It looked like thick fog had overtaken the promenade in sunny Palm Springs as more than a thousand people donning platinum blonde wigs and white halter dresses descended on the city.
The crowd of glamorously dressed men and women — young and old — were there hoping to break the official Guinness World Record for most Marilyn Monroe lookalikes in one place. It was a celebration of what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday.
Excited participants arrived early at a nearby hotel to pick up their Marilyn kits: A white halter dress, platinum wig and commemorative martini glass. There was even a “glam tent” there for people to transform into the star.
Volunteers in the glam tent shouted at participants that they must have red lips to be counted by Guinness World Records. Participants also needed to have the white halter dress and platinum blonde wig, according to the record keeping organization. The iconic Monroe look comes from the 1955 romantic comedy film “The Seven Year Itch.” Monroe steps over a subway grate, and a blast of air sends her dress flying up.
“I come down a few times a year,” Rich Robinson said of Palm Springs, who flew in from Seattle. “But this time, I came just for this.”
A hairstylist placed Robinson’s platinum wig on his head and attacked it with a teasing comb and an endless stream of hairspray. Robinson sat in a row of men and women getting dolled up like Monroe.
Nearby, Julie Varon’s was getting her wig teased, too. She was also waving around a gigantic prop diamond ring and sang a rousing — and loud — rendition of “Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend,” from the 1953 film “Gentleman Prefer Blondes.”
Stylist Jason Backe, a co-founder of the Ted Gibson Salon that helped staff the Glam Tent, said he’s used to clients putting on a show while he does their hair.
“I work with a lot of celebrities,” said Backe, as he sprayed more hairspray onto Varon’s wig.
“Can you cover my natural hair more? I don’t want the dark showing,” Varon asked Backe while gesturing to her wig. “It’ll ruin the illusion.”
Varon may not be a celebrity, but she used to impersonate another star of Hollywood’s golden age: Elizabeth Taylor.
“I had the violet contact lenses,” Varon said. “I used to do a bit with a Gorbachev impersonator.”
But dressing up as Monroe to help break the world record wasn’t her idea.
“I talked her into it,” said Varon’s 91-year-old husband, Steve Moses. “I thought it’d be fun.”
Moses, his walker piled high with Monroe merchandise, sat at a stall near his wife, also getting beautified.
“I’m in the Cottages now… the old age home,” said Moses, wearing the iconic white dress and his orthopedic tennis shoes. “I can't wait to get my picture and show it to [the other folks living there]."”
The glam tent even had a makeshift subway grate for lookalikes to recreate the scene from “The Seven Year Itch.” Dozens of Marilyns, including Moses and Varon, took their turns hamming it up for the cameras and letting their skirts fly up in the air.
‘She’s an icon’
It wasn’t just Marilyn Monroe lookalikes strutting around Downtown Palm Springs. Bill Manuel and David Hubbard wore Joe DiMaggio Yankees uniforms and held bouquets of red roses. Monroe and Dimaggio wed in 1954, though the marriage didn’t last a year.
“[Dimaggio] was a little bit mean to her, but made up for it by giving her roses on a regular basis, and I guess that worked. So, we're gonna try,” said Manuel, looking around at all the Monroes.
Richard Allegra wore a jumpsuit made of fabric featuring newspaper clippings from Monroe’s life.
“She’s an icon I grew up with,” said Allegra. He said the suit, which he had custom made for Palm Springs Fashion Week, depicts the complexity of Monroe’s life, including her struggles and eventual death at 36.
“The statue doesn’t show all that,” he said.
Around 4 p.m., while the sun was beating down and the temperatures exceeded 90 degrees, the Marilyn lookalikes made their way outside for the official count. Official count zones were set up in a park near a 26-foot-tall Marilyn statue, manned by volunteers who scanned in qualifying lookalikes for Guinness World Records to certify.
Palm Springs’ city manager Scott Stiles was in one of the zones to be counted.
“No blue blazer today,” said Stiles, showing off his Monroe get-up.
“She's a big part of this community. A lot of people claim she was discovered here in Palm Springs,” said Stiles. “She came out here a lot, like many people in Hollywood did to get away back in the day, and so she's beloved here in the community.”
Legend has it that Monroe was discovered by Johnny Hyde, vice president of the WIlliam Morris Agency, at the Palm Springs Racquet Club in 1947.
Lilly Salas, her daughter Sophia Keto and their friend Marilyn Schaefer came together.
Salas said she’s always been a big Monroe fan.
“My daughter, and I came here just to have a moment where, you know, her and I could, like, bond,” said Salas. “[I] did her makeup, and you know it was just an all around bonding moment for us, so it was great.”
‘1,037 Marilyns packed this area of Palm Springs’
A stage was set-up for emcee Scott Nevins and a Marilyn Monroe impersonator to vamp the sweaty, polyester-clothed crowd. Shelly Michelle, who played Marilyn onstage, sang “Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend.”
“That one was from ‘Some Like it Hot,’ which feels fitting for today,” said Michelle, impersonating Monroe’s breathy voice.
“We do like it hot here in Palm Springs, that’s why we live here,” said Nevins.
The previous largest gathering of people dressed as Marilyn Monroe was 254 and was achieved by The Marilyn Jetty Swim Team in Brighton, Australia in 2020.
As the results were being officially tabulated, Nevins called all the Marilyns onto a lawn for a photo.
“1,037 Marilyns packed this area of Palm Springs and broke the world record,” Nevins shouted across the sea of Marilyns.
The event not only validated Marilyn's status as an icon of glamour and beauty, it quadrupled the old record.
Of breaking the record, lookalike Robert Stephen Muñoz, said in his best Marilyn impression, “Delicious, don’t you think so?”