USA: Marilyn Monroe sex film purchased by NewYork businessman for 1.5 million U.S. dollars

Record ID: 335027

  • Title: USA: Marilyn Monroe sex film purchased by NewYork businessman for 1.5 million U.S. dollars
  • Date: 17th April 2008
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA (APRIL 14, 2008) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) KEYA MORGAN, MEMORABILIA COLLECTOR SAYING: "It's a great investment, number one. Number two, documented and verified by the FBI, by Joe DiMaggio who saw it and was very upset. He tried to purchase it for 25 thousand (U.S.) dollars back in the 1960's but they did not want to sell it. It's been verifie
  • Embargoed: 2nd May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: People
  • Reuters ID: LVA6YCDOJVFIZAWOL73P4HWNZFV4
  • Story Text: A 15-minute film of Marilyn Monroe engaging in oral sex with an unidentified man will be kept from public view by a New York businessman who has bought it for 1.5 million U.S. dollars, the broker of the deal said on Monday (April 14).
    Memorabilia collector Keya Morgan said he recently arranged the sale of the silent, black-and-white film from the son of a dead FBI informant who possessed it to a wealthy Manhattan businessman who wants to protect Monroe's privacy.
    Monroe is clothed and the man's head remains out of the frame for the entire 15 minutes of the film, said Morgan, who watched it.
    Monroe was rumoured to have had an affair with U.S. President John F.
    Kennedy, and Morgan said then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, a Kennedy rival, went to great lengths to try to prove it was Kennedy in the film.
    One of Monroe's ex-husbands, the late baseball great Joe DiMaggio, once tried to buy it from the collector for 25,000 USD but "he would not part with it," according to FBI files on Monroe that are available on the FBI Web site.

    "It's a great investment, number one," Morgan told Reuters.
    "Number two, documented and verified by the FBI, by Joe DiMaggio who saw it and was very upset. He tried to purchase it for 25 thousand (U.S.) dollars back in the 1960's but they did not want to sell it. It's been verified not only by me as one of the number one experts in Marilyn Monroe and the producer of this documentary, but also by Joe DiMaggio the FBI and many agents."
    Morgan is a well-known collector who owns memorabilia from the estates of Monroe and DiMaggio and said he was friends with Monroe's other two husbands, Jim Dougherty and Arthur Miller.
    He said he learned of the existence of the film while working on a documentary about Monroe, who died in August 1962 at age 36. A former FBI agent told him about it, and Morgan said he confirmed it by tracking down the son of the FBI informant, who had provided a copy to the FBI.
    The late informant's son had the original while the copy remains classified in the FBI files, said Morgan, whose deal was first reported by the New York Post on Monday.
    An FBI spokesmen declined to comment except to point out the Monroe files available online, which refer to the film but make no mention of Hoover's purported interest.
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