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Marilyn’s Hollywood

30th October 2016
2

Marilyn’s Contemporaries: Lucille Ball

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Before the world’s most iconic blonde came the world’s most beloved redhead. Lucille Désirée Ball was born on August 6th, 1911 to mother Désirée “DeDe” (Hunt) Ball and father Henry Ball. When Lucille was three years old, the family moved to Detroit for Henry’s work. “DeDe tried dressing me in ribbons and bows, but I rebelled, never being the prissy doll type. My father roughhoused with me as he might with a boy, tossing me to the ceiling and catching me a few feet from the floor, and giving me piggybacks. I screamed with delight while DeDe worried about the tomboy she was raising.”

Lucy as a child.

Lucy as a child.

Sadly, Lucille’s time with her father was cut short in 1915 when he died of typhoid fever at twenty-eight. DeDe was only twenty-two, and five months pregnant with her second child, Freddy, who was born shortly after Lucille and Dede returned to DeDe’s parents’ Jamestown apartment.

After DeDe remarried to Ed Peterson in 1918, the family was back under one roof again by 1920 in Celoron, New York. Lucille, Freddy, and their cousin Cleo were the best of friends, and often put on stage plays at home to entertain the adults. Lucille, the oldest, spent much of her time taking care of the children, making beds, and cooking dinners while her mother worked full-time selling hats at a dress shop to make ends meet.

Lucille developed a passion for performing on stage. She took part in many school productions throughout her high school career and cherished the joy and laughs she could provide for an audience. However, she was a feisty teenager and often got into fights at school. She would run away, taking her little fox terrier, with her. DeDe, becoming increasingly worried for her daughter’s future, but always supportive of her acting aspirations, decided to help her attend dramatic classes.

Lucille began her training in New York at the John Murray–Robert Milton theater school where Bette Davis was also a student. She worked incredibly hard but couldn’t dance or sing, and was dismissed as talentless by her teachers and fellow pupils.

Lucille as a young model.

Lucille as a young model.

After leaving the academy, Lucille wandered around New York, managing to get cast in bit parts in a few musicals, but rarely stayed long enough to be part of the finished product. She earned money by modeling until a chance meeting became her ticket to Tinseltown. Theatrical agent Sylvia Halo recognized Lucille on the street from a billboard she had posed for to advertise Chesterfield cigarettes. MGM had chosen twelve poster girls to appear in a film called Roman Scandals, and one of the girls had dropped out last minute. Lucille was hired on the spot by Sam Goldwyn’s New York agent, and was off to Hollywood three days later.

Following Roman Scandals, Lucille landed a contract with RKO. This led to an essential build up in her career, training under the renowned Lela Rogers, mother and manager of Ginger Rogers. The late 1930’s were a happy time for Lucille; she made friends and reunited with her family who moved into her bungalow in Hollywood. She was given small parts in Astaire-Rogers productions including Top Hat and Follow The Fleet.

At the end of 1939, Lucille met her “Cuban skyrocket,” Desi Arnaz. They met for the first time in New York where Arnaz was starring in a Broadway show called Too Many Girls. They instantly fell head over heels in love, and it wasn’t long before they slipped away to Connecticut to elope in November of 1940. The young couple had countless verbal fights, but were passionately devoted to each other. Lucille called it their way of love-making. Years later, Lucille delivered two healthy babies: Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr.

Desilu Productions was formed in 1950. After collaborating for a vaudeville act, CBS agreed to finance a television show starring the husband-wife duo. I Love Lucy ran from 1951-1957 before switching to a longer time slot for The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, which ran from 1957 until their divorce in 1960. During this time, Desilu made a huge financial decision: the company bought out RKO Pictures for over $6 million. By 1960, their marriage had fallen apart but still they finished working on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.

Shortly after her divorce, Lucille started a romance with stand-up comedian Gary Morton after being introduced to each other by mutual friends in New York. Morton loved Lucille, was great with the kids, and after a busy career, was ready to settle down with a family. In November of 1961, the couple married.

Lucy with her children.

Lucy with her children.

By 1962, Lucille and Desi kept in touch more often, communicated easier about the children, and got along nicely. They would even collaborate on The Lucy Show (1962-1968) in which they brought back beloved I Love Lucy star Vivian Vance. Soon after, Lucille made the decision to buy Desi’s controlling interest in Desilu Productions, making her the first female in Hollywood to become president of a major television studio.

Lucille went on to film Here’s Lucy (1968-1974) and made a comeback in 1986 with Life With Lucy. She made several films and musicals in between. She received a plethora of awards throughout her career and donated an incredible amount of time and money to various charities and benefits. She passed away suddenly at her home in Beverly Hills at the age of seventy-seven from an acute aortic aneurysm on April 26, 1989.

Career Similarities

Both Marilyn and Lucille pursued modeling before being signed to major studios. Their common flaw was being told by their superiors that they were “un-photogenic.” This, although discouraging, didn’t stop the girls from working even harder to succeed. Lucille modeled fashion while Marilyn’s photos were cheesecake style. Marilyn was known among photographers and the head of her modeling agency that fashion modeling just wasn’t for her. Lucille was skinny and avoided bathing suit shots.

Both went through the usual up and coming procedure of an actress by appearing in a lot of bit parts in films, Lucille being casted in more A-films and Marilyn in B-films. They have many studios in common such as MGM, RKO, United Artists, Columbia Pictures, and 20th Century Fox.

Each woman published a posthumous autobiography. As her career was reaching its peak, Marilyn worked with Ben Hecht on a story of her life in the form of magazine articles, but they were not published in book form, titled “My Story,” until 1974, when it was compiled by Hecht using his original interviews and notes. In the early 60’s, Lucille began working with Betty Hoffman to create an “as told to” autobiography. She wrote a manuscript and recorded herself telling the story of her life up until 1964, when the project was shelved. The discovery of this work didn’t come until Lucille’s attorney was sifting through file boxes after Lucille’s death. The contents became “Love, Lucy” published in 1996.

Personal Connections

Unfortunately, a tragic similarity can be found in these two women. Marilyn suffered an ectopic pregnancy in 1957 and a miscarriage in 1958. She desperately wanted to have children, but was never able to. Lucille had children later in life, but before then, she also endured the pain of two miscarriages, which occurred in 1942 and 1950.

