Good day Inky Buds, I hope you are enjoying the start of the new month! Hard to believe it's already February, isn't it? Well anyways, this topic is going to be another topic in history. It's not going to be about a widely loved holiday that is shrouded in lies, or the cultivation of the horror genre. Today's article is going to be about a woman.
This woman is Norma Jeane Mortenson, more commonly known as Marilyn Monroe. She was a popular actress in the 1950's, and a major sex symbol during the time as well. A sex symbol is a famous person, especially an actor or a singer, who is considered by many people to be sexually attractive. She was also known for feeding into the "dumb blonde" role. Many of her characters were ditzy, bubbly attractive women with a knack for flirting, which also happened to be blonde. The funny thing is, her original hair was auburn in color, until she dyed it. I admire her as a person because she was very determined, she was humble, and she advocated for woman's rights.
I hope that my readers will learn a bit more about this fantastic woman and can peek behind the figurative curtain and see beyond the glamour of this icon. We often forget that celebrities are people too. We look at them like these "perfect" idols who can do no wrong and are higher than "normal" people. We all are born the same way, and of course, we take different. We must remember that celebrities started out just like us and they are human too. They make mistakes, stumble, fall, and experience the same hardships we "normal" people do. Marilyn Monroe was no exception to this. Yes, she was a bit higher in status and revered for her looks, but she had problems too. She had sadness and hardship that she kept hidden behind the flashing lights, which didn't surface until her death in 1962.
Now we have some insight to Marilyn Monroe, we can get further into the details.
It all started with Norma Jeane Mortenson, a young girl from Los Angeles. She was born on June 1st, 1926. Her parents were Gladys Pearl Baker, and an absent father. A lot of trauma started with Norma Jeane's mother. Her mother's life was less than perfect. Baker and her brother, Marion Otis Elmer (born in 1905), had an unstable upbringing due to their father's alcoholism, frequent moves, and their parent's troubled marriage, Otis was prone to fits of rage and crying, migraines, dementia, and seizures. Gladys' mother often entertained men and entered difficult relationships with them. Gladys was married 3 times, each lasting only about 4 years. She had her first marriage at 14 years old, to Jasper Newton Baker. That marriage resulted in 2 children, which were taken by the father to Kentucky when the marriage failed. Baker moved to Kentucky to be near her children but left after four months. She had limited contact thereafter.
She then had 2 more marriages to Martin Edward Mortenson, and Charles Stanley Gifford. Her short marriage to Martin Edward Mortensen ended in divorce. She had a relationship with Gifford, and they were parents to Norma Jeane. But Gifford wasn't really a part of Norma Jeane's life. Gladys struggled to take care of her daughter and placed her with a foster family weeks after her birth. She was prone to mood swings and had a mental break down due to the death of her son, suicide of her father, and the fact that her studio was shutting down. From 1934 until the 1960s, Gladys spent most of her time in psychiatric facilities. During that time, Baker had a three-year marriage to John Stewart Eley, who died before she could divorce him. In her later years, she lived with her other daughter Berniece and then in a senior care facility.
Norma Jeane spent a lot of her childhood in foster homes. In 1937, a family friend and her husband, Grace and Doc Goddard, took care of her for a few years. The Goddards were paid $25 weekly by Gladys Baker to raise her.
The couple was deeply religious and followed fundamentalist doctrines; among other prohibited activities, Norma Jeane was not allowed to go to the movies. But when Doc's job was transferred to the East Coast, the couple could not afford to bring Norma Jeane with them.
When she was 7 years old, she went back to foster homes, and at 8-years-old she was sexually abused by a lodger at one of the homes. She later said that she had been raped when she was 11 years old.
At school, she was the target of other children’s hurtful jests. “I was tall for my age and scrawny and my hair was short and rather thin and scraggly,” she said in a May 1952 interview. “The boys used to yell ‘Norma Jeane—string bean!’ and they thought it was so funny that I wanted to be an actress. … Somehow, they thought I looked like a boy, I was so straight up and down.”
