Norma Jeane loved singing at school, and her skills were put to good use when she was chosen to perform in the Easter sunrise services at the Hollywood Bowl. The event consisted of a children’s chorus standing in the shape of a cross, all wearing black capes. As the sun rose over the Bowl, the children were instructed to take off the black robes and reveal their white clothes underneath, thus changing the cross from black to white. Marilyn later lamented that she became so engrossed in checking out all that was going on around her that she forgot to take off her robe, thus becoming a black spot on an otherwise white cross. However, the mistake must have soon been rectified, since all photos of the children’s cross taken around that time have no ‘black dots’ to be found.
Norma Jeane’s time with the Bolenders came to a sudden halt in 1933 when two never-to-be-forgotten events occurred. The first was the death of Norma Jeane’s dog, Tippy, who, it is said, was killed by a neighbour after a particularly noisy barking session. Shortly after this, Norma Jeane’s mother decided that she’d had enough of living without her daughter, and announced that she wanted to buy a house for them both to live in together. The couple were obviously shocked but could do nothing to prevent the removal of Norma Jeane from their home, even though they surely must have been worried about what her future would bring.
Norma Jeane was not keen on moving away with the ‘lady with the red hair’ and when the day of her departure finally arrived, the children became so upset that they hid in the closet, hoping they would not be found. No matter what Norma Jeane thought of the family, the idea of living with the mother she hardly knew was even more disturbing, though she was quickly found in the closet and marched to her mother’s waiting car.
The family were absolutely devastated to lose her and never forgot the little girl who had touched their lives for so long: ‘It was a sad time for Mother and Daddy,’ remembered Nancy Bolender, ‘because they truly loved her. They had raised her from infancy to eight plus years of age. That’s a long time and when so much of yourself is put into training, nurturing and loving a child it is like losing your own flesh and blood.’
Chapter 2
Dreams and Nightmares
Once Gladys had reclaimed her daughter, she moved the child into the home of English couple George and Maude Atkinson, and their twenty-year-old daughter, Nellie.
In 1915 George Atkinson had left his family’s fishmonger business in Grimsby, and sailed to the United States in the hope of getting work in Hollywood. Maude and Nellie followed him, arriving on the 27 October 1919, and together they settled in an apartment located at 4716 Santa Monica Boulevard, where George tried to etch out a role for himself in the entertainment industry. He did not have quite the success he had hoped for, however, and finally settled for bit parts in movies, and as a regular stand-in for fellow British actor, George Arliss. By 1930 the family had moved to a small house at 1552 La Baig Avenue, just yards away from all the major film studios in town, before relocating once again to Afton Place, where they became acquainted with Gladys Baker in 1933.
For Norma Jeane, living with Mr and Mrs Atkinson was a completely different experience to living with the Bolenders. The English couple were described by Marilyn as being ‘happy, jolly, and carefree’. However, the happy-go-lucky existence of the couple confused the child, particularly because she had spent the first seven years of her life being told that much of what she was now witnessing was wrong. Norma Jeane prayed for them and felt guilty whenever she enjoyed their company and the stories they told of their acting life. ‘They liked to drink a little, smoke, dance and sing and play cards – all of the things that I had been taught were sinful. And still they seemed like very nice people to me.’
Norma Jeane lived with the Atkinsons for several months and during this time she would often visit Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and fit her own hands in the handprints of the stars. She would spend hours sitting in the movies, watching the actors and actresses on the screen, and then imitating them in her little bedroom at home. She fell in love with the cinema and dreamt of being a famous actress like her new idol, Jean Harlow.
But it wasn’t all fun and games. Several days after she had moved into Afton Place, Norma Jeane was enrolled at Selma Avenue School. This was yet another upheaval in the child’s life, and when she arrived at the school without her parents to accompany her, it didn’t help conquer her fears.
In an interview Marilyn gave to Liza Wilson in 1952, she recalled that all of the other children had parents with them, and when a well-meaning teacher asked if her parents were dead, the confused child replied, ‘Yes, Mam, I think so.’ Another student who was watching exclaimed to her mother, ‘Look Mummy. That girl’s an orphan.’ Norma Jeane was devastated by this remark and, in her own words, ‘leaned against a wall and bawled’.