Name and other Connections

Sydney Guliaroff – Began styling Marilyn’s hair at MGM for The Asphalt Jungle during her short time at MGM. Styled Lucille when she was signed again to MGM in 1942

Ginger Rogers – Became quick friends with Lucille at RKO in the late 1930’s. Marilyn worked with Ginger in We’re Not Married (1952) and Monkey Business (1952).

Harry Cohn – Terminated Marilyn’s six month contract with Columbia Pictures in 1949, and is said to have made some degrading remarks about her.  In 1950, Lucille was also having trouble with Cohn; he wouldn’t let her pursue an important role at Paramount. Lucille outsmarted him in the end. Her contract required one more film of her to which she would earn $85,000. She agreed to appear in a “Class E” film that only took five days for her to complete. She pocketed half the film’s budget.

Keith Andes – Starred alongside Marilyn in Clash By Night (1952). Starred alongside Lucille in the musical Wildcat (1960).

HUAC – Arthur Miller, Marilyn’s husband at the time, was famously called to appear before the HUAC in 1956, although there was no evidence to substantiate him belonging to the Communist party. In 1936, Lucille registered as a Communist at the insistence of her grandfather so that her and her brother could vote for his friend who was running for city council at the time. Lucille never actually voted Communist or contributed to Communism in any way, and after a long struggle, she was cleared.

Marilyn and Lucy at Walter Winchell's birthday party.

Marilyn and Lucy at Walter Winchell’s birthday party.

Marilyn and Lucille even met on at least one occasion at a party for Walter Winchell at Ciro’s nightclub in Hollywood in 1953.

Both Lucille Ball and Marilyn Monroe have achieved legendary status in their own ways. Lucille will always be treasured as the zany redhead who “made some noise” in Hollywood and throughout the world, just as she set out to do. Marilyn will live on in the hearts of millions as the blonde who challenged the censors and took her career by the horns. Both timeless, classy ladies were two of the most successful women in Hollywood, leaving behind countless films and other media and will be honored forever.

 

-Ky Monroe for Immortal Marilyn

23rd October 2016
0

Marilyn’s Contemporaries: Doris Day

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Life and Career

Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff was born on April 3rd, 1922 (her birth year would later be incorrectly reported as 1924, a date that still appears in some locations) in Cincinnati. Interested in performing from a young age, Doris’ chances of becoming a dancer were ended when a car accident in 1937 injured her legs. She turned instead to singing, and changed her last name to Day in 1939.

Doris Day performs in 1939

Doris Day performs in 1939

Doris worked her way up in the music industry, performing with some of the biggest names of the 40s’, and in 1945 she made it to the top with the hit song Sentimental Journey. By 1946 she was the highest paid female band vocalist in the world – and the big screen was calling. Her love life, however, was not so successful.

Doris married trombonist Al Jorden in 1941, but they divorced two years later among rumours of physical abuse. The marriage did, however, bring Day her one and only child, son Terry. She married again in 1946, this time to saxophonist George Weidler, but the marriage didn’t last through the end of the decade.

Doris signed a contract with Warner Bros., and when Betty Hutton was forced to withdraw from Romance on the High Seas (1948) due to her pregnancy, Doris Day stepped into her first movie role. Her status as a well-known singer led to many roles in musical comedies throughout the early 1950s putting her on the Hollywood map. In 1955 Doris shifted gears with several dramatic roles, including The Man Who Knew Too Much, an Alfred Hitchcock film opposite James Stewart, but it wasn’t long before she found the niche for which is remains best known to this day – the romantic comedy. It was during her rise on the screen that she married for a third time. Martin Melcher was a music producer and again, a musician, but this time the marriage was not so short lived.  Melcher started to play a role in Doris’ career, and she would later discover he had squandered millions of dollars of her money.

Doris in Pillow Talk

Doris in Pillow Talk

Doris earned an Academy Award nomination for her role in Pillow Talk (1959), among other successful romantic comedy roles, but as the sexual revolution of the 60s gained momentum, Day’s virginal girl-next-door image didn’t appeal to audiences as it once had. In 1968 she filmed her last movie, With Six You Get Egg Roll.

The year was one of great change for Doris; her husband passed away at the age of 52. Both Doris and Martin were Christian Scientists, and as a result they sought no treatment for the ailments that ended Martin’s life. After a health scare of her own, and the news that her late husband had left her in a financial disaster, Doris Day returned to the screen – this time the small screen. The Doris Day Show ran from 1968-1973.

With her acting career behind her, Doris Day married for a fourth time in 1976, and not to a musician this time. During her marriage to Barry Comden, a maître d’hotel in Beverly Hills, Day channeled her energy into animal activism. She founded The Doris Day Pet Foundation in 1978, a focus that her husband would blame for the dissolution of the marriage – they divorced in 1981. Doris never remarried, but to this day continues to fight for animal rights through various charities.

In 2011, Doris Day became the oldest artist to reach the UK Top 10 with the release of a new album, My Heart. Featuring a variety of previously unreleased tracks, the album was sold in support of the Doris Day Animal League and included a track dedicated to her son, Terry Melcher, who passed away in 2004 from melanoma.

Doris Day remains one of the last living legends of Marilyn’s days and the Golden Age of Hollywood.

 

Marilyn Connections

moveover

Doris in Move Over Darling, wearing a costume originally meant for Marilyn

Perhaps one of the best-known connections between Marilyn and Doris Day is Marilyn’s last film, Something’s Got to Give. Day was one of those approached to take over Marilyn’s role when she was fired by Fox, but she declined. Doris eventually agreed to make the film in 1963 after Marilyn’s death, and it was renamed Move Over, Darling. The sets built for Something’s Got to Give, as well as some costumes were reused in the film. Frequent Marilyn co-star Thelma Ritter also appeared in the film.  Doris was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role.

Another film both considered was The Sleeping Prince. Day had plans in motion to star in a film adaptation to be made in England.  Marilyn, however, bought the rights to the play and filmed it as The Prince and The Showgirl.

Like Marilyn, Doris Day named Ella Fitzgerald as her favourite singer, and listened to her albums to improve her own singing skills.

“The one radio voice I listened to above others belonged to Ella Fitzgerald. There was a quality to her voice that fascinated me, and I’d sing along with her, trying to catch the subtle ways she shaded her voice, the casual yet clean way she sang the words.”

