Additionally, I obtained through a private purchaser more than fifty letters written by Greenson not found in the UCLA collection.
Also extremely helpful to me where Greenson is concerned was the paper “Unfree Associations: Inside Psychoanalytical Institutes” by Douglas Kirsner. I also referred to “Interview with Leo Rangell, M.D.,” from the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Bulletin, Special Issue honoring Leo Rangell, M.D., Winter 1988.
Dr. Greenson’s deposition to the Estate of Marilyn Monroe was vital to my research and can be found in the UCLA collection.
Also important to my research was the Anna Freud Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. It is here that one can find many of the letters Freud wrote to her friend Greenson, in response to his correspondence. Those missives not found in Greenson’s UCLA collection are inevitably found in Freud’s Library of Congress collection.
I interviewed Dr. Milton Wexler in 1999. The reason I tracked him down was simply this: He is mentioned in passing on page 107 of Eunice Murray’s book Marilyn: The Last Months. Indeed, in that book, he is simply referred to as “a Doctor Wexler [who was] on call for Dr. Greenson’s patients.” According to Murray, Greenson was in Switzerland the week after Monroe’s birthday when she became unglued. Wexler was summoned. “When he came out to visit Marilyn,” wrote Murray (via her ghostwriter Rose Shade), “he took one look at the formidable array of sedatives on her bedside table and swept them all into his black bag. To him, they must have seemed a dangerous arsenal.” That’s the most that had ever been published about Dr. Wexler—not even his first name!—and thus I found it intriguing. When I began work on Sinatra: A Complete Life in 1994, I hired a private investigator to track down the mysterious Dr. Wexler. He was unsuccessful. Then, five years later, we tried again when I was researching Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot. This time, persistence paid off—but past the deadline for that book, unfortunately. Finally, in this work, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, the full scope of Dr. Wexler’s participation in Dr. Greenson’s treatment of and diagnosis of Marilyn Monroe can be placed in its proper context.
I also interviewed Dr. Hyman Engelberg—Marilyn Monroe’s physician—for Sinatra: A Complete Life in 1996 and then again for Jackie, Ethel, Joan in 2000. Comments from those interviews were utilized in this book as well. Moreover, I obtained from a private source notes, correspondence, and other material relating to his work with Dr. Greenson. I also referred to his comments found in “Report to the District Attorney on the Death of Marilyn Monroe by Ronald H. Carroll, Assistant District Attorney; Alan B. Tomich, Investigator.”
I also consulted “Tribute to Marianne Kris” by Edward A. Gargen, New York Times; and “In Memoriam: Marianne Kriss” by Henry Nunberg, The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, Vol. 1. I referred to Dr. Kriss’s obituary in the New York Times, November 25, 1980. Additionally, I consulted a number of letters written to Dr. Kris by Dr. Greenson concerning his opinion of and treatment of Marilyn Monroe.
Barbara Miller relayed her memories of Dr. Marianne Kris’s relationship with Marilyn when I interviewed her on March 29, 2007, and August 11, 2007. I so value her help, and that of her wonderful family, too.
I interviewed Peter Lawford twice in October 1981 when I was working for a magazine in Los Angeles called SOUL. It was a black entertainment publication and Lawford was at the time taping a voice-over spot for the sitcom The Jeffersons. Truly, it’s impossible to imagine the strange ways a reporter and a celebrity’s paths can cross in this town! Though I only spent two full afternoons with him—maybe ten hours at most—and exchanged a number of telephone calls, I still found Lawford to be extremely charming and erudite. I also have never believed any of the quotes attributed to him after his death concerning Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedys. While interviewing Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin for my biography of Frank Sinatra, I learned that both found it very difficult to imagine Peter ever implicating the Kennedys in Marilyn’s death—especially if it was true (and it’s not, as I have explained in this book’s text). He was just no such teller of tales, despite the way he has been portrayed since his passing. In fact, in a deathbed interview he gave to the Los Angeles Times on September 29, 1985, he was very clear that even if all of the rumors were true—and he maintained that they were not—he would certainly not be the one to confirm them. Some very skilled and respected reporters over the years decided that he was just covering for the Kennedys with that interview. Every reporter is entitled to his opinion, of course. I choose to take Mr. Lawford at his word—his words while he was alive, that is, rather than what he was purported to have said after he was no longer around to confirm or deny. I hope I am able to do justice to his true relationship to Marilyn and the Kennedys in this book, as well as that of his wife, Pat, to Marilyn. A bit more opinion here, if I may: Peter Lawford was a great guy. I liked him very much. I’m happy that I knew him, even for just a sliver of time.
