Marilyn Monroe: Out of a Dream

<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUl9XriX9DxisG86jxNHfm4FcHJAjvFQB429C_vHDUJxxdKYRtVemOGiHsyfm-eXttfwFATFsGu5ysRonKy4vh7PCY2VmIfhlLSAiDfqZCAnpDBhjy2kBPbV35eY4Fnr8d-JA6SlYTzTXr/s1600/MM+by+Cardiff+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUl9XriX9DxisG86jxNHfm4FcHJAjvFQB429C_vHDUJxxdKYRtVemOGiHsyfm-eXttfwFATFsGu5ysRonKy4vh7PCY2VmIfhlLSAiDfqZCAnpDBhjy2kBPbV35eY4Fnr8d-JA6SlYTzTXr/s400/MM+by+Cardiff+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">photo by Jack Cardiff</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">One chilly winter morning in 1953, a 15-year-old boy took a bus from his home in New Jersey to New York City in search of adventure. His conception of the city then was of Times Square and he roamed the neighborhood until daylight began to fade. As he made his way to the Port Authority Terminal and his bus trip home, he noticed a long black limousine driving slowly toward him. The limo came to a stop and its driver jumped out and opened the back door at the curb. As he did, he motioned the boy to stay where he was so his passenger would have a clear path across the sidewalk. Nearly 60 years later, the man who had been that boy remembered,"...a white-gloved hand reached out for help and it was given. Then came a face of dizzying beauty..." She was blonde and she wore a long gown that appeared to be made of "tiny white pearls seemingly flung at her in wild abandon and clinging to every pore. Around her neck, over her wrists and on her ears were brightly sparkling diamonds." The boy's heart was already pounding when, as she turned, the woman noticed him, smiled and whispered, "Hi."</span><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Z71LHpcSOn4d7F07C7z_wbfH3ZOfuo8y8ytMEyZn0jy3e-U_APLtEVteF6Sgg5J50oPRy_XUnGyk-tz3AjOsJQAY0Riq5MPgWNRRZSH5C-NzsLHWVeJbwph-ZIptoleiAbJeISAoD2r1/s1600/Marilyn+by+Avedon+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Z71LHpcSOn4d7F07C7z_wbfH3ZOfuo8y8ytMEyZn0jy3e-U_APLtEVteF6Sgg5J50oPRy_XUnGyk-tz3AjOsJQAY0Riq5MPgWNRRZSH5C-NzsLHWVeJbwph-ZIptoleiAbJeISAoD2r1/s320/Marilyn+by+Avedon+4.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">photo by Richard Avedon</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The bedazzled boy, Frank Langella, who grew up to be an Oscar-nominated, three-time Tony-winning actor, was stunned. He had serendipitously encountered Marilyn Monroe, "the girl" who enraptured the world that year in <i>Gentlemen Prefer Blondes</i> and <i>How to Marry a Millionaire </i>and would soon create pandemonium with <i>The Seven Year Itch</i>. Years later Richard Avedon, one of many famed photographers for whom the actress posed, would comment, "There was no such person as Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe was an invention of hers. A genius invention that she created like an author creates a character."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The vision that materialized before wide-eyed young Frank Langella on a New York street was the painstaking creation of the former Norma Jeane Baker, but the realization of this fantasy creature had required inspiration and encouragement from others. Not too unlike an orphan on a quest in a folk tale, she rose from humble origins, faced great obstacles and setbacks and, with the aid of others along with her own hard work and desire, transformed her life.</span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3v1ToxOvx7d9qlTCuCjXhm6SuhyphenhyphenmQegIlimTe2gWrlN__7l_fD-k4oLurmphAy_me7QKRfmbiNBq6fwKZgw-wZtC02OvC-s28rEDrIr5BqNT47rRorEORp1B2TtB5EUqLZCjDemDmdVql/s1600/Marilyn+at+age+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3v1ToxOvx7d9qlTCuCjXhm6SuhyphenhyphenmQegIlimTe2gWrlN__7l_fD-k4oLurmphAy_me7QKRfmbiNBq6fwKZgw-wZtC02OvC-s28rEDrIr5BqNT47rRorEORp1B2TtB5EUqLZCjDemDmdVql/s320/Marilyn+at+age+9.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Norma Jeane Baker, age nine</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In 1935, Grace McKee, a friend and co-worker of Gladys Baker at a Hollywood editing lab, became her unstable friend's court-appointed guardian and the legal guardian of the woman's nine-year-old daughter, Norma Jeane. A childless peroxide blonde with "stage mother" instincts, McKee filled the little girl's imagination with lavish fancies of one day becoming a bombshell movie star like the one with whom she herself was obsessed - Jean Harlow. When Grace married "Doc" Goddard, Norma Jeane was, for a time, sent to live in the red-brick mansion that served as