MARILYN MONROE - Card #048 - Pola Debevoise in \"How To Marry A Millionaire\" For Sale

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MARILYN MONROE - Card #048 - Pola Debevoise in \"How To Marry A Millionaire\":
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MARILYNMONROE - SPORTS TIME - Individual Card from the Series One Set,issued in 1993.

MarilynMonroe (born NormaJeane Mortenson, June 1, 1926 –August 5, 1962) was an American actress and model. Famous for playing\"dumb blonde\" characters, she became one of the mostpopular sex symbols of the 1950s, emblematic of the era\'s attitudestowards sexuality. Although she was a top-billed actress for only adecade, her films grossed $200 million by the time of her death in1962. She continues to be considered a major icon of popular culture.

Born andraised in Los Angeles, Marilyn Monroespent most of her childhood in foster homes and an orphanage andmarried for the first time at the age of sixteen. While working in afactory as part of the war effort in 1944, she met a photographer andbegan a successful pin-up modeling career. The work led toshort-lived film contracts with Twentieth Century-Fox (1946–47) andColumbia Pictures (1948). After a series of minor film roles, shesigned a new contract with Fox in 1951. Over the next two years, shebecame a popular actress with roles in several comedies, including AsYoung as You Feel and MonkeyBusiness, and in the dramas Clashby Night and Don\'tBother to Knock. Monroe faced a scandalwhen it was revealed that she had posed for nude photos beforebecoming a star, but rather than damaging her career, the storyincreased interest in her films.

By 1953,Monroe was one of the most bankable Hollywood stars, with leadingroles in three films: Niagara,which focused on her sex appeal, and the comedies GentlemenPrefer Blondes and Howto Marry a Millionaire, whichestablished her star image as a \"dumb blonde\". Although sheplayed a significant role in the creation and management of herpublic image throughout her career, she was disappointed at beingtypecast and underpaid by the studio. She was briefly suspended inearly 1954 for refusing a film project, but returned to star in oneof the biggest box office successes of her career, TheSeven Year Itch (1955). When the studiowas still reluctant to change her contract, MarilynMonroe founded a film productioncompany in late 1954, Marilyn Monroe Productions (MMP). She dedicated1955 to building her company and began studying method acting at theActors Studio. In late 1955, Fox awarded her a new contract, whichgave her more control and a larger salary. After a criticallyacclaimed performance in Bus Stop(1956) and acting in the first independent production of MMP, ThePrince and the Showgirl (1957), she wona Golden Globe for Best Actress for SomeLike It Hot (1959). Her last completedfilm was the drama The Misfits(1961).

MarilynMonroe’s troubled private lifereceived much attention. She struggled with addiction, depression,and anxiety. She had two highly publicized marriages, to baseballplayer Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller, which both ended indivorce. She died at the age of 36 from an overdose of barbituratesat her home in Los Angeles on August 5, 1962. Although the death wasruled a probable suicide, several conspiracy theories have beenproposed in the decades following her death.

Monroewas born Norma Jeane Mortenson at the Los Angeles County Hospital onJune 1, 1926, as the third child of Gladys Pearl Monroe (1902–84).Gladys, the daughter of two poor Midwestern migrants to California,was a flapper and worked as a negative-cutter at Columbia Pictures.She had married for the first time at the age of 15 in 1917 to JohnNewton Baker, with whom she had two children, Robert (1917–33) andBerniece (born 1919). After she had filed for divorce in 1921, Bakerhad taken the children with him to his native Kentucky. Monroe wasnot told that she had a sister until she was 12, and met her for thefirst time as an adult. Gladys married Martin Edward Mortensen in1924, but they separated after only a few months and before shebecame pregnant with Monroe; they divorced in 1928. The identity ofMonroe\'s father is unknown. During her childhood, Mortenson,Mortensen and Baker were all used as her surnames.

Gladyswas mentally and financially unprepared for a child, and so placedMonroe with foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender in the rural townof Hawthorne soon after the birth. While they raised their fosterchildren according to the strict principles of evangelicalChristianity, Monroe\'s early childhood was stable and happy. Atfirst, Gladys lived with the Bolenders and commuted to work in LosAngeles, until longer work shifts forced her to move back to the cityin early 1927. She then began visiting her daughter on the weekends,often taking her to the cinema and to sightsee in Los Angeles. By thesummer of 1933, Gladys felt stable enough for Monroe to move in withher, and bought a house in Hollywood, which they shared with lodgers,actors George and Maude Atkinson. Only some months later in January1934, Gladys had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed with paranoidschizophrenia. After several months in a rest home, she was committedto the Metropolitan State Hospital. She spent the rest of her life inand out of hospitals, and was rarely in contact with Monroe.

Monroe wasdeclared a ward of the state, and her mother\'s friend, Grace McKeeGoddard, took responsibility over her and her mother\'s affairs. Inthe following four years, she lived in several foster families andoften switched schools. For the first sixteen months, she continuedliving with the Atkinsons; she was sexually abused during this time.In the summer of 1935, she briefly stayed with Grace and her husbandErwin \"Doc\" Goddard and two other families, until Graceplaced her in the Los Angeles Orphans Home in Hollywood in September1935. While the orphanage was \"a model institution\" and wasdescribed in positive terms by her peers, Monroe found being placedthere traumatizing, as to her \"it seemed that no one wanted me\".

Encouragedby the orphanage staff, who thought that Monroe would be happierliving in a family, Grace became her legal guardian in 1936, althoughshe was not able to take her out of the orphanage until the summer of1937. Monroe\'s second stay with the Goddards lasted only a fewmonths, as Doc molested her. After staying with various of her andGrace\'s relatives and friends in Los Angeles and Compton, Monroefound a more permanent home in September 1938, when she began livingwith Grace\'s aunt, Ana Atchinson Lower, in the Sawtelle district. Shewas enrolled in Emerson Junior High School and was taken to weeklyChristian Science services with Lower. Due to the elderly Lower\'shealth issues, Monroe returned to live with the Goddards in Van Nuysin either late 1940 or early 1941. After graduating from Emerson, shebegan attending Van Nuys High School.

