Marilyn Monroe - written by me

Norma Jeane Baker was a world-famous sex symbol known for her “distinctively breathy singing style and seductive role” (“Marilyn Monroe” Columbia Encyclopedia). Who was this woman? The Hollywood's legends adopted name was Marilyn Monroe. Her life was exciting but mysterious. Though Marilyn Monroe’s death was not a murder, it was a forced suicide. She was caught in a trap with several powerful people.

She was born on June 1, 1926 at 9:30 in the morning (Spoto 13). The birth certificate read that her mother was Gladys Monroe of Los Angeles but her father was unknown. There were numerous boyfriends that could have been the father but Gladys never sought any of them. Supposedly, Gladys thought a man named Charles Stanley Gifford was the father but they were unsure because Gladys was always with a different man. A man named Martin Mortenson could have been the father. Gladys was married to Mortenson on October 11, 1924(Spoto 12). Their marriage was normal but Gladys found it boring. Four months later, Gladys filed for divorce. Mortenson also wanted a divorce. He was later killed in a motorcycle accident. The question of who Norma’s father was is still unanswered and probably will never be known.

Norma went by both Baker and Mortenson. At age 20, she went by Marilyn Monroe. This name was never legal until seven years before she died(Spoto 14). Two weeks after Norma’s birth, Gladys gave Norma up to a foster home just a few miles away.

She spent most of her early life with orphanages and foster families. In 1937, she moved in with Grace McKee Goddard, a family friend(“Marilyn Monroe’s Official Web Site Biography”). Grace’s husbands job was transferred in 1942 when Norma was sixteen. As a result, they could not afford to keep Norma with them. She could either go back to an orphanage or get married. She married her neighbor James Dougherty.

Norma married James Dougherty in June of 1942 in Los Angeles(“Marilyn Monroe’s Official Web Site Biography”). She was sixteen years old at the time. Ethel Dougherty, James’s mother disapproved of the marriage because she thought they were too young. This was Norma’s only choice. The following Sunday, James and Norma moved to a one room bungalow in Sherman Oaks. They has a six month lease at this home.

The couple had an awkward marriage. She was incredibly sensitive and James always left. James went to the bars with his friends almost every night. They hardly spoke. Although, they did argue over numerous issues such as sex and his absence. The one thing they absolutely agreed on was no children. In Donald Spoto’s biography of Marilyn Monroe, she describes the marriage, “My marriage didn’t make me sad, but it didn’t make me happy either. My husband and I hardly spoke to each other. This wasn’t because we were angry. We had nothing to say. I was dying of boredom”(78). About four years later she filed for divorce. This was because she wanted to be a star. James thought the divorce was a security issue. First, she has security with James and now with a studio contract. They went to court on September 13, 1946 (Spoto 109). She complained of being criticized which caused her problems. She received her divorce and his 1935 Ford Coupe. They never talked or saw each other again from that point on.

Her rising career started while she was married to her first husband James. This is where the beginning of the end starts. A photographer names David Conover spotted her while he was taking pictures of women contributing to the war effort (“Marilyn Monroe’s Official Web Site Biography”). He said she was a “photographer’s dream.” He photographed her and began sending modeling jobs to her. At that time, she was working at the Radio Plane Munitions Factory (“Marilyn Monroe’s Official Web Site Biography”). Marilyn’s popularity was growing by the day. She started getting mentioned in Hollywood gossip columns. She was interviewed, recieved screen tests, and she even applied to the Blue Book Modeling Agency. Unfortunately, James was away in the South Pacific because he was enlisted in the Marines. Norma sought stardom and started to research legendary actresses. When James returned, she chose her quest for stardom over her marriage.

About a month after the divorce she signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox: her first one! This is the point where Norma Jeane “transformed” into a beautiful blonde haired star now known as Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn signed a new contract with Columbia Pictures in 1948. In December, she met Johny Hyde. This was her agent and he dedicated himself to making her a great star. Later, Marilyn signed a contract with MGM and a new seven-year contract with Twentieth Century Fox. She started and even finished several movies in her career up to the year of 1954. The movies were “A Ticket to Tomahawk,” “The Asphalt Jungle,” “The Fireball,” “All About Eve,” “The Love Nest,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” and “Niagra” (“Marilyn Monroe’s Official Web Site Biography”). On March 29, 1951, she was a presenter at the academy awards. On September 8th, 1951, she was featured in “Colliers Magazine.” Marilyn did a live radio debut and even had her first LIFE magazine cover.

In 1952, a major event took place that changed several peoples views’ of her. Marilyn posed nude for a photographer. It swept across the country like a wildfire. Many people know and still remember her from this famous picture. This picture appeared in calendars, movies, and magazines. On March 13, 1952, a Los Angeles Herald Examiner wrote a column after interviewing Marilyn. She admitted to posing nude and said that she was not ashamed. Technically, she was the first American movie star to have been proven to doing this. These events all led up to her second marriage on Jan 14,1954 (“Marilyn Monroe’s Official Web Site Biography”).

