Marilyn Monroe

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Marilyn Monroe Page 76

by Donald Spoto


  186

  If you want: AM to MM, March 13, 1951, cited in Fred Lawrence Guiles, Legend: The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe (New York: Stein and Day, 1984), p. 173.

  186

  It scared hell: Kazan, p. 427.

  187

  you could hear: Sidney Skolsky, “Hollywood Is My Beat,” Hollywood Citizen-News, May 2, 1951.

  187

  hardly enough room: Quoted in Robert Cahn, “The 1951 Model Blonde,” Collier’s, Sept. 8, 1951, p. 50.

  187

  the whole crew: June Haver in “MM remembered,” Playboy, vol. 11, no. 1 (January 1964): 190.

  187

  she grabbed: Jack Paar, on the television program Donahue, May 5, 1983.

  187

  one of the brightest: Ezra Goodman in the Los Angeles Daily News, June 6, 1951.

  187

  Marilyn Monroe is superb: New York Times, Aug. 3, 1951, p. 10.

  188

  Our bodies: He was citing the epigraph to the first chapter of his book; cf. Michael Chekhov, To the Actor: On the Technique of Acting (New York: Harper & Row, 1953), p. 1.

  189

  I am going: Chekhov, p. 6.

  189

  Merely discussing: Ibid.

  189

  artists of such magnitude: Chekhov, p. 163–166.

  191

  She is particularly concerned: Cahn, art. cit.

  191

  She’s the biggest: Quoted in Goodman, p. 234.

  191

  How much of the story: Skolsky, p. 220.

  192

  The studio: Richard Meryman, “A Last Long Talk With A Lonely Girl,” Life, vol. 53, no. 7 (Aug. 17, 1962): 33.

  192

  Like a famous predecessor: Cahn, art. cit.

  193

  terribly late: Rupert Allan to DS, Aug. 1, 1991.

  193

  the brightest star: Rupert Allan, “Marilyn Monroe . . . a serious blonde who can act,” Look, vol. 15 (Oct. 23, 1951): 40.

  193

  Nothing happened: Robert Wagner, in Remembering Marilyn, 1988 TV documentary, narrated by Lee Remick; dir. Andrew Solt. Vestron Video/Image Entertainment LaserDisc.

  194

  indifferent, amusing: E.g., Wanda Hale, in the New York Daily News, Nov. 7, 1951.

  194

  Hold a good thought: E.g., Skolsky, p. 216; also Susan Strasberg to DS, Aug. 29, 1992.

  194

  Every element had to be: Marjorie Plecher Snyder to DS, May 2, 1992.

  195

  scared as hell: Quoted in Peter Bogdanovich, Fritz Lang in America (New York: Praeger, 1967), p. 81.

  195

  She fought: JWP/NL I, p. 20.

  195

  She wasn’t disciplined: Quoted in Ella Smith, Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck (New York: Crown, 1985), p. 233.

  195

  We don’t want: Bogdanovich, p. 82.

  195

  a forceful actress: Alton Cook, New York World-Telegram & Sun, June 20, 1952.

  196

  Natasha, I’m terrified: JWP/NL I, p. 15.

  196

  I didn’t think: Ibid.

  198

  surefire money attraction: Variety, Aug. 13, 1952.

  198

  We had a hell: Quoted in Hollywood Studio Magazine, vol. 20, no. 8 (August 1987): 35.

  198

  I’m trying to: Aline Mosby, “Actress has memory of heartbreak,” Los Angeles Daily News, Jan. 7, 1952.

  199

  dazzled by the richness : Miller to the editors of Current Biography, 1973, p. 297.

  200

  Dear Mr. Chekhov: Copy preserved in MG2 III, 4, p. 2.

  200

  For Nunnally Johnson’s recollections of MM, cf. Tom Stempel, Screenwriter: The Life and Times of Nunnally Johnson (San Diego: A. S. Barnes, 1980), pp. 168–174.

  200

  The more important: Howard Hawks, quoted in Pamela Trescott, Cary Grant—His Movies and His Life (Washington: Acropolis Books, 1987), p. 144.

  201

  But we’re not married: MM to Mort Jelline, Los Angeles Daily News, Feb. 26, 1952.