Eventually Gladys was true to her word and took out a mortgage on a small, three-bedroom house at 6812 Arbol Drive, located near the Hollywood Bowl. Gladys bought the house with the dream that all her children could live together under one roof, and although Grace McKee begged her not to take on the responsibility of a mortgage, all requests for calm went unheard. In September 1933 Gladys and Norma Jeane moved into their first home together, but it was also agreed that the Atkinson family would come too, paying some of the mortgage and looking after Norma Jeane while Gladys was working.
Marilyn later described the Arbol Drive home as ‘A pretty little house with quite a few rooms. But there was no furniture in it, except for two cots that we slept on, a small kitchen table, and two kitchen chairs.’ However, the lack of material items was more than made up for by the fact that, finally, Norma Jeane had her mother to herself for the first time in her entire life.
Gladys did her best to provide a stable upbringing for the child, taking her to movies and even visiting Catalina Island at one point, where Norma Jeane was able to stay up way past her bedtime and watch her mother dance to the Curt Houck Orchestra in the Catalina Casino. Gladys also taught Norma Jeane about her religion, Christian Science, and tried to involve her in the practice by performing ‘healings’ on the child from time to time. Materially, things were looking up too when Gladys found a piano, which was said to have belonged to actor Fredric March, and placed it in the unfurnished living room. It became the focal part of the entire house, and Gladys told Norma Jeane that one day she would listen to the child playing beside the window, while she sat beside the fire.
Unfortunately this was not to be, as two shocking events rocked Gladys’ world. Shortly before taking Norma Jeane out of the Bolenders’ care, Gladys’ grandfather, Tilford M. Hogan, had committed suicide. A local newspaper had described how the old man hanged himself in the barn on the afternoon of 29 May 1933, while his wife was out shopping. Shortly after that, on 16 August 1933, Gladys’ son, Robert ‘Jasper’ Baker, died of tuberculosis of the kidneys. The child was only fifteen years old, and the end of his life was the conclusion of the many years he had been plagued by bad luck and unfortunate events.
The news of both these shocking events did not reach Gladys until she had already moved in with Norma Jeane, and it hit her like a thunderbolt. Her first reaction was a tirade of abuse towards her young daughter: ‘Why couldn’t it have been you? Why couldn’t it have been you?’ she screamed over and over again at the shocked and confused child. Already emotionally fragile, the news sent Gladys into a spiral of depression and anxiety from which she could not emerge. While the move to the Arbol house was supposed to have been a new start for both her and Norma Jeane, Gladys now found herself more and more unable to cope with the responsibility of working and looking after her child.
Throughout 1934, Gladys’ emotional health worsened and she was continually evaluated at Los Angeles General Hospital. Grace McKee tried to look after both Gladys and Norma Jeane, but it was a losing battle. Eventually Gladys was persuaded to put the house up for sale, and an advert ran in the Los Angeles Times on 21 October 1934, describing it as a three-bedroom, three-bath English stucco house, o
n the market for $4500.
Meanwhile, Norma Jeane spent her time playing outside with empty whisky bottles: ‘I guess I must have had the finest collection of bottles any girl ever had. I’d line them up on a plank beside the road and when people drove along I’d say “Wouldn’t you like some whisky?”’ With her mother’s descent into mental illness growing more apparent each day, Norma Jeane began to feel increasingly unwanted: ‘I was a mistake. My mother didn’t want to have me. I guess she never wanted me. I probably got in her way. I wish . . . I still wish . . . she had wanted me.’
But Gladys was unable to show love to anyone, not even herself, and eventually her emotional problems reached a climax, when in January 1935 she had a complete breakdown. Norma Jeane was in the kitchen having breakfast when she suddenly heard a commotion coming from the hallway. Her mother was screaming and shouting, and the Atkinsons were trying desperately to calm her down.
