Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days

[Snarky Oracle!]

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

As the decades roll on, I become increasingly convinced that it's one of the finest movies I've ever seen.

 

[ClassyCo]

As the decades roll on, I become increasingly convinced that it's one of the finest movies I've ever seen.

I'd certainly agree. I want to revisit it and look at it again. It's always been a favorite, but it's been a while since I've watched it. I've got it on the DVR, so maybe this week I'll get the time to re-watch it.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

 

[ClassyCo]

I know this thread has been set aside to discuss Marilyn Monroe's final days, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to expand the conversation to some of her earlier professional and personal life.

Below I've pasted some pictures of Marilyn in the 1952 comedy We're Not Married!, an anthology about five couples that learn that the Justice of the Peace that married them did so under a license that was not yet active, therefore rendering their marriages void. The film had a delightfully witty script penned by accomplished screenwriter Nunnally Johnson, and featured an all-star cast, consisting of Ginger Rogers, Fred Allen, David Wayne, Eve Arden, Paul Douglas, Eddie Bracken, Mitzi Gaynor, Louis Calhern, and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Marilyn's segment cast her opposite David Wayne as Annabel Norris, a beauty pageant winner whose recently been crowned Miss Mississippi. Wayne, who plays her husband, is furious at his wife's continuing on the pageant circuit, and he tries to manipulate her chances at the Mrs. America contest. He is psyched when the letter arrives affirming that he and Annabel are not legally wed, but the news only brings enthusiasm as Annabel as always wanted to enter the Miss America pageant, an opportunity she is now free to do because of her invalid nuptials.

The role of Annabel had been written with Monroe in mind, and was designed specifically to show the curvaceous 26-year-old actress in two bathing suits. Ironically, Monroe and Wayne's segment is the shortest of the five, considering Monroe's rising popularity and the length the advertisements went to showcase Marilyn as a drawing card. We're Not Married! is an enjoyable little comedy, photographed well, and sharply written. The performances are solid, even though the entire cast predominantly keeps their layers tongue-in-cheek. It is odd seeing Marilyn playing the mother of a young child, but no harm is done because she's beautiful doing it.

We're Not Married! is one of five films Monroe played in throughout 1952, the others being O. Henry's Full House, Clash by Night, Don't Bother to Knock, and Monkey Business. It was generally well-received by critics, and was a reasonable financial success.

 

[ClassyCo]

Sensational Sunday throwback for that time back on March 31, 1955 that Marilyn Monroe saddled a pink Bamum & Bailey elephant, as a part of the great Mike Todd Memorial, a benefits performance for victims of arthritis.

 

[ClassyCo]

In early January 1954, Twentieth Century-Fox had assigned Marilyn Monroe to star in The Girl in Pink Tights as her follow-up to the Western film River of No Return. Apparently, she was assigned to play the leading character named Jenny, and the story was a reworking of the 1943 Betty Grable musical comedy Coney Island.

This when the drama or the "beef" between Monroe and Fox really started brewing.

She was originally suspended from the studio on January 4, 1954 for failing to report to work on The Girl in Pink Tights. In an official statement, issued by Fox on January 20, the studio was instructing Monroe to report to Sol Siegel's office on January 25 to discuss the film and handle all necessary pre-production activities. There was an indication at the bottom of said statement that asked for Monroe to acknowledge the instructions as aforementioned. She did not sign the acknowledgement.

Lawsuits were brought forth against Marilyn, but she did not seem concerned whatsoever. On January 14, she married baseball superstar Joe DiMaggio, and the two flew to Korea for their honeymoon. When the reaction from Monroe's fans concerning her marriage proved enthusiastic, Fox decided to lift her suspension. Their intention was to get her into The Girl in Pink Tights role as soon as possible, but she still refused the part. The studio then hired Broadway actress Sheree North to replace Monroe in the film, but ultimately the production was scrapped entirely.

Monroe entered contract re-negotiations with Fox shortly thereafter. While she was thankful that The Girl in Pink Tights died before the cameras ever rolled, she still under-appreciated by her home studio. She campaigned for a $3,000-a-week salary, which the studio eventually agreed to only on the assurance that Monroe would take a top role in Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business. The latter movie had an excessive budget, and ended up barely breaking even at the box office.

Sheree North, the actress hired to "threaten" Marilyn in 1954. She was tested in Monroe's own studio wardrobe for her roles in The Girl in Pink Tights and Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business. She stayed with Fox until 1958, during which time she appeared in several commercially successful movies.

Marilyn performing "After You Get What You Want" in Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business.