  Chapter Eleven: March–December 1952

  204

  I didn’t let: Quoted in Roger Kahn, Joe & Marilyn (New York: William Morrow, 1986), p. 18.

  205

  everybody who calls: Ibid., p. 44.

  205

  almost a mental: Ibid., p. 238.

  205–206

  One of the most: Quoted in Current Biography, 1951, p. 163.

  206

  very slow: Ibid., p. 32; cited from an interview by Clay Felker with former player Andy High.

  206

  loner: Current Biography, p. 164; see also Maury Allen, Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? (New York: Dutton, 1975), 171ff.

  207

  I was surprised: MG2 VIII, 3, p. 14.

  207

  Joe is looking: Sidney Skolsky’s syndicated column for March 17, 1952; ironically, that evening Joe took Marilyn to her first baseball game—at Gilmore Stadium, where the Hollywood Stars (a minor-league professional team) were playing the Major League All Stars for a Kiwanis Club benefit. Joe played center field.

  207

  It’s like a: Quoted in Maurice Zolotow, “Joe & Marilyn: The Ultimate L.A. Love Story,” Los Angeles Magazine, February 1979, p. 240.

  208

  She got really: Quoted in Luitjers, p. 111.

  208

  I first met: JWP/NL II, p. 20.

  211

  although I really: Quoted by Rupert Allan to DS.

  212

  See Mosby’s article in the Los Angeles Herald Express, March 13, 1952, pp. 1 and 10.

  213

  I’ve been on: MM quoted in “Four For Posterity,” Look, vol. 18 (Jan. 16, 1962): 83. She was not pleased, however, when the calendar photo turned up on drinking glasses, ashtrays and cocktail napkins later that year. Lawyers for MM and Fox tried, without much success, to stop the flow of artifacts bearing her nude form.

  213

  the biggest news: Joe Hyams to DS, Sept. 19, 1991.

  213

  the way she: Halsman, quoted in Wagenknecht.

  213

  the successor to Harlow: see, e.g., Jim Henaghan, “So Far to Go Alone!” Redbook, June 1952, p. 43.

  214

  If anything was ‘wrong’: David Brown to DS, Nov. 11, 1992.

  215

  Dear Marilyn: Gladys’s letter to MM was preserved and included in IMP.

  216

  I knew there was really nothing: A note appended by MM to the foregoing letter in IMP.

  216n1

  get a complete: Grace Goddard’s letter to MM, dated Oct. 28, 1952, was preserved in IMP.

  216

  Unbeknown to me: Erskine Johnson, “Marilyn Monroe confesses mother alive, living here,” Los Angeles Daily News, May 3, 1952.

  218

  The notes taped by MM to her body were well publicized and copies kept in IMP.

  220

  She never had: Quoted in John Kobal, People Will Talk (New York: Knopf, 1985), pp. 615, 613.

  220

  If you wanted: Joseph Cotten, Vanity Will Get You Somewhere (London: Columbus Books, 1987), p. 110.

  221

  Am I making: Ibid., p. 111.

  221

  the best natural: Quoted in Sidney Skolsky’s column for July 16, 1952.

  222

  marvelous to work with: Quoted in Kobal, p. 615.

  222

  A lot of guys: Maury Allen, p. 177.

  223

  It’s the seventh: Sidney Skolsky’s column in the Hollywood Citizen-News, July 24, 1952.

  223

  That’s why: Quoted in Kobal, p. 616.

  223

  I think I’ll: Jay Breen, “She just lets the conversation drift toward her,” Los Angeles Daily News, Sept. 9, 1952.

  223

  I didn’t want: MG2 IV, 4, p. 23.

  224

  nothing,
but nothing: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column (e.g., Los Angeles Daily News), Aug. 27, 1952.

  224

  but La Monroe: Quoted in Dick Williams’s column, Los Angeles Mirror, Sept. 18, 1952.

  224

  She did the same: George Hurrell, quoted in John Kobal, People Will Talk (New York: Knopf, 1985) p. 266.

  224n2

  with not a stitch: David Stenn, Clara Bow (New York: Doubleday, 1987), p. 179.