In early1942, the company that Doc Goddard worked for required him torelocate to West Virginia. California laws prevented the Goddardsfrom taking Monroe out of state, and she faced the possibility ofhaving to return to the orphanage. As a solution, she married theirneighbors\' son, 21-year-old factory worker James \"Jim\"Dougherty, on June 19, 1942, just after her 16th birthday.Biographers disagree on whether they had already been dating orwhether the marriage was entirely arranged by Grace. Monroesubsequently dropped out of high school and became a housewife; shelater stated that the \"marriage didn\'t make me sad, but itdidn\'t make me happy, either. My husband and I hardly spoke to eachother. This wasn\'t because we were angry. We had nothing to say. Iwas dying of boredom.\" In 1943, Dougherty enlisted in theMerchant Marine. He was initially stationed on Catalina Island, whereshe lived with him until he was shipped out to the Pacific in April1944; he would remain there for most of the next two years. AfterDougherty\'s departure, Monroe moved in with his parents and beganworking at the Radioplane Munitions Factory to participate in the wareffort and to earn her own income.

In late1944, Monroe met photographer David Conover, who had been sent by theU.S. Army Air Forces\' First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU) to the factoryto shoot morale-boosting pictures of female workers. Although none ofher pictures were used by the FMPU, she quit working at the factoryin January 1945 and began modeling for Conover and his friends. Shemoved out of her in-laws\' home, and defying them and her husband,signed a contract with the Blue Book Model Agency in August 1945. Shebegan to occasionally use the name Jean Norman when working, and hadher curly brunette hair straightened and dyed blond to make her moreemployable. As her figure was deemed more suitable for pin-up thanfashion modeling, she was employed mostly for advertisements andmen\'s magazines. According to the agency\'s owner, Emmeline Snively,Monroe was one of its most ambitious and hard-working models; byearly 1946, she had appeared on 33 magazine covers for publicationssuch as Pageant,U.S. Camera,Laff, andPeek.

Impressedby her success, Snively arranged a contract for Monroe with an actingagency in June 1946. After an unsuccessful interview with producersat Paramount Pictures, she was given a screentest by Ben Lyon, a 20thCentury-Fox executive. Head executive Darryl F. Zanuck wasunenthusiastic about it, but he was persuaded to give her a standardsix-month contract to avoid her being signed by rival studio RKOPictures. Monroe began her contract in August 1946, and together withLyon selected the screen name of \"Marilyn Monroe\". Thefirst name was picked by Lyon, who was reminded of Broadway starMarilyn Miller; the last was picked by Monroe after her mother\'smaiden name. In September 1946, she was granted a divorce fromDougherty, who was against her having a career.

Monroehad no film roles during the first months of her contract and insteaddedicated her days to acting, singing and dancing classes. Eager tolearn more about the film industry and to promote herself, she alsospent time at the studio lot to observe others working. Her contractwas renewed in February 1947, and she was soon given her first twofilm roles: nine lines of dialogue as a waitress in the dramaDangerous Years(1947) and a one-line appearance in the comedy ScuddaHoo! Scudda Hay! (1948). The studioalso enrolled her in the Actors\' Laboratory Theatre, an acting schoolteaching the techniques of the Group Theatre; she later stated thatit was \"my first taste of what real acting in a real drama couldbe, and I was hooked\". Monroe\'s contract was not renewed inAugust 1947, and she returned to modeling while also doing occasionalodd jobs at the studio.

Determinedto make it as an actor, Monroe continued studying at the Actors\' Lab,and in October appeared as a blonde vamp in the short-lived playGlamour Preferredat the Bliss-Hayden Theater, but the production was not reviewed byany major publication. To promote herself, she frequented producers\'offices, befriended gossip columnist Sidney Skolsky, and entertainedinfluential male guests at studio functions, a practice she had begunat Fox. She also became a friend and occasional sexual partner of Foxexecutive Joseph M. Schenck, who persuaded his friend Harry Cohn, thehead executive of Columbia Pictures, to sign her in March 1948.

While atFox her roles had been that of a \"girl next door\", atColumbia she was modeled after Rita Hayworth. Monroe\'s hairline wasraised by electrolysis and her hair was bleached even lighter, toplatinum blond. She also began working with the studio\'s head dramacoach, Natasha Lytess, who would remain her mentor until 1955. Heronly film at the studio was the low-budget musical Ladiesof the Chorus (1948), in which she hadher first starring role as a chorus girl who is courted by a wealthyman. During the production, she began an affair with her vocal coach,Fred Karger, who paid to have her slight overbite corrected. Despitethe starring role and a subsequent screen test for the lead role inBorn Yesterday(1950), Monroe\'s contract was not renewed. Ladiesof the Chorus was released in Octoberand was not a success.

Afterleaving Columbia in September 1948, Monroe became a protégée ofJohnny Hyde, vice president of the William Morris Agency. Hyde beganrepresenting her and their relationship soon became sexual, althoughshe refused his proposals of marriage. To advance Monroe\'s career, hepaid for a silicone prosthesis to be implanted in her jaw andpossibly for a rhinoplasty, and arranged a bit part in the MarxBrothers film Love Happy(1950). Monroe also continued modeling, and in May 1949 posed fornude photos taken by Tom Kelley. Although her role in LoveHappy was very small, she was chosen toparticipate in the film\'s promotional tour in New York that year.

Monroeappeared in six films released in 1950. She had bit parts in LoveHappy, ATicket to Tomahawk, RightCross and TheFireball, but also made minorappearances in two critically acclaimed films: John Huston\'s crimefilm The Asphalt Jungleand Joseph Mankiewicz\'s drama All AboutEve. In the former, Monroe playedAngela, the young mistress of an aging criminal. Although only on thescreen for five minutes, she gained a mention in Photoplayand according to Spoto \"moved effectively from movie model toserious actress\". In All About Eve,Monroe played Miss Caswell, a naïve young actress.

