Jasper Canada Remembers Marilyn Monroe And “The River Of No Return”

Jasper Canada Remembers Marilyn Monroe And “The River Of No Return”

It’s a part of Jasper’s history that many outside the mountain town don’t even know about. In 1953, Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe spent a summer in Jasper filming a movie. Now, the town has always felt a connection to the starlet, and now it’s a permanent one thanks to a new exhibit at the Jasper Yellowhead Museum. Bill Forier has this trip down memory lane. Well, I think everybody in Jasper was down there, you know. Oh, yes. They can recall a day six decades ago as if it was yesterday. She looked gorgeous the day she stepped off the train. Harry Holm was 19. Sandy Robinson 23. In 1953, Marilyn Monroe arrived in Jasper to begin filming the action movie River of No Return. I talked to her for quite a while. Once I think you did, too, didn’t you? A couple times. Huh? Harry, what are you doing? So many people have great memories and we need to bring these memories back so people will always remember Marilyn and Jasper. Those memories now part of a new exhibit. Jasper remembers Marilyn at the Jasper Yellowhead Museum. It was amazing to watch all these stories come out of the woodwork. Uh every time you thought you had all the stories you could find, someone else would come forward with a story. The exhibit features dozens of pictures and stories of people and places like the dance hall. Monroe and co-star Robert Mitchum used to go to for its night life. That was a a social infrastructure that dance hall at Spuros. And I remember that one night they came and they’d dance. If if you had nerve enough to ask them to dance, they’d dance with you. I uh never forgive myself, but I I got size 13 shoes and I was afraid I’d step on their feet. But most common are the personal stories, the moments when Marilyn Monroe touched the lives of individual Jasper residents. She was always visiting with everybody. For Harry Holm, it was hearing a page from the train station calling for Marilyn Monroe. So I said to her, “This a dumb thing to say. Excuse me. Are you Miss Monroe?” And she said, “Yes.” And I said, “Well, there’s a telegram for you down at the station from Joe Deio.” She wanted to talk. So I ended up talking to her for quite a while, you know, just about Jasper. For Sandy Robinson, it’s the moment he got his prized possession. This is the first time he’s made his picture with Maryland public, a photo he got on a bet. I said to my buddy, “I think I should get my picture taken with Marilyn Monroe.” And he says, “You wouldn’t do that.” I said, “So, you watch me?” When she came along and Miss Monroe, I’d like to have my picture taken. Sure. So, my friend was couldn’t take it. The guy she the guy she was with, he said, “Here, give me that camera.” Her death in 1962 was especially sad for Jasper residents, but their memories of happier times endured in their minds and now on the walls of a museum. a tribute to one summer when Marilyn Monroe changed Jasper. They were just part of the town, you know. And maybe Jasper changed her a little, too. It was because it was quiet and nobody bothered her. I I I wouldn’t I would bet money on that that she really enjoyed it here. They’ll never let her die, that’s for sure. She’s she’ll live forever [Music] in Jasper. Bill Forier, CTV News.

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