The Girl Page 22

  Marilyn is seen here with her Seven Year Itch costar, Tom Ewell. Ewell played the part of Richard Sherman on Broadway as well as in the film, and it became his most famous role.

  One of the funniest scenes in The Seven Year Itch comes when Richard Sherman (Ewell) imagines seducing The Girl (Monroe) to the sounds of classical music. In reality, they accidentally fall from the piano bench during a rousing chorus of “Chopsticks.” David Wills Collection.

  The stairs in The Seven Year Itch play a pivotal role when The Girl (Monroe) takes up the floor of her apartment to gain access to Richard Sherman’s home downstairs. “We can do this all summer!” she says. Courtesy Photofest.

  Billy Wilder found working with Marilyn on The Seven Year Itch to be a challenging experience. However, despite the stress, he recognized her talent and directed her again in 1959’s Some Like It Hot. Courtesy Photofest.

  October 1954: Marilyn appears at the Santa Monica Courthouse to obtain a divorce from Joe DiMaggio.

  To the outside world, Marilyn and Joe DiMaggio were the ideal couple. However, while he was a genuine and faithful friend, he could be a controlling husband. The pair separated, though remained friends until Marilyn’s death. They are seen here at the premiere of The Seven Year Itch in June 1955. Courtesy Photofest.

  Drama coach Natasha Lytess tried to control Marilyn’s life on and off set. The actress dropped her after the making of The Seven Year Itch and a bitter Lytess never forgave her. Courtesy Everett Collection.

  Marilyn saw her New York years as an adventure. Her arrival at the famed Actors Studio was met with scorn from some of her fellow students, but when she performed a scene in class, they gave her a round of applause.

  Despite rumors to the contrary, Marilyn was not a dumb blonde. Her book collection was extensive, her taste varied and often highbrow. Here she is seen reading at home during her early career. Courtesy Photofest.

  British poet Dame Edith Sitwell became a staunch supporter of Marilyn, and the two met on several occasions. Sitwell thought that Monroe was a true lady who had been unnecessarily persecuted as a result of her nude calendar photos.

  Reporter and society hostess Elsa Maxwell adored Marilyn and thought she had great talent. “She had the courage to challenge the big movie moguls,” Maxwell said. “She has the ambition to want to know and work with fine artists.” Courtesy Photofest.

  Over the years, Marilyn was photographed with many animals, including monkeys, birds, wild cats, and—seen here at a 1955 charity event—an elephant. Her philosophy on her affinity for animals was simple: “Dogs never bite me,” she said. “Just humans.”

  The premiere of The Rose Tattoo was held in New York on December 12, 1955. That evening, Marilyn was interviewed about her plans for the future, including her hopes of acting onstage. David Wills Collection.

  Marilyn, Bus Stop director Joshua Logan, and costar Don Murray. Murray would go on to be nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Bo, but Marilyn was, shockingly, overlooked. Courtesy Photofest.

  Happy times with business partner Milton Greene and Warner Bros. executive Jack Warner. They had just agreed to a distribution deal for The Prince and the Showgirl, which was to be made under the banner of Marilyn Monroe Productions. Courtesy Everett Collection.

  The 1956 press conference for The Prince and the Showgirl caused a sensation. Marilyn stole the show when her dress strap broke, while Laurence Olivier seemed out of his depth and somewhat aloof. Courtesy Photofest.

  Marilyn’s arrival in London in July 1956 caused a frenzy. She is seen here with new husband Arthur Miller, who eventually drove a wedge between his wife and her business partner, Milton Greene. Courtesy Photofest.

  While Marilyn made few friends in England, she did become close with Oscar-winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff. Here, they are seen between takes on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl. Courtesy Photofest.

  Marilyn was thrilled to work with Laurence Olivier, but the decision for him to direct as well as act in The Prince and the Showgirl proved to be traumatic. The British actor had no time for Method acting, and by the end of production the stars were barely speaking to each other. Courtesy Photofest.

  Marilyn’s image was used as inspiration for many businesses during the 1950s. Here, a group of young women take part in a look-alike competition in Hastings, England. Mirrorpix/Courtesy Everett Collection.

  Marilyn and Montgomery Clift in her last finished film, The Misfits. They had great respect for each other, and Clift described Marilyn as “the most gifted actress on the American screen.” Courtesy Photofest.

