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The Brief History of a Goddess
America during the
fifties indulged in a passionate and all consuming love affair with
the movies and movie stars. Marilyn Monroe epitomises the ultimate
fifties star in a decade that still excites, inspires and dominates
the history books. America had truly arrived; the consumer age was
born.
With the event of the
Television, it could be assumed the end of the cinema and this lust
for movie stars was just a formality – not so, the cinema fought back
by becoming bigger and better than ever before. In 1952 Cinerama was
launched, a method by which the film was shot on three cameras and
then projected with three projectors onto a large wrap around screen
that curved through an arc of 146 degrees. The visual effect was
nothing short of spectacular. The industry went from strength to
strength. In 1953 Twentieth Century Fox introduced Cinemascope, a
widescreen technique that needed only a single projector and a flat
screen, 68ft by 25ft.
It was during this time
of speedy technological advancement and discovery that Marilyn Monroe
became the established icon of American movies.
There cannot be many people that are not familiar with the name of
this legend of the silver screen; if they do not know her name you can
be sure that at some time during
their life they will have met her image. On screen Marilyn appears
ethereal almost as she glides through each foot of celluloid. You
could almost be forgiven for wondering if Marilyn Monroe was real.
Well, we know there was a woman; she smiles out at us from countless
magazine covers, postcards, posters and other various media forms.
Delve deeper and you will reach Norma Jeane.
On
the surface there really wasn’t anything remarkable about Norma Jeane,
she was just another kid from a broken home, although today such
revelations would not make a ripple of difference in the pond of life
but in the 1920’s this would have set Norma Jeane apart from many of
her peers. To be an admirer of Norma Jeane you would have most likely
encountered Marilyn first but let’s start this journey at the
beginning and meet Norma Jeane and if we are very fortunate and luck
is on our side we might discover a little of the real Marilyn Monroe –
Goddess and Icon.
The Birth of Norma
Jeane
As it has been well
documented by biographers Norma Jeane was born on 1st June
1926 at Los Angeles General Hospital, the illegitimate daughter of
Glad ys Baker a
divorcee who already had two children from her marriage to her first
husband, Jasper Baker. Gladys however gave Norma Jeane the name of her
second husband Martin Edward Mortenson whom she had already parted
from when Norma Jeane was born, whilst Mortenson’s name was on Norma
Jeane’s birth certificate it is doubtful that he was her father but to
complicate and confuse matters, Gladys’s daughter was baptized Norma
Jeane Baker.
So what do we know about
someone we have not had the experience of growing up with, someone who
we have never met and who may have died before we were even born? Yet
this is a person whose image alone can fascinate and capture the
interest of the most sensible, academic and intellectual people. Songs
have been sung about her, films have been made. The persona of Marilyn
Monroe has sold millions of books and still sells magazines even
today, some 45 years after her death.
As discussed earlier
Norma Jeane was quite an unremarkable child, though having not met her
how do we know? We know because we have been told – by people who
never knew her either! Countless books have been written and many
documentaries made, the various authors researched their subject by
using other authors’ research. Though of course, some spoke directly
to people that did know Norma Jeane, some of the authors may have even
known her personally but ask someone you know to describe you and your
personality to another person! This theory of accurate research breaks
down if people’s motives are closely examined. Is that piece of
‘factual’ information quite as solid as it would seem? How would you
describe someone you didn’t like very much? Someone who did not like
you or maybe someone you were envious of? Marilyn was the ultimate
product of the power of the media. Monroe was the dream, the invention
to fill the consumer need. Many unscrupulous people have cashed in on
the fame of Marilyn Monroe from the beginning of her much publicised
career to beyond her tragic death.
Even the voice of Marilyn
herself cannot be taken as literal fact because Norma Jeane was part
of this transformation, she
 was in on the
secret – designing Marilyn with the Studio – giving her a back story
that was interesting and intended to illicit sympathy from the
listener/reader. It has been well documented that Norma Jeane’s
childhood was spent in a succession of foster homes and orphanages.
Much of the truth of the situation was heavily embellished by Marilyn
in what could be considered to be a calculated effort to get those
around her on side. The Cinderella story – we all love to hear that
Cinderella did get to the Ball against all odds!