Peter’s comment regarding Marilyn Monroe having said, just before she died, “Say goodbye to… the president,” etc., is from his official statement to the Los Angeles Police Department in its continuing investigation into Monroe’s death, October 16, 1975.
Pat Brennan met Pat Kennedy Lawford in 1954 and remained friends with her through the 1960s and 1970s. I am eternally grateful for the many hours she spent with me discussing Pat and Marilyn on April 12, 2007, April 15, 2007, April 28, 2007, and June 1, 2007. The subject of their friendship has fascinated me for many years since it has never been fully explored in any biography of Miss Monroe. It’s only because of Ms. Brennan that I was able to write about that relationship as I have. This wonderful woman passed away very suddenly in the spring of 2008. Truly, I had never been more saddened about the death of anyone connected to one of my books. I only hope she is somewhere “out there” right now, happy with the way that she, Pat, and Marilyn are portrayed in these pages.
Diane Stevens, assistant to John Springer, was first interviewed by me for my Elizabeth Taylor book on October 2, 2006, because Springer handled Taylor’s publicity concerns. Because her boss also handled Marilyn Monroe, I interviewed her again on April 15, 2007, August 1, 2007, and September 11, 2007, for The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe. Special thanks also to John Springer’s son, Gary, for his time—on both books. He was interviewed by Cathy Griffin on April 11, 2006, and also on May 1, 2008. Also, my thanks to Rose Marie Armocida, who was the personal secretary to John Springer. She was interviewed by Cathy Griffin on June 1, 2006.
I had the opportunity to interview Yves Montand in the spring of 1989 while in Paris. He was very open about his affair with Marilyn Monroe, and at the time was working with a writer on his memoir (which was eventually published and called You See, I Haven’t Forgotten). He was charming and accessible and I’m happy to be able to draw from that interview in this book.
I thank my friend Bruce Ebner for transcripts of interviews he did with Allan “Whitey” Snyder, Marilyn’s very good friend and makeup artist, and Ralph Roberts, Marilyn’s friend and masseur. These transcripts were very invaluable to the research for this section of the book, as well as many others. (Incidentally, Roberts was interviewed on March 2, 1992.)
I referred to the New York World-Telegram’s report of Marilyn’s stay at Payne Whitney, February 10, 1961.
The letter from Marilyn to Dr. Ralph Greenson regarding her stay at Payne Whitney is found in the Ralph Greenson Collection at the UCLA library.
The letter Marilyn wrote to the Strasbergs from Payne Whitney was printed in an abbreviated version in the Daily Mirror, August 5, 1981. The version used in this text is the letter in its entirety.
Marilyn’s “stand-in” Evelyn Moriarty was interviewed by Cathy Griffin on May 2, 1997, and again on June 1, 2007.
Memos from Jack Entratter to his staff at the Sands Hotel are from the Sands Hotel Papers found in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. These papers include many interoffice memos (some of which were utilized in this work) as well as newspaper clippings, photogr
aphs, negatives, brochures, press releases, audiotapes, news clips, interview transcriptions, and correspondence, all of it stored in forty-nine boxes. The papers were donated to the James R. Dickinson Library of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in December 1980 by the Sands Hotel through the office of Al Guzman, director of publicity and advertising. The collection comprises essentially the files of Al Freeman, director of advertising and promotion for the Sands Hotel from 1952 until his death at the age of forty-eight in 1972. My thanks to Peter Michel, head of special collections of the Dickinson Library, for his assistance with this material.
My special thanks to Joseph D’Orazio, a friend who was close not only to Frank Sinatra but to Hank Sanicola and Emmanuel “Manie” Sachs. He and I became pals during the course of my five years of research on my Sinatra biography and became reacquainted when I had to again turn to him for this book. I thank him for so many hours of interviews on May 22, 2007, June 1, 2007, July 15, 2007, and January 10, 2008. “Joey Boy” is one of a kind.