  Marilyn on the set of her last, unfinished movie, Something’s Got to Give. Despite any problems in her private life, she never stopped studying and striving to better herself. David Wills Collection.

  Acknowledgments

  I COULD NOT HAVE written this book without the support of some truly wonderful people:

  Bill Pursel, Christina Rice, Virginia Nicholson, Gabriella Apicella, Maureen Brown, Naomi Pieris, Huston Huddleston, Dr. L. Ruddick, Suzanne Sumner Ferry, Yessenia Santos, Sandi Silbert, Kathleen Felesina, Ian Bevans, Jay Kanter, Joseph Lionetti, Emily Wittenberg, the late John Hazell, Lucy Vance Seligson, David Sandrich, Cathy Sandrich Gelfond, Tim Linehan, Peter Fonagy, and Chido Muchemwa have all been extremely gracious in providing support, information, or both. Barbara Bair from the Library of Congress went above and beyond to help me with my research, and I am eternally grateful.

  To Suzie Kennedy, Susan Griffiths, Andrea Pryke, Tara Hanks, Linda Kerridge, and those people who contributed memories anonymously, I’m so very grateful for your candor, honesty, bravery, and, of course, your stories. Thanks also to my friends and readers for the constant encouragement shown toward me and my books, and to Marilyn’s fans for keeping her unique light burning.

  A HUGE thank you must go to my editor, Cindy De La Hoz, for bringing this project to me and for helping it to grow. Cindy, I sincerely hope that we work on many more projects together! I’d also like to thank Amber Morris, Susan VanHecke, and everyone at Running Press for supporting this book, as well as my agent, Robert Smith, and his personal assistant, Gemma Quinn.

  A big hug and thank you must go to Mum, Dad, Paul, Wendy, and Angelina, who have supported my writing career since day one. I love you all very much! And to my husband, Richard, and daughter, Daisy: Thank you for the laughs, hugs, and support. I love you to the moon and back. I’d like to add that I’m especially proud and grateful to Daisy for supplying me with her thoughts on how Marilyn is inspiring her generation.

  To anyone I may have mistakenly missed, I’m so sorry for the oversight, but thank you too. x

  APPENDIX

  A Woman of Culture

  FOR THE BENEFIT OF fans who wish to find out more about Marilyn’s literary and philosophical tastes, the following is a list of works and people mentioned in this book that she read, studied, performed, admired, or listened to.

  Books, Poems, and Plays

  A Hatful of Rain by Michael Gazzo

  A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

  A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller

  Abraham Lincoln by Carl Sandburg

  An Actor Prepares by Konstantin Stanislavski

  Anna Christie by Eugene O’Neill

  The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde

  Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell: Their Correspondence by Bernard Shaw

  The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  Building a Character by Konstantin Stanislavski

  Bus Stop by William Inge

  Captain Newman, M.D. by Leo Rosten

  The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht

  The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov

  Damn Yankees by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop

  Dance to the Piper by Agnes de Mille

  Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

  The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett (based on the book by Anne Frank)

