Bank of America (Gower-Sunset Branch) check, 5.75 x 2.75, filled out and signed by Marilyn Monroe, payable to the Hollywood Studio Club for $1, December 27, 1948. In fine condition. Encapsulated in a Beckett authentication holder.
Located in the heart of Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, the Hollywood Studio Club was a residential facility run by the YWCA that provided affordable housing and support services for young women pursuing careers in the entertainment industry, particularly in film and television. During its 59-year existence, it housed some 10,000 women, including many Hollywood celebrities, including Ayn Rand, Donna Reed, Kim Novak, Maureen O'Sullivan, Rita Moreno, Barbara Eden, Sharon Tate, and Marilyn Monroe, who lived at the Studio Club from 1948 to 1949.
Monroe later recalled that she famously posed nude in order to raise $50 for rent at the Studio Club. She said, ‘Funny how shocked people in Hollywood were when they learned I'd posed in the nude. At one time I'd always said no when photographers asked me. But you'll do it when you get hungry enough. It was at a time when I didn't seem to have much future. I had no job and no money for the rent. I was living in the Hollywood Studio Club for Girls. I told them I'd get the rent somehow. So I phoned up Tom Kelley, and he took these two color shots—one sitting up, the other lying down…I earned the fifty dollars that I needed.’ Monroe stayed in Room 334.
