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Marilyn Monroe – Forever
a Legend
Marilyn Monroe was a huge icon, sex symbol and star, not only
in the 1950’s when her career was in full force, but ever since. She
is known for her beauty, femininity, fragileness and tragic death.
She was born Norma Jean Mortensen on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles,
California in a ward for unwanted babies. Marilyn’s life started out
tragic and ended tragic as well. Her birth name was Norma Jean
Mortensen but her grandmother baptized her as Norma Jean Baker after
Marilyn’s mother’s name, Gladys Pearl Monroe Baker Ely.
There had been some confusion as to who was Marilyn’s real
father. Some sources say it was Charles Gifford, a salesman at the
studio where Marilyn’s mother worked, and other sources say it was
Martin Mortensen. Marilyn’s grandmother was unable to persuade
Gladys to take care of her child, perhaps because Gladys could
barely take care of herself, prone to having mental problems Gladys
was known to be a very mentally unstable person.
Marilyn was put up for adoption and placed in a foster home
with foster parents, Albert and Ida Bolender. Marilyn believed the
Bolenders were her real parents until one day during one of her
mother’s weekend visits she was told they weren’t in a rather rude
and abrupt manner by Gladys. Gladys showed absolutely no affection
toward Marilyn when she visited her but at some point decided to
take Marilyn back home with her.
However that reunion was short-lived, shortly after Marilyn
moved in with her mother Gladys had a mental breakdown and had to be
forcefully removed from the house and taken to a state mental
institution. According to sources this seemed to run in the family,
Gladys’s mother also died in the same mental hospital and her
father, whose mental illness was due to syphilis, had died in
another mental hospital. It’s easy to see how mentally fragile
Marilyn could and did become with her mother and both maternal
grandparents suffering from mental illnesses.
After the incident, Marilyn became an orphan and her mother’s
best friend, Grace McKee Goddard, became her guardian. In 1941, she
was reunited with her mother (though she didn’t live with her) but
continued living with the Goddard family until they decided to move
and felt Marilyn would be better off getting married instead of
going to another foster home.
Marilyn was 15 years old at the time. After she turned 16 she
married a neighbor’s son, James Dougherty, who eventually joined the
Army and went off to fight in World War II. Her rise to stardom
began when Marilyn got the opportunity to model for a number of
magazines for an Army photographer who was searching for models on
the army base where Marilyn lived.
In 1946, a talent scout noticed her pictures and arranged a
screen test at 20th Century Fox she was accepted and given a
contract to start working as an actress. Her name was changed to
Marilyn Monroe and at 21 years old she began her career as an
actress.
After learning all the ins and outs of the movie industry,
Marilyn’s career got off to a slow start she would star in a number
of unsuccessful movies until her role in the 1951 movie, Niagara
that helped her become an overnight success. However, most of the
focus was on Marilyn’s physical features. In due time, nude photos
surfaced and fearing that it may ruin her career, Marilyn decided to
acknowledge that the photos were photos of her.
The strategy worked and her stardom increased significantly,
she became one of the biggest sex symbols of the 1950’s. Marilyn
would eventually try to focus on more serious roles instead of
playing the dumb blonde roles.
However, the demands of being a famous actress, sex symbol
(with many focusing only on her looks and not her acting), along
with her very public marriages and divorces were taking a
devastating toll on Marilyn. Unable to find or keep a husband,
although Joe DiMaggio probably was the closet friend she had,
Marilyn became overwhelmed with stardom and lonely. She started
showing up late or not at all for film rehearsals, not to mention
her public affairs with at least one of the Kennedy brothers. Her
fragility started to show and bear heavily on her.
On August 5, 1962 Marilyn was found dead in her home of an
apparent suicide by drug overdose, she was only 36 years old. Since
then there have been a number of conspiracy theories about her death
with some going as far as to implement John and Robert Kennedy in
her untimely death. Her legend has lasted longer than her life and
she has remained one of the most popular stars in history.
by Erika Cox
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