Marilyn Monroe

by Michelle Morgan

  While Milton and Amy Greene would still stay at Tibbs Farm, an ideal alternative was found for the Millers in the shape of Parkside House, a large mansion situated in Englefield Green, Surrey. The owners, Lord Moore and his wife, Joan Carr, were happy to move to London during Marilyn’s stay in their house, and it was agreed that the housekeeper, Elizabeth ‘Dolly’ Stiles, the gardener, Bernard Stiles, the butler, Franz Gettliner, and the cook (Gettliner’s wife) would stay on during the four months of Marilyn’s visit. Other members of staff would include a chauffeur and a detective to oversee Marilyn’s security.

  Despite these arrangements, no one told Mrs Cotes-Preedy that the plans for Tibbs Farm had changed, and she continued her public-relations campaign, being interviewed and even appearing on television. It eventually came down to the cook to inform her of the change of plans, having seen the news on the television just hours before Marilyn’s arrival.

  Meanwhile, preparations at Parkside began with the installation of new locks on the gates and the painting of Marilyn’s future bedroom. The Parkside staff were expected to work long hours during this period and discretion was of the utmost importance. Even the exterior of the home was revamped, when a gentleman called Gordon Bolton (who later claimed that he’d never heard of Marilyn Monroe) placed new tiles on the roof.

  Next came a security meeting between London airport officials, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Marilyn’s publicity men. It was originally decided that there would be no extra security at the airport but the officials changed their mind at the last minute, after hearing about the fiasco that took place at Idlewild Airport on 13 July, during the Millers’ departure for London, with the plane being delayed due to a stampede of excited fans and reporters.

  On the morning of 14 July 1956, around 150 British reporters gathered behind the newly erected security barriers, complained about the rain, and waited for Marilyn Monroe to arrive in England. Finally, at around 10.40 a.m., one hour after the expected arrival, the plane touched down and the reporters waited with baited breath.

  The other passengers on board started to make their way down the steps, but Marilyn was nowhere to be seen. Several minutes later, a bouquet of flowers was carried into the plane and, later still, someone representing a knitwear company delivered a sweater. When she eventually appeared, Marilyn glided down the steps dressed in the same outfit she had worn at Idlewild Airport – a jersey dress, dark glasses and a raincoat thrown casually over her shoulders – she had flowers in her arms and Arthur Miller close by.

  Airport staff were balanced on the wings of the plane to take personal snaps and get a better view, and although security was tight, there were a few fans who were able to say a few words. One of them, Frank Williams, remembered: “My job [at the airport] was to dig holes, tunnels and whatever was needed. We were told that Marilyn would be arriving one day with her new husband, Arthur Miller and in no uncertain terms [our boss] wanted no nonsense when she arrived – no whistles, no catcalls etc. Marilyn and her husband arrived right next to the foundations we were digging – probably only fifty yards away from where the aircraft came to rest. She walked straight up to the foundations trench and she said “Hello boys,” and we said “Welcome to England, Marilyn.” She was quite stunning and from four feet down in the trench, we had a very, very good view of her.’

  Once inside the terminal building, Mr and Mrs Miller were met by Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Photographs were taken and Marilyn chatted about Vivien’s recently announced pregnancy, before collecting her twenty-seven pieces of luggage and making her way officially to meet the world’s media.

  The press conference at London Airport would go down in history as being one of the most bizarre ever. After walking into the room with Miller and the Oliviers, Marilyn surprised everyone by refusing to speak into a microphone; her reason being that she found it too impersonal, adding that she much preferred talking directly to reporters. This, of course, resulted in many of those present not hearing a word Marilyn was saying, and a mini-stampede began, with reporters clambering to get the best view, knocking over chairs and tables in the process.

  Finally, in order to gain some kind of order, she was asked to stand on a raised platform behind a snack counter. Once there, the reporters were instructed, rather absurdly, to give their questions to Olivier, who in turn would pass them on to Marilyn. She then gave her answers back to Olivier, who passed them on to the rather impatient reporters.

