NARRATOR: If anybody ever asked you what I was like,
What Marilyn Monroe was really like, well, how would you
Answer them?
So much has been written about Marilyn Monroe that details of
Her life become colored pieces of glass in a kaleidoscope.
If you read enough and turn them over enough, they fall
Into a pattern.
Relieve your mind now of all the images that you have of
This person.
When I met her, she was a simple, eager, young woman.
I was to know her perhaps better than anyone
Had ever known her.
And yet I was to know her not at all.
Sex was ice cream to her.
She haunts us with questions that can never be answered.
All beauty is mystery.
NARRATOR: What do I believe in?
What is truth?
I believe in myself, even my most delicate
And tangible feelings.
NARRATOR: Last night I was awake all night again.
NARRATOR: All this thought and writing has
Made my hands tremble.
I just want to keep pouring it out.
Oh, damn...
I wish that I were dead, gone away from here.
For me to live decently and productively, I must work.
Maybe I'll never be able to do what I hope to, but at
Least I have hope.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Rolling.
This is the secluded Spanish cottage in the exclusive
Brentwood section of Los Angeles where actress Marilyn
Monroe died, a bottle of sleeping pills near her bed.
Marilyn is gone.
She has slipped away from us over the edge of the horizon
Of the last pill.
And now a force from outside has proved stronger than her
Own power to weigh down upon herself.
It is my conclusion that the death of Marilyn Monroe was
Caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and
That the mode of death is probable suicide.
Of course, we don't know if this is how she went.
She could easily have blundered past the last
Border, blubbering in the last corner of her heart and no
Voice she knew to reply.
She came to us in all of her mother's doubt
And leaves in mystery.
Even if we don't believe that Marilyn deliberately committed
Suicide, it's perfectly reasonable to
Say we don't know.
We don't know what happened that night, and we never will.
LEE STRASBERG OFF-SCREEN: Marilyn Monroe was a legend.
She created a myth of what a poor girl from a deprived
Background could attain.
And I have no words to describe the
Myth and the legend.
I did not know this Marilyn Monroe, nor did she.
We talk about Marilyn as a kind of Cinderella figure...
The little orphan girl who then grows up to be the most
Beautiful princess and goes to the ball.
And then the story takes a tragic turn, and she dies and
She's alone.
It's a kind of modern Greek tragedy.
The ancient Greeks have Oedipus, and we have Marilyn.
[Cheering]
Monroe's personal and intimate ability to inhabit
Our fantasies has gone right on.
As I write this, she is still better known than most living
Movie stars, most world leaders, and most television
Personalities.
The surprise is that she has really been taken seriously
Enough to ask why that is so.
As a small child intact first desire was to be an actress.
And I spent years playacting till I had jobs.
If I hadn't found a way to work, I would be as I've been
Since consciousness, a fish out of water, floundering and
Much, much more nervous, hopeless.
There's nothing to hold onto, but to realize the present.
Life starts from now.
My secretary rang and said, Mr. Lyon, there's a very
Beautiful young girl here to see you, but she doesn't have
An appointment.
I said, well, Mary, you don't have to have an
Appointment to see me.
Send her in.
So a moment later, in walked the most gorgeous young girl
You've ever seen in your life, this golden hair, beautiful
Little print dress, 22 years old.
And I said, what's your ambition?
She said, to be a film star.
I said, we've got to change your name if you're
Going to be a star.
To me, you're a Marilyn.
And she said, that's a lovely name.
I said, all right, that's your first name.
We couldn't find her second name, but she suddenly turned
To me and said, Mr. Lyon, could I use my
Grandmother's name?
I said, what was that?
She said, Monroe.
Marilyn Monroe.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Speed.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Camera.
We rehearsed my first big scene.
And then I began the scene and prayed silently.
This was my start...
The beginning of becoming a motion picture actress.
This is what my big scene consisted of.
I walked across the set, I had to light a cigarette, inhale,
Then blow the smoke out, get up, then go upstage, cross,
Look out a window, sit down, come downstage,
And then exit set.
She would take dramatic lessons for three hours.
She'd have lunch.
After lunch, she would take dancing lessons for an hour,
Singing lessons for an hour, fencing lessons for an hour,
And then go on the back lot and ride horseback.
And I said to her one day, Marilyn, why
Do you work so hard?
The other kids that are under contract, I call sometimes at
11 o'clock, they're still sleeping from being out the
Night before.
She said, well, Mr. Lyon, I work hard because one day
Maybe opportunity will knock, and I want to be prepared.
Must make effort to do the following...
Take care of my instrument,
Personally and bodily exercise.
Try to find someone to take dancing from...
Body work, creative.
If possible, take at least one class at
University in literature.
Keep looking around, only much more so... observing, but not
Only myself, but others and everything.
Take things, it, for what they, its, are worth.
FEMALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: I think she's a choreographer.
A choreographer?
Mr. Lewis?
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: I believe she owns Harry's Bar.
FEMALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: In Venice?
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Mr. Branford.
Could possibly this lovely lady have something to do with
Marilyn Monroe?
Oh, Marilyn Monroe.
[Applause]
It began in 1948 when I was employed as a dramatic at
Columbia Studio.
My employer telephoned me one day to say he was sending a
New girl to see me.
Uh, her name is, um...
He hesitated, and I could hear him rifling through the papers
On his desk.
Her name is Marilyn Monroe.
Just see what you can do with her.
I was not impressed.
She was more than inhibited, more than cramped.
She couldn't say a word freely.
Her habit of speaking without using her lips was unnatural...
Obviously superimposed.
And her voice, oh, a piping sort or whimper that so got on
My nerves that I asked her not to speak unnecessarily until
We had progressed.
But she loved the work, and she came religiously
To work with me.
Must make much, much, much more, more, more effort.
Natasha, like Tess, was absolutely crucial to
Marilyn's acting.
She was with Marilyn for six years and 22 pictures.
She developed the mannerisms, the sort of whispery voice and
The wiggle.
She was trying to get her to incorporate her body
Creatively into her acting.
Mr. Grunion, I want you to help me.
I have a little sand left.
What seems to be the trouble?
Some men are following me.
Really?
I can't understand why.
I felt then, and I still feel, that I put the
World at her feet.
People ask me if I paint or write, and you
Know what I tell them?
Oh, sure I can paint.
I once painted a whole apartment.
On writing?
I've written a few poems.
I keep them to myself.
They're personal...
All about just what I've observed.
The girl had little education and no knowledge except the
Knowledge of her own experiences.
She was a simple, eager young woman who rode a bike to the
Classes that she was taking...
A decent-hearted kid that Hollywood
Brought down, legs parted.
All young actresses in that time and place were thought of
As prey, to be overwhelmed and topped by the male.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: She started having affairs.
She slept with photographers, she slept with producers.
I mean, everybody knows... the Hollywood studio system was
The casting couch system.
And if you wanted to get a job, that was
What you had to do.
My god, how I wanted to improve, to change, to learn.
I didn't want anything else...
Not men, not money, not love, but the ability to act.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: She wasn't particularly
Apologetic about it.
She's quite pragmatic.
And she just says, yeah, of course I slept with producers.
Everybody did.
And if you didn't, you knew that there was another girl
Waiting outside the door who was going to.
You look good.
Thank you.
You look good here too.
And here we have a French cowgirl.
No one ever seems to have disagreed with the estimate
That Darryl Zanuck liked to put his meat into a star's
Meat so that the product was truly stamped
20th Century Fox.
[Ringing]
Zanuck speaking.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: Part of the problem with
Marilyn's film career was that the studio head of Fox, Darryl
Zanuck, really didn't like Marilyn, and he
Really didn't get her.
Marilyn simply did not fit his concept of what to offer
The public, which is a three-word secret formula of
Zanuck's which has brought in great sums of money to 20th
Century Fox in the past.
The formula...
Make good shit.
Marilyn Monroe, much too wicked for good shit.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: He really didn't respect her,
And he really thought that she was just this brainless bimbo.
