RARE DOORS / JIM MORRISON 1ST GIRLFRIEND MARY WERBELOW ARCHIVE LOT #1

Description

[JIM MORRISON, THE DOORS, MARY WERBELOW]
On offer here is the 1st group of material from
MARY WERBELOW, JIM MORRISON'S 1ST GIRLFRIEND (1962 - 1965)
.
This 1st lot of material is comprised of mainly Mary's letters, some early photos and a few other ephemeral items from her life.
[We plan to offer the Mary Werbelow material in two primary lots + individual works of her art in separate auctions - ask questions if something seems unclear. We have no plans to 'part out' or split up these first two primary groups - yes we watermarked the images so things aren't spammed everywhere without proper context. If someone wants a mark free image, please ask so we can discuss]
This group of material is varied but contains several items of interest for a Door's enthusiast or Jim Morrison fan.
Mary Werbelow is / was (we are unaware of her current status) famously private if not reclusive. She has shunned attention and ever since she and Jim broke up in 1965, she has seemed to be fleeing the discomfort and malcontent of their relationship ending.
Mary first went to India, then came back to America and then lived in Hawaii for a number of years. Mary continued her work as a professional artist a gift she seems to have had for her whole life. She was able to maintain herself as a working artist during and after her two marriages, until she was stricken with MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity) disorder. She apparently acquired this illness as a result of the misuse of an pesticide in the building where her art studio was located.
She received a monetary settlement in the 1980's which enabled her to survive for a number of years, but at some point those funds became exhausted and she fell on hard times. Mary also was challenged with other health issues some of which resulted in surgeries and additional treatment.
What we know of Mary's life is really only gleaned from two primary sources. A 2005 interview she granted Robert Farley of the Tampa Bay Times ('
Mary & Jim To The End'
- September 25, 2005) and her brief contact with an old friend Bill Cosgrave and detailed in his book '
Love Her Madly - Jim Morrison, Mary and Me
' (Dundurn, 2020). It does not appear Mary ever sought to gain fame or income from her relationship with Jim. In fact, we learned Mary on TWO occasions refused significant money from filmmaker Oliver Stone for her story in preparation for his 1991 film '
The Doors
' starring Val Kilmer.
With that as a bit of preface, we will overview what we see as some of the key items in this particular lot. By all means, this isn't everything of note, just some things we've identified that may be of interest to those making a acquisition decision.
LETTERS -
1)
A November 1964, 5 page letter (no cover) from Mary to her parents.
(Mary regularly wrote her parents for many years) In this letter she updates her parents on her financial prospects, starting a bank account, and reports on her school progress. She also mentions
"....I am leaving for San Diego tomorrow right after work - with Jim of course. I have Wed, Thurs, & Fri & Sat, Sun off......I will meet Jim's father for the first time...."
Jim Morrison's father was a Navy officer and was at this time stationed in San Diego. It appears as though Jim thought enough of Mary to invite him to meet his family for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure this was well known information. The letter continues with her mentioning
"...Jim's  whole family will be going to England in a couple of weeks..."
She discusses her new job working in a hospital in the x-ray dept and seeing John Wayne, Director Raoul Walsh & John Gavin.
This letter is HIGHLY important as it - to our best knowledge - is
the ONLY contemporary letter during Mary & Jim's relationship that mentions him while they were together.
Mary burned all the letters she had from Jim or one's she had she had written him after they broke up. We don't know of ANY that exist; and none are reported to exist. This is the ONLY letter which exists during their relationship that mentions him. It only survives because she wrote it to her parents and she likely acquired her parents effects when they passed.  For that reason alone, this letter is very important and should hold a large portion of the value of this lot.
2)
Two letters w/ covers from her friend Dennis Jakob
dated 1978. Dennis Jakob was Jim Morrison's roommate in college and experienced some of the Door's early success. Dennis of course knew Mary from 1964 onwards and apparently kept in touch with Mary well into the 1970's. Both of these letters mention Jakob's most well known professional work, editing work on Francis Ford Coppola's '
Apocalypse Now
'. That film famously features a Door's song '
The End
'.  Most of Jim's friends and Jim himself suggested this song began as a poem written about Mary.
3)
A 1978 letter (w/ 2 covers) from artist Frederick Hammersley
who was one of Mary's art teachers during her time at Chouinard.
4)
A group of 14 letters from Mary to her parents writing from India
. All the letters appear to be postmarked 1968 - 1969. We simply scanned a few of them which seem to discuss things she saw, and interesting things she did. Perhaps there is additional interesting content.
5)
A group of 18 letters from Mary to her parents writing from Hawaii
. She married a man named 'Moki Mercado' (or similar) This man also appears in some of her art pieces & photography.
IMAGES -
(Until this discovery, images of Mary Werbelow were considered rare. This lot along the next lot we will offer in a different listing is the largest known collection of images of her)
6) A small (2 in x 3 in), worn image of Mary at 12 years old. She's standing in front of a lake holding a camera.
7)  A 3.5 x 3.5 in Polaroid type image of Mary from 1966 annotated on the image verso she's 22 years old.
8) A 4.25 x 6.25 in original photo of a man we believe is Jim Morrison from the mid 1960s. The photo is mounted on artist board. We have not seen this image of him before.
9) An 8 x 10 in original photo of Mary dancing in a white outfit at Gazzarri's nightclub. Jim Morrison notably didn't like Mary dancing at the club.
10) 3.5 x 5 in photo of Mary in her wedding dress getting married in Hawaii. The image is date stamped 'Aug 71'. Mary wrote, among other things on the back of the photo
"...J passed 30 days previous to this..."
11) There is also a photographic COPY of the original well known image of the early image of Jim Morrison's brother Andrew, Mary and Jim from their earliest days in Florida.  We wanted buyers to know this is a COPY not the original. We do not know where the original image is, but its worth noting the quality of this image is likely taken from the original. It's not a copy of a copy.
MISC -
12)  There are TWO of Mary's day planners / address books. They seem to date from the 1970's (smaller one) to the 20 teens ? (larger one).  She uses them as notebooks, journal pages, and just about every way someone can use paper. There are some interesting notes of her detailing her health issues, legal issues, and a host of other 'life tid-bits'
13) There's Mary's personal copy of the 2005 article 'Mary and Jim - To the End' by Robert Farley. She's written on the paper in pen "
...the local big time newspaper - pulitzer prize winner for political writing. He left the paper after this was written"
There's more we didn't mention, but we believe we fleshed out things most Jim Morrison / Doors fans / or Rock & Roll history researchers would want to know.
An obviously unique archive of material  -
Provenance:
This group is from the effects of
Ms. Mary Werbelow. Mary is well known as the 1st and arguably most important girlfriend of the Rock & Roll icon, Jim Morrison of the 1960's music group 'The Doors'.
It is the opinion of several personal friends of Jim & Mary and objective observers that the summer 1965 breakup of Jim & Mary began a chain of events that not only formed the foundation of the Doors music but also set up the two different life trajectories for Jim & Mary which left them both unfulfilled in their personal relationships which initiated Jim's drug abuse and ultimately his death in 1971.
Ms. Werbelow's effects were lost in a storage unit auction. We acquired a selection of personal items and artwork produced by Mary from her career as a professional artist.
Please email any questions -