Yesterday morning at around 11:42am a fairly large earthquake hit the LA area. I received a text message from a friend, who forgot that I am currently on vacation in Hawaii, asking if I felt the quake. My first thought was ” OMG! My Marilyn Merlot bottle!” LOL The bottle of Marilyn wine that my dad gave me a few weeks back is on display on the top shelf of the baker’s rack in my kitchen (not a smart place to put it being that I live in California!) and I was super worried that the bottle did not survive the big quake. 🙁 One of our good friends rushed right over to our place to check on Marilyn and I am happy to report that she remained intact during the earthquake!!! Our friend said she was literally teetering on the shelf in my kitchen and one more aftershock would have done her in, so thank goodness she was rescued in time. 🙂 That Marilyn – she takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’!

In other Marilyn news, while walking around Downtown Kona the other morning, we stumbled upon Hula Bean Coffee Shop. I was immediately drawn to the place – not only because I am addicted to coffee, but because the logo on the sign out front was somewhat familiar. At first I couldn’t place the image, but then I realized, the logo is almost exactly like one of the famous nude photographs of Marilyn that were taken by photographer Tom Kelley in 1949.

I, of course, had to go inside to sample some of the Hula Bean Coffee and to ask the owner about their logo. He said the logo was actually based on the pin-up girls from the World War II era. To me, though, it looks like an exact replication of Marilyn’s pose. There are many conflicting stories of how the Marilyn Monroe nude photographs came to be, but what I was able to discern from the various different accounts is that in 1949 Marilyn was down and out on her luck and her money. An already established model with the Blue Book Modeling Agency, Marilyn was scheduled to pose for some calendar photographs with photographer Tom Kelley. He offered her $50 to pose nude during the session, and the broke starlet, whose car had actually just been impounded, agreed. The pictures sat in a drawer for a few years until they were released in 1952, causing quite a scandal as by that time Marilyn was a bonafide moviestar. Marilyn, who always loved any sort of media attention, immediately fessed up to posing for the photographs and when a reporter asked if she had anything on during the shoot, she replied “The radio, of course.” 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: Hula Bean Coffee is located at 75-5719 Alii Drive in Kona, Hawaii. I highly recommend stalking it as it serves up some great coffee. I am a Starbucks girl myself and can rarely find a coffee house that compares, but Hula Bean was really good!