea Isle Hotel can't get / over how beautiful you looked..."

 

Though she and Miller had been divorced for over a year by the time this was written, the elder Miller obviously still cared for his former daughter-in-law as he ends with "Again, many, many thanks for a WONDERFUL / visit. / With love, / Dad".

 

Included is original transmittal envelope addressed to MM at her Brentwood house.

 

 

 

Isidore Miller

 

Marilyn was introduced by Arthur to his parents one day in the fall of 1955, at their modest apartment in Flatbush, as "the girl I'm going to marry."  For the occasion, Marilyn dressed demurely in a plain gray skirt, a high-collar black blouse, and she wore no makeup.  They hit it off right away.  Arthur's sister Joan said, "She adored my father.  She was comfortable with my father and he adored her...She felt she could tell him anything and if she said, 'I'd like this to be between you and me,' it would only be between her and him." 

 

 

On many occasions Isidore and August visited Marilyn and Arthur at their Fifty-seventh Street apartment, where Marilyn would cook food for Isidore, and dote on him if he was unwell; a luxury she had never had with her own father. 

 

Isidore was proud of his friendship with Marilyn.  Marilyn kept in regular touch with him, writing him long letters which began "Dear Dad."  In February 1962 she visited him in Florida, concerned that he was lonely after his wife had died.  For three days she took him out and about.  After she left, Isidore found $200 stuffed into an overcoat pocket.  "You see, Marilyn wanted me to protect her, but she also protected me." 

 

 

Three months later he was thrilled when Marilyn invited him to be her escort as she went to Madison Square Garden to sing the breathiest and most famous rendition of "Happy Birthday" ever sung.  That evening she proudly introduced Isidore to the president as "my former father-in-law," and brought him along as an escort to the party afterward.

 

 

From the recently discovered lost filing cabinets of Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe's copy of a letter she sent to Isidore Miller, dated February 2, 1962, which precedes their trip to Florida.  Photo image copyright:  Celebrity Photographer Mark Anderson

 

 

 

The Collection | The Exhibits | The Collector | About MM | Awards | Contact | About MMC.com | WWW | Home