The Marilyn Monroe / Wizard of Oz Connection

by Cheri Sundra

There’s no place like home if you still like it hot at the Hotel Del Coronado! 

Photo Credit: Keith Yahl

While many movies are filmed on location, only a few unions of celluloid and location are as legendary as the sight of Marilyn Monroe cavorting on the beach at the footsteps of The Del.  Add to that legend the fact that the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, did much of his writing at the hotel, even reportedly basing his designs for the fictional Emerald City on the Hotel del Coronado itself, and you have the stuff that creates movie magic right at your fingertips. 

Located in Coronado, California, just a short water-taxi or ferry ride across the bay from San Diego, the Hotel del Coronado is one of the last surviving examples of a Victorian-era wooden beach resort.  This beachfront luxury hotel was built in 1888 and was the first to use electric lighting.  Thomas Edison himself supervised the hotel’s wiring!  At that time, The Del was considered a splash of civilization to visitors traveling by dust-covered wagon or crowded railroad car through the untamed American West. 

 

More than a century has passed since the formal opening of the Hotel Del Coronado, but contemporary guests still see this grand lady of the sea as an escape where guests can experience the opulence of the Victorian era.  Many visitors are drawn to the hotel looking to encounter literary and cinema history. The hotel touches their imagination with whispers about the past in a visceral way that allows guests the opportunity to have a firsthand “Pop Culture Travel” experience. 

Some enthusiasts visit The Del seeking the fictional Land of Oz.  Author L. Frank Baum used to sit in a rattan rocking chair outside of the hotel’s majestic formal dining room, The Crown Room, contemplating the Pacific Ocean while writing three of the books from his Oz series:  Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, The Road to Oz and The Emerald City.  Baum even designed the crown-shaped chandeliers for that dining room, which were reportedly inspired by the crown worn by the lion in the Wizard of OZ.

According to the Heritage Department at the Hotel del Coronado, Baum’s habit was to work from early morning until noon because he generally spent the afternoon “in realizing that he is truly again at Coronado.”  It’s very easy to see why Baum found the hotel so enchanting and inspirational.  With its fanciful red roofs, magical spires and whimsical design, The Del is as close to the Emerald City that you can ever get in real life.

Photo Credit: Steven l. Youngblood

There is always a chance that you will find Dorothy singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow on the hotel’s television channel, that is when they are not running the comedy classic Some Like It Hot.  While filming on location at the hotel with co-stars Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe could frequently be seen walking The Del’s private beach.  The hotel isn’t exactly shy about letting people know that “Marilyn Monroe slept here”.

         Photo Credit:  Cheri Sundra

 Filmed in 1958, this cross dressing comedy was both co-written and directed by Billy Wilder. Regarded by critics as one of the finest movies ever made, Some Like It Hot was listed by the American Film Institute as the best comedy of the 20^th Century.  The plot centers around two musicians, played by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, who dress up in drag and join an all girls band to elude prohibition-era bootlegger gangsters after witnessing The Saint Valentine’s Day massacre in 1929.  Their characters become enamored of the band’s vocalist and ukulele player, Marilyn Monroe, and they struggle for her affection while trying to maintain their disguises.

The movie’s last line—“Nobody’s perfect”, delivered by actor Joe E. Brown after his love interest, the Jack Lemmon character, reveals that he is indeed a man and not a woman, was never intended to remain in the movie.  Fortunately, Wilder couldn’t come up with anything he liked better, so the line stayed.  Today, it is still regarded as a classic last line on par with “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”, which is fitting for this classic movie, filmed on location at a classic hotel which is also associated with classic children’s literature.  Wilder even gives a nod to the line in his epitaph  on his tombstone at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park in Hollywood, where he is ironically spending eternity with Some Like It Hot stars Marilyn Monroe  and Jack Lemmon    . 

To book your own classic vacation at the historic Hotel del Coronado, visit http://hoteldel.com/

Watch Tony Curtis as he revisits the Hotel del Coronado

For information about Visiting Dead Celebrities, Visit my Pop Culture Travel Blog Halloween Post

Coronado on Dwellable