the Los Angeles Orphans Home. Grace would take the girl out to lunch and a movie most Saturdays and regularly had the child's hair styled at a beauty parlor. Norma Jeane would be returned to the orphanage with her hair freshly curled and be-ribboned and, on occasion, wearing makeup Grace had applied to her very young face. The guardian coached the girl on her smile and paraded her in front of friends crowing "isn't she pretty?" and bragged that the child was going to grow up to be beautiful and famous. It would be little more than a decade after becoming Norma Jeane Baker's guardian that Grace Goddard would, because her charge was not yet 21, sign the girl's first contract with 20th Century Fox.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">When Johnny Hyde, a powerful William Morris agent on the West Coast, met 22-year-old Marilyn Monroe on New Year's Eve 1949, she was a starlet adrift in the wilderness of the "party circuit" looking for a break. At one time known as producer "Joe Schenk's girl," she had been under contract to Fox for a year, from 1946 to 1947, and with Columbia Pictures for just six months in 1948. It was during her stint at Fox that she had adopted her screen name with the help of Ben Lyon, the studio's casting director. "Monroe" was her mother's family name; Lyon suggested "Marilyn." He had known and loved Broadway star <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126833333" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">Marilyn Miller</a> before his marriage to Bebe Daniels, and Norma Jeane Baker reminded him of the talented and lovely blonde, blue-eyed actress who had died young.</span><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhO1ZmpAkZv7VpB8DpHviHCQRnwSqiPelYBUh36-okLnmWqvAUyAmksa0igpspJECpfMTSPCUhLnrg3cK3hQp9a1QfPbjwwPmPmFi4qMYFm_F13Rz2aTQfM7aRLOF1Ng3aYoej_ng72ukD/s1600/Marilyn+in+1950+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhO1ZmpAkZv7VpB8DpHviHCQRnwSqiPelYBUh36-okLnmWqvAUyAmksa0igpspJECpfMTSPCUhLnrg3cK3hQp9a1QfPbjwwPmPmFi4qMYFm_F13Rz2aTQfM7aRLOF1Ng3aYoej_ng72ukD/s320/Marilyn+in+1950+2.jpg" width="234" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marilyn Monroe in 1950</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">For Johnny Hyde, meeting Marilyn Monroe led to an enchantment that brought an end to his marriage and the beginning of his tireless promotion of her career. He saw a singular quality in the sensuous blonde and worked to make things happen quickly for her. By the time of his sudden death in 1950, Hyde had negotiated parts for her in John Huston's <i>The Asphalt Jungle </i>(1950) and Joseph Mankiewicz's <i>All About Eve </i>(1950). Her success in these roles led to a new, more generous contract with Fox, an agreement that was secured by Hyde.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Howard Hawks had been unimpressed with the starlet when he first met her in 1948. But after seeing her in <i>The Asphalt Jungle</i>, he realized she had something. And when she was cast in a supporting role in one of his films, <i>Monkey Business </i>(1952), he took a closer look at her potential. Hawks became convinced that Fox chief Darryl Zanuck was misreading Marilyn's appeal, too often casting her in the wrong sort of films. He told Zanuck, "You're making realism with a very unreal girl. She's a completely storybook character..." and urged him to produce <i>Gentlemen Prefer Blondes</i>, a studio property, and cast her in it; furthermore, he agreed to direct.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In 1949 <i>Gentlemen Prefer Blondes </i>had made Carol Channing a Broadway sensation; in 1953, the screen adaptation had an even more powerful impact on the career of Marilyn Monroe. With the film's tremendous success, Marilyn left behind forever her years as a struggling cheesecake model/rising newcomer and emerged a bona fide superstar. She proved to have a talent for comedy and a fine sense of timing and, with Howard Hawks creating the ideal vehicle for her and overseeing an elegant Technicolor upgrade of her look and style, she embodied to scintillating perfection a funny, sexy, sweet and unique confection that produced fireworks on the screen.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In <i>Gentlemen Prefer Blondes</i>, Marilyn Monroe and top-billed co-star Jane Russell are well-matched as a pair of gorgeous gal-pal showgirls on the loose on the high seas and in Paris. Delectably dizzy/witty blonde Lorelei and droll, down-to-earth brunette Dorothy cut loose in clever comic scenes and dynamic musical routines. Both perform renditions of the centerpiece number, "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend." Marilyn's version became legendary.