Stunning Photos Of Marilyn Monroe
As far as moviegoers during the 1950s were concerned, Marilyn Monroe was a figure of supreme sensuality but also adorable, approachable ditziness. While that’s probably a reasonable way to describe many of her characters in the films she starred in, both she and her life were far more complex than that behind the scenes.
Although she was a more ambitious actress than people gave her credit for — especially towards the end of her life — it’s also true that the glamor of her Hollywood persona hid a heartbreaking web of personal demons and toxic interpersonal relationships in her private life. Even knowing that, however, doesn’t capture the extent of what there is to know about Marilyn Monroe.
Marilyn Monroe Wasn’t Even Close To Her Real Name
While modern professional actors may find they’ll have to slightly alter their names if another thespian is already using it, it was very common for the studios of Old Hollywood to change their actor’s names from whole cloth. The name Marilyn Monroe was a partial example of this phenomenon.
As we can see here, she looked a lot different from her Hollywood reinvention when she was a model during the 1940s. At the time, she used the last name of one of her husbands and went by Norma Jean Mortenson. Although “Marilyn” was a studio invention, “Monroe” was her mother’s maiden name.
Monroe Made A Dream Come True For Ella Fitzgerald
It’s hard to name a more revolutionary and skilled jazz singer than Ella Fitzgerald but while one would think that would make any club excited to book her, that wasn’t always the case. According to Snopes, the owner of the Los Angeles club Mocambo was reticent to book a true jazz singer and didn’t consider Fitzgerald glamorous enough for the club.
It’s often reported that this was due to Fitzgerald’s race but the club had previously featured Black artists. Regardless of the reason, Fitzgerald’s friend Marilyn Monroe was instrumental in convincing the club owner to book the jazz legend.
Monroe Converted To Judaism
It’s not the most well-known fact about her but when Monroe married famous playwright Arthur Miller in 1956, she also decided to adopt his faith. Although The Jewish Chronicle noted that Miller was often made to feel uncomfortable with his Jewish heritage when he was growing up, he had started to embrace it again by the time he married Monroe.
Monroe also didn’t convert at his behest. Instead, she did so on her own as a means of seeking a connection to his family that was absent from her own. She studied under Rabbi Robert E. Goldburg and while he noted that she found it difficult to concentrate for long periods at a time, she took his lessons and the texts he shared with her seriously.
Monroe Left Everything She Owned To Lee Strasberg
In 1955, Monroe had become more ambitious both in her dealings in Hollywood and in her craft. As such, she decided to enroll in legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg’s famous Actor’s Studio. While her time with him proved instructive, that was far from all that she got out of it.
In Strasberg, Monroe found the father figure she had been seeking all her life and essentially became an unofficial member of his family while also hiring his wife Paula (pictured) as her acting coach. Since Strasberg was only of the only people in the world she truly trusted, Vanity Fair reported that she willed all of her personal belongings to him before her passing in 1962.
Even Strasberg’s Storage Practices Showed His Mourning
According to Vanity Fair, Strasberg’s third wife Anna Mizrahi Strasberg inherited all of Monroe’s personal effects after his death in 1982. She would auction these items off, as she had no personal connection to Monroe, but Strasberg had kept them in storage for decades by that time.
In her will, Monroe had empowered Strasberg to “distribute these, in his sole discretion, among my friends, colleagues and those to whom I am devoted.” However, it seemed he couldn’t bring himself to part with them or be around these items, as he stored them in white coffin-shaped boxes.
This Moment Ended Very Badly For Monroe
One of the most famous moments in Marilyn Monroe’s life saw her stand over a subway grate as it blew up her skirt on September 15, 1954. This moment was part of Billy Wilder’s film The Seven Year Itch, but is one of the most oft-referenced moments that immediately comes to mind when people think of her.
Yet, while she appeared to be having fun while it was happening, she was subject to the rage of then-husband Joe Dimaggio later that night. While it’s unclear what exactly happened in their hotel room, E! News reported that the couple had a heated argument in the hotel’s lobby and when she showed up to set during the following day, she had bruises on her shoulders.
Tony Curtis Alleged That He Got Monroe Pregnant
According to The Guardian, Tony Curtis alleged in his memoirs that he and Monroe had an affair while filming Some Like It Hot together. This was kept secret as both were married at the time — Curtis to Janet Leigh and Monroe to Arthur Miller — but both admitted it to Miller.