 

In addition to Thelma Ritter, who appeared in several supporting roles in Doris Day films just as she did in some of Marilyn’s films, Day also shared a few other co-stars with Marilyn. She appeared in It Happened To Jane with Marilyn’s Some Like it Hot co-star, Jack Lemmon. The Tunnel of Love placed her opposite Richard Widmark, who worked with Marilyn on Don’t Bother To Knock, and she made Teacher’s Pet with Clark Gable. She also appeared with Lauren Bacall in 1950’s Young Man With a Horn. The year Marilyn died, Doris made That Touch of Mink with Marilyn’s Monkey Business co-star, Cary Grant.  Day also worked with Marilyn’s close friend Frank Sinatra, while fellow Rat-Packer Peter Lawford appeared in several episodes of The Doris Day Show.

At the 1960 Golden Globes

At the 1960 Golden Globes

Doris attended the Seven Year Itch party at Romanoff’s in 1954, so it’s very likely the two met on that occasion.

Marilyn and Doris were both nominated for the Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy award at the 1960 Golden Globes, and both attended the ceremony, where Marilyn won. Doris took home the Henrietta Award for World Film Favourite, a title Marilyn had won before and would win again in 1962. Again, it seems likely they would have run into each other at the ceremony.

Although on the surface Doris Day and Marilyn Monroe – the girl next door and the sex symbol – were polar opposites, they had some things in common. Both loved animals, both counted some of Hollywood’s famously closeted gay men among their close friends (Doris made multiple films with Rock Hudson and was very close friends with him), and both had little interest in wealth. However, Doris’ clean image and conservative beliefs were not just on the surface, and unlike Marilyn she refused to do any nudity. But in the end, both just wanted their work to make people happy.

 

“I want to smile and I want to make people laugh. And that’s all I want. I like it. I like being happy. I want to make others happy.”

 

-Leslie Kasperowicz for Immortal Marilyn

16th October 2016
2

Marilyn’s Contemporaries: James Dean

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Life and Career

While a lively little toddler called Norma Jeane Baker was cruising through her year at Hawthorne Community Sunday School in Los Angeles, California, the birth of another soon-to-be legend was being celebrated all the way in the Northeast. James Byron Dean was brought into the world on February 8, 1931 in Marion, Indiana, to father Winton and mother Mildred (Wilson) Dean. Jimmy would spend the first years of his life in both Marion with his parents and at his Uncle Marcus and Aunt Ortense Winslow’s farm in Fairmount. In 1935, when Jimmy was around four years old, Winton’s job transferred him to Santa Monica.

James Dean with his parents.

James Dean with his parents.

Jimmy shared a special bond with his mother. When he was a child, they would often set up miniature stages and perform plays using dolls Jimmy’s world came crashing down when he was nine and his beloved mother died from breast cancer at only twenty-nine. He became angry at the universe for her sudden abandonment, and at times began crying while at school. One of his elementary teachers recalls him silently sobbing at his desk in class and when asked what was wrong, he said in a small voice, “I miss my mom.”

“The only person I could believe was really close to him as a person was his mother. He never really had anybody, because at that point I think Jimmy lost everybody. It was such an irrevocable loss that it could never be filled.”  -Barbara Glenn, Jimmy’s girlfriend and confidante

Winton, in-debt with Mildred’s hospital bills, decided it would be best if Jimmy be sent back to Fairmount to live in Marcus and Ortense Winslow’s home for a more stable and providing environment.  He spent his days helping out around the farm, doing chores, and playing with Tuck, the family dog, and their small pig. He was a reserved kid and didn’t like to open up about his private life or about his family, but he was very imaginative and loved to perform. 

It was during high school that Jimmy got his first taste of performing on stage. Here, he met his first drama coach, Adeline Nall, who cared about and encouraged him to continue theater. Jimmy was, by all accounts, a natural. Throughout his high school years he participated in several plays, sports teams such as basketball and track, and even entered in dramatic competitions.

James Dean in high school

James Dean in high school

After graduating with the class of 1949 at Fairmount High School, Jimmy longed to pursue acting further. He moved back in with his father in Los Angeles, who had by then remarried to a woman named Ethel. Him and his father were not very close, and had difficulty communicating. Winton had been physically absent for much of Jimmy’s childhood, and didn’t quite understand his aspirations. After enrolling as a theater major at UCLA, he realized, with the help of others as well, that he had too much talent to be subjected to dead end jobs and minor roles in school productions; he left for New York in 1951 and tried out for the Actors Studio. Of the one hundred and fifty students who auditioned for the prestigious school, Jimmy and his scene partner were the only two who were accepted. Although overjoyed at having succeeded, Jimmy’s time at the Actors Studio is best remembered as a young actor who sat and listened, didn’t participate, and hardly showed up.  

James Dean in East of Eden

James Dean in East of Eden

After two Broadway shows, director Elia Kazan picked Jimmy up and whisked him away to Hollywood after signing him for his next big film East Of Eden. This was the film that would start getting Jimmy noticed in Hollywood. After this, he would go on to complete two more successful films, Rebel Without A Cause with Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo, and Giant with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. However, he had taken up dangerous hobbies, such as car racing. His life as a big star was to be short-lived, for it was tragically ended in a violent car crash off Highway 46 en route to a race in Salinas. He was just twenty-four years old.

 

Marilyn Connections

Family Life

Some elements of Marilyn’s and Jimmy’s childhoods are similar. Both were traumatized by their mothers’ abandonment, but in different ways. Jimmy’s mother passed away when he was very young, and although they loved each other, Jimmy did not have a very close relationship with his father. Marilyn’s mother was only really around until Marilyn was eight, although she became more and more distant due to her case of schizophrenia, which required her to live in mental institutions for most of her life. Marilyn’s father was simply not around, denying any responsibility to the child. Although both had unique familial situations, Jimmy had a much more stable upbringing with a constant family. Marilyn was transferred to several foster homes and spent her life wondering why no one wanted her or loved her. While Marilyn would search for father figures in her adult life, Jimmy was searching for mother figures.

Missed Connections

Jimmy enrolled at UCLA in 1950, where he attended classes before leaving California late in 1951 to move to New York. Marilyn began attending classes at UCLA beginning in the fall of 1952. In their careers, both were students of the Method, an acting technique coached by renowned teacher Lee Strasberg. Jimmy studied with Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York beginning in 1951. Marilyn didn’t start attending classes there until she began obtaining her own creative freedom as an actress in 1955.It’s also important to note that although Marilyn was present at the New York premiere of East of Eden, Jimmy did not attend due to nervousness.