</span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></b><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/y2bGerBiZQ8" width="420"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fox strikes again! This video clip has been blocked</span></span>.</div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Fox's next assignment for its new star was not as solid a film as her last, but it was even more popular. <i>How to Marry a Millionaire </i>(1953) teamed Marilyn with not just one but two other glittery leading ladies - Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall. Another glamor-fest, the story follows three models who rent a ritzy penthouse in Manhattan for a year in hopes of luring and marrying wealthy suitors before their lease expires. Bacall's is the central storyline and hers is the commonsense character; Grable and Marilyn are both ditzy-but-dear dumb blonde types. Marilyn, of course, is the knockout in the trio and, next to her, Betty Grable seems a decade out-of-date. <i>How to Marry a Millionaire </i>was the #5 box office hit of 1953, with <i>Gentlemen Prefer Blondes </i>close behind at #6. As for Marilyn Monroe, she was on top.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjleWBrBKTUsAgThPj4XUKceKKfN6KD94YF-VquJHLqjS31MZQK5ZH9AQOM3oDKQjiZaMHmF_qQG6K3cRpGYHVXS7TUI9IIUZ5u5kX3p6GBw1ZhCUoxx1vTxoWuLCz2EJKwYTJutzq1cDJz/s1600/Marilyn+in+Travilla+HtMaM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjleWBrBKTUsAgThPj4XUKceKKfN6KD94YF-VquJHLqjS31MZQK5ZH9AQOM3oDKQjiZaMHmF_qQG6K3cRpGYHVXS7TUI9IIUZ5u5kX3p6GBw1ZhCUoxx1vTxoWuLCz2EJKwYTJutzq1cDJz/s200/Marilyn+in+Travilla+HtMaM.jpg" width="156" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Marilyn in a classic Travilla gown<i></i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">By the time Darryl Zanuck conspired with Billy Wilder to adapt the Broadway adultery romp, <i>The Seven Year Itch</i>,<i> </i>to the screen for Marilyn in 1955, there was no longer any need to pair her with another actress or even an established leading man to bolster the film's box office appeal. Though it is minor Wilder, <i>The Seven Year Itch </i>is the film that certified Marilyn as a phenomenon. On Broadway, George Axelrod's play centered on the brief affair of a married man with his gorgeous neighbor while his family is away on vacation. Even though Hollywood's Production Code demanded that there be no adultery in the adultery comedy, the onscreen presence of Marilyn Monroe was enough to tantalize and satisfy a worldwide audience. The studio's enticing publicity campaign - it was all about Marilyn in a <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2011-06-20-marilyn-monroe-dress-auction_n.htm" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">billowy white dress</a> - created a furor.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">For a while the sensitive but wily star was able to navigate Hollywood's treacherous rapids. She managed to use the scandal of nude calendar photos to her advantage; she explained away the revelation that she was not, technically, an orphan; and she weathered the outcry stirred by the public remarks of Joan Crawford who implied she was lewd and vulgar. But Marilyn could never cope with her performance anxiety.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Billy Wilder, ever outspoken and eminently quotable, quipped about his tribulations in working with Marilyn, "I had no problems with Monroe. It was Monroe who had problems with Monroe."</span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQWWTkOrRBxJXo6xDg45clzEQN29qrhtcCY8aODunwxBR3rnuYo8EXDsHw6QxdJQAoewcewJAovtFpT_1Ys604e_49EKg9a-6VHsBpov77FU7uvB3aJmH4VdxxAEf9tK09jzEh2FEvXCIj/s1600/Marilyn+sans+makeup+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQWWTkOrRBxJXo6xDg45clzEQN29qrhtcCY8aODunwxBR3rnuYo8EXDsHw6QxdJQAoewcewJAovtFpT_1Ys604e_49EKg9a-6VHsBpov77FU7uvB3aJmH4VdxxAEf9tK09jzEh2FEvXCIj/s320/Marilyn+sans+makeup+2.jpg" width="286" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marilyn <i>sans</i> makeup</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Fritz Lang, who had directed her in <i>Clash by Night </i>(1952), remembered that she was "...scared as hell to come to the studio, always late, couldn't remember her lines..." And Howard Hawks noted, "The more important she became, the more frightened she became." Whitey