Her dreams of being an actress helped her get through these hardships. She dropped out of high school at the age of 15. At age 16, she married 21-year-old Jim Dougherty to avoid being placed back in the orphanage system. Monroe subsequently dropped out of high school and became a housewife. She found herself and Dougherty mismatched, and later said she was "dying of boredom" during the marriage. In 1943, Dougherty enlisted in the Merchant Marine and was stationed on Santa Catalina Island, where Norma Jeane moved with him. In April 1944, Dougherty was shipped out to the Pacific, where he remained for most of the next two years. Norma Jeane moved in with her in-laws and began a job at the Radioplane Company, a munitions factory in Van Nuys.
One day, in late 1944, a photographer named David Conover came by the factory and was struck by the 18-year-old’s beauty. “You’re a real morale booster,” Norma Jeane recalled him saying. “I’m going to take your picture for the boys in the Army to keep their morale high.” The photo marked the official beginning of her career. Although none of her pictures were used, she quit working at the factory in January 1945 and began modeling for Conover and his friends. Defying her deployed husband, she moved on her own and signed a contract with the Blue Book Model Agency in August 1945.
The agency deemed Norma Jeane's figure more suitable for pin-up than high fashion modeling, and she was featured mostly in advertisements and men's magazines. To make herself more employable, she straightened her hair and dyed it blonde. She then became very dedicated to her career. “I would take home photographs of myself to study how I looked and if I could improve myself posing in front of a mirror.” She learned how to charm people, and soon she got the ball rolling.
In 1946, 20th Century Fox took notice of this up-and-coming model and offered her a screen test. A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film or in a particular role. With that, Norma Jeane remodeled herself as Marilyn Monroe, the beloved star with beauty and talent.
She worked very hard to transform herself into the person she wanted to be. She was also very critical to herself, and self-conscious when it came to her acting even her appearance. “I knew how third-rate I was,” she wrote in her memoirs. “I could actually feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes I was wearing inside. But, my god, how I wanted to learn, to change, to improve.”
She used Marilyn Monroe as her screen name, but then changed it to her legal name in 1956. It wasn't easy to make it in 1950's Hollywood. The film industry was under the studio system. A studio system is a method of filmmaking wherein the production and distribution of films is dominated by a small number of large movie studios. These included MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros., etc. These companies were male dominated, which would chew up and spit out any females looking for a career. Male directors looked for male writers and so on. She got through thanks to her charm and beauty, but her hard work put her in the books and on the screen.
Despite the fact she was portrayed as the "dumb blonde," she was actually exceptionally smart. She turned to many methods to better herself, she read on psychology, philosophy, art, poetry and much more. According to Smithsonianmag.com: “She studied at the prestigious Actors Studio in New York, with Lee Strasberg, because she had the desire to be a drama student, even after she was already a famous Hollywood actress. She was a trailblazer, and in many ways a feminist before the term was really known or understood.”
She appeared in her first movie when she was 19 years old, it was titled Seven Sirens and released in 1946. She appeared in many movies before she officially became famous, but it was her role in the tragedy Niagara (1953) that made her ascent to stardom.
After this film, she became the lead character in many films with the "dumb blonde" girl. They were usually bubbly airheads who charmed those around her. These movies included: "How to Marry a Millionaire" (1953), "The Seven Year Itch" (1955), and "Some Like it Hot" (1959.)
Her bubbly blonde role in movies set her apart from other actresses. Many actresses had different movies they starred in, but the roles they were assigned were very similar. Rita Moreno often played the role of "dark skinned island girl with an accent," Audrey Hepburn played "aristocratic and classy girls," and the list goes on.
Though she played in many films with her as the "dumb blonde," that doesn't mean she doesn't have acting talent. She often starred in comedies, but her talent was shown in movies like "The Misfits" (1961) and "The Prince and the Showgirl" (1957.)
Her comedic roles did give equal depth. Her role in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953) radiated lots of laughter because of the vagueness of the character Lorelei Lee's intelligence. “I can be smart when it’s important, but most men don’t like it,” says Lorelei in the film, heightening an already laugh-out-loud monologue. This movie harbors one of her most famous performances/musical numbers. I'm sure many of her fans recognize the song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." Below is a link to her wonderful performance.
