Step off Hollywood Boulevard and onto Highland Avenue, and the Max Factor Building rises in front of you like a piece of frosted cake. Pale pink walls catch the California sun. Art deco lettering announces the address, and already you sense that this stop will feel different from the star-studded tourist traps nearby. This is The Hollywood Museum, and right now, it holds one of the most personal tribute exhibits to Marilyn Monroe you will ever encounter.
Walk through the doors and the scent of old glamour meets you first. Marble floors gleam beneath your feet. Vintage photographs of starlets line the walls, and you’ll remember that this building once served as Max Factor’s actual makeup studio, where he powdered and painted the faces that defined golden age Hollywood. Before you climb a single stair, you already feel time bending around you
Marilyn Monroe Centennial Exhibit at the Hollywood Museum
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s birth, and The Hollywood Museum answered with a multi-floor exhibit befitting the occasion. You’ll find it titled “A Centennial Celebration From Norma Jeane to Marilyn Monroe: The Girl, The Guts, The Glamour,” and the name alone tells you this isn’t a shallow highlight reel. Instead, curators built a narrative that traces Norma Jeane Mortenson’s transformation into the most photographed woman of the twentieth century, and you get to walk through it floor by floor.
Marilyn Monroe Exhibits on the First and Third Floors
You begin in rooms filled with rare photographs, many pulled from private collections and never displayed publicly before. Costumes worn on set sit behind glass, still holding their shape after decades in storage. Letters in Marilyn’s own handwriting reveal a woman far more thoughtful and self-aware than the blonde persona Hollywood sold to audiences. As you move from case to case, you start piecing together a portrait of a woman who understood exactly what she was building, even while the industry underestimated her.
The Blondes Only Room
Eventually, you will reach the museum’s newly re-dedicated Blondes Only Room, and this space hits differently. Here, you’ll find her actual clothing, jewelry, and makeup case, along with the honeymoon dress she wore during her brief marriage to Joe DiMaggio. Standing in front of these objects, you feel the gap between icon and human being start to close. This wasn’t a symbol; it was a person who packed a bag, chose an outfit, and stepped into a life that the whole world would later dissect.
Related: Walking Through History: The Story Behind the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Original Photos and Costumes
Throughout the galleries, you’ll notice something the exhibit does well: it lets Marilyn’s own words carry weight. Production documents and correspondence show her negotiating roles, pushing back against studio contracts, and shaping her image with real intention. Meanwhile, film posters and behind-the-scenes photographs from classics like “Some Like It Hot,” “The Seven Year Itch,” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” remind you why audiences fell for her in the first place. Together, these pieces build a fuller picture than any single biopic or magazine spread ever could.
Why This Exhibit Feels Different
You’ve probably seen Marilyn Monroe retrospectives before, whether in books, documentaries, or splashy museum shows elsewhere in Los Angeles. What sets this one apart is scale and intimacy at once. The museum spans four floors inside a building with real Old Hollywood pedigree, so nothing here feels staged or artificially placed. You’re not standing in a generic gallery space; you’re standing in the actual building where Max Factor once transformed unknown actresses into stars, Marilyn among them.
Original Letters
Additionally, the exhibit continues by popular demand, and museum founder Donelle Dadigan has made it clear that this isn’t a one-and-done centennial stunt. Special programming continues throughout the year, including gatherings where actors, authors, and entertainment figures read personal letters written to Marilyn. If your visit lines up with one of these events, you’ll get an even deeper emotional layer added to an already moving experience.
By the time you finish the Marilyn galleries, plan on spending a solid hour or more just here. Photography is generally allowed in most areas, so bring your camera and take your time. However, you should resist the urge to rush; this exhibit rewards visitors who slow down and actually read the letters, study the costume details, and sit with the photographs instead of scrolling past them.
What Else Awaits You at The Hollywood Museum
Once you’ve soaked in the Marilyn exhibit, don’t head for the exit just yet. The Hollywood Museum holds more than 10,000 authentic pieces of entertainment history across its four floors, and you could easily spend an entire afternoon exploring everything else on offer.
Over 10,000 Authentic Hollywood Artifacts
On the ground level, you’ll find the building’s original Max Factor salon rooms preserved almost exactly as they once were, complete with color-coded “makeup rooms” for blondes, brunettes, and redheads. Upstairs, exhibits shift toward television and film memorabilia spanning decades, including costumes from Sylvester Stallone’s boxing films and treasures connected to Barbra Streisand. Out back, Cary Grant’s gleaming 1965 Rolls-Royce sits parked as though he might return for it any minute. Each floor tells a different chapter of Hollywood’s story, so pace yourself accordingly.
