Marilyn Monroe plastic surgery files to be sold

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― Medical files proving that screen icon Marilyn Monroe underwent cosmetic surgery including on her nose and chin are to be sold at auction next month, auctioneers said Tuesday.

The files going under the hammer include X-rays of the “Some Like It Hot” sex symbol who died aged 36 in 1962, as well as doctors’ notes which show she had an ectopic pregnancy five years before her death.

“Rumors regarding Marilyn Monroe’s plastic surgery continue to astonish the media and public,” and exactly what procedures she underwent has “long remained a mystery,” said Julien’s Auctions in Hollywood.

“Because her looks were so natural, it was hard for many to believe the reports that in 1950 Monroe had undergone her first plastic surgery.”

But it said the files “clear any doubt of Monroe’s early plastic surgery procedures and cast new details on the actual procedures that would transform (Monroe) during a time when plastic surgery was not a popular procedure.”

The medical records refer to Monroe by various aliases, including Marilyn Miller. She saw Dr. Michael Gurdin from July 1958, and her chief complaint was “chin deformity.”

In 1950 she had a cartilage implant in her chin, which the doctor said slowly began to dissolve. The implant was done as part of a procedure called a tip rhinoplasty, on the end of Monroe’s nose, the record show.

She also had a bout of neutropenia in England in 1956 and an ectopic pregnancy in New York in 1957.

The last entry is dated June 7, 1962, recording a fall in the middle of the night, resulting in swelling and tenderness of the nose. Six X-rays show her nasal bones and teeth. She used the pseudonym Joan Newman at that time.

The auction will be held on Nov. 10 at Julien’s Auction’s premises in Beverly Hills.