Marilyn Monroe Porn Short Sells for $1.5 Million

The public cannot seem to get enough of Marilyn Monroe, nearly half a century after her death from what was ruled an accidental overdose of barbitutes. Madonna unsuccessfully tried to create a movie career for herself by aping Monroe, and Lindsay Lohan was recently humiliated by posing for a recreation of Marilyn's last nude photo session with the original photographer, Bert Stern, in New YorkMagazine. Jessica Simpson, whom no one has accused of being the second coming of MM, is appearing on the cover of the May edition of Esquire Magazine, recreating a cover of Marilyn Monroe shaving that was published over 40 years ago in 1965, three years after the cinema legend's death.

Since Marilyn Monroe became a movie star, there have been rumors that she starred in pornographic "stag films." She did pose nude for the famous calendar shots that later were featured in the very first edition of PLAYBOY Magazine, in which she was featured as "Sweetheart of the Month," an honor now known as a "Playmate." However, none other than America's greatest pornography expert, PLAYBOY publisher Hugh Hefner himself, debunked all claims that there actually is a hard-core stag film in existence featuring Marilyn Monroe.

Beginning with her breakthrough to stardom in the early 1950s, Monroe fought beack against those who claimed that she was the star of the infamous "stag film" Apple, Knockers, & Coke Bottle, which featured a busty beauty playing with an apple and a coke bottle with the second part of the title, but which was decidedly non-pornographic. (The actress, who looked vaguely like Monroe, rolled the apple and the bottle on her ample bosom.) Apple, Knockers, & Coke Bottle made a stir circa 1970 when it was featued in a compliation of "blue movies" making the rounds of porn-movie palaces, coupled with such gems as an excerpt from a World War II vintage gay stag reel that allegedly featured Chuck Connors, TV's "The Rifleman," exposing a rifle that definitely didn't have Winchester embossed on the barrel! (Connors was serving in the U.S. Army when the stag reel was produced in Los Angeles in 1945, but that didn't prevent the producers from besmirching his reputation to make a buck.)

Marilyn Monroe actually went to court in 1952 to save her reputation from those alleging that she had made stag loops. She won a case she brought against men who were promoting a stag film as having been made by her.

In the United States, the dead cannot be libelled. Once you are gone, your reputation is fair game for anyone wanting to cash in.

In 1980, another stag reel "starring" the young Marilyn Monroe reportedly surfaced and made international headlines. It was even was featured in a pictorial spread in Penthouse Magazine, which claimed it was real, when clearly, upon examination, it was not. The Penthouse writers claimed that the lack of a true resemblance between the real Marilyn Monroe and the Marilyn Monroe wannabe in the stag film could be put down to "baby fat." However, any perusal of pre-stardom photos of Norma Jean Baker, who became Marilyn Monroe, doesn't support this "distortion via baby fat" claim of Penthouse, whose publisher Bob Guccione was out to hustle the suckers.

It is not hard to make headlines about Marilyn Monroe, particularly if there is either porn or the Kennedys involved. Several months ago, there were headlines in the press over the alleged discovery of a nude hitchhiking photo of Marilyn Monroe. The photo was of Madonna, from her 1991 book Sex.

The stars aligned recently, and the fabled trifecta of Marilyn Monroe, the Kennedy brothers, and pornography generated big headlines. "HARDCORE MARILYN" ballyhooed the New York Post in its April 14, 2008 edition. "FBI'S MONROE SEX FLICK SOLD FOR $1.5M."

The Post proceeded to unfold a tale of a the "real thing," a stag film featuring Marilyn Monroe performing oral sex on one of the Kennedy brothers, who for reasons "undisclosed," unlike their nether regions, never had their faces in the frame. Yet, it was true. It was one of the Kennedys. Or at least, they wanted us to believe it was because J. Edgar Hooever thought so and was determined to prove it. For this was the very stag film seized by the F.B.I. during the 1960s to blackmail the Kennedys.

According to the Post, the million-and-a-half-dollar B+W stag film -- "15 minutes of 16mm film footage in which the original blond bombshell performs oral sex on an unidentified man" -- was an "an illicit copy of the steamy, still-FBI-classified reel."

There are F.B.I. files pertaining to the Bureau's procurement of a stag film allegedly starring Marilyn Monroe in the 1960s. The "French style" film allegedly had attracted the attention of Marilyn's second husband, Joe DiMaggio, who had offered $25,000 for it, but was refused. Allegedly, J. Edgar Hoover, a Kennedy-hater, wanted to prove ta link between the anonymous man being fellated in the film and either the late President or his still-living brother, Robert F. Kennedy, who may very well have been elected President himself in 1968 if he himself hadn't been gunned down by an assassin.

