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