Home movie shows Monroe smoking joint

Pot shots

A silent reel-to-reel colour film, dating probably from the late 1950s, shows a relaxed star taking a quick puff from what is alleged to have been a joint of marijuana while sitting on a couch with at least two other people.

But, as former US president Bill Clinton and other politicians might put it later, she did not inhale, not much anyway.

The film shows Monroe, smiling widely, with a cigarette in hand, and then seemingly self-absorbed in the contemplative pleasure of the moment, taking a drag, eyes closed, her head of trademark golden curls resting on the back of the sofa.

The person who shot the film at a private house in New Jersey insists the cigarette contained marijuana. The movie maker is remaining anonymous but insisted the pot “was mine”.

“It was not a party. It was just a get-together. You know, come over and hang out,”
he said.

US collector Keya Morgan, who recently paid £275,000 for the movie and is putting the copyright of an image from it up for sale on eBay later this week, dates it to 1958 or 1959, based on Monroe’s appearance.

Documentary

He is making a documentary about the actor, whose final years were to see her turn increasingly to drugs of another sort, barbiturates and alcohol. He learned of the film during his research and tracked down the owner, who kept it as part of an archive that was moved between various homes over the years.

The Monroe film had been stored in an attic for three years before Morgan tracked it down.

“This is the late ‘50s so she is already very famous, but this is a personal side of her we’ve never seen before. People have never seen her in such a relaxed pose,” Keya  Morgan said.

Marilyn Monroe died from an overdose, probably self-inflicted, although murder conspiracy theories abound.

Guardian and agencies