by Donald Spoto
442
I think she: Hedda Hopper’s column for Sept. 1, 1960; prepared the previous day at her office by wire service.
443
On Huston and Miller, see Miller, p. 485. Huston’s account was unvarying: “Drugs ravaged her, and she broke down. I had to send her to a hospital for a week” (in Wolper, Legend).
444n3
August 27: Goode, p. 124.
444
And with that: Evelyn Moriarty to DS, Feb. 17 and Aug. 9, 1992.
444
When the press: Ralph Roberts to DS, March 2, 1992.
445
My guess is: Hyman Engelberg, quoted in the New York Times, Aug. 30, 1960, p. 24.
445
looking wonderfully: Miller, p. 485.
445
when she was told: Goode, pp. 257–258.
445
I know Arthur’s: Quoted in Charles Hamblett, Who Killed Marilyn Monroe? (London: Leslie Frewin, 1966), p. 128.
446
All my life: Henry Hathaway, quoted in Kobal, p. 613.
447
serious, accurate: Paul V. Beckley, in the New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 3, 1961.
448
I can’t do it: Grobel, p. 498.
448ff
Detailed information on Greenson’s increasingly bizarre relationship with MM, and his family’s relationship with her, came collectively from Rupert Allan, Ralph Roberts, Susan Strasberg, Pat Newcomb, and from three sources close to the Greenson family who requested that DS preserve their anonymity.
449
I was her therapist: Ralph Greenson to Marianne Kris, Aug. 20, 1962.
450
the sad fact: Quoted in Time, vol. 76, no. 21 (Nov. 21, 1960): 61.
450
I kept him waiting: Skolsky, p. 230. He locates this conversation in Los Angeles after Gable’s death, but that is impossible: it must have occurred between the first heart attack and the second, fatal one, for when Gable died MM was in New York.
451
I take a lot: Vernon Scott, “What’s the Next Move for Marilyn Monroe?” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 30, 1960.
Chapter Nineteen: 1961
453
Scott, art. cit.
453
My work is: Alan Levy, “Marilyn Monroe: ‘A Good Long Look at Myself,’ ” Redbook, Aug. 1962, p. 77.
453
splendid: W. Somerset Maugham, in a letter to MM dated Jan. 31, 1961.
455
because the press: Pat Newcomb to DS, Aug. 3, 1992. Henceforth, all quotations attributed to Pat Newcomb are taken from this interview unless otherwise noted.
455
incompatibility of character: Divorce proceeding reported in the New York Times, Jan. 22, 1961, p. 86; see also ibid., Jan. 25, 1961, p. 35; and the UPI wire service dispatches dated Jan. 21, 23, and 25, 1961.
455
I am upset: UPI wire service story dated Jan. 21, 1961; see, e.g., the Hollywood Citizen-News, that date.
455
It would be: Ibid.
455
Mr. Miller is: MM to Hedda Hopper in July 1961, released in her syndicated column on Sunday, July 16.
456ff
The details of MM’s sojourn at the Payne Whitney Clinic of New York Hospital were provided in interviews with Norman Rosten, Ralph Roberts, Susan Strasberg and Pat Newcomb. For the medical evaluation of her as “extremely disturbed and potentially self-destructive,” see a report obtained by the New York World Telegram and published on Feb. 10, 1961, p. 1.
457
MM’s letter to the Strasbergs was first printed in The Daily Mirror (London), Aug. 5, 1981; in abbreviated form, it is also in Guiles, Legend, p. 402.
458
On DiMaggio’s life from 1955 to 1961, see Bob Dean, “Marilyn to Wed Again?” Photoplay, May 1961; also Allen, p. 194ff.
458
He carried a torch: Quoted in Allen, p. 186.
458
take the hospital: Quoted by many of MM’s friends—e.g., in Rosten, p. 93.
458–459
Kris’s remarks to Roberts were relayed to DS and are also found in Susan Strasberg, Marilyn and Me, p. 228.
