Marilyn Monroe

Home > Other > Marilyn Monroe > Page 79
Marilyn Monroe Page 79

by Donald Spoto


  389

  MM’s statement through Miller’s attorney was issued April 11 and was noted in the next day’s edition of the New York Times, p. 22.

  389

  absolutely irrational: Robert H. Montgomery, Jr., to John Wharton, memorandum preserved in MG IX, memorandum for April 1957.

  389ff

  For the news accounts of the reorganization of MMP, see: New York Times, April 17, 1957, p. 36; Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Examiner, April 17, 1957; Time, vol. 69, no. 17 (April 29, 1957): 94.

  390

  It seems: Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1957, sec. III, p. 8.

  390

  He knows perfectly: Ibid.

  390

  The truth is: Jay Kanter to DS, April 15, 1992.

  390

  Arthur was taking: MM to Amy Greene, quoted to DS, May 5, 1992.

  391

  screamed about me: Arthur P. Jacobs to Irving Stein: MG VI, memorandum for April 20, 1957.

  391

  She was ultrasensitive: MG XIII, 4; see also Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Aug. 5, 1982.

  392

  She had no desire: Olie and Joe Rauh, as told to Harriet Lyons, “The Time Marilyn Monroe Hid Out at Our House,” Ms., August 1983, p. 16.

  393

  She loved children: Allan Snyder to DS, May 2, 1992.

  393

  a new kind: Miller, p. 457.

  394

  She knows how: Strasberg, Bittersweet, p. 122.

  395

  Arthur was writing: Olie Rauh, art. cit., p. 16.

  395

  If I shouldn’t: Susan Strasberg to DS, June 3, 1992; similarly, see Marilyn and Me, p. 170.

  395

  a façade of marital: Rosten, p. 79.

  395

  hiding: Ibid., p. 61.

  395

  The accident was reported by the Associated Press, dateline March 25, 1958.

  395

  floating off in: Rosten, p. 55.

  396

  The maid’s not: Quoted by John Moore to DS, August 23, 1992.

  396

  She shouldn’t wear: Associated Press story dated April 29, 1958.

  396

  But I’ve never: Quoted by John Moore to DS, August 23, 1992.

  397ff

  For I. A. L. Diamond’s memoir of Some Like It Hot, see his article, “The Day Marilyn Needed 47 Takes To Remember to Say, ‘Where’s the Bourbon?’,” California, vol. 10, no. 12 (December 1985): 132–136.

  398

  because she gives me: MM, to Hedda Hopper in New York, April 1958. Heavily edited, the comments appeared as part of Hopper’s article, “Just Call Her Mrs. Miller!” in the Chicago Sunday Tribune Magazine, June 22, 1958, p. 14.

  398

  because May: Vanessa Reis to DS, Feb. 16, 1992.

  399ff

  The comments of Billy Wilder throughout this chapter were made to DS: Nov. 19, 1991.

  400

  She picked: Allan Snyder to DS, May 2, 1992.

  400

  Marilyn time: Rosten, p. 24.

  400

  I never heard: Quoted in The Listener (London), Aug. 30, 1979.

  400

  Well, I think: MM to Richard Meryman, July 1962.

  401

  organically: MM, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, July 9, 1958.

  401

  relaxing a little: MM, quoted in Luitjers, p. 63.

  401

  It seemed to me: In notes prepared by Leon Krohn, M.D., for Ted Landreth, during preparation for the BBC-TV documentary Say Goodbye to the President in 1984.

  402

  I have a feeling: MM to Norman Rosten, quoted in Rosten, pp. 76–77.

  402

  very easy to work: Avedon, in Wagenknecht, p. 59.

  402

  the spontaneous joy: Arthur Miller, “My Wife Marilyn,” Life, vol. 45, no. 25 (Dec. 22, 1958): 146.

  403–404

  Arthur Miller’s letter to MM was typed Friday evening, September 12, 1958, and sent via air mail that night. It arrived Monday at the suite of “Mrs. Marilyn Miller” at the Bel-Air Hotel. MM obviously thought the letter so important that she kept it until her death. It was among the personal papers gathered up by Inez Melson on Aug. 6, 1962, documents which subsequently were acquired by DS through a private purchaser in 1991.

