Norma Jean Mortenson or her more famous moniker, Marilyn Monroe is the subject of our May Golden Age star. She married for the first time when just a teenager to a merchant seaman named Jim Dougherty. He a former football captain and later merchant seaman during WWII Norma Jean and Jimmy then 20 began dating when she was just 15. They married a year later on her 16th birthday, which prevented her from going back to a foster home. Norma Jean for the record had to make the choice of marriage or the foster home she chose marriage. At first the couple were very much in love but Jim at sea most of the time left his wife alone back home where she worked packing and inspecting parachutes for Radioplane in Van Nuys California. Soon Mrs. Dougherty became sought after as a model and when Dougherty intimated that he wanted to start a family that was all Marilyn needed to hear as she went and received a quickie divorce in September of 1946 four years into their marriage while Dougherty was on the Yangtze River where he received his divorce papers. Interviewed after her death he said it was like “someone had kicked me in the stomach” Much later he revealed that he had destroyed hundreds of letters penned by his former wife a fortune lost as he later lamented.
Her films grossed over 200 million and when she died of the overdose on August 5, 1962, she was only 36 years old. Born June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles Norma Jean had a difficult childhood. With an iconic breathy voice, she enchanted movie audiences in comedic as well as dramas. Billy Wilder who directed her in Some Like it Hot in 1959 had much to say about the iconoclastic star and in a left-handed compliment he said: “She would be the greatest if she ran like a watch” most likely referring to her incessantly being late on the set and not showing up for shooting. Her erratic behavior caused her to be signed and then released from several contracts in her career.
After her divorce and successful modeling stint included in her resume she headed for Las Vegas where met Bill Pursel and as their friendship grew he noticed her growing popularity. Marilyn began to appear on magazine covers and because of that was invited to Hollywood for a screen test. She changed her name didn’t know how to spell Marilyn and bleached her hair blonde. However at first that was no panacea as the cutting room floor was where she first ended up until she met a more powerful agent by the name of Johnny Hyde who edged her in a small but important part in 1950’s The Asphalt Jungle starring Sterling Hayden. That same year she slipped into the Bette Davis iconic role All About Eve in the character of Claudia Caswell. Her new agent Johnny Hyde was more than 30 years Marilyn’s senior they became lovers but she spurned his numerous marriage proposals and after his death in 1950 Monroe focused strictly on her career and with roles in Love Nest, They Clash By Night and Don’t Bother to Knock her stardom began toward the heavens.
A threat however loomed as rumors surfaced that she had posed nude earlier in her life and her mother who she had declared dead in public was actually alive in an institution. Rather than hide from the truth Marilyn confessed that she had posed naked because she needed the money and had kept her mother’s whereabouts secret in order to protect her. The public loved the honesty and her photos and her career continued it’s meteoric rise.
Along came 1952 wherein she meets the famous baseball icon Joe DiMaggio who had retired from the Yankees the year before. Higher profile movies ensued Niagara and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1953 but unhappy about the roles she was being offered when ordered to report for her next role she fled to San Francisco to marry Joe and was suspended only to have it lifted as her commodity was just too hot and she reeled off There’s No Business Like Show Business and The Seven Year Itch in 1954. The latter ended her marriage with DiMaggio as when filming a promo for the film over a subway grating in New York City Marilyn’s skirt was lifted over her head by an underneath fan and the widely circulated images left little to the imagination that she was not a true blonde. Enraged back at the hotel alleged violence between the two had Marilyn filing for divorce within days of that argument.
1955 was a year was a turning point for Marilyn as she began a more introspective period. She moved to New York, set up her own production company, took up acting lessons and even began seeing a psychiatrist. She consulted actors on the Broadway stage and began dating playwright Arthur Miller. They married in 1956. If she had only stayed this course her life might have been a different one.
