Hotel del Coronado has extended its Marilyn Monroe exhibition through August 30, giving visitors more time to explore the Victorian resort's ties to the Hollywood icon during the centennial year of her birth. The exhibit, called Marilyn Monroe: The Defining Roles, is housed in the historic Ice House Museum on the property and is open daily to both hotel guests and the general public.
According to Fox 5 San Diego & KUSI News, the show examines a pivotal period in Monroe's career and traces her evolution from Hollywood icon to an artist seeking greater creative control over her work. The exhibit was specially organized this year to mark the 100th anniversary of Monroe's birth on June 1, 1926, according to San Diego Tourism Authority. Admission reservations can be booked online, per the same report.
Among the highlights is rare work by 90-year-old photojournalist Lawrence Schiller, who photographed Monroe on the sets of her 1960 film Let's Make Love and her unreleased 1962 final production, Something's Got to Give, according to The Marilyn Report. Schiller grew up in San Diego County and went on to photograph major cultural figures throughout the 1960s.
A Museum Built From an 1889 Ice House
The exhibition's setting has its own local history. Constructed in 1889 to manufacture and store ice for the hotel and surrounding community before the era of modern refrigeration, the Ice House was later restored and converted into a permanent museum as part of a $174 million Victorian restoration effort led by preservation architects, per Coronado Times. The building is part of the resort's original 1880s industrial service complex.
Hotel del Coronado itself first opened in February 1888 and stands as the second-largest wooden structure in the United States, a status that helped earn it National Historic Landmark designation in 1977, according to the Library of Congress. Built by Elisha Babcock Jr. and Hampton L. Story, the Victorian resort has hosted U.S. presidents and celebrities for more than a century.
Following in Some Like It Hot's Footsteps
The exhibit connects directly to one of the resort's most famous cinematic moments. Some Like It Hot, starring Monroe alongside Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, was filmed at Hotel del Coronado in 1958, with director Billy Wilder shooting exterior scenes over seven days that September while interior hotel scenes were filmed on Hollywood soundstages, according to the Times of San Diego. Wilder reportedly chose the resort specifically for its authentic turn-of-the-century seaside architecture, using it to double as the fictional Seminole Ritz Hotel in 1920s Miami.
That choice didn't sit well with everyone. When Miami Mayor Robert King High complained in 1958 that having San Diego stand in for Florida was a “sacrilege,” Coronado's mayor fired back with a telegram reading, “Some like it hot, but not as hot as Miami in September,” according to Hotel del Coronado.
The film's production was famously grueling. Monroe reportedly needed 47 takes to deliver the line “It's me, Sugar” and 59 takes to complete a scene searching a drawer for a bourbon bottle, according to Patch. Despite the delays, Monroe won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy for the role, and the film went on to become her most lucrative, earning her between $100,000 and $300,000 in salary plus a 10 percent share of the movie's gross profits. Some Like It Hot received six Academy Award nominations and was later named the number one comedy of all time by the American Film Institute in 2000, per Wikipedia; it was also selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1989.
An Audio Tour Retraces the Film Sites
Visitors curious about the movie's local footprint can follow Marilyn: On Location, a self-guided audio tour that leads guests through filming locations around the property and offers behind-the-scenes stories about the production and the hotel's cinematic history, per Fox 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
Poolside Glamour and a Signature Cocktail
The centennial celebration extends beyond the museum walls. Hotel del Coronado has also rolled out a new Hollywood-themed poolside cabana experience inspired by the glamour and style of the 1950s, according to the same report. Hotel representatives described the exclusive retreat as featuring soft blush tones, vintage-inspired furnishings by Business & Pleasure Co, a gallery wall of authentic magazine covers and photography, and a mural honoring one of cinema's most unforgettable leading ladies.
Poolside guests can sip the signature Blushing Blonde cocktail while taking in the setting. The resort's Veranda restaurant has its own tribute on the menu: An Icon's Chilled Soufflé, a vanilla and strawberry rosewater dessert inspired by the cold vanilla soufflé pudding Monroe reportedly requested daily from hotel chefs during the 1958 shoot, according to San Diego Tourism Authority.
Marilyn Monroe: The Defining Roles is open daily through August 30 at the Ice House Museum at Hotel del Coronado, located at 1500 Orange Ave. in Coronado. The extended run gives fans one more month to explore the resort's place in the story of an actress who, as the exhibit frames it, spent her defining years pushing for more control over her own artistry.