  404

  more and more living with her: Rosten, p. 79.

  404

  For Olie Rauh’s opinion of Arthur’s arrival in California, see Rauh, art. cit., p. 16.

  404

  going through some: Jack Lemmon, quoted in McCann, p. 105.

  405

  Arthur told me: Billy Wilder to DS, Nov. 19, 1991.

  406

  I have discussed: Ibid.; see also Tom Wood, The Bright Side of Billy Wilder (New York: Doubleday, 1960), p. 158, and Maurice Zolotow, Billy Wilder in Hollywood (New York: Putnam’s, 1977), p. 265.

  406

  MM’s telephone call to Audrey Wilder was relayed by Billy Wilder to DS; see also Diamond, art. cit., p. 136; with slight variations, the anecdote is also recounted in Zolotow, Billy Wilder in Hollywood, p. 271, and in Wood, p. 162.

  406

  Anyone can remember lines: Quoted in Mills, p. 122.

  407

  Could I have: Rosten, p. 72.

  407ff

  Incomplete records of Dr. Kris’s prescriptions for MM are attached to her bills and to pharmacy invoices through 1957 (and are so preserved in MG III, IV and VI, since they were items for her accountant’s perusal); for 1959, some records remained in MM’s possession at the time of her death and were collected by Inez Melson, whence they passed to a private collector and, in 1991, to DS.

  407

  Susan Strasberg’s comments on 1959 were shared with DS in June 1992; see also Marilyn and Me, pp. 187–189.

  408

  warm and plain: “Tribute to Marilyn Monroe from a friend . . . Carl Sandburg,” Look, vol. 26 (Sept. 11, 1962): 90–94.

  408

  uncomfortable: Mervin Block to DS, Oct. 6, 1992. Other details of the press junket were provided by John Moore to DS.

  408

  For Miller’s creative stasis during this time, see Allan Seager, “The Creative Agony of Arthur Miller,” Esquire, vol. 52, no. 4 (October 1959): 123–126.

  409

  I guess: Quoted in Gloria Steinem, “Growing Up with Marilyn,” Ms., vol. 1, no. 2 (August 1972): 38.

  410

  He told me: Kenneth Tynan, Profiles (London: Nick Hern/Walker Books, 1989), p. 146.

  411

  I’m sure he accepted: Arthur Miller, quoted in Hervé Hamon and Patrick Rotman, Tu vois, je n’ai pas oublié (Paris: Seuil/Fayard, 1990), p. 499.

  411

  He looked at me: Rosten, p. 21.

  411

  She was always: Frankie Vaughan, quoted in Hutchinson, p. 74.

  412

  un titre prémonitoire: Signoret’s description, cut from the final published edition of her memoirs, is cited in Hamon and Rotman, p. 503.

  Chapter Eighteen: 1960

  413

  Marilyn was a: Sidney Skolsky in the Hollywood Citizen-News, Jan. 20, 1960.

  413

  Next to my husband: Widely quoted—e.g., in “Marilyn meets Montand,” Look, vol. 24 (July 5, 1960): 96.

  413

  Everything she do: Ibid., p. 93.

  414

  There was no script: Quoted in Goode, p. 202.

  414

  a sacrifice of great blocks: Miller, p. 466.

  414

  came running: Hervé Hamon et Patrick Rotman, Yves Montand: Tu vois, je n’ai pas oublié (Paris: Seuil/Fayard, 1990), p. 512; trans. DS. See also Zolotow, Marilyn Monroe, p. 347.

  415

  Arthur Miller, the big liberal: Skolsky, p. 227–228.

  415

  was a terrible ordeal: Quoted in Kobal, p. 606.

  415

  There was something: Vanessa Ries to DS, Feb. 16, 1992.

 
; 415

  no real communication: Gavin Lambert, On Cukor (New York: Putnam’s, 1972), pp. 174–175.

  416

  The incident with Frankie Vaughan and his son was documented by Vaughan in Paul Donovan, “The day Marilyn cried on Frankie’s shoulder,” Today (U.K.), June 2, 1986.

