Marilyn Monroe

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Marilyn Monroe Page 78

by Donald Spoto


  323n1

  You have only: Susan Strasberg to DS, June 3, 1992.

  324

  Sam Shaw’s memories of MM to DS, March 7, 1992.

  324

  Looking at her: Truman Capote, “An Abbess in High-heeled Shoes,” People, Oct. 27, 1980, p. 56.

  324

  I just felt: The incident with Eli Wallach is recorded in Adams, p. 256.

  325

  The notes by MM are recorded in MG III, VI, VII, IX, as are the poems on pp. 325–327.

  327

  My father was: Susan Strasberg to DS, June 3, 1992.

  328

  Don’t you ever: Quoted in Adams, p. 263.

  329

  Our household revolved: Strasberg, Marilyn and Me, p. 19.

  329

  it was hard: John Strasberg, quoted in ibid., p. 44.

  329

  When I have problems: Quoted in Adams, p. 258.

  330

  Oh, no: MM quoted by Gloria Steinem in Ms., vol. 1, no. 2 (August 1972): 36.

  330

  Hi, it’s me: Quoted by Susan Strasberg to DS; also in Bittersweet, p. 56.

  330

  anybody who had: Kim Stanley to John Kobal, p. 699.

  330

  endeavor to develop: Frank Corsaro, on the 1991 American Masters documentary on the Actors Studio, prod. Chloe Aaron, dir. Dennis Powers for PBS.

  330

  I know they say: For MM on Kafka, see Tom Hutchinson, Marilyn Monroe (New York: Exeter Books, 1982), p. 69.

  331

  That’s all they’re: Shaw and Rosten, p. 95.

  332

  We’re just good friends: New York Journal-American, June 2, 1955, p. 1; New York World-Telegram and Sun, same day; and also the New York Daily News, June 2, 1955, p. 4.

  332

  Marilyn was afraid: Lois Weber Smith, quoted in Allen, pp. 199–200.

  332

  Marilyn told me: Rupert Allan to DS, Aug. 3, 1991.

  332

  The supplanting of Milton by Lee was suggested in Dorothy Kilgallen’s column in the New York Journal-American on June 28, 1955.

  332

  How do we: ILS, June 30, 1955: MG IX.

  332ff

  For details of MM’s time with the Strasbergs on Manhattan and on Fire Island, and for the nighttime dialogue between MM and their daughter, I am grateful for several interviews with Susan Strasberg during May, June and July 1992.

  333

  One day she: Amy Greene to DS, May 5, 1992.

  334

  had a great sense: Eve and Marilyn, BBC-TV (1987).

  334

  She was pleased: John Springer to DS, March 5, 1992.

  335

  This is the girl: Quoted in Edward Wagenknecht, Marilyn Monroe: A Composite View (Philadelphia: Chilton, 1969), p. 47.

  336

  The dialogue with Gilels is reported by Rosten (pp. 24–25), who was present.

  336ff

  Regarding the FBI file on Marilyn Monroe, there are eighty pages declassified, beginning at document number 105-40018-1. Documents dated August 19, 1955, and April 27, 1956, concern MM and her request for a visa and the history of her last two years. They are documents numbered 105-40018. The document containing the FBI’s recording of the item from the London Daily Worker is numbered 100-351585-A, dated Aug 15, 1955.

  337

  I expect our divorce: Joe DiMaggio, on the INS newswire service dated Aug. 21, 1955; see e.g., Los Angeles Herald-Examiner this date.

  337

  I never should: MM to Amy Greene, quoted to DS, May 5, 1992.

  338

  You all start: George Axelrod, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (New York: Samuel French, 1955), p. 7.

  338

  I saw: Quoted by George Axelrod to DS, April 22, 1992.

  340

  I’m beginning to: MM, quoted in Pete Martin, “The New Marilyn Monroe,” Saturday Evening Post, May 12, 1956, p. 110.

  Chapter Sixteen: 1956

  341

  There is persuasive: Time, Jan. 30, 1956, p. 62.

