Marilyn Monroe’s ‘Subway Dress’ Fetches $5.6 Million
How do you scratch a Seven Year Itch? $5.6 million should do the trick.
That's the amount an anonymous bidder has paid for the iconic white halter-neck dress that Marilyn Monroe famously wore over a subway grate in the 1955 film, CNN reports.
The pleated dress, which was imitated in a Lara Stone charity campaign earlier this year, was part of a June 18 Profiles in History auction in Beverly Hills unloading Singin' in the Rain actress Debbie Reynolds' collection of 3,500 film costumes.
“I heard the news that MGM was going to sell their inventory of costumes and props,” Reynolds says of her collection in a press release. “I went every day for weeks and focused on purchasing the costumes and props of Academy Award-winning films. It soon turned into an obsession. Until now! I've concluded that my dream of having a museum cannot be fulfilled, so I have decided to share my fabulous collection with other collectors.”
No kidding. Along with the dress, originally expected to fetch $2 million, Reynolds's loot also included the red sequined showgirl gown and feathered hat worn by Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (sold for $1.47 million) and other Monroe costumes from River of No Return and There's No Business Like Show Business, which went for $1.2 million.
Meanwhile, Charlie Chaplin's bowler hat sold for $135,300, and Elizabeth Taylor's riding outfit from National Velvet took in $73,800.
"[The bids were] totally crazy, especially in this recession," collector Keya Morgan told CNN of the auction.
Last year the auction house sold Monroe's famous pink satin gown from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for $319,000, while the sheer dress worn by the blonde bombshell to sing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy took in a record-setting $1.26 million in 1999.
The second part of "Debbie Reynolds The Auction" will take place in December. Start saving those pennies!