464
I feel wonderful: UPI wire service story for March 6, 1961; see, e.g., the Los Angeles Examiner, “Marilyn Whisked From Hospital,” that date.
464
as radiantly: Ibid.
464
She had just been discharged: Wagenknecht, p. 49.
465
Joe DiMaggio deeply loved: Allen, p. 189.
465
The attraction to Joe: Ibid., p. 199.
466
I’m very happy: Jonah Rudd, “Now That I Am 35,” The Daily Mail (London), June 5, 1961.
466
There’s no doubt that: Milton Ebbins’s recollections about Sinatra and MM, and about MM up to the night of her death, were provided in his interviews with DS in Beverly Hills on August 6 and September 22, 1992.
467
It was scary: A composite statement of the same sentiments, expressed by MM to Rupert Allan and Susan Strasberg.
468
I told [Arthur]: Rosten, p. 91.
468
Henceforth in the text, all the remarks attributed to Ralph Roberts derive from the interview with DS on March 2, 1992, and from subsequent, supplementary telephone conversations in May, June, August and September of that year. See also Susan Strasberg, Marilyn and Me, p. 230.
469ff
Details of the Greenson-Monroe relationship derive from previously dated interviews with Ralph Roberts, Susan Strasberg, Allan Snyder, Pat Newcomb, Rupert Allan; from a conversation with Greenson’s then brother-in-law and attorney, Milton Rudin; and from interviews with three layfolk who knew Greenson personally and two of his Los Angeles psychiatric colleagues, whose five separate requests for anonymity DS has honored so that their professional confidence may be maintained.
470
He overstepped: Robert Litman, M.D., to DS, April 23, 1992.
471
Help Help: Norman Rosten, “About Marilyn,” McCall’s, Aug. 1972, p. 132. These words were not new from MM but apparently recaptured by her: they are found as early as 1956, shortly after she arrived in London and found Arthur’s notebook entry (MG IV, 5, p. 5).
471
She began to get rid: Ralph Greenson to Marianne Kris, Aug. 20, 1962: Greenson Papers, UCLA Special Collections.
472
I never heard: Betsy Duncan Hammes to DS, July 22, 1992.
473
You must have: David Brown to DS, Nov. 11, 1992.
474
in a shambles: Milton Gould to DS, November 10, 1992.
474
a tall, dark: Negulesco, p. 224.
474ff
The production history of Something’s Got to Give described herein and in the following chapter derives from an interview with the original producer, David Brown (to DS, November 11, 1992), and from Brown’s book, Let Me Entertain You (New York: Morrow, 1990), pp. 53–56; from Patricia Newcomb; from the Fox production files; and (as detailed below) from interviews with those involved in the production, especially Evelyn Moriarty, Henry Weinstein, Allan Snyder and Marjorie Plecher Snyder.
475
There was nothing: Arnold Shulman to DS, July 28, 1992.
475
Have you been trapped: Johnson and Leventhal, p. 206.
475
quick, she was gay: Ibid., p. 207.
475
The change: Peter G. Levathes to Spyros P. Skouras, cable dated Jan. 10, 1962, in Box 45 of the Skouras Collection, Stanford University.
476
how much: Peter G. Levathes to DS, Oct. 8, 1992.
476
Her therapist: David Brown to DS, Nov. 11, 1992.
476
essentially a different: Douglas Kirkland to DS, July 24, 1992.
477
If I am a star: Many times, e.g., to Richard Meryman, July 1962, as in Life,
art. cit.
478
I encouraged her: Greenson, in a deposition to the Estate of Marilyn Monroe, preserved in RRG/UCLA.
478
The doctor thought: Eunice Murray, in Wolper, Legend; see, similarly, Eunice Murray, with Rose Shade, Marilyn: The Last Months (New York: Pyramid, 1975), p. 43; hereinafter referred to as Murray.
478
there was nobody else: Ralph Greenson to Marianne Kris, Aug. 20, 1962: Greenson Papers, Special Collections, UCLA.