Her second husband was Joe DiMaggio, a baseball player. She met him in 1952 when she was twenty-five and he was thirty-seven. There was a huge age difference but they were in love. He had a signed a contract with the Yankees in 1936 and still loves baseball. Joe was raised as a strict Catholic, was married and divorced, and because of this went through a depression around 1949. A huge part of his depression was not only a result of his divorce but also from the fan dissatisfaction when his career failed in 1942. He wanted to meet Marilyn when he saw her picture. The picture was very attractive to Joe because she was dressed in a sexy baseball uniform. They met at a restaurant. They endured each other’s favorite pasttimes together even thought they did not want to. He took her to a baseball game and she took him to a final cut of her movie “Monkey Business.” She did not enjoy baseball and he did not particularly enjoy show business. They settled down and Joe said, “its’s like a good double-play combination” (Spoto 207). Marilyn was a good-looking, rising star, and they could have a family. They were both very different people. Joe was a very tidy and organized person while Marilyn was always a mess. Joe was at home and spent most of his time taking care of the money issues. They had an awkward marriage just like Marilyn‘s previous marriage. Although she was not an ideal housewife, she still had dreams of being one.

Joe and Marilyn had many problems. Joe was jealous of Marilyn’s other relationships. He had a right to be jealous and nobody knew every secret Marilyn kept. Joe was jealous of Hal Schaefer, her voice instructor. She always went to see him when she was critically ill. He was also jealous of the relationship Marilyn had with Natasha Lytess, her German drama coach. She once ordered Joe out of his own house. She witnessed one of the final fights Joe and Marilyn had before the divorce. Lytess knew more information about Marilyn’s relationships than anybody would ever imagine. Many friends believe a huge factor of the divorce were the friendships with Hal and Natasha.

On September 8th, 1954, Marilyn took a plane to New York where she was going to continue filming her most famous movie: “The Seven Year Itch.” She was filming the famous scene in which her dress blows up from an underground subway wind. An old friend of Joe, Walter Winchell, called Joe to inform him of this. Joe arrived in New York to see something that infuriated him. He watched her filming her scene as thousands of New Yorkers surrounded the area screaming. This is what he feared most of all. He said it made him nervous (Spoto 284).

Later that night, shouts and screams were heard from their room. Joe was incredibly angry with Marilyn. Natasha was in an adjacent room. The next morning, Marilyn‘s hairdresser, Gladys Whitten, saw a terrible sight. She said, “Joe was very, very mad with her and he beat her up a little bit. There were bruises on her shoulders, but we covered them up with makeup”(Spoto 285).

On the afternoon of September 16th, Marilyn and Joe returned to California. Two weeks later, Marilyn filed for divorce.

Arthur Miller and Marilyn met in 1951 on the movie set. They fell in love with each other. She admired his work and ethics while Miller said “the air around her was charged” (Spoto 185). Natasha, Marilyn’s drama coach, and Elia Kazan both agreed and saw that Arthur and Marilyn fell for each other.

Kazan, a friend of Director Harnon Jones, also witnessed the love between Marilyn and Arthur. During that same time, Marilyn and Kazan were having an affair. The relationship ended after she told him she might be pregnant (Spoto 186). The affair between Kazan and Monroe lasted about one-year.

In 1957, Marilyn had another break from film-making because she had a new job--as a housewife! She married Arthur Miller on June 29, 1956 (“Marilyn Monroe’s Official Web Site Biography”). This was a civil ceremony. She was married again on July 1, 1954 in a Jewish ceremony. This was to be Marilyn’s longest and final marriage.

Marilyn was not suited to be a wife. Many people agreed that she was just a fun playmate of a companion. Yet, she continued to try marriage and they always ended up in divorce. Marilyn financially supported Arthur, as well as she did with Joe. In January, they moved into an apartment. Marilyn worked with Designer John Moore to construct the perfect place for her. The entire room was white and many walls were made into mirrors and one wall was removed. She and Arthur even had a piano that was white, chairs, a sofa, and other pieces of furniture (Spoto 382). Marilyn was never satisfied with it was always remodeling. She also had a country house in Connecticut. And they later rented a cottage in Long Island. Marilyn longed for privacy and hid when going out. She did not speak to many people but when she did once, it was a compliment. She once made a positive remark to a woman’s new fur coat. Unable to believe she received a compliment from Marilyn Monroe, she nearly broke into tears!

Marilyn was pregnant three times during this marriage with Arthur. Each was unsuccessful in different ways. The first time she found out she was pregnant was on August 31, 1956. She was drinking heavily at the time and did not want the child because she wanted to finish her picture. She lost the baby in the first week of September.