And in the early years, he mostly cast her as a gold
Digger and just this kind of sexpot.
What do you say we have dinner together?
Wonderful.
Where?
Oh, someplace where we don't have to
Dress, like your apartment.
Oh, by the way, this is my daughter, Mrs. Denham.
Barbara, this is Joyce Mannering.
How do you do?
Honey, your father's been so divine with me that something
Even I feel like calling him Daddy.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Aren't you here early?
Oh, yes.
Mr. Oxley's been complaining about my punctuation so I'm
Careful to get here before 9:00.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: If 1950 was the year that
Marilyn first began to be noticed by audiences, 1952 was
The year that she became a star.
MARILYN MONROE OFF-SCREEN: They called on the set, the
Publicity department, and said, uh, did
You pose for a calendar?
And I said, yes.
Anything wrong?
I will not be punished for it or not be loved or be afraid
Of my genitals being exposed, known and seen.
So what?
Now, when 20th learns from her lips that yes, she posed
In the nude, a novelist has the right to invent the
Following dialogue...
You spread your legs?
No.
Is your asshole showing?
Certainly not.
Any animals in it with you?
I'm alone.
It's just a nude.
You're going to deny you ever took those pictures.
Some other blonde did the job, someone who has the misfortune
Of looking like you.
MARILYN MONROE OFF-SCREEN: There was great anxiety, and
[Inaudible] says, you all... Don't say you did.
Say you didn't.
I said, but I did.
And they were very unhappy about it.
And then she realized, wait a minute, we can use this.
She tells the truth to a gossip columnist, which is to
Say that she passes along the living factoidal truth.
In 1949, she was just another scared young blonde,
Struggling to find fame in the magic city.
She posed, stretched out on crumpled red velvet for the
Artistic photo three years ago...
Because I was broke, and I needed the money.
I was now 25 years old.
Then orders were issued by Mr. Zanuck to all producers to
Find a part for me in their films.
And I began to appear in one film after another.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: She went from being a starlet
To being a big name in America.
People knew who she was because of this scandal.
But part of the scandal was that Marilyn refused to
Apologize, she refused to be ashamed, and she refused to
Deny it, which was the most amazing part.
My body is my body... Every part of it.
THOMAS SCHATZ OFF-SCREEN: The world was ready for that.
Obviously the sexual mores are changing, and she is at the
Vanguard of that.
She is anticipating a sexual revolution that many people
Associate with Betty Friedan, et cetera, a decade later that
Would not have happened without Marilyn Monroe.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: By the time Hugh Hefner
Launched "Playboy" at the end of 1953, Marilyn was an
Enormous star, and he purchased the nude calendar
Pictures and launched "Playboy" on the back of
Marilyn's nude photos and never paid her,
Never thanked her.
But his fortune is very much built on the foundations of
Those pictures for which Marilyn got $50.
Hey, get out the fire hose.
In the film "Niagara,"
They had that one shot of her
Walking away from the camera,
And her derriere is just doing
The most miraculous sexual things.
And I think it was that moment that kind of
Everybody went, what?
What are we looking at here?
Nobody had ever seen anybody walk like
That on camera before.
She created it, and she created her whole persona.
This was Marilyn's book.
This book is called "The Thinking Body." It's about the
Breath and the skeletal structure.
From this, she got her way of talking
And her way of walking.
This is the book that she created herself out of.
There's an exercise in there to walk as though there's a
String coming out of the top of your head, and it's
Attached to a cloud.
And you walk like you're hanging from a cloud.
I mean, it does something to your body when you do that.
We were walking down the street one day, and she said,
Do you want to see me be her?
I had no idea what she meant, and I said, sure.
And suddenly she did something...
I'm telling you, like, she turned on a light bulb.
And suddenly, people were going, oh my god, that's
Marilyn Monroe.
Oh, isn't that Marilyn Monroe?
We had to jump into a taxi to get away because people
Started running after her.
LOIS BANNER OFF-SCREEN: She created that Monroe figure on
Her own by makeup, hairstyle.
The clothes were sewn on her to make them very tight.
Columnists were saying, we've lost our
Reputation for sexiness.
The Italians are coming in with the big-breasted babes
Like Gina Lollobrigida.
Marilyn read all that, and she turned herself into the great
Sex symbol for the nation.
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: She learned when she could put on
The persona of Marilyn Monroe for her own purposes, and she
Knew also when she could put it off.
From time to time I make it rhyme, but don't hold that
Kind of thing against me.
Oh well, what the hell, so it won't sell.
What I want to tell is what's on my mind.
Tain't dishes, tain't wishes.
It's thoughts, flinging by before I die
And to think in ink.
MARILYN MONROE OFF-SCREEN: One of my best friends is a
Poet, and he always sends me his poetry.
He says he knows that I'll understand it, and I do,
Strangely enough.
We were mostly offstage friends.
At film openings or official receptions, she wore her mask.
I knew her without it.
She searched everywhere...
In life and books.
She liked poetry.
It was a shortcut for her.
She entered, at ease within its complexity, at home in
Song and in feeling.
Oh damn, I wish that I were dead...
Absolutely nonexistent, gone away from here,
From everywhere.
But how would I do it?
There's always bridges.
The Brooklyn Bridge?
No.
No, not the Brooklyn Bridge, because...
But I...
I love that bridge.
Everything is so beautiful from there, and
The air is so clean.
Walking it seems peaceful, even with all those crazy cars
Going underneath.
So it would have to be some other bridge...
An ugly one and with no view.
Except I particularly like in particular all bridges.
And besides, I've never seen an ugly bridge.
We wanted her to win out, but the world demanded more than
She could give.
Alone.
I am alone.
I am always alone, no matter what.
Come on, baby.
Laugh and bounce it.
Give us love.
Save us.
Give us your sweet face against our own black hearts.
Marilyn Monroe, the moviegoers of America have
Voted you the most popular actress of the year.
Marilyn, I'd like to present to you the Look Achievement
Award as the most outstanding feminine newcomer.
In recognition of your sensational rise to stardom.
Oh, that's beautiful.
Look at all the nuts you could put in there.
I want to thank all of the public.
I thank you very much.
It's a great thrill, and I'm very appreciative to all who...
Let's start again.
THOMAS SCHATZ OFF-SCREEN: Marilyn Monroe, between 1953
And 1955, becomes the top female star in the business.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: OK, Marilyn.
It's a great thrill, and I'm very appreciative to all who
Have made this possible.
THOMAS SCHATZ OFF-SCREEN: We see her graduating from bit
Parts to eventually starring roles.
Her big breakthrough roles were "How to Marry a"
Millionaire" and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
Oh... did you ever, anywhere, anything like it?
All are real stones.
How do you put it around your neck?
You don't, lovey.
It goes on your head.
You must think I was born yesterday.
JANE RUSSELL OFF-SCREEN: Marilyn never had a dressing
Room before, so they gave her her first dressing room.
You had to be on the set at 9 o'clock.
Well, Marilyn wasn't there, and she'd been in
Since 5:00 or 5:30.
But she was afraid to come out on the set.
She didn't know anybody out there, and she was working
With someone that had made a whole bunch of pictures.
THOMAS SCHATZ OFF-SCREEN: The sense of insecurity always
Seemed to plague her throughout her career.
And as she becomes a star and, you know, she's carrying
Movies, the stakes are much, much higher, and she's
Becoming more and more insecure.
Remember, there is nothing you lack, nothing to be
Self-conscious about yourself.
You have everything but the discipline and technique which
You are seeking on your own.
After all, nothing was or is being given to you.
You haven't had this work thrown at you.
You sought it.
It didn't seek you.
[MUSIC - "DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND"]
She never said that she was ready to face that camera.
For that reason, she took two hours to fix her lips or an
Hour and a half to arrange her hair.
She wanted so much to be so perfect.
But the moment she arrived in front of the camera, there was
This romance, this love affair between her and the lens.
Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl
Being pretty?
You might not marry a girl just because she's pretty, but
My goodness, doesn't it help?
Say, they told me you were stupid.
You don't sound stupid to me.
I can be smart when it's important, but most
Men don't like it.
One night, I called Marilyn.
I have wonderful news!
Oh, wait till you here, she said.
I'm going to get married.
He comes all the way down from San Francisco just to have
Dinner with me, she said.
And we haven't even done it yet.
Who, I said.
Who are you talking about?
Joe, she said.
He's not like these movie people.
He's dignified.
NEWSCASTER: Top romance of the season...
The wedding at San Francisco City Hall of movie actress
Marilyn Monroe to former Yankee
Baseball hero Joe DiMaggio.
Their marriage, though long rumored, was a sudden affair.
Joe was divine.
He hit 56, 57 straight games.
NEWSCASTER: A swing, a hit, a homer.
AMY GREENE OFF-SCREEN: The first time he called and said,
Hello, this is Joe DiMaggio, I almost fainted.
He was a very conservative Boston Italian.
GEORGE HARRIS OFF-SCREEN: He loved her very much, but he
Possessed her too much.
He said, look, we'll have a big family, a lot of bambinos.
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: He wanted a wife who would not
Have a career, who would be there to cook
Pasta in the evening...
GEORGE HARRIS OFF-SCREEN: Spaghetti and ravioli and all
That kind of stuff.
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: and be an Italian housewife.
Oops.
Sew up or clamp birds, put chicken or turkey in 350 oven.
Cooks 30 minutes to one pound.
Vinegar, oil, onion, spices.
Let cook in own juice.
Put potatoes, mushroom-button canned, peas fresh.
I hear that you're getting to be quite a cook too.
Joe says you can really broil a mean steak.
Well, I'm learning... A little slow, but...
[Giggling].
I said to her, why did you marry Joe?
He's not your type.
He doesn't understand the business you're in.
He doesn't understand the scandal you create every time
You step out of the door.
He doesn't understand you at all.
And she looked at me and said, he's terrific in bed.
I said, OK, that's the end of that conversation.
Oh, do you feel the breeze from the subway?
Isn't it delicious?
Oh, god... the famous night of her skirt blowing up on
Lexington Avenue, I was standing next to him.
I was wearing a sheer white billowy sleeveless dress.
When the subway train rode by, it would send up a
Blast of cool air.
This sent my dress flying waist high, revealing my legs
And white panties.
A crowd had gathered even though it was 2:00
Or 3:00 in the morning.
They consisted mostly of men who somehow had heard about
Our late-night filming.
FEMALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: They advertised in the
Newspapers that Marilyn Monroe was going to stand over a
Subway grate and her skirt was going to be blown up.
They held it in the middle of the night.
There were 1,500 men there and about 150 male photographers.
At first it was all innocent and fun.
When Billy Wilder kept shooting the scene over and
Over, the crowd of men kept on applauding and shouting, more,
More, Marilyn. Let's see more.
Joe became upset, especially when the director's camera
Kept coming in, focusing only on my vagina.
The whistles and the yelling from the male audience became
Too much for my husband.
It was like a burlesque show.
And what was meant to be a fun scene turned into a sex
Scene, and Joe took off.
The man began to tremble.
He was so furious about his wife showing off her panties.
He said to me, tell her...
Through clenched teeth...
Tell her I will meet her back at the hotel.
She was having a good time.
And after each take, people would clap and yell, and more
People would come and more people would come.
Finally we had to call the cops.
Joe got her back at a hotel, and he really let her have it.
And the people next door heard all that noise and screaming,
And they wondered if he was hitting her or
Beating her or what.
I am not going to say anything about Joe DiMaggio,
Because he is one of my gods.
So suffice it to say, he didn't beat her up that night.
How do they know he beat her up that night?
Maybe that's because he was an Italian,
And Italians are very possessive.
I tried to fight what with my being I knew was true, due to
Pressures that have come in my work.
It's funny...
I've always accepted even the worst.
He could not endure.
He is from another land.
I've seen what he intends me to see, and I am strangely
Calm with I catch my breath.
Let me know, fellas, when you get the speed up.
Miss Monroe will have nothing to say this morning.
All I can say, as her attorney, is that this is what
We would say, with the conflict of careers.
[MUSIC - "AFTER YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT, YOU DON'T WANT IT"]
FEMALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Marilyn Monroe said at one
Time, people expect so much of me as a sex symbol that
They've created in their minds but that I've created too.
So she knew that she had done this.
It wasn't something that somebody had done to her.
And yet she felt straitjacketed by it.
I'm MM.
I'm not permitted problems, nervousness, humanness,
Blunders, mistakes, and my own thoughts.
She's fighting the studio, and they are fighting back.
She wants more money and the right to choose her script and
Director, and they refuse.
By the end of 1953, "Niagara," "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,"
And "How to Marry a Millionaire" will gross $25
Million, and that's more than any other movie star will earn
For a studio in those 12 months.
At a cost salary of $50,000 a year, she has
Brought back $25 million...
A return of 500 to 1.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: The accounting books of Fox
Studios show that in the 1950s, when Fox was actually
In a lot of financial trouble, two things kept Fox afloat...
Cinemascope and the films of Marilyn Monroe.
And they never paid her anything like what her
Commercial value would suggest that she
Should have been paid.
And importantly, they were paying other stars...
Most notably Elizabeth Taylor...
Enormously larger salaries.
But also often her costars were getting paid more than
She was in the films that she was starring in.
They were under a lot of pressure to get as many
Marilyn Monroe pictures as they could, and there were
Often things that she didn't want to do.
Cable to Darryl F. Zanuck, January 25, 1954.
I finally received script...
Am exceedingly sorry, but I do not like it.
Sincerely, Marilyn Monroe.
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: She lived with Milton Greene, a
Very famous photographer, and his wife Amy
And their sons in Connecticut.
MARILYN MONROE OFF-SCREEN: This will be my home from now
On, and when I retire, I'm going to retire to Brooklyn.
That's my favorite place in the world so far.
FEMALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: She badly wanted New York.
She wanted to possess its theater, its
Intellectual crowd.
She'd fallen in love with it.
We talked about actors and acting.
Everybody says that I can't act.
They said the same thing about Elizabeth Taylor,
And they were wrong.
I'll never get the right part...
Anything I really want.
My looks are against me.
They're too specific.
We talked some more about Elizabeth Taylor.
She wanted to know if I knew her, and I said yes.
She said, well, what is she like?
What is she really like?
I said, well, she's a little bit like you.
She wears her heart on her sleeve, talks salty.
And Marilyn said, fuck you, and said, well, if somebody
Asked me what Marilyn Monroe was like, what was Marilyn
Monroe really like, what would I say?
And I said, uh, that I'd have to think about that.
Good evening.
I'm Ed Murrow.
The name of the program is "Person to"
"Person." It's all live.
There's no film.
Tonight we'll be going first to Weston, Connecticut, where
Photographer Milton Greene, his wife, and their friend and
Houseguest Marilyn Monroe will be waiting for us.
Uh, Amy, tell me, does Marilyn know her
Way around the kitchen?
Is she help around the house?
Yes, she does.
AMY GREENE OFF-SCREEN: I was madly in love
With Edward R. Murrow.
Marilyn and Milton presented Edward R. Murrow to me because
They knew that I had a mad crush on him.
That's how this started.
Then it also involved that that's where they announced
Marilyn Monroe productions.
Clever?
EDWARD R. MURROW OFF-SCREEN: Marilyn what's the basic
Reason for this corporation?
Why, merely to contribute to help making good pictures.
EDWARD R. MURROW OFF-SCREEN: Well, would it be fair to say
That, uh, you got rather tired of playing the same kind of
Roles all the time and... And wanted to
Try something different?
It's not that I object to doing
Musicals or comedies.
In fact, I rather enjoy it.
But I would like to do also dramatic parts too.