When the Egghead and the Hourglass as the media had dubbed them arrived in London to film The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier the shine came off the apple as Marilyn discovered in Miller’s notebook that he was unhappy with his new wife. Back in New York and several miscarriages later the spiral down began. The first in 1957 and then the second during the ultra successful Some Like it Hot in 1959 with former lover from 10 years prior Tony Curtis. In 1960 Miller had penned her part in the Misfits opposite Clark Gable. It seemed too raw and too personal and by the time of its release she was finished with her third marriage. To add more pain Gable’s wife who had died within days of the movies release blamed Monroe for her husbands Clark Gable’s death.
Depressed Marilyn checked in to a hospital for a “rest” only to discover that it was a mental hospital for extremely disturbed patients. The man that still loved her Joe DiMaggio came to her rescue as no one else did. Joe had a short fuse and threatened to take Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic down brick by brick if she wasn’t released into his care and due to his stardom and his anger the institution relented. Back together and the relationship somewhat rekindled in Florida they attended baseball games where Joe was batting coach for the Yankees. Joe wanted to marry her again but that was not to be. DiMaggio indeed had come to her emotional rescue but Marilyn was hell bent on self-destruction as she began to hang out with a crowd Joe deemed unsuitable. When Marilyn died Joe D took charge claimed her body and arranged her funeral barring the Hollywood elite. DiMaggio after her death arranged a 20-year order placing half dozen roses on her grave three times a week.
The headlines in the now defunct New York Mirror on August 6, 1962 read: Marilyn Monroe Kills Self then in a smaller font: Found Nude in bed…Hand On Phone…Took 40 Pills. In addition to the toxicology report many people then and to this day believe she was murdered. Some speculate the Kennedy’s had her killed as her affair with both John and Bobby Kennedy was known in close circles and if it became widely known might have destroyed JFK’s reelection chances. After her breathy Happy Birthday Mr. President spectacle to JFK on May 19th months before her death conspiracy theorists speculate may have been the deciding factor for the Kennedy’s to act.
Marilyn may have been one of the most underrated actresses Hollywood has ever produced but her mental state, lack of confidence, pre performance anxiety and lack of guile (some say) left her ill equipped to handle her stardom. It was no secret she lacked the tenacity and strength of will the likes of Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn possessed to succeed as those women did. Although fans did not adore those women as Marilyn was adored and were not sex symbols. The men in her life proved weak and lily livered as well and aside from DiMaggio who had no Hollywood clout there were no guiding hands here either. Chauvinism aside Marilyn Monroe needed in her case a strong man especially during the 50’s and early 60’s as women’s liberation had not emerged as yet.
An interesting bit of folklore that Marilyn lent some credence to was that Clark Gable was her father but no proof could be made that Gable had ever even met her mother Gladys who would as mentioned earlier was mentally hospitalized. The young Norma Jean had early recollections of being smothered by a pillow by her mother in her crib. Monroe also had a half-sister, which she met several times. Adopted and then sent back to a foster home she was raped at 11 and it was no wonder she opted for marriage as mentioned earlier to Jim Dougherty. When Marilyn dreamed of being a star her idols were the first bombshell Jean Harlow and Lana Turner.
Buried in her favorite dress designed by Emilio Pucci her casket was the most expensive of its kind lined with champagne colored silk and heavy gauge bronze. Lee Stasberg famed acting coach gave her eulogy and only close friends attended the funeral. Interviewers asked her what perfume she wore to bed? She answered Chanel No. 5. Some of her famous liaisons included Frank Sinatra, Elia Kazan, Yves Montand and Marlon Brando. A famous quote had her saying when she thought of Hollywood. “If I close my eyes and think of Hollywood, all I see is one big varicose vein”. Another factoid of note was that Joe DiMaggio’s son claimed that his father when he spoke to her the night of her death said that she was in good spirits. That piece of information doesn’t necessarily confirm Marilyn was murdered because some people that do decide to commit suicide are actually in a better state of mind and can be relaxed, upbeat and normal. Norma Jean will forever be immortalized and continue to be misunderstood more than a half-century after her passing. Perhaps we will never know what happened that fateful night of August 5, 1962.