  225

  This picture might give: Los Angeles Daily News, Sept. 2, 1952, p. 26.

  225

  I am very: Ibid.

  225

  People were staring: Newsweek, Sept. 15, 1952, p. 50.

  225

  That dress was: UPI wire service item, Sept. 5, 1952.

  225

  Photographers stood: Sidney Skolsky’s column for Sept. 5, 1952.

  227

  some estrangement: See, e.g., Los Angeles Times, Nov. 5, 1952.

  227n3

  for bringing in: Regarding Marilyn’s New York shopping spree with Ceil Chapman, see Earl Wilson, Show Business Laid Bare (New York: Putnam’s, 1974), p. 65.

  228n4

  Too bad: Will Fowler, Reporters: Memoirs of a Young Newspaperman (Santa Monica: Roundtable Publishing, 1991), n.p. Also, Will Fowler to DS, April 9, 1992.

  228n4

  Slatzer made a career: Allan Snyder to DS, July 3, 1992.

  228n4

  afraid of Joe: Robert F. Slatzer, The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe (Los Angeles: Pinnacle, 1974), p. 166

  228n4

  just trying to help: Fowler, n.p.

  228n4

  I never believed: Allan Snyder to DS, July 3, 1992.

  229n4

  It’s the one photo: Kay Eicher, quoted in Alex Burton, “Marilyn & Me is all lies,” The Star, Oct. 1, 1991, p. 45; confirmed to DS, Dec. 4, 1992.

  230

  when she put: Ron Nyman to DS, July 24, 1992.

  231

  She was damned: Lionel Newman, in remarks dated Oct. 26, 1972, for liner notes to a collection of MM songs recorded on 20th Century Records (T-901), 1972.

  231

  I feel as though: Barbara Berch Jamison, “Body and Soul: A Portrait of Marilyn Monroe Showing Why Gentlemen Prefer That Blonde,” New York Times, July 12, 1953, sec. II, p. 5.

  231

  There wasn’t: Joseph McBride, Hawks on Hawks (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), p. 124.

  231

  She loved to: Hal Schaefer to DS, April 24, 1992.

  231

  My great ambition: New York Times, Feb. 18, 1953.

  231

  I had to get out: MG2 I, 4, p. 14.

  232

  She wants to: Sidney Skolsky’s column (e.g., the Hollywood Citizen-News), Dec. 17, 1952.

  232

  I want to: MM to Irene Crosby, her stand-in on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, quoted in Skolsky for Dec. 17, 1952.

  232

  She was terrified: Jane Russell to DS, March 18, 1985; likewise on The Sally Jessy Raphael Show, April 15, 1992. See also David Galligan, “ ‘Sex Symbol’ Jane Russell,” Drama-Logue, vol. 17, no. 7 (Feb. 13–19, 1986): 7.

  232

  Neither of us: Jamison, art. cit.

  232

  far more intelligent: Jane Russell, Jane Russell: My Paths and My Detours (New York: Franklin Watts, 1985), p. 137.

  232

  no makeup: Ibid.

  232

  that she was just: Jack Cole, quoted in Kobal, p. 605.

  233

  the most frightened: Hawks, in McBride, op. cit., p. 125.

  233

  I’m really eager: MM to Dick Williams, Los Angeles Daily Mirror, March 10, 1953.

  234

  On the auction of the Reinhardt materials, see the Los Angeles Times for Dec. 5 and 6, 1952.

  234

  Surely you will: Gottfried Reinhardt, The Genius (New York: Knopf, 1979) p. 396.

  Chapter Twelve: 1953

  236

  Marilyn, this man: JWP/NL I, p. 19.

  236

  still very much: Sidney Skolsky’s column for Feb. 9, 1953.

  236

  She had to be: “Billy, Please Dress Me Forever,” News of the World, May 5, 1991, p. 5.

  237

  that looked as if: “Florabel Muir Reporting,” Los Angeles Mirror, Feb. 10, 1953.

  237

  burlesque show: Joan Crawford, in Bob Thomas’s Associated Press syndicated column (e.g., Hollywood Citizen-News), March 2, 1953.

