The Final Years of Marilyn Monroe The Shocking True Story

399 Pages·2010·3.33 MB·English

by  Keith Badman

Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Prelude – Childhood/Adulthood: Birth to June 1961
2 June 1961–Monday 8 January 1962
3 Friday 17 November 1961–April (second week) 1962
4 Marilyn and the Kennedys – The Unequivocal Truth: Saturday 23 September
1961 and beyond
5 Wednesday 7 February 1962–Sunday 22 April 1962
6 Something’s Got To Give (part one): Monday 23 April 1962–Saturday 19 May
1962
7 The JFK Gala/Something’s Got To Give (part two): Saturday 19 May 1962–
Tuesday 12 June 1962
8 Despondency, Rebirth, Photo Shoots and the Cal-Neva: Saturday 9 June 1962–
Monday 30 July 1962
9 Tuesday 31 July 1962–7.55pm, Saturday 4 August 1962
10 7.55pm, Saturday 4 August 1962–9.04am, Sunday 5 August 1962
11 The Fallout: Sunday 5 August 1962–Monday 28 October 1985
12 Goodbye, Marilyn: Sunday 5 August 1962–Wednesday 8 August 1962
Index
About the author
Copyright
List of Illustrations
1. October 1960, Pyramid Lake, Nevada. Marilyn and her third husband, the
playwright Arthur Miller, take a break during the filming of The Misfits.
2. 11 November 1960, New York. Marilyn attempts to leave her apartment
following the announcement that she was divorcing Arthur Miller. ‘Arthur is a
wonderful writer,’ she would remark, ‘but I think he’s a better writer than a
husband.’
3. 22 March 1961, Reddington Beach, Florida. DiMaggio sticks his tongue out to
waiting journalists who were attempting to disrupt his and Marilyn’s rest on
the beach.
4. 14 June 1961, Sands Hotel, Las Vegas. Dean Martin’s surprise belated 44th
birthday celebration, midnight. Marilyn was seen seated at the very edge of the
Sands’ stage, champagne glass in hand, gently swaying along to the music,
enthusiastically applauding each number and gazing up adoringly at Sinatra as
he performed. Seated alongside her were Martin and her great screen rival,
Elizabeth Taylor.
5. 15 June 1961, Idlewild Airport. Marilyn arrives back in New York following
her flight out of Los Angeles. Amid tidal waves of wolf-whistles and flash
bulbs, she remarked ‘No comment’ to reporters who enquired why she had
suddenly returned.
6. 11 July 1961, the Polyclinic Hospital, New York. After two weeks of
recuperating, Marilyn was wheeled out of hospital following gall-bladder
surgery. Before doing so, her obligatory New York hairstylist, the eminent
Kenneth Battelle had been urgently summoned to fix her tresses. ‘I had flown
in from Europe that day,’ he recalled. ‘I flew to New York for three hours just
to do Marilyn’s hair.’
7. 11 August 1961, Beverly Hills Hotel. Marilyn fulfils the wishes of 14-year-
old Barbara Heinz, who was dying of incurable bone cancer in Wisconsin’s
Appleton Memorial Hospital. With just a month to live, the young girl, a keen
collector of toys, penned a letter to the actress requesting a picture of her with
Maf. Marilyn duly obliged. This photograph arrived at the girl’s bedside on
Wednesday 23 August inscribed with the words, ‘From Marilyn Monroe to
Barbara Heinz. With love.’
8. 5 March 1962, Golden Globes ceremony. By Marilyn’s side at this star-
studded event was the Mexican-born Jose Bolaños. His presence naturally
ignited rumours in the American press of a ‘Latin lover’ in Marilyn’s life.
However, aside from a few short walks in the moonlight, there was no
romance. Just days after the lavish ceremony, and with the actress clearly tired
of his company and the language barrier, Bolaños was packing his bags,
heading back to his motherland.
9. 5 March 1962, Golden Globes ceremony, the International Ballroom of the
Beverly Hilton Hotel. After a poll carried out by the Hollywood Foreign Press
Association, Marilyn’s apparent fall from prominence proved to be premature
when she was bestowed with the Henrietta Award for the World’s Favourite
Female Movie Star. She is pictured here with the actor, Rock Hudson.
10. 10 April 1962, Twentieth Century-Fox Studios, Los Angeles, screen-tests for
Something’s Got To Give. Marilyn’s first appearance on a film set in 17
months. This was a newborn Monroe. Aided by her new svelte 22-inch waist
and 8-stone 4lbs body weight, she was considerably more sophisticated and
stylish than she had ever been before.
