Marilyn Monroe

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Marilyn Monroe Page 75

by Donald Spoto

She was a perfectionist: JWP I, p. 4.

  83

  Just her presence: Dougherty, Secret Happiness, p. 53.

  84

  We got along: JWP I, p. 1.

  84

  There was a scarcity: Quoted in the Sunday Express (London), Aug. 9, 1987.

  85

  I’ll admit: Ibid. Same source for the ensuing dialogue between the Doughertys.

  86

  She begged me: James Dougherty to DS, June 20, 1992.

  88

  she had developed: Eleanor Goddard to DS, Feb. 21, 1992.

  90

  In her rational: Dougherty, Secret Happiness, p. 80.

  92

  There was a luminous: David Conover, Finding Marilyn (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1981), p. 12.

  92

  What happened: Ibid.

  92

  Mom froze: JWP I, p. 6.

  92–93

  a white bathing: Robert Stack, with Mark Evans, Straight Shooting (New York: Macmillan, 1980), p. 84.

  93

  all this business: Quoted by Dougherty in JWP I, p. 7.

  93

  As far as: MG2 XII, 3, p. 25.

  94

  too curly: Emmeline Snively in the Los Angeles Daily News, Feb. 4, 1954, p. 14.

  94

  perfect teeth: from the Blue Book application card filled in by an unknown staff member for “Norma Jean [sic] Dougherty,” dated August 2, 1945.

  94

  dance a little: Ibid.

  95

  I don’t think: Quoted in Ted Thackrey in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Aug. 7, 1962; Snively also spoke on camera for Wolper.

  95

  The problem: MG2 III, 2, p. 20.

  95–96

  When you stop: MG2 III, 2, p. 22.

  96

  very serious: Lydia Bodrero Reed to DS, June 19, 1992.

  Chapter Six: December 1945–August 1946

  98

  We got along: JWP I, p. 1.

  98

  She was: JWP II, p. 7.

  99

  she still seemed: Quoted in Thackrey, art. cit.

  99

  naive but disturbing: André de Dienes, Marilyn Mon Amour (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985), p. 27.

  99

  So far: JWP I, pp. 7–8.

  100

  The truth is: MG2 VII, 4, unpaginated.

  100

  I longed to: de Dienes, p. 51.

  100

  The plain truth is: Alex D’Arcy to DS, June 18, 1992.

  100

  She needed: de Dienes, p. 71.

  100

  Come to me: Ibid., p. 67.

  101

  I’d like to come: MG2 XII, 23, pp. 11–12.

  102

  In my dreams: de Dienes, p. 70.

  102

  Isn’t this better: Golden, p. 178.

  103

  nearly went berserk: JWP I, p. 8.

  104

  the lost look: William Burnside, “My life with young Marilyn,” The Observer magazine, May 11, 1975; see also Kate Wharton, “Photos that echo a sad story of love,” Today (U.K.), April 23, 1986.

  104

  Her lyric was reprinted in The Observer magazine of May 6, 1984, p. 23; a copy is also in MG III, 3, unpaginated.

  104

  She liked: Earl Moran, in “A Marilyn for All Seasons,” Life, vol. 6, no. 7 (July 1983): 15.

  105

  a shy girl: Joseph Jasgur to DS, Feb. 7, 1992.

  105

  When she saw: Laszlo Willinger in Feldman/Winters documentary, Marilyn: Beyond the Legend.

  106

  where a female: Ken DuMain to DS, Aug. 26, 1992.

  106

  She wandered: Eleanor Goddard to DS, Feb. 21, 1992.

  107

  calculating: Dougherty, p. 105.

  107

  a woman without: JWP I, p. 11.

  107

  Regarding MM’s financial support of her mother: “Marilyn never shirked a responsibility she legally did not have,” according to Inez Melson, her business manager in later years. “No matter how little she made, she contributed to her mother’s care, and her will ensured that the care continued after Marilyn’s death.” See Inez Melson, quoted in The Listener (London), Aug. 30, 1979.