FollowingMonroe\'s success in these roles, Hyde negotiated a seven-yearcontract with 20th Century-Fox in December 1950. He died of a heartattack only days later, leaving her devastated. Despite her grief,1951 became the year in which she gained more visibility. In March,she was a presenter at the 23rd Academy Awards, and in September,Collier\'sbecame the first national magazine to publish a full-length profileof her. She had supporting roles in four low-budget films: in the MGMdrama Home Town Story,and in three moderately successful comedies for Fox, AsYoung as You Feel, LoveNest, and Let\'sMake It Legal. According to Spoto allfour films featured her \"essentially [as] a sexy ornament\",but she received some praise from critics: Bosley Crowther of TheNew York Times described her as\"superb\" in As Young As YouFeel and Ezra Goodman of the LosAngeles Daily News called her \"oneof the brightest up-and-coming [actresses]\" for LoveNest. To further develop her actingskills, Monroe began taking classes with Michael Chekhov. Herpopularity with audiences was also growing: she received severalthousand letters of fan mail a week, and was declared \"MissCheesecake of 1951\" by the army newspaper Starsand Stripes, reflecting the preferencesof soldiers in the Korean War. In her private life, Monroe was in arelationship with director Elia Kazan, and also briefly dated severalother men, including directors Nicholas Ray and Yul Brynner and actorPeter Lawford.

The secondyear of the Fox contract saw Monroe become a top-billed actress, withgossip columnist Florabel Muir naming her the year\'s \"it girl\"and Hedda Hopper describing her as the \"cheesecake queen\"turned \"box office smash\". In February, she was named the\"best young box office personality\" by the Foreign PressAssociation of Hollywood, and began a highly publicized romance withretired New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio, one of the most famous sportspersonalities of the era. The following month, a scandal broke whenshe revealed in an interview that she had posed for nude pictures in1949, which were featured in calendars. The studio had learned of thephotographs some weeks earlier, and to contain the potentiallydisastrous effects on her career, they and Monroe had decided to talkabout them openly while stressing that she had only posed for them ina dire financial situation. The strategy succeeded in getting herpublic sympathy and increased interest in her films: the followingmonth, she was featured on the cover of Lifeas \"The Talk of Hollywood\". Monroe added to her reputationas a new sex symbol with other publicity stunts that year, such aswearing a revealing dress when acting as Grand Marshal at the MissAmerica Pageant parade, and by stating to gossip columnist EarlWilson that she usually wore no underwear.

Monroeappeared in three commercially successful films in mid-1952. Thefirst was Fritz Lang\'s drama Clash byNight, for which she was loaned to RKOand featured in an atypical role as a fish cannery worker, allowingher to show more of her acting range. Monroe received positivereviews for her performance: TheHollywood Reporter stated that \"shedeserves starring status with her excellent interpretation\", andVarietywrote that she \"has an ease of delivery which makes her a cinchfor popularity\". She then starred as a beauty pageant contestantin the comedy We\'re Not Married!and as a mentally disturbed babysitter in the thriller Don\'tBother to Knock. According to itswriter Nunnally Johnson, the former role was created solely to\"present Marilyn in two bathing suits\" but the latter filmwas intended as a vehicle to show that she could act in heavierdramatic roles. It received mixed reviews from critics, with Crowtherdeeming her too inexperienced for the difficult role, and Varietyblaming the script for the film\'s problems. Monroe next played asecretary opposite Cary Grant in Howard Hawks\' screwball comedyMonkey Business.Released in October, it was one of the first films to feature her asa \"dumb, childish blonde, innocently unaware of the havoc hersexiness causes around her\", marking the beginning oftypecasting in her career. Monroe\'s final film of the year was O.Henry\'s Full House, in which she had aminor role as a prostitute.

During thisperiod Monroe gained a reputation for being difficult on film sets,which worsened as her career progressed: she was often late or didnot show up at all, did not remember her lines, and would demandseveral re-takes before she was satisfied with her performance. Adependence on her acting coaches, first Natasha Lytess and laterPaula Strasberg, also irritated directors. Monroe\'s problems havebeen attributed to a combination of perfectionism, low self-esteem,and stage fright; she disliked the lack of control she had on herwork on film sets, and never experienced similar problems duringphoto shoots, in which she had more say over her performance andcould be more spontaneous instead of following a script. Hergradually escalating use of barbiturates, amphetamines and alcohol,which most likely began during this period to aid with her anxietyand chronic insomnia, also exacerbated her problems. According toSarah Churchwell, some of Monroe\'s behavior especially later in hercareer was also in response to the condescension and sexism of hermale co-stars and directors. Similarly, Lois Banner has stated thatshe was bullied by many of her directors.

Monroestarred in three movies released in 1953, emerging as a major sexsymbol and one of Hollywood\'s most bankable performers. The first ofthese was the Technicolor film noir Niagara,in which she played a femme fatalescheming to murder her husband, played by Joseph Cotten. By then,Monroe and her make-up artist Allan \"Whitey\" Snyder haddeveloped the make-up look that became associated with her: darkarched brows, pale skin, \"glistening\" red lips and a beautymark. According to Sarah Churchwell, Niagarawas one of the most overtly sexual films of Monroe\'s career, and itincluded scenes in which her body was covered only by a sheet or atowel, considered shocking by contemporary audiences. Its most famousscene is a 30-second long shot of Monroe shown walking from behindwith her hips swaying, which was heavily used in the in January, women\'s clubs protested against it as immoral,but it proved popular with audiences, grossing $6 million in the boxoffice. While Varietydeemed it \"clichéd\" and \"moroffer\", TheNew York Times commented that \"thefalls and Miss Monroe are something to see\", as although Monroemay not be \"the perfect actress at this point ... she can beseductive– even when she walks\". Monroe continued toattract attention with her revealing outfits in publicity events,most famously at the Photoplayawards in January 1953, where she won the \"Fastest Rising Star\"award. She wore a skin-tight gold lamé dress, which prompted veteranstar Joan Crawford to describe her behaviour as \"unbecoming anactress and a lady\" to the press.