Personal Connections

Between the two of them, Marilyn and Jimmy have a few brief mutual connections as well. Notable examples include:

Louis Schurr – A talent agent who Jimmy was referred to in New York, and who was not impressed with him. Schurr also wasn’t impressed with Marilyn, instead referring her to producer Lester Cowan in 1949.

Elia Kazan – A director who Marilyn was close friends with (and formerly dated). He brought Jimmy back from New York as an official movie actor after signing him on for East of Eden.

Nicholas Ray – A director who Jimmy was good friends with after he directed Rebel Without A Cause. Ray also dated Marilyn on and off for two years prior to her courtship with DiMaggio.

Jimmy also met Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, who he was constantly being compared to in the movie reviews, and both had been close friends of Marilyn’s. Jimmy would even hang around at Schwab’s in Los Angeles on occasion, where Sidney Skolsky, one of Marilyn’s best friends, observed the crowd often migrating towards the new star’s table. Photographer Frank Worth was friends with both Marilyn and Jimmy at around the same time.

Perhaps the biggest connection comes from the 1989 memoir of Shelley Winters, where she recalls attending a screening of Kazan’s On The Waterfront in which both Marilyn and Jimmy were present. Afterwards, she states that they all went to a get-together at Nicholas Ray’s bungalow at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Hollywood. Winters recalls that on the way to the hotel,

 

“Jimmy came roaring down the mountain [on his motorcycle]. He started the deadly game of circling us. I kept honking at him, and he kept putting his brakes on right in front of me.  He was laughing and enjoying the game. When I got to the Chateau Marmont, I quickly drove to the underground garage. Jimmy followed. Marilyn was rigid with fear, and I was ready to punch his lights out.”  

 

The more evidence that is uncovered from this night, the more likely it seems that Marilyn and Jimmy were in fact in the same place at the same time. Some elements are questionable, such as the motorcycle story, since it would seem that would be something Jimmy would have done if he had a personal grudge against someone. One example of him causing such trouble would be from 1954: Jimmy gunned his motor outside of his ex-girlfriend Pier Angeli’s wedding. But it would make sense if that occurred and was the reason that Marilyn, according to Winters, stayed on opposite sides of the room from Jimmy at the party. Finally, one piece of paper exists which includes more than likely authentic signatures from Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Nicholas Ray, which were likely signed on the same night.

A famous photo of James Dean in New york, 1955. Photo by Dennis Stock.

A famous photo of James Dean in New york, 1955. Photo by Dennis Stock.

Did the two meet, or is this all just claims and hopefulness from adoring fans? Until the day we are able to conclude for certain, we’ll have to leave it open for debate.

For the most part, their personalities and lifestyles differ tremendously from each other. Marilyn had Louella Parsons, Jimmy had Hedda Hopper. Marilyn frequented Schwab’s in Los Angeles, Jimmy was at home in Cromwell’s in New York. Jimmy loved to act out and Marilyn was shy.  What is for certain is that Marilyn Monroe and James Dean will forever live on as two of the greatest actors of their times. They’ve both achieved iconic status in pop culture and in the hearts of millions. Their influence has shaped a nation of sex symbols and teenage rebels. But behind the icons are two immensely talented but lonely human beings with childlike curiosity and the same love for reading profound books and poetry. Both worked tirelessly at improving their craft and both made a legendary name for themselves.

 
-Ky Monroe for Immortal Marilyn

9th October 2016
4

Marilyn’s Contemporaries: Anita Ekberg

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Anita’s Life and Career

Anita crowned Miss Sweden, 1951

Anita crowned Miss Sweden, 1951

Anita Ekberg was a popular fellow blonde in the 1950’s who originally hailed from Sweden. Born on September 29, 1931, Anita was the sixth of eight children. Her father was a foreman for a coal company while her mother stayed home to raise her children. Anita graduated high school at sixteen and quickly found work as a department store fashion model. She soon found a side job introducing acts at a hotel show (akin to a Vegas variety show) wearing a skimpy costume before finding more stable work as a fashion model in hotel fashion shows. At 19, Anita was discovered by photographer George Oddner. Oddner and her mother quickly convinced her to enter a local beauty pageant and Anita was elected Miss Sweden in August of 1951. This victory allowed Anita to go to the United States, including visiting the 1951 Miss America pageant, to compete as Miss Universe. While Anita didn’t win, she was spotted by a Universal-International talent scout and soon received a nonspeaking role in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars. Unfortunately, with her heavy accent, Anita was dropped after a few of these nonspeaking roles and returned to Sweden where she threw herself into learning English while again resorting to modeling. In February of 1952 she entered another beauty pageant, this one in Holland, and lost by a single vote. Luck was again on Anita’s side being she was spotted by an RKO talent scout and returned to the US within three months.

Anita Ekberg in 1956

Anita Ekberg in 1956

Anita was not going to risk returning to Sweden again and according to her, “I figured my bust line would carry me far. Up to that point, I hadn’t paid much attention to my measurements. So you can really say that I owe it all to a tape measure.” Anita knew how to promote herself and was soon spotted on the arm of the likes of Tyrone Power and Gary Cooper and got herself signed with John Wayne’s Batjac Productions in late 1953 or early 1954. On December 31st Anita started a USO trip with Bob Hope to Labrador and Greenland. Meanwhile, Wayne apparently did not know what to do with the gorgeous Swede and she appeared in nothing particularly noteworthy until she was loaned out for War and Peace in 1956. This led to her being cast in Zarak with Victor Mature. Anita now earned $75,000/picture and her contract with Wayne was publicly declared to be worth $1,000,000. While advertised as “Paramount’s Marilyn Monroe” it doesn’t appear that Paramount ever officially took over, just that they borrowed her from Wayne for a number of films. The late 1950’s led to Anita having a bit of a decline in unmemorable films. Anita soon bounced back into 1961’s La Dolce Vita.

Anita in Trevi Fountain in a scene from La Dolce Vita (1961)

Anita in Trevi Fountain in a scene from La Dolce Vita (1961)

La Dolce Vita has Anita playing an American actress named “Sylvia.” Sylvia has a definite Marilyn influence and features one of the most famous movie scenes of all time that involved Sylvia playing in Rome’s Trevi Fountain. Anita would go on to make three other films with the director, Federico Fellini. Anita’s career slowly traveled downhill but she made over 25 movies and television appearances after La Dolce Vita, not retiring until 2002. Anita sadly passed away in 2015 but her beauty will live on the screen forever.

