In 1953, Marilyn Monroe was the unofficial queen of Hollywood. Her last three movies had made her the most bankable of actresses, and she achieved her childhood dream of having her hand and footprints immortalised in cement outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
Jeanne Eagles – 1920s.
“Jeanne Eagels was the Marilyn Monroe of the 1920s: beautiful, blonde, talented, vulnerable and mercurial – and a complete and utter mess. Indeed, Marilyn was a model of emotional stability compared to Jeanne,” author Eve Golden wrote, in ‘Golden Images’ (2000.) Both actresses died young, and their lives have become mythical. But beyond the legend, what do these two women really have in common?
The US cable channel, Lifetime, is well-known – notorious, even – for producing a range of celebrity biopics, including Liz and Dick, a widely-panned film about the Taylor-Burton affair, starring Lindsay Lohan. Since then, features on Whitney Houston and others have been released. Despite critical disdain, Lifetime’s tabloid-friendly subjects continue to attract large audiences.
‘Evil is the awful deception and unreality of existence’ – Mary Baker Eddy
As an adult, Marilyn Monroe was not particularly religious. But faith influenced her strongly during childhood. Rumour has it that she was baptised in the Foursquare Gospel Church by the flamboyant Aimee Semple McPherson.
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Eli Herschel Wallach was born at Union Street, in Brooklyn’s Red Hook district, in December 1915. One of four children, he grew up above Bertha’s candy store, managed by his Polish immigrant parents – one of the few Jewish businesses in a predominantly Italian neighbourhood. Two months previously, Arthur Miller had been born in Harlem; while Elia Kazan, born in Istanbul in 1909, was living in New York with his Greek Orthodox family.
Norma Jeane Mortenson never knew her father, and was raised by a series of strong, spirited women. Although she was born in Los Angeles, her earliest years were spent with the Bolenders, a foster family in the small town of Hawthorne, California. And her first influences came not from movies, but religion.
On July 19, 1946, a little-known model and aspiring actress called Norma Jeane Dougherty took her first screen test at Twentieth Century Fox. Cameraman Leon Shamroy later recalled, ‘I thought, this girl will be another Harlow! Her natural beauty plus her inferiority complex gave her a look of mystery… and she
got sex on a piece of film like Jean Harlow.’
Jean Harlow, to whom the young Marilyn Monroe was often compared, was born in 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri. The daughter of a wealthy, upper middle- class dentist, Mont Clair Carpenter, young Harlean’s first name was an amalgam of her blonde, attractive mother’s – Jean Harlow.
Harold Herman Schaefer was born in Queens, New York City, on July 22, 1925. His father, Louie, was a house-painter and lover of jazz. He had taught himself to play ragtime by slowing down the mechanism on the family’s piano, and memorising where to place his fingers.
Inspired by the great jazz pianist, Art Tatum, Hal studied at the High School of Art and Music in Manhattan, and then worked as a piano player at hotels in the Catskills. At 18, Hal joined Benny Carter’s group, working alongside top musicians like Max Roach and J.J. Johnson. Read More
Norma Jeane Mortenson never knew her father. Her mother, Gladys, worked as a film cutter in Los Angeles. Unable to care for Norma Jeane full-time, Gladys paid a small allowance to a Christian family for her daughter’s upkeep.
Jane Russell, one of Hollywood’s great sex symbols, was born Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell in Minnesota, on June 21, 1921, the eldest and only daughter, with four brothers. Her father was a former First Lieutenant in the US Army, while her mother once performed in a travelling revue.
By 1930, the family had moved to the San Fernando Valley, California, where Jane’s father worked as a manager at a soap manufacturing plant. Jane’s mother encouraged her to take piano lessons. She studied at Van Nuys High School, where she became interested in drama.
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