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Immortal Marilyn

28th October 2015
5

She’s No Marilyn! The Inexplicable Ire of Marilyn Fans Towards Imitation

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“Not even close!”

“No way!”

“There’s only one!”

“She’s no Marilyn!”

 

Planning to dress up as Marilyn for Halloween this year?  Better start with a good layer of thick skin, because no matter who you are, these are the kind of comments you can expect.

It seems there’s nothing quite like another person dressed up as Marilyn to bring out the ire in Marilyn’s fans.  If that person is a celebrity, the responses become even more rude, derogatory, and downright angry.  For some reason, seeing another woman do a Marilyn impression or homage turns on some irrational desire to defend her from a damage that isn’t actually being done.

Marilyn has had her imitators since the moment she exploded into fame.  The very fact that women today still want to emulate her look and to pay tribute to her iconic clothes, poses, and sittings stands as irrefutable evidence of the power of her legacy.  People are still choosing the white subway dress or pink Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend gown as a Halloween costume.  Celebrities from aspiring starlets to A-listers have donned blonde wigs and a beauty mark in homage to the most famous blonde of them all.

And for some reason, a large portion of the Marilyn fandom absolutely can’t bear it.

There seems to be a feeling that every female actress, model, or singer who tries out a Marilyn look is trying to replace Marilyn, which leads to cries of “There’s only one Marilyn!” and “She’ll never be Marilyn!”  Which seems to ignore the fact that not one of these women is trying to be Marilyn.  They’re not trying to be the next Marilyn, or another Marilyn, or any sort of Marilyn.  They’re just paying tribute, in their own way, to a woman who paved Hollywood trails ahead of them.  To a woman they appreciate and admire.  To a Hollywood icon.

At the end of the day, they’re just fans.  Famous, wealthy fans, but really still fans.

Why is it that the first reaction to a woman doing a Marilyn homage is, for so many, to cut that woman down?  To point out how unlike Marilyn she is instead of simply realizing this person loves Marilyn too?  Perhaps it’s the natural tendency to defend and protect Marilyn that many who knew her said she brought out in people.  But that would imply that the compliment of being imitated is something Marilyn needs to be defended from.  Which defies logic.

No, there will never be another Marilyn.  That’s never been up for argument.  But the desire of women everywhere to grasp a little of what it would be like to be so beautiful, so admired, so glamorous as to be Marilyn – even for a moment – that isn’t going to go away.  And that’s not about being another Marilyn, it’s about her incredible draw.

It’s a testament to Marilyn’s staying power that of all the beauties that have come and gone, she remains the one most imitated.  It’s a little too easy to say how Marilyn might have felt about any particular subject, but I feel relatively safe in saying that if she could see today the impact she has had, she would certainly not feel derision or anger towards the women who imitate her.  So why, then, do her fans?

And the phenomenon seems to be mainly limited to Marilyn.  I have never seen anyone accused of trying to be Britney Spears in a white tied top and a plaid skirt.  Nor have I ever heard anyone accused of trying to be Audrey Hepburn in a black dress and pearls.  If these can be viewed as a fun way of paying homage to an iconic image, why can’t we see a blonde in a white halter dress the same way?

For those who do feel the need to defend Marilyn, there is an internet full of fake quotes, photoshopped pictures, and downright lies about her.  Defending her against those things is much more important to her legacy than defending her against another actress in a similar dress.

16th October 2015
26
Marilyn Monroe leaving hospital

The Secret Pain That Marilyn Monroe Shared With So Many Women

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October 15th has been designated Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, part of an entire month dedicated to awareness of the sad losses so many share – and unlike many other awareness causes, this is one that still isn’t talked about much.  And it’s certainly one that doesn’t get talked about a lot when it comes to Marilyn Monroe.  Which is not to say her pain was private.

Sadly for Marilyn, her struggles to conceive and miscarriages played out in the public eye; unlike so many other women who went through the same struggle Marilyn wasn’t given the choice of keeping her losses to herself.  But in true Marilyn fashion, she faced the press and shared the truth with dignity.