Michael Selsman, one of Marilyn’s publicists, was interviewed twice by Cathy Griffin, first on October 2, 1998, and then again on May 22, 2008. I interviewed his wife, the actress Carol Lynley, on June 9, 1997.
I interviewed Douglas Kirkland by telephone on May 23, 2008, to counterpoint Michael Selsman’s comments.
I interviewed Maureen Stapleton in November 1995.
As earlier stated, I interviewed Sammy Davis Jr. several times for SOUL magazine. As the former editor in chief of that magazine, I had the opportunity to interview him in 1976, 1980, 1984, and 1989. Mr. Davis was a kind and generous man who is deeply missed. I also referred to his autobiographies Yes I Can!, Hollywood in a Suitcase, and Why Me?
I interviewed Mickey Rudin on October 31, 1992, and then again on July 1, 1995, for my book about Frank Sinatra, and his comments about Marilyn are included here. Rudin was a powerhouse in his day. To say he was intimidating is an understatement. However, underneath his brash exterior, I found a very sensitive and kind man.
Dorothy Kilgallen’s husband, Richard Kollmar, donated seventy of his wife’s scrapbooks to the Lincoln Center Library of the Performing Arts. They are filled with her articles, columns, unpublished notes, and other material that she personally accumulated over her lifetime, including her rough drafts of articles about Marilyn Monroe. I reviewed them all thoroughly as part of my research.
Hedda Hopper’s personal notes and unpublished material are housed in the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. I utilized many of her papers throughout this book, especially those concerning Marilyn’s romances. Most helpful were her unpublished notes. Any biographer would be grateful for such a find, and I must thank my friends at the Margaret Herrick Library for making all of this material available to me, and the estate of Hedda Hopper for having the vision to donate it.
I also had access to the complete library of Photoplay and Look magazines from the 1950s of a generous person who wishes to remain anonymous, which was incredibly beneficial to my research. Thanks also to that same benefactor, for giving me access to hundreds of notes and transcripts from Louella Parsons concerning Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio.
Over the years, I met many lawyers who worked alongside of Marilyn’s trusted attorney, Aaron Frosch, and I conducted informal interviews with most of them for background purposes only. Because of the sensitive nature of Mr. Frosch’s work with Marilyn, these sources do not wish to be acknowledged in these pages, or even quoted in this book. For those who worked with Mr. Frosch, I respect their wishes and remain appreciative to them for the time they spent with me. They know who they are, and know that this acknowledgment is directed at them.
PART EIGHT: THE KENNEDYS
I referred to a number of FBI documents for this section of the book, which were recently released under the Freedom of Information Act. My thanks to Tommy diBella for helping to make them available to me. With the most recent release of FBI documents utilized as research for this book, there are now ninety-seven pages that have been declassified concerning Marilyn Monroe—thirty-one documents in her main file and sixty-six in a cross-referenced file—beginning with the FBI’s account of Marilyn applying for a visa and the history of her previous two years.
Much of the FBI’s files on Marilyn—as I stated in the book—are remarkable only for titillation value. However, occasionally something slips through that is quite interesting. For instance, a file dated February 21, 1962, describes Marilyn’s trip to Toluca, Mexico, and notes that her entry into the country was “reportedly arranged by Frank Sinatra through former President Miguel Aleman.” It goes on to state that she was accompanied by “an agent, a hairdresser and an interior decorator. The latter was identified as Eunice Churchill, a part time interior decorator [who] also claims to be an assistant of Dr. Wexley, Monroe’s analyst.” This mention is obviously of Eunice Murray and Dr. Wexler—but, typical of the FBI where Monroe is concerned, the names are not accurate. (It should be noted that Churchill isn’t even Eunice’s maiden name—that would be Joerndt.) Also, this is the only mention of Wexler in the FBI’s records, he being the psychiatrist Dr. Greenson turned to for a second opinion about Marilyn’s condition of borderline paranoid schizophrenia. This document suggests that Eunice Murray was in contact with someone who was an informant for the FBI—or maybe even Murray was the informant, who’s to say?—in that it continues, “According to Churchill, Monroe was much disturbed by Arthur Miller’s marriage on 2/20/62 and feels like a ‘negated sex symbol.’ Churchill said that the subject ‘has a lot of leftist rubbed off from Miller.’ Monroe reportedly spent some time with Robert Kennedy at the home of the Peter Lawfords in Hollywood. Monroe reportedly challenged Mr. Kennedy on some points proposed to her by Miller.” Note that the FBI has Arthur Miller giving Marilyn ideas on how to converse with Kennedy. If this is true, it’s likely she told him the same thing she told many others—as explained in the text—that she had “a date” with RFK.