The Post told how the stag film was discovered by the "well-known memorabilia collector" Keya Morgan, who a persual of the Internet Movie Database revels to be the maker of an upcoming documentary film on Marilyn. Morgan claimed to have discovered the stag film while doing research for his documentary. A former F.B.I. agent told him about a man who informed the Bureau abou thte existence of the stag film in the 1960s. Before the F.B.I. confiscated the film, the informant made a copy of the stag film that still is being held by the Bureau and remains "classified." Keya Morgan claims he was able to meet the son of the informant, who turned out to have the M.M. stag film copy in a safe deposit box, the original now with the F.B.I.

Keya Morgan claims that he brokered a deal between the son of the man who owned the original stag film and the copy and a millionaire who wanted to take the film and bury it forever, so that Marilyn's reputation would remain unsullied. According to the F.B.I. files, someone -- possibly the seller's father? -- had turned down an offer of $25,000 from Joltin' Joe DMaggio for the flick a half-century ago, but the owner of the copy was willing to part with it for a cool $1.5 million, according to Morgan.

Morgan, who claims to have seen the film, told the Post the stag reel was bought by a millionaire who desires to remain anyonymous, whose one desire is to lock it away so Marilyn's memory cannot be sullied.

"He said he's just going to lock it up," Morgan told the post. The millionaire told Morgan, "I'm not going to make a Paris Hilton out of her. I'm not going to sell it, out of respect. "

That's very good for Keya Morgan as then, the stag film cannot be debunked, as previous pornographic reels allegedly starring Monroe have been in the past.

In fact, Morgan's story had all the makings of a hoax. Marilyn Monroe didn't know either of the Kennedys in the 1950s, and if the stag film were still classified by the F.B.I. as a matter of national security, it is highly unlikely that Morgan could broker the sale of a copy of classified material without inviting intervention from the bureau.

The New York Post reportedly was going to run a follow-up piece concluding that Morgan had pulled off a hoax, since he refused to provide details abou the sale. Possibly to save itself embarassment, the Post demurred, and the revelation of the hoax was run by the Defamer's Web site.

In 2007, the Sydney Morning Herald and other papers ran stories on declassified F.B.I. documents, which admittedly, were highly speculative, that tried to blame Robert F. Kennedy for the death of Marilyn Monroe. According to the F.B.I. report, information gleaned by a former Bureau agent in the employ of then-California Governor Pat Brown found out that there might have been a conspirary between RFK, his brother-in-law Peter Lawford (an actor who was a close friend of Marilyn's), and Marilyn's psychiatrist and house-keeper to ensure that a symbolic suicide gesture on Monroe's part proved fatal. According to one Herald article, the F.B.I. materials contained a 1965 memorandum with the title "Interstate Transportation of Obscene Matter" that mentions a stag film that Monroe allegedly "starred" in:

"[Deleted] ... at his office ran a "French-type" movie which depicted Marilyn Monroe, deceased actress, in unnatural acts with an unknown male. [Deleted] informed them he had obtained this film prior to to the time Monroe achieved stardom and that subsequently Joe DiMaggio attempted to purchase this film ... for $25,000. This information should not be discussed outside the bureau."RFK and J. Edgar Hoover were enemies, and Hoover feared that Kennedy, if elected President, would have him removed as Bureau director. All of the materials were based on conjecture.

Keya Morgan, working on his own Marilyn Monroe documentary, likely saw an opportunity after reading about this material. "Finding " or manufacturing the "French-type" movie would generate a lot of publicity. Morgan hasn't even shown anyone the film, and claims that the "millionaire" he sold it too plans to keep it under lock and key, so there is no evidence to prove or disprove his story.

It is all very meretricious and besmirches the character of the cinema legend that Morgan claims to revere.

Sources:

The Defamer, "Exclusive: Debunking The Marilyn Monroe 'Sex Tape' Hoax"

Monroe Movie.com, "The Lost Marilyn's Movie"

New York Post, "HARDCORE MARILYN; FBI'S MONROE SEX FLICK SOLD FOR $1.5M"

Sydney Morning Herald, "FBI file links Kennedy to Monroe's death "; "How Bobby betrayed Marilyn"; "Freedom of Information & Privacy Acts: Subject: Marilyn Monroe Cross References"