Monroe married James Dougherty on June 19, 1942. In The Secret
Happiness of Marilyn Monroe and To Norma Jeane with Love, Jimmie, he
claimed they were in love but dreams of stardom lured her away. She always maintained
theirs was a marriage of convenience arranged by Grace Goddard. She was reportedly
furious when he wrote in a 1953 Photoplay piece called "Marilyn Monroe
Was My Wife" that she threatened to jump off the Santa Monica Pier if he left
her. He appeared on To Tell the Truth in April 7, 1967 as "Marilyn
Monroe`s real first husband".
In the 2004 documentary Marilyn`s Man, Dougherty made three new claims:
he was her Svengali and invented the "Marilyn Monroe" persona, studio executives
forced her to divorce him, and that he was her true love. The evidence does not
support this. He remarried in 1947. When informed of her death, the August 6,
1962 New York Times reported he replied "I`m sorry," and continued
his LAPD patrol; he did not attend her funeral. Contrary to his later claims
that he did not mind that she modeled, his sister wrote in the 12/1952 Modern
Screen Magazine that Dougherty left Norma Jeane because she wanted to pursue
modeling. He admitted to A&E Network that his mother asked him to marry her,
and told Lifetime in 1996 he cut off her allotment after being served with divorce
papers. Perhaps more telling, the 1999 Christie`s auction of Monroe`s estate
revealed she kept nothing from Dougherty except their divorce decree. He died from
leukemia</ a> complications on August 15, 2005.
Joe DiMaggio and Monroe on their wedding day, January 14, 1954
Joe DiMaggio
In 1951 Joe DiMaggio saw a picture of Monroe with two Chicago White Sox
players, but did not ask the man who arranged the stunt to set up a date until
1952. She wrote in My Story that she did not want to meet him, fearing a
stereotypical jock. They eloped at San Francisco`s City Hall
on January 14, 1954. During the honeymoon, she was asked to visit Korea.
She performed ten shows over four days in freezing temperatures for over 100,000
servicemen. Biographers have noted that DiMaggio was not pleased with his wife`s
decision during what he wanted to be an intimate trip.
Back home, she wrote him a letter about her dreams for their future, dated February
28, 1954:
"My Dad, I don`t know how to tell you just how much I miss you. I love
you till my heart could burst I want to just be where you are and be just
what you want me to be I want someday for you to be proud of me as a person
and as your wife and as the mother of the rest of your children (two at least!
I`ve decided) "
DiMaggio biographer Maury Allen quoted New York Yankees PR man Arthur Richman
that Joe told him everything went wrong from the trip to Japan on. Fred Lawrence
Guiles speculated that Joe, knowing the power and hollowness of fame, wanted desperately
to head off what he was convinced was her "collision-course with disaster." Friends
claimed that DiMaggio became more controlling as Monroe grew more defiant [ citation
needed]. On September 14, 1954, she filmed the now-iconic
skirt-blowing scene for The Seven Year Itch in front of New York`s Trans-Lux
Theater. Bill Kobrin, then-Fox`s east coast correspondent, told the June 26, 2006
Palm Springs Desert Sun that it was Billy Wilder`s idea to turn it
into a media circus: " every time her dress came up and the crowd started to
get excited, DiMaggio just blew up." The couple later had a "yelling battle" in
the theater lobby. [8] Her makeup man Allan Snyder recalled Monroe later
appe ared on set with bruises on her upper arms [ citation needed].
She filed for divorce on grounds of mental cruelty 274 days after the wedding.
Years later, she turned to him for help. In February 1961, her psychiatrist
arranged for her to be admitted to the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, where,
according to Donald Spoto, she was placed in the ward for the most seriously disturbed.
Unable to check herself out, she called DiMaggio, who secured her release. She later
joined him in Florida. Their "just good friends" claim did not stop rumors of
remarriage. Archive footage shows Bob Hope jokingly dedicated Best Song
nominee The Second Time Around to them at the 1960 Academy Awards telecast.
According to Maury Allen, on August 1, 1962 DiMaggio - alarmed by how
his ex-wife had fallen in with people he felt detrimental to her, such as Frank
Sinatra and his " Rat Pack" - quit his job with a PX supplier to ask
her to remarry him. He claimed her body and arranged her funeral, barring Hollywood`s
elite. For 20 years, he had a dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times
a week. Unlike her other two husbands, he never talked about her publicly, wrote
a tell-all, nor remarried. He died on March 8, 1999, of lung cancer.