WhileNiagaramade Monroe a sex symbol and established her \"look\", hersecond film of the year, the satirical musical comedy GentlemenPrefer Blondes, established her starimage as a \"dumb blonde\". Based on Anita Loos\' bestsellingnovel and its Broadway version, the film focuses on two\"gold-digging\" showgirls, Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw,played by Monroe and Jane Russell. The role of Lorelei was originallyintended for Betty Grable, who had been 20th Century-Fox\'s mostpopular \"blonde bombshell\" in the 1940s; Monroe was fasteclipsing her as a star who could appeal to both male and femaleaudiences. As part of the film\'s publicity campaign, she and Russellpressed their hand and footprints in wet concrete outside Grauman\'sChinese Theatre in June. GentlemenPrefer Blondes was released shortlyafter and became one of the biggest box office successes of the yearby grossing $5.3 million, more than double its production costs.Crowther of The New York Timesand William Brogdon of Varietyboth commented favourably on Monroe, especially noting herperformance of \"Diamonds Are a Girl\'s Best Friend\";according to the latter, she demonstrated the \"ability to sex asong as well as point up the eye values of a scene by her presence\".

InSeptember, Monroe made her television debut in the JackBenny Show, playing Jack\'s fantasywoman in the episode \"Honolulu Trip\". Her third movie ofthe year, How to Marry a Millionaire,co-starred Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall and was released inNovember. It featured Monroe in the role of a naïve model who teamsup with her friends to find rich husbands, repeating the successfulformula of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.It was the second film ever released in CinemaScope, a widescreenformat which Fox hoped would draw audiences back to theaters astelevision was beginning to cause losses to film studios. Despitemixed reviews, the film was Monroe\'s biggest box office success sofar, earning $8 million in world rentals.

Monroewas listed in the annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll in both 1953and 1954, and according to Fox historian Aubrey Solomon became thestudio\'s \"greatest asset\" alongside CinemaScope. Monroe\'sposition as a leading sex symbol was confirmed in December, when HughHefner featured her on the cover and as centerfold in the first issueof Playboy.The cover image was a shot of her at the Miss America Pageant paradein 1952, and the centerfold featured one of her 1949 nudephotographs.

AlthoughMonroe had become one of 20th Century-Fox\'s biggest stars, hercontract had not changed since 1950, meaning that she was paid farless than other stars of her stature and could not choose herprojects or co-workers. She was also tired of being typecast, and herattempts to appear in films other than comedies or musicals had beenthwarted by Zanuck, who had a strong personal dislike of her and didnot think she would earn the studio as much revenue in dramas. Whenshe refused to begin shooting yet another musical comedy, a filmversion of The Girl in Pink Tights,which was to co-star Frank Sinatra, the studio suspended her onJanuary 4, 1954.

Thesuspension was front page news and Monroe immediately began apublicity campaign to counter any negative press and to strengthenher position in the conflict. On January 14, she and Joe DiMaggio,whose relationship had been subject to constant media attention since1952, were married at the San Francisco City Hall. They then traveledto Japan, combining a honeymoon with his business trip. From there,she traveled alone to Korea, where she performed songs from her filmsas part of a USO show for over 60,000 U.S. Marines over a four-dayperiod. After returning to Hollywood in February, she was awardedPhotoplay\'s\"Most Popular Female Star\" prize. She reached a settlementwith the studio in March: it included a new contract to be made laterin the year, and a starring role in the film version of the Broadwayplay The Seven Year Itch,for which she was to receive a bonus of $100,000.

Thefollowing month saw the release of Otto Preminger\'s Western Riverof No Return, in which Monroe appearedopposite Robert Mitchum. She called it a \"Z-grade cowboy moviein which the acting finished second to the scenery and theCinemaScope process\", although it was popular with audiences.The first film she made after returning to Fox was the musicalThere\'s No Business Like Show Business,which she strongly disliked but the studio required her to do inexchange for dropping The Girl in PinkTights. The musical was unsuccessfulupon its release in December, and Monroe\'s performance was consideredvulgar by many critics.

InSeptember 1954, Monroe began filming Billy Wilder\'s comedy TheSeven Year Itch, in which she starredopposite Tom Ewell as a woman who becomes the object of her marriedneighbor\'s sexual fantasies. Although the film was shot in Hollywood,the studio decided to generate advance publicity by staging thefilming of one scene on Lexington Avenue in New York. In it, Monroeis standing on a subway grate with the air blowing up the skirt ofher white dress, which became one of the most famous scenes of hercareer. The shoot lasted for several hours and attracted a crowd ofnearly 2,000 spectators, including professional photographers.

Whilethe publicity stunt placed Monroe on front pages all over the world,it also marked the end of her marriage to DiMaggio, who was furiousabout it. The union had been troubled from the start by his jealousyand controlling attitude; Spoto and Banner have also asserted that hewas physically abusive. After returning to Hollywood, Monroe hiredfamous attorney Jerry Giesler and announced that she was filing fordivorce in October 1954. The Seven YearItch was released the following June,and grossed over $4.5 million at the box office, making it one of thebiggest commercial successes that year.

Afterfilming for Itchwrapped in November, Monroe began a new battle for control over hercareer and left Hollywood for the East Coast, where she andphotographer Milton Greene founded their own production company,Marilyn Monroe Productions (MMP) – an action that has later beencalled \"instrumental\" in the collapse of the studio system.Announcing its foundation in a press conference in January 1955,Monroe stated that she was \"tired of the same old sex roles. Iwant to do better things. People have scope, you know.\" Sheasserted that she was no longer under contract to Fox, as the studiohad not fulfilled its duties, such as paying her the promised bonusfor The Seven Year Itch.This began a year-long legal battle between her and the studio. Thepress largely ridiculed Monroe for her actions and she was parodiedin Itchwriter George Axelrod\'s Will SuccessSpoil Rock Hunter? (1955), in which herlookalike Jayne Mansfield played a dumb actress who starts her ownproduction company.

Monroededicated 1955 to studying her craft. She moved to New York and begantaking acting classes with Constance Collier and attending workshopson method acting at the Actors Studio, run by Lee Strasberg. She grewclose to Strasberg and his wife Paula, receiving private lessons attheir home due to her shyness, and soon became like a family member.She dismissed her old drama coach, Natasha Lytess, and replaced herwith Paula; the Strasbergs remained an important influence for therest of her career. Monroe also started undergoing psychoanalysis atthe recommendation of Strasberg, who believed that an actor mustconfront their emotional traumas and use them in their performances.

