Marilyn Monroe
Page 76
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.
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you could hear: Sidney Skolsky, “Hollywood Is My Beat,” Hollywood Citizen-News, May 2, 1951.
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hardly enough room: Quoted in Robert Cahn, “The 1951 Model Blonde,” Collier’s, Sept. 8, 1951, p. 50.
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the whole crew: June Haver in “MM remembered,” Playboy, vol. 11, no. 1 (January 1964): 190.
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she grabbed: Jack Paar, on the television program Donahue, May 5, 1983.
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one of the brightest: Ezra Goodman in the Los Angeles Daily News, June 6, 1951.
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Marilyn Monroe is superb: New York Times, Aug. 3, 1951, p. 10.
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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.
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She is particularly concerned: Cahn, art. cit.
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She’s the biggest: Quoted in Goodman, p. 234.
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How much of the story: Skolsky, p. 220.
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The studio: Richard Meryman, “A Last Long Talk With A Lonely Girl,” Life, vol. 53, no. 7 (Aug. 17, 1962): 33.
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Like a famous predecessor: Cahn, art. cit.
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terribly late: Rupert Allan to DS, Aug. 1, 1991.
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the brightest star: Rupert Allan, “Marilyn Monroe . . . a serious blonde who can act,” Look, vol. 15 (Oct. 23, 1951): 40.
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Nothing happened: Robert Wagner, in Remembering Marilyn, 1988 TV documentary, narrated by Lee Remick; dir. Andrew Solt. Vestron Video/Image Entertainment LaserDisc.
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indifferent, amusing: E.g., Wanda Hale, in the New York Daily News, Nov. 7, 1951.
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Hold a good thought: E.g., Skolsky, p. 216; also Susan Strasberg to DS, Aug. 29, 1992.
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Every element had to be: Marjorie Plecher Snyder to DS, May 2, 1992.
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scared as hell: Quoted in Peter Bogdanovich, Fritz Lang in America (New York: Praeger, 1967), p. 81.
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She fought: JWP/NL I, p. 20.
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She wasn’t disciplined: Quoted in Ella Smith, Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck (New York: Crown, 1985), p. 233.
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We don’t want: Bogdanovich, p. 82.
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a forceful actress: Alton Cook, New York World-Telegram & Sun, June 20, 1952.
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Natasha, I’m terrified: JWP/NL I, p. 15.
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I didn’t think: Ibid.
198
surefire money attraction: Variety, Aug. 13, 1952.
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We had a hell: Quoted in Hollywood Studio Magazine, vol. 20, no. 8 (August 1987): 35.
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I’m trying to: Aline Mosby, “Actress has memory of heartbreak,” Los Angeles Daily News, Jan. 7, 1952.
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dazzled by the richness : Miller to the editors of Current Biography, 1973, p. 297.
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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.
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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.
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everybody who calls: Ibid., p. 44.
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almost a mental: Ibid., p. 238.
205–206
One of the most: Quoted in Current Biography, 1951, p. 163.
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very slow: Ibid., p. 32; cited from an interview by Clay Felker with former player Andy High.
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loner: Current Biography, p. 164; see also Maury Allen, Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? (New York: Dutton, 1975), 171ff.
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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.
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It’s like a: Quoted in Maurice Zolotow, “Joe & Marilyn: The Ultimate L.A. Love Story,” Los Angeles Magazine, February 1979, p. 240.
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She got really: Quoted in Luitjers, p. 111.
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I first met: JWP/NL II, p. 20.
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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.
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the biggest news: Joe Hyams to DS, Sept. 19, 1991.
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the way she: Halsman, quoted in Wagenknecht.
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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.
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Dear Marilyn: Gladys’s letter to MM was preserved and included in IMP.
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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.
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Am I making: Ibid., p. 111.
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the best natural: Quoted in Sidney Skolsky’s column for July 16, 1952.
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marvelous to work with: Quoted in Kobal, p. 615.
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A lot of guys: Maury Allen, p. 177.
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It’s the seventh: Sidney Skolsky’s column in the Hollywood Citizen-News, July 24, 1952.
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That’s why: Quoted in Kobal, p. 616.
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I think I’ll: Jay Breen, “She just lets the conversation drift toward her,” Los Angeles Daily News, Sept. 9, 1952.