 

Marilyn Connections

“I think she (Marilyn) was a good actress. You can’t play stupid unless you’re very intelligent.” 

Marilyn and Anita crossed paths once, at the October 29, 1956 London screening of The Battle of the River Plate where Marilyn, Anita, Joan Crawford, and a host of other celebrities were introduced to Queen Elizabeth II.

One of the more interesting connections between Marilyn and Anita is Andre de Dienes. Andre is probably most famously remembered for being one of the first professional photographers to work with Marilyn. Dienes would work with Marilyn from 1946-1953 and worked with started working with Anita in 1954. In the July 1956 issue of Modern Man Magazine, Andre recalled:  “Anita Ekberg could be the greatest of them all.”

Anita photographed by Andre de Dienes

Anita photographed by Andre de Dienes

The title of Andre’s article?  How I Discovered Anita Ekberg. Marilyn would deal with the same claims from Andre through the years as well. While there is no denying that Andre gave these women an incredible boost with his photography, the idea that he “discovered” them is a bit of a stretch. Andre boosted, mentored, and helped but certainly didn’t discover either bountiful blonde. Anita did pose nude for Andre, something Marilyn refused to do.

Marilyn and Anita also shared a boyfriend (albeit at different times), Frank Sinatra. Marilyn dated Frank in 1961 while Anita saw him between 1954-1955 (off and on). Neither relationship seems to have been particularly serious but both women spent a considerable amount of time with him.

Besides Frank, Marilyn and Anita shared various co-stars. Lauren Bacall was with Anita in Blood Alley and Marilyn in How to Marry a Millionaire, Tony Randall starred with Anita in The Alphabet Murders and starred with Marilyn in Let’s Make Love, and finally Dean Martin was to co-star with Marilyn in her last, uncompleted picture Something’s Got To Give but starred with Anita in two pictures, Hollywood or Bust and Artists and Models. Marilyn was also to star with Frank Sinatra in 1955’s The Girl in Pink Tights but she bowed out of the picture. Anita actually did get to work with Frank in 1963’s 4 for Texas.

One of the things that both women did was fight the studio to be taken seriously. Anita was horrified when she learned that her voice had been dubbed in War and Peace by an English actress. Anita wanted dramatic parts like Marilyn but, unlike Marilyn, she was able to achieve her goal. Both women have gone down in film history with Some Like It Hot being rated the number one comedy of all time by AFI while La Dolce Vita is considered one of the greatest movies of all time. Anita, like Marilyn, was more than a voluptuous blonde and wanted to be more than “Paramount’s Marilyn” and luckily for her, she accomplished that.

 

-April VeVea for Immortal Marilyn

 

25th September 2016
5

Marilyn’s Contemporaries: Ava Gardner

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Ava’s Life and Career

Ava Lavinia Gardner was born on Christmas Eve, 1922, youngest of seven children. Her father was a sharecropper in Grabtown, North Carolina. “Ours was a neighbourly and self-sufficient society,” Ava recalled. A tomboy who loved to run barefoot, her early memories were idyllic. But the economic ravages of the 1930s eventually forced the Gardners to move away.

Her father died soon after, and the family made ends meet by opening a boarding house. “I hated their eyes as they looked at me,” Ava said of their male lodgers. “They never touched me, but they tried to flirt, and even though I was only thirteen years old, I instinctively knew what was going on.”

The Larry Tarr photo that change Ava's ife.

The Larry Tarr photo that change Ava’s ife.

Her destiny changed forever during a trip to New York, visiting her eldest sister, Beatrice, who was dating photographer Larry Tarr. His portrait of a fresh-faced Ava, hair tied in a bonnet, led to a screen test and, eventually, a contract with MGM.

Not long after her arrival, Ava was wooed by MGM’s hottest young star, Mickey Rooney. They married in 1942, but divorced a year later. In 1945, she married bandleader Artie Shaw. It was to be another short-lived romance, as Shaw constantly criticised Ava for what he saw as her intellectual failings. She was also courted for many years by the eccentric businessman, Howard Hughes, but refused to marry him.

Ava’s early years at MGM were uneventful, as she was largely eclipsed by the studio’s reigning pin-up, Lana Turner. Her name appeared on a marquee for the first time when she starred in the now-forgotten Ghosts on the Loose.  Her big break came in 1946, when she played the vampish Kitty Collins in Robert Siodmak’s classic film noir, The Killers. It was based on a short story by Ernest Hemingway, and her co-star was newcomer Burt Lancaster.

From the outset, Ava rebelled against MGM’s strict regime. She was a party girl who liked to play the field.  In the paranoid, ‘red-baiting’ atmosphere of post-war Hollywood, Ava was too outspoken for her own good.  Despite her willful exterior, Ava lacked confidence in her talent. She felt unsupported by MGM, who seemed more interested in promoting her physical attributes. When the veteran stage actor, Charles Laughton, coached her on the set of The Bribe (1949), she remarked, “He was the only one in all my film years who took the time and went out of his way to try and make an actress out of me.”

“Some women fall for writers, some for sailors, some for fighters,” Ava once wrote. “I’ve always loved musicians.” In 1949, Frank Sinatra’s career was in a slump. When the news of his adulterous affair with Ava broke in 1950, the couple were condemned by Hedda Hopper, Louella Parsons and the Catholic Legion of Decency.

Ava with Frank Sinatra

Ava with Frank Sinatra

They married a year later, and even after their 1957 divorce, remained close for the rest of their lives. “Our love was deep and true,” Ava explained, “even though the fact that we couldn’t live with each other any more than we couldn’t live without each other sometimes made it hard to understand.”

After their separation in 1955, Ava moved to Spain. “If I hadn’t cared for Hollywood in its heyday,” she remarked, “it certainly had less attractions for me now that things seemed to be falling apart.” With her MGM contract at an end, she was a free agent. She starred with Gregory Peck in the apocalyptic drama, On The Beach (1959), and struck up a friendship with Ernest Hemingway, having appeared in two more adaptations of his work; The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) and The Sun Also Rises (1957).

Ava in her breakthrough role in The Killers.

Ava in her breakthrough role in The Killers.

While living in Spain, Ava also befriended Robert Graves. He wrote several poems in her honour, which delighted her more than any Hollywood trophy. In 1964, starred in the first of three films made with John Huston, The Night of the Iguana. Two years later, she played Sarah, wife of Abraham, in The Bible: In the Beginning.

