For my friends and family and any other sweet soul that wants to pass away 10 minutes reading an article about ‘My life with Marilyn’ After years of knowing me (or not), you may be wondering why Marilyn Monroe has started to (re)appear in my life.
I admire the actress we all think of as Marilyn Monroe. I have done so since watching the film ‘Bus Stop’ when I was 12 years old. I was immediately hooked by her beauty and screen presence. She was just so feminine and held herself so well. I had never seen anyone like her in real life or on screen and I wanted to know more about her.
At first this curiosity manifested itself with reading and collecting. I began to accumulate Marilyn books and hundreds of prints and posters. I went onto video tapes and audio and generally anything that had her image on. I remember going to the main library and scrolling through hundreds of microfiche newspaper films to find stories about her in the English broadsheets; anything to get a step closer to who she was.
In the early 80s, Marilyn began to reappear on the covers of teenage magazines, a legacy from the media attention surrounding the 20th anniversary of her death. This really was a ‘second life’ for Marilyn; in the 1970s for the most part she had been left to rest in peace, her integrity intact, a memory to those that loved her in her own lifetime. To my generation she was a new discovery and I lapped up everything I could find about her.
My family and friends thought I was slightly bonkers. Back then, I would sit in my room and stare up at those posters and wonder why she had met such a sad end. On the anniversary of her death, I would always have a little cry and was genuinely upset for her. The only person that seemed to understand was my Gran, who of course had been alive when Marilyn was still around. I always remember her saying “It was the Doctors that killed her”. It was a little isolating being a Marilyn fan.
To a girl living in the north of England in a small village in the 1980s, America was just a dream. Back then I had never been abroad and the world seemed such a huge place. Thanks to Cagney and Lacey, I also loved the idea of New York (do I sound like a geek yet?) and I went through a phase of collecting NYC travel books and telling my family that I would definitely get there one day (more reasons for them to think I was bonkers but yes I did get there!) You have to understand that in the early 80s, American Culture was being absorbed into the English way of life across every channel and medium; just think of Dallas, Dynasty, Cola Wars, Levi Jeans, MTV and McDonalds. The English couldn’t get enough of everything American and Marilyn was a part of that.
The sad reality was, this was actually the start of a huge drive towards consumerism and it’s no coincidence that Marilyn’s image and name had started to appear on everything from T Shirts to bags. Her image was big business. As a naïve teenager, I didn’t see this side of it and had no idea who was benefiting from the pocket money investment I made into my new found heroine. I just wanted to own a little bit of Marilyn.
As the years went by I left home, my posters came down and I got on with the daily business of being a grown up (hugely overrated by the way). Every now and then I would read articles about Marilyn in the press and curse under my breath at all the lies and fakers trying to bask in her gently fading light but I would occasionally unpack my books and revisit my teenage heroine. I am ashamed to say that I had packed her away because I felt I had read everything, seen every movie and heard every theory. I was tired of all the revelations and lies, the hangers on and the commercial promotion of her image which I had inadvertently helped to feed.
And I had no one to share her with.
So fast forward to the beginning of this year, when I was browsing the internet. I went onto the Official Marilyn Monroe Face Book page for a mooch and quickly became frustrated with all the false quotes and half-truths posted on there by well-meaning folk who didn’t know better. Nothing had changed. I posted a few messages, challenging quotes and misconceptions; it didn’t win me many friends! Then hey presto, a lady called Janie messaged me and said “you are one of us” and invited me to a Facebook group called Immortal Marilyn.
To my surprise I found a community that had been in existence long before I had started to gaze up at Marilyn’s image in my bedroom, over 25 years ago. I couldn’t believe these people existed and that they were genuinely interested in talking about her life, work and legacy. I joined the group and found hundreds of other Marilyn students including Janie, Mary, Scott, Greg and Jackie, some of whom organise Marilyn’s memorial service every August in Brentwood. I was so in awe, this was such a big deal for me and I was immediately transported back into my teenage bedroom, reading those books and watching Marilyn movies!
I can’t believe how lucky I am to have met such knowledgeable and devoted people, all brought together by a caring complex women who has been gone for more than 50 years. I am now friends with some of the authors who wrote the books I read as a teenager, I also know which books to avoid and which authors have fanned the flames of rumours with their poor research and questionable sources. I have met a genuine old school paparazzi from the 1950’s who took Marilyn’s photo on her visit to London, I have a signed photo of Marilyn from her dear friend George Barris and an email from a gentleman who knew and loved Marilyn with all his heart and best of all, I have access to so much expert knowledge about her life and work from those that have spent years researching her.
Loving Marilyn is thought of as being the territory of insecure teenage girls. It’s not a cool thing for a grown up to do, it’s something to grow out of. Actually she has never really left any of us; her face is as recognisable as the Stars and Stripes. Marilyn is a brand whether we like it or not; she will always be in books, on billboards, in commercials and her life will always be analysed and interpreted to suit the outcomes of those with hidden agendas or preconceptions they don’t want to change.
I can’t stop any of that on my own but now know that I can do my bit by talking about and celebrating the person, the actress, the human being she was with all her failings and successes so the essence of her isn’t lost in all the rumour and scandal. She was here, she was loved, she achieved great success from nothing and she was happy for much of her life. We should celebrate that.
And she always will be as long as fan communities like this exist. Come on in and join us.
By Hazel Singer
