![DiMAGGIO, Joseph (1914-1999), Baseball player. Autograph letter signed ("Joe"), TO MARILYN MONROE (1925-1962), New York, [27 January 1962]. 2 pages, 4to, on Hotel Lexington stationery, with autograph envelope addressed to "Miss Marge Stengel," Monroe's pseudonym on her Doheny Drive mailbox.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2007/NYR/2007_NYR_01938_1041_000(021357).jpg?w=1)
Details
DiMAGGIO, Joseph (1914-1999), Baseball player. Autograph letter signed ("Joe"), TO MARILYN MONROE (1925-1962), New York, [27 January 1962]. 2 pages, 4to, on Hotel Lexington stationery, with autograph envelope addressed to "Miss Marge Stengel," Monroe's pseudonym on her Doheny Drive mailbox.
"SHOULDN'T THAT BE PROOF ENOUGH WHERE MY THOUGHTS ARE?"
"A beautiful Saturday morning for New York, and no place to go, but to sit back on my desk and scribble you a note," the Yankee Clipper writes in this warm letter to the great love of his life, the doomed starlet, Marilyn Monroe. "Shouldn't that be proof enough where my thoughts are? There's so much going 'on' this quiet morning, like the hot water for the tea, radio etc. The report on the radio now says that the astronaut [John Glenn] will not attempt the orbital flight until Thursday or Friday. Fog and broken clouds were the reasons for this morning's cancellation. It must be tough on the astronaut's nerves, being all set to go and the last minute to be cancelled out--and knowing it still has to be attempted." Turning to his other great love--his personal fortune--DiMaggio says, "I just remembered I have an appointment with my accountant this afternoon. And me in my robe, not shaved or bathed. Guess my opening line about this being a note was not exaggerated. However, I'll drop you another note tonight. Forgiven for the 'shorty'? You sound great on the phone. Keep yourself well!"
DiMaggio and Monroe started dating in 1952, but did not marry until January 1954. It was a perfect match in media terms: America's greatest male athlete with the greatest female sex symbol. But as husband and wife they were ill-suited. DiMaggio's strict, conservative ideas about marriage caused him to seethe with rage when his wife had to adopt her sex-kitten persona on stage and screen. He refused to accompany her on a USO tour in Korea, and the famous skirt-blowing scene in The Seven Year Itch--the filming of which DiMaggio witnessed--reportedly provoked a marriage-ending row later that night. They divorced after just nine months of marriage. Yet they seemed to have resumed their relationship in some form in 1960. A sobbing, inconsolable DiMaggio appeared at her funeral just over six months after this letter, in August 1962. He made all the arrangements, and for years after ordered that fresh roses be placed weekly on her grave.
"SHOULDN'T THAT BE PROOF ENOUGH WHERE MY THOUGHTS ARE?"
"A beautiful Saturday morning for New York, and no place to go, but to sit back on my desk and scribble you a note," the Yankee Clipper writes in this warm letter to the great love of his life, the doomed starlet, Marilyn Monroe. "Shouldn't that be proof enough where my thoughts are? There's so much going 'on' this quiet morning, like the hot water for the tea, radio etc. The report on the radio now says that the astronaut [John Glenn] will not attempt the orbital flight until Thursday or Friday. Fog and broken clouds were the reasons for this morning's cancellation. It must be tough on the astronaut's nerves, being all set to go and the last minute to be cancelled out--and knowing it still has to be attempted." Turning to his other great love--his personal fortune--DiMaggio says, "I just remembered I have an appointment with my accountant this afternoon. And me in my robe, not shaved or bathed. Guess my opening line about this being a note was not exaggerated. However, I'll drop you another note tonight. Forgiven for the 'shorty'? You sound great on the phone. Keep yourself well!"
DiMaggio and Monroe started dating in 1952, but did not marry until January 1954. It was a perfect match in media terms: America's greatest male athlete with the greatest female sex symbol. But as husband and wife they were ill-suited. DiMaggio's strict, conservative ideas about marriage caused him to seethe with rage when his wife had to adopt her sex-kitten persona on stage and screen. He refused to accompany her on a USO tour in Korea, and the famous skirt-blowing scene in The Seven Year Itch--the filming of which DiMaggio witnessed--reportedly provoked a marriage-ending row later that night. They divorced after just nine months of marriage. Yet they seemed to have resumed their relationship in some form in 1960. A sobbing, inconsolable DiMaggio appeared at her funeral just over six months after this letter, in August 1962. He made all the arrangements, and for years after ordered that fresh roses be placed weekly on her grave.