60 years without Marilyn Monroe: check out myths and truths about the star

Marilyn Monroe is one of the most well-known celebrities of all time. As a household name whose legacy inspires fashion, film and the arts to this day, the golden age managed to make a widespread impact during his short career.

With such notoriety comes the tendency to create myths. Monroe’s personality was transformed into a larger-than-life caricature of her, her iconic looks defined her entire image, but in many ways her legacy was misunderstood.

On the date that marks the 60th Anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s Death here are ten things people tend to get wrong about the star.

1. Her name was Marilyn Monroe

Although it is the name by which she is best known, the name Marilyn Monroe was not the first name used by the California native. Norma Jeane Mortenson . After her birth, she was named after her mother: Norma Jeane Baker . She carried that name with her from the time she lived in an orphanage until she married a neighbor at age 16 and became Norma Jeane Dougherty .

Name she used until she signed her first acting contract with 20th Century Fox. Monroe and studio executive Ben Lyon teamed up to create the moniker that would help catapult her to stardom.

Lyon suggested Marilyn after actress Marilyn Miller, and Norma Jeane suggested Monroe, her mother’s family name.

That’s how the name Marilyn Monroe was conceived.

2. She was a natural blonde

Monroe’s iconic platinum blonde locks were born like those of many other stars of the era.

For women hoping to make a name for themselves in the film industry in the 1940s, blonde was considered the most versatile hair color. Monroe, who joined her first modeling agency as a curly-haired brunette, dedicated herself to doing whatever it took to get noticed. She started to lighten her hair in the mid-1940s and was instantly hooked.

“For Marilyn, going blonde was like Hollywood’s star-making machine,” said photographer Nancy Lee Andrews. “She saw what color could do for her.”

Over the years, Marilyn continued to lighten her hair until she finally hit her iconic platinum blonde shade, or as she referred to “pillow case white”. The color is still associated with her to this day, referenced everywhere from magazines to Billie Eilish’s appearance at the Met Gala.

3. She was discovered while working as a babysitter

With a definite name and a new hairstyle, the next step for the rising star was to come up with a good origin story. 20th Century Fox publicists introduced Monroe to the press as a young orphan who was discovered while working as a nanny for a Fox talent scout.

In reality, Monroe fought for her opportunities and was eager to learn the ins and outs of the film industry. As Sarah Churchwell, author of “The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe” says:

“Marilyn wasn’t expecting powerful men to come find her. She was knocking on the studio door. She was doing absolutely everything she could to get into the movie business.”

4. She gained fame easily

Stardom didn’t just fall into Marilyn Monroe’s lap. Beauty and talent were seen as basic necessities for any woman who wanted to work in the male-dominated film industry.

Monroe struggled to land a long-term contract. She landed small roles at 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures before finally landing a seven-year contract with Fox in 1951. What she lacked in immediate on-screen success, however, she made up for with a tenacious understanding of her overseas audiences. of the screen.

Monroe was able to use press coverage, such as leveraging her relationship with Joe DiMaggio, to keep her name relevant. As Alicia Malone of Turner Classic Movies explains, Marilyn was “very, very smart about advertising and very funny. Marilyn always seemed to know what advertisers wanted, what photographers wanted.”

5. She had no control over her sexuality

Sex sells, and if anyone knew that, it was Monroe. While she was frustrated by the press and movie executives’ tendency to reduce her to a sex symbol and nothing more, Monroe understood the power her unique sexuality could give her.

Repeatedly, she was labeled in roles meant to just look good on screen and then some, but she wouldn’t allow it.

“She manages to be sexually attractive and the object of the male gaze in all the ways she needs to be,” says Sarah Churchwell of Monroe’s early performance in “Salvation Lies.” “But she’s also making fun of it. And this is the moment when Marilyn figured out how this performance was going to work for her.”

Not only did Monroe lean on her sex symbol status, she also refused to be ashamed of it. Early in her career, Monroe posed nude for a photographer while in need of money. Rather than capitulating to the popular conservatism of the time when the photo shoot was exposed to the press, Marilyn stood by her decision.