  238

  One thing that makes: Joan Crawford, quoted in the Hollywood Citizen-News, June 10, 1953.

  238

  Marilyn’s the biggest: Quoted in Aline Mosby, “ ‘They’re just jealous of Miss Monroe,’ says Betty Grable,” Los Angeles Daily News, March 16, 1953.

  239

  a love affair: Jean Negulesco, Things I Did . . . and Things I Think I Did (New York: Linden Press/Simon & Schuster, 1984), p. 219.

  239

  under the spell: Dorris Johnson and Ellen Leventhal, eds., The Letters of Nunnally Johnson (New York: Knopf, 1981), p. 203.

  239

  By this time: Alex D’Arcy to DS, June 18, 1992.

  239

  On the Lytess-Monroe attachment delaying production, see Los Angeles Times, April 14, 1953.

  239

  Monroe cannot do: Charles K. Feldman, interoffice memo to staff at Famous Artists Agency dated Feb. 20, 1953. In the Charles Feldman Papers at the American Film Institute, Los Angeles.

  241

  no meanness in her: Lauren Bacall, By Myself (New York: Knopf, 1979), p. 208.

  241

  Honey, I’ve had mine: Doug Warren, Betty Grable: The Reluctant Movie Queen (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981), p. 189.

  241

  I don’t want: The incident is recalled in Anne Edwards, Judy Garland (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1975), p. 202.

  244

  trying to direct: Charles K. Feldman to MM, Aug. 10, 1953; from the Feldman Collection at the American Film Institute.

  244

  I pleaded with: Otto Preminger, Preminger: An Autobiography (New York: Doubleday, 1977), p. 128.

  244

  Marilyn, you don’t: JWP/NL I, p. 2.

  244

  Marilyn thought there: Robert Mitchum in the Gene Feldman/Suzette Winters television film documentary Marilyn: Beyond the Legend.

  244

  We put her through: Paul Wurtzel to DS, Feb. 19, 1992.

  245n3

  I wouldn’t accept: Luitjers, pp. 57–58.

  245

  Here are the: Allan Snyder to DS, May 2, 1992.

  246

  She thought they: Quoted in Bart Mills, Marilyn on Location (London: Pan/Sidgwick & Jackson, 1989), p. 150.

  246ff

  Regarding news accounts of the Kinsey reports, see Time, Aug. 31, 1953.

  250

  She was superb: Jack and Joan Benny, Sunday Nights at Seven (New York: Warner, 1990), p. 243.

  251

  Success has helped: Sidney Skolsky’s syndicated column, “Hollywood Is My Beat,” Hollywood Citizen-News, Nov. 25, 1953. p. 15.

  251–252

  For the circumstances of Grace Goddard’s suicide, see California State File number 53-087308.

  252

  As for Grace’s husband, he never saw Marilyn Monroe after 1945. Ervin “Doc” Goddard married twice more—first to Anna Alice Long and then to Annie Rundle, who died with him in an auto crash in Ventura on Dec. 4, 1972.

  252

  she had proved: Negulesco, p. 223; on the pre-theater party, see Johnson, Letters, pp. 205–206.

  252

  since Gloria Swanson: Mike Connolly, in the Hollywood Reporter, Nov. 6, 1953.

  252

  This is just: Quoted in Luitjers, p. 56.

  253

  For Marilyn’s observations and agent Hugh French’s reaction, see a letter from him to Charles K. Feldman dated Oct. 9, 1953, an
d preserved in the Feldman Collection at the American Film Institute, Los Angeles.

  253

  convinced Marilyn: Ray Stark to Charles K. Feldman, memorandum dated Dec. 1, 1953, preserved in the Feldman Collection, American Film Institute, Los Angeles.

  254

  she cooperated: Hugh French to Charles K. Feldman, cable dated Dec. 19, 1953, preserved in the Feldman Papers, American Film Institute, Los Angeles.

  Chapter Thirteen: January–September 1954

  257

  pill-pals: Sidney Skolsky’s column for June 6, 1954 (in the Hollywood Citizen-News). Additional information on Skolsky supplying MM with pills was confirmed by Steffi Sidney Splaver to DS, June 5, 1992.

 

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