The second pregnancy ended a few months after Arthur and Marilyn found out. In Donald Spoto’s biography Arthur Miller noticed, “a new kind of confidence, a quietness of spirit [he] has never seen before”(393). In August, Marilyn was rushed to the hospital after she has collapsed in pain. She was unconscious for a short time. They determined she had an ectopic pregnancy: the fetus was being formed in the Fallopian tube. After the loss, Marilyn lost her confidence and sense of maturity.

The third attempt was her last. During the beginning stages of her pregnancy, she was ordered to rest. She tried but once again, miscarried. Actually, she did not try too hard because at the time she was taking heavy doses of Amytal, a sleeping pill. Marilyn was worried that the drugs affected the miscarriage. She thought it was her fault which resulted in a depression. Occurring in the beginning of December, she entered the New Year of 1959 in a deep depression.

Marilyn would take sleeping pills as sedatives to calm her of anxiety and stress. “But Amytal and Nembutal are themselves depressants, and so there was sometimes a vicious cycle of insomnia, drug-induced sleep, a stuporous morning and a vaguely unhappy day endured by taking more pills”(Spoto 407). She was seeing a psychiatrist named Dr. Marianne Kris regularly but it never seemed to help. Kris prescribed the sedation. The side effect of her drug was chronic constipation which she then relied on enemas. She used to take one a day during special occasions beginning in 1953. They became a casual habit.

The Millers’ had lost the happiness of their marriage. They were divorced on January 20, 1961, just two weeks before the premiere of “The Misfits,” the movie Arthur wrote which featured Marilyn. Her marriage was over. The next year, she moved to her home in Brentwood, California(“Marilyn Monroe’s Official Web Site Biography”). In April of 1962, she started to work on her last, unfinished movie called “Something’s Got to Give.”

An attorney name Lawrence Cusack was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was ordered to pay seven million dollars in restitution. What was his crime? “He forged at least 350 documents, some short, some lengthy, that purported to be the secret correspondence between President John F. Kennedy and actress Marilyn Monroe”(Hewett). He claimed to find these while sorting through papers of Marilyn’s mother, Gladys Baker, following her death. He sold these documents to several millionaires, who were interested, for as much as six to seven million dollars. NBC and ABC also bought the documents. The documents were examined and several errors were found. Cusack was found guilty of 13 counts of mail and wire fraud.

Marilyn Monroe died in her Brentwood home on August 4 1962(Wolfe). Sergeant Jack Clemmons found her body on the morning of the fifth of August. After responding to an anonymous phone call, Sergeant Clemmons arrived at her home to find Marilyn dead. He and two others searched for a suicide note. There was no suicide note among her papers.

Next to Marilyn’s bed, “police had found full and partly full bottles of several drugs, among them antihistamines and medications for her sinusitis”(Spoto 581). The cause of her death changed many times. It went from “possible overdose of Barbiturates,” to “probable suicide,” and then “acute Barbiturate poisoning.” There were no signs of violence on her body. Examiners found Chloral Hydrate and Nembutal in her blood. A higher amount of Nembutal was found in her liver. The amounts in her blood compared to her liver show she lived several hours after she took them.

Another factor was found that was incredibly confusing. A major area of her colon had purplish discoloration. The doctors were finally convinced that an enema was the way she administered the fatal dose. The way she died had been finalized.

It has been proved that Marilyn was talking to Joe DiMaggio, Jr. earlier the day she died. The conversation could have dealt with Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn’s ex-husband. This may have caused stress, tension, and anxiety. The content of the conversation they had is unknown.

The funeral was held on August 8th in Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles. Lee Strasburg spoke about Marilyn, “We knew her as a warm human being, impulsive, shy, and lonely, sensitive, and in fear of rejection, yet ever avid for life and reaching out for fulfillment. The dream of her talent was not a mirage“(Spoto 596). Joe DiMaggio attended and made many of the funeral arrangements. This included the decision not to invite Hollywood stars or directors. Before they closed the casket, he kissed Marilyn and told her he loved her.

Joe never remarried or spoke her name again. Arthur Miller remarried and declined to attend the funeral. James, her first husband, had nothing to do with her after the divorce. He was working at the Los Angeles Police Department at the time. Marilyn’s mother never knew of her daughter’s death.

Marilyn’s estate was left to her mentor, Lee Strasburg. A large amount of furniture was sold at an auction from her California home and New York apartment. “The bulk of her personal possessions were consigned to a warehouse where they have gathered star dust and extraordinary value over the years”(Wolfe).

Marilyn Monroe had an extraordinary life but it ended far too soon. Though Marilyn Monroe’s death was not a murder, it was a forced suicide. She was caught in a trap with several powerful people. The year prior to her death was when she became involved with an important man of our country, John F. Kennedy. She was in a situation that she could not handle. After the last time they spoke, Marilyn’s depression and addictions seemed to increase heavily which resulted in her overdose. Marilyn’s forced suicide put an end to her pain. Her depression and addictions forced this deadly outcome.