The February 21, 1962, file also notes that Eunice says Dr. Wexley—again, no doubt, Wexler—“did not like what was happening in the relationship between Monroe and [deleted] and said that Monroe must get out with other people at once.” One has to wonder if the deleted name was not Dr. Greenson’s. Is it possible that Wexler did not really approve of how much Greenson stifled his patient, even though it had been at least partially his idea that Marilyn spend so much time at Greenson’s home? It’s an interesting thought, but we’ll never know for certain since the name is redacted. Eunice also supposedly told the FBI informant that “Monroe is very vulnerable now because of her rejection by Arthur Miller and also Joe DiMaggio and Frank Sinatra.” The file goes on to say that Marilyn asked Sinatra to “come and comfort her” while she was in Mexico, but that he declined. Again, who knows if this is true or not?
One more admittedly cynical note about the FBI documents: On October 23, 1964, two years after Marilyn’s death, the bureau was still gathering information about her. One file with that date includes this classic anecdote: “During the period of time that Robert F. Kennedy was having his sex affair with Marilyn Monroe, on one occasion, a sex party was concocted at which several other persons were present. Tap [sic] recording was secretly made and is in the possession of a Los Angeles private detective. The detective wants $60,000.00 for a certifiable copy of the recording, in which all the voices are identifiable.”
Suffice it to say, this tape has yet to surface.
I also consulted Sam Giancana’s Justice Department file, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, as well as transcripts of federal wiretaps and Justice Department files on President John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby Kennedy.
I want to thank Bernie Abramson—the aforemention photographer who took countless pictures of Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, and President Kennedy during his career—for the time he spent with me and Stephen Gregory on May 9, 2008, and for his many memories and also photographs.
Special thanks to Mat
thew Fox for his memories of the Kennedys and Lawfords. I interviewed Mr. Fox on January 8, 2008.
My appreciation to the late Don Dandero, an AP photographer working at the Cal-Neva Lodge during the Monroe-Sinatra years. Mr. Dondero was most helpful in giving me leads and ideas. My thanks also to his daughter, Debbie.
I interviewed Walter Bernstein in March 2000.
I interviewed Joan Braden in April 1999.
In March 2007, I had the pleasure of meeting the venerable investigative journalist and USC professor Ed Guthman during an evening honoring him for his many achievements and his imminent retirement, at the Annenberg School for Communication. Guthman, of course, was Robert Kennedy’s press secretary. In the midst of the hoopla surrounding him that night I was able to ask him just a few questions about Marilyn and RFK. “I know there was no affair,” he told me. “It’s not even a question in my mind. I was there. I saw what was going on. And I’m telling you that there was no affair.” With that, he was cut off by Tom Brokaw, who quipped to me, “Only one question about Marilyn Monroe and RFK is allowed per journalist lucky enough to get in here tonight.” Guthman’s other comments are found in this text.
My thanks to Edward Barnes for his memories of Marilyn at the Lawford home, which he shared with me on January 4, 2008, and January 28, 2008.
I interviewed Henry Weinstein in May 2000, and I thank him for his time.
I interviewed Milt Ebbins on August 6, 1992, and again on July 1, 2000. Milt was a wonderful man with an amazing memory for detail. I think his story (told in this book) of getting Marilyn ready for her appearance at a party honoring JFK is classic Ebbins. Milton, who was one of a kind, is much missed. Milt was partner in Peter Lawford’s production company and also a very close friend of Peter’s. He too agreed that much of what has been attributed to his friend over the years makes no sense, considering Lawford’s temperament and personality. Also, I referred to Donald Spoto’s interview with Ebbins, found in his papers at the Margaret Herrick Library. Moreover, I also referred to Spoto’s interview with Joseph Naar.
The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe Page 55