The future Hollywood legend learned early what violence was and managed to make the most of her own appearance. It turned out brilliantly: she achieved fame, money, fans. Everything - except personal happiness.
Marilyn Monroe never knew who her father was. His mother, Gladys Baker, separated from him before the girl was born. She listed her daughter as Norma Jeane Baker on the birth certificate and gave the child to a family of guardians shortly after the birth.
To support herself and her daughter, Gladys worked a lot and at first spent time with the girl only on weekends. Until she decided that she had sufficiently provided for herself financially and took Norma to Hollywood. A few months later, Gladys was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. She will spend the rest of her life in the hospital, and Norma will have to learn to live in the complex world of adults on her own.
Return of the Blonde
Norma was working at an aircraft factory when she was spotted by photographer David Conover. On instructions from his superiors, he photographed female workers for propaganda postcards. But this girl was too bright to limit herself to this task. Conover offered Norma to pose for $5 an hour, and she agreed.
James screamed and shouted: “Who gave you permission to act like that?!” But she just smiled, realizing that between her new job and her husband, she would choose a job without hesitation. "Mrs. Dougherty" was a thing of the past. For filming in advertising, she began to take the pseudonym Zhanna Norma, and then came up with a name with which she would go down in history: Marilyn Monroe.
The name was borrowed from the Broadway musical star, and "Monroe" was her mother's maiden name. Having straightened her curly brown hair and dyed it blonde, Marilyn felt that she had regained her true self - which had once been her natural shade.
The decision to become a professional model and actress was so firm that Marilyn took on any task: nude shooting, small roles in films and theater... At the same time, she took acting lessons and watched other actors - hoping that one day she would play in a real drama. Alas, Marilyn Monroe was firmly assigned a completely different role: a beautiful, sexy blonde looking for a husband or adventure. Chained in this image, for the rest of her life she suffered from contradictions between what was going on inside her and what people saw.
Such different husbands
Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio
Her second husband, baseball player Joe DiMaggio, also saw her as a pretty actress (no more!). The son of Italian immigrants, he had an explosive temperament and was as jealous of Marilyn as her first husband.
The famous scene in The Seven Year Itch, where Marilyn tries to hold up her flowing skirt while standing on a ventilation grill, provoked a huge scandal. Joe shouted that millions of people would see “his wife’s panties,” and Marilyn realized that this marriage would again not bring her happiness. They divorced, but Joe was by her side until the end of her life: he helped in difficult situations, he was ready to rush at the first call. Shortly before her death, suffering from her fatal depression, Marilyn would think that it was a mistake not to marry DiMaggio, but to divorce him. This kind of man - reliable and confident - was what she needed.
Famous scene in the film "The Seven Year Itch"
No one believed in her third marriage. America's sex symbol and Marilyn Monroe and intellectual playwright Arthur Miller - what keeps them together? But it was love. Miller was the first to see her mind and soul behind her beautiful face. He was sure that she was capable of playing serious roles, he infected her with a love of reading, and took her from Hollywood to New York.
Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn's love for Miller was so strong that she decided to have a child for the first time. The first pregnancy ended in miscarriage. The second one turned out to be ectopic. This test was fatal for them: the spouses gradually moved away from each other, until one day Marilyn discovered her husband’s diary on the table, open on a page with arguments that their marriage was a mistake. “...I think that in the depths of my soul I was always afraid of actually becoming someone’s wife, since I know from life that no one can love, ever, truly,” she would later write bitterly in her notebook.
Marilyn Monroe: sex symbol of the 20th century. Personal life
The personal life of the film actress is shrouded in myths and secrets. She is credited with not only many marriages, but also affairs with the most famous compatriots of that time. We have already mentioned our first husband, Jim Dougherty. Unable to survive the love of his young wife and the desire for fame, he filed for divorce.
In 1954, the actress married for the second time. The husband was Joe DiMaggio. As they say today, this marriage became a union “at the request of the audience”: the actress’s producers decided that by marrying Merlin to a famous baseball player, they would raise ratings among the country’s citizens. And so it happened: this couple became one of the most beloved among Americans. It is noteworthy that the baseball player truly truly loved Monroe all his life. And it was he who, after her death, took upon himself all the troubles associated with the funeral.
The actress's third marriage happened to the famous playwright Arthur Miller. They say that this couple was connected by calculation and passion at the same time. Miller was flattered to have such a beautiful wife next to him, and Merlin hoped for Miller’s patronage and mentorship.
But soon their relationship deteriorated: Arthur began to be annoyed by the not entirely intellectual blonde, and Monroe was burdened by her husband’s coldness. Soon after suffering a nervous breakdown, she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.
