A whopping six decades after the release of her final film, Marilyn Monroe remains a draw! Case in point? A crypt neighboring the spot where the legendary actress was laid to rest 59 years ago recently hit the market with a spine-tingling $2 million price tag! Located at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary at 1218 Glendon Ave., the chamber was previously owned by Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist Jerry Herman, of “Hello, Dolly!” and “La Cage aux Folles” fame, who purchased it in 1997 for $75,000. Los Angeles real estate, even of the six-feet-under variety, is always a good investment, it seems – especially if it’s Marilyn adjacent!
Concerned about his life expectancy, Herman acquired the space about a decade after testing positive for HIV. A real estate aficionado with exquisite taste (he even attended Parsons School of Design!), Jerry knew that in death, as in life, it’s all about location, location, location. As such, when getting his affairs in order, he zeroed in on Pierce Brothers Memorial Park as his preferred resting place, drawn to both the beauty of the site as well as the thousands of fellow creatives who made it their final home. As Jerry’s goddaughter Jane Dorian of Avenue 8 realty, who is representing his estate in the sale, expressed, “Leave it to Jerry to find such a remarkable spot.”
Thanks to advancements in medicine, Jerry wound up living until the ripe old age of 88, passing away from natural causes in December 2019. By that time, his final wishes had changed and per The Wall Street Journal, he ultimately “decided to be buried with his mother in New Jersey, in a spot overlooking the lights of Broadway.” And now his hallowed Pierce Brothers crypt, which sits two spots over from Marilyn, directly next to the burial vault of Hugh Hefner, is up for grabs. As Dorian told the WSJ, “He’s next to the two sexiest people that were ever alive.”
Marilyn’s official final resting place is Crypt 24 in the Corridor of Memories, which can be found in the northeast section of the cemetery. It is there that she was laid to rest on August 8, 1962, following her unexpected death from acute barbiturate poisoning three days prior. The funeral was arranged by her former husband Joe DiMaggio, business manager Inez Melson and half-sister Berniece Baker Miracle. Only a handful of people were invited, with Marilyn’s Hollywood friends and acquaintances specifically barred. Cloaked in her favorite green Pucci dress, she was the first major celebrity to be buried at Pierce Brothers Memorial Park.
-
Image Credit: Lindsay Blake The quaint graveyard was originally established as Sunset Cemetery by the State of California in 1904, with the inaugural funeral taking place the following year, though, by all accounts, it had been used as an interment site for the Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayers land grant since at least the late 1800s. A 1976 Los Angeles Times piece reports, “Records show burials at what is now Westwood Village Memorial Park beginning in the 1880s, although local lore suggests that ranch hands and Indians had been interred there as early as the 1820s.”
After changing hands and names several times, it was purchased by James R. and Clarence Pierce in 1959 and rebranded Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary, as it is still known today.
-
Image Credit: Lindsay Blake One of Los Angeles’ most bucolic burial grounds, the intimate 2.5-acre site is secluded and serene, with the surrounding skyscrapers shielding it from the noise, traffic and general hubbub of bustling Wilshire Blvd., which sits just steps away. Carpeted in rolling green lawns, canopied by mature trees and dotted with fountains, the cemetery truly has a park-like feel, and, as noted on the Pierce Brothers’ official website, “is so unassuming and enjoyable that many people come just to enjoy the outdoors and relax in the peaceful surroundings.”
Calling the site “literally magical” Jane says, “I can understand why Jerry and so many others were completely drawn to it.”
-
Image Credit: Lindsay Blake It is Miss Monroe’s funeral that firmly put Pierce Brothers on the map. The list of celebrity burials that have taken place on the premises in the six decades since reads like a Who’s Who of departed Tinseltown souls. Just a few of the luminaries to make the cemetery their final home include Rodney Dangerfield, Kirk Douglas, Farrah Fawcett, Merv Griffin, Florence Henderson, Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Donna Reed, Mel Tormé, Billy Wilder and Marilyn’s friend and “Something’s Got to Give” co-star Dean Martin. Authors Ray Bradbury and Truman Capote were also laid to rest at Pierce Brothers, as were several actresses who met tragic, untimely ends including Natalie Wood, Dorothy Stratten and, in an eerie twist, “Poltergeist” stars Dominique Dunne and Heather O’Rourke.