I guess that covers it.
EDWARD R. MURROW OFF-SCREEN: Uh, have you had any offers yet?
Ooh, there's the telephone, Ed.
That's another offer.
[Laughter]
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: Marilyn's decision to break
Her contract with Fox Studios was a really big deal.
It was very rare for a star to become big enough and powerful
Enough to break with the studio and to go independent.
EDWARD R. MURROW OFF-SCREEN: Well, Marilyn, now that you're
A New Yorker, how do you like this city anyway?
Oh, I love it.
Everyone's very friendly, and it's a very optimistic,
Friendly city.
AMY GREENE OFF-SCREEN: She was a young woman who was
Absorbing life.
She was a sponge.
She knew that she had so much more to learn.
That's why she moved to New York.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: She had dropped out of high
School, and she was always sensitive about that lack of
Formal education.
AMY GREENE OFF-SCREEN: She loved books, and she read and
Read and read.
Masaccio, 1401 to 1428, father of modern art...
Reality, poverty, carelessness about his paintings.
His work never recognized until after his death.
Grande-nobles.
Giovanni Di Bicci, 1428.
Cosimo, Pater Patriae.
Lorenzo, 1424, first public library.
Piero, Giovanni, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Giuliano,
Machiavelli, 1469, 1527.
Botticelli.
MARILYN MONROE OFF-SCREEN: The thing I'd like the most is
To become a real actress.
And I realize more and more the responsibility, and it is
A responsibility, to be a good actress.
LEE STRASBERG OFF-SCREEN: She always wanted to be an actress
And therefore felt somehow unfulfilled.
The more success there was, the more unfulfilled she was,
So that she wanted to make the break.
The logic of a scene is what would happen here if the scene
Wasn't written.
How would these people behave?
What would they really want to say?
What would motivate me to behave that way?
Must have the discipline to do the following...
Z, go to class, my own, always, without fail; X, go as
Often as possible to observe Strasberg's other private
Classes; G, never miss my Actor's Studio sessions; U,
Start attending Clurman lectures... also Lee
Strasberg's directors lectures at theater wing,
Inquire about both.
Words, find out their meaning.
To become a member of the Actor's Studio was more
Important than getting a job in Hollywood...
Even more important than getting
Good reviews on Broadway.
To get into the Actor's Studio was the max.
When Marilyn and people like that were invited in, we
Resented that, quite frankly...
That these Hollywood people were allowed in without the
Hard work we had to go through.
SUSAN STRASBERG OFF-SCREEN: Here was a girl who was this
Huge star and put herself into an acting class with beginning
Acting students who had contempt for her
And looked down on her
And that takes a certain kind of courage and guts.
The women looked stern and critical, unfriendly, and cold
In general.
Remembering when I couldn't do a god damn thing and then
Trying to build myself up with the fact that I have done
Things right that were even good, and I've had moments
That were excellent.
But the bad is heavier to carry around.
While I paid the check, she left for the powder room, and
I wished I had a book to read.
Her visits to the powder room sometimes lasted as long as an
Elephant's pregnancy.
After 20 minutes had passed, I decided to investigate.
I found the ladies' room and knocked on the door.
Inside she was confronting a dimly lit mirror.
I said, what are you doing?
She said, looking at her.
ELLEN BURSTYN OFF-SCREEN: Marilyn created that wonderful
Character, Marilyn Monroe.
But that wasn't her,
And Lee saw that.
He had kind of X-ray vision.
He could go beyond what you present to what's behind what
You present and see that and address it.
The way Lee taught, which was using sense memory, where you
Create all of the sensory elements of the experience,
You don't try and go for the emotion of the experience, but
You go for the time of day and where the sun was or where the
Light was coming in the window, any smells that were
In the room, the clothes you were wearing... you get all of
Your senses activated.
And then the memory comes alive.
Giving all... you give everything away.
And it's exactly what is not to be done.
That's mechanical.
So what should I do?
The brain, the brain, the brain has to get into there.
I've been working on it.
It's not working on it, darling, because...
How can you say that?
Every day I work on it, and every day
I'm not getting further.
Because you've got to become aware of when you're doing
What, darling.
Sharp pain...
Pick a specific part of the body where you've experienced
A sharp pain so the mind knows where to focus concentration.
Now, try to recreate that sensation.
Let the pain spread throughout the whole body, not just the
Isolated area.
This is challenging, because in life we try to rid
Ourselves of pain, not relive and prolong it.
One of the things that Lee Strasberg was doing with
Marilyn was to get in touch with her
So-called tragic self.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Strasberg insisted that she go
Into therapy.
PATRICIA BOSWORTH OFF-SCREEN: He would coach her about four
Times a week.
She would first go to her session, and then she would go
To Lee for her emotional memory exercises.
He hoped that he could literally pull it out of her.
She was one of the two or three most sensitive and most
Talented people that I've seen in my life.
One of the others is Marlon Brando.
To me, she had the same kind of sensitivity.
PATRICIA BOSWORTH OFF-SCREEN: At one point, Lee wanted her
To do this emotional memory about when a relative almost
Suffocated her with a pillow, and she could
Not stand doing that.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: She becomes, obviously, more
Keenly aware in analysis of the demons that have been
Driving her throughout her life.
NEWSCASTER: Marilyn Monroe was an illegitimate child.
Her father disappeared when her mother
Announced her pregnancy.
Her mother became mentally ill, was sent to an institution.
The child's life became a series of psychological jolts.
She bounced from foster home to orphanage to foster home.
The lack of any consistent love and caring...
A mistrust and fear of the world was the result.
There were no benefits except what it could teach me about
The basic needs of the young, the sick, and the weak.
She was a well-behaved child.
We took her to Sunday School with us.
She was a youngster who looked as though she...
She wasn't well-cared for.
Her clothes separated her a little bit from
The rest of the girls.
She just seemed like a...
A nice child, but...
But not very outgoing and not very vibrant.
SUSAN STRASBERG OFF-SCREEN: I remember she painted these two
Self-portraits.
One is this sort of sensual cat-woman.
And the other looks like this little orphan girl with one
Sock falling down.
So you see there the split in her.
Everyone's childhood plays itself out.
No wonder no one knows the other or can completely
Understand.
How do we know the pain of another's earlier years, let
Alone all that he drags with him?
I think to love bravely is the best and accept as
Much as one can bear.
You're not a scared, lonely girl anymore.
Remember, you can sit on top of the world.
It doesn't feel like it.
You can have any help you want personally or in your work or
Anything else.
Dear Lee, thank you for your patience.
Everyone else I speak with begins to
Think I'm off my rocker.
Dear Lee, one of the most personally helpful things I've
Heard so far in my life was what you said in class Friday.
Dear Lee...
SUSAN STRASBERG OFF-SCREEN: Our home became one of her
Second homes.
She was sleeping in my brother's room, and I'll never
Forget one night going, and...
And I looked through the door which was open, and my father
Was holding Marilyn in his arms and
Singing Brahms' Lullaby.
He just cradled her in his arms, and she
Embraced him back.
MARILYN MONROE OFF-SCREEN: Lee Strasberg has changed my
Life more than any other human being that I've met.
SUSAN STRASBERG OFF-SCREEN: He was one of the first people
To say to her that she had real talent as an actress.
But it seemed to exacerbate her insecurities
Rather than alleviate them.
Best finest surgeon, Strasberg, to cut me open,
Which I don't mind, since Dr. H has prepared me, given me
Anesthetic and has also diagnosed the case and agrees
With what has to be done in operation, to bring myself
Back to life and to cure me of this terrible dis-ease...
Whatever the hell it is.
They cut me open, and there is absolutely nothing there.
Strasberg is deeply disappointed but more even
Academically amazed that he had made such a mistake.
He thought there was going to be so much more than he had
Ever dreamed possible in almost anyone, but instead
There was absolutely nothing.
All this thought and writing has made my hands tremble.
I just want to keep pouring it out until that great pot in
The mind is, though not empty...