Snyder, Marilyn's makeup artist from her Fox screen test to her funeral, thought her anxiety was connected to her appearance. He said that though she knew every makeup trick there was and used them to marvelous effect, "...it was all an illusion: in person, out of makeup, she was very pretty but in a plain way, and she knew it." It was more than that, though. Marilyn Monroe wasn't simply at the mercy of a fantastical physical image that required scrupulous upkeep. Her ever-shifting entourage included more than hair, makeup and massage professionals, she was also closely attended by personal confidants, studio advisors, talent agents, attorneys, psychotherapists, trophy husbands - and drama coaches.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Determined to be more than a pretty onscreen face with a voluptuous body, she took acting seriously. Teacher Natasha Lytess, employed by Fox at Marilyn's insistence, coached her even as the actress performed in front of the camera. Howard Hawks balked at this and successfully barred Lytess from the set of <i>Gentlemen Prefer Blondes</i>. Billy Wilder referred to her as "that creature Lytess" but put up with her on <i>The Seven Year Itch</i>.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">By the mid-'50s, Marilyn was studying with "method" guru Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York. Julie Newmar, a member of the Studio at the time, remembered her performance of a scene from <i>Anna Christie</i> with Maureen Stapleton. She recalled that Marilyn's hand actually shook as she lifted a drink from the bar. In her view, Marilyn reflected precisely the essence of Strasberg's teachings - she had <i>become </i>Anna Christie. Of Lee Strasberg, Newmar mused that he favored three kinds of artists, "the highly gifted; the injured, tortured souls; and the beauty queens. He adored Marilyn." Soon Lytess was replaced as Marilyn's personal acting coach by Paula Strasberg, Lee's wife.</span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim_g26QKnkIcGsPgafHeu1xuLOAE6rO4AahyphenhyphenX6SbdMlM10QCHt92ElXBlVJvessDe-KZfucuR-c_sZ4VydO9bZKuvROyzQq0RTlVCcDh8gIYu_L-kyirlEVKtqtoeg5y-TnLbEZGX53VVl/s1600/marlon+and+marilyn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim_g26QKnkIcGsPgafHeu1xuLOAE6rO4AahyphenhyphenX6SbdMlM10QCHt92ElXBlVJvessDe-KZfucuR-c_sZ4VydO9bZKuvROyzQq0RTlVCcDh8gIYu_L-kyirlEVKtqtoeg5y-TnLbEZGX53VVl/s400/marlon+and+marilyn.jpg" width="302" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...with Brando promoting a 1955 Actors Studio benefit </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Billy Wilder happily agreed to tackle another project with Marilyn in 1959; her natural luminosity was "something extra, something special" that he believed </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">no one else could bring to the film. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">He would struggle mightily with her on the comedy masterpiece <i>Some Like it Hot </i>and was critical of the effect method acting seemed to have had on her. Before she took up Strasberg's approach, he said, Marilyn came before the camera as if she were about to walk a tightrope over a pit. After adopting "the method" it seemed to him that she focused her full concentration on only the pit...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Over the years, perhaps in an attempt to deal with her terror of "the pit" and other personal woes, Marilyn became dependent on drugs - pills that lifted her up or calmed her down or put her to sleep - and alcohol. Her reputation for being unreliable and difficult grew to epic proportions. Those who worked on her later films reported that she sometimes appeared on the set as if in a daze and, during the filming of <i>Some Like it Hot</i>, screenwriter Izzy Diamond recalled that she sipped liquor from a thermos that ostensibly contained coffee.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7kElKxgf2t0Owzpw9Au1ruoRdNTMRNE2qBRzcwdv44PELwFAREQBlDvjNyYtcCJ-zR7urWnGNTTKTyhkSmqwjLTw4WyP-d62M04SxExYW4wNqSfqhQSLUeXZkkqQfBUQxkfj1FTHIA0Z2/s1600/Marilyn+by+geo+barris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7kElKxgf2t0Owzpw9Au1ruoRdNTMRNE2qBRzcwdv44PELwFAREQBlDvjNyYtcCJ-zR7urWnGNTTKTyhkSmqwjLTw4WyP-d62M04SxExYW4wNqSfqhQSLUeXZkkqQfBUQxkfj1FTHIA0Z2/s320/Marilyn+by+geo+barris.