  341

  But then she had: Laurence Olivier, Confessions of an Actor (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982), pp. 205–206.

  342

  The questions and answers at the press conference were widely reported: see, e.g., Time, vol. 67, no. 8 (Feb. 20, 1956): 94 and the Manchester Guardian, Feb. 10, 1956 (“Miss Monroe Meets Her Idol: Alliance of Pulchritude and Art”).

  343

  Shall I take: Josephine DiLorenzo and Theo Wilson, “Marilyn Can Act Too, Sez Olivier,” New York Daily News, Feb. 10, 1956, p. 3.

  343

  The strap breaking: John Moore to DS, Aug. 23, 1992.

  343

  Before we went: Eve Arnold in the BBC-TV documentary Eve and Marilyn (1987).

  343

  artless: Quoted in Hugo Vickers, Cecil Beaton (Boston: Little, Brown, 1985), p. 393.

  343

  Brooklyn became Nirvana: Sam Shaw to DS, March 7, 1992.

  343

  heavenly: often, as in Hedda Hopper’s syndicated column for Jan. 24, 1956.

  343

  There are all: ILS, Jan. 6, 1956: MG IV.

  344

  Teenage boys: Vincent X. Flaherty, “Will Marilyn Become an Intellectual?” Los Angeles Examiner, July 6, 1956, sec. 1, p. 2.

  344

  America’s best known: Walter Winchell’s radio broadcast of Feb. 12, 1956, recorded as FBI document number 62-31615-966.

  344ff

  For an account of Miller’s troubles with the FBI, see Natalie Robins, Alien Ink (New York: Morrow, 1992), pp. 310ff.

  345

  the next stop: Walter Winchell’s broadcast of June 10, 1956, recorded as FBI document number 62-31615-983.

  345

  Miss Monroe, after: Memo from SAC, Los Angeles, to Director, FBI, dated June 1, 1956, FBI document number 23-100-422103.

  346

  Regarding the final disposition of MMP shares and control, information is detailed in ILS memoranda throughout October and December 1955, culminating in the memorandum of February 11, 1956.

  346

  Be conservative: The Wasserman memorandum to Stein was dated Feb. 14, 1956; subsequent calls and correspondence on this matter occur through the twenty-first.

  346

  Marilyn Monroe, Blonde: Quoted in “The New Marilyn,” Look, vol. 20 (May 29, 1956): 73.

  347

  This was really: Maureen Stapleton to DS, April 22, 1992.

  348

  I couldn’t see: Quoted in Redbook, Feb. 1958, p. 96.

  348

  very deep: Anna Sten to John Kobal, p. 140.

  348

  often brilliant: Robert Schneiderman, “Drama teacher remembers Marilyn Monroe,” Spotlight Chicago, week of Aug. 4, 1992, p. 6.

  349

  The press reception at the airport was documented on film and has been included in virtually every documentary on MM: see, e.g., Feldman and Winters, “Beyond the Legend,” and Wolper, Legend.

  349

  For the court appearance of MM, see these newspapers, all dated March 1: Hollywood Citizen-News; Los Angeles Mirror; Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles Examiner.

  350

  She seemed content: Allan Snyder to DS, May 2, 1992.

  350

  Irving Stein’s statement is from ILS, memorandum dated March 3, 1956: MG VII.

  351

  In Marilyn’s powerful: JWP/NL II, p. 25.

  352

  But Marilyn can’t act: Joshua Logan, Movie Stars, Real People and Me (New York: Delacorte, 1978), p. 35.

  352

  I have worked: Ibid.

  354

  she wants to: Milton Greene to ILS, March 17, 1956: MG IV.

  354

  Like a child: Guy Trebay, “Don Murray,” Interview, October 1973, p. 21.

  355

  Milton seemed to want: William Woodfield to DS, Sept. 20, 1991.

  355

  surrounded with in
trigue: Ezra Goodman, The Fifty-Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1961), p. 239.

  355

  He just kept clicking: George Axelrod to DS, Nov. 6, 1991.

  356

  I can’t do it: Miller, pp. 379–380.