11. 10 April, 1962, Twentieth-Century Fox Studios, Los Angeles, screen-tests
for Something’s Got to Give.
12. For six straight hours, Marilyn posed, paraded, smiled and laughed in front
of the Deluxe colour CinemaScope cameras wearing a total of 7 different
hairstyles and 15 different costumes.
13. 19 May 1962, Madison Square Garden, New York. During a break in
rehearsals for the JFK Gala, Marilyn sits and chats with one of the event’s co-
organisers, the legendary English-born ‘party-planner’ Clive David. ‘She was
the high-spot of the evening,’ he admitted. ‘The guest-list was incredible but
she was the true highlight of the whole thing.’ (From the collection of Clive
David.)
14. As a keepsake from the event, reproduced here for the very first time,
Marilyn inscribed a wall-tile for David with the words, ‘To Clive love &
kisses Marilyn Monroe’. An inscription by the Strasbergs (Lee and Paula) can
be seen at the bottom of the image. (From the collection of Clive David.)
15. 19 May 1962, Madison Square Garden, New York, 11.30 p.m. In front of
12,000 loyal Democratic Party members, Marilyn half-sang, half-talked an
extremely sultry, sexually charged, super-slow rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’
in a way that no one had ever heard it sung before. Before she did so, she
thought to herself, ‘By God, I’ll sing this song if it’s the last thing I ever do.’
16. The original invoice for Marilyn’s world-famous dress she wore that night.
(From the Keith Badman collection.)
17. 19 May 1962, Upper East Side townhouse at 33 East 69th Street, New York,
a private after-show gathering. In this world-famous picture, Marilyn, still
wearing her legendary dress, stands in the library between John and Bobby
Kennedy. In the palm of her left hand is her present for JFK, an 18ct, $5,000
gold Rolex ‘President’ watch (pictured above) inscribed with the words, ‘Jack,
with love as always from Marilyn, May 19th, 1962.’ Tucked inside the
timepiece’s box was a poem, which read, ‘Let lovers breathe their sighs And
roses bloom and music sound Let passion burn on lips and eyes And pleasures
merry world go round Let golden sunshine flood the sky And let me love Or let
me die!’ This is the only known picture of the actress taken with either of the
Kennedy brothers.
18. May 1962, Marilyn’s Exec-U-Car Inc. limousine hire invoice, covering the
period 17 to 20 May 1962, the entire time she was in New York for JFK’s
birthday gala. (From the Keith Badman collection.)
19. 1 June 1962, Chavez Ravine Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Angels
baseball team. In front of a record-breaking 51,584 crowd, Marilyn blew
kisses and made an appeal for donations for the Muscular Dystrophy
Association. Throughout the evening, with the wind blowing hard through the
stadium, the actress fought hard to keep her hat attached to her head. The
Angels’ smallest player, outfielder Albie Gregory Pearson is amongst those
pictured alongside her. Besides being Marilyn’s 36th birthday, it was also her
very last public performance.
20. 4 August 1962, 12305 Fifth Helena Drive, Brentwood. At approximately 4
p.m. on the day of her death Marilyn received a delivery of, amongst other
items, petunias, begonias, sedums, terracotta pots, a Mexican lime tree, a
hanging begonia basket and some hummingbird feeding stands from Franks
Nurseries & Flowers shop at 12424 Wilshire Boulevard. This is one of the
actress’s receipts from the sale, made on 1 August. (From the Keith Badman
collection.)
21. August 1962. Eunice Murray didn’t like being called Marilyn’s housekeeper.
‘I guess there’s no word in the dictionary to exactly describe what I was,’ she
admitted. ‘I was her chauffeur, her cook, her real estate agent, her social
secretary.’ In truth, she was a house-spy, sent by Dr Greenson, and never once
did she let on to the actress she had a background as a psychiatric nurse. It was
a vocation she had been employed in since 1951.
22. 5 August 1962, rear of Marilyn’s home, 12305 Fifth Helena Drive,
Brentwood, morning – two baubles, one a tiger, the other a lamb, lay
abandoned on the grass, at the exact spot they landed the night before, at the
conclusion of a game of ‘fetch-ball’ between Marilyn and Maf.
23. 8 August 1962, Westwood Village Mortuary chapel in the grounds of the
Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery, 1 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (4 p.m.