  108

  First she thought: JWP I, p. 8.

  108

  The dialogue between the Doughertys was told by Dougherty to Jane Wilkie: JWP II, pp. 1 and 11.

  108

  She thought we: Dougherty to DS, June 20, 1992.

  108

  extreme mental cruelty: Complaint, “Norma Jeane Dougherty, Plaintiff, vs. James Edward Dougherty, Defendant,” Case no. 31146 in the Eighth Judicial District Court of the State of Nevada, Clark County, filed July 5, 1946.

  109

  I married and: Philip K. Scheuer, “Wolves Howl for ‘Niece’ Just Like Marilyn Monroe,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 29, 1950.

  111

  She’d been: Allan Snyder to DS, May 2, 1992. Snyder also provided the subsequent quotation from Shamroy.

  111

  When I first: Leon Shamroy, quoted in Robert Cahn, “The 1951 Model Blonde,” Collier’s, Sept. 8, 1951, p. 51. See also Zolotow, pp. 60–61.

  114

  I know who you are: Ben Lyon to Earl Wilson, quoted in the Los Angeles Daily News, June 13, 1953, p. 10.

  115

  The dialogue is cited by MM in MG2 X, 8, pp. 22–23.

  Chapter Seven: September 1946–February 1948

  116ff

  For a succinct history of 20th Century–Fox, see Joel W. Finler, The Hollywood Story (London: Octopus, and New York: Crown, 1988), pp. 88–113. A fair treatment of Darryl F. Zanuck may be found in Marlys J. Harris, The Zanucks of Hollywood (New York: Crown, 1989).

  117

  Zanuck had an aide: Ernest Lehman to DS, Aug. 29, 1992.

  118

  an energetic and: Philip Dunne, “Darryl from A to Z,” American Film, vol. ix, no. 9 (July–August 1984): 50.

  119

  She was very: Lipton in Wolper, Legend.

  119

  Desperate to absorb: Allan Snyder to DS, May 2, 1992.

  121

  When I told: Harry Lipton, in Wolper, Legend.

  122

  It was as: MG2 XVI, 4, p. 12.

  124

  crazy, destroyed: MG2 XVI, 4, p. 17.

  124

  She asked us: Ibid.

  125

  All I could think of: MG2 XVI, 4, p. 19.

  125

  she did all: Phoebe Brand, quoted in Zolotow, p. 72.

  126

  Movie stars were paid: MG2 XII, 3.

  127

  the look of: Lucille Ryman Carroll to DS, Feb. 20, 1992.

  128

  Marilyn was: Lee Strasberg, quoted in Cindy Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio (New York: Doubleday, 1980), p. 153.

  129

  MM’s comments on Glamour Preferred are recorded in MG2 II, 5, p. 26.

  132

  I was invited: MG VIII, 4, unpaginated; cf. also Meryman, 33; and the later expanded version of Meryman in Life, vol. 15, no. 8 (August 1992): 75.

  132

  If four or five: quoted in Neal Gabler, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood (New York: Crown, 1988), p. 113.

  133

  Marilyn spoke: Amy Greene to DS, May 5, 1992.

  Chapter Eight: February 1948–May 1949

  135

  She was like: Jane Wilkie to DS, Oct. 20, 1992.

  137

  Not very much: MG2 XIV, 3, p. 2.

  137

  Marilyn was inhibited: JWP/NL I, p. 5.

  137

  There were days: MG2 II, 8, p. 12.

  138

  I took her: JWP/NL I, p. 5 and II, p. 9.

  138

  She was in love: MG2 II, 8, p. 2.

  139

  the one human: Ibid., p. 3.

  139


  I began to feed: JWP/NL II, pp. 8–9.

  140

  I felt like: MG2 XIV, 3, 24.

  140

  Please don’t do: JWP/NL II, p. 5.

  141

  but first of all: Milton Berle to DS, April 2, 1992.

  141

  She told me: Adele Jergens to DS, April 9, 1992.