Monroe is by far the most famed celebrity to be interred there, though. And even in death, she remains legendary.
-
Image Credit: Lindsay Blake For a full two decades following her passing, DiMaggio famously commissioned Parisian Florist, one of the starlet’s favorite flower shops and a Hollywood staple since 1924, to deliver half a dozen blossoms to her crypt thrice weekly. His original order stated, “Six fresh long-stemmed red roses, three times a week . . . forever.” For the next 20 years, French Baccara blooms were placed at her crypt every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for which the Yankee Clipper was billed annually. Incredibly, shop owners Max and Louis Alhanati never once raised the price on him.
According to the Ellensburg Daily Record, in early 1982, DiMaggio requested the deliveries be reduced to twice weekly and he then canceled the order altogether just a few months later, with the final set of flowers placed at her crypt on August 31. Of the halt, Louis said, “I really don’t know why it was 20 years. He gave me no reason.” In all, more than 19,000 roses were delivered to Marilyn’s resting place over the two-decade period – an ultimate valentine for the woman DiMaggio is said to have never gotten over. Though the two were married for a scant 274 days before divorcing in 1954, love, as they say, is eternal. But Joltin’ Joe is hardly the only one to shower Monroe’s final home with affection.
-
People Marilyn Monroe Crypt
Image Credit: Associated Press It’s a rare occasion to see Marilyn’s crypt not covered in lipstick impressions from the legions of adoring fans who leave their mark on it daily. So often is the tomb touched, handled and smooched that its marble façade has had to be replaced numerous times over the years and often appears discolored from the repeated cleanings it undergoes, making it greatly stand out from its neighbors, as evidenced by the photo above.
Resting just to the left of Marilyn is Hugh Hefner, who purchased his crypt in 1992 for $75,000 and was interred there when he passed away in 2017 at the age of 91. The “Playboy” magnate had long felt an affinity for the blonde bombshell as it was her infamous calendar images, taken before she was a star in 1949, that graced the pages of his magazine’s inaugural 1953 issue, thereby launching his empire.
The crypt above Monroe was acquired by someone who felt a strong affinity towards her, as well – a fan named Richard Poncher, who, rather creepily, was buried face-down, facing the star. As legend has it, prior to his death, he told his wife, “If you don’t put me upside down over Marilyn, I’ll haunt you the rest of my life.” She followed that admonition and when Richard passed away in 1986, he was indeed interred facedown, forever looking down upon the blonde beauty. His widow, Elizabeth, told the Los Angeles Times, “I was standing right there and [the mortician] turned him over.”
In an interesting twist, Elizabeth wound up trying to sell the crypt in 2009 via eBay (as one does) with an opening bid of $500,000 in the hopes of using the funds to pay off her mortgage. Though interest was high and the auction garnered an incredible winning bid of $4.6 million, the deal ultimately fell through and Richard is still buried atop Marilyn. Elizabeth, who has also since passed, is now interred next to him in the crypt above Hefner.
-
Image Credit: Lindsay Blake Comparable non-Marilyn adjacent crypts at Pierce Brothers currently cost $180,000 according to The Wall Street Journal, roughly 50 times the average price of a cemetery plot in the U.S., which is $3,500. In L.A., nothing comes cheap!
MM has been known to set many posthumous records. According to The Marilyn Monroe Collection, the beaded ensemble the star wore when she sang “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy in May 1962 “holds the record for the most expensive personal dress ever sold at auction” and the white frock she donned in “The Seven Year Itch’s” subway grate scene is “the most expensive film costume ever sold at auction.” Could the most expensive neighboring crypt be next?
As final resting spots go, Dorian notes the available chamber “is the ultimate piece of luxury real estate. But paradise has a price.”