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">photo by George Barris</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">When Marilyn returned to Hollywood in 1960 after years of making her home in New York, she sought the care of Freudian analyst Ralph Greenson. The doctor, who treated her until her death, diagnosed her as "a borderline paranoid addictive personality." Norma Jeane Baker had endured a confusing and chaotic childhood, passed from home to home among friends and family - to an orphanage and back - until she was handed off in marriage at just 16.  Young Marilyn Monroe was also passed around - among the powerful men of Hollywood - during her years as an aspiring starlet. From a psychological standpoint, then, it's no surprise that her relationships were intense and volatile, her identity unstable, her emotions erratic and her actions impulsive. Greenson, who viewed her as a perennial orphan, discarded traditional therapeutic methods and took up a highly unorthodox approach in treating her. In a misguided attempt to "save" her, he welcomed Marilyn into his home and family and took on the role of "father" as well as therapist. He had set for himself an impossible task.</span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiktWVTLVUR8lSJSTGgJVsU7zfoZk3JVUczEM84GWgxoa2uY4TKhD0oEcKfOQhicz-uv5vcA8rlAQppAJKXrta_OX_Q2g_7GGfGoj1ZAuVPvuwdGGviAMPfDfiPu8MKHPX8JEwZjWVfcfoI/s1600/MM+SGtG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiktWVTLVUR8lSJSTGgJVsU7zfoZk3JVUczEM84GWgxoa2uY4TKhD0oEcKfOQhicz-uv5vcA8rlAQppAJKXrta_OX_Q2g_7GGfGoj1ZAuVPvuwdGGviAMPfDfiPu8MKHPX8JEwZjWVfcfoI/s320/MM+SGtG.jpg" width="199" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Something's Got to Give </i>(1962)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Even at the peak of her popularity, Marilyn was considered risqué, a sex symbol, and was not taken seriously. Her film roles changed little over time and became, for her, a deadly repetition – the artless, often giddy showgirl, or ex-showgirl. Cherie in <i>Bus Stop </i>(1956), Elsie in <i>The Prince and the Showgirl </i>(1957), Sugar in <i>Some Like it Hot</i>,<i> </i>Amanda in <i>Let’s Make Love </i>(1960) and even Roslyn in <i>The Misfits</i> (1961) are variations on a type the actress wanted to break. With her final, unfinished film, George Cukor’s <i>Something’s Got to Give</i>, she was cast in a role that might have helped her broaden the "Marilyn Monroe" persona; Ellen Wagstaff Arden was beautiful but she was also married and the mother of two small children. Had she been able to finish the film, Marilyn might have gone on to romantic comedy roles <i>a la</i> Doris Day or Shirley MacLaine. It’s also possible she could have moved into mature dramatic roles as Ava Gardner, Lee Remick and others did. But this was not to be. Life as a cultural metaphor and brand-name commodity may simply have been too much for a woman already consumed by an array of insecurities. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">50 years ago Marilyn Monroe stepped out of the dream and into eternity. Her extravagant fulfillment of a childhood guardian’s fuzzy fantasies had taken her on a journey both harrowing and exhilarating, but her life would come to no fairytale ending. Only with death would come transcendence, and the mythical being she so carefully fashioned and brought to vibrant life lives on, unforgettable and bewitching.</span></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMd-0vYMqgVD9vKY0lSmts5kvGFIVl6tlP3tszTIc_jIa_DkhzkHOiafw1031zcuqyq4_yFEKW-ZmAL6gH57KU70VKdNkZEwPosqLlTCHOGbYWCzryhRNNgRRnw3z9TZQRmxCoPJHqV6p0/s1600/Marilyn+in+black+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMd-0vYMqgVD9vKY0lSmts5kvGFIVl6tlP3tszTIc_jIa_DkhzkHOiafw1031zcuqyq4_yFEKW-ZmAL6gH57KU70VKdNkZEwPosqLlTCHOGbYWCzryhRNNgRRnw3z9TZQRmxCoPJHqV6p0/s400/Marilyn+in+black+2.jpg" width="396" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">photo by Bert Stern</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>T</b><b>his post is my contribution to the Summer Under the Stars blogathon hosted by Jill of Sittin' on a Backyard Fence and Michael of ScribeHard on Film.</b></span><b> <a href="http://scribehardonfilm.wordpress.com/tag/2012-tcm-summer-under-the-stars-blogathon/" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">Click here</a> <span style="color: #0b5394;">to learn more...</span></b></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i> </i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b> </b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> ~</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Notes</u>:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Marilyn Monroe: The Biography </i>by Donald Spoto, Harper Collins (1993)</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Marilyn Monroe</i> by Barbara Leaming, Crown (1998)</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>On Sunset Blvd.: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder </i>by Ed Sikov, Hyperion (1998)</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Marilyn Monroe: Metamorphosis </i>by David Wills and Stephen Schmidt, It Books (2011)</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Dropped Names </i>by Frank Langella, Harper (2012) </span></div></div>