“They said, ‘Did you pose for a calendar?’” recalled Monroe, “and I said, ‘Yeah, something wrong?’ ”

6. Marilyn has never spoken out against sexism in Hollywood

The film business in the 1940s and 1950s treated women as commodities; sex and relationships were exchanged and often expected in exchange for auditions and contracts.

Monroe was not exempt from participating and received many unwanted advances while working towards an acting career. At Columbia Pictures, studio head Harry Cohn invited Monroe for a trip on his yacht. Monroe suggested that she would only go if Cohn’s wife was also invited. Shortly after her rejection, she was dropped from her contract.

Decades before the Times Up movement, Monroe detailed the harassment she faced in an article called “Wolves I Have Known” published in Motion Picture and Television Magazine. She wrote:

“There are many types of wolves. Some are sinister, some are just trying to get something and make a game out of it.”

7. She wasn’t a serious actress

Monroe is known for her iconic roles, but behind the scenes she was anything but mindless.

Early in her career, she sought guidance from Natasha Lytess, head of drama at Columbia Pictures. According to “Marilyn Monroe: The Personal Archive” author Cindy de la Hoz, Lytess brought a “wealth of theater knowledge to [que] was very attractive to Marilyn. She wanted to get that kind of serious acting education.”

Even after achieving great success in her career, Monroe continued to look for opportunities to become a more serious actress. She enrolled in classes with Lee Strasberg at Actors Studio in New York, where her peers looked down on the flashy careers of movie stars like her. But Monroe was a devoted student of the acting method, and she earned the respect of her peers.

8. She was not politically active

Marilyn Monroe had strong political convictions. After her marriage to Joe DiMaggio in 1954, Marilyn took a detour from her honeymoon in Japan to visit US military bases in Korea. She performed for around 100,000 military personnel over the course of ten shows.

Monroe supported her friends at home too. She was very close to singer Ella Fitzgerald and a strong supporter of her career. When popular nightclub Mocambo refused to book Fitzgerald, Monroe called the club and proposed that if they booked Fitzgerald for a week, she would sit front row for every performance.

After the club agreed, Fitzgerald sold out and was subsequently signed for a second week. The success brought his career to a whole new level.

In a 1972 interview, Fitzgerald recalled his relationship with Monroe saying, “I owe a real debt to Marilyn Monroe… She was an unusual woman – a little ahead of her time. And she didn’t know it. ”

9. She was paid like a big star

Although she was one of the most talked about actresses at the time, Marilyn’s power didn’t always result in a high salary. By the end of her career, she was earning a fraction of the money her contemporaries were earning.

In the last film she worked on, “Something’s Gotta Give,” Monroe was set to earn $100,000, far less than the reported $1 million Elizabeth Taylor was making for “Cleopatra” at the same time.

The pay gap was even worse early in her career, but Monroe struggled. In 1954, she was scheduled to start working on the movie “The Girl in Pink Tights” when she learned that her co-star Frank Sinatra was expected to earn more than three times her weekly salary.

In protest, Marilyn refused to appear on set, forcing the film to postpone and eventually stop production altogether.

10. She didn’t impact the industry

Although she loved acting, Monroe was quite unhappy with the roles she was offered at 20th Century Fox. She wanted to add more diversity and depth to her characters.

After finishing filming “The Seven Year Itch,” Monroe broke her contract and fled Los Angeles.

Despite threatening phone calls from Fox legal teams and studio head Daryl Zanuck, Monroe has taken on a new life in New York City. She and her friend, photographer Milton Greene, created Marilyn Monroe Productions, making her the first woman since Mary Pickford to start her own production company.

Fox tried to diminish Monroe’s accomplishments by proposing that they could find a dozen actresses like her, but Marilyn’s brand only grew. She couldn’t be replaced.

In late 1955, Fox surrendered and Monroe was given a historic new contract. Not only was her salary increased, but she also received story approval, director approval and cinematographer approval – an achievement that “veterans of the film scene said was one of the greatest individual triumphs ever achieved by an actress,” she reported. the “Los Angeles Mirror”.

The system that had dictated so much of Monroe’s career was starting to give way. Although she wasn’t around to experience the industry’s development in the 1960s and beyond, the effects of her efforts can still be seen today.