Arthur Miller
On June 29, 1956, Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller, whom she
had first met in 1951, in a civil ceremony in White Plains, New York. City
Court Judge Seymour Robinowitz presided over the hushed ceremony in the law office
of Sam Slavitt (the wedding had been kept secret from both the press and the public).
Nominally raised as a Christian, she converted to Judaism before marrying Miller.
After she finished shooting The Prince and the Showgirl, the couple returned
to the States from England and discovered she was pregnant. However, she
suffered from endometriosis and the pregnancy was found to be ectopic. A
subsequent pregnancy ended in miscarriage, as noted in the Monroe biographies
written by Anthony Summers, Fred Lawrence Guiles, and Donald Spoto.
By 1958, she was the couple`s main breadwinner. While paying alimony to Miller`s
first wife, her husband reportedly charged her production company for buying and
shipping a Jaguar to the United States [ citation needed].
Miller`s screenplay for The Misfits was meant to be a Valentine
gift for his wife, but by the time filming started in 1960 their marriage was broken
beyond repair. A Mexican divorce was granted on January 24, 1961. On
February 17, 1962, Miller married Inge Morath, one of the Magnum
photographers recording the making of The Misfits.
In January 1964, Miller`s play After the Fall opened, featuring a beautiful
and devouring shrew named Maggie. The similarities between Maggie and Monroe did
not go unnoticed by audiences and critics (including Helen Hayes), many of whom
sympathized with the fact that she was no longer alive and could not defend herself
[ citation needed].
Simone Signoret noted in her autobiography the morbidity of Miller and Elia
Kazan resuming their professional association "over a casket". In interviews
and in his autobiography, Miller insisted that Maggie was not based on Monroe.
However, he never pretended that his last Broadway-bound work, Finishing
the Picture, was not based on the making of The Misfits. He told
Vanity Fair the she was "highly self-destructive" and what "killed" her
was not some conspiracy, but the fact that she was Marilyn Monroe [ citation
needed]. He died on February 10, 2005, at the age of 89.
Marilyn Monroe Death and aftermath
Main article: Death of Marilyn Monroe
Monroe`s last home was in Brentwood, California, at 12305 5th Helena Drive.
She was in the process of renovating the hacienda at the time of her death. [9]
Monroe was found dead by her housekeeper Eunice Murray, in the middle of
the night, on August 5, 1962. Murray said she noticed the phone cord under
Marilyn`s door, which was unusual because she never slept with her phone in her
room. This worried Murray, so she called Marilyn`s psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson.
Greenson broke a window to get into Marilyn`s home, and then upon discovering her
sprawled on her bed with a phone clutched in her right hand, called Marilyn`s internist
Dr. Engelberg. Engelberg listened for a heartbeat, and when there was not one, called
the police.
Murray and doctors Greenson and Engelberg claim that Marilyn was found at 3:30
a.m. However Natalie Jacobs, wife of Marilyn`s spokesman Arthur Jacobs, said she
found out about Marilyn`s death while at a concert well before 11:00 p.m. that same
day. She also says that her husband had to "fudge the press."
She was 36 years old. Her death was ruled as an overdose from the sleeping
pill Nembutal. Several conspiracy theories have surfaced in the decades after
her death, some involving President John F. Kennedy and/or Robert Kennedy. There
is also speculation that her death was accidental, but the official cause of death
was "probable suicide" by acute barbiturate poisoning.
On August 8, 1962, Monroe was interred in a crypt at Corridor of Memories, #24,
at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
Lee Strasberg delivered the eulogy.
Administration of estate
In her will, Monroe left Lee Strasberg control of 75% of her estate.
She expressed her desire that Strasberg, or, if he predeceased her, her executor,
"distribute (her personal effects) among my friends, colleagues and those to whom
I am devoted."
Strasberg willed his portion to his widow, Anna. She declared she would never
sell Monroe`s personal items after successfully suing Odyssey Auctions in 1994 to
prevent the sale of items which were withheld by Monroe`s former business manager,
Inez Melson. However, in October 1999 Christie`s auctioned the bulk of the items
Monroe willed to Lee Strasberg, netting $12.3 million USD.
Anna Strasberg is currently in litigation against the children of four photographers
to determine rights of publicity, which permits the licensing of images of deceased
personages for commercial purposes. The decision as to whether Monroe was a resident
of California, where she died, or New York, where her will was probated,
is worth millions.