When the child returned from school that day, her mother was gone, and when Norma Jeane asked where she was, she was told, ‘Your mother is very sick; you won’t be able to see her for a long, long, time.’
‘I figured my mother was really dead but they wouldn’t tell me because they didn’t want me to cry,’ she later said. ‘I didn’t know my mother was alive for many years.’ Her mother was not dead, of course, but she was judged insane on 15 January 1935 and committed to the state institution at Norwalk.
Lois Banner and Mark Anderson’s book, MM – Personal: From the Private Archive of Marilyn Monroe (2010), includes a 1962 letter to Marilyn’s sister Berniece from Harry Charles Wilson, who claimed to have been in a relationship with Gladys during this time. ‘The tragedy of her sickness was almost more than I could bear,’ he wrote. He described how he had courted Gladys during the year before her breakdown; visiting restaurants with her and Norma Jeane; taking the child to see the Christmas Parade on Hollywood Boulevard and spending time together as a family. He was deeply in love with Gladys and told her so at Christmas 1934, but was left devastated when she was admitted to hospital shortly afterwards. ‘I almost lost my mind over it,’ he said.
According to the letter, Wilson continued to visit and correspond with Gladys for some years afterwards, until they eventually lost touch completely in 1945. ‘I have prayed for her many times and cried myself to sleep in lonesomeness for her,’ he wrote. His letter has the ring of truth, as he mentions personal information that was not yet widely known to the public.
We know little about Harry Wilson, but research for this book reveals that he was born in 1891; worked as a boat builder; and had been married at least twice before he met Gladys Baker. It is impossible to say whether Gladys reciprocated the love Harry felt for her, but one thing’s for sure: he held a torch for his lost love for many years; not marrying again until shortly before his death in 1970.
Back in 1935, and with Wilson having no legal rights to either Gladys or Norma Jeane, Grace McKee decided to take over full responsibility of both mother and daughter. On 25 March 1935 Grace filed a petition to be guardian of the estate, and thereafter began the long task of logging and assessing Gladys’ possessions and debts.
It was decided that Norma Jeane would be better off staying in the Arbol house with the Atkinson family, as she had warmed to the couple and it seemed pointless to uproot her again. However, there were many times when she felt completely isolated as a result of her mother’s illness. Records show that there were various families living in Arbol Drive at the time, including the Harrell family who were just down the road at number 6816. But while there were often children playing at the Harrell home and various others in the street, Norma Jeane’s feelings of inadequacy made her feel nowhere near comfortable playing with them.
One day, when Norma Jeane decided to run round the block just for the fun of it, some neighbourhood boys stopped to ask what she was doing. Before she could answer, another child snapped, ‘Don’t bother her. She’s just like her mother – crazy.’ It was comments like that which led Marilyn to deny the existence of her mother, often declaring that she was dead.
An oft-repeated tale about Marilyn’s life is that she was molested as a child aged nine or ten. As Marilyn told it, a ‘gentleman’ by the name of Mr Kimmell lived in the house where she was staying, and one day he called her into his room, locked the door, and indecently assaulted her. The general consensus is that the child was sexually assaulted, rather than raped, and when it was over she ran to her foster-mother who slapped her face for telling lies.
Some authors have dismissed this story as complete fabrication by Marilyn, while others, such as Donald Wolfe, insist that the incident took place while Norma Jeane lived on Arbol Drive, and that her mother was the one who slapped her face. Wolfe also names the molester as Murray Kinnell, a character actor who gave Bette Davis her big break in Hollywood and who had also worked on three of Jean Harlow’s films: The Public Enemy (1931), The Secret Six (1931) and The Beast of the City (1932).
It is impossible to know for sure if Murray Kinnell had anything to do with Norma Jeane, but if the assault story is true, and if it was indeed Kinnell who was the perpetrator, when did the assault take place and why was Kinnell living at the Arbol house?
