Marilyn Monroe

by Michelle Morgan

  In early summer, Grace and Olive Monroe, Gladys’ sister-in-law, travelled to Norwalk and grilled the staff about Gladys’ condition. In a letter dated 15 August, Grace told a friend, Myrtle Van Hyning, what she had been told by a doctor: ‘He explained to me that Gladys’ type of insanity is the hardest case to do anything with. Her brain did not develop like an ordinary person’s. They examined her brain with a floroscope [sic], and it proved to be about one third the size of a normal human being’s.’

  The doctor then went on to explain that if Gladys had never had any worries and had someone to take care of her, she could probably have gone on to live a normal life, However, her condition was incurable and, although she might be able to leave the institution for a while, she would have to be taken back with her condition ‘worse than ever’ if she encountered any worries.

  Sadly, Gladys knew nothing of this, and fully thought that she would one day be able to go back to her most recent job at RKO, where she was still well thought of by colleagues. Grace later recalled that she was loved and respected; ‘honest, hardworking, thrifty, dependable and kindly to everyone’. Another colleague described her as a ‘demure little lady who sat at her splicing machine and communicated with no one during her work day’. This may have been true, but the bosses at the studio decided they simply had no time for Gladys Baker and her illness. They decided enough was enough and Grace was in the unfortunate position of knowing they would never allow her friend to return to work under any circumstances.

  Knowing there was no turning back for Gladys or Norma Jeane, plans had to be made for a permanent place for the child to stay. The Bolender family wanted Norma Jeane back, but Grace would not allow this, although the former foster-parents did on occasions take the child to see her mother at Norwalk. Nancy Bolender Jeffrey remembers, ‘Many Sunday afternoons were spent picking her up at one of the homes she was at and taking her over to visit her mother at the Norwalk Mental Institute. We would sit on the lawn and eat and visit and watch Norma Jeane and her mother play together. The Bolenders wanted to make sure that their relationship as mother and daughter was not interrupted any more than could be helped. She was always glad to see us and to go with us to see her mother.’

  On 10 August 1935, Grace McKee travelled to her aunt and uncle’s house in Las Vegas and secretly married a gentleman by the name of Ervin ‘Doc’ Goddard, a divorcee with three young children: Nona, Eleanor (Bebe) and John. Grace had met Goddard three years before, when she had encouraged his film ambitions and introduced him to B-movie director Al Rogell, who gave him a part in one of his movies. After that, Goddard appeared in several films as an extra, but had failed to make the splash he had dreamed of when he’d first met Grace. Whilst conducting their courtship at Doc’s home at 6146 Eleanor Avenue, he proposed to Grace and she accepted, though they decided to keep the wedding secret, most likely to avoid upsetting Norma Jeane. However, after a week’s honeymoon, the couple arrived back in Los Angeles, where news travelled around the movie studio like wild fire, and on 19 August 1935 the couple found themselves splashed over the pages of the Los Angeles Times.

  The secret was out and Grace was eager to convince Norma Jeane that she would still be more than welcome in her new life. To prove it, she moved the child into her home on Barbara Court, but lack of money and the arrival of Goddard’s daughter, Nona, meant that within weeks Grace decided that the situation wasn’t working out. And so it was that on 13 September Norma Jeane had her first look at the building that was to be her new home for the foreseeable future.

  The Los Angeles Orphans Home was a red-brick building based in the heart of Hollywood. The location couldn’t have been more painful for Norma Jeane: it was just blocks away from Afton Place where she first lived with her mother. The child had not been told where she was going, but as she was led up the front steps her eyes fell upon the sign, and she immediately realized what was happening. Screaming, ‘I’m not an orphan, I’m not an orphan,’ the confused child tried desperately to persuade Grace to take her home, but to no avail. Before she knew what was happening, she was placed in the Girl’s Cottage, in the south wing of the building, in a room that slept twelve girls.

  ‘It seemed very big,’ Marilyn told Redbook columnist Jim Henaghan in 1952, ‘but maybe it wasn’t. Maybe I just remember it as big.’ There were two dormitories – one large, and one small; the smaller one being seen as the better room, which the girls would try desperately to work their way up to. ‘I don’t know why, because, after all, it was still the orphanage,’ she said in 1952. In the large room, Norma Jeane’s bed was located right next to the window overlooking RKO studios, which caused a lot of heartache for the little girl, ‘I used to sit at the window and cry,’ she said, ‘knowing that my mother had once worked there.’