478ff
Details on the background and biography of Eunice Joerndt Murray Blackmer were ascertained from the Advancement Office of Urbana University, in Urbana, Ohio; from the Annual Catalogue of the Urbana University School Academy and Junior College for 1917–1918; from the Library and Archives of the Swedenborg School of Religion in Newton, Massachusetts; from Eunice’s son-in-law Philip LaClair (interview July 22, 1992); from County records in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Bath, Maine; from Frank Higgins, Urbana College (Urbana, Ohio: Urbana College, 1977); from the obituary of John Murray in the Albuquerque Tribune, Nov. 24, 1958.
479
mere shadow: Eunice Murray Blackmer to Audrey Stevens, May 13, 1983.
479
constantly to engage: Higgins, pp. 6–7.
479
controversial, alienating: Ibid., p. 108.
481
It was strictly: Philip LaClair to DS, July 22, 1992.
481
in any kind: Murray, p. 7.
482
At first: Pat Newcomb to DS, Aug. 3, 1992; henceforth all quotations attributed to Newcomb were derived from this interview unless otherwise noted.
482
very strange lady: Alan Snyder to DS, May 2, 1991.
Chapter Twenty: January–May 1962
N.B.: Citations from the daily production reports and call sheets for Something’s Got to Give cited in the text are drawn from those files: Picture No. A-855, Twentieth Century–Fox Film Corporation, 1962.
484
Regarding the cost and mortgage of 12305 Fifth Helena, see the Los Angeles Times, Aug. 11, 1962 and the relevant Los Angeles County tax records for 1962.
484
I felt badly: Quoted in Murray, p. 49.
484
she was talked: Evelyn Moriarty to DS, Feb. 17, 1992.
486
but there isn’t: Cherie Redmond to Hedda Rosten, MM daily secretarial and business report from Los Angeles to New York, dated Sunday, Feb. 25, 1962.
486ff
For accounts of the brief encounters between MM and President Kennedy (hardly constituting a romance), DS relied on interviews with Ralph Roberts, Allan Snyder, Rupert Allan, Susan Strasberg, Pat Newcomb, Milton Ebbins and Joseph Naar; see also Skolsky, pp. 233–234; and Wilson, Show Business Laid Bare, pp. 56ff.
489ff
On Robert Kennedy’s friendship (it can be called nothing else) with MM, DS relied on interviews with Edwin Guthman (October 29, 1992) and those listed in the note on p. 493; see also Skolsky, p. 234; Wilson, pp. 60, 84. In his appearance on the television program 60 Minutes in 1973, Norman Mailer admitted that, contrary to the allegations in his then recently published book on Monroe, he did not believe that she was romantically involved with Robert Kennedy, but that his publisher had offered him a lot of money when he “needed quick cash,” and that this element made a good story. Granted.
491
They all came over: Eunice Murray, quoted in the Chicago Tribune, Sept. 11, 1973, sec. 2, p. 1.
493
The man: Wilson, p. 56.
493
There was no doubt: Ibid., p. 84.
494ff
MM’s telephone message logs, kept in longhand and then typed by Cherie Redmond, were turned over to DS in 1992 by a purchaser who had obtained them after MM’s death from Inez Melson.
494
According to Redmond’s message logs (for Feb. 5, March 8, May 9, June 12, 22, 29 and July 6), Eunice’s repeated requests for cash advances continued throughout that year constituted a habit MM found annoying—as she did the housekeeper’s demand for a signed check without the amount filled in for her son-in-law Norman Jefferies, who performed odd jobs about the house (Redmond log for Feb. 5, 1962).
495
For Isadore Miller’s brief recollections of the Florida visit, see Wagenknecht, pp. 52–54.
495
On MM’s freedom from drug dependence during her Mexican trip, see Murray, p. 59ff.; also Pat Newcomb to DS, Aug. 3, 1992.
496
Whenever she was: George Masters to DS, Aug. 8, 1992. See also George Masters and Norma Lee Browning, The Masters Way to Beauty (New York: NAL/Signet, 1978), pp. 68–83.