Billy Wilder Gentlemen Prefer Blondes How to Marry a Millionaire Howard Hawks Marilyn Monroe Summer Under the Stars TCM The Lady Eve (author) The Seven Year Itch Marilyn Monroe: Out of a Dream

photo by Jack CardiffOne chilly winter morning in 1953, a 15-year-old boy took a bus from his home in New Jersey to New York City in search of adventure. His conception of the city then was of Times Square and he roamed the neighborhood until dayligh…

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Focus on Film Noir: Barbara Stanwyck

<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWxTE1-w4a3YlAfZtqP4-bnSHnNccdXxq4o7UHLWF4QX5SRn3FgbwZ_QHkbUNniIGnADZaKJnqD1aE1Y2l-0gcypmHa09lPWR5kbId8stS-pCdCeXj9bhyphenhyphenrTcv5uohsx7VRWg0DQ-ZQdya/s1600/BS+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWxTE1-w4a3YlAfZtqP4-bnSHnNccdXxq4o7UHLWF4QX5SRn3FgbwZ_QHkbUNniIGnADZaKJnqD1aE1Y2l-0gcypmHa09lPWR5kbId8stS-pCdCeXj9bhyphenhyphenrTcv5uohsx7VRWg0DQ-ZQdya/s320/BS+1.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Three films of legendary star to be screened at Noir City 9</span></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Her childhood has been called Dickensian and the rags-to-riches trajectory of her life could easily have provided material for one of her films… </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">She was the youngest of a hard-drinking Irish American bricklayer’s five children </span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">She lost her mother at age three when the woman was pushed, while pregnant, from a streetcar</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Her father abandoned his children (for the second time) and went to sea</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">She lived in a series of foster homes</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">She began working at age 13<a name='more'></a></span></li></ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Ruby Catherine Stevens, born in 1907 in Brooklyn, New York, grew up fast – and tough. There was one bright spot in an otherwise dreary life - her older sister Mildred was a dancer and, during the summer months, Mildred took Ruby on the road with her. Ruby loved to dance and began learning steps, determined to be a dancer herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>While still in her early teens she got a job as a chorus girl at the Strand Theater on New York’s Times Square, moved on to the “Keep Kool” Revue and before long was in the Ziegfeld chorus.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Ruby’s big break came in 1926 when a friend introduced her to Willard Mack who was casting “The Noose,” a play headed for Broadway. Mack was impressed with her but felt that she needed a name that implied class and distinction. He found the right name on a playbill: “Barbara Frietchie” with Joan Stanwyck.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Barbara Stanwyck made her first film in 1927 with <b>Broadway Nights</b>. And though she became one of the legends of Hollywood, film success did not come overnight. It wasn’t until the early ‘30s, when she moved west with then-husband Frank Fay that she began to make her mark. Frank Capra saw a screen test and cast her in <b>Ladies of Leisure</b> (1930). A contract with Columbia Pictures followed and her career began to take off. It was during this period that some of her early classics were made and her image as a determined working girl evolved: <b>Night Nurse </b>(1931),<b> Baby Face</b> (1933) and <b>Ladies They Talk About</b>, (1933).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Stanwyck’s personal life remained rocky. Her romance with Broadway actor Rex Cherryman had been cut short when he died suddenly in 1928 at age 30. Her marriage to Fay collapsed in the mid-‘30s as her star rose and his fell. The pair had adopted a baby boy, but Stanwyck and the child developed a strained and then estranged relationship that never healed. She began living with Hollywood heartthrob Robert Taylor in the late ‘30s and her studio, wary of potential scandal, insisted that they marry in 1939.