Marilyn Monroe’s Former Palm Springs Home – Revisited

This past Friday afternoon the Grim Cheaper and I headed out to Palm Springs to spend Labor Day Weekend with my parents at their new desert abode.  And even though most of our time was devoted to relaxing (and to watching Dance Moms, which has to be one of the most addicting shows I have EVER seen, but I digress), I was able to get a little bit of stalking in while we were there, including a LONG overdue visit to the Cabazon Dinosaurs which were made famous thanks to an appearance in the 1985 flick Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.  But more on “Dinny” and “Mr. Rex”, as they are known, later.  For today I thought I would write about one of my VERY favorite locations that I ever stalked – Marilyn Monroe’s former Palm Springs home, which I originally visited – and blogged about – back in March of 2008.  Because I had lumped the dwelling in with several other properties in a post about Palm-Springs celebrity vacation homes and because I had only included one photograph of the place in that post, though, I figured that this was one location that was most definitely worthy of a re-stalk.  So I dragged the GC right on over there on our way into town.

I originally found out about Marilyn’s former desert oasis thanks to a Map of the Stars’ Homes that I picked up – for free! – at the Palm Springs Visitors’ Center on one of my very first trips to the Coachella Valley.  And even though it was long before my MM obsession took hold, I absolutely fell in love with the charming little bungalow as soon as I laid eyes upon it.  With its Spanish-tiled steps, black-and-white striped awnings, abundant foliage, and gold-trimmed wrought iron front gate, the dwelling just screamed “fifties” to me and I immediately envisioned the starlet tending to some flowers in her quaint little garden, all the while wearing a pink scarf in her hair.  According to an article titled “The Road to Fame and Fortune”, which was written by Greg Archer and appeared in the September 2010 issue of Palm Springs Life Magazine, the exterior of the home still looks exactly the same today as it did back in the days when Marilyn lived there. LOVE IT!  In the article Greg also states that the property is the “most beautiful house on the block”.  I couldn’t agree more!  In fact, I would even go so far as to say that it is one of the most beautiful houses that I have ever seen in my entire life. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to take a tour of the inside!  Sigh!

Unfortunately, I have not been able to pinpoint the exact dates that Marilyn owned the dwelling as there seems to be a bit of conflicting information online.   According to “The Road to Fame and Fortune” article, Marilyn owned the the four bedroom, three bath, 2,978 square foot bungalow from 1960 to 1961, but according to the home’s property records, which I found via fave website Property Shark, the place was not even built until 1961, so something is mixed up somewhere.  UPDATE – fellow stalker E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, has done quite a bit of research on the home and has never been able to find any property records which tie it to MM, so he is guessing that she never actually owned the house, but may have rented it for a time.

As you can see in the above photographs (the one on the left was taken when I first visited the house in March 2008 and the one on the right was taken this past weekend), the foliage in front of the property has grown considerably in recent years, blocking quite a bit of the home’s exterior from view.  It is still an absolutely adorable little abode, though, and I cannot more highly recommend stalking it.

On a VERY exciting side-note: This past Friday morning, the powers that be at the About Me website sent me a tweet alerting me to the fact that they had featured me on their “Spotlight Directory” page, which you can check out here.  (I appear on a different portion of the page each time it is opened, so you may have to scroll through a bit to see me.)  SO INCREDIBLY EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!  THANK YOU, ABOUT ME!  And thank you so much to everyone who has been voting for me to be the new face of the company!  I appreciate it so much and, amazingly, I am currently in the top 5%!  So please keep those votes coming, my fellow stalkers!  You can vote by clicking on the green “Vote for this profile!” tab in the upper right-hand corner of my About Me profile.  You can only vote once every 24 hours – and the voting clock does not reset at midnight, which means that if you vote at 2:31 p.m. on a particular day, you will not be able to vote again until the following day at 2:32 p.m.  Annoying, I know.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Marilyn Monroe’s former Palm Springs home is located at 1326 Rose Avenue in Palm Springs.