Further to last night’s post on the Marilyn Monroe/shrink transcripts published by the LATimes…. No, I do not know if they are real, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they were, because I will now write something that, on first glance, may seem yet more incredible: I am typing these words from the very spot where Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe slept for most of their brief marrige. Yes, my office was once their bedroom and my desk is exactly where their bed would have been.
No joke.
I bought this house in 1989 and when the realtor told me of its earlier inhabitants…. no, it’s not a particularly big movie star place…. I just thought it was the usual realtor yadda-yadda. George Washington slept here, etc., etc. But years later… for reasons I will detail in the memoir I am writing for Encounter Books [You're still doing that?-ed. How can you write this blog, help start Pajamas Media and write a book all at the same time? Just call me "Snuppy".]… I found out that it really was true and that, as a previous owner told me, “the studio” had saved her from bankruptcy by “renting the house for Joe and Marilyn.”
Of course the vibe of that short marriage wasn’t particularly good (Marilyn talks about it sadly in the transcripts), with Joe even rumored to have been a batterer, so I do my best not to think about it while working. And, in fact, I rarely do. But having read those passages in the LAT late yesterday, I couldn’t keep it out of my mind and woke up early this morning with those immortal words ringing in my ears: Happy Birthday, Mr. President… Happy Birthday to you!
Those were indeed different times.
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8 Comments
1. Peg C.:Roger, thank you so much for the link. I saw it on Drudge but would not have read it all but for you. What an amazing woman! Because of her transcendent beauty and charisma, it has been so easy for so long for so many to dismiss her as a ditz. It seems to be something most men and many women have to do to beautiful women, especially stars of Marilyn’s caliber (of which we have zero now, I am more than ever convinced). Her familiarity with and understanding of Shakespeare should humble almost all of us. She references literature, authors, and concepts many of us are woefully ignorant of. She displays a keen mind, a vibrant curiosity, a fundamental understanding of herself and others, that is breathtaking to behold. Her understanding of psychoanalysis is mesmerizing.
I know I write as though she is still alive, and in fact for many I am sure she still is. I was too young when she died to appreciate who and what she was, but these words definitely help explain why she had and still has a hold on so many. Truly an incandescent star and a remarkable woman. One can only imagine what she might have accomplished had her candle not been snuffed out in her prime.
Aug 6, 2005 - 8:10 am 2. Jamie Irons:Roger,
My supervisor at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute between 1976 and 1980 (and later my friend) was the justly famous Robert Stoller, whose analyst and mentor had been Ralph “Romy” (unsure of nickname’s spelling) Greenson.
Jamie Irons
Aug 6, 2005 - 8:11 am 3. CraigC:That is SO COOL, Roger. Wow. Typing on the very spot where Norma Jean lay nekkid. You don’t need to have any other stories for parties. You can just tell that one and bask in the adulation.
Aug 6, 2005 - 11:34 am 4. ahem:Roger, you think that may be the cause of some of those terrible puns you’ve been coming up with lately?
Aug 6, 2005 - 11:41 am 5. Terrye:Maybe her death was not intentional.
My mother had problems with drugs and alcohol and she almost died once as a result of that.
My mother never had a drink until the doctor pescribed valium and brandy to help her sleep. I don’t think she drew a sober breath after that for years.
Remember the song about mother’s little helper?
Aug 6, 2005 - 12:25 pm 6. steph:Marilyn came to our city with Arther Miller. She stayed at a house right next to my friends house. (My friend and Marilyn got close during the week or so she was there, as Marilyn was left alone while her husband attended to important issues of his own) After school my friend and I took pictures of her while she stood outside and talking to reporters. I have three pictures of her. She was gorgeous. So beautiful. Much prettier in person than she was on the screen. And that is saying something. Her face was sweet and in a way looked like a “little girl”. Still have those pics.
Aug 6, 2005 - 6:28 pm 7. Charlie (Colorado):Wow! Are you in trouble with John Podhoretz!
Aug 7, 2005 - 9:05 am 8. Tom Jedrzejewicz:I don’t buy it .. I think they are fake.
1 .. The language just doesn’t sound like late 50’s or early 60’s casual speak.
“Speaking of Oscars, I would win overwhelmingly if the Academy gave an Oscar for faking orgasms. I have done some of my best acting convincing my partners I was in the throes of ecstasy.”
Did they really use the term “partners” in 1962? Wouldn’t she have said “lovers” or “men”?
2 .. Was Ms. Monroe really as egotistical, narcissistic and self-obsessed as the person speaking in that transcript? Did she refer to herself in the third person that much?
–> As an aside .. if she were that self-obsessed, I don’t see her committing suicide.
3 .. Was Ms. Monroe really as well-read as the person who said (or wrote) this? I don’t ask because I think she was an idiot, (she wasn’t) but because it doesn’t appear that she was very well educated.
Marilyn Monroe died before I was born, and I don’t know that much about, but this doesn’t seem to pass the smell test.
Aug 8, 2005 - 4:47 pm