Marilyn Monroe

by Charles Casillo

33. Sleepwalking

  “I haven’t slept”: Donald Spoto interview with Hidi Greenson, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

  “stumbling around”: Charles Casillo interview with Bill Asher, 1998.

  “Why can’t I be as happy as you two”: Patricia Seaton Lawford, The Peter Lawford Story: Life with the Kennedys, Monroe, and the Rat Pack (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1988). Also told to this author in an interview with James Spada, August 9, 2016.

  “It was a bad period”: Bill Asher interview with Donald Spoto, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library. He said essentially the same thing to this author in an interview in 1999.

  “the only hope”: Mickey Rudin interview with Donald Spoto, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

  “so they could exchange pills”: Ibid.

  “they’d bring pills”: Ibid.

  “loading her up with”: Donald Spoto interview with Patricia Newcomb, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

  “beautiful woman”: William Langley, “Marilyn Monroe 50 Years On: The Mystery of Marilyn’s Last Days,” The Telegraph, July 29, 2012.

  “I would call breakable”: Charles Casillo interview with Buddy Greco, October 13, 2015.

  “Mr. Sinatra had eaten that”: J. Randy Taraborrelli, Sinatra, The Man Behind the Myth (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1998).

  “had smashed”: Casillo interview with Buddy Greco, October 13, 2015.

  “this woman was Marilyn Monroe”: Cami Sebring interview with Lois Banner, in notes, Lois Banner Collection at Margaret Herrick Library.

  “Where’s the goddamn coffee?”: Taraborrelli, Sinatra, The Man Behind the Myth.

  “roll her over a barrel”: Charles Casillo interview with Betsy Duncan Hammes, August 15, 2016.

  “didn’t push it”: Casillo interview with Buddy Greco, October 13, 2015.

  “clearly apparent”: Manoah Bowman with Natasha Gregson Wagner, Natalie Wood: Reflections on a Legendary Life (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2016).

  “the night before she died”: Anthony Summers, Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe (New York: Macmillan, 1985).

  “I hadn’t seen anything that beautiful”: Sam Kashner, “Six Decades In, Warren Beatty Is Still Seducing Hollywood,” Vanity Fair, November 2016.

  “what to do about it anymore”: Charles Casillo interview with Leslie Caron, January 14, 2016.

  “feeling it intensely”: Ibid.

  “I want to shut this off”: Spoto interview with Newcomb, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

  34. Anger and Despair

  “She was furious”: Donald Spoto interview with Patricia Newcomb, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

  “for the weekend”: Ibid.

  She was beside herself: Charles Casillo interview with an anonymous source.

  “just before that”: Spoto interview with Newcomb, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

  “lonely and afraid”: Marilyn Monroe: Her Last Untold Secrets (interview with Dr. George Kupchik for this tribute magazine, 1962, publisher unidentified).

  “full active day”: John Bates in an interview for the documentary Say Goodbye to the President, British Broadcasting Corporation, 1985.

  helicopter to see Marilyn: Frank Neill, a Fox publicist, says that the helicopter carrying Bobby landed on the Fox lot near Stage 7. David Marshall, The DD Group: An Online Investigation into the Death of Marilyn Monroe (iUniverse, Inc., March 16, 2005). See also Keith Badman, Marilyn Monroe: The Final Years (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2012); Lois Banner, Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox (New York: Bloomsbury, 2012).

  “I know it was Bobby”: Say Goodbye to the President.

  “told Bobby to break it off”: J. Randy Taraborrelli, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009). See also Say Goodbye to the President.

  “somewhat drugged”: Dr. Ralph Greenson letter to Dr. Marianne Kris, August 20, 1962 (in private hands).

  “I cannot say to anyone here”: Ibid.

  “important men in her life”: Donald H. Wolfe, The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe (New York: William Morrow, 1998).

  “feeling rejected by some of the people she had been close to”: Ibid.

  “capable of suicide”: Donald Spoto interview with Patricia Newcomb, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

  “Nembutal for Marilyn”: Anthony Summers interview with Hildi and Joan Greenson, Anthony Summers Collection, Margaret Herrick Library. See also Hildi Greenson interview with Donald Spoto, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library; Donald Spoto interview with Patricia Newcomb, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library; Patricia Newcomb taped interview with Robert Slatzer (in private hands).

  35. Miscommunications

  “poor little girl that had died”: Anthony Summers, Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe (New York: Macmillan, 1985).

  diatribe against Patricia Newcomb: Lois Banner, Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox (New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2012).

  “you’re a nice guy”: Donald Spoto interview with Milt Ebbins, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library. See also Charles Casillo interview with Milt Ebbins, 1998.

  “she drops the phone”: Donald Spoto interview with Mickey Rudin, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

  “Tell Peter not to worry about it”: Spoto interview with Ebbins, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

  “I wasn’t even home”: Donald Spoto interview with Patricia Newcomb, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

  a vacation in Maine: This information comes from a November 2015 interview this author had with author James Spada, who saw the White House logs while researching a book that he didn’t complete.

  36. “We’ve Lost Her”

  “No one could help her”: Anthony Summers interview with Eunice Murray, Anthony Summers Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

  “You’re the first one who knows about it”: Donald Spoto interview with Milt Ebbins, Donald Spoto, Margaret Herrick Library. Ebbins added, “This is the gospel truth.” Also see J. Randy Taraborrelli, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009).

  “She’s dead”: Donald Spoto interview with Patricia Newcomb, Donald Spoto Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

  Epilogue: Lingering Radiance

  “she didn’t know it”: Ms., August 1972.

  “I guess I’ll settle for what I am”: Marilyn Monroe audiotape interview with Richard Meryman for Life, August 1962. In private hands.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

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  Documentaries

  Backstory: The Making of Bus Stop. AMC Productions, 2001.

  Bert Stern: Original Madman. Magic Film Productions, 2011.

  Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood. Prometheus Entertainment, 2001.

  The Death of Marilyn Monroe. Unsolved History, TV Episode, Termite Art Productions, 2003.

  Eve & Marilyn. BBC, 1997.

  In Vogue: The Editors Eye. HBO Documentary, 2012.

  Marilyn in Manhattan. Parco International, 1997.

  Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days. Prometheus Entertainment, 2002.

  Marilyn Monroe: Life After Death. United Artists Theatre Circuit, 1994.

  Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess. A&E Home Video Documentary, 1999.

  Marilyn Monroe: 10 Years On. Documentary, 1972.

  Marilyn on Marilyn. British Broadcasting Corporation, 2001.