  416

  I saw Marilyn: Quoted in Kirk Crivello, Fallen Angels (Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel, 1988), p. 261.

  416ff

  For the shared fears that drew MM and Montand together, see his memoirs, pp. 519ff.

  417

  a whole succession: Simone Signoret, Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used to Be (London: Grafton, 1979), pp. 322–323.

  417

  Comments by Jack Cole and Jerry Wald may be found in Life, vol. 49, no. 7 (Aug. 15, 1960): 68, and in Kobal, pp. 605–607.

  417

  Is there anything: Frank Radcliffe, quoted in Del Burnett, “Marilyn: A Personal Reminiscence,” American Classic Screen, March 1981, p. 14.

  417

  What am I afraid of: MM’s notes, scribbled on a pad, were found by a journalist who published them in the American Weekly on May 1, 1960.

  419

  I’ll miss you: Hamon and Rotman, p. 531.

  419

  I bent over: Ibid., pp. 531–532ff.

  420

  I liked her: George Cukor, quoted in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Aug. 5, 1982, p. A-8.

  421

  She gave me: Quoted in Kobal, pp. 606–607.

  421

  there was a childishness: Inez Melson, in the television special That’s Hollywood, narrated by Tom Bosley; written and produced by Philip Savenick.

  421ff

  On Ralph Greenson’s background and childhood, see Greenson’s incomplete and unpublished memoir, “My Father the Doctor,” in Box 12 of the Ralph R. Greenson Collection in the Department of Special Collections at the University of California at Los Angeles; henceforth, extracts from this collection are designated RRG.

  423

  The materials relevant to Captain Newman, M.D. are contained in RRG Box 15 and in the June 1962 supplement to his biography at the UCLA Medical School.

  423

  her dream house: Murray, p. 6.

  424

  a charismatic speaker: RRG, Box 1.

  425

  He wanted: Benson Schaeffer to DS, Dec. 28, 1992.

  426

  Only later was it: A highly respected California psychoanalyst requested DS to preserve his anonymity.

  426

  a hard-living man: Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Anna Freud (New York: Summit, 1988), p. 371.

  427

  “Drugs in the Psychotherapeutic Situation”: RRG, Box 2, Folder 4. Other lectures cited on p. 426 are located in the same box.

  427

  “Special Problems In Psychotherapy With The Rich and Famous,” dated Aug. 18, 1978: RRG, Box 2, Folder 19.

  428ff

  At a meeting held at Fox on June 8, 1962, during the troubled production of MM’s final film, studio executive Phil Feldman wrote: “Dr. Greenson advised that he would be able to get his patient to go along with any reasonable request and although he did not want us to deem his relationship as a Svengali one, he in fact could persuade her to do anything reasonable that he wanted.” From a memorandum in the Twentieth Century–Fox Studio archives headed “Marilyn Monroe Situation,” dated June 8, 1962.

  428

  I was going to be: The quotations attributed to Ralph Greenson are derived from a letter he wrote to Marianne Kris on Aug. 20, 1962. From the Ralph Greenson Papers, Special Collections, UCLA.

  429

  I’m thirty-four: Quoted in Eve Arnold, p. 85.

  429

  You’re both narcissists: Quoted by Esther Maltz (formerly Mrs. Hyman Engelberg) to DS, July 28 and Oct. 23, 1992.

  429

  prescribe medication for her: Ralph Greenson to Marianne Kris, Aug. 20, 1962: Greenson Papers, Special Collections, UCLA.

  430

  I have lived: Alfred Hitchcock to DS, July 18, 1975.

  431

  Westerns and the West: Miller, p. 462.

  431

  This is an attempt: James Goode, The Story of The Misfits (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1961), p. 17.

  432ff

  On the making of The Misfits, see (in addition to Goode), Time, vol. 76, no. 6 (Aug. 8, 1960): 57; Arlene Croce, “The Misfits,” Sight and Sound, summer 1961, pp. 142–144; Alice T. McIntyre, “Making The Misfits,” Esquire, vol. 55, no. 3 (March 1961): 74–81; Rosten, pp. 82–89.

  432–433

  Each of the players: Goode, p. 17.

  433

  What makes you so sad?: Miller, p. 369.

