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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ClassyCo" data-source="post: 214168" data-attributes="member: 7">One of the topics I was thinking of when I started this thread was the time Marilyn performed for soldiers in Korea. She had recently married baseball great Joe DiMaggio, and the two decided to vacation in Japan. According to one biography, over in post-war Japan, baseball had become a national obsession, but DiMaggio, the famous yankee clipper, was eclipsed by the stardust surrounding his new bride, Hollywood's resident blonde bombshell. There was one instance that Joe escorted Marilyn away from a press conference she was swindled into giving shortly after their arrival.Within a few days, Marilyn was asked by the USO tours to perform a show for the servicemen stationed in Korea. Without skipping a beat, she readily agreed to their request, and interrupted her honeymoon to fly to Korea. Apparently, there was a quick poll assembled to survey which dress the soldiers would prefer Marilyn to wear. The winning gown was one she had worn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the hit musical comedy she had starred in the previous year. The USO quickly threw together a show for her they decided to call "Anything Goes", and she decided to sing the songs she familiarized as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.[ATTACH=full]20920[/ATTACH] While Marilyn's compliance to entertain war-weary G.I.s is certainly admirable, it did not go without throwing her new marriage some curve balls. Joe DiMaggio, her new husband, was familiar enough being the celebrity his athletic career brought him, but he had always been uneasy and sometimes jealous of Monroe's fame and the places it took her as a performer. In hindsight, I can understand Joe's feelings towards Marilyn doing the USO show. I don't think he was necessarily upset that she did it, but he was more angry about when she did it. That does make a difference. The newlyweds had barely settled into their romantic honeymoon getaway when she hitches a plane to Korea to perform for the soldiers. It threw Joe for a whim, and many biographers would argue that this was the first knife stabbed in the couple's young union.Regardless to the issues the USO show causes her marriage, Marilyn looks extraordinary doing these shows. She performed ten shows in four days to adoring crowds of over one-hundred-thousand servicemen. She relished in the attention she was given by the servicemen, and the event provided her with her "first major dose" of what it was like to be the movie personality she had developed in front of the public. She had done public appearances before, sure, but nothing comparable to this scale. It programmed her how to initiate and handle herself before a crowd that could very well be unpredictable.Watching the rather rare (and often short and poor quality) videos you can find online, it is interesting to see how Marilyn handled the task of performing before such large crowds. Naturally, the crowds whistle and roar as she wiggles and poses around the platform in figure-fitting spaghetti-strap dress. Granted, the acoustics were not the best, but her voice still manages to have a certain tonal quality. I've often heard critiques regarding Marilyn's singing capabilities, but here I think she proves that she indeed had a voice with potential that could have been further developed had she spent any significant time in training to broaden her range.[ATTACH=full]20921[/ATTACH] These color (or colorized) photos offer a more raw and somehow original glimpse of what it was like for Marilyn during her performances for the USO. We know the air was chilly, as better showcased in these three photos, but Marilyn's commitment to her patriotic duty remained effortless and she definitely comes out a true trouper for having endured such temperatures to perform for the men fighting for her freedom.But let's get back to Marilyn and Joe's marriage. As I said earlier, Marilyn's decision to perform for the soldiers in Korea rippled the waters of her new marriage. While Joe certainly expressed his love for her, he also never quite grasped the importance of her career to her. Many would agree that Joe was the great love of Marilyn's life, but that their vastly different outlooks on their professional and personal lives thwarted their romance, even before their marriage. Joe was infamous for not attending show business functions with Monroe, whether it be premieres, award ceremonies, etc., and this occasion was not any different. Tensions quickly grew between the two lovers over Joe's apparent jealousy of the attention lavished on Monroe, and her willing decision to bypass their honeymoon plans to perform for the servicemen.Back in Hollywood, Marilyn's dealings with 20th Century-Fox had been hitting some rough spots. She was already showing signs of wanting to broaden her acting horizons and be a more independent performer, which led to her turning down the leading role in The Girl in Pink Tights, a script that had been tailored specifically to showcase her talents as a musical comedy performer. There were multiple allegations, threats, and lawsuits brought against Marilyn by Fox for her refusing the assignment, but she held nothing back and flew to Japan for her honeymoon nonetheless. Her decision to marry DiMaggio also angered the studio, who generally preferred their sex symbols unattached to increase their on-screen allusion of availability.Marilyn's performance for the servicemen increased her fragile insecurity and self-confidence. Once she returned to Hollywood, she boldly decided to exert her new-found confidence by refusing a supporting role in Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business until her salary was upped to a then-impressive three-thousand-dollars a week. She was assigned the role, in what was primarily an Ethel Merman vehicle showcasing what seemed like dozens of Irving Berlin's songs, as a punishment of sorts for declining The Girl in Pink Tights, which was eventually shelved. On the other hand, Marilyn only decided to accept the role once Fox agreed that her next picture would be a film adaption of the Broadway comedy called The Seven Year Itch.</blockquote>

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