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!