  The questions ranged from the serious (‘What are your plans whilst in England?’) to the tongue-in-cheek (‘What do you think of Diana Dors?’) to the plain silly (‘Can I have a lemonade please, Marilyn?’ referring to her position behind the snack counter). After declaring that the thing she most wanted to see was, ‘the little fellow with the bow and arrow in Piccadilly Circus,’ the press conference was over and it was finally time to leave.

  Of course, when the Millers and Oliviers arrived at Parkside House, they were not alone. The dozens of reporters who had greeted her at the airport were now at the house and, after posing for numerous photos, Marilyn entered the drawing room in time for press conference number two. Again, the questions came thick and fast but when asked what she thought of her new home, Marilyn revealed that she had rather expected to find a cottage. Unfortunately, Parkside House would never live up to her fantasy and, by the end of her trip, she was rather glad to leave it.

  When one reporter asked what she planned to do for relaxation, she replied, ‘Go for bicycle rides.’ However, on realizing that she did not have a bicycle, she added, ‘. . . if I can borrow a bike.’ This seemingly innocent comment would later cause considerable bad press for her, but for now the reporters were charmed.

  Once the reporters had gone, Lord Moore took the Millers on a tour of their new home, although much to Marilyn’s bewilderment he missed out one long hallway, claiming that the walk was so boring that he didn’t go down there any more.

  Tour over, the Millers were then formally introduced to their staff before retiring to their newly painted, white bedroom. Exhausted from the plane trip and the two chaotic press conferences, they rested for a number of hours, before having dinner served by the butler, Franz Gettliner. Later that evening when the sun had finally gone down, the Millers went for a stroll around the grounds of their new home, before finally retiring to bed.

  The next morning, Marilyn dozed until 12.30 p.m. before Olivier visited to show her photographs of the Prince and the Showgirl set, along with the costume she would wear in the film. Afterwards she left for a scheduled press conference at the Savoy Hotel in London, stopping to chat first to the local people waiting outside her new home. Along with various items of small talk, the star was intrigued to know if any fans came from Scotland, declaring with pride, ‘I’ve got a Scottish name. Monroe is pure Scots you know.’

  Eventually she was able to leave, but by the time the car arrived at the back door of the Savoy, she was extremely late and surrounded by fans once again, with only a human chain of policemen to protect her. Finally though, both Marilyn and Miller made their way into the hotel, and to the great relief of just about everyone, joined Laurence Olivier on a raised platform, in order to begin the press conference.

  The questions asked that day were very much on the same level as those asked at the airport and Parkside House. If there were many questions related to The Prince and the Showgirl, they certainly didn’t make the press coverage the next day, the reporters being much more interested in comments of a personal nature and, in particular, anything related to the Miller marriage and Marilyn’s personal aspirations.

  One item that caused a lot of interest was her outfit. The black dress was tightly fitted and included a window of net to show off her midriff. Photographs of the revealing outfit were beamed nationwide and caused such a stir that a copy went on sale just weeks later. When asked to describe what she was wearing, Marilyn hesitated, then answered that it was ‘a simple black dress’. She then showed her famous quick wit to reporter
Donald Zec, by declaring that although the dress wasn’t her idea, it was her midriff, referring to the bare skin displayed under the net.

  Marilyn answered most of the reporters’ questions in good spirit. However, she was understandably a little curt when one journalist asked what her definition of an intellectual was: ‘I guess you could look it up in a dictionary,’ she said. Another asked if she believed in the idea of The Seven Year Itch, to which she exclaimed, ‘Do you know, I never understood the point of that film?’

  Olivier played his part in the proceedings by once again repeating questions to Marilyn, before she answered them; while the press reported that the only time Arthur Miller seemed to smile was when the couple left the room. However, he did have his chance to speak, too, when one of the reporters asked him how he saw his wife; Miller replied, ‘With two eyes.’