  434

  desperately unhappy: Rupert Allan to DS, Aug. 17, 1991.

  434

  But the character: Sam Shaw to DS, March 7, 1992.

  434

  Miller’s was the: Shaw and Rosten, p. 186.

  435

  I have not: Quoted in “Mosaic for Marilyn,” Coronet, Feb. 1961.

  435

  I never really: Jon Whitcomb, “Marilyn Monroe—The Sex Symbol Versus The Good Wife,” Cosmopolitan, vol. 149, no. 6 (Dec. 1960): 54–55.

  435

  But I promised: McIntyre, art. cit., p. 79.

  435

  Harlow was always: Quoted in Coronet, February 1961.

  435

  by throwing a fit: Luitjers, pp. 67–68.

  436

  I had to: Most of these remarks were edited out of the 1962 Life magazine interview by Meryman; the few remaining comments were much altered. As offered here, they are drawn from the original taped conversations.

  436

  She had considerable: Goode, p. 43.

  436

  I’m Mitzi Gaynor: Goode, p. 117.

  436

  Cut!: Goode, p. 182.

  437

  a mean streak: Anjelica Huston to Barbara Walters on ABC-TV, Nov. 6, 1991.

  437ff

  For the account of the perils of making Moby Dick in 1955, see Michael Freedland, Gregory Peck (New York: Morrow, 1980), pp. 137–138, and Axel Madsen, John Huston (New York: Doubleday, 1978), pp. 149–150.

  437

  I want you: Madsen, p. 149.

  437

  What I didn’t know: Ibid., p. 150.

  438

  I’m doing this one: For the account of Gable’s stunts in China Seas, see Jay Robert Nash and Stanley Ralph Ross, The Motion Picture Guide (Chicago: Cinebooks, 1985), vol. 2, p. 417.

  438ff

  For an account of Gable’s stunts in The Misfits, and for Dunlevie’s remark, see Jack Scagnetti, The Life and Loves of Gable (Middle Village, N.Y.: Jonathan David, 1976), p. 152.

  438

  You can all: Gable’s remark and the incident are recounted in Goode, pp. 208–209.

  438

  They don’t care: Gable, quoted in Lawrence Grovel, The Hustons (New York: Avon, 1989), p. 494.

  439

  had begun staying: Miller, p. 474.

  439

  But I like: Huston, quoted in Gerald Pratley, The Cinema of John Huston (Cranbury, N.J.: A. S. Barnes, 1977), p. 130.

  439

  Well, I ran: Quoted in Newsweek, Sept. 12, 1960, p. 102; ibid. for Huston’s gambling schedule.

  439

  I spent a lot: John Huston, An Open Book (New York: Knopf, 1980), p. 287.

  439

  The telltale sign: Grobel, p. 496.

  440

  losing steadily: Goode, p. 48; see also pp. 31, 35, 61, 73, 82, 159. Huston’s gambling habits are also detailed in William F. Nolan, John Huston: King Rebel (Los Angeles: Sherbourne Press, 1965), pp. 184–185.

  440

  What should I ask: The dialogue is recorded in Goode, p. 246 and repeated by Grobel, p. 496.

  440

  For details of Paula Strasberg’s illness, I am grateful to Susan Strasberg, who discussed the matter in several interviews during June and October 1992.

>   440

  I think we’re doing: Goode, p. 126.

  441

  I was almost: Miller, p. 477.

  441

  MM’s doctor-administered injections of Amytal were gruesomely recounted by Miller, p. 481: these were, he wrote, enough to sedate her for a major operation. See also Miller, pp. 528–529.

  441

  It took so long: Allan Snyder to DS, May 2, 1992.

  441

  On Huston’s loss of $16,000 on August 16, see Goode, p. 108.

  441

  the one great lesson: Often quoted—e.g., in Lyn Tornabene, Long Live The King (New York: Putnam’s, 1976), p. 361–362.

  442ff

  The relevant daily production history of The Misfits can be determined from Goode, pp. 115–124, from call sheets preserved by members of the cast and crew, and from the reminiscences of Evelyn Moriarty, Allan Snyder, Rupert Allan and Ralph Roberts.

 

‹ Prev