496
Regarding MM’s dress at the Golden Globe ceremony: George Masters to DS, Aug. 8, 1992.
497
drunk, barely: Susan Strasberg to DS, June 3, 1992; see also Marilyn and Me, p. 239.
497
vitamin shots: Murray, p. 78.
497
It was irresponsible: Arnold Abrams, M.D., to DS, Nov. 2, 1992.
498
During and after: Ralph Roberts to DS, Mar. 2, 1992.
498
It is hard: Pat Newcomb to DS, Aug. 3, 1992; see also Guiles, Legend, p. 441.
498
The details of MM’s visit to Greenson on March 3, 1962 were provided by two sources who requested anonymity—one a medical colleague of Greenson, the other a person close to him.
498
I don’t know: Nunnally Johnson to Jean Negulesco, quoted in Negulesco, p. 223.
499
the studio simply: Arnold Shulman to DS, July 7, 1992; see also Shulman’s comments in Strasberg, Marilyn and Me, pp. 240–242.
499
an artist who: David Brown to DS, Nov. 11, 1992.
500
loved and admired: Milton Rudin to DS, Oct. 31, 1992.
500ff
out of line: The doctor present in the Greenson house was under supervision by Greenson for psychotherapeutic training that year, and he was an eyewitness to the DiMaggio event. Still in practice in Los Angeles, he has requested that his name not be used as a source for this event. In fact, there was a second witness, also a physician still in practice in Beverly Hills.
501
Henry, don’t you pay any attention: Quoted by Weinstein to DS, Dec. 10, 1992.
501
I think that Ralph: Henry Weinstein to DS, Dec. 10, 1992.
502
She was a poor creature: Quoted in McCann, p. 176.
503
executives were not: Walter Bernstein to DS, March 5, 1992; see also his reminiscences in “Marilyn Monroe’s Last Picture Show,” Esquire, vol. 80, no. 1 (July 1973): 104–178; published in the UK in the Observer Review, Sept. 9, 1973.
503
She was very charming: Bernstein to DS, March 5, 1992.
504
based on the fact: Murray, p. 71.
504ff
Regarding Eunice’s management of Marilyn’s home and life, and her choice of workmen, see her book, pp. 72ff.
504
It’s not particularly: Cherie Redmond to Hedda Rosten, April 27, 1962.
505n9
Not in her worst: Susan Strasberg to DS, Nov. 5, 1992.
506
For the injection by Seigel, see Bernstein, art. cit.
506
Seigel was: Ernest Lehman to DS, Aug. 29, 1992.
506
every few days: Murray, p. 78.
506
Regarding the gift to Agnes Flanagan: see Crivello, p. 250.
507
The arithmetic: Close-Up, vol. 5, no. 21 (June 14, 1962): 5. The producer is unnamed.
507
an agent: David Brown to DS, Nov. 11, 1992.
507ff
Receipts detailing each hour of Marilyn’s appointments from April through June were preserved by Carey Cadillac. They were signed and dated by the driver, Rudy Kautzky, and bear
invoice numbers 21703 through 22005.
509ff
For Cukor’s opinions, DS interviewed (on April 20, 1992) Richard Stanley, the director’s assistant during the last seven years of Cukor’s life.
511ff
Seigel’s reports are preserved in the production files for the film, on reports for April 30 through May 4, and in the documentary Marilyn: Something’s Got to Give (Fox Entertainment News, 1990), ex. prod. William K. Knoedelseder, Jr., prod., wr., narr. Henry Schipper. Fox Video #1955.
511
Marilyn did not: Evelyn Moriarty to DS, Feb. 17, 1992.
511
Marilyn was shattered: Johnson and Leventhal, p. 208.
512
The president’s birthday gala in May had, of course, been planned for months: Marilyn told Rupert Allan, among others, that the invitation to her was issued personally by JFK in March, and as filming approached, she also made it clear to Fox that she would have to be released for two days in New York that May. The studio would not, of course, object to a star appearing at so prestigious an event.