By 1968, Ava had moved to London. Her later roles included a cameo as actress Lily Langtry in Huston’s The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), and a disaster movie, Earthquake (1973.) She continued working in television until 1986.

On January 25, 1990, Ava Gardner died of pneumonia. She was 67, and had been suffering from emphysema and an auto-immune disease (possibly Lupus.) Her body was flown from England to North Carolina, where she was buried alongside her parents and siblings.

 

 

Marilyn Connections

As cinematic icons, they are light and dark – different sides of the same spectrum. “I know a lot of men fantasize about me; that’s how Hollywood gossip becomes Hollywood history,” Ava told journalist Peter Evans.

“Someday someone is going to say, ‘All the lies ever told about Ava Gardner,’ and the truth about me, just like poor, maligned Marilyn, will disappear like names on old tombstones. I know I’m not defending a spotless reputation. Hell, it’s too late for that. Scratching one name off my dance card won’t mean a row of beans in the final tally. It’s just that I like to keep the books straight while I’m still around and sufficiently sober and compos mentis to do it.”

Marilyn and Ava had a lot of commonalities in their lives.  Both grew up and poverty.  Norma Jeane’s life, like Ava’s, was transformed by a photograph, taken by David Conover while she was working at a munitions plant in 1945.

Both starlets would serve a long apprenticeship, posing for endless ‘cheesecake’ shots while waiting for their big break. Marilyn savoured her own marquee moment when she starred in a low-budget musical, Ladies of the Chorus (1948.)

In 1947, Marilyn fell in love with musician Fred Karger. But he mocked her lack of education, just as Artie Shaw had while married to Ava. Both women would study for a time at UCLA, and Ava later discovered that her IQ was considerably higher than her ex-husband might have thought. Marilyn was a gifted artist, singer, and a voracious reader all her life, and she also wrote poetry and fragments of prose. Writers like Norman Rosten, Truman Capote, Carson McCullers and Carl Sandburg were among her friends.

In 1950, she played a bit part in The Fireball, starring Mickey Rooney. He later claimed they had an affair, his stories growing with each telling. “Reenie, he’s still the biggest liar in the world,” Ava would tell her maid. “Poor Mickey, he cannot tell the truth, he never could. But he’s cute.”

Ava would be Mankiewicz’s first choice for the lead in his 1954 film, The Barefoot Contessa. “Getting along with Joe Mankiewicz was problematical at times,” she recalled.  Nonetheless, she had a powerful ally in cameraman Jack Cardiff, who had previously photographed her in the whimsical English fantasy, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951.) Cardiff would subsequently work his magic on Marilyn in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957.)

Ava photographed by Marilyn's close friend and photographer Milton Greene.

Ava photographed by Marilyn’s close friend and photographer Milton Greene.

Hailed as ‘the new Jean Harlow’, Marilyn signed a seven-year contract with Twentieth Century-Fox in 1951.  She worked with Charles Laughton in O. Henry’s Full House – Ava had previously also found a supporter in Laughton early in her career.  A year later she won the lead in Niagara, as a ‘femme fatale’ not unlike Ava in The Killers.

Ava and Marilyn grew up during the golden age of Hollywood, when movies offered an escape from hard times. In later life, they would both star alongside one of the greatest stars of that era, Clark Gable. Ava appeared with him in The Hucksters (1947), Lone Star (1953), and Mogambo (1953), a remake of Gable’s 1932 hit, Red Dust.  Mogambo earned Ava an Oscar nomination.

Her most demanding film was Bhowani Junction (1956), and she credited her strong performance to George Cukor’s direction. Famed as a ‘woman’s director’, Cukor made two films with Marilyn: Let’s Make Love (1960), and the unfinished Something’s Got to Give.

Though briefly considered for Ava’s role in The Sun Also Rises, Marilyn was turned off by Ernest Hemingway’s macho persona. “People tell me he loves shooting animals and killing fish,” she said to W.J. Weatherby. “I think a writer – an artist – should set an example. He shouldn’t add to all the killing in the world. He should add to the love.”

After her marriage to Miller ended, Marilyn was briefly involved with Ava’s ex-husband, Frank Sinatra. Her final years were dogged by severe depression and addiction to sleeping pills. When a new play by Arthur Miller, After the Fall, opened on Broadway in 1964 (just two years after Marilyn died), many were outraged by its depiction of a troubled star, seemingly based on his ex-wife – including novelist James Baldwin, who asked Ava to join him in picketing the theatre.

Like many other stars, Ava was photographed in a dress Marilyn also wore on multiple occasions.

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At first glance, Ava seemed more self-assured than Marilyn ever was. But she too had known poverty, and suffered from nagging self-doubt. Both were lauded for their beauty, but their talents were undervalued. Each tried to escape – Marilyn through drugs, and Ava with alcohol.

 

-Tara Hanks for Immortal Marilyn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18th September 2016
6

Marilyn’s Contemporaries: Jayne Mansfield

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Jayne’s Life and Career

Vera Jayne Palmer was born on April 19, 1933, nearly seven years after Marilyn, in Pennsylvania. Jayne’s father died when she was only three while he was driving, an event witnessed by the little girl who was in the front seat, sitting in her mother’s lap. Jayne never got over seeing his death. Jayne recalled her father introducing her to Shirley Temple and wanted to be just like her childhood idol. When Jayne was six, her mother remarried and relocated to Texas with Jayne in tow. Jayne quickly proved herself to be an intellectual and would eventually become a concert violinist and could also play the viola and piano. She also wound up being able to speak four additional languages to English: Spanish, German, Italian, and French and could speak a little Hungarian.

Jayne shows off her curves in a bikini.

Jayne shows off her curves in a bikini.

By 1950, Jayne was married to Paul Mansfield with her first child, Jayne Marie, being born in November of that year. Jayne soon enrolled in college and would frequently take her daughter with her to class but her Hollywood dreams never died. In 1953 Jayne finally moved to Hollywood to pursue her dream of stardom. Jayne wanted to play ethnic roles but was told to dye her dark brown hair blonde in order to get signed. In early 1955, short a husband, she was signed to Warner Brothers but was dropped by June and went to film the independent production The Burglar in Pennsylvania. Jayne’s agent advised her to try out for George Axelrod’s new Broadway bound play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter. Reluctant but willing, Jayne went in a bikini covered by a mink coat. She was instantly given the role.