(I especially love her voice when she sings, she reminds me of a Disney princess.😊)
Her rise to fame was especially inspiring and impressing because of her personal struggles. I was shocked to find out that she actually had stage fright, my reason being how she absolutely killed her performances. However, Monroe was notoriously difficult to work with, as she was constantly late to shoots and often flubbed her lines. According to Smithsonianmag.com: “She was a nervous wreck filming scenes, often breaking out into a rash or being physically ill at the thought of performing.” She abused barbiturates and amphetamines callously prescribed to her by doctors to cope with her trauma and anxiety."
Unfortunately, these medications would lead to a bitter end. A Wikipedia article on barbiturates states that: "Barbiturates are a depressant drug and they are effective when used medically as anxiolytics, hypnotics, and anticonvulsants, but have physical and psychological addiction potential as well as overdose potential among other possible adverse effects. They have been used recreationally for their anti-anxiety and sedative effects and are thus controlled in most countries due to the risks associated with such use."
"Monroe’s career soared as her romantic life foundered, with two successive husbands failing to understand the woman she wanted to be. Baseball hero Joe DiMaggio balked at the sexuality of his wife’s public image. Playwright Arthur Miller was disgusted by her cult of celebrity."
She honestly just wanted to be loved, but she didn't realize that she could choose who to love.
Other than her coping with trauma and anxiety, she had a grief that ran deep. “I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone’s wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really.”
She also seemed to be unable to carry children, two pregnancies ended in miscarriages, while a third was ectopic. This damaged her femininity as the representative of all women. This was her personal life, that no one saw. She was dealing with so much, and she managed to keep her silver screen beauty in spite of it all.
At the height of her fame, Monroe also took steps to fight back against the studio system, which enabled male executives to wield unprecedented control over the careers of its marquee stars. Since she was forced to take roles that she believed were beneath her, the actress decided to break her restrictive contract with Fox in 1954 and start her own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, on the East Coast.
Fox tried to blackball her because of this move, but she was victorious. She renegotiated a studio contract that afforded her both a higher salary and creative control over her future roles. She was a feminist before feminism officially took its footing.
After Some Like It Hot, Monroe took another hiatus until late 1959, when she starred in the musical comedy Let's Make Love. She chose George Cukor to direct, and Miller rewrote some of the script, which she considered weak. She accepted the part solely because she was behind on her contract with Fox. The film's production was delayed by her frequent absences from the set.
During the shoot, Monroe had an extramarital affair with her co-star Yves Montand, which was widely reported by the press and used in the film's publicity campaign. She was described as "untidy" and "lacking ... the old Monroe dynamism." Hedda Hopper called the film "the most vulgar picture she's ever done." Around this time, Truman Capote, the author of "Breakfast at Tiffany's," wanted her to get the role of Holly Golightly, but the role went to Audrey Hepburn because the directors feared she would further complicate the production of the film.
The last film she did was "The Misfits" which gave her a dramatic role. The film was unsuccessful on its release. Monroe disliked that he had based her role partly on her life and thought it inferior to the male roles. She also struggled with Miller's habit of rewriting scenes the night before filming. She played the role of a recently divorced woman that befriends aging cowboys.
During that movie, her health was failing. She was in pain from gallstones, and her drug addiction was so severe that her makeup usually had to be applied while she was still asleep under the influence of barbiturates. She even spent a week in detox during filming. Monroe and Miller separated after filming wrapped, and she obtained a divorce from Mexico in January of 1961. Instead of working, she spent the first six months of 1961 preoccupied by health problems. She underwent a cholecystectomy and surgery for her endometriosis, and spent four weeks hospitalized for depression.
She returned to the public in 1962, in which she received a "World Film Favorite" Golden Globe Award and began to shoot a film for Fox, "Something's Got to Give", a remake of "My Favorite Wife" (1940.) Days before filming began, Monroe caught sinusitis. Despite medical advice to postpone the production, Fox began it as planned in late April.
Monroe then became too sick to work for about 6 weeks. Her studio settled with the premonition that she was faking it and pressured her publicly with that statement. She still sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy on May 19. Her dress drew so much attention. The color was beige and studded with rhinestones, which made her appear nude on stage. I have the link for the video below:
It was tailored for her, which is what people like Kim Kardashian don't understand. Sorry to be blunt or rude, but that was a priceless piece of history that she wore to the met gala last year. I wouldn't have been happy if somebody else wore it either. It was a wonder that she even managed to fit her giant diaper bottom into that dress without ripping it. She underwent extreme dieting for this publicity stunt and it didn't eve zip up all the way. I was outraged when I found out. No respect for artifacts or the history behind them. What a selfish stunt...🙄
Don't even get me started on the damage she did to it 🥲
I felt my heart sink when I saw the images.
