My Story

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Before Our Time: Idyllwild's SMASH!". Idyllwild Town Crier. June 6, 2012 . Retrieved June 12, 2022. When I bought this illustrated tome a couple of years ago, I was hoping to find information not previously known to the public. Perhaps a peek into her world through her own eyes. Hearing the story in her words (if they are her words) satisfied some of that curiosity; she came across as a wounded, but spirited woman who always dreamed big, despite the odds. She conveyed that famously described depth often belied by the surface exterior. Gladys named Mortensen as Monroe's father in the birth certificate (although the name was misspelled), [14] but it is unlikely that he was the father as their separation had taken place well before she became pregnant. [15] Biographers Fred Guiles and Lois Banner stated that her father was likely Charles Stanley Gifford, Gladys's superior at RKO Studios, with whom she had an affair in 1925, [16] whereas Donald Spoto thought that another co-worker was probably the father. [17] By 1953, Monroe was one of the most marketable Hollywood stars. She had leading roles in the film noir Niagara, which overtly relied on her sex appeal, and the comedies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, which established her star image as a "dumb blonde". The same year, her nude images were used as the centerfold and cover of the first issue of Playboy magazine. Monroe played a significant role in the creation and management of her public image throughout her career, but felt disappointed when typecast and underpaid by the studio. She was briefly suspended in early 1954 for refusing a film project but returned to star in The Seven Year Itch (1955), one of the biggest box office successes of her career.

On May 19, 1962, Monroe made her now-famous performance at John F. Kennedy's birthday celebration, singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President." I never knew Marilyn Monroe, and I don’t claim to have any insights to her to this day. I knew and loved Norma Jean,” Dougherty later said. Anyone even vaguely interested in the history of cinema has likely heard of You Must Remember This – a wildly addictive podcast about the scandals of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Some of its greatest episodes comprise the so-called Dead Blondes mini-series, which considers the public’s morbid fascination with the rise and fall of blonde sex icons, from Jean Harlow to Jayne Mansfield. Chief among them, of course, is Monroe herself – whose life narrator Karina Longworth dissects over three gripping episodes. Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates (2000) READ MORE: How Marilyn Monroe's Childhood Was Disrupted by Her Mother's Paranoid Schizophrenia Career in Acting Monroe's childhood experiences first made her want to become an actress: "I didn't like the world around me because it was kind of grim ... When I heard that this was acting, I said that's what I want to be ... Some of my foster families used to send me to the movies to get me out of the house and there I'd sit all day and way into the night. Up in front, there with the screen so big, a little kid all alone, and I loved it." [46]In the end, Wilder was happy with Monroe's performance, saying: "Anyone can remember lines, but it takes a real artist to come on the set and not know her lines and yet give the performance she did!" [231] Some Like It Hot was a critical and commercial success when it was released in March 1959. [232] Monroe's performance earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress, and prompted Variety to call her "a comedienne with that combination of sex appeal and timing that just can't be beat". [217] [233] It has been voted one of the best films ever made in polls by the BBC, [234] the American Film Institute, [235] and Sight & Sound. [236] 1960–1962: Career decline and personal difficulties Monroe with Yves Montand in Let's Make Love (1960), which she agreed to make only to fulfill her contract with Fox Monroe began 1956 by announcing her win over 20th Century-Fox. [194] She legally changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. [195] The press wrote favorably about her decision to fight the studio; Time called her a "shrewd businesswoman" [196] and Look predicted that the win would be "an example of the individual against the herd for years to come". [194] In contrast, Monroe's relationship with Miller prompted some negative comments, such as Walter Winchell's statement that "America's best-known blonde moving picture star is now the darling of the left-wing intelligentsia." [197] From the beginning, Monroe played a significant part in the creation of her public image, and towards the end of her career exerted almost full control over it. [294] [295] She devised many of her publicity strategies, cultivated friendships with gossip columnists such as Sidney Skolsky and Louella Parsons, and controlled the use of her images. [296] In addition to Grable, she was often compared to another well-known blonde, 1930s film star Jean Harlow. [297] The comparison was prompted partly by Monroe, who named Harlow as her childhood idol, wanted to play her in a biopic, and even employed Harlow's hair stylist to color her hair. [298] Best Known For: Actress Marilyn Monroe overcame a difficult childhood to become one of the world's biggest and most enduring sex symbols. She died of a drug overdose in 1962 at the age of 36. Spoto 2001, p.88, for first meeting in 1944; Banner 2012, p.72, for mother telling Monroe of sister in 1938.

The story behind My Story, the only book credited to Marilyn Monroe, is beguiling as almost everything that has orbited the screen sex goddess since her death in 1962 at the age of 36. Published in 1974 by Stein and Day under the title The Unfinished Biography of Marilyn Monroe, the book is a collection of anecdotes by Monroe and Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky in 1954 to acclaimed screenwriter Ben Hecht, who'd been hired as ghostwriter on a Marilyn autobiography. Hecht's abandoned work was later revised and published by photographer Milton Greene, who established rights to the manuscript and whose photos of Monroe are included in the book.She taught me a very important lesson: not to judge people, and to know that when I judge people I actually judge myself! When I say: "Marilyn is a bad person", I actually say: "I'm a bad person"!!! I recently started listening to You Must Remember This, a film podcast exploring the secret and forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century. Since I love Marilyn Monroe, the first episodes I chose to listen to were from their trilogy on the iconic blonde, tracing her rise as a model-turned-actress to her mysterious and untimely death from a drug overdose. I’m also a huge fan of the film My Week With Marilyn, based on Colin Clark’s memoir of the same name, in which Marilyn is played by Michelle Williams. (You can also keep an eye out for my own forthcoming memoir, Michelle Williams Was Robbed of Her Oscar For That Movie.)