She sold a Marilyn Monroe dress for $33 to pay bills in 1962. Now, it's worth an absolute fortune

Some things gain value over time. While the best thing to do is to hold them close, it's not always easy. Such is the story of a great-grandmother, Pam, who sold an original Marilyn Monroe dress for $33 to pay bills. Years later, she was shocked to learn it’s now worth £200,000, or $270,000. According to reports, the star was seen wearing the dress in the 1956 romcom "Bus Stop," where she was seen playing the saloon singer Chérie. 

Pam, who was 15 at the time, later won the dress after her mother entered her into a newspaper competition. After she won, Marilyn even wrote to Pam to congratulate her. However, later in 1962, Pam sold the outfit for £25 ($33), months before Marilyn died of an overdose at 36.

Pam, 83, recently discovered the value of the dress in an auction house in LA. She learned that the dress was now valued at an eye-watering £200,000 ($270,000). 

"I could have made a fortune, but it wasn’t to be. I’ve had a happier life than Marilyn ever had. I’ve no regrets," she tells The US Sun. It was when she and her late husband struggled to make ends meet and had 4 kids, that they decided to part ways with dress in exchange for some cash. "I said, 'Let’s see if the dress can help'."The buyers had a shop and asked if could I lend them a telegram from Marilyn for the window.

It's hardly a surprise that all the dresses that she had worn and made appearances in are iconic and are pretty expensive. Many stand out in her list of iconic dresses. There's the one dress she wore when she notably sang “Happy Birthday” to President JFK. According to Vogue, the dress was sold for $4.8 million at a Julien's Auction sale. The dress was purchased by Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum and was later famously worn by Kim Kardashian to the 2022 Met Gala. 

Another famous dress worn by Monroe sold for a whopping $5.6 million. The one and only William Travilla dress which she famously wore in "The Seven Year Itch" is also known as the subway-gate dress. According to reports, the famous white dress through the auction house Profiles in History. Other dresses which too fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars include the sleeves pink gown with crystal tassel detailing which sold for $325,000, eight times what it was estimated to be worth, and the latest in a long line of memorabilia worn by the icon, via Forbes. 

Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jean Mortenson, rose to fame for her roles in films like "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Something's Got to Give", and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." She was one of the most popular actresses of the 1950s and early 60s. When Monroe passed away she was worth $800,000, which is approximately $7 million when adjusted for inflation.