$5,120
A vintage file copy of a six-page typed letter from Monroe to Dr. Ralph Greenson, the California-based psychiatrist who treated Monroe in the period leading up to her death. This deeply emotional letter, dated March 2, 1961, was written while Monroe was staying at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center for three weeks of recuperation following her stay at New York’s Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. The letter is done as a stream of conscious recollection of Payne Whitney. Passages in the letter include: “There was no empathy at Payne-Whitney — it had a very bad effect — they asked me after putting me in a 'cell' (I mean cement blocks and all) for very disturbed depressed patients (except I felt I was in some kind of prison for a crime I hadn’t committed. The inhumanity there I found archaic. They asked me why I wasn’t happy there (everything was under lock and key; things like electric lights, dresser drawers, bathrooms, closets, bars concealed on the windows — the doors have windows so patients can be visible all the time, also, the violence and markings still remain on the walls from former patients). I answered: 'Well, I’d have to be nuts if I like it here.'" “I sat on the bed trying to figure if I was given this situation in an acting improvisation what would I do. So I figured, it’s a squeaky wheel that gets the grease. I admit it was a loud squeak but I got the idea from a movie I made once called Don’t Bother to Knock. I picked up a light-weight chair and slamme
Auctioneer:
Juliens Auctions
Date:
2016-11-17