Marilyn wanted a baby more than anything in the world, but that joy was denied her.  Suffering her entire adult life from endometriosis that caused severe menstrual pain, Marilyn also struggled to conceive.  Her attempts to have a baby with third husband Arthur Miller ended sadly in miscarriages, with an early one reported during filming of The Prince and The Showgirl in England during the summer of 1956.

In 1957 she suffered an ectopic pregnancy requiring emergency surgery.  She was hounded by the press throughout.  Rushed into the city from her summer home in Amagansett, she was wheeled into the hospital for the ectopic surgery with a blanket over her head to protect her from the press, but could not avoid being forced to smile for them as she left.

Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller leave hospital

Marilyn clutches her husband’s hand tightly as she faces the press, leaving the hospital after her ectopic pregnancy.

 

Her smiles were hiding a broken heart.  The moment the car pulled away and the reporters were gone, the smile faded too and Marilyn faced her loss.

Marilyn lost another child, further along in her pregnancy, shortly after the filming of Some Like it Hot at the end of 1959.  The pregnancy had already started to show and is visible in the film.  While she escaped being photographed that time, her loss was once again publicized in the newspapers and gossip columns.

Marilyn is often seen as the glamour girl, but the truth is that she was human.  In her day, pregnancy loss wasn’t something to be discussed, but to be born with a smile to hide the pain.  Perhaps if Marilyn was here today, she would take comfort in the circle of women around the world speaking out and supporting each other; and in honour of her dreams of motherhood, we take a moment today to remember her lost babies and lost dreams.

“What do I want more than anything else in the world?  I want a baby!  I want to have children!”~Marilyn to George Barris, 1962

You can visit the Official Site of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day for more information.

8th October 2015
5

DiMaggio’s Doctor Pushes Another Book of “Secrets” About Marilyn

By | IM Articles, Marilyn News, Uncategorised | No Comments

Another day, another tell-all book that promises new secrets about Marilyn’s life.

This time, we have a doctor, Dr. Rock Positano, who claims Joe DiMaggio confided in him the secrets of his marriage to Marilyn, right down to an eyebrow-raising description of their sex life.  The New York Post’s equally sensational headline “Botched Surgery Made Joe DiMaggio Impotent” screams money-maker, and the article about the upcoming book is bound to create a whole new set of commonly held beliefs about Marilyn and Joe’s ill-fated nine-month marriage.

mm and joe

Let’s start with the fact that Joe was famously tight-lipped about Marilyn.  He refused to speak of her, never gave interviews or talked about her to the press, and friends have said that he would become angry when asked about her.  But we’re to believe he said this to his doctor about their sex life:

“When we got together in the bedroom, it was like the gods were fighting.  There was lightning and thunderclouds above us.”

Next, we have a claim that the marriage ended because of Marilyn’s infertility, which doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny.  Marilyn was at the height of her career and in no way ready to settle down and be a housewife.  While nobody knows for sure whether or not Marilyn and Joe were making a real effort to have a baby, most tales of the marriage’s trouble center on Marilyn’s unwillingness to settle down and give up her career, and Joe’s desire for a good housewife to stay home and cook for hime like his mother.  That doesn’t add up to infertility being a major issue in the marriage, particularly since the couple was barely married long enough to have made a real effort at having a baby and spent much of the marriage either traveling or on a movie set (Marilyn filmed The Seven Year Itch during their brief marriage).

Without a doubt, infertility and failed pregnancies contributed to the end of Marilyn’s marriage to Arthur Miller, which might lead one to believe the same was true of her marriage to Joe – but there’s no evidence to support that idea.

Finally, we bring in the Kennedys, because nothing sells better than that tired old the-Kennedys-killed-her song and dance.  Did Joe hate the Kennedys?  Maybe.  Did he believe they actually murdered her?  I sincerely doubt it.