Toremain in the public eye, Monroe arranged publicity for herselfthroughout the year. In her private life, she continued herrelationship with DiMaggio despite the ongoing divorce proceedingswhile also dating actor Marlon Brando and playwright Arthur Miller.She had first been introduced to Miller by Kazan in the early 1950s.The affair between Monroe and Miller became increasingly seriousafter October 1955, when her divorce from DiMaggio was finalized, andMiller separated from his wife. The studio feared that Monroe wouldbe blacklisted and urged her to end the affair, as Miller was beinginvestigated by the FBI for allegations of communism and had beensubpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. The FBIalso opened a file on her. Despite the risk to her career, Monroerefused to end the relationship, later calling the studio heads \"borncowards\".

By theend of the year, Monroe and Fox had come to an agreement about a newseven-year contract. It was clear that MMP would not be able tofinance films alone, and the studio was eager to have Monroe workingagain. The contract required her to make four movies for Fox duringthe seven years. The studio would pay her $100,000 for each movie,and granted her the right to choose her own projects, directors andcinematographers. She would also be free to make one film with MMPper each completed film for Fox.

Monroebegan 1956 by announcing her win over 20th Century-Fox; the press,which had previously derided her, now wrote favourably about herdecision to fight the studio. Timecalled her a \"shrewd businesswoman\" and Lookpredicted that the win would be \"an example of the individualagainst the herd for years to come\". She also officially changedher name to Marilyn Monroe in March. Her relationship with Millerprompted some negative comments from the press, including WalterWinchell\'s statement that \"America\'s best-known blonde movingpicture star is now the darling of the left-wing intelligentsia.\"Monroe and Miller were married at the Westchester County Court inWhite Plains, New York on June 29, and two days later had a Jewishceremony at his agent\'s house near Katonah, New York. Monroeconverted to Judaism with the marriage, which led Egypt to ban all ofher films. The media saw the union as mismatched given her star imageas a \"dumb blonde\" and his position as an intellectual, asdemonstrated by Variety\'sheadline \"Egghead Weds Hourglass\".

Thefirst film that Monroe chose to make under the new contract was thedrama Bus Stop,released in August 1956. She played Chérie, a saloon singer whosedreams of stardom are complicated by a naïve cowboy who falls inlove with her. For the role, she learnt an Ozark accent, chosecostumes and make-up that lacked the glamour of her earlier films,and provided deliberately mediocre singing and dancing. Broadwaydirector Joshua Logan agreed to direct, despite initially doubtingher acting abilities and knowing of her reputation for beingdifficult. The filming took place in Idaho and Arizona in early 1956,with Monroe \"technically in charge\" as the head of MMP,occasionally making decisions on cinematography and with Loganadapting to her chronic lateness and perfectionism. The experiencechanged Logan\'s opinion of Monroe, and he later compared her toCharlie Chaplin in her ability to blend comedy and tragedy. BusStop became a box office success,grossing $4.25 million, and received mainly favourable reviews. TheSaturday Review of Literature wrotethat Monroe\'s performance \"effectively dispels once and for allthe notion that she is merely a glamour personality\" andCrowther proclaimed: \"Hold on to your chairs, everybody, and getset for a rattling surprise. Marilyn Monroe has finally provedherself an actress.\" She received a Golden Globe for BestActress nomination for her performance.

InAugust 1956, Monroe began filming MMP\'s first independent production,The Prince and the Showgirl,at Pinewood Studios in England. It was based on Terence Rattigan\'sThe Sleeping Prince,a play about an affair between a showgirl and a prince in the 1910s.The main roles had first been played on stage by Laurence Olivier andVivien Leigh; he reprised his role and directed and co-produced thefilm. The production was complicated by conflicts between him andMonroe. He angered her with the patronizing statement \"All youhave to do is be sexy\", and by wanting her to replicate Leigh\'sinterpretation. He also disliked the constant presence of PaulaStrasberg, Monroe\'s acting coach, on set.

Inretaliation to what she considered Olivier\'s \"condescending\"behavior, Monroe started arriving late and became uncooperative,stating later that \"if you don\'t respect your artists, theycan\'t work well.\" Her drug use increased and, according toSpoto, she became pregnant and miscarried during the production. Shealso had arguments with Greene over how MMP should be run, includingwhether Miller should join the company. Despite the difficulties, thefilm was completed on schedule by the end of the year. It wasreleased in June 1957 to mixed reviews, and proved unpopular withAmerican audiences. It was better received in Europe, where she wasawarded the Italian David di Donatello and the French Crystal Starawards, and was nominated for a BAFTA.

Afterreturning to the United States, Monroe took an 18-month hiatus fromwork to concentrate on married life on the East Coast. She and Millersplit their time between their apartment in New York and aneighteenth-century farmhouse they purchased in Roxbury, Connecticut,and spent the summer in Amagansett, Long Island. She became pregnantin mid-1957, but it was ectopic and had to be terminated. Shesuffered a miscarriage a year later. Her gynaecological problems werelargely caused by endometriosis, a disease from which she sufferedthroughout her adult life. Monroe was also briefly hospitalizedduring this time due to a barbiturate overdose. During the hiatus,she dismissed Greene from MMP and bought his share of the company asthey could not settle their disagreements and she had begun tosuspect that he was embezzling money from the company.

Monroereturned to Hollywood in July 1958 to act opposite Jack Lemmon andTony Curtis in Billy Wilder\'s comedy on gender roles, SomeLike It Hot. Although she consideredthe role of Sugar Kane another \"dumb blonde\", she acceptedit due to Miller\'s encouragement and the offer of receiving tenpercent of the film\'s profits in addition to her standard pay. Thedifficulties of the film\'s production have since become \"legendary\".Monroe would demand dozens of re-takes, and could not remember herlines or act as directed – Curtis famously stated that kissing herwas \"like kissing Hitler\" due to the number of re-takes.Monroe herself privately likened the production to a sinking ship andcommented on her co-stars and director saying \"[but] why shouldI worry, I have no phallic symbol to lose.\" Many of the problemsstemmed from a conflict between her and Wilder, who also had areputation for being difficult, on how she should play the character.Monroe made Wilder angry by asking him to alter many of her scenes,which in turn made her stage fright worse, and it is suggested thatshe deliberately ruined several scenes to act them her way.