However, Curtis was in for a surprise of his own during this meeting, as Monroe also revealed she was pregnant. Sadly, this pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage and Curtis would only learn this later because he was told to stay away from Monroe and Miller for the rest of filming.
Curtis Despised Their Scenes Together
While there may have been an intimate connection between Curtis and Monroe on Some Like It Hot, this was confounded by the frustrations he experienced during long shoots with her, as she was prone to forgetting her lines.
Although Curtis has since said he was taken out of context, he’s wavered a bit on what that context is. He told The Guardian that it was a sarcastic reply to a friend who asked a question he found dumb, but he’s also said on other occasions that it only felt that bad after about 40 takes.
Monroe Was Wracked By Anxiety While Filming Bus Stop
Although Monroe received unprecedented critical acclaim for her performance in the 1956 dramedy Bus Stop, she filmed the movie at a time of personal turmoil and vulnerability regarding her own acting talents. Although she was studying under the Strasbergs by this point, she worried about applying their lessons well.
As her co-star Don Murray told Closer Weekly, “She was very, very nervous. She’d break out in a rash every time we’d shoot a scene.” This meant that makeup artists had to work extra hard to ensure these rashes couldn’t be seen.
Monroe’s Trademark Voice Was Put On For A Reason
According to Vogue, Monroe’s sultry speaking style that is now remembered as one of her most iconic traits was not how she naturally talked. Yet, while it’s easy to assume that she affected it to complete her sensual mystique, that turned out to be a happy accident more than anything.
Monroe had a stutter as a child and a speech therapist advised her to overcome it by adopting a throaty speaking style. Although this worked for most of her career, her stutter returned while filming her final movie, Something’s Got To Give.
Monroe Had A Sad, Rough Childhood
Monroe’s personal life was often characterized by her search for a family, as she didn’t really have one when she grew up. According to Mental Floss, young Norma Jeane Baker had never met her father and her mother wasn’t considered fit to care for her due to her commitment to a psychiatric facility.
This meant that she spent her childhood and adolescence in foster care, state care, and in a transient capacity that saw her stay with various family friends. This continued until her first marriage.
Monroe’s First Marriage Was Arranged At 16
According to Mental Floss, Monroe (still known as Norma Jeane Baker at the time) was staying with the family of a friend named Grace Goddard when she was 15. However, when the family decided to move to West Virginia, Monroe found that she couldn’t come along with them.
Since her options were either to marry or to return to state care, the Goddard family hastily arranged her marriage with 20-year-old James Dougherty, the next door neighbor. As he later said, “I thought she was awful young but we talked and we got on pretty good.” They married 18 days after her 16th birthday.
Her Famous Presidential Dress Was Unbearably Tight
Monroe’s story has long linked her to the Kennedys in a way that’s shrouded in sordid mystery, and rumors abounded after a sultry performance that had her singing “Happy Birthday” to John F. Kennedy on May 19, 1962.
While the nature of her relationship with Kennedy and his brother Robert remains mysterious, Vogue could confirm that the dress she wore during this moment was so skintight that she had to be sewn into it. The dress set a record for highest price fetched for a single item of clothing when it sold at auction for $1.26 million in 1999.
Norma Jean Treated Marilyn Monroe As A Character
While it’s been established that Monroe’s signature voice was affected, she suggested at times that everything else about the Monroe that the public saw was too. Most tellingly, she tended to refer to this persona in the third person.
According to Mental Floss, Eli Wallach observed that Monroe could essentially turn this persona on and off like a switch, witnessing this during a walk with her down Broadway that suddenly saw them swarmed by fans. As she told him, “I just felt like being Marilyn for a minute.” She was also known to critique “Marilyn’s” performances in movies rather than her own.
Monroe Was Supposed To Star In Breakfast At Tiffany’s
As author Sam Wasson told ABC News, Monroe was Truman Capote’s first choice to play Holly Golightly in the film adaptation of his 1958 novella, Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Indeed, there are both fun-loving and troubled aspects of the character’s personality that make it easy to see why he had Monroe in mind.
However, Wasson said that Monroe turned down the part on the advice of Paula Strasberg. As the coach told Monroe, she didn’t think it would be a good idea for her to play a lady of the evening. In Wasson’s words, “That’s interesting in light of how we think of Holly, we don’t think of her as that risqué.”
