I must start this post by saying I have had a lifelong fascination with Marilyn Monroe. I don't know when it began but I am completely mesmerised by anything to do with her life, and especially her mysterious death. I can read thousands of words about her and look at hundreds of photos of her and never tire. I'm obviously not the only one. August 4th marked the 50th anniversary of her death at age 36 - and she is still an icon to so many. She continues to be imitated but there will only ever be one Marilyn.
Why the popularity?
So why the fascination with this "dumb blonde sex symbol"? I believe it is because she was far from a dumb blonde and never just a sex symbol. How many blonde starlets and sex symbols have come and gone since her time? None have even come close to having the staying power she does. I think everyone can identify with Marilyn in some way - the orphan, the rejected child, the childless woman, the aspiring actress, the literary fan, the sex symbol, the business woman, the fitness fanatic, the animal lover, the comedienne, the 'other woman', the wife, the friend, the woman suffering from anxiety and mental illness...the list is endless. She is every woman.
"The truth is I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves.
They didn't bother to find out who and what I was.
Instead they would invent a character for me."
~ Marilyn Monroe ~
Marilyn's Life
Besides her many relationships, the other thing that fascinates me about Marilyn's life was how ahead of her time she was. She was lifting weights, working out, jogging through the alley ways of California and doing yoga long before any of those things became fashionable. I love the way she celebrated her body - a body that would today be no doubt slammed as overweight and odd shaped on a model or actress.
She was also way ahead of her time in challenging the movie studios that had made a product out of her. Marilyn started her own production company named Marilyn Monroe Productions in 1957 and she was ridiculed by the press, other actors and of course, the big studios. It never really had the opportunity to flourish but how business savvy of her to try and take control of her own career in a time when that was completely unheard of?!
Marilyn was also in my opinion the epitome of photogenic. I'm hard pressed to find a bad photograph of her. From the young Norma Jeane to the last, dishevelled images of her she is captivating. Photographers who worked with her said she understood photography like nobody else. Not the technical aspects of it, but how to be a mesmerising subject. It almost didn't matter who was taking the photos - Marilyn just had to work her magic. Yet, even unguarded, spontaneous and natural photos of her are stunning.
"It is the lost possibilities of Marilyn Monroe that capture our imagination.
It was the lost Norma Jeane, looking out of Marilyn's eyes,
who captured our hearts."
~ Gloria Steinem ~
I've also read many accounts of how she could turn the persona of Marilyn Monroe on so to speak. She revelled in it. One account had her walking down a busy street with everyone around her oblivious to who she was. Then, in an instant, as if a light had been switched on, she became "Marilyn" - complete with the walk, the talk and the glow - and suddenly a crowd swarmed around her. Her reported self-awareness astounds me.
Marilyn's Death
Every facet of Marilyn's life was captivating, but nothing was as captivating as her mysterious death. There has been so much written about her death and so many conspiracy theories put forward that it's hard to make heads or tails of it. The truth is that there are so many conflicting eye witness accounts, so many doubts about the autopsy results and so many questions about the events of that night that "probable suicide", the official cause of death to this day, is probably the least likely cause of death. Suicide made sense only in light of the fact that Marilyn had attempted suicide previously.
I would need to write thousands of words myself to relay the things I've read about August 4th, 1962. I won't bore you all with that. In short, the problem with the autopsy was that there was a lack of pill residue in Marilyn's stomach, which is extremely rare, although not entirely impossible, if someone ingested the amount of pills she was said to have taken that night. There are also conflicting accounts of a bruise on Marilyn's body that may have been consistent with some sort of violence. Unfortunately, it was never investigated. A refusal to conduct further toxicology tests, along with the disappearance or destruction of Marilyn's internal organs and stomach contents meant that questions were never able to be resolved.
But apart from the medical questions, it is the avalanche of conflicting eye witness accounts that add much suspicion to Marilyn's untimely death. Her housekeeper Eunice Murray was a key figure in events and changed her story as time went on. At one stage, in a television interview, she admitted that Robert Kennedy, brother of the President, had been at Marilyn's house that afternoon and that a a doctor had been present when Marilyn was unconscious but still alive. She later retracted this saying she was old and confused. However, this version of events is supported by Jack Clemmons, the first officer on the scene, who was also the first to raise suspicions of murder and a tampering with the scene of death.
In later years, almost on his death bed, Eunice Murray's ex son in-law, who had also been at the house that day doing flooring work, claimed that Robert Kennedy had been at the house, as had the Lawfords (in-laws to the Kennedys). He talks of Marilyn being alive when a doctor was present, of her being given an injection of some sort in the guest house, of hysterical scenes and then a movement of Marilyn's body to the bedroom where she was "found". A neighbour, along with a couple of highway patrol officers, also claim to have seen Robert Kennedy coming and going from the house. But none of this was ever investigated or proven. Official statements were never taken. I guess they didn't fit in with the neat story of suicide. This wasn't the time of President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Back then, the press simply didn't write about the President's or his brother's personal affairs.
Whatever the circumstances of Marilyn's death, it is clear that there is a lot about that night that just does not add up. Somebody, and possibly a number of influential and powerful people, perpetrated a cover up. Whether Marilyn died accidentally or was indeed murdered (because she knew too many secrets or was about to bring the Presidency down in a scheduled press conference the following day - the theories are endless), the fact remains that she was a human being. A human being who had constantly sought love and acceptance but only ever received it superficially. A human being that wasn't afforded the common decency of a thorough investigation into her death.
I haven't included the photo of Marilyn in death, after her autopsy. It is readily available for anyone who wants to search for it. I've always felt uncomfortable looking at it. As if, even in death, the world couldn't leave her alone. She was still objectified until her last moment - but not cared about enough to have the truth revealed.
The key witnesses to her death have now died, taking with them the secrets of that dark night in Brentwood, California. I'm sure there are FBI files and other government files which are classified either never to be released (?) or partially to be revealed after a certain number of years. It may be another 50 years before we know any more about Marilyn Monroe's death, if at all.
"Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young,
but then you'd never complete your life, would you?
You'd never wholly know yourself."
~ Marilyn Monroe ~
Are you a fan of Marilyn Monroe?
What do you think about her life and death?