  357

  expressly for her: Logan, p. 39.

  358

  Hold onto your chairs: New York Times review by Bosley Crowther, Sept. 1, 1956, p. 19.

  358

  effectively dispels: Arthur Knight, in the Saturday Review of Literature, Sept. 8, 1956.

  358

  one of the great: Logan, pp. 36, 48; also, Logan speaking in the documentary Marilyn: Beyond the Legend, dir. Gene Feldman/Wombat Productions, 1987; see also the Los Angeles Daily Mirror, Oct. 10, 1956.

  359

  For the meeting with Sukarno, see the New York Times, June 2, 1956, p. 13; for MM’s remarks on the encounter, see Rosten, p. 73.

  359

  Al Delgado’s letter to Jay Kanter, dated June 15, 1956, is included in MG III.

  361

  a live witness: Robins, p. 313.

  361

  Marilyn Monroe’s new romance: Ibid.

  361ff

  Miller’s appearance in Washington and his statements before the HUAC were documented in, among many other journals and magazines, the New York Times on June 22, 1956, pp. 1, 9; New York Daily News, June 22, 1956, pp. 3, 6; Chicago Tribune, June 25, 1956, pp. 1, 9.

  362

  No question about it: New York Sunday News, July 1, 1956.

  362

  provided Marilyn agreed: Miller, p. 406.

  362

  and to be: New York Mirror, June 21, 1956 et alibi. See also the important history in Eric Bentley, ed., Thirty Years of Treason: Excerpts from Hearings before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1938–1968 (New York: Viking, 1971), p. 819.

  362

  Have you heard: Rosten, p. 34.

  362

  It was awfully: Amy Greene to DS, May 5, 1992; Rupert Allan to DS, July 21, 1991.

  363

  Arthur was learning: Susan Strasberg to DS, June 3, 1992; see also Marilyn and Me, p. 105.

  364

  [Jean] was always: Maureen O’Sullivan, quoted in Golden, p. 158.

  365

  stand by in case: Milton Greene’s telephone call to Irving Stein is recorded in ILS dated June 29, 1956: MG XI.

  365–366

  The account of Marilyn’s hesitation at her marriage was provided to DS by Amy Greene, May 5, 1992.

  366

  Well, I hope: George Axelrod to DS, April 22, 1992; Axelrod’s statement was included in an essay on Miller by Kenneth Tynan, in Profiles (London: Nick Hern/Walker Books, 1989), p. 119.

  367

  Lee doesn’t care: ILS memorandum dated July 2, 1956: MG IV.

  368

  Perhaps later: ILS memorandum dated July 14, 1956: MG IV.

  368

  result in capital gain: ILS to MG, October 16, 1956: MG XI, 4.

  368

  he ought to stay out: Kay Brown, quoted in ILS memorandum dated Sept. 12, 1956: MG V, 3.

  369

  Yes, but: Daily Telegraph, July 16, 1956.

  369

  Unlike many other: Jack Cardiff to DS, May 26, 1992.

  370

  to take her: Quoted in Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Aug. 5, 1982; similar remarks are recorded in MG VIII, 4, p. 3.

  370

  He tried to be: W. J. Weatherby, Conversations with Marilyn (New York: Mason/Charter, 1976), p. 84.

  370

  All you have: The remark is widely quoted by witnesses, among them Susan Strasberg to DS, April 23, 1990; by Amy Greene; by actress Maxine Audley, et al. Olivier never denied he said this.

  370

  suspicious, sullen: Rosten, p. 43.

  371

  The incident of Marilyn’s discovery of Arthur’s notebook was related to DS by Amy Greene, Susan Strasberg, Allan Snyder and Jack Cardiff.

  371

  It was something: Quoted in Bart Mills, Marilyn on Location (London: Pan/Sidgwick & Jackson, 1989), p. 108.

  371

  I think Arthur: Quoted by Rupert Allan to DS, July 15, 1991.

  371

  Miller looked on: Sidney Skolsky’s syndicated column for Nov. 25, 1961.