Relieved.
What do I believe in?
What is truth?
I believe in myself, even my most delicate
And tangible feelings.
I am both of your directions, life, somehow remaining,
Hanging downward the most.
But strong as a cobweb in the wind, I exist more with the
Cold, glistening frost.
But my beaded rays have the colors
I've seen in a painting.
Ah, life.
They have cheated you.
Marilyn will be in New York more than a year before she
Goes back to Hollywood.
"The Seven Year Itch" will come out to rave reviews,
Movie crowds waiting in lines, thereby demonstrating to 20th
How desperate they had better be to get her back.
It took one year from the time we started this until the
Contract was signed, and she had picture approval,
Publicity approval, director approval...
Which she had never had before.
FEMALE INTERVIEWER OFF-SCREEN: We only know the
Rumors we hear, you know.
I would rather say, uh, that I have director approval,
And that is true.
Well, I hardly know how to answer that, since they
Misinterpret that, meaning...
In inches or something.
FEMALE INTERVIEWER OFF-SCREEN: I'm not talking about that [Laughter]
She used and abused 20th Century Fox as much as they
Used and abused her.
She just went off and got suspended, and Fox got... gave
Her a bigger contract when she came back.
So she knew how to play them.
She knew how to play the bosses.
I think I'm about the same.
No, I'm the same person.
But it's a different suit.
[Laughter]
"Bus Stop" was an important film for Marilyn because it
Was the first film that she made on her new contract with
Fox, where she would get a decent salary and would have
Some control over the material.
What she'd been always fighting against were these
Very flat and very simplistic comedic roles, whereas Cherie
Is a full character and she's got a backstory.
I've been trying to be somebody.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: It was the first film that she
Made after she had started studying
At the Actor's Studio.
FEMALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Lee's wife, Paula Strasberg,
Became Marilyn's coach.
When Lee wasn't with her, Paula was with her.
Do you think you can ever forgive me?
I guess I've been treated worse in my life.
Well, I reckon that's all there is to be said.
I wish you luck, Cherie.
I wish you the same, Bo.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: Her costar, Don Murray, who
Was a respected Broadway actor, said that she was
Blowing him off the screen because she knew
How to act on screen.
I think she is one of the most extraordinary actresses
That ever lived.
I think she is a combination of
Greta Garbo and Charlie Chaplin.
When I do trust myself about certain things I do fully.
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: She made the cover of "Time"
Magazine, which proclaims, surprise, this is a major
Actress of significant depth and talent.
I'm still unorganized, but glimpsing faintly my
Responsibilities mostly to myself, I must and
Miraculously do endure.
You will be best known as a playwright, of course.
You might be second best known as one of
Marilyn Monroe's husbands.
You were married for five years.
I don't suppose there's a man who ever laid eyes on her that
Can't remember vividly his first reaction.
Do you remember yours?
Well, actually, she was weeping when I first saw her.
And, uh, I thought she was one of the saddest
People I had ever seen.
I sensed that she had a troubled
Heart from the beginning.
One night, Charlie Feldman gave a party for Arthur Miller
Who had won the Pulitzer Prize
And was a celebrity now.
I asked Art to cover for me with Marilyn.
When he called to tell her he'd pick her up, she said,
No, she'd... she'd, uh, take a taxi and meet us, him and me,
At Feldman's.
Art wouldn't allow it.
He'd come and pick her up.
Again she demurred.
He said, don't worry about it.
She's used to that.
But Art insisted.
And... and the first thing that impressed Marilyn about her
Future husband was that he refused to let her come to the
Party in a taxi.
How little these glamour girls expect out of life, I thought.
FEMALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Kazan sort of handed her off
To Miller, at least, as the story goes.
And Miller really was a romantic, and he fell deeply
In love with her.
She saw in him a father, a man with
Knowledge, a creative person.
Arthur writes me every day.
I can't get used to the fact that he loves me, and I keep
Waiting for him to stop loving me, though I
Hope he never will.
I took her at her own evaluation, which very few
People did, because she generally was thought of as
Being a rather lightheaded, if not silly, human being.
I thought she was a very serious girl way back.
That's 'cause I loved her, so I took that
Attitude toward her.
And, uh, so the best of her she thought was in my eye.
Therefore the hope she had was with me.
When I arrived, I could see that need had met need, and
The lovely light of desire was in their eyes.
I watched them dance...
Art was a good dancer...
And how happy she was in his arms.
Not only was he tall and handsome in a Lincolnesque
Way, but he was a Pulitzer Prize playwright.
All of her doubts about her worth were being satisfied in
One package.
On your testimony inside, sir, have... did you say that
You've never been under Communist discipline?
Absolutely.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: Arthur Miller was called to
The McCarthy hearings, and he was asked to testify about
Past Communist behavior and past association with
Communists.
His passport was going to be taken away.
He was being accused of being un-American.
He was going to go up in front of the committee.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: And Marilyn threw all of the
Weight of her popularity behind him, and she was
Immensely popular at this point, and stood by him.
Mr. Miller, Representative Wallace said this afternoon
He'll have to cite you for contempt.
Have you heard that?
No, I haven't.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: A lot of people
Were running for cover.
It was a very frightening time.
And so it was genuinely courageous of her.
When he was being investigated by the Senate
Un-American Activities, he was playing with something in his
Hands like the Greeks play with worry beads.
And a senator said, what is that in your answer, sir?
And he said, earrings of the woman I love.
Who is the woman you love, sir?
Marilyn Monroe.
He got his passport in two days.
I'm so concerned about protecting Arthur.
I love him, and he is the only person I have ever known that
I could love not only as a man to which I am attracted,
Practically out of my senses about, but he is the only
Person that I trust as much as myself.
She thoroughly admired him.
She thought he was a great writer.
I'm afraid, I think, he used her.
The way he announced her engagement was, uh, bizarre.
Mr. Miller, why did you file an application for a passport?
I want to go to England?
For what reason?
- You guess. - We'd like you to...
I wanted to be with the woman who is going to be my wife.
- You mean Marilyn Monroe? - That's correct.
He announced it to the press in Washington when he was up
There for the House on Un-American Affairs Committee
And then telephoned her in New York and told
Her what he'd done.
Have you been engaged long?
No, just a few days.
Yes, he announced it to the press first.
I didn't want to bring that up.
Yes.
When did the idea of marriage first come up?
Just, um, the last few months.
How long ago did you decide to get married?
Was there talk about it before the formal engagement?
Well, it, um...
A little, maybe.
AMY GREENE OFF-SCREEN: How did she feel?
How does anyone... I mean, she cried.
That's when I said, you're gonna marry this creep?
And I said, don't tell me he's terrific in
Bed because I don't...
I doubt it.
We were in a car, and this French
Journalist was chasing us.
And we were trying to lose them.
And we made one turn, and they didn't make
It, and they crashed.
And then she became hysterical.
It's all my fault.
That was the week before the wedding.
And she figured at the beginning of the marriage with
Arthur, there was a death.
I feel as if it's all happening to someone right
Next to me.
I'm close.
I can feel it, hear it, but it's not really me.
I'm not going to say where we will be married because, uh,
I think it's time enough for everybody to know when it
Happens and to leave us with a little bit of
Peace until it happens.
So that's about it.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: It's interesting how
Contemporary the debates about her marriages feel.
Something very modern happens, which is that there begins to
Be this story about whether she can have it all.
Can you work and have a family at the same time?
Mrs. Miller, do you think your marriage plan is going to
Change your career any?
Well, uh, I don't think so.
I mean, he's known as a playwright.
I think he would like for me to be a good actress too.
Do you intend to continue your career?
July 15 I'm going to England.
Yes.
Is Mr. Miller going with you?
I hope he'll be with me. Yes.
Suppose Mr. Miller doesn't get a passport.
Are you prepared to change your plans?
There's no change of plans.
No change of plans.
Then after this picture, do you intend to continue your
Work here in this country?