Her mother Gladys Baker
could not cope with the day to day care of her young daughter Norma
Jeane (the two children from her first marriage were
 taken
by their father and Gladys was not involved in their care) Although
placing her daughter with foster parents, it was not done in a
reckless or thoughtless manner. Gladys ensured that the family Norma
Jeane was to live with were respectable church people, paying the
foster fees of $25 a month out of her own wages.
There is to this day a
popular misconception that insanity ran through the Monroe family
tree, originating from her grandparents Otis and Della Monroe.
According to one of Marilyn’s most respected biographers Donald Spoto,
during 1907, eight years after Otis Monroe’s marriage to Della May
Hogan, Otis began suffering from memory lapses which Della put down to
his occasional heavy drinking. The following year at the age of 41 his
behaviour and health became a cause for concern as he developed bouts
of frightening rage, accompanied by severe headaches after which he
would begin to shake which would sometimes precede a seizure. Then in
1908 Otis was admitted to hospital after becoming semi paralysed. Nine
months later in July 1909 Otis died aged 43. The cause of death was
Neurosyphilis. The first successful drug treatment was developed the
very same year, though unfortunately too late to benefit Otis. So it
is clear that he died of an organogenic, not a psychogenic illness, in
other words he died as a result of a disease and not a predisposition
to insanity. It was the symptoms of the disease that made it appear he
died a madman. The disease itself was not contracted through sexual
contact but through unsanitary, viral infected conditions whilst he
worked in Mexico. Otis’s family wrongly and tragically believed he
died of insanity when in fact he died of a disease that destroyed his
brain tissue.
In 1927 Della Monroe was
taken ill and admitted to Norwalk State Hospital suffering from Acute
Myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart and surrounding tissue)
After
19 agonising days she died aged 51. Her death certificate gives the
cause of death as Myocarditis adding a ‘Contributory Manic Depressive
Psychosis’ which was inaccurate, based entirely on Gladys stressing to
the Doctors at Norwalk that her mother’s moods had been unpredictable
in recent weeks. In fact, her heart condition had been severely
neglected and her actions can be attributed to insufficient oxygen to
the brain. Unfortunately, this lack of medical awareness resulted in
the myth of family madness being firmly reinforced in the mind of
Gladys, Norma Jeane and other family members, each fearing the same
fate awaited them. Sadly, for Gladys the fear became a reality as she
was to spend much of her adult life in and out of mental institutions.
The question of Marilyn’s
mental health was to be the focus of Hollywood hype throughout her
career (giving the theory of suicide as her cause of death credence)
Her family history or at least, what she thought was her family
history, would haunt her for the rest of her life. The media refused
to let go of the belief that she was mentally unstable. The press used
examples of rumoured suicide attempts and the fact that she was
hospitalised for nervous exhaustion on occasions to corroborate their
theory of the cause of her death.
It has frequently been
suggested by various media professionals that Norma Jeane was born to
be a movie star. There is no
 evidence
that she had any more aspiration as a child than any other youngster
of her own age. Part of her appeal is possibly that she lived our
dreams, starting with nothing but a little luck, being in the right
place at the right time. It could happen to anyone, even you or I –
which is all part of the fascination and attraction!
The Next Phase
The first real hint of
what was to come showed itself in 1944. At the tender age of 16 Norma
Jeane married quite literally ‘The boy next door’ 21 year old Jim
Dougherty.
It had reportedly been
said by Marilyn herself that this was just a marriage of convenience,
however, Jim tells a different story. Whatever the truth, the couple
were married on
19th June 1942. It was wartime and Jim wanted to do his bit
for his country, so he enrolled into the Merchant Marines and soon
found himself being posted on duties away from home. Norma Jeane
became increasingly bored during this time; her mother-in-law found
Norma Jeane a job at her own workplace, Radio Plane. The women there
had various important but dull jobs packing parachutes etc for the war
effort. Norma Jeane joined the assembly line and although she found
the job almost as dreary as being at home at least she had the
advantage of having some cash to call her own.
So, in 1944 a young army
photographer named David Conover was dispatched by his commanding
officer Ronald Reagan to take some photos of the women on the home
front working for the war effort. Norma Jeane caught the eye of the
young photographer as he set about taking his photos. When the prints
came back David Conover immediately saw the potential in this young
woman. He asked her to accompany him on a two day modelling
assignment. Norma Jeane readily agreed as she enjoyed the work and was
more than happy with the extra income.
At Conover’s suggestion
she applied to the Blue Book Model Agency, which was run by a
formidable woman named Emmeline Snively.
 Norma
Jeane was accepted by Snively without hesitation and soon she became
the Blue Book Agency’s most popular and requested model. Although a
photographers dream, the young Norma Jeane was full of self doubt
about her attractiveness. However, when she was in front of the camera
she lit up and came alive, falling into poses with a natural and
unaffected flair. It seems that this was the time that a spark of
ambition ignited in her and she began to talk about the possibility of
becoming an actress.
Emmeline Snively made it
clear to Norma Jeane that if she was serious about becoming an actress
she would have to abandon her marriage and divorce Jim Dougherty, as
no studio would invest in her as a potential movie starlet when there
was a real possibility she could become pregnant and the studio would
find itself in a situation of financial loss. So in 1946 she took the
decision to
divorce Jim and end her marriage.
Most of her modelling
sessions portrayed her as the wholesome girl next door type.
Photographers’ that she worked for told her that there was far more
money in doing ‘cheesecake’ and glamour shots. So Norma Jeane took
their advice and soon found that they were right. Work poured in and
it was not long before her photo was used on the cover of the popular
‘Laff’ magazine. It was rumoured that the cover had been seen by
Howard Hughes, a millionaire producer heavily involved with Hollywood
and the discovery of new young female talent. Hughes’s supposed
interest soon spurred his competitors 20th Century Fox to
sign her up on a year’s contract.
The Birth of Marilyn
Monroe
 This was the point that
Norma Jeane began her remarkable metamorphosis into Marilyn Monroe. At
the suggestion of studio boss Ben Lyon, Norma Jeane changed her name
as well as her hair colour, hairstyle and a few minor cosmetic
alterations. Although Norma Jeane’s face was well known long before
she became Marilyn, it is the image of the blonde bombshell,
innocently seductive, with naïve attraction in a billowing white
dress, that most of the population are accustomed to when they recall
their own perception of Marilyn Monroe.
In February 1947 she
received her first casting call for a small part as a school girl in
the film ‘Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay!’ she got the part but the viewer
would never have known it. The studio had pronounced her as
‘Unphotogenic’ and all recognisable shots of her finished up on the
cutting room floor.
With steely determination
eventually she aimed and hit the target, with the help of her newly
acquired agent Johnny Hyde. Hyde, whose health was frail and was also
a great deal older than Marilyn, was besotted with her. He begged
Marilyn to marry him, which she declined. He managed to get her her
first part of real worth, in the John Huston film ‘The Asphalt Jungle’
she played the part of Angela Phinlay, the beautiful young niece (a
euphemistic term for ‘mistress’ in the 50’s) of the middle aged
crooked lawyer, which catapulted her career to almost heady heights.
During the 1950’s
Marilyn’s career went from strength to strength, with film credits to
numerous to mention. She took on a drama coach, Natasha Lytess whose
sexual preferences have often been debated, including the exact nature
of her relationship with Monroe, which was highly likely nothing more
than platonic on Marilyn’s behalf – however once the thought has been
given voice it becomes a very grey area. It was Marilyn’s lack of
confidence that lead her to rely on Natasha and eventually the acting
coach Paula Strasberg, wife of Lee Strasberg, founder of the Actors
Studio who was to become the most influential factor in both her
working and private life.
Hitting the Heights –
the Fifties – Marilyn’s Decade
After a succession of
small parts each bringing stardom nearer, in 1952 Marilyn landed the
part of Rose Loomis in a film called ‘Niagara’ this was her first
starring dramatic role and was set in the famous Canadian Falls. In
the story Rose plots to kill her husband (played by Joseph Cotton)
with startling results. Success followed success when in 1953 she was
immortalised forever in the penultimate film of her career ‘Gentleman
Prefer Blondes’ with her co-star Jane Russell. Marilyn played Lorelei
Lee the gold digging blonde airhead. It was with this film that she
gained her signature tune ‘Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend’ A further
string of similar roles were to follow.
By this time she had
earned herself the title of Sex Goddess/Glamour Queen. To Marilyn the
whole idea was amusing for a while and she was willing to play it if
her fans wanted it – but eventually the sexy dumb blonde parts became
tiresome for her and as she matured and grew in experience she became
disenchanted with the role the studio had moulded her into.
In 1954 she married the
famous baseball player Joe Dimaggio. America loved it. They thought it
was a perfect match and her place in their hearts seemed secure.
Whilst honeymooning in
Japan, the new Mrs DiMaggio was asked if she would consider
entertaining the American troops in Korea. Marilyn was delighted to do
it but Joe was not impressed. It was later to be described by Marilyn
herself as the highlight of her career. The troops showered her with
love and affection. Footage from the time shows her performing to
hordes of GI’s in freezing temperatures, wearing a skimpy cocktail
dress as she knew this was the Marilyn Monroe her fans wanted to see.
Shortly after the visit she was taken ill with a serious bout of
 pneumonia.
Unfortunately, her
marriage to Joe wasn’t to survive the year, after just 9 months of
explosive arguments and conflicting needs, Joe could not handle the
publicity his wife courted; he had lived in the limelight for too long
and was now ready to retire from the glare of publicity. Monroe had
other ideas, she was just reaching the peak of her career and was not
prepared to let go of her dream for Joe or anyone else. DiMaggio could
not contain his temper or his jealousy and after several outbursts of
violence Marilyn filed for divorce.
Amazingly over subsequent
years, their relationship grew into a firm and loyal friendship that
lasted until her death. DiMaggio took care of the funeral arrangements
and avoided interviews and media interest about his relationship with
Monroe, maintaining a dignified silence until his own death from lung
cancer on March 8th 1999. (For more information on Joe and
Marilyn’s relationship see
‘The Longest Goodbye’
With each triumphant film
role Marilyn’s public found it difficult to distinguish Marilyn from
the characters she played. People were expecting her to be the dizzy
blonde airhead that she portrayed in her films but she wasn’t, she was
a sensitive, intelligent individual, lacking in a great deal of self
worth and confidence. All her desires, requirements and goals were
built on a framework of emotion, which was far too fragile for her
lifestyle. She began to acquire a reputation for being late; indeed
she was introduced as ‘The Late Marilyn Monroe’ at President Kennedy’s
birthday celebration Just weeks before she died. Her rejection of time
was like a refusal. Arriving on set on time would mean she was ‘ready’
and that was the crux of the matter – Marilyn never felt ready. She
was also relying on prescribed drugs as a means of getting to sleep
and keeping awake and alert – it soon became a vicious cycle.
Marilyn continued her
career playing the teasing temptress in ‘The Seven Year Itch’ with Tom
Ewell as her co-star (in this film her immortalisation was the
billowing white dress over the subway grate) She went on to win
acclaim for her role as Cherie in Josh Logan’s film ‘Bus Stop’ giving
what was considered by some as her finest performance.
In 1956 Marilyn married
America’s most famous playwright Arthur Miller. It seemed incredulous
to the people that this dumb blonde should marry one of the most
intellectual men alive but they adored her and could not get enough of
her. Miller had
his own problems at the time of marrying Marilyn he had been summoned
to appear before the House of Un American Activities Committee, as he
was believed to be a Community sympathiser. Americans at this time
were almost hysterical in their anti communist feeling)
Marilyn firmly stood by
Arthur until his name was cleared but it was a long arduous and
expensive process. Monroe was very aware of Miller’s academic ability
and she looked up to him for it but it also fed her own insecurity and
lack of belief in herself. Miller began to plan and manage Marilyn’s
career, whilst doing so he alienated a great many of her friends. She
had been planning for sometime to join forces with a young and
handsome photographer by the name of Milton Greene, in order to form
her own production company. This lead to the role of Elsie in what was
initially known as ‘The Sleeping Prince’ but was soon to become ‘The
Prince and the Showgirl’ co starring Sir Lawrence Olivier. Marilyn
began to look forward to being in charge of her own destiny.
Her time making The
Prince and the Show Girl’ in England was nothing short of a nightmare
for Marilyn. Adjusting to married life once again brought with it its
own problems. At times Monroe felt that Miller was patronising her and
Olivier was impossibly difficult for her to work with.
Instead of supporting
her, Miller seemed to take Olivier’s side. After seeing an entry in
Arthur’s diary that was not very complimentary towards Marilyn she
broke down. Struggling to finish the film she was simply glad to have
it over and done with. Before leaving London she was presented to Her
Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It is interesting to see the footage at
this time, Queen Elizabeth looks Marilyn up and down, taking in every
inch of her – the Queen of England meets the Queen of Hollywood.
Plunging the Depths –
Something’s Got to Give
 Eventually on returning
to America her film production company was wound up, as was her
friendship with Milton Greene. It came to a very bitter and sad end.
In order to pay the legal fees for Arthur’s representation over the
Communist affair, Marilyn took on a film she did not want to do, which
was ironically to become one of her best loved films ‘Some Like It
Hot’ with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. The film was based on the St
Valentines Day Massacres. Lemmon and Curtis played the parts of
musicians that had witnessed a gangland massacre and went on the run
dressed as women. Marilyn played the part of Sugar Kane one of the
girls in the all girl band that Curtis and Lemmon joined in order to
protect their identities. Marilyn was pregnant with Arthur’s child
during the filming but sadly miscarried as she had done on other
occasions. Her attempts to become a mother were always thwarted.
In 1960 Marilyn met her
first film flop in years. ‘Let’s Make Love’ with Yves Montand
co-starring, was a film that lacked in structure and atmosphere. There
was also controversy and rumour that Marilyn had begun an affair with
her leading man, which ended in humiliation for Marilyn.
During their marriage
Arthur spent some time writing a screenplay especially for his wife.
Miller was mainly a theatre playwright and had never written a
Hollywood production before. ‘This Misfits’ was the resulting film,
which some feel was Marilyn’s finest hour, showing her skill and
talent but the real Monroe was closer to the surface than she had ever
been in any previous films. There is a luminous quality about her as
she appears almost ghostlike in certain scenes. Co-starring with her
all time screen idol Clark Gable, who was to die of a heart attack not
long after filming finished, Marilyn unfairly took a lot of the blame
from the press. They said she had kept the cast waiting around for
hours on end in the heat of the desert where filming took place. In
fact, Gable had insisted on doing all his own stunts, which were
physically demanding and dangerous.
By the time filming had
begun the Millers’ marriage was already in shreds, with the final
disintegration taking place in full view of the cast and crew. It soon
became obvious that a relationship was forming between Miller and one
of the sets photographers Inge Morath (whom Arthur later married and
remained married to until her death in 2002 of cancer) In 1962 Marilyn
obtained a Mexican divorce from Arthur.
Monroe checked into
hospital for nervous exhaustion at the suggestion of her psychiatrist
Dr Kris. Marilyn freely signed her own admission papers under the
assumed name of Faye Miller to avoid publicity. She was not taken to
the room she was expecting but to the Payne Witney Clinic (Psychiatric
Division) as had been secretly pre-arranged by Dr Kris. Marilyn was
distressed when to her horror she was locked into a padded room. For
the most mentally balanced of us this would seem like a nightmare, for
Marilyn who was tired, depressed and had just found out that the
person she had trusted had betrayed that trust, this was just too
much. Eventually she was permitted to make one phone call. She called
DiMaggio who came to her rescue, arranging for her to receive proper
treatment and rest in a private room at the Neurological Institute at
the Columbia University Presbyterian Hospital Medical Centre.
Marilyn no longer saw Dr
Kris. Instead she started seeing Dr Ralph Greenson on an almost daily
basis, during which time he began to take control over Marilyn’s life.
Marilyn had lived in 54 homes; Dr Greenson recommended that she buy
herself a house, which she did. The first and last home Marilyn ever
owned was a modest Mexican style house in Brentwood. There was an
inscription on the path in Latin ‘Cursum Perficio’ – in English – ‘I
Complete the Course [or race]’ Dr Ralph Greenson arranged for Eunice
Murray to be Marilyn’s housekeeper and companion. Murray had been in
the employ of Greenson for many years. Claiming to be a veteran
psychiatric nurse she in fact never even graduated from high school!
Ralph Greenson also began as Arthur had to alienate Monroe’s closet
friends and colleagues.
 Marilyn’s last film
‘Something’s Got to Give’ was a catalogue of disasters culminating in
Marilyn being fired from the set. Less than two months later she was
found dead. The official statement was that it was a probable suicide
by drug overdose but soon the rumours began - the Kennedy brothers
were involved, she was killed by the Mafia, she knew too much, she was
killed to make it look like suicide, she was killed to make it look
like the Kennedy’s had killed her then tried to make it look like a
suicide… so the theories went on and on and continue on to this very
day…
Eunice Murray was with
Marilyn on the night she died, she has given varying accounts of what
took place on that fateful night, each one being impossibly different
from the other. There is in fact no proof that Marilyn had embarked on
a fruitless and tragic affair with either of the Kennedy brothers. It
was said that she died of an overdose of Nembutal. Contrary to popular
belief, things had actually started looking up for Marilyn, she was
contemplating various film and television offers, she had been
re-hired for Something’s Got To Give’ and her relationship with Joe
had matured and grown in a positive way.
Marilyn had finally got
to grips with her life and had agreed with Joe that both Eunice Murray
and Dr Greenson would have to go as Greenson was creating more
problems than he was solving and she had never really liked Eunice
Murray, only tolerating her because of Greenson.
A probable theory that
has been suggested is that on the night Marilyn died she had taken her
usual amount of Nembutal but there was some confusion as to exactly
what she had taken and Eunice Murray was instructed by Dr Greenson to
administer to his client an enema of Chloral hydrate – over looking or
not realising the adverse reaction with drugs that had been taken
orally. Marilyn was also at this time in the habit of taking what she
thought to be vitamin shots, which were possibly something more
sinister. The culmination of these events to the horror of everyone
involved with what may have been the intention to sedate Marilyn in an
effort to give her a long deep sleep, became her death.
That night there seemed
to be a series of bodged attempts to cover up what really happened.
You can only imagine how Dr Greenson and Eunice Murray felt when the
realisation of their blunder dawned on them – grief, shock, fear,
horror, and total panic were probably just a few of the emotions
experienced. Marilyn’s death has become a jigsaw puzzle of missing
pieces that most likely will never now be found.
Whatever happened,
suicide seems the least likely of the possibilities – Marilyn had
matured in both body and mind, seeing Hollywood and the star system
clearly for what it was. Choosing aspects that she wanted, needed and
enjoyed, whilst dropping
the heavy baggage of hanger’s on that were weighing her down.
A great number of
different emotional and physical causes have been attributed to
Marilyn’s death. Time and time again it has been said she was a
‘victim’ a victim of Hollywood, a victim of a string of broken
marriages and love affairs, a victim of numerous abortions, a victim
of drug and alcohol abuse. Media attention since her death has been
relentlessly intrusive and to what gain? There is only one answer –
financial. Intrigue, sex, scandal and mystery sells papers, books,
magazines, documentaries and movies, along with key fobs, mugs and all
manner of ‘collectables’ Marilyn like her contemporaries, Elvis, Buddy
Holly, James Dean etc, is worth more in death than she was when she
was living.
Death of a Star; Birth
of Legend
 People have crawled out
of the woodwork like death watch beetle, suggesting they knew Marilyn
intimately and the media have been only too willing to believe them,
uninterested in their credentials as long as their story is
sensational enough and preferably peppered with plenty of explicit
sexual encounters.
In 1974 Robert Slatzer
claimed a relationship, marriage (and divorce -apparently at the
insistence of the Studio) to Marilyn that he was never able to
substantiate, and yet he soon became a spokesman and authority on all
things Marilyn Monroe. It is considered by many people that knew her
and Donald Spoto her biographer, that the closest Marilyn ever came to
Slatzer was when she agreed (as she often held impromptu photo calls
for fans) to pose for a picture with him during a break in the filming
of Niagara. Slatzer was unable to produce any documentary evidence of
his so called ‘marriage’ with Monroe and no reliable witnesses have
ever come forward to collaborate his story (the only photo’s he could
produce were the ones taken on set that day whilst filming Niagara)
Donald Spoto uncovered a cheque Marilyn wrote in Beverly Hills on the
very day Slatzer said the were married in Mexico - Yet this man was
able to add fuel to the fire of rumours that were ablaze about her
alleged affair with the Kennedy brothers. Slatzer died 28th
March 2005 in Los Angles, California.
Another person that is
unable to even produce a photograph and yet has styled herself
Marilyn’s best friend – is the one time Pinup girl and actress Jeanne
Carmen. Again like Slatzer, she makes important claims about Marilyn’s
final days and yet she cannot produce any solid evidence of being
Marilyn’s friend, there are no photos of the two women together. It’s
one thing jumping on the Monroe bandwagon to make money but these
people are not just selling books – they have made claims about
Marilyn’s life and the events leading up to her death that have
irrevocably muddied the waters to the point that it is even more
difficult to have a clear view of what took place at this time.
Soon after Marilyn’s
death there was an avalanche of books flooding the market from men
claiming as Slatzer had that they too had embarked on a passionate and
explicit secret love affair with Monroe. All making a great deal of
money from the pretence. No one was able or seemed to want to stop the
systematic erosion of Marilyn’s reputation.
Marilyn Monroe may have
been a victim of these fraudsters in death but she was a tough
survivor in life. Much of what she encountered in Hollywood we would
now term sexual harassment but Monroe overcame the most difficult of
situations using the men in her life with selective intelligence.
From the moment she realised her ambition she did not hesitate to drop
anyone who could possibly hinder her future career potential,
freeloading where she could and making the most of her chances.
Many people believe that
Monroe was acting the part of herself in her films but when studied
closely it soon becomes apparent that Marilyn was an actress of
exceptional quality, so real in her work that the public thought she
was the character she played, which for an actor must be the ultimate
accolade.
Hollywood has desperately
sought another Marilyn Monroe without success. Britain offered the
late Diana Dors, France gave us Bridgette Bardot but they did not hit
the mark, they could not reach the heights Marilyn had touched. They
took all the basic ingredients – blonde hair, pretty face and perfect
figure but the recipe cannot be repeated as vital ingredients cannot
be captured in one person – that is why she is still loved and adored
all these years after her death. Her image is of course beautiful but
it is the image of the ‘ugly’ ducking emerging into a beautiful swan
that really inspires our imagination. Although she was not an ugly
child or teenager, it wasn’t until the studio had worked its magic
that she re-emerged, re-born as the beautiful white swan. The appeal
being that we can all aspire to shedding our past and walking into the
sunlight a new and beautiful being.
Marilyn also exhibited
lack of self worth/esteem and confidence and it is reasonable to say
that most women (and of course many men) can identify with this. It’s
a doubled edged sword, we want to be admired, looked at and
appreciated – feel special, but when all eyes are turned upon us we
feel our flaws beginning to grow and magnify until we are mortified in
the spotlight of their gaze.
Goodbye Norma Jeane
There has been many songs written about Marilyn, one in particular by
Elton John entitled ‘Candle in the Wind’ is a reflection of her life
and what she went through, a beautiful and haunting song with the
lyrics ‘I wish that I had known you but I was just a kid’ A sentiment
that seems to sum up peoples feelings for Monroe. Men believe that
they could have loved her enough to save her, women feeling that they
could have saved her with the strength of their friendship. Marilyn
was at times a difficult and demanding person often draining the
emotional resources of those that were her genuine friends and those
that loved her.
Touching many peoples
lives, Monroe was a colourful and interesting character, a woman born
ahead of her time and yet no other decade could have accepted her like
the fifties did. Footage from that time shows how she would always
turn her face to
 the source of light, always showing herself off to
her best advantage, she knew her face and body well, she knew how to
make the most of it – she spent a lot of time on Marilyn Monroe. It
was never really enough though. Whilst as
Norma Jeane she craved the spotlight as Marilyn she wanted more, as we
get older our values change Marilyn was no different as she grew and
developed, respect and real love became her ultimate quest.
Although the
circumstances of her death will probably always be hotly debated, one
thing is for certain - she will never be forgotten and her legend
lives on generating love, light and eternal remembrance.
Always holding a good
thought for you Marilyn!
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