The 1954 marriage of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe was the gossip columnist and sports writers dream come true: America’s baseball hero and the sexiest woman in the world. For a time, the couple seemed to be living a Hollywood fairytale. The gregarious Marilyn seemed to bring the reticent DiMaggio out of his shy shell, and the couple was photographed at the swankiest nightspots and on exotic vacations.

As the nation’s foremost power couple, the pair was in demand for personal appearances, and the two did their best to accommodate their fans. Just weeks after their January 1954 marriage, the DiMaggio’s embarked on a honeymoon trip to Japan. The trip wasn’t all pleasure as Joe took part in an exhibition baseball tour of southern Japan while Marilyn was asked to take a detour to Korea where she entertained American troops. The couple was reunited at Tokyo airport where they would fly home to San Francisco. At this stop over, a lucky fan, most likely an American serviceman, got close enough to ask the pair for their signatures.

The power-couple have both signed a military hospital admittance form in dark blue pen, Marilyn signed first with Joe adding his signature below. The page has been folded in quarters, and part of DiMaggio’s signature has been slightly smudged. The page shows toning from age along with edge wear and fraying around the folds. There is some vintage tape present along with creasing, most noticeably on the right side of the form. The page has been placed in a commercial wooden frame and an original 3 ½ x 5 inch black and white snapshot of Marilyn and Joe stepping off a Pan Am plane has been affixed to the back of the frame. The photo shows heavy wear, with several creases and a diagonal tear from the right top edge to the bottom right. Despite its condition, the image of Marilyn and Joe is very clear. This group comes with a framed 8 x 10 inch black and white movie still of the couple at a military base. Due to their relatively short marriage, dual signed pieces of the DiMaggio’s are relatively hard to come by. This piece not only captures them both, but dates from a well-documented good will trip to support our troops overseas. This piece comes with an LOA from Steve Grad of Beckett Authentication (A89360) for the signatures.

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