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Marilyn Monroe's Former LA Home Declared Historic Monument to Save it from Demolition

FILE - The backyard of the home where Marilyn Monroe lived is shown after she was found dead in Hollywood, August 5, 1962. (AP Photo/Harold Filan, File)
FILE - The backyard of the home where Marilyn Monroe lived is shown after she was found dead in Hollywood, August 5, 1962. (AP Photo/Harold Filan, File)
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Marilyn Monroe's Former LA Home Declared Historic Monument to Save it from Demolition

FILE - The backyard of the home where Marilyn Monroe lived is shown after she was found dead in Hollywood, August 5, 1962. (AP Photo/Harold Filan, File)
FILE - The backyard of the home where Marilyn Monroe lived is shown after she was found dead in Hollywood, August 5, 1962. (AP Photo/Harold Filan, File)

Fans of Marilyn Monroe have won a battle to preserve her mark on Los Angeles and are a step closer to seeing a towering statue of the silver screen icon remain in Palm Springs.
The Los Angeles home where Monroe briefly lived and died has been declared a historic cultural monument, while a Palm Springs planning commission decision boosted chances that a 26-foot (8-meter) statue called “Forever Marilyn” will stay in place.
The Los Angeles City Council voted for the historic designation Wednesday after a lengthy battle over whether the home in the tony Brentwood neighborhood would be demolished, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The current owners live next door and wanted to raze the house in order to expand their estate. The council, however, was unanimous in moving to save it.
"There’s no other person or place in the city of Los Angeles as iconic as Marilyn Monroe and her Brentwood home,” Traci Park, the area's council representative, said before the vote.
Monroe bought the house for $75,000 and died there just months later on Aug. 4, 1962, from an apparent overdose. The current owners, Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank, bought the house for $8.35 million and obtained a demolition permit but ran into opposition.
According to The Associated Press, they contend the house has been changed so much over the years that it no longer is historic, and that it has become a neighborhood nuisance due to tourist traffic.
The process that led to the designation was “biased, unconstitutional and rigged,” Peter C. Sheridan, an attorney for Milstein and Bank, said in a statement to AP.
Sheridan asserted that Park and her staff were not responsive to the owners' efforts to find a solution and ignored opposition by civic and homeowners' groups.
The attorney also said the city had “granted dozens of permits to over 14 different prior owners to change the home through numerous remodels, resulting in there being nothing left reflecting Ms. Monroe’s brief time there 60 years ago.”
In Palm Springs, the “Forever Marilyn” statute depicts Monroe in the famous billowing dress scene from “The Seven Year Itch.” It has been moved around the US and elsewhere, including a previous stint in Palm Springs, and is now back. A hotel industry group that owns the statue wants it to remain permanently, but some residents oppose it.
A technical decision about the location by the planning commission on Wednesday marked a step toward keeping the statue, The Desert Sun reported. The matter continues before the Palm Springs City Council in the future.

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Japan Issues New Yen Banknotes Packed With 3D Hologram Technology to Fight Counterfeiting

The 10,000 yen bill, worth about $62 at the current exchange rate, has the face of Eiichi Shibusawa, known as “the father of Japanese capitalism - The AP
The 10,000 yen bill, worth about $62 at the current exchange rate, has the face of Eiichi Shibusawa, known as “the father of Japanese capitalism - The AP
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Japan Issues New Yen Banknotes Packed With 3D Hologram Technology to Fight Counterfeiting

The 10,000 yen bill, worth about $62 at the current exchange rate, has the face of Eiichi Shibusawa, known as “the father of Japanese capitalism - The AP
The 10,000 yen bill, worth about $62 at the current exchange rate, has the face of Eiichi Shibusawa, known as “the father of Japanese capitalism - The AP

Japan issued its first new banknotes in two decades Wednesday, yen packed with 3D hologram technology to fight counterfeiting.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida praised as historic the state-of-the-art anti-counterfeit traits of the new 10,000 yen, 5,000 yen and 1,000 yen bills.

“I hope the people will like the new bills, and they will help energize the Japanese economy,” he told reporters at the Bank of Japan, The AP reported.

While the new bills were released with fanfare, currency already in use will remain valid. In fact, people will still need older bills to use most vending machines and to pay bus fares, local media reported.

Kishida noted the people featured on the bills celebrate Japanese capitalism, women’s equality and scientific innovation.

The 10,000 yen bill, worth about $62 at the current exchange rate, has the face of Eiichi Shibusawa, known as “the father of Japanese capitalism,” a key figure in building Japan’s modern economy. He is credited with founding hundreds of companies.

The 5,000 yen bill, worth about $30, features Umeko Tsuda, a pioneer feminist and educator who founded a college. The 1,000 yen note, worth about $6.20, portrays physician and bacteriologist Shibasaburo Kitasato, who was instrumental in the research of tetanus and the bubonic plague.

The backs of each of the bills feature Tokyo Station, wisteria flowers and ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai’s Mount Fuji, respectively.

The new bills also feature larger printing so they’re easier to read, especially for the nation’s aging population.

By the end of March next year, nearly 7.5 billion new banknotes will have been printed, according to the government. The amount of money in the new bills going out in a single day is estimated at 1.6 trillion yen ($10 billion).

It may take some time for ordinary people to get hold of the new bills. They first are going to banks and other financial organizations. Then, they'll be distributed to automatic teller machines and stores, according to the Bank of Japan.

A majority of transactions in Japan still are done in cash and cashless payments have been slower to catch on than in many other countries.

“Although the world is moving toward cashless interactions, we believe cash remains important as a way for safely settling payments anywhere and anytime,” said Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda.