Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson, June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was a twentieth-century movie star, sex symbol and pop icon. Raised as Norma Jeane Baker, her rise to stardom began when she was recruited to do magazine modeling while her first husband was in the army. She was soon discovered and offered a movie contract by 20th Century Fox, where she adopted the name with which she gained fame. After starting with bit roles, she soon became known for her comedic skills and remarkable screen presence. She worked toward serious acting roles later in her career and even managed to realize these goals, but constant publicity and romantic disappointments led her to problems with drinking and drugs. The circumstances surrounding her untimely death have been the subject of much speculation, but have not tarnished her reputation as a legendary screen actress.

Early life

Marilyn Monroe was born on June 1, 1926 in the charity ward of the Los Angeles County Hospital. Her registered name was Norma Jeane Mortenson, but her grandmother, Della Monroe Grainger, later had her baptized as Norma Jeane Baker. For a while most biographers believed her biological father was very likely to be Charles Stanley Gifford, a salesman for the studio where Monroe's mother, the late Gladys Pearl Monroe Baker Eley, worked as a film-cutter. However her birth certificate lists Norwegian Martin Edward Mortenson as her biological father, and in later years some biographers have leaned towards believing that the birth certificate is telling the truth.

Gladys was unable to persuade her mother Della to look after the baby Marilyn, so Marilyn was placed with foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender of Hawthorne, California, southwest of Los Angeles, where she lived until she was seven years old. In her autobiography My Story, Monroe states she thought Albert and Ida were her biological parents until one day, rather rudely, Ida corrected her. Monroe's book, however, has not been considered a reliable source as it was ghostwritten by Ben Hecht and used as a publicity vehicle. After Monroe's death, Ida claimed that she and Albert had considered adopting her, for which they would have needed her mother Gladys' consent.

Again according to My Story, Gladys visited Norma every Saturday, but never smiled, hugged or kissed her. At some point, Gladys announced that she had bought a house for herself and her daughter, but a few months after they moved in, she suffered a mental breakdown. Marilyn recalled Gladys "screaming and laughing" as she was forcibly removed to the State Mental Hospital in Norwalk, California, the same hospital where Gladys' mother Della had died in August 1927. Gladys' father, Otis, had also died in a mental hospital (near San Bernardino, California) as a result of syphilis.

Consequently Norma Jeane was declared a ward of state and Gladys' best friend, Grace McKee (later Goddard) became her guardian. After Grace married in 1935, Norma Jeane was sent to the Los Angeles orphanage and then to a long succession of foster homes where it is alleged she was subjected to abuse and neglect. There is little evidence, however, that she lived in as many foster homes as has sometimes been claimed and Monroe herself is known to have given exaggerated information about her childhood during interviews.

In September 1941, Marilyn was reunited with her mother. The Goddard family, however, were moving to the East Coast and felt it would be best if the fifteen-year old Norma Jeane were to marry, as otherwise she would have to return to the orphanage. She had been introduced to a neighbor's son, James Dougherty, who would become her first husband.

Early years

While her husband was away fighting in World War II, the young Norma Jeane began work in a factory spraying airplane parts with fire retardant. A young army photographer, David Conover, on the orders of his superior officer, Ronald Reagan, scouted local factories taking photos of pretty girls to boost soldier morale. He immediately saw her potential as a model and she was soon signed by The Blue Book modelling agency. She became one of their most successful models, appearing on hundreds of magazine covers. In 1946 she came to the attention of talent scout Ben Lyon who arranged a screen test for her with 20th Century Fox. She passed and was offered a standard six-month contract with a starting salary of $75 per week the high end of industry standard. She was given the name Marilyn after the actress Marilyn Miller and suggested her mother's maiden name Monroe as her surname. Thus the twenty-year old Norma Jeane Baker became "Marilyn Monroe".

During her first six months at 20th Century Fox, Monroe was given no acting work but instead learned about hair, make-up, costumes, acting and lighting. After six months Fox decided to renew her contract and in the following six months she was given minor roles in two movies, Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! and Dangerous Years, both released in 1947. Both films failed at the box office and Fox decided not to renew her contract again. Monroe returned to modelling work and began to network and make contacts in Hollywood meaning the L.A. movie industry. In 1948 a six-month stint at Columbia Pictures saw her star in one movie, Ladies of the Chorus, but it was not a success at the box office and she was dropped. She then met one of Hollywood's top agents, Johnny Hyde, who had Fox re-sign her after MGM had turned her down. Fox Vice-President Darryl F. Zanuck was not convinced of Monroe's star potential, claiming her voice was squeaky, her nose bulbous and fat, and she was completely unphotogenic. However, due to Hyde's persistence, she gained small roles in All About Eve and The Asphalt Jungle. Even though these two roles were minor, movie-goers took notice and Monroe began receiving more fan mail than some top-billed actresses of the time.

Monroe played her first role as a leading lady (excluding Ladies of the Chorus) in Don't Bother To Knock, portraying a deranged babysitter who, in a rage, attacks the little girl in her care. Although it received mixed reviews, Monroe later claimed it to be one of her favorite performances. Her turn in the film has later been acknowledged as one of the strongest of her career by many critics.

Stardom

Her performance in Niagara (1953) left little doubt about her on-screen appeal. In this Technicolor thriller, she played the character of an easy virtue, the troubled and misbehaving Rose Loomis who is planning to murder her equally unbalanced husband. The film was designed to highlight Monroe's face and body and to finally establish her as a major movie star, and the plan worked.

It was around this time that nude photos of Monroe began to surface, taken by photographer Tom Kelley when she had been struggling for work. Prints were bought by Hugh Hefner and in December 1953 appeared in the first edition of his new magazine, Playboy. To a journalist asking what she had on during the photoshoot, she famously replied: "The radio!" When asked what she wore in bed, she replied with another famous one-liner: "Chanel No. 5!"

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, together with Niagara, both released in 1953, catapulted Monroe into A-list status and she quickly became the world's biggest movie star. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a camp musical which in many ways was exceptionally daring for its times, is now regarded as one of the best comedies ever by many critics, and Monroe's turn as the gold-digging showgirl Lorelei Lee is generally considered to be one of her most alluring on-screen efforts. Her rendition of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" is among the best-known scenes in Monroe's career.

In How to Marry a Millionaire, Monroe played a short-sighted dumb blonde named Pola Debevoise. Even though the role was in many ways a stereotype, Monroe garnered favorable reviews, and for the first time in her career, critics noticed her comedic timing.

Her next two films, River of No Return and There's No Business Like Show Business, were not as successful, and Monroe began to get tired of the dumb blonde roles that Zanuck assigned her. After completing work on The Seven Year Itch in early 1955, she broke her contract and fled Hollywood to study acting at The Actors Studio in New York. Fox would not accede on her new contract demands and insisted she return to start work on productions she considered inappropriate, such as Heller In Pink Tights (which was never filmed), The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, and How To Be Very, Very Popular.

The first film to be made under the contract was Bus Stop, directed by Joshua Logan. Critics immediately noted a change in Monroe's acting and generally praised her performance as Cherie, a saloon bar singer who falls in love with a cowboy. Monroe wasn't pleased to learn that Logan had cut a couple of what she thought were her best scenes, yet a lot of people believed she should have been nominated for an Academy Award. Generally, it is believed that Monroe wasn't nominated because of her reputation as a controversial breaker of the Hollywood rules. She was, however, nominated for a Golden Globe.

Practically unheard of at the time, Monroe was the first woman to form her own production company with friend and photographer Milton H. Greene. Marilyn Monroe Productions released its first film The Prince and the Showgirl in 1957 to mixed reviews. As well as co-producing the film, she starred opposite the acclaimed British actor Laurence Olivier, who directed it. Unfortunately their chemistry was lacking and Monroe's reputation in the film industry for being difficult only grew. Monroe's performance, however, was praised by the critics of the time, especially in Europe, where she was handed the David di Donatello, the Italian equivalent of the Academy Award.

Later years

In 1959 she scored the biggest hit of her career starring alongside Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot. Her difficult behavior on the set is now legendary, as well as her numerous retakes. However, Wilder stated that he would have been willing to go through the hard times with Monroe any time again, because he considers her a first-rate comedy actress with incomparable screen presence.

Some Like It Hot is now consistently rated as one of the best comedy films ever made. Monroe's performance as the promiscuous, constantly drinking but compassionate singer Sugar Kane was awarded with a Golden Globe for best actress in musical or comedy.

After Some Like It Hot, Monroe did a musical named Let's Make Love directed by George Cukor and starring Yves Montand. Monroe, Montand and Cukor all considered the script subpar, yet Monroe was forced to make the film because of her obligations to Twentieth Century Fox. While the film was not a commercial or critical success, it included one of Monroe's most legendary musical numbers, Cole Porter's "My Heart Belongs to Daddy".

By 1961, Monroe's third husband, the playwright Arthur Miller, had written and worked on what became her and her co-star Clark Gable's last completed film, The Misfits. It was a long and exhausting shoot in the middle of the hot Nevada desert. Monroe's tardiness became chronic and the shoot was troublesome all the way through. Despite all this, Monroe, Gable and Montgomery Clift were able to deliver performances that are now considered excellent, even iconic. Monroe became friends with Clift, whom she felt a deep connection with. Gable died of a heart attack soon after, and some blamed this on Monroe, claiming she had given him a hard time on the set. Gable had, however, insisted on doing his own stunts and was a heavy smoker and drinker, and the general consensus was that he simply got physically exhausted. Monroe did attend his funeral.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President May 1962Monroe returned to Hollywood to resume filming on an already troubled picture, Something's Got to Give. During this time, Monroe made her last significant public appearance in May 1962, singing Happy Birthday, Mr. President at a televised birthday party for President John F. Kennedy. After shooting what was claimed to have been the first ever nude scene by a major motion picture actress, Monroe's attendance became even more erratic due to illness.

Already in a financial strain due to production costs of Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Fox used Monroe's absences as an excuse to drop Monroe from the film, sue her, and then replace her. However, a clause in co-star Dean Martin's contract gave him approval over the film's leading lady. As he was unwilling to work with anyone else, Monroe was rehired for double her original salary.

Monroe conducted a lengthy interview with Life Magazine (in which she expressed how bitter she was about Hollywood labeling her as a dumb blonde and how much she loved her audience), did a photo shoot for Vogue, and began discussing a future film project with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. She was also planning to star in a biopic as Jean Harlow. Other projects being considered for her were What a Way to Go! and The Stripper.

Before the shooting of Something's Got to Give resumed, however, Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles home, on the morning of August 4, 1962. Her death, officially ruled to be a probable suicide by drug overdose, has since been found to contain instances of unprofessional handling of the investigation. The death of Marilyn Monroe has become the subject of many conspiracy theories, but these have done little to dent her iconic status as the archetypal sex symbol and movie star.

James Dougherty

Aged sixteen, Monroe married James Dougherty on June 19, 1942. In the books The Secret Happiness of Marilyn Monroe and To Norma Jeane With Love, Jimmie, Dougherty claimed that he and Monroe were in love and would have lived happily ever after had dreams of stardom not lured her away. Monroe, however, always maintained that the marriage was a marriage of convenience foisted upon them by her foster mother Grace Goddard. Marilyn divorced James Dougherty on September 13, 1946.

In the 2004 documentary Marilyn's Man, Dougherty made three significant claims: that it was he who had invented the "Marilyn Monroe" persona; that Fox had forced her to divorce him; and that she had always yearned to return to him. To date, however, no evidence to support these claims has been published, nor any evidence that Monroe and Dougherty remained in touch after their divorce. Monroe was reportedly furious when Dougherty gave an interview to the fan magazine Photoplay in 1953 and claimed that she had threatened to jump off the Santa Monica Pier if he ever left her. Later he later appeared as a contestant on the gameshow To Tell the Truth as "Marilyn Monroe's real first husband".

Dougherty's own actions did not support his claims of being Monroe's Svengali, nor her only true love. He remarried only a few months after Monroe divorced him; when informed of her death, the New York Times reported that he had simply said "I'm sorry" and continued his LAPD patrol; and he did not attend her funeral. In an interview for the A&E Network, Dougherty admitted that his mother had been approached by Grace Goddard and afterward had asked him if he'd be willing to marry Norma Jeane to prevent her from being sent to an orphanage.

James Dougherty remained married to his third wife until her death in 2003. He lived in Maine until his own death from complications due to leukemia on August 15, 2005.

Joe DiMaggio

In 1951 the baseball star Joe DiMaggio saw a picture of Monroe with two Chicago White Sox players, but waited until his retirement from baseball before asking the man who arranged the picture to set up a date. At first Monroe did not want to meet Dimaggio, fearing a stereotypical jock, but after a two-year courtship they eloped and married at San Francisco's City Hall on January 14, 1954. During the couple's honeymoon, Marilyn was asked to take a detour to Korea to entertain the troops. She performed ten shows over a four day tour in freezing temperatures. Her audience consisted of more than 100,000 soldiers and marines.

Unfortunately the marriage would quickly prove to be undermined by DiMaggio's jealousy over Monroe's overtly sexual image. Although they both claimed to want to settle down, Monroe wanted to perfect her acting skills. Friends claimed that Joe became possessive and controlling as Marilyn became more and more defiant of his wishes. After filming the notorious skirt-blowing scene in The Seven Year Itch, for example, director Billy Wilder recalled the "look of death" on DiMaggio's face as he watched alongside fans and extras as her panties were revealed over and over again. Marilyn's makeup man, Allan "Whitey" Snyder, also recalled that soon after the skirt scene, Marilyn appeared on set with bruises on her upper arms. Furthermore, DiMaggio's biographer Richard Ben Cramer claims that DiMaggio was so "disgusted" by Monroe's "sloppiness" that he began to abuse her. On October 27, 1954, 274 days after their marriage, Monroe was pressured by 20th Century Fox to obtain a divorce from DiMaggio on the grounds of mental cruelty. Strangely enough, on her 29th birthday, DiMaggio escorted Monroe to the opening of the movie that essentially ended their marriage.

Soon after her divorce from her third husband, Arthur Miller, Monroe returned to her self-destructive ways, falling in with people he felt detrimental to her (including Frank Sinatra and his "Rat Pack"). Rumors about Monroe's physical and mental health became widely publicized by newspapers and gossip columnists. Monroe's psychiatrist arranged for her to be admitted to the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic in Manhattan. Unable to voluntarily check herself out, Monroe called DiMaggio to rescue her. On February 10, 1961, DiMaggio secured Monroe's release (she was reportedly placed in the ward for the most seriously disturbed). She later joined him in Florida. Their "just good friends" claims did not stop rumors of remarriage and during the 1960 Academy Awards telecast entertainer Bob Hope even dedicated Best Song nominee The Second Time Around to them. According to DiMaggio biographer Maury Allen, on August 1, 1962 DiMaggio quit his job with a military post exchange (PX) to return to California and ask Monroe to remarry him.

Monroe was found dead on August 5, 1962 in her small Brentwood Home. One of the last people she spoke to hours before her death, was Joe DiMaggio's son, Joseph DiMaggio Jr. claimed Monroe was in a great mood, very up-beat and thrilled when he told her he had called off his engagement after a long troubled relationship. He was in disbelief when he learned Monroe had died hours later.

Monroe's half-sister Berniece Baker Miracle, allowed an inconsolable and grief-stricken DiMaggio to make all arrangements. Devastated, he claimed her body, and arranged her funeral. At DiMaggio's request, the public and Hollywood elite were denied entrance. DiMaggio said, "Tell them, if it wasn't for them, she'd still be here." He was reported by the New York Times to have knelt beside her casket whispering over and over, "I love you."

For more than twenty years, DiMaggio had a dozen red roses delivered to Monroe's crypt three times a week. Much to his annoyance, many of Monroe's fans stole the roses from her crypt, stained the pink marble with their lip prints, and turned her grave into a Hollywood attraction. Unlike her other two husbands, or the men who have claimed to know her intimately, he never talked about her publicly.

In the 1970's and '80s, DiMaggio was well known as a television pitchman for Mr. Coffee automatic coffeemakers. He never remarried. He died on March 8, 1999, a victim of cancer. His son, Joseph Jr, died a few months later.

Arthur Miller

On June 29, 1956, Monroe married the playwright Arthur Miller, whom she had first met in 1951, in a civil ceremony. A Jewish ceremony followed two days later, prior to which Monroe had converted to Judaism. After she had finished shooting The Prince and the Showgirl, Monroe and Miller returned to the States from England and discovered she was pregnant. However, Monroe suffered from endometriosis and the pregnancy was found to be ectopic, so it was aborted in order to save her life. A subsequent pregnancy ended in miscarriage.

By 1958, Monroe was the couple's main breadwinner. Not only did she pay alimony to Miller's first wife but Miller reportedly charged her production company for buying and shipping a Jaguar car to the United States. His script for the film The Misfits was meant to be a Valentine gift, but by the time filming started in 1960 their marriage was broken beyond repair. A Mexican divorce was granted on January 24, 1961 and on February 17 Miller married the German-born Inge Morath, one of the Magnum photographers recording the making of The Misfits.

In January 1964, Miller's After the Fall opened, featuring a beautiful, child-like, yet devouring shrew named Maggie. The similarities between Maggie and Marilyn did not go unnoticed by audiences and critics, many of which sympathized with the fact that Monroe could not defend herself to such a portrayal. Miller's last Broadway-bound work before his death, Finishing the Picture, was based on the making of The Misfits, Marilyn's last movie, and again painted a similar portrait of Monroe. Arthur Miller died on February 10, 2005 at the age of 89.

Death and aftermath

Monroe was found dead in the bedroom of her Brentwood, California home on August 5, 1962, by her live-in housekeeper Mrs. Eunice Murray. She was thirty-six. Her death was apparently caused by an overdose of barbiturates, although as with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, several theories have sprung up around the circumstances. Most try to make a case for murder due to her connection with the Kennedy family (John F. Kennedy in particular) and there has also been speculation about the relationship between Mrs. Murray, Monroe's psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson – who hired Mrs. Murray – and Monroe's personal publicist, Pat Newcomb, who joined the Kennedy administration a few months after Monroe's death. Suspicion also arises in the fact that up to 4 hours passed between the discovery of her body by her housekeeper, and the phone call to the Los Angeles Police Department. Murder theorists also point to the oddity that Monroe left behind no suicide note as well as the statements made by the first officer on the scene, Jack Clemmons that what he encountered that morning was, "unlike any other suicide scene". Adding to the fuel for conspiracy theorists is the fact that there was no tell-tale residue of swallowed pills in Monroe's throat, and the absence of a drinking glass or cup. Furthermore, important evidence seemed to mysteriously vanish, including the telephone company's record of Monroe's outgoing calls, and Monroe's internal organs from the morgue. Those who spoke with Monroe in the days prior to her death would describe an upbeat, optimistic Marilyn.

Marilyn's body being removed from the mortuary.DiMaggio planned Marilyn's funeral, and exclusively excluded all he deemed morally responsible for her death. Her long-time makeup man, Whitey Snyder, prepared her face for her last appearance, a promise he had made her if she were to go before him. She was put in her favorite green Emilio Pucci dress and held a small boquet of pink teacup roses. The service was held at the Westwood Memorial Park Chapel in Hollywood, and only 30 people were in attendance. Marilyn's acting coach, Lee Strasberg, delivered her eulogy, and Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow" played.

Monroe was interred in a pink marble crypt at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Los Angeles. This is the cemetery where her foster mother Grace Goddard's aunt was buried and where Monroe in turn had arranged for Grace to be buried.

Gladys, Monroe's biological mother, had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic and between periods in mental hospitals had married her last husband, John Stewart Eley. He died in 1952. In the early 1970s she walked out of a sanitorium and flew to Florida, where her daughter, Monroe's half-sister, Berniece Miracle met her at the airport. She died on March 11, 1984 at a Florida nursing home, refusing to the end to discuss either Norma Jeane or Marilyn Monroe.

Currently, (as of 2005) Monroe's half-sister Berniece Miracle and niece Mona Rae reside in Florida. She published a book in the 90's about her relationship with Monroe titled, "My Sister Marilyn".

A formal reinvestigation in 1982 by the Los Angeles County District Attorney uncovered no evidence of foul play in Monroe's death, but concluded that the original investigation into her death had not been conducted properly. The officers that arrived at her home had failed to secure the crime scene, people came and went about the house, possibly contaminating or destroying evidence. The reinvestigation also made known that all lab work, tissue samples, and test results from the Monroe autopsy disappeared from the LA County Cornoner's Office immediately after the official ruling had been made public in 1962. County coroner Dr Thomas Noguchi, who conducted the autopsy, claims that misplacement of samples has never happened in another case before or since. The autopsy report also suggests that Monroe's body may have been moved after death as lavidity had sat in different parts of her body at different times. In his memoir Coroner, he also states that it was "highly likely" that Monroe's death was suicide. He concedes, however, that no trace of the barbiturates Monroe purportedly took were found in her mouth, stomach or intestines. This has led some theorists to suggest that Monroe had been rendered unconscious (for instance via chloral hydrate) and the overdose administered by intravenous injection, or, more likely, by rectal suppository.

On August 5, 2005 the Los Angeles Times published an account of Monroe's death by former Los Angeles County prosecutor John W. Miner, who had been present at Monroe's autopsy. It also published his claim that notes he had taken from tapes supposedly recorded by Monroe for Dr. Greenson shortly before her death indicated that she was not suicidal. The tapes themselves, however, remain lost or destroyed, so there would seem to be no way to verify Miner's story.

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