Marilyn never mentioned that she was molested whilst in the care of her mother, which could be because she was covering up for her or because the incident didn’t happen while she was living with her at all. The Arbol house only had three bedrooms, so unless the Atkinsons shared a room with their daughter, and Norma Jeane shared with her mother, there would have been no room to take in a boarder. However, there is a possibility that the attack did take place at the Arbol house but after Gladys had been admitted to Norwalk.
As previously explained, George Atkinson worked as a standin for movie star George Arliss, and he, by chance, was a friend of Murray Kinnell. They had worked together in a number of movies, including Voltaire (1933), The House of Rothschild (1934) and Cardinal Richelieu (1935); the latter was filmed in March 1935, while Norma Jeane still lived with the Atkinson family. It is possible that the Atkinsons moved Norma Jeane into Nellie’s room, hence creating more space in the home, and that George Atkinson invited Murray Kinnell to stay in the empty room, where he had the opportunity to molest young Norma Jeane. We will never know what really happened in that house, but one thing is clear: from that moment on, the child began to stutter when faced with difficult situations, such as reading aloud in class. ‘The continual state of being frightened had started me stammering,’ she later recalled, ‘and people laughed at me when I stammered.’
There has been much talk about why Norma Jeane was removed from the Atkinsons’ care. Some say she had to be taken away because Grace McKee felt the couple were mistreating her, but this is inaccurate, as letters show Norma Jeane kept in touch with Nellie Atkinson for years afterwards, and Grace gave permission for the family to visit the child after she had moved out. Other sources state that the entire Atkinson family were moving back to England, and could no longer look after the child, but this is simply not true either.
Travel records for this time show that while Maude and Nellie Atkinson had travelled back to the UK for three months during the summer of 1924, there were no departures or arrivals listed for any of the family during the mid-1930s. However, there is evidence that would suggest the Atkinsons may have thought about travelling back to England shortly after Gladys had her breakdown. On 18 February 1935, George’s brother Richard passed away at his home in Grimsby and his death could have caused the family to think about returning home. While the Atkinsons may have flirted with the idea, it is highly unlikely that the trip ever took place, as society pages show that their daughter, Nellie, was maid of honour to her friend Margaret Appleton at the end of May and attended numerous wedding showers, parties and ceremonies throughout the coming year. She also married in Los Angeles on 17 March 1939; the wedding announcement clearly stating that the family were formerly of Grimsby and now living in Hollywood. Added to that, when Maude passed away in
March 1944, the obituary reported that she had lived in southern California for twenty-five years, so any trip to England must have surely been a short one.
The reality of Norma Jeane’s removal from the Atkinsons’ care was actually the fact that, with Gladys gone, Grace had been forced to sell her friend’s belongings in order to pay off her debts. Gladys’ 1933 Plymouth Sedan (which she was still paying for) was listed in the inventory, along with the Franklin Grand Piano (which Grace’s aunt Ana Lower eventually bought) and a small radio. Grace kept detailed records of her expenditure, and court records show that on 22 May 1935 a payment of $25 was made to Mrs Atkinson for the care of Norma Jeane, but no other payments appear after that. Five days later, on 27 May, the Arbol Drive house was re-listed for sale and on 12 June the home was given back to the previous owners, the Whitmans.
Years later, while driving through the area with her sister-in-law Elyda Nelson, Norma Jeane pointed out the home she once shared with her mother. ‘I lived there once,’ she said, ‘before mother was ill. It was beautiful. The most wonderful furniture you can imagine: a baby grand piano and a room of my own. It all seems like a dream.’
Once the child moved out of Arbol Drive, she was transferred into the care of Elsie and Harvey Giffen, who lived at 2062 Highland Avenue. Harvey Giffen had known Gladys while she worked at the laboratory, and as a favour to Grace the family took Norma Jeane into their home. They grew so fond of her that they even hoped at one point to adopt her. From the confines of the hospital Gladys put a stop to the plan, just as she had done with the Bolender family years before. Gladys was determined that no one would ever take her little girl away, but it seems as though nobody ever thought to explain that to Norma Jeane. ‘No one ever seemed interested in adopting me permanently,’ she later said. ‘I’ve often wondered about this.’
Marilyn Monroe Page 3