Jayne with Joan Blondell in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

Jayne with Joan Blondell in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

Jayne skyrocketed to fame in October. Critics praised her acting ability and Hollywood soon came knocking. After the dust settled, Twentieth Century Fox won out for signing Jayne in 1956, buying out Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter for $150,000 and signing Jayne for $2,500/week. Fox and newspaper columnists billed her, at this point, as the “Rich man’s Marilyn Monroe.” Jayne soon began making The Girl Can’t Help It, a technicolor “Rock and Roll” musical with Tom Ewell, Julie London, Little Richard, and Abby Lincoln. Right after filming commenced, Jayne started John Steinbeck’s The Wayward Bus before filming Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter in 1957. All were successful with the public and Jayne looked to be the next Marilyn.

Jayne’s mistake was marrying Mickey Hargitay in 1958. Fox wanted a single blonde bombshell, not another married one. Jayne was cast in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, her last “A” list starring production. While filming, Jayne discovered she was pregnant, the second of her five children. Jayne was given the career death sentence of being in European and independent productions in between nightclub acts in Las Vegas and pregnancies throughout the late 1950’s and 1960’s. By the time Jayne passed away on June 29, 1967, she was reduced to b-list movies and subpar nightclub performances.

Marilyn Connections

“Marilyn and I are entirely different. We’ve really never been in competition. I admire Marilyn and she’s told me she admires me.”

Jayne in the gold lame dress made famous by Marilyn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Jayne in the gold lame dress made famous by Marilyn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Marilyn in the gold lame dress.

Marilyn in the gold lame dress.

Besides being blonde and having exceptional figures, Marilyn and Jayne were very, very different. Jayne came from an upper-middle class background and had a stable home life. Jayne admired Marilyn but never aspired to be the next Marilyn, she wanted to be known for her own persona. Sadly, she was told the exact same thing as Marilyn had been told seven years before and she embraced the dumb blonde image with much more gusto that Marilyn. Jayne was confident in her 163 IQ and that the “dumb blonde” was a persona, although she did want to do more dramas as well, versus Marilyn thinking that people actually thought that was her.

Jayne and Marilyn took some of the same pre-fame steps. Both were signed to Emmeline Snively’s Blue Book Modeling Agency and both posed for Earl Moran. In fact, when recounting all the women he had drawn through the years, Moran remembered Jayne and Marilyn having two of the most exceptional figures and both being standouts. Photographers were also commonly shared amongst the two women. Jayne posed for Marilyn’s friend and frequent collaborator, Milton Greene in 1955 at his studio. Jayne and Marilyn both also posed for Bruno Bernard, Phillipe Halsman, Frank Powolny, and a host of other 1950’s and 1960’s photographers.

Jayne and Marilyn were spotted with four of the same men at different times in their lives. Marilyn dated Nick Ray, on and off, from 1950-1952, before meeting Joe DiMaggio. Jayne dated Nick Ray, on and off, from 1956-1957, before settling down with Mickey Hargitay. Ray even gifted Jayne a black baby bunny that she had to feed with a baby bottle. While in New York, Jayne was spotted dancing with Joe DiMaggio at El Morocco. Jayne and Marilyn were both spotted with George Jessell, Jayne in 1956 and Marilyn in 1948. The final male they had in common, albeit not romantically for either, was James Haspiel who followed Jayne almost as much as he followed Marilyn.

Jayne and Marilyn had other male connections as well, in the form of co-stars. Tom Ewell was the romantic lead for both, starring with Marilyn in The Seven Year Itch and Jayne in The Girl Can’t Help It.  Dan Dailey was Jayne’s love interest in The Wayward Bus yet played the father of Marilyn’s love interest in There’s No Business Like Show Business three years before. Tony Randall starred with Jayne in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter before starring in Let’s Make Love. Groucho Marks starred in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter as well and had been with Marilyn in Love Happy nearly nine years before. Probably the most well known collaboration is Jayne with Tommy Noonan in Promises, Promises. Noonan had starred with Marilyn exactly ten years before in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

One of the lesser known connections is Something’s Got To Give. Originally slated to begin filming in 1961, Jayne was at first promised the role. When Marilyn came in and agreed to do it, Jayne was dropped. While Marilyn was supposed to be the first A-list American star to appear nude in a mainstream production after the installment of the Hayes Code in Something’s Got To Give, the title wound up going to Jayne in Promises, Promises.

Marilyn and Jayne at the premiere of The Rose Tattoo.

Marilyn and Jayne at the premiere of The Rose Tattoo.

Jayne and Marilyn were photographed together once, at The Rose Tattoo premiere. Jayne was openly snubbed by Marilyn. The women didn’t really run in the same social circles but did meet one another a few times, including when Marilyn attended Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter in October of 1955. It’s likely that is when Marilyn told Jayne she admired her. Any other meetings were reported to be cold although Jayne would claim a somewhat civil but distant friendship before and after Marilyn’s death.

One of the more interesting similarities is that Jayne was in high demand like Marilyn was, but on the nightclub and appearance circuit. While Marilyn was in “A-list” productions her whole life, Jayne was commanding a much higher salary for nightclub performances. In 1961 Jayne was making $35,000/week in Vegas while Marilyn was only offered $5,500/week in 1962.

Jayne and Marilyn both suffered with prescription medication addiction issues. Jayne was put on diet pills by Fox to lose baby weight and soon was addicted while Marilyn was put on barbiturates and other medication to help her obtain sleep. Both women also have JFK rumors swirling around them although, like Marilyn, Jayne’s rumors are unfounded and have a dubious beginning.

In closing, Jayne is much more than a Marilyn wannabe or impersonator. To refer to her as such is the same as saying that Marilyn wanted to be Betty Grable or Betty Grable wanted to be Alice Faye. Both women were beautiful, blonde, and intelligent and deserve to be given the same respect that they weren’t offered in their lifetimes.

Marilyn and Jayne in the same dress.

Marilyn and Jayne in the same dress.

Jayne wears the same striped top Marilyn wore for a photo shoot.

Jayne wears the same striped top Marilyn wore for a photo shoot.

 

Finally, the clothes. Jayne was spotted in more than one Marilyn outfit through the years being both women frequently borrowed from the Fox Costume Department.

 

 

 

– April VeVea or Immortal Marilyn

11th September 2016
4

Marilyn’s Contemporaries: Gene Tierney

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Welcome to the first installment of IM’s new feature: Marilyn’s Contemporaries.  This regular feature will discuss other actors and actresses who were working at the same time as Marilyn.  We’ll talk about career similarities and differences, connections to Marilyn, and generally look at the players on the Hollywood stage throughout Marilyn’s career!