  142

  the only security: JWP/NL I, p. 10.

  142

  Under Marilyn’s: Ezra Goodman, The Fifty-Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1961), p. 234.

  143

  He said that: MG2 III, 7, p. 24.

  145

  Marilyn was beginning: JWP/NL II, p. 10.

  146

  I’m not going: Ibid., p. 11; see also MG2 III, 4, p. 15; and similar remarks cited to DS by Rupert Allan, Lucille Ryman Carroll and Amy Greene.

  146

  Johnny Hyde knew: Peter Leonardi to Earl Wilson, quoted in Wilson’s Show Business Laid Bare (New York: Putnam’s, 1974), p. 67.

  146

  She never had: Leon Krohn, M.D., spoke to producer Ted Landreth in 1984 for his BBC-TV documentary Marilyn: Say Goodbye to the President.

  147

  He was willing: MM, quoted in Jane Corwin, “Orphan in Ermine,” Photoplay, vol. 45, no. 3 (March 1954): 109.

  147

  I knew nobody: JWP/NL I, p. 4.

  147

  chump: Elia Kazan, A Life (New York: Knopf, 1988), p. 403.

  147

  tramps and pushovers: Ibid., p. 406.

  148

  It’s amazing: Quoted in Roger G. Taylor, Marilyn In Art (Salem, N.H.: Salem House, 1984), n.p.

  149

  I began to see hope: JWP/NL II, p. 8.

  149

  Natasha was jealous: MG2 VIII, 2, p. 1.

  151

  I think I: Tom Kelley, quoted in “Marilyn: The Naked Truth!” Los Angeles Magazine, vol. 36, no. 6 (June 1991): 90.

  151ff

  Whenever the topic of the calendars arose, Marilyn claimed she was “broke and behind in the rent,” or “hungry and behind in my rent.” See, e.g., Belmont, p. 18, et alibi.

  152

  I’m only comfortable: Wilson, Show Business Laid Bare, p. 67.

  Chapter Nine: June 1949–December 1950

  154

  I bought: MG VI, 3, p. 25.

  155

  Her shrewdness: JWP/NL I, p. 9.

  156

  It was the: Ibid., VI, 3, p. 29.

  156

  She had the: de Dienes, p. 91.

  156

  so they just: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column (e.g., in the Los Angeles Daily News) for July 30, 1949.

  156

  a pretty dull: Earl Wilson, The Show Business Nobody Knows (Chicago: Cowles, 1971), p. 288.

  157

  You know: Quoted in Sidney Skolsky’s column in the Los Angeles Citizen-News, Sept. 30, 1952.

  158

  They showed me: “The Men Who Interest Me . . . By Mrs. Joe DiMaggio,” Pageant, vol. 9, no. 10 (April 1954): 53.

  158

  Why, you’re: This little dialogue has been attributed to their meeting in 1953, which Milton and Marilyn put forth as the official time of their meeting and which most people accepted—including Amy Greene (who married Milton that year). But Rupert Allan heard it in his home in 1949.

  158

  painting with the: Often in MG: e.g., I, 4, p. 31; see also Al Morch, “The photographer who captured Marilyn Monroe,” San Francisco Examiner, July 13, 1981, p. D5.

  159

  Telegram to MG from MM preserved in MG I, 1.

  159

  sad to see Milton: Rupert Allan to DS, June 17, 1991.

  160

  voluptuously made: Quoted in Lawrence Grobel, The Hustons (New York: Avon, 1989), p. 334.

  160

  When she finished: John Huston, An Open Book (New York: Knopf, 1980), pp. 286–287. With minor variations, this is the account reported also by Grobel; by Axel Madsen; and by Gerald Pratley (see Bibliography).

  160

  But she was: Quoted in the The Daily Mirror (London), April 1, 1980.

  161

  For the better: JWP/NL II, p. 9.

  161

  She impressed me: John Huston in Wolper, Legend.

  161

  It was the first: JWP/NL II, p. 10.