The Dungeon of Doom: Hannibal Lecter’s Actual Jail Cell
Now here’s where your visit takes a genuinely unexpected turn. Head down the staircase toward the basement, and the lighting dims, the temperature seems to drop, and the mood shifts entirely. This lower level, nicknamed the Dungeon of Doom, once served as a bowling alley and a Prohibition-era speakeasy nearly a century ago. Today, it houses one of the most surprising film artifacts in Los Angeles.
Walk through the stone doorway and you’ll find yourself in a narrow prison corridor, and this isn’t a replica built for atmosphere. It’s the actual jail cell set used in “The Silence of the Lambs,” gifted to the museum by producers Dino and Martha De Laurentiis after filming wrapped in 1991. You’ll see the bulletproof glass front, the folding metal chair positioned exactly where Jodie Foster sat as Clarice Starling, and original props from the Oscar-winning film. Because the ceilings downstairs couldn’t accommodate the set’s full height, the museum’s team had to remove its upper catwalk level before reassembling everything in the basement, yet the result still captures the claustrophobic dread of the film’s most famous scenes.
Standing in front of Hannibal Lecter’s cell, you might feel an unexpected chill, even knowing it’s just a movie set. That’s the point. Few museums anywhere let you stand exactly where a scene this iconic was filmed, prop for prop and brick for brick. If you’re a fan of the film, this single room might justify the price of admission on its own.
What Else to See in the Dungeon of Doom
Beyond the Lecter cell, the Dungeon of Doom keeps the scares coming. You’ll spot costumes and props from “The Walking Dead,” along with life-size figures of horror icons like Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Chucky. Boris Karloff’s mummy lurks nearby, and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, makes her presence known too. Vampira and Frankenstein’s bride round out a collection that feels equal parts campy and genuinely eerie, especially once you remember you’re several stories underground in a building otherwise dedicated to glitz and glamour.
Planning Your Visit
The Hollywood Museum sits at 1660 N Highland Avenue, near the corner of Highland and Hollywood Boulevard. Therefore, it’s easy to fold into a broader day of sightseeing along the famed Hollywood Walk of Fame. The museum typically operates Wednesday through Sunday, and tickets run affordably compared to other Los Angeles attractions, with discounts available for older visitors, students and young children. Because the Marilyn exhibit continues to draw crowds, consider arriving earlier in the day, particularly on weekends, so you can move through the galleries without feeling rushed.
Give yourself at least two hours for a proper visit, though history buffs and film fans might want closer to three. Wear comfortable shoes, since you’ll be climbing flights of stairs between floors, including the basement galleries. Once you leave the Dungeon of Doom, the transition back into daylight on Hollywood Boulevard feels almost cinematic in itself, as though you’ve just stepped out of a film and back into the city that made it.
A Museum That Earns Its Spot on Your Itinerary
Hollywood sells plenty of manufactured spectacle, from wax figures to costumed street performers hustling for tips. The Hollywood Museum offers something more substantial. Here, you’ll find real objects tied to real moments in film history, displayed inside a building that played its own part in shaping the industry. Whether you came for Marilyn Monroe’s honeymoon dress or Hannibal Lecter’s jail cell, you’ll leave with a far richer sense of what Hollywood actually built, one costume, one letter, and one set piece at a time.
So next time you’re mapping out a Los Angeles itinerary, skip past the crowded photo-op attractions for an hour and head into the Max Factor Building instead. Between Marilyn’s story and that basement full of horror history, you’ll walk away with the kind of memory that no souvenir magnet can replicate.
The Hollywood Museum 1660 N. Highland Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90028 (323) 464-7776 www.thehollywoodmuseum.com
Related: Marilyn Monroe Hollywood Icon Exhibit at the Academy Museum
About The Author
Randy Yagi is an award-winning writer who served as the National Travel Writer for CBS from 2012 to 2019. More than 900 of his stories still appear in syndication across 23 CBS websites, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. During his peak years with CBS, Randy had a reported digital audience reach of 489 million and 5.5 million monthly visitors. Additionally, his stories have appeared in the Daily Meal, CBS News, CBS Radio, Engadget, NBC.com, NJ.com, MSN.com and Radio.com. He earned a Media Fellowship from Stanford University and is a Bay Area Travel Writers (BATW) member.