But even if this doctor is telling the truth – even if Joe did tell him all about thunderclaps in the bedroom and Marilyn’s inability to conceive (and I sincerely doubt that he did), to put it all in a book is an egregious lapse in both professional and personal trust, capped by telling the world Joe suffered from erectile dysfunction, too.  If in fact this doctor is the one person Joe chose to open up to about Marilyn – after decades of refusing to speak of her – then to take that trust and write a book is downright despicable.

But once again, the promise getting in on the money to be made of sensational stories involving Marilyn matters more than trust – or the truth.

3rd October 2015
1

No Dumb Blonde

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“YOU KNOW, MOST PEOPLE REALLY DON’T KNOW ME.”

SHE STUDIED HARD AT HER ART – Marilyn always wanted to be an actress and she worked her butt off to be the best she could be. Starting in small roles she would take several classes in acting, singing, dancing and more to better herself and stand out from the other starlets. It took over 5 years for her to get a leading role. Even years into her fame she went to the Actor’s Studio where she studied method acting (the same as Marlon Brando, James Dean and Al Pacino). This would be where she became very critical of her ability to be a good actress, which she of course was.

NOTE: I recommend you watching Don’t Bother to Knock, Niagara, Bus Stop, The Misfits, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Seven Year Itch to show Marilyn in a variety of roles.

SHE WAS AN AVID READER – Marilyn Monroe dumb you say? Marilyn’s book collection which sold at auction included 430 titles. The books in question contained the topics of Russian Literature, art, history, science and more. No dumb blonde would have interest in these topics, surely?

SHE WAS ONE OF THE FIRST WOMEN TO START A PRODUCTION COMPANY – After years of agreeing to taking on the sexy bombshell roles Marilyn felt she was being typecast and not at all taken seriously. With the lack of salary she was receiving in comparison to what was brought in from her movies Marilyn felt she deserved better. And she was right considering she starred in some of the 1950s highest grossing movies (search by year and you will see Marilyn’s name pop up a few times).

With this in mind her and photographer Milton Greene teamed up for form Marilyn Monroe Productions (December 1954) making her one of the first women to set up a production company.

SHE WAS A CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST – Marilyn had no fear of being photographed with people of colour at a time where it was still a subject of taboo or speaking out about it. Marilyn Monroe had actually help launch Ella Fitzgerald’s career due to convincing the owner of Mocambo to have her perform, although she was originally refused. The rumour is that Ella was originally rejected was because she was black, however there had been plenty of African Americans who performed there before her.

You can read the full article by Laura Saxby here

30th September 2015
1

BOOK REVIEW: Marilyn Monroe A Composite View by Edward Wagenknecht

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Marilyn Monroe A Composite View
Edited by Edward Wagenknecht
Hardcover
Publisher: Philadelphia Chilton Book Co (1969)
Language: English
ASIN: B000EN81QS
This book was published seven years after Marilyn’s death and brings together a collection of works taken from magazines and biographies written by people who knew her that had been published in her lifetime and as tributes in the months and years after her death.

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30th September 2015
21

Was Marilyn Monroe Really A Smoker?

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Every now and then the discussion comes up when a photo appears of Marilyn Monroe with a cigarette.  It seems to be a subject of much confusion and debate: did she or did she not smoke?

Some believe Marilyn was a social smoker, others that she smoked only for photographs or roles, and others believe she was a semi-regular smoker throughout much of her adult life.  What’s the truth?  Well, it can be gleaned by an examination of photos and a look at the times.

If you are one of the few people who hasn’t seen Mad Men, in the 1950s and into the 1960s, everyone smoked.  Well, perhaps not everyone, but it was really, really common.  Not only was it not known just how dangerous smoking was, it was actually endorsed by doctors.

docsmoke

 

Warning labels did not appear on cigarette packages until 1966, and it still took much longer for the true dangers to be understood.  We can pretty safely say that Marilyn didn’t know smoking was bad for her health.  We can also say for sure that she was photographed smoking throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s.  The photographic evidence is pretty clear on that.  Marilyn isn’t just seen smoking in posed photos, but in candids as well.

