MARILYN MONROE |
The Sad Life and Untimely Death of America's Fantasy By
Alexandra Kathryn Mosca It=s no surprise that nearly 40 years after the death of
Marilyn Monroe, the postmortem speculations continue, as do the
conspiracy theories that accompany them. By now, we all know these
purported theories by heart. After the suicide and accidental
overdose scenarios have been exhausted, musings turn to murder
suspects. Fingers point alternately at a popular U.S. President,
notorious for his philandering, his younger brother the U.S.
Attorney General, assorted mobsters, the FBI, the CIA and all the
way to a disgruntled housekeeper. Even Monroe=s own psychiatrist has been under suspicion in trying
to answer once and for all just who might be responsible for the
death of one of the
greatest sex symbols to have ever lived.
Homicide and suicide speculation notwithstanding, it
seems that Monroe=s
fate was sealed from birth. Some people rail against their
destiny, while others are tacitly complicit in it. Monroe, was one
of the latter, fated from the start to a life characterized by a
sense of doom. Born to, and subsequently abandoned by a mentally
unstable mother, rejected by a father she never knew and her
formative years having been spent in a succession of abusive
foster homes, resulted in wounds that cut so deep, no love affair,
fame nor money could hope to heal. Whereas a less vulnerable
person might have overcome these conditions, Monroe just never
could. Sensitive, needy and emotionally fragile, she descended
into an abyss of self‑destruction. Turning to alcohol, drugs
and sex to fill the void within, they proved an unsatisfying
substitute for the security and happiness which continually eluded
her. It was just a matter of time before the circumstances of her
birth would ultimately do her in. As an intimate remarked after
her death, AThe amazing thing about her is that she survived as long as
she did.@
To be sure, there were those who believed that on a
certain level Monroe craved the release from suffering the end
would bring; attempts at suicide brought her to the brink of death
numerous times. And throughout the years, Marilyn herself made
many references to death, ASometimes
I wonder why I go on. I feel miserable, I hate it, it hurts too
much. Death has got to be better than this,@ she once said during a turbulent time in 1957. And on
another occasion, AI=d
almost rather be crazy than feel this anxiety churning inside me;
I=d rather be dead.@ She went
so far as to predict that like her idol, Jean Harlow, she too
would die young. Born Norma Jeane Baker on June 1, 1926,
Marilyn=s unfortunate premonition came true when her life
ended in the early morning hours of Aug. 5, 1962. But in the
intervening years Marilyn gained a worldwide acclaim seldom seen
before nor duplicated since. Her career spanned 16 years and
included 29 movies C AHow to Marry a Millionaire,@
AGentlemen
prefer Blondes,@
ASome
Like It Hot@
C
in which she often portrayed the happy, carefree, Agood‑time girl.@ A persona she had carefully constructed, and one
which so deftly masked her tortured existence.
Marilyn was
found dead and naked (as she usually slept and out of which,
predictably, the press made a great deal) in the bed of her
Brentwood California home, ostensibly
from an overdose of sleeping pills. Summoned to the scene
by Eunice Murray, her frantic housekeeper, were Monroe=s
psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson and Dr. Hyman Engleberg, her
personal physician, soon
joined by her attorney, Mickey Rudin and press agent, Pat Newcombe.
Unexplained hours passed before the police were alerted. Acting on authorization from somebody at the house,
never named, Marilyn=s
remains were removed to the Westwood Village Mortuary. However,
upon discovering the identity of the deceased and the
circumstances of the death, the body was ordered into the Los
Angeles County Medical Examiner for an autopsy. The autopsy took
place that same day, Aug. 5, by Dr. Thomas Noguchi, then a young,
relatively unknown deputy chief medical examiner. Dr. Noguchi
would go on to develop a reputation as Athe
coroner to the stars,@
dissecting the corpses of such Hollywood luminaries as Natalie
Wood, William Holden and John Belushi. Ironically, even the body
of Robert F.Kennedy, would turn up on Dr. Noguchi=s
autopsy table. A preliminary autopsy report stated that death had
occurred as a result of a Apossible
overdose of barbiturates,@
specifically Nembutal and chloral hydrate, although no evidence of
barbiturate or capsule residue was found in her stomach.
Thus, the murder conjectures. This notation was amended on Aug. 17
to Aa
probable suicide@
and finally amended again on Aug. 27 to Aacute
barbiturate poisoning‑ingestion of overdose.@ Inconclusive and differing opinions by medical
experts unendingly ensued.
Once the autopsy was completed, the body of Hollywood=s
most famous sex symbol remained in the hospital morgue, waiting to
be claimed. It was stalwart and dependable Joe DiMaggio who, with
permission from Marilyn=s
next of kin, half sister Berniece Miracle, assumed the
responsibility of making the funeral arrangements. So it was that
on Aug. 7, her body was, for the second time, taken to Westwood
Village Mortuary, this time to be embalmed and prepared for her
funeral. But not before a Life magazine photographer, after
bribing a morgue attendant with a bottle of whiskey, was able to
sneak into the hospital morgue and snap some photos. To obtain a photo of the deceased star, the press
attempted to bribe mortuary workers for the opportunity to take a
few pictures in the embalming room. Reporting these incidents to
their superiors, the funeral home arranged for six Pinkerton
security guards to watch the building, as Marilyn=s
body was prepared. A small incision and some careful suturing
minimized the swelling in her neck in what otherwise was a routine
embalming. Dressed
in a favorite green Pucci dress she had only recently worn
at a press conference, and placed in the bronze casket chosen by
DiMaggio, she was ready for the finishing touches. Accustomed as
she was to having her =hair & makeup= done for movies and personal appearances throughout
her life, there was an irony in this final appearance C even in death she had to look her Amovie star@ best.