&nbs
p; Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen

  Fallen Angels by Noël Coward

  Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Focus by Arthur Miller

  Gertrude Lawrence as Mrs. A. by Richard Stoddard Aldrich

  Golden Boy by Clifford Odets

  Hamlet by William Shakespeare

  House of Flowers by Harold Arlen and Truman Capote

  King Lear by William Shakespeare

  Lysistrata by Aristophanes

  Macbeth by William Shakespeare

  Maiden Voyage by Paul Osborn

  Middle of the Night by Paddy Chayefsky

  “Never Give All the Heart” by William Butler Yeats

  Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

  Rain by Somerset Maugham

  Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

  The Seagull by Anton Chekhov

  The Seven Year Itch by George Axelrod

  The Sleeping Prince by Terence Rattigan

  The Smiling Rebel by Harnett T. Kane

  The Teahouse of the August Moon by John Patrick

  The Thinking Body by Mabel Elsworth Todd

  Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov

  To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

  To the Actor: On the Technique of Acting by Michael Chekhov

  Ulysses by James Joyce

  Untitled biography of Albert Schweitzer

  Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? by George Axelrod

  Actors, Writers, Philosophers, Philanthropists, and Scientists

  Albert Einstein

  Aldous Huxley

  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

  Bertha Spafford Vester

  Carl Sandburg

  Carson McCullers

  Dame Edith Sitwell

  Eleonora Duse

  Fleur Cowles

  Franz Kafka

  Greta Garbo

  Harold Clurman

  Henrik Ibsen

  Karen Blixen

  Leo Tolstoy

  Marie Dressler

  Robert Frost

  Rudolf Steiner

  Seán O’Casey

  Sigmund Freud

  Somerset Maugham

  Thomas Jefferson

  Thomas Mann

  Thomas Wolfe

  Truman Capote

  Walt Whitman

  Musicians and Composers

  Earl Bostic

  Ella Fitzgerald

  Frank Sinatra

  Jelly Roll Morton

  Louis Armstrong

  Ludwig van Beethoven

  Ottorino Respighi

  Tomaso Albinoni

  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  Artists and Sculptors

  Auguste Rodin

  Edgar Degas

  Édouard Manet

  Francisco José de Goya

  Honoré Daumier

  Michelangelo

  Pablo Picasso

  Paul Cézanne

  Selected Bibliography

  Arnold, Eve. Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1987.

  Axelrod, George. The Seven Year Itch. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1980.

  Banner, Lois and Mark Anderson. MM—Personal: From the Private Archive of Marilyn Monroe. New York: Abrams, 2011.

  Buchthal, Stanley and Bernard Comment. Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters by Marilyn Monroe. London: HarperCollins, 2010.

  Bus Stop: The Story of the Twentieth Century-Fox Film Starring Marilyn Monroe. London: Charles Buchan’s, 1956.

  Carpozi, George Jr. Marilyn Monroe: Her Own Story. New York: Belmont Books, 1961.

  Christie’s Auction House. The Personal Property of Marilyn Monroe. New York: Christie’s, 1999.

  Cohen, Lola, ed. The Lee Strasberg Notes. New York: Routledge, 2010.

  Cowles, Fleur. Friends and Memories. London: Jonathan Cape, 1975.

  De La Hoz, Cindy. Marilyn Monroe: Platinum Fox. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2007.

  Franse, Astrid and Michelle Morgan. Before Marilyn: The Blue Book Modeling Years. Stroud, UK: History Press, 2015.

  Greene, Joshua. Milton’s Marilyn. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1998.

  Guiles, Fred Lawrence. Legend: The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe. Lanham, MD: Scarborough House, 1992.

  Harris, Radie. Radie’s World. London: W. H. Allen, 1975.

  Haspiel, James. Marilyn: The Ultimate Look at the Legend. London: Smith Gryphon, 1991.

  Hedren, Tippi. Tippi: A Memoir. New York: William Morrow, 2016.

  Hethmon, Robert H., ed. Strasberg at the Actors Studio: Tape-Recorded Sessions. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2003.

  Julien’s. Marilyn. Catalogs for November 17–19, 2016, auction, four volumes. Los Angeles: Julien’s.

  Kazan, Elia. Elia Kazan: A Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988.

  Kobal, John. People Will Talk. London: Aurum Press, 1986.

  LaBrasca, Bob. Marilyn: Fifty-Five. London: Bloomsbury, 1990.

  Leaming, Barbara. Marilyn Monroe. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998.

  Logan, Joshua. Movie Stars, Real People, and Me. New York: Delacorte, 1978.

  Miller, Arthur. Timebends: A Life. London: Minerva, 1990.

  Monroe, Marilyn with Ben Hecht. My Story. New York: Taylor Trade, 2007.

  Morgan, Michelle. Marilyn Monroe: Private and Confidential. New York: Skyhorse, 2012.

  Murray, Christopher. Sean O’Casey: A Biography. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2004.

  Nicholson, Virginia. Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes. London: Penguin Random House, 2016.

  Olivier, Laurence. On Acting. Kent, UK: Hodder and Stoughton, 1987.

  Rattigan, Terence. The Sleeping Prince: An Occasional Fairy Tale. London: Samuel French, 1956.

  Riese, Randall and Neal Hitchins. The Unabridged Marilyn: Her Life from A to Z. London: Corgi, 1988.

  Rosten, Norman. Marilyn: A Very Personal Story. London: Millington, 1974.