Well, that... that depends.
Probably so.
When are you planning to have some children?
Well, I'm not married yet, dear.
[Laughter]
The very inappropriateness of our being together was to me
The sign that it was appropriate.
She was sensuous and life-loving, it seemed, when
In the center of it, there was a darkness and a tragedy that
I didn't know the dimensions of at the time.
NEWSCASTER: A honeymoon couple arrive at London Airport...
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Miller.
Mrs. Miller is better known as Marilyn Monroe.
Arthur is one of America's most brilliant playwrights.
He wrote "Death of a Salesman." Marilyn's come to
England to film with Sir Laurence Olivier, who's here
With his wife to meet them.
A marriage of brains and beauty, but don't let anyone
Tell you Arthur's got all the brains.
Oh, it would have been marvelous, but, um, it wasn't.
She was a very difficult girl.
I think she had a deep-seeded
Resistance to being an actress.
She had no resistance to being a star.
But I think there was something about acting that
Innately frightened her that she didn't know about.
I can't really stand human beings sometimes.
Ah, Miss Marina, won't you have some champagne?
Oh, I don't know, your Grand Ducal.
You really think I ought?
Well, maybe just a sip.
Maybe just up to...
Wow!
I beg your pardon?
You said something?
Oh, no.
Just playing a little game over here all by myself.
Good.
Cheerio.
She acted Laurence Olivier right off the screen.
He gave one of his few bad performances.
She was simply magical.
Dear, I do not altogether understand you, Miss Marina.
Oh, now don't pull the Grand Duke with me.
You made a pact, and I turned it down.
That's all that happened.
We can still be friendly.
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: Milton was there trying to
Control everything.
Paula Strasberg, Lee's wife, was there, not being very
Helpful, unfortunately.
She became ill and wasn't at her best.
COLIN CLARK OFF-SCREEN: If Marilyn had had a very hard
Day filming, she and Paula would ring Lee in New York,
And Lee would try and give her some advice and encouragement.
Don't ever entirely rely on the director.
He can't control your thoughts or emotions.
In our work, we encourage the actor to create independently
Of the director.
Olivier saw this as a tremendous act of sabotage.
He felt that he had to reassert his authority over
Marilyn all the time.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: Early on in the filming, she
Asked for some direction about her motivation.
He said, just be sexy, Marilyn.
Isn't that what you do?
She was so angry at him.
And after that, any possibility that they might
Have had a cordial working relationship was over.
And she later said, I started being bad with him.
She punished him by not showing up,
Not knowing her lines.
She was an extraordinary character, very interesting.
But very painful if you had to get a day's
Work done with her.
I tried to tell him for his own good that you can't
Approach Marilyn technically or mechanically.
She's not that kind of an actress.
She works our way.
If you just explain to her what you want emotionally,
She'll give it to you.
He was rather annoyed with me.
He acted as if I were pretending to tell him how to
Direct, and as a result, they had terrible difficulty.
Oh, she came off very well, and he...
He should've come off equally well, but he didn't.
Fraud, from the first five minutes, because I should have
Agreed she was a joke...
A beautiful piece trying to take herself seriously.
Why did I lie to her?
I swear to you, I did get to where I couldn't imagine what
I'd ever been ashamed of, but it was too late.
I wanted to face the worst thing I could imagine...
That I could not love.
And I wrote it down, like a letter from hell.
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: Marilyn found Arthur's
Notebook, and she opened it and leafed through it and
Found some extremely derogatory comments about her.
And it made her work immensely difficult.
My husband, the great American playwright, Arthur Miller,
Thinks I'm dumb and incapable.
And she'd work herself into insomnia.
Oh, silence, you stillness, hurt my head, jars my head
With the stillness of sounds unbearable, unendurable.
On a screen of pitch darkness, the monsters come, my most
Steadfast companions.
Oh, peace, I need you...
Even a peaceful monster.
AMY GREENE OFF-SCREEN: She always suffered from insomnia.
There were good nights and bad nights.
But Arthur was when she started to
Get addicted to pills.
FEMALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Miller was supposed to be her
Savior, yet she felt more and more inadequate.
She had so much power and in such a vacuum, it's no wonder
The three men, each possessed with their own artistic
Integrity, would compete to fill that vacuum.
Arthur Miller, Milton Greene, and Lee Strasberg jockeyed one
Another for the control of her mind and
Possession of her life.
AMY GREENE OFF-SCREEN: Arthur made Marilyn Monroe
Productions break up because he was jealous of Milton.
They spent too much time together for Arthur.
When it came time to break the contracts, Milton cruised
Arthur and said, Arthur, you're a schmuck
And walked out.
Marilyn called within an hour and said, I'm so sorry, and
They were both crying on the phone.
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: This, then, meant that she was
Once again literally out of work and trying to support
Arthur Miller.
So they came back to Hollywood, and she made "Some"
"Like it Hot," one for her most popular films.
Mr. Arthur Miller, 444 East 57th Street,
New York, New York.
Straight telegram.
Telegram, February 12, 1959, 9:04 AM, Bill Wilder.
Dear Arthur, this having been my second picture with
Marilyn, I understand her problems.
Her biggest problem is that she doesn't understand anyone
Else's problems.
Marilyn was frustrated because the part of Sugar Kane
Is another dumb blonde.
She couldn't believe she was playing a blonde who was so
Dumb that she didn't even realize that the two women she
Was with were guys.
I'm not very bright, I guess.
I wouldn't say that.
Careless maybe.
No, just dumb.
If I had any brains, I wouldn't be on this crummy
Train with this crummy girl's band.
BILLY WILDER OFF-SCREEN: She had a gift of creating
Complications and...
And spreading a little misery.
We would have, like, 300 extras, and she would show up
At 2:00 in the afternoon.
And I said, what happened.
And she says...
She said, I lost my way.
I recall one typical morning when she showed up 2 and 1/2
Hours late, carrying a copy of Thomas Payne's "The Rights of"
"Man." And when a second assistant director knocked on
Her dressing room door and humbly asked if she was ready,
Her humanity shone through, and she replied, quote, "Drop"
Dead," unquote.
She's not the first actress who must follow her own path
To a performance.
Given her evident excellence, it was your job as director
Not to reject her approach because it was
Unfamiliar to you.
She did not have the...
The disposition, the evenness
Or the, uh... the talents of some other actors.
There's no question.
But what she was doing was fighting and using more of
What she had.
It was more of a struggle for her.
I think that the help that she got from her studies with
Various acting groups, I think, only confused her.
We believe that the actor becomes the character.
Actress must have no mouth, no feet.
Actress must have no mouth, feet, shoulder...
Everything, though.
Actress must have no mouth, feet, shoulders.
Girdle hangs light...
So loose, so...
No.
Actress must have no mouth, feet, shoulder, girdle hangs
Light, so loose.
Everything focused on partner, feelings in
The end of my fingers.
Billy had given her every conceivable kind of
Direction...
Using obstacles, counterpoints, relating to
Your grandmother's raincoat...
Whatever.
I have never heard such brilliant, marvelous,
Diversified direction given to one actor in my life...
All of them legitimate, all of them within the realm of
Legitimate behavior of that character in that
Circumstance.
Nothing worked.
Still it would be, sorry. And the hands would go again.
There was just some demons inside her that was
There all the time.
The sensitivity is so full and so strong it is dangerous,
Because the emotions can and do rule everything.
You do things out of fear, and you must start to do things
Out of strength.
My question, where do I get the strength?
Had you, dear Arthur, been not her husband but her writer
And director and been subjected to all the
Indignities I was, you'd have thrown her out on her can,
Thermos bottle and all, to avoid a nervous breakdown.
I did the braver thing.
I had a nervous breakdown.
Respectfully, Billy Wilder.
We sat and talked, and Marilyn said, I hate funerals.
I'm glad I won't have to go to my own.
Only I don't want a funeral...
Just my ashes cast on waves by one of my kids
If I ever have any.