In theend, Wilder was happy with Monroe\'s performance, stating: \"Anyonecan remember lines, but it takes a real artist to come on the set andnot know her lines and yet give the performance she did!\"Despite the difficulties of its production, when SomeLike It Hot was released in March 1959,it became a critical and commercial success. Monroe\'s performanceearned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress, and prompted Varietyto call her \"a comedienne with that combination of sex appealand timing that just can\'t be beat\". It has been voted one ofthe best films ever made in polls by the American Film Institute andSight & Sound.

After SomeLike It Hot, Monroe took another hiatusfrom working until late 1959, when she returned to Hollywood to starin the musical comedy Let\'s Make Love,about an actress and a millionaire who fall in love when performingin a satirical play. She chose George Cukor to direct and Millerre-wrote portions of the script, which she considered weak; sheaccepted the part solely because she was behind on her contract withFox, having only made one of four promised films. Its production wasdelayed by her frequent absences from set. She had an affair withYves Montand, her co-star, which was widely reported by the press andused in the film\'s publicity campaign. Let\'sMake Love was unsuccessful upon itsrelease in September 1960; Crowther described Monroe as appearing\"rather untidy\" and \"lacking ... the old Monroedynamism\", and Hedda Hopper called the film \"the mostvulgar picture she\'s ever done\". Truman Capote lobbied for herto play Holly Golightly in a film adaptation of Breakfastat Tiffany\'s, but the role went toAudrey Hepburn as its producers feared that Monroe would complicatethe production.

Thelast film that Monroe completed was John Huston\'s TheMisfits, which Miller had written toprovide her with a dramatic role. She played a recently divorcedwoman who becomes friends with three aging cowboys, played by ClarkGable, Eli Wallach and Montgomery Clift. Its filming in the Nevadadesert between July and November 1960 was again difficult. Monroe andMiller\'s four-year marriage was effectively over, and he began a newrelationship. Monroe disliked that he had based her role partly onher life, and thought it inferior to the male roles; she alsostruggled with Miller\'s habit of re-writing scenes the night beforefilming. Her health was also failing: she was in pain fromgallstones, and her drug addiction was so severe that her make-upusually had to be applied while she was still asleep under theinfluence of barbiturates. In August, filming was halted for her tospend a week detoxing in a Los Angeles hospital. Monroe and Millerseparated after filming wrapped, and she was granted a quick divorcein Mexico in January 1961. The Misfitswas released the following month, failing at the box office. Itsreviews were mixed, with Bosley Crowther calling Monroe \"completelyblank and unfathomable\" and stating that \"unfortunately forthe film\'s structure, everything turns upon her\". Despite thefilm\'s initial failure, in 2015 Geoff Andrew of the British FilmInstitute described it as a classic.

Monroe wasnext to star in a television adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham\'sshort story Rainfor NBC, but the project fell through as the network did not want tohire her choice of director, Lee Strasberg. Instead of working, shespent a large part of 1961 preoccupied by health problems, undergoingsurgery for her endometriosis and a cholecystectomy, and spendingfour weeks in hospital care – including a brief stint in a mentalward – for depression. She was helped by her ex-husband JoeDiMaggio, with whom she had not been in contact since thefinalization of their divorce in 1955; they now rekindled theirfriendship. In early 1961, Monroe moved back to California after sixyears on the East Coast. She began a relationship with Frank Sinatra,and in early 1962 purchased a house in Brentwood, Los Angeles.

MarilynMonroe returned to the public eyein 1962; she received a \"World Film Favorite\" Golden Globeaward in March and began to shoot a new film for 20th Century-Fox,Something\'s Got to Give,a re-make of My Favorite Wife(1940), in late April. It was to be co-produced by MMP, directed byGeorge Cukor and to co-star Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse. Monroe wasabsent for the first two weeks of filming due to the flu; biographershave also attributed her absence to sinusitis or her ongoing drugaddiction. On May 19, she took a break from filming to sing \"HappyBirthday\" on stage at President John F. Kennedy\'s birthdaycelebration at Madison Square Garden in New York. She drew attentionwith her costume: a beige, skintight dress covered in rhinestones,which made her appear nude. Banner, Spoto, Summers, Barbara Leaming,and Fred Lawrence Guiles agree that she had an affair with Kennedy atsome point in the last two years of her life, although they disagreeon its length and timing.

Monroenext filmed a scene for Something\'s Gotto Give in which she swam naked in aswimming pool. To generate advance publicity, the press were invitedto take photographs of the scene, which were later published in Life;this was the first time that a major star had posed nude while at theheight of their career. When she was again absent from set forseveral days, the studio fired her on June 7 and sued her for breachof contract, demanding $750,000 in damages. She was replaced by LeeRemick, but after Martin refused to make the film with anyone otherthan Monroe, Fox sued him as well and shut down the production.

Thestudio publicly blamed Monroe\'s drug addiction and alleged lack ofprofessionalism for the demise of the film, even claiming that shewas mentally disturbed. The film\'s producer Henry Weinstein laterstated that her dismissal was not solely due to her behaviour, butwas also linked to the studio\'s severe financial problems and theinexperience of its new head executive Peter Levathes. To defendherself, Monroe engaged in several publicity ventures that summer,including interviews for Lifeand Cosmopolitanand her first photo shoot for Vogue.For Vogue,she and photographer Bert Stern collaborated for two series ofphotographs, one a standard fashion editorial and another of herposing nude, which were both later published posthumously with thetitle The Last Sitting.Only weeks after Monroe\'s dismissal from Something\'sGot to Give, Darryl F. Zanuck returnedto replace Levathes as the head executive of the studio, andsubsequently began negotiations with her on continuing the productionand for starring in the black comedy Whata Way to Go! (1964). In the last weeksof her life, she was also planning on starring in a biopic of JeanHarlow.

