My Story

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Hundreds of books have been written about Monroe. She has been the subject of numerous films, plays, operas, and songs, and has influenced artists and entertainers such as Andy Warhol and Madonna. [336] [337] She also remains a valuable brand: [338] her image and name have been licensed for hundreds of products, and she has been featured in advertising for brands such as Max Factor, Chanel, Mercedes-Benz, and Absolut Vodka. [339] [340] The truth is somewhere in the middle,” Cooper says. “It almost always is.” She wanted to avoid the simplistic or salacious in chronicling a life beset by scandal and intrigue, and focused on the contents of Monroe’s character: the intellectual curiosity of the Method student, the passionate artistry of the actor who wowed greats like Billy Wilder and John Huston as her talents caught up to her innate charisma.

To state the obvious, it’s worth actually reading Anthony Summers’s Goddess, which is more revealing than The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe in many ways. As the author of The Kennedy Conspiracy (1980), Summers is well-versed in the minutiae of JFK’s privileged world, and he homes in on the former President’s relationship with Monroe here, offering up compelling (if not entirely convincing) evidence of a major government cover-up of her death. My Story by Marilyn Monroe (1974) After I finished this amazing memoir, I mourned Marilyn. Her entire life - especially her childhood - was tragic! Now, when I look at her pictures I see a huge amount of bitterness in her eyes! I know now that, regardless of her enormous fame, she was a very sad person! She continues: “The second one is when they’re doing the announcement of her divorce, and she can’t stop the emotion from showing. She cries, and it’s hard to watch. You see an immense hurt over this failed relationship. Young women today can still connect to that, and to her. As recently as 20 years ago, people would’ve said she was all over the place, mad, hysterical. Now, I see this and think, ‘That’s just being a woman.’” Monroe's longest marriage was with playwright Miller. They first met in 1950 at a party and later began exchanging letters. They met again when Monroe moved to New York in 1955, and they began an affair while she was still married to DiMaggio. They married on June 29, 1956.Owing to the contrast between her stardom and troubled private life, Monroe is closely linked to broader discussions about modern phenomena such as mass media, fame, and consumer culture. [352] According to academic Susanne Hamscha, Monroe has continued relevance to ongoing discussions about modern society, and she is "never completely situated in one time or place" but has become "a surface on which narratives of American culture can be (re-)constructed", and "functions as a cultural type that can be reproduced, transformed, translated into new contexts, and enacted by other people". [352] Similarly, Banner has called Monroe the "eternal shapeshifter" who is re-created by "each generation, even each individual... to their own specifications". [353] I did not think I’d end up having her as part of my body, but you become obsessed with her,” she tells the Guardian. “On my first research trip in Los Angeles, I went to see her grave and visit the Academy. While I was in town, I also met one of her biographers. They said, ‘Strap yourself in. You’re going to go mad for her.’ I thought, ‘Of course I won’t.’ Cut to me on Sunset Boulevard, getting this done.” Review: 'Some Like It Hot' ". Variety. February 24, 1959. Archived from the original on October 31, 2015 . Retrieved October 21, 2015. Monroe did not own a house until the last year of her life and had surprisingly few possessions. One that she prized was an autographed photo of Albert Einstein, which included an inscription: "To Marilyn, with respect and love and thanks." 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.

Monroe spent her first six months at Fox learning acting, singing, and dancing, and observing the film-making process. [71] Her contract was renewed in February 1947, and she was given her first film roles, bit parts in Dangerous Years (1947) and Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948). [72] [e] The studio also enrolled her in the Actors' Laboratory Theatre, an acting school teaching the techniques of the Group Theatre; she later stated that it was "my first taste of what real acting in a real drama could be, and I was hooked". [74] Despite her enthusiasm, her teachers thought her too shy and insecure to have a future in acting, and Fox did not renew her contract in August 1947. [75] She returned to modeling while also doing occasional odd jobs at film studios, such as working as a dancing "pacer" behind the scenes to keep the leads on point at musical sets. [75] Monroe in a 1948 publicity photoRight away, the couple began having problems. Monroe experienced two miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy. After Miller and Monroe had begun working together on what would have been her last film, The Misfits, they divorced on January 20, 1961. Following her stint in New York at Strasberg's acting school, Monroe returned to the screen in the dramatic comedy Bus Stop (1956). She received mostly praise for her performance as a saloon singer kidnapped by a rancher who has fallen in love with her. 'The Prince and the Showgirl' (1957) Any success in this film is a younger generation getting to know her, and getting a clearer idea of her than the ones that came before,” Cooper says. “They can take comfort in recognizing things they’ve gone through in their own lives happening to one of the most famous people of all time. It’s reassuring. I don’t mean to sound hokey.”

Moments later, President Kennedy appeared on stage, saying, "I can now retire from politics after having had 'Happy Birthday' sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way." Cooper is intrigued by ‘the way she could sometimes show her vulnerability and sometimes hide it’. Photograph: Courtesy of Netflix/Netflix In 1950, Monroe impressed audiences and critics alike with her performance as Claudia Caswell in All About Eve, starring Bette Davis. 'Niagara' (1953) 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] Churchwell 2004, p.61 for being commercially successful; Banner 2012, p.178 for wishes to not be solely a sex symbol.Now, does that sound like something any competent person (in their twenties) would say? Or does it sound like something that fits into the carefully curated persona of a dizzy little dream of a working class girl whose cup size is higher than her IQ? If America was to export the democracy of glamour into post-war, impoverished Europe, the movies could be its shop window... Marilyn Monroe, with her all American attributes and streamlined sexuality, came to epitomise in a single image this complex interface of the economic, the political, and the erotic. By the mid 1950s, she stood for a brand of classless glamour, available to anyone using American cosmetics, nylons and peroxide. [326] a b "The 2006 Motion Picture Almanac, Top Ten Money Making Stars". Quigley Publishing Company. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014 . Retrieved August 25, 2008.

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. 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] I also struggle to harbour any warm feelings for a woman who perceives all other women as bitches who just aren’t good enough to satisfy their husbands. And that “women’s friendships with each other are based on a gush of lies and pretty speeches that mean nothing. You’d think they were all wolves trying to seduce each other the way they flatter and flirt when they’re together.” Monroe found a more permanent home in September 1938, when she began living with Grace's aunt Ana Lower in the west-side district of Sawtelle. [47] She was enrolled at Emerson Junior High School and went to weekly Christian Science services with Lower. [48] She excelled in writing and contributed to the school newspaper, but was otherwise a mediocre student. [49] Owing to the elderly Lower's health problems, Monroe returned to live with the Goddards in Van Nuys in about early 1941. [50] [51]On May 19, 1962, Monroe made her now-famous performance at John F. Kennedy's birthday celebration, singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President." At first, Monroe wasn't initially considered to be star acting material. Her acting career didn't really take off until a few years later. With her breathy voice and hourglass figure, she would soon become one of Hollywood's most famous actresses. She proved her skill by winning various honors and attracting large audiences to her films.