She talked publicly and privately about her desire to
Have a child.
When she suffered two miscarriages while married to
Arthur Miller, the press made much of this anomaly...
The sex goddess who could not bear children.
I think I am very lonely.
My mind jumps.
I see myself in the mirror now, brow furrowed.
If I lean close, I'll see what I don't want to know...
Tension, sadness, disappointment.
My eyes dulled, cheeks flushed with capillaries that
Look like rivers on a map, hair lying like snakes.
My mouth makes me the saddest, next to my dead eyes.
There is a dark line between the lips and the outline of
Several waves in a turbulent storm.
It says...
It says, don't kiss me.
Don't fool me.
I'm a dancer who cannot dance.
What makes you so sad?
I think you're the saddest girl I ever met.
You're the first man that ever said that.
I'm usually told how happy I am.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: It was supposed to be a
Valentine for her, but actually, she was incredibly
Disappointed in the character.
The character was called Roslyn,
Spelled L-Y-N, like Marilyn.
It's this woman as muse, but not as a thinking human being
Who has her own ideas.
Marilyn read the script and thought, this is supposed to
Be my valentine.
This... this is what you think of me?
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: More than that, he made it
Virtually into a template, or a stencil, of Marilyn
Monroe's own life.
Oh, you've changed things around.
And, uh, how do you like it?
Oh, don't look at those.
They're nothing.
Gay just hung them up for a joke.
The idea that he would have her say of her own persona
That it's just a joke and shut the door on it, I think it's
Really unkind.
Come on, let's have lots of drinks.
Come on.
She treated Miller very badly on the film.
They even shared a flat,
And then he moved out.
And she was very unhappy during that whole period.
A dream had gone.
When one wants to stay alone, as my love, Arthur, indicates
The other must stay apart.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: There were days on end where
She wouldn't emerge from her trailer.
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: Meantime John Huston, he's
Going to the tables and dropping $10,000 a night,
Which puts the whole production in jeopardy,
Because the studio is giving John money to gamble.
And they have to shut down the film for three weeks because
They have no money to pay the cast and crew.
How are they going to explain this to the stockholders of
The studio?
Easy...
Marilyn Monroe was uncooperative.
We had to stop the picture.
She was a very sick girl.
They took her to a hospital in Los Angeles, and she was under
Care of a psychiatrist to get her off the drugs.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: Some biographers, notably
Donald Spoto, have argued that basically Marilyn was fine and
That the studio was scapegoating her.
And I think there's something to that.
But you can see it in her face...
She's not well.
Help.
Help, help, help, help, help, help, help...
I feel life coming closer when all I want
To do is die, scream.
You began and ended in air, but where was the middle?
You eat those pills to blind yourself, but if you could
Only say, I have been cruel, this
Frightening room would open.
If you could say, I have been kicked around, but I have been
Just as inexcusably vicious to others, called my husband
Idiot in public.
I have been utterly selfish despite my generosity.
I have been hurt by a long line of men.
But I have cooperated with my persecutors.
Marilyn was ill physically.
She was distraught psychologically.
Everything was coming to a crisis at the same time she
Was having to do the first dramatic role she'd
Ever tried to do.
It was precisely at that time... It was a very difficult
Time... when you met Inge Morath, who has become your
Wife and who you've lived with ever since.
She was... you met her on the set of "The Misfits," didn't
You, at that very moment?
She was one of several photographers who came out to
Photograph "The Misfits." We did meet there, and then I met
Her again some months later in New York.
By this time, I...
I was no longer with Marilyn.
I guess I've always been deeply terrified to really be
Someone's wife, since I know from life that one cannot love
Another ever really.
MALE INTERVIEWER OFF-SCREEN: Marilyn, what's the reason for
The breakup? Can you tell us?
I'm sorry.
I'm...
I...
I can't talk about my personal life.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: Things were starting to unravel.
Marilyn started seeing a couple of psychoanalysts.
On the East Coast, she started seeing a woman called Marianne
Kris and a well-known Hollywood psychoanalyst called
Ralph Greenson, who's kind of psychoanalyst to the stars.
I was her therapist, the good father who would...
Who would not disappoint her, who would bring her insights.
And if not insights, just kindness.
I had become the most important person in her life.
Dear Dr. Greenson, I'm having May Reis type this because
It's not very clearly written, but I have also included these
Notes, and you will see when I mean.
MM...
March 2, 1961.
Last night I was awake all night again.
And sometimes I wonder what the nighttime is for.
It almost doesn't exist for me.
It all seems like one long, long, horrible day.
Anyway, I thought I'd try to be constructive about it, and
I started to read the letters of Sigmund Freud.
She sinks into a depression so severe that
Her analyst is worried.
Perhaps there is a suicide attempt.
She is admitted to Payne Whitney, a
Hospital for mental disorders.
Until now, she has not been told
Anything about this hospital.
What are you doing to me, she cries out.
What kind of place is this?
When she came in to my floor, I was...
I was not expecting her.
Her outside doctor had lied to her and told her she was just
Coming into a nice, quiet, you know,
Hotel-like place for a rest.
The moment the door closed and locked behind her, she
Panicked and pounded on the door and
Pleaded with me to let her out.
She just kept saying it very quietly and in a very
Controlled fashion.
She'd say, open the door and let me out.
I won't cause any trouble.
Just open the door, and I'll go quietly.
Please.
Dear Lee and Paula...
Doctor Kris has had me put into the New York Hospital,
Psychiatric division, under the care of two idiot doctors.
They both should not be my doctors.
You haven't heard from me because I'm locked up with all
These poor, nutty people.
I'm sure to end up a nut if I stay in this nightmare.
Please help me, Lee.
This is the last place I should be.
Maybe if you called Doctor Kris and assured her of my
Sensitivity and that I must get back to class.
Please help me.
If Doctor Kris assures you that I am all right, you can
Assure her that I am not.
I do not belong here.
I love you both.
Marilyn.
NURSE OFF-SCREEN: The most important thing was to watch
Her for suicide and to take her off barbiturates.
My understanding is that she got out of them during her
Marriage to Arthur Miller.
She had no ego to start with, and it left her less.
This is right after the separation.
He didn't write, call, cable...
Nothing.
He left her there, and he knew she was there.
There was no empathy at Payne Whitney.
It had a very bad effect.
And they asked me, after putting me in a cell...
I mean, cement blocks and all for very disturbed, depressed
Patients, except I felt I was in some kind of a prison for a
Crime I hadn't committed...
And they asked me why I wasn't happy there.
They asked me why I wasn't happy there.
Everything was under lock and key... things like electric
Lights, dresser drawers, bathrooms, closets.
I answered, well, I'd have to be nuts if I liked it here.
They asked me to mingle with the patients, to go out to
Occupational therapy.
I said, and do what?
They said, you could sew or play checkers, even cards, and
Maybe knit.
I tried to explain that the day I did that they would have
A nut on their hands.
They asked me why I felt I was different from the other
Patients, I guess.
So I decided, if they were really that stupid, I must
Give them a very simple answer.
So I said, I just am.
Soon, gossip is blazing like brush fire.
Then the press hold vigil outside Payne Whitney's walls.
NURSE OFF-SCREEN: There were, like, 500 photographers and
Reporters in the lobby, and they were following the nurses
Home, and it was chaos.
You can't very well have somebody get well under these
Conditions.
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: Finally she was able to get a
Letter out to Joe, who came and took her home.
He went to the hospital and said, if you don't release her
Into my care, we'll take this building
Apart, brick by brick.
March, 1961...
Joe said he pulled himself up by his own bootstraps after
The divorce, but he told me also that if he had been me,
He would have divorced him too.
Christmas night, he sent a forest full of poinsettias.
I asked who they were from.
My friend said, I don't know.
The card just says...
Best, Joe.
So I said, well, there's just one Joe.
I called him up and asked him why he had sent the flowers.
He said, first of all, because I thought you would
Call me to thank me.
