So, I’m going to start by saying this piece is probably what you shouldn’t do unless you get that gnawing feeling in the back of your head and need to research something to the point where you’re probably invading someone’s privacy. On the flipside, people leave very interesting little digital breadcrumbs that can really paint a full picture. This picture took me about six hours to research, leading me down a really interesting rabbit hole. It’s also a peek into my research process.
Let’s begin with the picture in question.
Instantly, the vibe for some people became “This picture is definitely fake and AI generated!” No one seemed to know where it came from, and (rightfully) people questioned why they hadn’t seen it before.
Before I go into anything with it, I can tell you right off the bat it’s been scanned with an at-home scanner which has left lines on the picture. This is really common with all-in-one machines. A photo scanner prevents this from happening, but not a lot of people are going to pay for a scanner that really only works for one medium. They’re going buy a product they can use for multiple things, which is why all-in-one machines are popular. However, in addition to lines, they also can blow out an image’s white space. This can make whites look very white and lose details that would be noticeable if you were holding the picture. There’s also a possibility of some minor editing going on, like playing with the saturation and contrast. However, I’m not holding the picture; we have to look at what’s in front of us.
Another way we can tell this is a scan is due to the silver gelatin looking weird on Marilyn’s blouse as well as the mystery woman’s blouse. These little hot spots pop up on vintage photographs which tells us this isn’t a scan of the negative and it’s likely old. I could go on for hours about this, but we’re going to need to trust one another on this topic. I’ve never seen someone who photoshops these pictures put in age marks like that, but there’s a first time for everything (assuming it’s fake).
Now we’re going to dissect this picture piece by piece when looking at Marilyn because at this point, we don’t know who the woman and mystery baby are, and we can’t compare someone we don’t know (more on that further down).
The first complaint I saw were people saying she didn’t have any bottom teeth. Contrary to this claim, the photo does indeed show some bottom teeth. Another complaint I saw was the hairline, but it has the small bump out of hair near Marilyn’s temples that is prominent in other photos, such as this one from early in her career (also check out that the ears match up too):
I think we can establish that is Marilyn from the neck up, but let’s keep going down. We now have a black blouse and some capri pants. Surely, we can find these pieces if they’re real!
And son of a gun, we can find very similar pieces. First up is this wonderful linen button down blouse from Lady Manhattan:
Then we have the pants which look quite similar to these pants she wore with Arthur Miller:
Furthermore, we know she owned several pairs of capris that have come up for auction over the years. I will be the first to admit that clothing isn’t my strong suit, but I think it’s easy to picture Marilyn wearing this outfit. It’s not like she’s in a hoopskirt or a string bikini. Then we get to the legs. Eagle-eye Marilyn Monroe fan and collector Peter Gonzalez was able to pinpoint this mole on her left leg to several photographs through the years. Normally, I’d say it’s a speck, but because it’s in the same spot, I’m going to agree this is indeed a mole.
Finally, SilverTechnicolor brought up a great point in private that the ring the child is playing with is indenting Marilyn’s skin and leaving a shadow. Again, I don’t see this stuff with Photoshopped Marilyn pictures, so this person is either in it for the long haul, or it’s real.
I’m going to call a spade a spade and say this one is real. For people saying it’s AI, the poster has had it up on Imgur since 2017, well before AI became accessible. It’s also evident they’re older, and from all their posts, they didn’t work in anything with graphic design or photo retouching. If this person was the photoshop whiz some people think they are, I guarantee they would have other things posted, but they do not. Finally, they posted in a thread that has nothing to do with Marilyn. Again, that’s not how Photoshop people work. They want their work out there, not sitting on Imgur for 7 years.
I do understand people have issues with her hand and the lighting, but this is a candid (I would guess it’s also a smaller picture that’s getting blown up) taken outside with regular film then scanned with an at-home scanner. I believe Marilyn is also likely slightly moving her hand being it’s not posed, but that’s neither here nor there.
Now the question becomes, where was this taken and when? OP gave us some clues on Reddit:
Marilyn had a few voice coaches over the years, including Phil Moore, Hal Schaefer, Fred Karger and Gerald Wiggins. Wiggins and Moore were both Black, and with a lack of integrated neighborhoods in the 1950s, I think it’s safe to rule them out. Karger was too early for this time. So, that leaves us with Schaefer, who some of you may know for the Wrong Door Raid (go towards the bottom for the deets).
First off, we have to establish that we’re looking for the right Hal Schaefer. There were several in Los Angeles in the 1950s. I started by finding his draft card which gives us his mother’s name, Sally.
We’re now looking for a Hal Schaefer in Los Angeles with a mother named Sally. This leads us to the 1950 census and an address, 1327 North Vista Street, Apt 203:
And look, voter registration records show Hal was still there from 1952-1956, living with his parents:
And that brings us to this charming little apartment building that’s still standing:
Now, I can’t see the courtyard minus two photos, but I can look at the permit records that show it’s been remodeled a few times. If I had to wager a guess, the courtyard has been redone since Marilyn’s picture got taken there. It’s a Spanish Colonial style apartment which aligns with the one we see Marilyn in front of with the mystery woman and baby.
I really wanted to know which of Hal’s neighbors was friendly with Marilyn. So, I got to work on that. Lucky for me, the guy had posted a photo of the woman’s brother-in-law’s plane from WWII several years ago. I won’t go into specifics on everything I found, and I’m trying not to give anything away that can dox OP. However, it’s rather easy to find, so I don’t mind sharing names.
The mystery woman is Barbara Leibolt, and here’s a photo from her obituary:
Barbara actually had a really fascinating life. She worked as a buyer for Macy’s and the merchandise editor for Glamour magazine. She and her husband lived in Los Angeles for a short time in the early-to-mid 1950s, before returning to the East Coast. Barbara lived out her life in style, living in Mexico, Spain and Haiti in her later years. The baby she’s holding in the picture is her son, John Gregory Leibolt. John was born in early-1953, and I would estimate he’s at least a year in this photo but under two, placing it in 1954 which is also the same year as the Wrong Door Raid when she was spending a lot of time with Hal Schaefer.
I can just hear the naysayers. “Well you found the name from OP’s post, but that doesn’t mean she was Hal’s neighbor.” Fun fact, I crossed-referenced addresses, and naysayers would be right in that I couldn’t find the Leibolts living at the apartments on Vista Street in 1954. However, address records show they lived roughly four blocks away at a different complex circa 1952. This doesn’t mean they didn’t later move to the Vista Street apartments, but it is safe to say they were close enough to be considered neighbors even if they did not move.
There we have it. This was an interesting rabbit hole to go down, and I appreciate people like Scott Fortner from the Marilyn Monroe Collection hosting discussion.
Classic Blondes 