A New Jersey man, Anton Fury, recently rediscovered an envelope of negatives he bought for $2 at a garage sale back in the 1980s, according to CBS News. The negatives turned out to be rare pictures of Hollywood starlets Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield.
The pictures Fury found of the most photographed woman in the world, before she became famous, are surrounded with mystery. Fury has no idea who took the photos or exactly where they were taken. Reported by New York Daily News, the one thing that Fury’s been able to determine is that the photos were most likely taken in the early 1950s, according to David Streets, an art dealer and appraiser who has seen hundreds of Monroe photos over the years.
Reported by New York Daily News, “Hopefully someone out there, perhaps another photographer, because there are tons of photographers who did extensive work with her, will be able to shed some light on this,” Streets said.
Furthermore, Hollywood is apparently for sale. Legendary actress Debbie Reynolds is auctioning off her 600 pieces of Hollywood archives. Reynolds has spent more than 40 years and millions of dollars trying to create a Hollywood memorabilia museum to hold her assortment of costumes, cars and props from Tinseltown’s most memorable productions, according to the New York Post.
The June auction is expected to earn about $7 million and the infamous Marilyn Monroe “Seven Year Itch” ivory, pleated-subway dress is expected to gross between $1 million and $2 million on its own, according to New York Post.
In addition to the Marilyn Monroe’s dress, Reynolds will be auctioning off the ornate black-and-white ascot dress Audrey Hepburn famously donned in “My Fair Lady for $300, 000 and Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” for $150,000. But these hefty price tags are nothing in comparison to the sentimental value they hold for the actress.
“I’ve always loved movies . . . I’m a fan. But I don’t produce films,” says Reynolds. “So my small way of contributing was collecting,” according to New York Post.