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Health & Fitness

Reflection on Marilyn Monroe's Time in the Hamptons

Marilyn Monroe was happy in the Hamptons.

Many claim that  the sizzling Marilyn Monroe often said that the two years she spent living in Amagansett on the house, on Hamlin Lane, were the happiest years in her short life. Yes, the woman who in 1999 was proclaimed to be, “People’s Magazines Sexiest Woman of the Century,” spent two wonderful years out in the Hamptons.

Marilyn had come to New York in 1956 to study acting with Lee Strasberg, after running around the bases in a very short marriage to Joe DiMaggio in 1954, ending in what DiMaggio called a “conflict of careers.” Monroe then fell into the orbit of playwright Arthur Miller, as in “Death of a Salesman,” who married her on June 29, 1956. Living in New York City, the couple rented a simple farmhouse for the 1957-58 summer seasons on the Stony Hill Farm, owned then by the Potter family. The home at the time was about 1500 square feet, perched on a hill laden with old white oak trees, which had a pleasant view of the pastures below. In fact today, the first home in that pleasant view now belongs to Alec Baldwin.

During that blissful time, Marilyn called herself MMM for Marilyn Monroe Miller. When she ordered cosmetics at she called herself Mrs. Miller. She was often seen driving her black 1956 Thunderbird convertible around town with Hugo, their pet Basset Hound. She and Arthur kept the hound in the Hamptons and in the city. No one can say for sure if they also brought their pet parakeet “Butch” out for the summer, but most likely they did. No doubt they too enjoyed the Springs General Store. Arthur enjoyed driving his Jaguar fast too, although after the rain, it was a bit testy on the still unpaved Stony Hill Road. 

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It may be noted that Marilyn prepared for the movie “Some Like It Hot” while spending the summer in the Hamlin Lane Farmhouse. While she was spending endless hours on the telephone, Sam Shaw took many snappy photos of Marilyn, often phone in her hand, looking every bit the woman she was. In fact, the very small school desk table in those photos is still in the house now owned by Joe and Lucy Kazickas. They were kind enough a few years back to give me a tour of the farmhouse. Now the home is more than three times the original 1500 square feet the Monroe/Millers bedroom is a guest bedroom. The Monroe/ Miller bathtub still remains in the adjoining bathroom to the guest room. The original space that was the farmhouse kitchen is more of a mudroom space with the original back door still there. At the time there was a wood burning stove in the house and the amazing beautiful wide planked pine floors are still there. In the corner of the Kazickas’ dining room is a framed collection of three Sam Shaw photographs of Marilyn seated in the corner of the very same room. In the photos, her foot is inches away from a pine knot in the floor that is still there today, the evidence that this was the Monroe/Miller home. The ice house that the simple farmhouse had has now been converted into a deluxe sauna and showers along with an area with a television for kicking back. In the back of the home, the magnificent old white oaks still shade the summer sun as they did for Marilyn, Arthur, and Hugo, their pet basset hound. Again in some Sam Shaw photos, Marilyn poses among the oak trees, which in all these years have changed very little from their dignified presence 50 years ago. Yes, it has been 55 years since Marilyn posed for those photos at the Stony Hill Farmhouse. 

Born June 1, 1926, as Norma Jeane Mortenson, Marilyn would be 86 years old, if she hadn’t died on August 5, 1962, at the age of 36. It may be noted that Arthur Miller passed away in 2005, and very late in his life, he would be driven around Amagansett and the Stony Hill Farm. His sister and her son still have a residence in Amagansett.

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On the radio, Elton John still sings about Marilyn, and her pictures pop up whenever the words glamour, beauty, or movie star are illustrated. Her candle did burn out long ago but her legend never will. In our minds, Marilyn Monroe will forever be 30-something, vibrant and always truly American.

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