  Shaw, Sam. Marilyn Monroe in the Camera Eye. London: Hamlyn, 1979.

  . Marilyn: The New York Years. Berlin: Lardon Media, 2004.

  . Marilyn Monroe as The Girl. New York: Ballantine Books, 1955.

  Shaw, Sam and Norman Rosten. Marilyn Among Friends. London: Bloomsbury, 1987.

  Spoto, Donald. Marilyn Monroe: The Biography. London: Chatto and Windus, 1993.

  Steinem, Gloria and George Barris. Marilyn: Norma Jeane. London: Victor Gollancz, 1987.

  Strasberg, Anna and Bernard Comment. Marilyn Monroe: Girl Waiting. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 2012.

  Strasberg, Susan. Marilyn and Me: Sisters, Rivals, Friends. London: Doubleday, 1992.

  VeVea, April. Marilyn Monroe: A Day in the Life. CreateSpace, 2016.

  Victor, Adam. The Complete Marilyn Monroe. London: Thames and Hudson, 1999.

  Vitacco-Robles, Gary. Icon: The Life, Times, and Films of Marilyn Monroe: Volume 1, 1926 to 1956. Albany, GA: BearManor Media, 2014.

  . Icon: The Life, Times, and Films of Marilyn Monroe: Volume 2, 1956 to 1962 and Beyond. Albany, GA: BearManor Media, 2014.

  Wagenknecht, Edward. Marilyn Monroe: A Composite View. Philadelphia: Chilton, 1969.

  Wallach, Eli. The Good, the Bad, and Me: In My Anecdotage. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Books, 2005.

  Zolotow, Maurice. Marilyn Monroe. London: W. H. Allen, 1961.

  Source Notes

  Preface: Rebellious Starlet

  “Oh, I don’t think so.” “Cheesecake Hasn’t Hurt Acting Career Says Starlet,” Newport Daily News, November 19, 1951.

  “I was broke and needed the money.” “Marilyn Monroe Nude Pose Paid Rent,” Long Beach Independent, March 14, 1952.

  “If anything, the busty, blond bombshell.” Gerry Fitz-Gerald, “Will Nude Art Hurt? Marilyn Monroe Asks,” Stars and Stripes, May 21, 1952.

  “No! I’m for her.” Earl Wilson, “That High-Collar Girl, She’s Hildegarde Neff,” Winona (MN) Republican-Herald, October 17, 1953.

  Phil Max arrest. “Marilyn Monroe Pix Brings Cops,” Times-Bulletin, February 20, 1953; “Showing Marilyn Monroe Picture Brings Tr
ouble,” Odessa (TX) American, February 20, 1953; “Nude Calendar Display Results in Fine of $50,” Oil City (PA) Blizzard, February 26, 1953; “A Postcard from Stan Delaplane,” Reno Evening Gazette, May 1, 1957.

  “I didn’t think there was anything wrong.” “Marilyn Monroe Gets Publicity, He Gets Fined,” Bakersfield Californian, February 23, 1953.

  “[Marilyn’s] going through the same.” Erskine Johnson, “Jane Russell Knows Answer to Marilyn Monroe’s Problem,” Sunday Tribune, March 29, 1953.

  Information on Pink Tights. Screenland, May 1954; Twentieth Century Fox Dynamo, December 1953; Film Bulletin, November 2, 1953; Film Bulletin, November 30, 1954.

  “I liked his seriousness.” Aline Mosby column, Ames (IA) Daily Tribune, January 15, 1954.

  Wedding to Joe DiMaggio. “Marilyn Monroe Marries,” Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, January 15, 1954; “400 See Marilyn Monroe Married,” Northern Whig, January 15, 1954.

  “Miss Monroe has authorized me.” “Marilyn Refuses Script,” Aberdeen Evening Press, January 26, 1954.

  “My only interest is Joe.” “I Don’t Like the Script, Says Marilyn,” Yorkshire Evening Post, January 30, 1954.

  “Too many kids know.” Jack Wade, “The Two Worlds of Marilyn Monroe,” Modern Screen, November 1954.

  “Marilyn was very likeable.” Interview with Bob Cornthwaite, March 11, 2006. Published in Michelle Morgan’s Marilyn Monroe: Private and Undisclosed (London: Constable and Robinson, 2007).