 

[ClassyCo]

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Footage from the unfinished SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE (1962) -- and she looks pretty good!

 

[ClassyCo]

Footage from the unfinished SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE (1962) -- and she looks pretty good!

The footage the studio eventually decided to salvage and proceed with to finish Something's Got to Give once Marilyn took it upon herself to rally the film back into production. But she left us before it could happen.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

The footage the studio eventually decided to salvage and proceed with to finish Something's Got to Give once Marilyn took it upon herself to rally the film back into production. But she left us before it could happen.

Dean Martin refused to go forward without Marilyn, so they hired her back at twice the salary.

 

[Crimson]

Am I missing something? Could it be that I'm misjudging Jeanne Carmen?

Jeanne Carmen was a shyster. Maybe she acquired some hearsay through her years around town, but she had, at best, fleeting, inconsequential connection with Marilyn. My Marilyn-lore isn't as strong as it used to be, but there was a whole cast of characters who parlayed ephemeral connections with Marilyn into steady appearances on 80s daytime talk shows. where they cheerfully corroborated each other's stories. Of all of them, Carmen was the least credible. The others, at least, had a few photos with Marilyn, but all of Carmen's "proof" was conveniently destroyed in a fire.

 

[ClassyCo]

Jeanne Carmen was a shyster. Maybe she acquired some hearsay through her years around town, but she had, at best, fleeting, inconsequential connection with Marilyn. My Marilyn-lore isn't as strong as it used to be, but there was a whole cast of characters who parlayed ephemeral connections with Marilyn into steady appearances on 80s daytime talk shows. where they cheerfully corroborated each other's stories. Of all of them, Carmen was the least credible. The others, at least, had a few photos with Marilyn, but all of Carmen's "proof" was conveniently destroyed in a fire.

Jeanne's always been shady to me, but there's a host of documentaries and things that include her. I didn't know that she tried passing off that all her evidence was lost to a fire.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Jeanne Carmen was a shyster. Maybe she acquired some hearsay through her years around town, but she had, at best, fleeting, inconsequential connection with Marilyn. My Marilyn-lore isn't as strong as it used to be, but there was a whole cast of characters who parlayed ephemeral connections with Marilyn into steady appearances on 80s daytime talk shows. where they cheerfully corroborated each other's stories. Of all of them, Carmen was the least credible. The others, at least, had a few photos with Marilyn, but all of Carmen's "proof" was conveniently destroyed in a fire.

I think of her as the James Files of the Marilyn assassination.

 

[Crimson]

Jeanne's always been shady to me, but there's a host of documentaries and things that include her. I didn't know that she tried passing off that all her evidence was lost to a fire.

Donald Spoto, in his biography of Marilyn, had this to say about Jeanne.

She was a former bit-part actress who sometimes used the name Jeanne Carmen. Like Robert Slatzer, Carmen emerged from obscurity many years later to transmute her geographic proximity to Marilyn Monroe into something of a career. Claiming that she was once Marilyn's roommate at Doheny Drive, she began, in the 1980s, to invent an imaginative series of scurrilous tales for which there is simply no basis in fact ... Like Slatzer, however, Carmen's name is nowhere to be found in Marilyn's address book, nor did anyone who knew Marilyn ever hear of or see (much less meet or know) her.

 

[Crimson]

This topic's got me all riled up. It's hard to overstate the mendacity of Jeanne Carmen. If her story was that she and Marilyn moved in the same social circles and occasionally had some revealing conversations, I doubt anyone could or would bother to dispute the claim. But she claimed the two were practically the best of friends, who had so many escapades together it took 10 chapters in her son's book to recount them all. Despite not one single photo of the two existing, anywhere. (I mean, for Pete's sake, at least Photoshop something.)

That so many biographers and documentarians used Jeanne as a credible source is mind-boggling.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Marilyn died 59 years ago today. We dropped the first A-bomb on Japan 76 years ago today.

Which one is the bigger tragedy?

 

[Crimson]

There have been various speculative fictions written about what Marilyn's life might have been like if she had lived past 1962. These always seem to hinge on the notion that Marilyn would have turned her life around, but that seems wildly optimistic given that her entire adult life was basically a calamity. Even if she had made it past the events of August 1962 -- whether they were accidental or intentional -- I find it hard to imagine her life turning out as anything other than a tragedy.

Her death at the far too young age of 36 was, of course, a great loss, but also enshrined her legend. Her image was spared the follies of middle-aged stardom and the ignominy of getting old and fat like Marlon and Liz.