Eastern Daylight Time). Dr Ralph Greenson (Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatrist),
his wife Hildi and their children, Daniel and Joan, in attendance at Marilyn’s
funeral.
24. August 1962. Coverage of Marilyn’s death featured prominently for several
days in newspapers right across the globe.
25. 8 August 1962, Westwood Village Mortuary. A decidedly distraught
DiMaggio, alongside his son, Joe Jr. at Marilyn’s funeral.
Acknowledgments
D
uring the course of my research, I travelled thousand of miles, sat in a
hundred different libraries, resided in numerous dissimilar hotel rooms and,
naturally, spent countless hours typing on my laptop. Do I regret it? Absolutely
not; it was an utter joy. Along the way, I was ably assisted by many different
people. In no specific order, they were . . .
(In the States) Douglas Kirkland, Miranda Bracket, Clive David, Vince
Palamara, Mitch Ison, John William Tuohy, Philip J. Weiss, Rob Hudson, Mark
Hitchens, Su Kim Chung, Nick Scire, Joyce Duffy, Judy Simms, Donald R.
Burleson and (in the UK) Juan Carty. I am indebted to you all.
Plus Ray and Helen Boyer, Peter Ciraolo, Carrie Salafia, Jeff Dalton, John
McEwen, Erik Taros, Stephen Plotkin, the guy at the New York Public Library
who ‘loves Rita Hayworth’, Lauren Daley (of the newspaper South Coast
Today), and the many others who assisted me with my research and made me so
very, very welcome during my stay in the USA. Special thanks must also go to
the great Bob Boyer (of Sunset Records) who was a superb
host/guide/assistant/friend, you name it, during the visit. Thank you all big time.
Gratitude also goes out to the wonderful individuals at the following libraries,
archives, auction houses and sites: The Colindale Newspaper Library (in
particular Jane Walsh and Victor Bristoll), the truly marvellous medical
department at the British Library, the Westminster Reference Library, the BBC
Written Archives Centre, the British Film Institute, Slough Public Library, The
Kennedy Library in Hyannis Port, The JFK Library in Boston, The Nevada State
Library, The Newspaper Archives, 20th Century Fox, NBC Television, the
Internet Movie Database, the UCLA Film and Television Archive Collection in
California, eBay, The Carnegie Hall Archives, Scott at the truly superb
www.MarilynMonroe Collection.com, Monroe collector Syd Stanwell, Greg
Schreiner at his excellent www.themarilynmonroesite, Heritage, Sotheby’s,
Christie’s, Philips and Margaret Barrett at Bonhams.
The same goes to the following who were there either to help or lend support
in my project: my webmistress, Anne-Marie Trace (at www.keithbadman.com),
Alan G. Parker (for help in putting the wheels of this book in motion), Mark
Saunders (for his invaluable insight into air travel and political history), Richard
Higgins and John Nolan (at ITN Source), Fred Rivers (in Hyannis Port), Mike
Dalton, Wayne Allen (at Odeon Entertainment), Macundray Shukna, Dave
Carter, Terry Rawlings, Fiona Early, Maxine Forrest, Lucinda MacGregor, Greg
Schmidt, Spencer Leigh, Spencer Peet, Mick O’Toole, Ross Landau, Brian
Luck, Stephen Rouse, Mick O’Shea and Tasha, Danny Wall, Michael Murtagh,
Laurence Moore, Richard W. Irwin (at Reel Radio.com), Pete and Fenella
Walkling, Tony and Sunny Dogra, and so many, many others, including the late,
great Tom Keylock. I cannot list you all but you sure know who you are.
I am also indebted to the following.
Newspapers, magazines and columns: The New York Daily News, The New
York Post, The New York Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Life, The Los
Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times-Herald, The
Philadelphia Daily News, The Times, Daily Mirror, The Globe, The Oneonta
Star, Hollywood Today, The Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Variety, Hedda
Hopper’s Hollywood, Independent Press-Telegram, The Post-Tribune, Winnipeg
Free Press, The Evening News, Corpus Christi Caller Times, Fresno Bee, The
Gleaner, Gazette-Mail, Ogden Standard Examiner, Lowell Sunday Sun, Journal-
American, Ames Daily Tribune, Good Housekeeping, Vogue, Confidential,
Woman’s Day, Ladies Home Journal, Observer, Middlesboro Daily News,
Redbook, Films and Filming, National Geographic, Oui, L’Osservatore
Romano, Gentle and Vanity Fair (October 2008 issue).
