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Tuesday, September 18, 2001
Collecting Marilyn
Blonde bombshell inspires local man’s $10,000 search
By Brendan Walsh
Caller-Times

George Tuley/Caller-Times

Marilyn Monroe-themed treasures, such as a cookie jar and beer stein, fill the home of Jim Lang. He estimates that he has spent $10,000 on Monroe paraphernalia.
On any given moment, users of the online auction site eBay can browse through about 3,500 listings of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia, and that's just how Corpus Christi resident Jim Lang likes to begin his day.
   Somewhere between the unabashed excesses of Las Vegas's Liberace Museum and the take-everything-from-your-grandma's-attic-and-stick-it-on-the-wall decorating scheme of T.G.I. Friday's lies the guest bedroom in Jim Lang's Corpus Christi home.
   Every inch of the room is covered with Marilyn Monroe memorabilia. Posters and framed puzzles cover the walls, and there's a bookshelf stuffed nearly to the breaking point with Monroe-related books and videos.
   An empty bottle of Marilyn Merlot sits near a life-size cardboard cutout, which stands aside a headless mannequin that (somewhat) resembles the blond bombshell dressed in a blue, polka-dot sundress.

George Tuley/Caller-Times

Lang starts his day with a search for Marilyn Monroe items on the Internet auction site eBay.

   Six Monroe dolls, dressed in costumes from different Monroe movies, are in their original boxes and attached to the wall, hanging over the bed. And that's just the beginning.
   "The thing that got me started was the first issue of Playboy which came out the year I graduated high school," Lang said. "I don't have the magazine, but still have the actual centerfold. I had Scotch taped it up in my room, and I've kept it all these years."
   $10,000 investment
   Lang estimates he's spent about $10,000 on Monroe paraphernalia since he first set eyes on the centerfold.
   While impressive, the amount isn't quite as breathless as what some have spent on the pinup's possessions.
   At Christie's auction house in 1999, a two-day auction of Monroe's personal belongings netted more than $13.4 million. The most expensive item, the dress Monroe wore when she sang "Happy Birthday" to President Kennedy in 1962, went for $1.26 million.When Lang, a retired financial officer for U.S. West, moved to Corpus Christi three years ago, he and his wife established their guestroom as the headquarters for his collection. And it's always expanding.

George Tuley/Caller-Times

Lang’s fascination with Monroe began with the first issue of Playboy. Monroe’s gold record for ‘Heat Wave’ is part of his collection.

   Lang says he hopes to someday get a pink satin bedspread, mirror the ceiling and maybe even show videos of Monroe movies on a continuous loop, just for effect.
   Diverse collectors
   Clark Kidder, the author of "Marilyn Memorabilia: Putting a Price on the Priceless Performer," which will be released in spring 2002, says that Monroe collectors are as diverse as her memorabilia.
   They are just as likely to be women as well as men, and range from teen-agers to retirees, from veterans to newcomers, Kidder said.
   Kidder, 37, owns about 3,000 pieces of memorabilia with a value, he guesses, in the tens of thousands of dollars.
   Auction sites like eBay, Kidder says, are changing the world of collecting. "In the old days, we had to hunt these items down in antique shops or flea markets, but now, with eBay, what I've noticed is a the prices for a lot of items have decreased. Items that were once thought quite scarce are now (proving to be) common and easily accessible," Kidder said.
   His phone line is frequently tied up when Lang is scanning for items online. (When his Marilyn Monroe phone does ring, a burst of air blows the figurine's silk skirt to resemble the famous scene in "The Seven Year Itch," and the it plays "I Wanna Be Loved by You," which Monroe sang in "Some Like it Hot.")

George Tuley/Caller-Times

Monroe dolls dressed in costumes from different movies line the walls of Lang’s guest bedroom.

   Lang says many aspects of Marilyn's life are behind his insatiable interest in the starlet, who died of a drug overdose in 1962 at age 36. He says that it was the movies she made, her rags-to-riches story, her charisma and the mystique that surrounds her.
   "She was beautiful when she was made up, but I would say she was just better than average, but not gorgeous (without makeup)," Lang said.
   Monroe's first marriage, when she was just 14, and subsequent tumultuous unions with baseball star Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller also intrigue the collector, as does the way he believes John and Bobby Kennedy treated her.
   "She felt used," Lang said.
   Endless search
   During the frequent road trips he and his wife take, it's hard for Lang to pass a garage sale without stopping to see if there are any Monroe-related treasured to be found.
   Lang said his best find was last summer when he and his wife stopped at a used bookstore in Davenport, Iowa. He came across a magazine insert from a 1950 edition of the Chicago Tribune which featured Monroe on the cover. The owner of the store wanted $35 for it, but Lang balked at the price. That was, until he returned to his car and looked up its value in a Monroe memorabilia price guide he brings with him on such trips. It listed the magazine's value at between $200 and $300. It didn't take him long to skedaddle back to the bookstore.
   Lang says his wife Patricia is "very supportive" of his hobby. Lang guesses that his wife's favorite Marilyn collectible is the Zippo lighter he bought, because she uses it to light her cigarettes.
   Patricia jokes that their 7-year-old grandson must think it's pretty weird Grandpa plays with dolls - even if they are Monroe dolls - and occasionally chides him about straying from his monthly spending limit of about $300.
   "I like it when he says he has a budget - by the second day it's always gone," she said with a smile.


Contact Brendan Walsh at _886-3763 or walshb@caller.com

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