On This Day: ‘Joe, Marilyn Married Here’

First posted here on January 14, 2017

The San Francisco Chronicle has reposted their front page from January 15, 1954 – the day after Joe DiMaggio married Marilyn at City Hall.

(And just FYI, January 14 has seen some other significant events over the years – including the release of Clara Bow’s It in 1926, and the publication of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar in 1963 – less than a month after her suicide.)

“’Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio wedded the girl of his and many other men’s dreams yesterday afternoon in San Francisco City Hall,’ the story read.

‘The time and place of the wedding was kept a closely guarded secret and only 500 people managed to hear about it in time to turn the corridors outside Municipal Judge Charles S. Peery’s chambers in a madhouse,’ The Chronicle’s Art Hoppe wrote.

‘Marilyn, it seems, had made the mistake of calling her studio in Hollywood yesterday morning and letting it in on her plans to be married at 1 p.m. A studio official casually mentioned it as fast as he could to all the major news services.’

With that cat out of the bag, the soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. were forced to host an impromptu press conference led by the hard-hitting question, ‘Are you excited, Marilyn?’

Monroe, the Chronicle wrote, giggled and said, ‘Oh, you KNOW it’s more than that.’

‘How many children are you going to have, Joe?’

‘We’ll have at least one, I’ll guarantee that,’ said the slugger.

When they came in Marilyn looked svelte in a dark brown broadcloth suit with an ermine collar, and Joe looked neat in a blue suit and blue and white checked tie. By the time they finished kissing each other exhaustively for the photographers’ benefit, Marilyn’s blonde hair was in disarray, and most of her lipstick had been transferred to the ballplayer’s face.

At 1:30 pm Judge Peery, an old friend of DiMaggio’s, threw everybody out of his chambers so the solemnity of the occasion would remain inviolate.

However, reporters hanging over the transom were able to set down for posterity that the Judge began the ceremony at 1:46 pm, and pronounced the couple man and wife at 1:48 pm.”