Marilyn Monroe: The Pocket Essential Guide - Paul Donnelley

For the past fifteen years or so the name of Marilyn Monroe has been linked more to the various conspiracy theories surrounding her death and less on her movie career. It is probably true to say that more books have been written about her than any other show-business celebrity. According to The Guinness Book Of Film Facts & Feats, she is the actress with the most biographies (Charlie Chaplin is the most writtenabout actor). Yet Marilyn has been dead for nearly forty years and her best films were made almost fifty years ago. But her image is still used by advertising agencies, record companies, movie studios, television companies and radio stations to promote their products. What is it about this woman that continues to fascinate and intrigue people who, like the present author, were not even born when Marilyn died? Other women have been more beautiful. Other actresses have been more talented. Yet when we look back at the screen goddesses of the golden age of Hollywood, sure we remember Jean Harlow, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Joan Crawford and her great rival Bette Davis, Susan Hayward, Ann Sheridan et al, but it is Marilyn who stands head and shoulders above the rest. Ask almost any young person about the ladies mentioned above and, more often than not, you will probably be greeted with a blank stare but mention Marilyn Monroe and the recognition is instantaneous. Despite the often morbid preoccupation with her death, Marilyn Monroe remains the most potent sex symbol of the 20th century. She began life in the Los Angeles General Hospital at 9.30am on Tuesday 1 June 1926. Her father is listed as Edward Mortenson, a 29- year-old baker from California, present whereabouts unknown. (Some believe that Mortenson was not Norma Jeane's real father and bolted when his wife became pregnant by one of her colleagues, Charles Stanley Gifford. In 1981 Mortenson died aged 83 in Riverside, California, from a heart attack.) Her Mexican-born mother, Gladys Pearl Monroe, had recently celebrated her 24th birthday and was working as a film cutter at Consolidated Film Industries. Insanity ran in Norma Jeane's family. Her great-grandfather, Tilford Hogan, would hang himself on 29 May 1933, at the age of 82. In July 1927 his daughter, Norma Jeane's grandmother, Della Mae Monroe Grainger attempted to smother the 13-month-old baby and was committed to Norwalk Metropolitan State Hospital. She died there on 23 August 1927. (Years later Marilyn Monroe would claim she could remember her grandmother trying to smother her. Although many authors have believed this impossible, her third husband, Arthur Miller, did indeed believe her.) On 20 November 1929, her 24-year-old uncle Marion Monroe told his wife he was going out to buy a newspaper and walked out on his family without explanation, never to return.

Author: Donnelley, Paul
Publisher: Pocket Essentials
Illustration: N
Language: ENG
Title: Marilyn Monroe: The Pocket Essential Guide
Pages: 00000 (Encrypted PDF)
On Sale: 2009-03-11
SKU-13/ISBN: 9781848396760
Category: Performing Arts : Film & Video - History & Criticism