Monroewas found dead in the bedroom of her Brentwood home by herpsychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, in the early morning hours ofAugust 5, 1962. Greenson had been called there by her housekeeperEunice Murray, who was staying overnight and had awoken at 3:00a.m.\"sensing that something was wrong\". Murray had seen lightfrom under Monroe\'s bedroom door, but had not been able to get aresponse and found the door locked. The death was officiallyconfirmed by Monroe\'s physician, Dr. Hyman Engelberg, who arrived atthe house at around 3:50a.m. At 4:25a.m., they notifiedthe Los Angeles Police Department.

The LosAngeles County Coroners Office was assisted in their investigation byexperts from the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Team. It wasestimated that Monroe had died between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., and thetoxicological analysis concluded that the cause of death was acutebarbiturate poisoning, as she had 8 mg% of chloral hydrate and 4.5mg% of pentobarbital (Nembutal) in her blood, and a further 13 mg% ofpentobarbital in her liver. Empty bottles containing these medicineswere found next to her bed. The possibility of Monroe havingaccidentally overdosed was ruled out as the dosages found in her bodywere several times over the lethal limit. Her doctors andpsychiatrists stated that she had been prone to \"severe fearsand frequent depressions\" with \"abrupt and unpredictable\"mood changes, and had overdosed several times in the past, possiblyintentionally. Due to these facts and the lack of any indication offoul play, her death was classified a probable suicide.

Monroe\'sunexpected death was front-page news in the United States and Europe.According to Lois Banner, \"it\'s said that the suicide rate inLos Angeles doubled the month after she died; the circulation rate ofmost newspapers expanded that month\", and the ChicagoTribune reported that they had receivedhundreds of phone calls from members of the public requestinginformation about her death. French artist Jean Cocteau commentedthat her death \"should serve as a terrible lesson to all those,whose chief occupation consists of spying on and tormenting filmstars\", her former co-star Laurence Olivier deemed her \"thecomplete victim of ballyhoo and sensation\", and BusStop director Joshua Logan stated thatshe was \"one of the most unappreciated people in the world\".Her funeral, held at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery onAugust 8, was private and attended by only her closest associates. Itwas arranged by Joe DiMaggio and her business manager Inez Melson.Hundreds of spectators crowded the streets around the cemetery.Monroe was later interred at crypt No. 24 at the Corridor ofMemories.

Severalconspiracy theories about Monroe\'s death have been proposed in thedecades afterwards, including murder and accidental overdose. Themurder speculations first gained mainstream attention with thepublication of Norman Mailer\'s Marilyn:A Biography in 1973, and in thefollowing years became widespread enough for the Los Angeles CountyDistrict Attorney John Van de Kamp to conduct a \"thresholdinvestigation\" in 1982 to see whether a criminal investigationshould be opened. No evidence of foul play was found.

Whenbeginning to develop her star image, 20th Century-Fox wanted Monroeto replace the aging Betty Grable, their most popular \"blondebombshell\" of the 1940s. While the 1940s had been the heyday ofactresses perceived as tough and smart, such as Katharine Hepburn andBarbara Stanwyck, who appealed to women-dominated audiences, thestudio wanted Monroe to be a star of the new decade that would drawmen to movie theaters. She played a significant part in the creationof her public image from the beginning, and towards the end of hercareer exerted almost full control over it. Monroe was responsiblefor many of her publicity strategies, cultivated friendships withgossip columnists such as Sidney Skolsky and Louella Parsons, andcontrolled the use of her images. Besides Grable, she was oftencompared to another iconic blonde, 1930s film star Jean Harlow. Thecomparison was partly prompted by Monroe, who named Harlow as herchildhood idol, wanted to play her in a biopic, and even employedHarlow\'s hair stylist to colour her hair.

Monroe\'sstar image centred on her blond hair, and the stereotypes associatedwith it, especially dumbness, sexual availability and artificiality.Having begun her career as a pin-up model, this style carried over toher films, and she became noted for her hourglass figure. Filmscholar Richard Dyer has noted that Monroe was often positioned sothat her curvy silhouette was on display, and in her publicity photosoften posed like a pin-up. Her distinctive, hip-swinging walk alsodrew attention to her body, earning her the nickname \"the girlwith the horizontal walk\". Monroe\'s clothing choices played animportant part in her star image. She often wore white to emphasizeher blondness, and drew attention by wearing revealing outfits thatshowed off her figure. Her publicity stunts often revolved around herclothing exposing large amounts of her body or even malfunctioning,such as when one of the shoulder straps of her dress suddenly snappedduring a press conference. In press stories, she was portrayed as theembodiment of the American Dream, as a girl who had risen from amiserable childhood to Hollywood stardom. Stories of her time spentin foster families and an orphanage were exaggerated and even partlyfabricated in her studio biographies. According to film scholarThomas Harris, her working class roots and lack of family also madeher appear more sexually available, \"the ideal playmate\",in contrast to her contemporary Grace Kelly, who was also marketed asan attractive blonde, but due to her upper-class background came tobe seen as a sophisticated actress, unattainable for the majority ofmale viewers.

Monroewas influenced by Mae West, stating that she \"learned a fewtricks from her – that impression of laughing at, or mocking, herown sexuality\"; Lois Banner has noted that in many of her comicroles, Monroe similarly satirized her status as a sex symbol. Toemphasize her \"innocence\" and \"dumbness\", Monroeoften used a breathy, childish voice in her films, and in interviewsparodied herself with double entendres that came to be known as\"Monroeisms\". For example, when she was asked whether shehad anything on during the 1949 nude photo shoot, she replied, \"Ihad the radio on\".

Accordingto Dyer, Monroe became \"virtually a household name for sex\"in the 1950s and \"her image has to be situated in the flux ofideas about morality and sexuality that characterised the fifties inAmerica\", such as Freudian ideas about sex, the Kinsey report(1953), and Betty Friedan\'s The FeminineMystique (1963). According to him,Monroe\'s star image was created mainly for the male gaze ascharacterized in film roles where she generally played \"thegirl\", who is defined solely by her gender. Her roles werealmost always chorus girls, secretaries, or models; occupations where\"the woman is on show, there for the pleasure of men.\" Dyeralso sees Monroe as the first sex symbol to combine \"naturalness\"and sexuality, in contrast to the 1940s femmefatales. This alleged artlessness andlack of shame about her sexuality was closely linked to her image asa dumb and vulnerable woman. According to Norman Mailer, \"Marilynsuggested sex might be difficult and dangerous with others, but icecream with her.\" Similarly, Molly Haskell has written that \"shewas the fifties fiction, the lie that a woman had no sexual needs,that she is there to cater to, or enhance, a man\'s needs.\" Shehas also stated that before her death, Monroe was less popular withwomen than with men, as they \"couldn\'t identify with her anddidn\'t support her\".