  162

  I don’t know: Ibid., p. 9.

  163

  Body control: Quoted by George Masters to DS, Aug. 8, 1992.

  163

  For the reminiscences of Agnes Flanagan, see Crivello, p. 250.

  166

  eager young hustlers: Nunnally Johnson, quoted in Rollyson, p. 33.

  166

  Almost everybody thought: MG XII, 3, p. 14.

  167

  Joe sponsored: David Brown to DS, Nov. 11, 1992.

  168

  had done a good: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, More About All About Eve (New York: Random House, 1972), pp. 76–77.

  169

  Every now and then: Ibid., p. 78.

  169

  very inquiring: George Sanders, Memoirs of a Professional Cad (New York: Putnam’s, 1960), pp. 70–71.

  169

  but somehow she: Mankiewicz, p. 79.

  170

  soft-spoken: Fredda Dudley Balling to Constance McCormick, quoted in the Constance McCormick Collection in the Film Archives of the University of Southern California.

  170

  because I wanted: MG2 IV, 3, p. 22.

  171

  She fed Josefa: JWP/NL I, p. 11.

  171

  was a channel: JWP/NL II, p. 10.

  171

  I signalled: Ibid., p. 11.

  173

  He had a tendency: Steffi Sidney Splaver to DS, June 5, 1992. There is also an amusing account of Skolsky’s place in Hollywood history in Goodman, pp. 46–49 and 392–395.

  173

  Do you think: Quoted by Skolsky in Goodman, p. 394.

  174

  From then on: Sidney Skolsky, Don’t Get Me Wrong—I Love Hollywood (New York: Putnam’s, 1975), p. 214.

  174

  He had confidence: “The Men Who Interest Me . . . By Mrs. Joe DiMaggio,” Pageant, vol. 9, no. 10 (April 1954) 53.

  175

  I don’t know: MG2 VIII, 5.

  176

  I saw: JWP/NL I, p. 13.

  176

  Joe Schenck was: Sam Shaw to DS, March 8, 1992.

  177

  Natasha often accused: MG2 III, 3, p. 9.

  177

  just by standing: Life, vol. 30, no. 1 (Jan. 1, 1951): 37.

  Chapter Ten: January 1951–March 1952

  178

  It wasn’t until: JWP/NL II, p. 16.

  179

  She said she: Ibid.

  180

  she was frightened: Quoted in “MM Remembered,” Playboy, vol. 11, no. 1 (January 1964): 191.

  180

  She can’t stop: Quoted in Kazan, p. 404.

  180

  Every time: Ibid.

  180

  She hadn’t even: Ibid., p. 403.

  181

  technique of seduction: Ibid., p. 404.

  181

  a simple, decent-hearted: Ibid., pp. 404–405.

  181

  Marilyn simply wasn’t: Kazan, p. 415.

  183

  I’m not interested: Many times in her life: e.g., the incident here, cited in Pete Martin, “The New Marilyn Monroe,” Saturday Evening Post, May 5, 1956, p. 150.

  183

  the shock of: Arthur Miller, Timebends (New York: Grove Press, 1987), p. 303.

  184

  When Miller withdrew his script from Hollywood rather than alter its premise, he received a telegram from Harry Cohn complaining that “THE MINUTE WE TRY TO MAKE THE SCRIPT PRO-AMERICAN YOU PULL OUT” (see Miller, p. 308). The wheels were set in motion for the absurd charges of anti-Americanism against Arthur Miller.

  185
/>
  the air around: Miller, p. 306.

  185

  not only by: Ibid.

  185

  was something like: Ibid., pp. 307, 327.

  186

  She fell in love: JWP/NL I, p. 9.

  186

  if I had stayed: Arthur Miller, quoted in James Kaplan, “Miller’s Crossing,” Vanity Fair, vol. 54, no. 11 (November 1991): 241.

  186

  Most people: MM to AM, March 9, 1951; she kept a working copy (MG2 III, 3).

 

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