Marylin Monroe
I initially cited Marylin Monroe in “The US President Election in Perspective”, partly because she is such an icon of America, Hollywood and films, still today one of the brightest stars in the film firmament long after her death, and also because I have enjoyed many of her films, so she easily came to mind.
I could have chosen to mention Elizabeth Taylor, famous for Cleopatra and getting married seven times, twice to Richard Burton. My mother met Marylin when she was an early teen at The Hollywood School in 1947. Before she got married, mum had gone from Scotland on exchange teaching for a year in Los Angeles. The women’s institute that she had joined and helped with Scottish country dancing and other aspects of the culture asked her if they could do anything for her, just state the wish as a parting gift. She said she’d like to go to Hollywood. No problem, it was arranged, and she enjoyed seeing the young stars of the day in the school in Hollywood (they couldn’t lead normal lives back then). The kids were asked to sign small pieces of yellow paper and put the titles of their films. I still have them all, among them Elizabeth Taylor, who at 14 had starred in “National Velvet”. My mother said she was the most beautiful child she had ever seen.
Marylin Monroe would not have been there then because she was too old at 21. Elizabeth Taylor listed only the one film on her paper but another actor, Dean Stockwell listed half a dozen. Marylin Monroe was in films for only about 15 years but she was a shining star, and many of her films were huge earners, such was her attraction. One of my favourite Marylin films is “Some Like it Hot”, also starring Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. She didn’t like her “dumb blonde” role in this but executed it brilliantly as a perfect part in a fine comedy, which has become a classic. Another one was “The Seven-Year Itch”, with the famous image of Monroe standing over a windy subway grate in the pavement, blowing up her wide white pleated dress, attracting a big group of men all around. Strangely, she was probably bedevilled by her stunning blonde looks, masking her acting, because in truth she was very talented as stated by the great director, John Huston when making her last film, “The Misfits”: “She was not pretending emotion – it was the real thing, going deep within and bringing it into consciousness.”
Marylin Monroe died in August, 1962, and I can remember being shocked at her demise, reportedly suicide, so young, only 36. A big part of the memory was being on a camping holiday in France with my parents, and seeing a newspaper in a stand outside a shop with the headline: “Marylin Morte”. I am sure that President Kennedy attended the funeral. I can easily hear Marylin’s distinctive voice singing Happy Birthday to President Kennedy. I doubt very much if she would have performed the same loving tribute to the present president as at May, 2020.