Future of ‘Forever Marilyn’ statue could be decided in March 2024 ballot
The future of the location of Palm Springs' "Forever Marilyn" statue could end up on the March 2024 ballot.
Palm Springs City Attorney Jeffrey Ballinger confirmed to News Channel 3 that a group wanting to keep the statue in its current location wants to put an initiative measure on the March 5th, 2024 ballot. This would let the voters decide if the location on Museum Way should be made a permanent location making way for the city to amend the downtown's specific plan, which was at issue of a lawsuit.
"This would lay the groundwork for a possible street vacation of that portion of street. That would enable the proponents to keep the Forever Marilyn statue at its current location," Ballinger wrote.
The group, “Protect Our Marilyn,” said they need more than 2,500 verifiable hand-written signatures by registered Palm Springs voters must be turned in by October 6.
Details about when and where signatures can be made will be made later this week, the group told News Channel 3.
Ballinger said if the downtown plan is amended by the proposed ballot measure, a street vacation would need to be approved by the City Council.
Forever Marilyn has been located Museum Way in downtown Palm Springs right behind the Kimpton Rowan Hotel in downtown Palm Springs for a little over two years now.
The grand return of the famed statue was not without controversy, however, as the "Committee to Relocate Marilyn," a group of residents, was very vocal against its location.
Trina Turk, co-founder of the committee, has previously said they are not opposed to the statue being in Palm Springs, however, its location obstructs the view of the Palm Springs Art Museum and interferes with the original 2016 downtown plan.
The group held a protest in April 2021 to express “community dissent to the statue on Museum Way.”
In March 2021, the group filed a lawsuit against the city. The lawsuit was initially dismissed, however, in Feb. 2023, California's 4th District Court of Appeals overturned that decision.
PS Resorts, a nonprofit tourism organization, purchased the statue from Seward Johnson Atelier in February 2021 for $1 million plus installation costs. The Palm Springs City Council approved a location agreement with PS Resorts in December 2020. The agreement includes a term of up to three years and requires periodic updates back to the council.
PS Resorts Chairman Aftab Dada previously said he wanted to see the statue remain at the Museum Way location permanently. The agreement included a term of up to three years and required periodic updates back to the council. There was no word on whether those updates have taken place.
Daba is now co-chairing the ballot initiative by "Protect Our Marilyn," the organization confirmed.
The 17-ton statue crafted of steel and aluminum was first unveiled in Chicago in 2011 before moving to the corner of Palm Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way in Palm Springs in 2012, where it was on display for about two years.
Dada has said the statue was an economic powerhouse that brought the city millions of dollars of free publicity during its first stay in Palm Springs. He noted "Forever Marilyn" helped jumpstart the local economy during the Great Recession, and hoped the statue can work that same magic again amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"She really put Palm Springs on the worldwide map," he said. "She is definitely a huge draw and unbelievable magnets to tourists."
Then-City Manager David Ready previously said the statue was a "tourism phenomenon'' during its first appearance in the city.
"Forever Marilyn" was designed by artist Seward Johnson, who died in March 2020. The humongous sculpture recreates the moment in the 1955 film "The Seven Year Itch'' where Monroe's white dress surges up toward her waist as she stands on a windy Manhattan subway grate.
"Marilyn has come to represent beauty, and the white dress blowing up around her is a type of teasing sensuality," Johnson once said. "There is something about her pose, the exuberance for life without inhibition, it expresses an uninhibited sense of our own vibrancy.''
Stay with News Channel 3 for continuing updates.