  The questions continued for the next hour, and just before they ended the Daily Sketch presented a surprised Marilyn with her very own bike, to enable her to ride through the English countryside. She was thrilled with her gift, which sported a huge gift-tag bearing the words, ‘To Marilyn Love From The Daily Sketch.’ While Miller looked on in amusement, his wife exclaimed, ‘There are so many things I must do first. It’ll be two or three days before you see me riding round the lanes.’

  There was indeed a lot for her to do, and one of those things was meeting a young man called Alan who was chosen to work at Parkside House as Marilyn’s rehearsal pianist: ‘I was a music student and used to work during vacations. My agent provided temps for the theatre and I had done a couple of jobs for him, but one day he rang me up to tell me about an interesting job, that I’d be a nitwit to turn down. Apparently Marilyn wanted a pianist for singing practice and as she was limited on the amount of non-British people she could use, she had asked her New York agent, who rang someone in London to find a personal pianist for her.

  ‘I was summoned to Parkside and told, “Mrs Monroe-Miller will see you now.” It was like being sent to see the Headmaster and I was rather apprehensive and more than a bit nervous. I had met actresses before and knew they could be fearsome, so what on earth would such a great Hollywood star be like? I need not have worried. Marilyn was sitting on the sofa with her legs tucked up under her. As I went in she gave me that wonderful smile, uncoiled gracefully and came towards me. She put out her hand, took mine and said softly, “Hi, I’m Marilyn!” Her manner was so sweetly shy and modest that I felt instantly at ease. She was such a pleasant and thoroughly nice lady.’

  Marilyn would spend a great deal of time with Alan over the coming months, but for now it was time for another press conference on 16 July, and then afterwards a trip to Claridges to meet her husband for lunch. Eating salmon, turkey and fruit, Mr and Mrs Miller looked every inch the newlywed couple, and restaurant staff spotted them kissing between courses. However, it was Miller’s outfit that caused the most concern, when staff commented on his grey sports coat, dark trousers and white shoes. Indeed, his casual dress caused such a scandal that it even gained its fair share of column inches the next day.

  After lunch, Marilyn and Arthur departed from London and headed back to Surrey, for what they no doubt hoped would be a restful evening in the privacy of their new home . . .

  Shoreditch Training College was located approximately two miles from Parkside House, and like most of the local people, the students who studied there had long anticipated the arrival of Marilyn Monroe. For two days before Marilyn’s arrival, gossip swirled around the college, and there was a great deal of lobbying to form a group that would be willing to go to Marilyn’s house and entice her out.

  At around 8 p.m., on the night of 16 July, a group of eighty students met in front of the college to make the hike to Marilyn’s house. The plan was to sing under her bedroom window, and some of the students even took along trumpets and other musical instruments to add further excitement to the proceedings.

  However, everything did not go to plan, when the College Principal, Ted Marshall, turned up to try to persuade the revellers to go home. Unfortunately for him, most of them had just finished their exams, so they felt that there was nothing the college could do to stop them and Mr Marshall’s attempts at discipline went unheard. The trip to Marilyn’s house further exasperated Mr Marshall when he discovered that one of the young men had borrowed his car to catch up with friends. The vehicle was even stopped by police during the short journey, and the driver cheekily gave his name as that of the Principal before abandoning it near Parkside House.

  Once the group reached the vicinity of Marilyn’s home, they immediately started chanting, ‘We want Marilyn, we want Marilyn,’ before lifting the gates clean out of their hinges and marching up the driveway and singing the twenty-third psalm outside Marilyn’s bedroom window. However, it soon became clear to most of them that she had no intention of coming out to meet them.