To that end, her personal hairdresser and make‑up
man Allan AWhitey
A
Snyder received a call from DiMaggio reminding him of a promise he
had long ago made in jest. In 1952, after undergoing an
appendectomy, Marilyn, on the day of her release from the
hospital, summoned Whitey to do her makeup for the waiting press.
It was then that Marilyn extracted a promise. APromise me that if something happens to me C please, never let anybody touch my face but you. Promise you=ll
do my makeup, So I=ll
look my best.@ "Sure,@
Whitey jokingly assured her, adding Abring
the body back while it=s
still warm and I=ll
do it.@ Several
weeks later, as if to seal the deal, Whitey received a gold money
clip from Tiffany=s
as a gift with the engraving: AWhitey
dear, While I=m
still warm...Marilyn@ Now 10 years later, he made good on that promise.
Following a few nips of vodka to steady his nerves, he did her
makeup for the last time. However, the requested hairdresser,
Sidney Guilaroff, did not fare as well, fainting at the sight of
Marilyn=s corpse. Instead, a wig was used, retrieved from the
prop department of AMisfits, A her last completed film. Unable to leave her alone, DiMaggio spent the entire
night beside her casket in the Chapel of Palms reposing room.
Snyder found him there in the morning when he came to check the
makeup. Rumors had flown before her death that they were to be
reunited in marriage, making intentional suicide all the more
impossible, for DiMaggio in particular, to fathom. Joe DiMaggio,
who long believed that her movie star life had been her undoing,
stipulated in no uncertain terms that her Hollywood circle be
excluded. He went so far as to draft a statement saying, Alast rites must of great necessity be as private as
possible so that she can go to her final resting place in the
quiet she always sought.@
No stars, producers, agents, press (save for Walter Winchell, a
pal of Joe=s)
or show business friends were to be allowed. Turned away at the
funeral home gate were such Hollywood luminaries as Frank Sinatra,
Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin.
Among
the 30 or so, who were invited to attend, were Berniece, Lee
Strasberg, Marilyn=s
acting teacher, mentor and surrogate father, his wife Paula, who
had served as Marilyn=s
drama coach, Monroe=s
maid, Eunice Murray, her housekeeper, secretary, driver,
masseur, Mickey Rudin her lawyer, publicist, hairdresser and her
psychiatrist, Dr. Greenson and his family. Her first husband,
James Dougherty, as well as Arthur Miller, her second, chose not
to attend. And Marilyn=s
mother, confined to a sanitarium, never learned of her daughter=s death. In fact, she seemed after some time not even
to be sure who Norma Jean had been. The funeral took place in the small chapel at Westwood
Memorial Park on Wednesday, Aug. 8, a day, some say, was the date
Marilyn and Joe were to be remarried. Strains of AOver the Rainbow,@ one of Marilyn=s favorite compositions, echoed throughout the
mortuary=s
chapel, as mourners entered for the 1:00 P.M. service. Simple
memorial folders were passed out. A minister read scripture from
the book of Amos and the book of John, and the congregants recited
the 23rd Psalm, after which a tearful Lee Strasberg, delivered the
eulogy. But the most poignant moment was to follow. No one, it
seems, remained unaffected by the sight of America=s
stoic hero, Joe DiMaggio, stooped over the casket, eyes brimming
with tears, kissing Marilyn for the last time and placing three
delicate roses in her hand, while whispering the words, AI love you.@
Exiting the chapel into the sun‑drenched
afternoon, mourners walked in silence behind the brand-new hearse.
A mere 200 yards away, in the Corridor of Memories section, stood
the marble wall crypt, into which Marilyn was only the second
person to be entombed. A bronze plaque read simply: >Marilyn
Monroe 1926‑1962.=
After the funeral had ended and the mourners left, hysterical fans
and eager Press, who had been kept at bay during the funeral,
stormed the cemetery, trampling graves, crushing flowers and
grabbing anything that would serve as a souvenir. Cameras clicked
and movie film rolled for the last Marilyn Monroe production. That evening, DiMaggio returned alone to the now dark
and deserted cemetery, to sit with Marilyn as he would often do in
the years to come. And for the next 20 years, as a symbol of his
continuing love and devotion, he had red roses placed in the urn
next to her crypt twice weekly, as she had once requested.
A player in her own tragedy, Marilyn Monroe nonetheless
lived her short life on a grand scale, dying a legend and leaving
the world with smoldering images of the sex goddess she portrayed.
So in a curious way perhaps fate had been kind. As she herself
said so tellingly to a friend on her 33rd birthday, AI
know I have to die, but I hope I don=t
have to get old and sick to do it.@
Troubled as she was at the height of her youth and beauty, how
could she have endured the passing years in an industry which
looks with disdain at its aging stars? Captured on celluloid, tape
and photos she is frozen in time, forever remembered as young,
sexy and glamorous. An image of which Monroe surely would have
approved. But she also unintentionally left behind another, more searing image, that of Norma Jean Baker, the unhappy,
unwanted, little girl she never quite stopped being through all
the public adoration and notoriety. The real person who lived for
a time as America=s
fantasy, dying as all real people must do; proving to be all too
mortal.
In the end, it is perhaps the final words of Lee
Strasberg=s
eloquent eulogy which paints this goddess as human as the rest of
us. AI cannot say goodbye. Marilyn never liked
good‑byes, but in that peculiar way she had of turning things
around so that they faced reality‑I will say au revoir.
For the country to which she has gone, we must all someday visit.@ AFD
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