Marilyn smoked on screen in Right Cross, Niagara, and The Seven Year Itch as well.  But even further back, she lit and put out a cigarette as part of her screen test.  There’s a tale that she had to practice smoking for Niagara, as it wasn’t natural for her, and it may be that she wasn’t a regular smoker at that point – but it wasn’t the first time she lit up, either, at least not on screen.

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So yes, she smoked on screen, but she was also photographed smoking in her private life as well.  These are just a few of the many shots.

gallery_big_marilyn_monroe_smoking smoke13 nyc

And on the sets of her movies when the camera wasn’t rolling.  Right up until her final completed film, the Misfits.

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In the photographs of her bedroom after her death, there appears to be a pack of cigarettes and a book of matches on the bedside table.  Ashtrays were also among the items sold in the auction of her estate in 1999.  Ashtrays might be explained as present for the use of guests, but that wouldn’t explain the cigarettes on her bedside table.

In Marilyn’s era, smoking was very popular and very common.  Both Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, Marilyn’s second and third husbands, smoked.  Friends and co-workers smoked…it was simply the way it was.

Did Marilyn smoke?  Yes.  We can make guesses as to how heavily she smoked – certainly she was photographed more without a cigarette than with one, but there is no doubt that she was more than just an occasional or social smoker.  It’s possible her smoking increased during times when she was around smokers more often, such as during her marriages to smokers and when on the set with other stars who smoked, but it remains a fact that she was photographed with a cigarette over a period of more than ten years, and that adds up to more than an occasional smoker.

And for the record, the video that has gone around claiming to show Marilyn smoking marijuana is simply a video of Marilyn smoking a cigarette…as she clearly often did.

While in this day and age it can be difficult to see the glamorous side of smoking, and some fans find it hard to look at pictures of Marilyn smoking, it was a fact of her times, and those times are a part of history.  The way we judge smoking today simply can’t be applied to a time when even Joltin’ Joe, a professional athlete, endorsed it.  So don’t be too hard on Marilyn for the bad habit that wasn’t seen as bad in her day.

Cigs_JoeDiMaggio

24th September 2015
7

The Truth About Marilyn’s Alleged Affairs With Women

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There may be no star in history who has had her sex life dissected as much as Marilyn Monroe.  From claims she had affairs with powerful men to claims that she worked as a call girl, Marilyn’s name has been dragged through every possible sexual situation.

Tales about Marilyn’s sex life are tales you can take straight to the bank, and so it’s no surprise that dozens upon dozens of people have popped up out of the woodwork claiming to have been her lovers.  With all the people she’s supposed to have slept with, it’s a wonder she had any time to make movies.

Recently, yet another article has popped up claiming to expose Marilyn’s big sexual secret: that she was a lesbian.

This isn’t a new story; it’s been making the rounds for years.  It’s been alleged that Marilyn had a sexual affair with her acting coach, Natasha Lytess.  She’s been linked with other famous women in Hollywood, such as Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich.

But the publication of the book “My Little Secret” by Tony Jerris, based on the story of Jane Lawrence, a few years back crossed a whole new line – claiming Marilyn had a sexual relationship with her underage fan club leader, and describing it in detail.  The book is full of other lies and nonsense as well, but unfortunately, as with most things Marilyn, once it’s in print people believe it.

So Was Marilyn Sexually Involved With Women?

There is zero evidence to support Marilyn having sexual relationships with women.  Marilyn herself stated clearly that she was not a lesbian:

“A man who had kissed me once had said it was very possible that I was a lesbian because apparently I had no response to males-meaning him. I didn’t contradict him because I didn’t know what I was……Now, having fallen in love, I knew what I was. It wasn’t a lesbian.”  – Marilyn Monroe, My Story, 1954.