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNbfBN1kqJnwLGk3XmXnjumIx-O4oEKfVAmVyZ3k4IpKQs_zT7sHkD-oQaRW1J6IV0uRXT62TFrDeZkyp51tcuFoaCG7BndirvLY4ka73eJ2bXQvDmTZ_buETe_6vbs1FS3PTDk7kWpn9o/s1600/BS+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNbfBN1kqJnwLGk3XmXnjumIx-O4oEKfVAmVyZ3k4IpKQs_zT7sHkD-oQaRW1J6IV0uRXT62TFrDeZkyp51tcuFoaCG7BndirvLY4ka73eJ2bXQvDmTZ_buETe_6vbs1FS3PTDk7kWpn9o/s320/BS+3.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">In 1937 Stanwyck starred in <b>Stella Dallas</b>, a memorable melodrama for which she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. In 1938 she starred in <b>Golden Boy</b> with young William Holden, who years later declared he owed his career to her.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Stanwyck proved that she was a capable comedienne with two hit 1941 comedies, Preston Sturges’s <b>The Lady Eve</b> and Howard Hawks’s <b>Ball of Fire</b>. That same year she co-starred in the Capra classic <b>Meet John Doe</b> with Gary Cooper and earned her second Best Actress Oscar nomination.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">The 1940s would be the apex of Barbara Stanwyck’s movie career and included her crowning performance, femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson in Billy Wilder’s film noir supreme, <b>Double Indemnity </b>(1944). Stanwyck garnered her third Best Actress nod for the role.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">The decade contained several more popular Stanwyck films: <b>Christmas in Connecticut </b>(1945), <b>The Strange Love of Martha Ivers </b>(1946), <b>The Two Mrs. Carrolls </b>(1947), <b>B.F.’s Daughter</b> (1948) and <b>Sorry, Wrong Number </b>(1948), for which she received her final Best Actress nomination.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">It was at around this time that Stanwyck's marriage to Robert Taylor began to fall apart. Taylor had been dallying with some of the celebrated beauties of the time, Lana Turner and Ava Gardner, along with others of less stature, such as the bit actress on <b>Quo Vadis</b> (1951) who created a scandal when she went public with their affair. When Stanwyck gave Taylor an ultimatum he resisted and the pair soon divorced.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Stanwyck never remarried but continued, as she always had, to work hard. She went on to make several more popular films and starred on television in series and mini-series into the mid-1980s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>She was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 1982 for her career achievements.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Barbara Stanwyck died in 1990.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzMH9ypslO8Uj9LN7u_Rv4OwsmWxBrivz_Zyl9fAGnMnGty6WpEerpEMEOc0Ge-aOpTOX4bjsgEBnR_Qa49ptvo0e1qmvpeRNJuKTgwZ4XCMYFYcAyoBQcqm3uhmkzyHS2eg9nWw0PQPqb/s1600/BS+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzMH9ypslO8Uj9LN7u_Rv4OwsmWxBrivz_Zyl9fAGnMnGty6WpEerpEMEOc0Ge-aOpTOX4bjsgEBnR_Qa49ptvo0e1qmvpeRNJuKTgwZ4XCMYFYcAyoBQcqm3uhmkzyHS2eg9nWw0PQPqb/s320/BS+4.jpg" width="232" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">San Francisco’s Noir City 9 will screen three Stanwyck films at this year’s festival:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Sorry, Wrong Number</span></b><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"> (1948) and <b>The Lady Gambles</b> (1949) on Mon. Jan. 24</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">The Two Mrs. Carrolls </span></b><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">(1947) on Thurs. Jan. 27</span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Also of note, <b>The High Wall </b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1947) starring <b>Robert Taylor</b> (with Audrey Totter) will be shown on opening night, Fri. Jan. 21</span></div>

Barbara Stanwyck Billy Wilder Double Indemnity Film Noir Noir City 9 Robert Taylor Sorry Wrong Number The High Wall The Lady Eve (author) The Lady Gambles The Two Mrs. Carrolls Focus on Film Noir: Barbara Stanwyck

Three films of legendary star to be screened at Noir City 9Her childhood has been called Dickensian and the rags-to-riches trajectory of her life could easily have provided material for one of her films… She was the youngest of a hard-drinking Irish …

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