The “How to Marry a Millionaire” Apartment Building
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One of the things I love most about L.A. is the direct access the city has to a myriad of unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Case in point – Essentially Marilyn, The Paley Center for Media’s latest exhibit featuring costumes, personal artifacts, clothing, and memorabilia from none other than Miss Marilyn Monroe herself, including the starlet’s personally annotated script from The Seven Year Itch AND a replica of the infamous dress she wore in the 1955 movie’s iconic subway grate scene. (If you feel like going down a rabbit hole of information regarding the legendary frock, check out these fabulous articles on The Marilyn Monroe Collection website here and here.) Fingers crossed I make it out to see the exhibit before it closes on September 30th. In the meantime, I thought I’d blog about an MM locale I stalked back in April 2016 while in New York – 36 Sutton Place South, aka the building where Pola Debevoise (Monroe) lived with her BFFs Loco Dempsey (Betty Grable) and Schatze Page (Lauren Bacall) in How to Marry a Millionaire.
Though Marilyn’s performance in the 1953 comedy definitely plays to type, it is one of my favorites of hers. Legend has it that when she asked director Jean Negulesco about her bespectacled character’s motivation, he replied “You’re blind as a bat without glasses. That is your motivation.” The advice led to some of the best comedic moments of her career, in my opinion. For those who have never seen the film (and you really should), it centers around three bachelorettes who, hoping to land millionaire husbands, sublease a penthouse apartment in a tony Manhattan building. To portray the girls’ fancy digs, producers looked no further than 36 Sutton Place South.
Originally built in 1949, the 17-story complex boasts 101 units.
Consisting of a brick and limestone façade with glass balconies, the place has something of a postmodern feel.
The white-glove building, which became a co-op in 1962, features a canopied entrance, a doorman and a concierge, an on-site gym and laundry room, and a rooftop deck with a garden and river views. You can see some interior photos of the property here.
36 Sutton Place South only actually appears twice in How to Marry a Millionaire, first popping up in the movie’s opening scene in which Schatze arrives at the building to sublease the unit.
It is then featured in a later scene in which the unit’s owner, Freddie Denmark (David Wayne), returns home and attempts to retrieve a document he has stashed away inside. Only the exterior of the property was utilized in the filming.
All interiors were part of an elaborate set built at 20th Century Fox Studios in Culver City, including the building’s lobby;
the inside of the women’s apartment;
and their balcony, which does look very much like 36 Sutton’s actual rooftop deck. You can see photos of it here and here.
I am fairly certain that close-up shots of the building’s front doors were also shot on a set.
Though the entrance shown in How to Marry a Millionaire does look a lot like 36 Sutton’s actual entrance, the complex’s real life doorway is much larger than its onscreen counterpart. The window that should appear in the right-hand portion of the frame below is also missing and, while the bottom part of the planter to the left of the main doors is slanted in real life, it is flat in the movie. Though these elements could have been changed in the 65 years since filming took place, I do not believe that to be the case.
How to Marry a Millionaire is not 36 Sutton’s only claim to fame. During the 1950s, Joan Crawford and her husband, Pepsi-Cola Company chairman Alfred N. Steele, made the place their New York home.
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Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The How to Marry a Millionaire apartment building is located at 36 Sutton Place South in New York’s Sutton Place neighborhood.
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