In addition to official marriages, the actress had many affairs with famous people. Among the lovers were Yves Montand and John Kennedy. Monroe had a painful relationship with Montand, during which the woman suffered: the actor did not have a particular passion for Merlin, directly declaring that he would never leave his wife.
Monroe also had a painful love affair with John Kennedy. Secretly, the actress hoped that she could move the country's first lady. At that time, Merlin was going through hard times, drinking alcohol and taking antidepressants. Her behavior was often inappropriate. After one of the scandals with Kennedy, when the actress threatened to tell the world all the details of her affair with the president, the woman was found dead.
One
No, this is not what she dreamed of when she began her modeling career back in 1945. More than ten years later, her life turned into a complete torment: Marilyn was in conflict with film studios, she was tormented by nightmares and insomnia, from which she saved herself with pills.
Having once attended a secret party with US President John Kennedy, and then performed the famous Happy Birthday, Mr. President in a “naked” dress, she gave rise to many rumors about their romance - and because of this she did not feel safe.
Marilyn spent the last months of her life locked in her bedroom and swallowing pills. They ruined her: despite many conspiracy theories, the official cause of death of the main sex symbol of the 20th century is considered to be suicide. Marilyn's body was found on the bed, with empty bottles of medicine lying nearby. ...There were very few people at her funeral. Joe DiMaggio hosted the memorial service. It was the last thing he could do for the woman whose care he considered his duty.
Childhood of a future star
The biography of Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane) is bright and controversial. She was born in one of the city hospitals in multimillion-dollar Los Angeles early in the morning. While still in the maternity ward, her mother, Gladys, told the doctors the following information: she did not know who the father of her newborn daughter was. The doctor wrote the baby down as Norma Jeane Mortensen.
Why did we mention the name of the mother of the future star? If you remember what was written about Merlin in her time; If you read what she herself was worried about, you can understand: Monroe was always afraid of mental disorders. This was connected with family legends (some of which had a basis in reality). Norma Jean's grandfather died of organic brain damage as a result of syphilis.
The grandmother of the future star was also not known for her integrity. After the death of her husband, she changed men, justifying herself by the need to arrange her personal life. Even Norma Jeane's mother, Gladys, she actually abandoned to the mercy of fate at the age of 14, simply by getting married. She abdicated responsibility for raising her daughter, giving her to her husband. It is clear that Norma Jeane grew up in conditions where certain foundations and values could not exist in the family.
When the baby was two weeks old, Grandma Della convinced Gladys to give her daughter up to a foster family. The flighty Gladys agreed immediately: she herself was not ready to take on the burden of her mother. So the girl Norma Jean ended up in the Bolender family, who made money by raising other people's children. By modern standards, it was a family-type orphanage.
The adoptive parents did not have any special love for their children, but they treated them well and gave them everything they needed. The future sex bomb spent the first seven years of her life in the Bolendor family. In her memoirs, she wrote that she was raised strictly, under constant prohibitions and fears.
Norma was not particularly liked by her adoptive mother. She considered the girl too silent, hidden and stupid. During one Easter celebration, all the children in the Bolendor family were dressed in dark tunics. Underneath they were wearing light-colored outfits. On command, at a certain moment, everyone had to take off their dark tunics. Only Norma Jeane “hesitated” and did not do this.
Later she recalled that she was the only “dark spot” on the celebration of life. This incident was remembered for a long time by the adoptive mother, who, at the first opportunity, persuaded her husband to give up “a silent creature that makes him nervous.”
When Norma Jeane was seven years old, maternal feelings awoke in her own mother, Gladys. It cannot be said that they had not communicated before. But if earlier their dates were periodic Sunday meetings, now Gladys has decided to take the girl away from her foster parents forever and start raising her herself.
The mother of the future star worked at the “dream factory”. Norma Jeane remembered Gladys' mother's friend, Grace, who became another foster family for her for a time.
Grace also worked at the Dream Factory. She was closely acquainted with many actors of that time. It was Grace who “planted” the idea in the girl’s head that she should become a movie star.
Norma Jeane's life in the family of her guardian also had its “dark spots.” Consider the story when her stepfather tried to rape her at the age of 11. And this was not a one-time incident. At the age of 12, the same story repeated itself with her own teenage cousin. Fortunately, both attempts were unsuccessful: the girl managed to escape.
At the age of 14, Norma Jeane first realized that she had turned from an awkward girl into a seductive little woman. Her rounded shape attracted the attention of many men. And at school Norma was given the nickname “Mmmm Girl.”
It was early maturation that to some extent “played into the hands” of the girl. After all, at the age of 16, she rushed to marry her friend Jim Dougherty. Did she love him? Rather, it was a necessary measure: without getting married, Norma Jeane would have to live in a shelter until her 18th birthday. And in her older friend she saw a partner, an adviser and the best option. Thus ended childhood.
