“She was here for most of the month of August [filming River of No Return] and then they went down to Banff and shot a few more scenes,” said the museum’s Val Delill. During that time many Jasperites had unforgettable Monroe encounters, which are captured in “Remembering Marilyn.”
“I have three stories from the same event and none of them are the same because our memories are so different,” said Delill. “What we’re trying to do is show people’s memories and it’s OK that people don’t have the same memory of the same event.”
One of the recorded memories is from then-warden Frank Camp, who shares a story about another warden, Bob Jones, and his coffee “date” with Monroe. As recorded in Camp’s book Roots in the Rockies, Jones was at the Devona Cabin during filming and one day invited Monroe to the cabin for coffee.
When drinking the coffee, she left a red lipstick imprint on the cup. Afterwards, Jones placed it, unwashed on the window sill and “from then on, it was look but don’t touch.”
There will also be memories associated with the Devona Special train, which shuttled the cast, crew and equipment to the filming location at Devona. “It was a pretty rough road and long trip by car, so they put everybody on a special train that ran out to the site,” said Delill.
Jasper photographer Ray O’Neil captured stunning images of Monroe during her Canadian Rockies visit and these photographs will accompany the textual memories. Surprisingly, not many people outside of Jasper know about O’Neil’s photos, said Delill. There is more exposure now that the pictures are on the Internet, but “for people outside of Jasper, these shots will be something to see.”
In celebration of the exhibit, DJ Bowen of the Jasper Liquor Store and Wine Cellar has brought in 100 bottles of Marilyn Merlot. “We will have little tokens here that people can pick up and take to the liquor store, and when a bottle sells, we’ll get partial proceeds on the sale of those,” said Delill.
Buffalo Betty’s will provide some artifacts to add to the exhibit because the museum doesn’t have many from that time period. Delill welcomes anything relevant that people are willing to lend to the exhibit, even if it’s just an autograph.
There will also be space at the exhibit for people to record their own Monroe memories—if they haven’t been captured yet— until the exhibit ends on Sept. 22.
“All the adults that met her are gone, now it’s just the children that met her who are left to tell their stories. Luckily a lot of them have been recorded so that they’re in the archives and we can use them,” said Delill.
Given the number of memories already recorded and on display for “Remembering Marilyn,” it’s clear that the starlet left an enduring impression on Jasper.