Our first installment focuses on Gene Tierney.

Gene’s Life

Born in New York in 1920, only six years before Marilyn, Gene would rise to fame in the 1940s, when Marilyn was still a fresh-faced teen named Norma Jeane.  After a few brief appearances on the stage, Gene signed her first screen contract in 1938.  Like Marilyn, she did a brief stint at Columbia Pictures before landing at Fox.  Most of her most memorable screen roles were in the 1940s at Fox, including Laura and her Academy Award nominated role in Leave Her To Heaven.

Gene Tierney in a publicity still for Laura, 1944.

Gene Tierney in a publicity still for Laura, 1944.

By 1952, when Marilyn was poised to become the world’s biggest star and Fox’s biggest moneymaker, Gene’s contract with Fox expired and she was free to pursue projects as she liked.

Gene in Plymouth Adventure, 1952, the year Marilyn rose to stardom.

Gene in Plymouth Adventure, 1952, the year Marilyn rose to stardom.

Unfortunately, the next few years saw mental illness begin to cast a shadow over her career.  She spent time in psychiatric hospitals and underwent shock treatment for severe manic depressive episodes, which she later said caused serious memory loss.  Tierney would eventually become an outspoken opponent of the use of electroshock therapy.

 

Things came to a head for Tierney in 1957, when she stood on a ledge 14 stories up while staying with her mother in Manhattan, causing police to arrive at the potential suicide scene.  She later recounted the experience as the opening to her autobiography, Self Portrait.  She wrote that the apartment was across the street from the building where Marilyn lived with Arthur Miller, and recounted how when Marilyn passed away she thought of that moment, standing on the ledge looking out at Marilyn’s building:

 

“I do not like to think that in 1958 I had a grim impulse to commit suicide, but there is no nicer way to describe it.  I survived.  Some don’t.  When Marilyn Monroe took her own life a few years later, the scene on the window ledge came flooding back to me.  I remembered with a chilling clarity that morning, the wind plucking at me, staring at the building where Marilyn lived.  Now Marilyn was gone, and I endured.”

 

Gene spent a year in an institution after this event.  She was finally released and made a return to films, although she retired in 1964, making one more appearance on television in the 1980s.  Gene passed away in 1991 of emphysema, the result of a many years as a heavy smoker.  She had picked up the habit in the 1940s in an effort to lower her voice on film; it eventually ended her life.

Gene Tierney and Oleg Cassini.

Gene Tierney and Oleg Cassini.

Gene had two children with husband Oleg Cassini.  During her first pregnancy she contracted rubella from a fan, resulting in a premature birth and severe disabilities in daughter Daria.  The couple’s second child, Christina, was healthy, but the marriage never recovered from the stress of Daria’s birth and eventual placement in an institution – as well as other issues including Cassini’s playboy ways.  The divorce became final in 1948.  Ten years later, Gene would wed Texas oilman and former husband of another dark-haired beauty, Hedy Lamarr, W. Howard Lee.  The couple remained together until his death in 1981.

Gene’s open and honest discussions of her mental illness and all she suffered during treatment in her autobiography offer a window into how bipolar disorder was treated in the 1950s.

 

Marilyn Connections

Aside from living across the street from Marilyn in 1957 when she reached a low point in her battle with mental illness, Gene also had some other connections with Marilyn.

Gene and Marilyn in the red velvet Cassini

Gene and Marilyn in the red velvet Cassini

In 1941, Gene married fashion designer Oleg Cassini, who created many costumes for her on-screen roles.  Among them was a red velvet gown worn by Gene in Where the Sidewalk Ends, 1950.  The gown wound up in Cassini’s shop, where Marilyn purchased it as she was rising to fame as a starlet.  Marilyn wore the gown on multiple occasions, including to accept her Henrietta Award in 1952.  A second Cassini gown worn by Gene in On The Riviera would be worn by Marilyn for several photo shoots, as well as to the premiere of Monkey Business in 1952.

Gene and Marilyn both wearing another Cassini gown.

Gene and Marilyn both wearing another Cassini gown.

Gene worked with many of the same people as Marilyn, including directors Otto Preminger, Nunnally Johnson, and Jean Negulesco.  Like Marilyn, she starred opposite Clark Gable, and also appeared in a film with character actress Thelma Ritter.  In one of her final film appearances, Toys in the Attic, Gene starred with Dean Martin, who was Marilyn’s last leading man in the incomplete Something’s Got to Give.

Of course, one of the saddest connections the two shared was that of suffering through mental illness.  Gene speaks candidly in her autobiography about her depression and suicidal impulses.  She mentions Marilyn when talking about how her illness began to affect her memory, giving her new insight and empathy into Marilyn’s difficulty remembering lines on set.

Although Marilyn’s “affair” with JFK is mostly rumor and conjecture – in spite of it being considered a well-known fact – Gene did in fact have a relationship with Kennedy shortly after her separation from Oleg Cassini in 1946.  The Kennedy family didn’t consider Gene an appropriate bride for their political aspirations, however, and the relationship ended.

Gene in a very Marilyn glamour shot.

Gene in a very Marilyn glamour shot.

 

It’s been rumored that Gene didn’t like Marilyn and spoke rudely of her after her husband Oleg Cassini, known for his philandering, had a brief affair with the rising starlet and brought her to a party.  There’s no evidence to support that this ever happened, and Gene’s attitude towards Marilyn in her autobiography is clearly kind and sympathetic.  She doesn’t mention this event happening; however, she admits that her mental illness caused her to behave in ways she regrets and that she has lost portions of her memory, so it is possible she forgot speaking unkindly of Marilyn.

 

Like Marilyn, Gene worked at Fox, dealt with the studio system, and struggled with depression.  Unlike Marilyn, however, Gene was lucky enough to have a support system and – eventually – the right help.  Although there’s no clear record that the two knew each other (it’s likely they did attend the same events and probably met at some point, and there remains the claim that Cassini was seeing Marilyn), it’s clear from Gene’s autobiography that she thought of Marilyn frequently after her death, and felt a great deal of empathy for Marilyn.  Although the timing didn’t work out, it seems possible that the two might well have been friends given the right opportunity.

 

– Leslie Kasperowicz for Immortal Marilyn