Marilyn Monroe Trivia
She had a mild stutter, which was most severe during her teens.
The beauty mark above her mouth was a very pale mole she darkened.
Truman Capote wanted her for Holly Golightly in the film adaptation
of Breakfast At Tiffany`s.
Ella Fitzgerald credited Monroe with helping her break the colour barrier
and launching her career into the mainstream. "It was because of [Marilyn Monroe]
that I played the [heretofore segregated] Mocambo. She personally called
the owner and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would
do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him ??? and it was
true, due to Marilyn???s superstar status ??? that the press would go wild.
The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press
went overboard??? After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She
was an unusual woman ??? a little ahead of her time. And didn???t she know it."
The Jean-Louis gown Monroe wore to sing happy birthday to John F. Kennedy
sold for over $1,500,000 at Christie`s in 1999.
Monroe was pregnant during the filming of Some Like It Hot and miscarried
a male child in December 1958. She had miscarried twice before during her marriage
to Arthur Miller and suffered from chronic endometriosis, a gynecological
condition that prevented her from carrying a child to term. The endometriosis
is also often given as the reason why she became addicted to prescription painkillers,
and would also explain her chronic fatigue and absence from film sets. [
citation needed]
Monroe`s personal library contained over 400 books on topics ranging from
art, history, psychology, philosophy, literature, religion, poetry, and gardening.
Many of the volumes, auctioned in 1999, bore her pencil notations in the margins.
Although Monroe`s primary residence at the time of her death was a Manhattan
apartment on the 13th floor of 444 W. 57th Street, she had purchased a three
bedroom Spanish Colonial hacienda on 5th Helena Drive in Brentwood, Los Angeles.
Tiles on the front doorstep of the hacienda bore the Latin inscription, "Cursum
Perificio"--translating to "My journey ends here." She died in the hacienda`s
master bedroom before its renovation was completed.
Controversy surrounds Marilyn Monroe`s dress size. One urban legend suggests
she was a modern UK dress size 16 or US 12. The Jean Louis dress she wore when
singing happy birthday to JFK in 1962 was listed a US size 5. However, as Snopes.com
reported, dress sizes have gone down since the 1950s and 1960s. According
to the autopsy report by Thomas Noguchi, coroner, Marilyn was 5??? 5????? and
weighed 117 lbs.
Monroe was crowned the first "Artichoke Queen" for the Artichoke Festival,
in Castroville, CA.
Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine, will be buried next to
her [ citation needed].
Marilyn Monroe Filmography
Main Filmography
The Asphalt Jungle (1950) | All About Eve (1950) | Niagara
(1953) | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) | How to Marry a Millionaire
(1953) | River of No Return (1954) | There`s No Business Like
Show Business (1954) | The Seven Year Itch (1955) | Bus Stop
(1956) | The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) | Some Like it Hot
(1959) | Let`s Make Love (1960) | The Misfits (1961)
Awards and nominations
1952 Photoplay Award: Special Award
1953 Golden Globe Henrietta Award: World Film Favorite Female.
1953 Photoplay Award: Most Popular Female Star
1956 BAFTA Film Award nomination: Best Foreign Actress for The Seven
Year Itch
1956 Golden Globe nomination: Best Motion Picture Actress in Comedy
or Musical for Bus Stop
1958 BAFTA Film Award nomination: Best Foreign Actress for The Prince
and the Showgirl
1958 David di Donatello Award (Italian): Best Foreign Actress for The
Prince and the Showgirl
1959 Crystal Star Award (French): Best Foreign Actress for The Prince
and the Showgirl
1960 Golden Globe, Best Motion Picture Actress in Comedy or Musical for
Some Like It Hot
1962 Golden Globe, World Film Favorite: Female
Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 6104 Hollywood Blvd.
In popular culture
1999: E! Online`s Sex Symbol of the Century;
1995: Empire`s Sexiest Female Movie Star;
Marian McKnight won the 1957 Miss America crown with a Marilyn act;
1999: People magazine`s Sexiest Woman of the Century;
1998: Playboy`s #1 Sex Star of the Century;
The Seven Year Itch "subway grate" scene has been aped countless
times: e.g. Absolut vodka, Betty Boop, Donna Summer, Anna Kournikova,
Perrier, Anna Nicole Smith, and the Statue of Liberty;
The first stamp in the USPS`s "Legends of Hollywood" series;