Well, this post is about Ms. Monroe, not Kim "Diaper Butt" Kardashian. Let us persist...😅
Marilyn Monroe continued to have many sick days. When she was again on sick leave for several days, Fox decided that it could not afford to have another film running behind schedule when it was already struggling with the rising costs of "Cleopatra" (1963.) On June 7, Fox fired Monroe and sued her for $750,000 in damages. The studio blamed Monroe for the film's demise and began spreading negative publicity about her, even alleging that she was mentally disturbed.
According to Wikipedia's article on her: "To repair her public image, Monroe engaged in several publicity ventures, including interviews for Life and Cosmopolitan and her first photo shoot for Vogue. For Vogue, she and photographer Bert Stern collaborated for two series of photographs, one a standard fashion editorial and another of her posing nude, which were published posthumously with the title The Last Sitting."
During her final months, Monroe lived at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. She had a housekeeper staying overnight at home on the evening of August 4th, 1962. Eunice Murray, her housekeeper, awoke at 3am "sensing that something was wrong." She saw light from under Monroe's bedroom door but was unable to get a response and found the door locked. Murray called Monroe's psychiatrist, who arrived at the house shortly after and broke into the bedroom through a window to find Monroe dead in her bed. She was found nude, with her hand reaching for the phone. Monroe died between 8:30 p.m. and 10:30p.m. on August 4. The toxicology report stated that the cause of death was barbiturate poisoning.
Empty medicine bottles were found next to her bed. The possibility that Monroe had accidentally overdosed was ruled out because the dosages found in her body were several times the lethal limit. Her death has been debated whether or not it was an accident or on purpose. It's said that she was prone to mood swings, and that they were abrupt. There are also conspiracies on her death, saying that Robert or John Kennedy killed her or had her killed. There are rumors that she had a love affair with them. People say that they had her killed so that the affair wouldn't go public. There is also the fact that there was no water nearby her to take the pills. There was also a lack of residue in her stomach from taking the pills. Therefore, it might have been injected.
According to Womenshealthmag.com: "Marilyn’s therapist, Dr. Greenson, remembers his time with Marilyn the summer before her death. “She couldn’t sleep, and she said how worthless she felt,” he told Vanity Fair in 1991."
“She talked about being a waif, that she was ugly, that people were only nice to her for what they could get from her. She said life wasn’t worth living anymore,” Dr. Greenson added."
With all these facts, it's hard to determine what were the factors of her death. Did she decide to kill herself? Was it an accident? Was it a conspiracy? Nobody knows...
Marilyn's body was put to rest and entombed in Crypt No. 24 at the Corridor of Memories in Los Angeles, Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetry.
Allan Abbott, who ran the funeral service for Monroe, later wrote that the famous bombshell was "almost unrecognisable" after her death.
He said: "When we removed the sheet covering her, it was almost impossible to believe this was the body of Marilyn Monroe. She looked like a very average, aging woman who had not been taking very good care of herself."
I personally feel that her death was a huge loss. She was truly one of a kind and is a worthy role model for girls today. She was a trailblazer and took many steps forward for women. Even though she went through personal struggles starting from her childhood, she gave it her all. If she were still alive today, she would be 96.
I wish that there would have been somebody to listen to her, like really take the time to listen and understand her and what she was going through. She carried a lot on her shoulders but looked effortlessly beautiful while doing it.
I hope that her memory never dies and continues to live on for a very long time.
Oh, and another thing, many people have been wondering about Netflix's "Blonde" movie and whether or not it's historically accurate. It's not. It is loosely based on her life. I say loosely in bold because I don't want people to get the wrong idea about her. That is what the author of the novel, which was what the movie was based upon, perceived her as, and saw her life as.
Thank you for reading Inky Buds, I hope you enjoyed this article and learned a bit more about this inspirational woman. We see her today as the glamourous icon of old Hollywood, but I think we should take some time to learn more about her and see that she was human too.
Thanks again and have a good day🏙️/night🌃!
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