Discover Marilyn Monroe's Los Angeles (2024)

Opened in September 2021, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures houses more than 13 million objects in a 300,000 square-foot campus designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Renzo Piano. Identity: Costume Design features dozens of famous costumes, including The Dude from The Big Lebowski and the stunning May Queen flower dress and crown from Midsommar.

Best known for Marilyn Monroe's performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend," Howard Hawks's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) opens with "Two Little Girls from Little Rock," featuring Monroe and Jane Russell. Their red sequined gowns and feathered headpieces are displayed side-by-side in the Identity exhibit. The costumes were designed by William Travilla, who also created Monroe's iconic white dress in The Seven Year Itch.

Dedicated to the history and heritage of Hollywood and the entertainment industry, the Hollywood Museum houses 10,000 show business treasures from over 100 years of Hollywood history - it’s one of the most extensive collections of Hollywood memorabilia in the world. The museum includes Max Factor’s world-famous make-up rooms, where Marilyn Monroe became a blonde and Lucille Ball became a redhead. The museum’s incomparable Marilyn Monroe collection includes everything from personal items and wardrobe to her limousine.

Marilyn Monroe’s million-dollar honeymoon dress is one of the most memorable items on display at the Hollywood Museum. Monroe wore it on her honeymoon when she married Joe DiMaggio, as well as when she entertained troops in Korea in 1954. She continued to wear it as her personal dress, making it a truly unique artifact compared to typical Hollywood wardrobe items.

Marilyn Monroe’s "dumb blonde" persona was used to great comedic effect in films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), co-starring Jane Russell. Monroe’s performance as the gold-digging Lorelei Lee is best remembered for her iconic rendition of "Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend," featuring William Travilla’s famous pink satin dress.

Thanks to the film’s success, Monroe and Russell were invited to put their signatures, hand and shoe prints into cement at the famed Forecourt of the Stars at the TCL Chinese Theatre, then known as Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Generations of celebrities and some of the 20th century’s greatest writers have dined on classic steakhouse fare and sipped the famous Martinis at Musso & Frank Grill. Opened in 1919, Musso's has appeared in numerous movies and TV shows, from Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and Ed Wood toBosch, The Kominsky Method, Perry Mason (2020) and Mad Men.

Guarded by a famously strict maître d', the Back Room at Musso's opened in 1934 as an exclusive, private space reserved for the Hollywood elite. In the ‘50s, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, Elizabeth Taylor, and Steve McQueen were just a few of the Hollywood legends that enjoyed drinks and appetizers in the Back Room. After the Back Room closed in 1955, the original bar was moved to its current location in the New Room.

Located adjacent to the Roxy Theatre on the legendary Sunset Strip, the Rainbow Bar & Grill has been a hangout for rock stars since the early 1970s, welcoming everyone from Led Zeppelin and Alice Cooper to Mötley Crüe, Poison, and Guns N' Roses.

Before it became the Rainbow, the space was home to an Italian restaurant called Villa Nova, which was owned by Vincente Minnelli while he was married to Judy Garland. Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio went on a blind date at Villa Nova in 1952. It’s been seven decades since that night, and guests still request the “Marilyn booth.”

Celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2021, the legendary Hotel Bel-Air reopened in October 2011 after a two-year, multi-million dollar renovation that invites new generations of travelers to experience the style of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Designed in a Spanish mission style, the luxury hotel is nestled on 12 lush acres in the exclusive Bel-Air Estates.

Marilyn Monroe lived at the Hotel Bel-Air during a decade-long period that included her marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, as well as the filming of Some Like It Hot.

The Hotel Bel-Air was the site for The Last Sitting, the famous photo shoot by photographer Bert Stern that was commissioned by Vogue magazine in June 1962, just six weeks before Monroe died. The shoot took place in a suite over three daily sessions. Stern first published The Last Sitting in 1982. The book included a large number of the over 2,500 images that Stern had shot, including contact sheets with images Monroe had disliked and crossed out.

Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park is the final resting place for a Who’s Who of pop culture, including Marilyn Monroe, Ray Bradbury, Truman Capote, Farrah Fawcett, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Dean Martin, Roy Orbison, Natalie Wood, Frank Zappa and many more. With its only entrance on Glendon Avenue, the cemetery is hidden, though not impossible to find.

Monroe is interred in a pink marble crypt (no. 24) at the Corridor of Memories. Hugh Hefner, who died in September 2017, was buried next to her. Joe DiMaggio had a half-dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times a week for the next 20 years. He never spoke publicly about his relationship with Monroe and never remarried.