  372

  The Strasberg interference: The phrase, almost a motto at the time, was used in conversations with DS by Allan Snyder, Rupert Allan, Amy Greene and Jack Cardiff; its equivalent is much cited by Arthur Miller.

  372

  My mother had once: Susan Strasberg to DS, June 3, 1992; see also Bittersweet, p. 84.

  372

  poisonous and vacuous: Kaplan, art. cit., p. 242.

  372

  nearly religious: Miller, p. 423.

  372

  Miller’s comments on Paula were spoken to Fred Lawrence Guiles, Legend, p. 316.

  372

  Greene thought: Guiles, p. 309.

  373

  it was important: Jay Kanter to DS, April 15, 1992.

  373

  getting involved: Albert Maysles to DS, March 30, 1992.

  373

  wrecking her: Allan Snyder to DS, May 2, 1992.

  373

  two months supply: MG to ILS, Sept. 27, 1956: MG VII.

  374

  Too many people: Quoted in Hutchinson, p. 78.

  374

  had been wrong: Margaret Hohenberg to ILS, reported to MG in telephone call on Dec. 27, 1956 and so dated in ILS: MG IV.

  375

  she had some: Letter from MG to Joe Carr and ILS, dated Sept. 27, 1956: MG IV.

  375ff

  ILS memoranda dated September 1–3, 1956: MG IV and VI.

  376

  thoroughly ill-mannered: Daily Express, May 22, 1980.

  376

  It was a: Henry Brandon, “Sex, Society and the Theatre,” The Sunday Times (London), March 20, 1960, p. 15.

  376

  She’s quite remarkable: Quoted in Time, Aug. 6, 1956, p. 31. That the citation from Hopkins was a favorite line of Marilyn was reported to DS by Ralph Roberts (to whom she often quoted it), May 1, 1992.

  376

  You did well: Quoted in Sidney Skolsky’s column for June 14, 1957; and in Taylor, Marilyn in Art, n.p.; see also Miller, p. 426.

  378

  No one had: Laurence Olivier, On Acting (New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1986), p. 316; and the same author’s Confessions of an Actor (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982), p. 213.

  Chapter Seventeen: 1957–1959

  382

  I was off: Miller, p. 460.

  382

  I felt an urgency: Miller, pp. 458–459.

  382

  a mere child: Miller, p. 448.

  382

  a rose-tinted: Kazan, p. 540.

  382

  For Norman Rosten’s recollections of Marilyn’s never-ending struggle for the perfect home design, see Marilyn: An Untold Story, p. 67.

  382

  I love them: MM to Richard Meryman in a taped interview for Life magazine in July 1962.

  383

  You must excuse me: the anecdote with the neighbor and the new coat is documented in Wagenknecht, p. xvii.

  383

  Michael Korda to DS, June 30, 1992.

  383

  But there was another: Amy Greene to DS, May 5, 1992.

  384

  adopted daughter: Michael Molnar, The Diary of Sigmund Freud (New York: Robert Stewart/Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1992), p. 174.

  385

  some of the most: Edward A. Gargan, “Tribute to Marianne Kris,” New York Times, Dec. 8, 1980. See also Henry Nunberg, “In Memoriam Marianne Kris,” The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, vol. 38 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), pp. 1–7 (Kris, as it happened, was Nunberg’s aunt); and the obituary in the New York Times on Nov. 25, 1980, p. D-23.

  386

  as if I were: MM, quoted by Rupert Alla
n to DS, June 10, 1991.

  387

  too stand-offish: Comments by Miller’s brother, sister and in-laws are cited in Robert J. Levin, art. cit., p. 95.

  387

  For Kazan’s estimation of the Monroe-Strasberg connection, see Kazan, p. 540.

  387

  Lee makes me think: Rosten, p. 49.

  388

  Whether it was: Strasberg, Marilyn and Me, p. 103.

  388

  It is not: MM drafted the letter in early April but kept it for reflection and revision; it was cabled to Jack Warner on April 22, 1957; see the production files for The Prince and the Showgirl in the Warner Bros. archives at the University of Southern California.

 

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