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I didn’t want: MG2 IV, 4, p. 23.
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nothing,
but nothing: Earl Wilson’s syndicated column (e.g., Los Angeles Daily News), Aug. 27, 1952.
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but La Monroe: Quoted in Dick Williams’s column, Los Angeles Mirror, Sept. 18, 1952.
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She did the same: George Hurrell, quoted in John Kobal, People Will Talk (New York: Knopf, 1985) p. 266.
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with not a stitch: David Stenn, Clara Bow (New York: Doubleday, 1987), p. 179.
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This picture might give: Los Angeles Daily News, Sept. 2, 1952, p. 26.
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I am very: Ibid.
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People were staring: Newsweek, Sept. 15, 1952, p. 50.
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That dress was: UPI wire service item, Sept. 5, 1952.
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Photographers stood: Sidney Skolsky’s column for Sept. 5, 1952.
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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.
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afraid of Joe: Robert F. Slatzer, The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe (Los Angeles: Pinnacle, 1974), p. 166
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just trying to help: Fowler, n.p.
228n4
I never believed: Allan Snyder to DS, July 3, 1992.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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There wasn’t: Joseph McBride, Hawks on Hawks (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), p. 124.
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She loved to: Hal Schaefer to DS, April 24, 1992.
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My great ambition: New York Times, Feb. 18, 1953.
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I had to get out: MG2 I, 4, p. 14.
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She wants to: Sidney Skolsky’s column (e.g., the Hollywood Citizen-News), Dec. 17, 1952.
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I want to: MM to Irene Crosby, her stand-in on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, quoted in Skolsky for Dec. 17, 1952.
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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.
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far more intelligent: Jane Russell, Jane Russell: My Paths and My Detours (New York: Franklin Watts, 1985), p. 137.
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no makeup: Ibid.
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that she was just: Jack Cole, quoted in Kobal, p. 605.
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the most frightened: Hawks, in McBride, op. cit., p. 125.
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I’m really eager: MM to Dick Williams, Los Angeles Daily Mirror, March 10, 1953.
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On the auction of the Reinhardt materials, see the Los Angeles Times for Dec. 5 and 6, 1952.
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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.
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still very much: Sidney Skolsky’s column for Feb. 9, 1953.
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She had to be: “Billy, Please Dress Me Forever,” News of the World, May 5, 1991, p. 5.
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that looked as if: “Florabel Muir Reporting,” Los Angeles Mirror, Feb. 10, 1953.
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burlesque show: Joan Crawford, in Bob Thomas’s Associated Press syndicated column (e.g., Hollywood Citizen-News), March 2, 1953.
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One thing that makes: Joan Crawford, quoted in the Hollywood Citizen-News, June 10, 1953.
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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.
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a love affair: Jean Negulesco, Things I Did . . . and Things I Think I Did (New York: Linden Press/Simon & Schuster, 1984), p. 219.
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under the spell: Dorris Johnson and Ellen Leventhal, eds., The Letters of Nunnally Johnson (New York: Knopf, 1981), p. 203.
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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.
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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.
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no meanness in her: Lauren Bacall, By Myself (New York: Knopf, 1979), p. 208.
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Honey, I’ve had mine: Doug Warren, Betty Grable: The Reluctant Movie Queen (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981), p. 189.
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I don’t want: The incident is recalled in Anne Edwards, Judy Garland (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1975), p. 202.
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trying to direct: Charles K. Feldman to MM, Aug. 10, 1953; from the Feldman Collection at the American Film Institute.
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I pleaded with: Otto Preminger, Preminger: An Autobiography (New York: Doubleday, 1977), p. 128.
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Marilyn, you don’t: JWP/NL I, p. 2.
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Marilyn thought there: Robert Mitchum in the Gene Feldman/Suzette Winters television film documentary Marilyn: Beyond the Legend.
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We put her through: Paul Wurtzel to DS, Feb. 19, 1992.
245n3
I wouldn’t accept: Luitjers, pp. 57–58.
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Here are the: Allan Snyder to DS, May 2, 1992.
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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.
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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.
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she had proved: Negulesco, p. 223; on the pre-theater party, see Johnson, Letters, pp. 205–206.
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since Gloria Swanson: Mike Connolly, in the Hollywood Reporter, Nov. 6, 1953.
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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
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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.