Business check, 5.75 x 2.5, filled out and signed by Monroe, payable to Helen Grossman for $125.00, October 18, 1950. Marilyn has also added her telephone number and address at 1309 Harper Avenue in Los Angeles, where she lived for less than a year during 1950–51. The year in which she wrote this check proved to be a turning point in Monroe’s fledgling career. After a handful of trivial parts in trivial films, she appeared in small but crucial roles in two of the most-watched films of 1950—roles that finally brought her to the forefront of the public’s imagination: Louis Calhern’s seductive “niece” in The Asphalt Jungle, and the scene-stealing party guest (and graduate of the “Copacabana School of Dramatic Art”) in All About Eve. In very good to fine condition, with faint vertical folds (touching signature), erased pencil notations in left blank area, usual punch cancellations (away from signature) and red ink cancellations just touching the signature, primarily below the “signing line.” The check is otherwise darkly penned and fresh in appearance. PSA/DNA LOA and R&R COA.