And then he said, besides, who in the hell else
Do you have in the world?
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: She was in intense therapy
With Greenson.
In what we would now consider very bad therapeutic practice,
He invited Marilyn into his home and started to create yet
Another surrogate family for Marilyn.
Rich and famous people need the therapist 24 hours a day.
Psychiatrists must be willing to become emotionally involved
With their patients if they hope to establish a reliable
Therapeutic relationship.
He was under her spell, thrilled to be Marilyn
Monroe's doctor and I think was willing to give her any
Shots, any prescriptions she wanted.
The administering of the pill was an attempt to give her
Something of me to swallow, to take in, so that she could
Overcome the sense of terrible emptiness that would
Depress and infuriate her.
For years, I've been struggling to find some
Emotional security with...
With little success.
My work is the only trustworthy hope I have.
My work is the only trustworthy hope that I have.
It is April, 1962.
She has four months to live.
And work is ready to start on a film she will do for 20th
For her contract.
It will be called "Something's Got to Give."
It was going to be her last film for the 20th Century Fox
Studios under a seven-year contract.
It's questionable whether she was ready to go back to work
After an incredibly difficult year.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Lights, camera.
Ww...
Can we start again?
Yes.
I can do my work as fully as I wish.
I will be as sensitive as I am without being ashamed of it.
Go this way?
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: No, no, no.
This way.
Always this way.
All right.
All righty?
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: 365.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Lights, camera.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: 683.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Speed.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Lights, camera.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: 699.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: [Inaudible].
OK.
Rolling?
OK.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Everyone that worked with
Monroe understood the downside
Counterbalanced with the upside.
And I would not put George Cukor in that category.
Marilyn's finally gone around the bend.
She doesn't remember her lines and acts as though she were
Underwater.
In the afternoon, she's under alcohol.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: 74.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Speed.
All right, now start real hard work.
There were enormous costs already piled up against the
Picture... five or six scripts by expensive writers, 34 days
Over the shooting schedule in the first quarter of
Production, further weakening the already shaky position of
20th Century Fox.
20th Century Fox was going bankrupt because of a little
Movie called "Cleopatra."
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: It was a huge, expensive star
Vehicle that became the most expensive movie ever made.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: They shut down virtually every
Other production except "Something's Got to Give" and
"Cleopatra." Elizabeth Taylor was making $1 million, as
Opposed to Marilyn's 100,000, and Marilyn was acutely aware
Of the difference in the way that
Elizabeth Taylor was being treated.
Here, Jeb. Jeb.
Watch it.
Jeb, speak.
Speak.
Speak, boy.
Come on, speak.
Jeb.
Jeb, Jeb.
Speak.
Come on, speak.
Here, Jeb.
Come on.
Jeb.
Come on, Jeb.
Whether anything will come of this project I do not know,
But it certainly diverts me to think about it.
It would be the definitive Hollywood story.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Here, Jeb.
Watch it.
Speak.
Jeb, speak.
Speak.
Come on, speak.
Speak.
[Barking]
Oh, for the good old days of the industry when the studios
Arranged things so adroitly and were not so hit and miss
And confusing.
I start like...
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: 382.
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: Marilyn went down for three
Weeks with a high fever and a sinus infection.
MARILYN MONROE OFF-SCREEN: You have a cold?
How dare you have a cold?
I mean, the executives can get colds and stay home for...
You know, forever and phone it in.
But how dare you get a cold?
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: The straw that broke the
Camel's back was her decision to appear at Madison Square
Garden to sing that little birthday song.
Mr. President, the late Marilyn Monroe.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: Remarkably, Fox had told her
That she couldn't go.
From her point of view, going to sing "Happy Birthday" for
The President was something she was not going to miss.
We were both astonished that she had gone.
Cukor particularly was angry.
You know, he was starting to feel,
I think, a kind of, uh, helplessness.
[MUSIC - "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU"]
DONALD SPOTO OFF-SCREEN: 20th Century Fox accused Marilyn
Monroe of insubordination and of leaving the production
Without permission, and she was fired.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: She was devastated.
It was the worst thing that could happen to her, because
Her acting career would be over.
She was deemed not employable.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: The studio began a smear
Campaign after it fired her to say that the footage that they
Had was unusable, that she'd been in such a fog that they
Couldn't possibly have continued to work with her.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: So she was the big bad wolf.
And Fox thought they got away with almost murder.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: She mounted a counter offense.
She basically fought back.
She started taking pictures to show how good she looked, and
She started giving interviews.
MARILYN MONROE OFF-SCREEN: I mean, the things they sent out
About me, that this corporation, who I'm prepared
To leave nameless, we're not machines.
No matter how much they want to say we are, we are not.
If I am a star, the people made me a star.
It was no studio and no person.
I would like very much to be a fine actress.
I would like to be happy, but trying to be happy is almost
As difficult as trying to be a good actress.
SARAH CHURCHWELL OFF-SCREEN: Only about 10 or 15 years ago
It was discovered in the Fox archives a contract that they
Had rehired her for $1 million, for the money that
She had been fighting for so hard.
They rehired her just a few days before she died.
Dear Lee, this is an important personal letter, and
Please don't start to read it until you have the time to
Give it your careful thought.
This letter concerns my future plans and therefore concerns
Yours as well, since my future development as an artist is
Based on our working together.
My attorneys and I are planning to set up an
Independent production unit, in which we have envisaged an
Important position for you.
As far as I'm concerned, the happiest time
Of my life is now.
There's a future, and I can't wait to get to it.
My love to all of you.
Marilyn.
The light was leaving.
She seemed to fade with it,
Blend with the sky and clouds,
Proceed beyond them.
I wanted to lift my voice louder than the seagulls'
Cries and call her back...
Marilyn, Marilyn.
Why did everything have to turn out the way it did?
Many of us remember the precise moment on August 5,
1962 when we first heard of her death.
We remember where we were, what the room looked
Like, who was there.
It's a sense memory usually reserved for the death of a
President or a member of our own family.
One simple reason for her life story's endurance is the
Premature end of it.
When the past dies, there is mourning, but when the future
Dies, our imaginations are compelled to carry it on.
The more I think of it, the more I realize
There are no answers.
Life is to be lived.
And since it is comparatively so short...
Maybe too short, maybe too long...
The only thing I know for sure, it isn't easy.
Now that I want to live and I feel suddenly not old, not
Concerned about previous things except to protect
Myself, my life, and to desperately
Pray tell the universe...
I trust it.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Do you, uh, keep a
Diary, by the way?
MARILYN MONROE OFF-SCREEN: Well, not exactly a diary.
Sometimes when things used to happen, I
Used to write it down.
But then I used to tear it up.
I'm gonna read it like this.
This is what you want, right?
Like this.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Three echo, take one, 80 mark.
Not a scared lonely little girl anymore.
Not a scared lonely... Not a scared
Lonely little girl anymore.
Please don't talk about me... no.
Please don't talk about me when I'm gone.
God.
Oh.
It's good to be back.
I'm flattered.
I'm honored.
FEMALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: So you're a happy girl now?
Yeah.
I'm MM.
Let's take that one more time.
I got a little turned up... here we go.
Internal, internal, internal.
OK, starting...
I used to appear on... When I was modeling...
On, uh, men's magazine covers, such as, uh, I don't know,
"Squint," "Peep," "Pick-a-Peep," all those...
[Laughter]
Let me go back.
I'm good, though.
I'm good.
I'm sorry.
Ah!
Shall we start over?
Shabby sounding.
Let's do it one more time.
I think Judge Griffith was right in penalizing me.
I don't really believe in ignoring traffic citations.
Dear Darryl, I got your script.
It stinks.
Love you, Marilyn Monroe.
Oh, that almost made me cry.
That's so sweet of her.
I trust it.
That sucked.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Would you say that you take
Acting very seriously?
I'm afraid I do.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Thanks, Marilyn.
Thank you very much.
Bye.
MALE SPEAKER OFF-SCREEN: Bye.