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She's 34,000 pounds and 26 feet tall, was last seen on the streets of Chicago, and now Marilyn Monroe--in statue form--is lifting her skirts for all to see in Palm Springs.
"Forever Marilyn," is a work by 80-year-old Seward Johnson (yes, of the Johnson & Johnson family) and commemorates the beloved moment in "The Seven Year Itch" when the sex symbol's white dress was blown up, up, and up as she stood atop a New York subway grate.
The statue had been residing on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, but was recently dismantled and trekked across the country (at a $40,000 price tag) to the corner of Palm Canyon and Tahquitz Canyon Way, where she'll show off her statuesque figure until June 2013. She arrived in the Springs May 14.
Tim Ellis, general manager of Palm Mountain Resort and board member of the P.S. Resorts, the group spearheading the statue's establishment in Palm Springs, told the L.A. Times Monore has "become kind of a tourism magnet there and that’s what we as an organization are interested in."
But when she bared her skivvies in Chicago, Marilyn didn't exactly find widespread appeal.
With the 50th anniversary of Monroe's death in August, the organization who decides where "Forever Marilyn" stands up on her rather large legs for the time being, felt Palm Springs was the best of their options, since the desert getway destination has long held allure for the Hollywood elite.
