Marilyn Monroe had a glamorous and exciting existance,
but Norma Jeane had a lonely, tragic life.
There are many opinions
about the details of her life
and many questions surrounding her death.
I don't know the truthful answers.
In this brief history, compiled
from many sources,
I try to present the indisputable facts
without any
editorial comments.
You must form your own opinions based on your own judgement.
Marilyn Monroe was born at 9:30 AM on June 1st, 1926,
in the Los
Angeles General Hospital
registered under the name of
Norma Jeane Mortenson.
Her mother, Gladys Monroe,
gave her to a foster family
where
she lived until she was 7.
Then her mother,
following her grandfather's
suicide,
reclaimed her and brought her back.
Soon thereafter her
mother's friend,
Grace McKee,
had Gladys declared insane
and commited
to a psychiatric hospital,
and took custody of Norma Jeane.
Then
Grace met Ervin Silliman Goddard
and married him.
Goddard brought
one of his 3 daughters
back to live with them,
and then Grace sent Norma
Jeane away
at the age of 9
to the Los Angeles Orphans Home
where
she became occupant number 3463
for several years.
Two years later
Grace brought Norma Jeane home
but Goddard tried to molest her, and so she
went
to live with her mother's brother's mother, Olive Brunings.
Just after Norma Jeane's 12th birthday
she was assaulted by one of Olive's
sons
and went to live with Grace McKee's aunt, Ana Lower.
Several
years later Ana developed health problems
and Norma Jeane went back to the
Goddards
where she met a neighbor's son, Jim Dougherty.
Right after
her 16th birthday, Norma Jeane married him.
In 1944 Jim was called to military
service
and she went to live with her mother-in-law.
Norma Jeane
got a job at an airplane factory.
The Army sent a photographer
(David
Connover)
to take pictures
of women helping with the war effort.
The photographer was impressed by Norma Jeane
and suggested she apply
for a modeling position
at the Blue Book model agency.
By 1946
she was on 33 magazine covers
and was posing for top photographers.
Grace McKee arranged a divorce for her.
In July 1946 Norma Jeane did
a screen test at
Twentieth-Century Fox and got a contract
which she
signed using the name Marilyn Monroe.
She got a role in Scudda-Hoo!
Scudda-Hay! and
her only words were 'Hi Rad!' he alszo got a bit part
in
Dangerous Years.
Twentieth-Century Fox did not renew
her contract in 1947.
She then got a contract with Columbia
but
didn't get any parts.
Then she had an affair with Johnny Hyde, executive
vice-president of the William Morris Agency, and
he got her a cameo
in the Marx Brothers movie
Love Happy and small roles in The
Asphalt Jungle
and All About Eve.
When Hyde died
in 1950, Marilyn went to Famous Artists
who soon got her a seven-year contract
with Fox.
By the end of 1951 Marilyn was receiving 2000 - 3000 fan
mail letters per week and because of her popularity
the studio gave her the
starring role in Don't Bother To Knock
and Monkey Business.
In 1952 she began an affair with baseball great Joe diMaggio.
In June she got a co-star role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
On January 14th, 1954 she married Joe diMaggio in San Fransisco.
After their honeymoon Marilyn started work on The Seven Year Itch
but she was frequently late and unproductive on the set.
She also had
problems with her marriage and got divorced
on October 27th, 1954.
At Christmas, Marilyn moved into a New York City apartment
and enrolled at
Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio.
She also began her relationship with
playwright Arthur Miller
around this time.
On June 1st, 1955 The
Seven Year Itch premiered
and became the biggest movie of the summer.
On June 29th, 1956 she married Arthur Miller
On July 1st, 1956
they had another, Jewish, wedding ceremony.
Then they went to England, where
she began work on
Marilyn Monroe Productions' first independant movie,
The Prince and the Showgirl.
Marilyn went back to Hollywood
to work on the movie
Bus Stop.
Marilyn had more problems
on the movie set and was taking
large doses of sleeping pills.
After Bus Stop she started work on the movie
Some Like It Hot
and although her problems
continued, she did finish it, and it became
the biggest hit of 1959.
In July of 1960 Marilyn went to Nevada to film
The Misfits.
The movie was a disappointment and Marilyn was depressed.
On January 20th, 1961, the day of President Kennedy's inauguration,
she divorced Arthur Miller.
Marilyn's therapist had her commited
to the New York Hospital
for several days. Marilyn smuggled a note out to
Joe diMaggio
who came from Florida the next evening and got her released.
She was with him again until April 1961, when she returned to
Los
Angeles to start work on the movie Something's Got To Give
but after
the first day she stayed at home sick in bed.
On May 19th, 1961, she
went to Madison Square Garden and sang
Happy Birthday, Mr. President to President
Kennedy, and then
went back to L.A. and the movie set. She almost overdosed
on drugs
and Joe diMaggio came to her rescue again.
They decided
to remarry and set the date for August 8th, 1962
but on the evening of August
4th, Marilyn died.
There was no suicide note, and she was found naked
in bed
with no signs of violence, according to the police investigation.
Although there are many different rumors and conspiracy theories
surrounding her death, they are all unproved, and we can only guess
or believe
whatever we want to believe about it.
All we can agree on, probably,
is that Marilyn was a very beautiful and
talented woman who found fame and
fortune but was unsatisfied with
her life, and died tragically. |
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