Marilyn Monroe’s Signed Passport Photo Sells for Over $21,000 at Auction

A rare, signed passport photo of Marilyn Monroe, taken just before her 1954 honeymoon with Joe DiMaggio, fetched more than $21,000 at an auction this week. The tiny 2.25 by 2.75-inch photograph features Monroe inscribed in red ink: “To Mr. Bolds, Thanks and my warmest regards, Marilyn Monroe DiMaggio,” and was sold for $21,655.

The famous couple, who married two weeks earlier, went to a federal building in San Francisco on January 29, 1954, to obtain passports for their upcoming trip to Japan. Notably, Monroe did not have a passport photo at the time, so DiMaggio took matters into his own hands by visiting a nearby arcade and making several copies of Monroe’s image, borrowed from a photograph from her film “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”

DiMaggio, then 40, returned shortly after and signed one of the copies for passport officer Harry E. Bolds. Although the signed photo didn’t end up in Monroe’s official passport, it was one of the copies DiMaggio created that day. She listed her legal name as “Norma Jeane DiMaggio” on her passport application and provided DiMaggio’s Bay Area address as her emergency contact.

The couple, married for only nine months, traveled together to Japan to celebrate their wedding and also to conduct business: Monroe performed for U.S. troops in Korea, while DiMaggio consulted with Japanese baseball teams during spring training. Monroe’s marriages included her first to James Dougherty and her last to playwright Arthur Miller, who divorced shortly before her death at age 36.