Theimportance of blondness to Monroe\'s star image has also been analyzedby film historians. Dyer has argued that platinum blonde hair becamesuch a defining feature of her because it made her \"raciallyunambiguous\" and exclusively white, and that she should be seenas emblematic of racism in twentieth-century popular culture. LoisBanner agrees that it may not be a coincidence that Monroe launched atrend of platinum blonde actresses at the same time as the CivilRights Movement was beginning, but has also criticized Dyer, pointingout that in her highly publicized private life Monroe associated withpeople who were seen as \"white ethnics\", such as JoeDiMaggio (Italian-American) and Arthur Miller (Jewish). According toBanner, she sometimes challenged prevailing racial norms in herpublicity photographs; for example, in an image featured in Lookin 1951, she was shown in revealing clothes while practicing withAfrican-American singing coach Phil Moore.

As wellas being a sex symbol, Monroe was perceived as a specificallyAmerican star, \"a national institution as well known as hotdogs, apple pie, or baseball\" according to Photoplay.Historian Fiona Handyside writes that the French female audiencesassociated whiteness/blondness with American modernity andcleanliness, and so Monroe came to symbolize a modern, \"liberated\"woman whose life takes place in the public sphere. Film historianLaura Mulvey has written of her as an endorsement for Americanconsumer culture:

Toprofit from Monroe\'s popularity, 20th Century-Fox cultivated severallookalike actresses, including Jayne Mansfield and Sheree North.Other studios also attempted to create their own Monroes: UniversalPictures with Mamie Van Doren, Columbia Pictures with Kim Novak, andRank Organisation with Diana Dors.

Accordingto The Guide to United States PopularCulture, \"as an icon of Americanpopular culture, Monroe\'s few rivals in popularity include ElvisPresley and Mickey Mouse... no other star has ever inspiredsuch a wide range of emotions– from lust to pity, from envyto remorse.\" The American Film Institute has named her the sixthgreatest female screen legend in American film history, SmithsonianInstitution included her on their list of \"100 Most SignificantAmericans of All Time\", and both Varietyand VH1 have placed her in the top ten in their rankings of thegreatest popular culture icons of the twentieth century. Hundreds ofbooks have been written about Monroe, she has been the subject offilms, plays, operas, and songs, and has influenced artists andentertainers such as Andy Warhol and Madonna. She also remains avaluable brand: her image and name have been licensed for hundreds ofproducts, and she has been featured in advertising for multinationalcorporations such as Max Factor, Chanel, Mercedes-Benz, and AbsolutVodka.

Monroe\'senduring popularity is linked to her conflicted public image. On theone hand, she remains a sex symbol, beauty icon and one of the mostfamous stars of classical Hollywood cinema. On the other, she is alsoremembered for her troubled private life, unstable childhood,struggle for professional respect, and her death and the conspiracytheories surrounding it. She has been written about by scholars andjournalists interested in gender and feminism, such as GloriaSteinem, Jacqueline Rose, Molly Haskell, Sarah Churchwell, and LoisBanner. Some, such as Steinem, have viewed her as a victim of thestudio system. Others, such as Haskell, Rose, and Churchwell, haveinstead stressed Monroe\'s proactive role in her career and herparticipation in the creation of her public persona.

Due tothe contrast between her stardom and troubled private life, Monroe isclosely linked to broader discussions about modern phenomena such asmass media, fame, and consumer culture. According to academic SusanneHamscha, because of her continued relevance to ongoing discussionsabout modern society, Monroe is \"never completely situated inone time or place\" but has become \"a surface on whichnarratives of American culture can be (re-)constructed\", and\"functions as a cultural type that can be reproduced,transformed, translated into new contexts, and enacted by otherpeople\". Similarly, Banner has called Monroe the \"eternalshapeshifter\" who is re-created by \"each generation, eveneach individual... to their own specifications\".

WhileMonroe remains a cultural icon, critics are divided on her legacy asan actress. David Thomson called her body of work \"insubstantial\"and Pauline Kael wrote that she could not act, but rather \"usedher lack of an actress\'s skills to amuse the public. She had the witor crassness or desperation to turn cheesecake into acting – andvice versa; she did what others had the \'good taste\' not to do\".In contrast, according to Peter Bradshaw, Monroe was a talentedcomedian who \"understood how comedy achieved its effects\",and Jonathan Rosenbaum stated that \"she subtly subverted thesexist content of her material\" and that \"the difficultysome people have discerning Monroe\'s intelligence as an actress seemsrooted in the ideology of a repressive era, when superfeminine womenweren\'t supposed to be smart\".

• Dangerous Years (1947) //

• Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948) //

• Ladies of the Chorus (1948) //

• Love Happy (1949) //

• A Ticket to Tomahawk (1950) //

• The Asphalt Jungle (1950) //

• All About Eve (1950) //

• The Fireball (1950) //

• Right Cross (1951) //

• Home Town Story (1951) //

• As Young as You Feel (1951) //

• Love Nest (1951) //

• Let\'s Make It Legal (1951) //

• Clash by Night (1952) //

• We\'re Not Married! (1952) //

• Don\'t Bother to Knock (1952) //

• Monkey Business (1952) //

• O. Henry\'s Full House (1952) //

• Niagara (1953) //

• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) //

• How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) //

• River of No Return (1954) //

• There\'s No Business Like Show Business (1954) //

• The Seven Year Itch (1955) //

• Bus Stop (1956) //

• The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) //

• Some Like It Hot (1959) //

• Let\'s Make Love (1960) //

• The Misfits (1961) //

• Something\'s Got to Give (1962)

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