It turns out celebrities were making sex tapes long before Kim Kardashian and Ray J.
A tape of a clothed Marilyn Monroe performing oral sex on an unidentified man was bought for $1.5 million by a wealthy Manhattan business man Monday. The 15-minute, black-and-white film that was formerly owned by the son of a dead FBI informant was reportedly bought so it could be kept from public view.
"The gentleman who bought it said out of respect for Marilyn he's not going to make a joke of it and put it on the Internet and try to exploit her," said memorabilia collector Keya Morgan, who arranged the sale. "That's not his intention and I would never get my name involved if that were to happen."
Because Monroe was rumored to have had an affair with former president John F. Kennedy, former FBI director and Kennedy rival J. Edgar Hoover reportedly attempted to prove it was Kennedy in the film.
"The FBI agent that I interviewed said J. Edgar Hoover was completely obsessed. A team of nine individuals were analyzing the tape inside a lab," Morgan said. "J. Edgar Hoover brought in a few prostitutes who allegedly had been with President Kennedy and they tried to ... see if that was really President Kennedy."
The late Joe DiMaggio, one of Monroe's ex-husbands, also tried to buy the tape from a collector for $25,000, according to files on Monroe on the FBI web site.
Morgan, a well-known collector who has memorabilia from the estates of both Monroe and DiMaggio, said he learned of the film from a former FBI agent while working on a documentary on Monroe.
The New York business man bought the original copy that was owned by the son of the FBI informant, while another copy remains in FBI files. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment although he mentioned that Monroe's online files refer to the film but do not mention anything about Hoover.
Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortensen, was a singer, actress and sex symbol in the 1950s and 60s who died in August 1962 at the age of 36. Her death was declared "probable suicide," although many individuals believed she was murdered.