Reporters who covered Marilyn back in her day: Walter Winchell, Dorothy
Kilgallen, Louella O. Parsons, Sheilah Graham, Hedda Hopper, Maurice
Zolotow, Aline Mosby, Ezra Goodman, Mike Connolly, Fenton Bresler, George
Carpozi Jr, Donald Zec, William Woodfield, Joe Hyams, Florabel Muir, Allan
Levy, Erskine Johnson, James Bacon, Martin Buckley, Ben Hecht, Dorothy
Manners, James Gray-Gold, Earl Wilson, Bob Thomas, Scott Carson, Marie
Torre, Patricia Clary.
The authors of the following books: The Mysterious Death Of Marilyn
Monroe (James A. Hudson), My Sister Marilyn (Berniece Baker Miracle and
Mona Rae Miracle), Marilyn: The Last Months (Eunice Murray and Rose
Shade), My Story (Marilyn Monroe and Ben Hecht), Mr S.: My Life With Frank
Sinatra (George Jacobs), Goddess (Anthony Summers), Marilyn Monroe: The
Biography (Donald Spoto), Marilyn Monroe (Barbara Leaming), Assassination
Of Marilyn Monroe (Donald H. Wolfe), Marilyn: The Ultimate Look at the
Legend (James Haspiel), Marilyn’s Addresses (Michelle Finn), Marilyn: The
Tragic Venus (Edwin P. Hoyt), Marilyn: An Untold Story (Norman Rosten),
Norma Jean: The Life of Marilyn Monroe (Fred Lawrence Guiles), The Last
Sitting (Bert Stern), The DD Group: An Online Investigation Into the Death of
Marilyn Monroe (David Marshall), Marilyn (Norman Mailer), Cursum Perficio:
Marilyn Monroe’s Brentwood Hacienda (Gary Vitacco-Robles), The Strange
Death of Marilyn Monroe (Frank A. Capell), Marilyn Monroe: A Composite
View (Edward Wagenknecht), Marilyn and Me (Susan Strasberg), Marilyn: The
Last Take (Peter Harry Brown and Patte Barham), Cal-Neva Revealed (Philip J.
Weiss), The Show Business Nobody Knows (Earl Wilson), Show Business Laid
Bare (Earl Wilson), Bitch! (Lady May Lawford), Chief: My Life in the LAPD
(Daryl F. Gates), Answered Prayers (Truman Capote), Memories Are Made of
This (Deanna Martin), The Dark Side of Camelot (Seymour H. Hersh), Marilyn
Monroe Confidential (Lena Pepitone), The Men Who Murdered Marilyn
(Matthew Smith), The Marilyn Conspiracy (Milo Speriglio), The Marilyn
Scandal (Sandra Shevey), Crypt 33: The Saga of Marilyn Monroe – The Final
Word (Adela Gregory and Milo Speriglio), The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe
(Sarah Bartlett Churchwell), Coroner (Thomas T. Noguchi), The Unabridged
Marilyn (Randall Riese and Neal Hitchens), Violations of the Child: Marilyn
Monroe (by her psychiatrist friend), The Fifty Year Decline and Fall of
Hollywood (Ezra Goodman), Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept the Secrets
(James Spada), The Peter Lawford Story (Patricia Seaton Lawford), Grace And
Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House (Sally Smith),
Timebends: A Life (Arthur Miller), Confessions of a Hollywood Columnist
(Sheilah Graham), Nothing But Regrets (Arnold Schulman), My Life With
Cleopatra (Walter Wanger & Joe Hyams), the itineraries, diaries and personal
notes of both John and Bobby Kennedy and the files of the CIA, FBI and the Los
Angeles Police Department.
The producers of the following film and television programmes/reports:
Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days (20th Century-Fox), Something’s Got To Give
(20th Century-Fox), Marilyn Monroe: Mortal Goddess (20th Century-Fox), Say
Goodbye to the President (BBC), The Body of Marilyn Monroe (BBC), 48 Hours
Mystery (CBS), CBS 60 Minutes, Larry King Live (CNN), Eyewitness News
(ABC), Inside Edition (ABC), Marilyn: The Last Interview (HBO), Legend of
Marilyn Monroe (Wolper Productions), Marilyn in Manhattan (Parco
International), Who Killed Marilyn Monroe? (Channel 5), Dead Men Talking
(Biography Channel), The Marilyn Files (KVC Entertainment), Marilyn: The
Last Word (Paramount), Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend (Wombat