None of the other stories have ever been supported.  The gossip-filled article going around right now (no, we won’t link to it) offers several unsupported claims as truth, including that Marilyn propositioned both Betty Grable and Judy Garland.  The sources of these claims are unreliable, and that’s putting it mildly.  These two women were friends of Marilyn’s.  Even if something like that had happened, both were far too classy to ever tell the tale.  And there’s not only no evidence, but the behavior doesn’t fit Marilyn’s personality at all.

The article admits that the Jane Lawrence book may have some lies, but then goes on to quote it anyway.  This is how these stories continue to be spread in spite of having no basis in truth.

Is it possible Marilyn at some point had a sexual encounter with a woman?  Sure.  Is there any real evidence of it?  No.

Does it Matter if She Liked Women?

No, it doesn’t matter.  We aren’t refuting these tales because we care whether or not Marilyn had sexual relationships with women.  Marilyn herself was known to be open-minded about sexual orientation.

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She was supportive of her gay male friends forced to hide who they really were in a restrictive era, and we at IM like to think she would have been front and center in the fight for marriage equality had she lived long enough to see it.

It’s not a question of whether or not Marilyn’s fans care who she slept with.  It’s a question of the truth, and of debunking the lies and rumors that surround Marilyn.

And the truth is that there is no evidence to show that any of the claims of affairs with women are true.

19th September 2015
1

Fake Quotes, Photoshops, and Marilyn’s Legacy

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A few important words on how fake quotes and Photoshop are degrading Marilyn’s legacy, from the September 18, 2015 episode of Goodnight Marilyn Radio.

What I want to say about Marilyn’s legacy most is what danger the real Marilyn faces – how easily her true legacy can be lost.

We live in an age when anyone can take any quote, put Marilyn’s name on it, and share it around the world in a matter of minutes. When anyone can Photoshop her head onto another body, or her entire body into a false situation, and before you know it it’s been re-pinned and shared a million times over as a real photo.

I want to share Marilyn’s words on the subject of how she wanted to influence her fans:

 

“I refuse to let articles appear in movie magazines signed ‘By Marilyn Monroe’. I might never see that article and it might be okayed by someone in the studio. This is wrong, because when I was a little girl  I read signed stories in fan magazines and I believed every word the stars said in them. Then I’d try to model my life after the lives of the stars I read about. If I’m going to have that kind of influence, I want to be sure it’s because of something I’ve actually said or written.”

 

I frequently hear people say that false quotes and Photoshops are not a big deal – that they are art, or that Marilyn would have approved of the sentiment even if she didn’t actually say it.

False quotes take the place of the things she really did say. Photoshopped pictures cloud her real story. And Marilyn herself wanted only her real words and her real intentions to be shared in her name.

Marilyn has been gone over 50 years, and in another 50 years who will be left with any real memory of her? The fans of today will have to hand the torch to a new generation of fans, and it is our job to make sure that the truth is handed down and not a slew of fake quotes and Photoshopped pictures. Marilyn deserves to have her real legacy live on.

That real legacy is incredible artistry put down on film – still and motion pictures alike – and honest words showing incredible insight into not only herself, but humanity. It needs to be preserved now so it can be shared with the future.

So before I get off my soapbox – I want to implore all of Marilyn’s fans to join us in sharing Marilyn’s real words, and her real image, and keeping her legacy true to who she really was. We have a Facebook page, Immortal Marilyn Quote UnQuote where we share real quotes – please visit and help us share her real words.

All of Immortal Marilyn’s carefully sourced REAL quotes can be found on the Facebook page as well as here on our website.  Please share and help preserve her memory for the future!

fakequote

8th September 2015
1

Photoshopped Images of Marilyn Debunked!

By | IM Articles, Other | No Comments

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We see photos everywhere of Marilyn Monroe… Which aren’t exactly Marilyn Monroe.

It’s such a common thing nowadays for people to manipulate images of stars but we at Immortal Marilyn think it’s wrong, disrespectful and plain silly. Why take the face of one of the biggest Hollywood icons in the world and a morph it onto someone else’s body (and sometimes even her own!)?

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