Happy Friday!
I'm back home after two fantastic weeks in Italy and hope that you enjoyed your time as well. My #1 bucket list item was accomplished – Florence was beautiful and I saw the authentic (and the replica) of Michelangelo's David. The EUNOS meeting in Milan was excellent. I'm ready to go back!
Today's topic was (emphatically) suggested to me months ago by our esteemed colleague, Prof. Lou DellOsso, who declined the opportunity to be the guest writer for it. Marilyn Monroe was born 100 years ago on June 1, 2026. (As I was away that week, this is a belated tribute.) I'll give you the general story of her life and end with some "fun" facts about her. (PS, to make up for the past 2 weeks, it's a little longer than usual.)
Born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles, she had a troubled childhood. Her mother, Gladys, was from a poor Mexican family that migrated to California in in the early 1900s. She married an abusive man, had two children with him, filed for divorce, then her husband kidnapped the children and moved with them to Kentucky. Gladys met Martin Mortensen but they were only together for a few months. He is named as Marilyn Monroe's father (misspelled as Mortenson) on her birth certificate, but Gladys and Martin were separated long before Gladys was pregnant. The true father was Gladys' boss at RKO Studies, the result of an affair in 1925 – this was later confirmed by DNA testing on one of his descendants.
Gladys was mentally and financially unable to care for her, so Marilyn was placed in foster care. Gladys had intermittent contact with Marilyn for a few years, then bought a house in Hollywood and moved Marilyn with her in 1933, sharing the house with boarders. Gladys had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, spending the rest of her life in mental hospitals. Marilyn became a ward of the state and lived with the boarders, possibly experiencing sexual abuse. She ended up in the Los Angeles Orphan Home, was taken home by Gladys' friend Grace in 1937 but Grace's husband molested her. She lived with various friends and relatives after that. These early experiences first made her want to be an actress and she was "movie-struck" in junior high, sometimes seeing films three or four times.
Her tumultuous childhood continued and she ended up marrying a 21-year-old neighbor, James Dougherty, just after her 16th birthday to avoid being sent back to an orphanage. Dougherty shipped out with the Merchant Marines during the war in April 1944, and Marilyn worked at a munitions factory to boost the war effort, where she was discovered by a photographer. She lived with Dougherty's parents while he was overseas and started modeling, to their extreme disapproval. She did "pin up" modeling and became a blonde. Her hard work landed her on 33 magazine covers by early 1946.
She began acting in 1946 and Ben Lyon, a 20th Century Fox executive, helped her select the stage name of Marilyn Monroe – Monroe was her mother's maiden name. She and Dougherty divorced in 1946. She learned singing, acting and dancing by observation on the set, reading, and in acting school while continuing to model. Her entrée into film was doing bit parts, and she finally made it big in the early 1950s, generally typecast as a "sexy ornament" in comedies. Despite the criticism, she was popular with audiences. Her romance with retired NY Yankees baseball star Joe DiMaggio began in 1952. She wanted to become a more serious actress, worked hard, and took acting classes but was still cast as a "dumb blonde" with a reputation of being difficult to work with. Known as a perfectionist, she frequently demanded that scenes be re-taken numerous times before she was satisfied. During filming, she was often late or didn't show up at all. Sadly, she started using barbiturates, amphetamines and alcohol to ease her anxiety and chronic insomnia at this time.
Her first major film role was in Niagara in 1953 - the New York Times review said that "the Falls and Miss Monroe are something to see". Known for her "look", her revealing outfits were quite scandalous at the time. Her second film of 1953 was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, where she sang "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend". The third was How to Marry a Millionaire, a big box office success.
Monroe and DiMaggio were married in January 1954 at City Hall. She starred in the musical There's No Business Like Show Business, then starred in The Seven Year Itch. Her marriage to DiMaggio only lasted 9 months although they remained friends. She moved to Manhattan, studied acting, briefly dated Marlon Brando and had an affair with playwright Arthur Miller, who she married in June 1956, subsequently converting to Judaism. She starred in Bus Stop which earned her accolades for serious acting. She acted in Some Like it Hot with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in 1958, a legendary experience because she demanded numerous retakes, couldn't remember her lines or act as directed and referred to the production as a "sinking ship". Nonetheless, she earned a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy that year.
Over the next several years, she struggled with Miller (who tended to make last minute changes to the script), had health problems (gallstones) and could barely stay awake because of drug addiction that required detox. Monroe and Miller divorced in 1961. She was hospitalized for depression and subsequently dated Frank Sinatra for a few months. She started acting again (Something's Got to Give) but illness postponed production. She took a break in May 1962 to sing a sexy version of "Happy Birthday Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden wearing a skintight beige dress covered with rhinestones that made her look nude. She swam naked in a pool in Something's Got to Give, being the first major star posing nude at the height of their career.
On August 5, 1962, Monroe's housekeeper found her dead in bed holding a telephone receiver at 3:00 AM; she died sometime between 8:30 PM and 10:30 PM on August 4 with empty pill bottles at her bedside. Her last recorded words, which were slurred, were on the phone with Peter Lawford. The postmortem toxicology report showed acute barbiturate poisoning, with pentobarbital and chloral hydrate in her blood that were several times the lethal limit. She was 35 years old.
Other tidbits:
- Marilyn's natural hair was reddish-brown and curly. She bleached it blonde to start modeling.
- She was shy and had severe stage fright.
- Her trademark "look" with dark arched brows, pale skin, "glistening" red lips and a beauty mark was developed by Monroe with her make-up artist Allan "Whitey" Snyder in 1953.
- To promote The Seven Year Itch, the studio brought her to New York to film the famous scene of her standing on a subway grate with the air blowing the skirt of her white dress on Lexington Avenue. This attracted a crowd of almost 2,000 onlookers.
- She started her own production company – Marilyn Monroe Productions – in 1954.
- She legally changed her name to Marilyn Monroe in 1956.
- She was pregnant at least 3 times and lost all 3 pregnancies, possibly due to endometriosis (2 miscarriages and one ectopic pregnancy).
- Jean Harlow was her childhood idol, and she was influenced by Mae West.
- She wasn't dumb– she was smart and tough and created the persona as a crafted act. Off stage she was Norma Jean.
- She admired Abraham Lincoln and was passionate about civil rights.
- So much more but it's time to stop. (I hope I did you proud, Lou!)
There you have it – cheers to an American icon. Have a good weekend!
Deb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfsnebJd-BI&t=57s