DS, one page, 8.5 x 11, MCA Artists Limited, February 15, 1956. Agreement between MCA Artists and Marilyn Monroe Productions for a one-year extension to their previous motion picture agreement. Signed at the conclusion in black ink “Marilyn Monroe” as president of Marilyn Monroe Productions, Inc., and also signed by the company’s vice-president, Milton H. Greene. Monroe and Greene (1922–1985) first met in September 1953 when the latter was a photographer on assignment for Look magazine, and the two quickly became friends. Spurred by Monroe’s desire to have more control over the projects in which she appeared, the pair formed an independent film production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, in 1955. Predictably, Marilyn’s rebellious “executive” turn was widely scorned—one observer dubbed her “Bernhardt in a bikini.” A few months later, however, the smashing success of The Seven Year Itch (which Marilyn had shot for Fox the year before) earned Marilyn—and her company—a new measure of clout and respectability. Marilyn Monroe Productions became involved in the making of such films as Bus Stop and The Prince and the Showgirl, and was later credited for an important role in the dissolution of the studio system. At the beginning of their partnership, Monroe hailed Greene as a “genius”; others viewed him as a shady Svengali. The dissolution of their personal and professional ties evidently began in the summer of 1956 with the filming of The Prince and Showgirl, during which Marilyn’s new husband, Arthur Miller, accused Greene of machinations to undermine Marilyn and to further his own financial interests. Though at one point Greene refused a $500,000 buyout offer for his minority interest in the company, he finally sold his stock in the spring of 1957 for $85,000, officially severing his ties with Monroe and her company. Monroe’s only film release in 1956, the year in which she signed this document, was Bus Stop, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. In fine condition, with punch and staple holes along top edge and intersecting folds, with one fold touching the tops of a few letters of signature. PSA/DNA Auction LOA and R&R COA..