  Nevertheless, although they didn’t get Marilyn’s attention, they did receive a great deal of notice from the police, who had been tipped off and were making their way to Parkside House. As they approached, most of the fans scattered, as one former student, Allan R. Pemberton remembered: ‘It was dark and I had fled into long, wet grass. I got soaking wet and I recall clearly seeing the searching lights being scanned over the area where I was hiding. I’m not sure how long I remained in hiding, but when I thought it safe, I returned to the college, where quite a few of the group had already returned. Quite a few hadn’t, I remember [and] there were many stories of “escapes”, but no one saw Marilyn and we never knew whether she was aware of our escapade.’

  Marilyn was, indeed, very aware of what went on outside her bedroom window that night. In his autobiography, Timebends: A Life, Arthur Miller described waking up to the sound of singing outside. Once awake, he and Marilyn both watched out of the window in amazement at the spectacle below, but because of security concerns, neither of them talked to or met any of the students. Housekeeper Dolly Stiles remembered the students’ obsession continued and they were often at Parkside, shouting for Marilyn.

  On 17 July the Millers accompanied Laurence Olivier to the Lyric Theatre where Vivien Leigh was performing in South Sea Bubble by Noel Coward. The play opened at the theatre on 25 April and had received its fair share of newspaper coverage, but on this particular night, it was Marilyn who stole the show.

  Shortly before the performance was due to start, the Millers and Olivier took their seats in row J. Marilyn, wearing a flesh-coloured, skin-tight dress and a raincoat almost identical to the one she wore on her arrival in England, immediately drew attention from the other theatregoers, and although the visit was supposed to be secret, word soon got round that Marilyn was in attendance.

  By the time the performance had finished, a huge crowd had gathered around the theatre, but with Marilyn’s chauffeur parked at the stage door, and Olivier’s parked at the front, fans had no idea where to wait. This resulted in them crowding around both entrances in a bid to catch even the smallest glimpse of the star and her playwright husband.

  Finally, at 10.50 p.m., and after several van-loads of police had been called, Marilyn and her companions made their exit from the front door of the theatre and were taken to Olivier’s London home at Lowndes Place, where they spent a few hours before leaving at 2 a.m. to return to Parkside.

  Before Marilyn arrived in England, Bus Stop director Joshua Logan wrote a letter to Olivier, advising him on how best to work with her. Unfortunately, although Olivier wrote to Logan on 26 June to say that his comments had been ‘carefully noted’, it would seem that Marilyn’s way of working still came as a shock, since from the very first day of rehearsals on 18 July, the two stars did not get on at all well.

  Olivier’s first and probably greatest mistake was to introduce Marilyn in what she took to be a patronizing manner. Whilst generally polite, Olivier made a large speech to the cast, explaining that they would have to be patient with Marilyn, as her methods were perhaps different to theirs. Enormously insecure, this comment made
her suspicious of Olivier and she was on her guard from that moment on.

  Marilyn’s pianist, Alan, remembers visiting the set on several occasions and being told to ‘stand over there and don’t breathe . . .’ From his corner, however, he was able to see firsthand what Marilyn went through during her time on set: ‘Olivier ran a very strict ship, as though he was working in the theatre, with rehearsals etc. Everyone was curious to see what Marilyn was like, but some were “sniffy” and thought Marilyn was wrong and amateur because she wasn’t from the West End. They had all worked with Olivier before and felt that it was like putting on slippers, but Marilyn just wasn’t used to working like that. Dame Sybil Thorndike was an angel though. She had put in a good word about me with Marilyn and told her that she’d known me since I was in short trousers.

  ‘Marilyn kept to herself on the set. She would have liked to have mixed with the others but there was a barrier there. She went into it wide-eyed, looking at Olivier as “my hero” but she got very upset by him and felt a lot of contempt for him and the other cast members who never went out of their way to be nice to her.’

  Meanwhile, Marilyn’s personal life was becoming a constant source of speculation in the newspapers, and rumours appeared that she would be holidaying in Paris and Scotland, visiting the local cricket green and attending at least one wedding. All of these stories were false, but it didn’t stop people wishing them to be true, and just four days after her arrival, major excitement was caused when ‘Marilyn’ showed up in Shakespeare Country.