  Norma Jeane bitterly resented the fact that her mother had been taken away, and that she had to live in an orphanage when she was not an orphan. But while Norma Jeane was infuriated with the situation, she wasn’t the only non-orphan in the place. During the time she was there, reports show that most of the children were half-orphans, which Norma Jeane actually believed she was, since her mother had long-since insisted her father was dead.

  That said, Norma Jeane still felt that the whole situation was unfair and would never speak with any kindness about her time at ‘the Home’, repeating stories of how unpleasant it was until the very end of her life. ‘A child disturbed and unhappy could get that impression,’ said Margaret Ingram, Superintendent of the home in the 1960s, but insisted that life in the orphanage was not the nightmare Marilyn painted it to be.

  Meanwhile, Grace Goddard continued her life as normal, working in the film laboratory through the day and rehearsing for the Columbian Drama League production of Up Pops the Devil at night. The play premiered at the Wilshire Ebell Theater on 29 September 1935, little more than two weeks after she waved goodbye to Norma Jeane, and while it is unlikely the child ever got to see her ‘Aunt Grace’ in the production, she almost certainly heard about it during her visits to the orphanage.

  Grace tried to call in on Norma Jeane every week, bringing presents and clothes and taking her out for visits to the hairdresser or the occasional movie. She took an active interest in the child’s welfare, and when she discovered her to be extremely upset after a visit from Mrs Bolender, Grace immediately wrote to the home’s superintendent, Sula Dewey. The undated letter asked that nobody be allowed to ‘see or talk to little Norma Jean [sic] Baker, unless you have my written permission to do so’. She went on to say that she especially did not want her to be visited by Ida Bolender, as ‘her visits seem to upset the child’. Grace included a list of people who were allowed to see Norma Jeane: Elsie and Harvey Giffin, Maude, George and Nellie Atkinson, Gladys’s sister-in-law, Olive Monroe, and Olive’s mother, Mrs Martin.

  On 6 December 1935, Mrs Dewey wrote a reply to Grace, on Los Angeles Orphans Home Society letterhead:

  Dear Mrs Goddard

  When Mrs Bolender was here I told her she should not talk to Norma about her mother.

  The physicians have said Mrs Baker would not get well – that means the child must have first consideration.

  Will you please give a letter to each person you want Norma to see and go out with? This would be an extra check. If I just tell the ones who are on duty the names of the ones to see Norma there might be a slip.

  Norma is not the same since Mrs B. visited with her. She doesn’t look as happy. When she is naughty she says, ‘Mrs Dewey, I wouldn’t ever want my Aunt Grace to know I was naughty.’ She loves you very much.

  I’ll do as you request. We want to do all we can to make Norma happy, and to please you.

  Sincerely yours

  (Mrs) S. S. Dewey

  Although Marilyn would always insist that life in the orphanage was hellish – often on a par with the story of little orphan ‘Annie’ – it would seem that the care of the children in the institution was actually very good. Each child received five cents every Saturday as po
cket money, along with candy that was kept in large containers in the closet. They also had a barber – Sam David – who would visit the home every six weeks, and hold haircut parties where the children could choose a hairstyle and stay up way past their bedtime.

  There were gardens to play in, trips to the home’s Manhattan beach house in the summer, and every October the home opened to the public for the annual fruit and jam shower. This event lasted two days and saw visitors from all over, touring the establishment and giving gifts of jams, jellies, chocolate, canned fruit and vegetables for the coming year.

  There was also an abundance of activities during the festive season. Indeed, in December 1935, three months after Norma Jeane’s arrival, the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Cost Accountants took the children to the Army and Navy Club, at 1106 South Broadway, for a mammoth Christmas party. The children were able to meet Santa Claus, who presented them with gifts, and then enjoyed a full dinner, before returning to the orphanage at 7 p.m. Then on 18 December, the children, including Norma Jeane, were entertained by the Federal Theater Project, who put on a show which included clowns, magicians, dancers, acrobats and singers.

  On Christmas Eve the children attended services at the Vine Street Methodist-Episcopal church, where some of them were chosen to sing, and then on Christmas Day they sang carols in the auditorium above the dining room, before receiving gifts of clothes – sweaters (made by the home’s knitting club), underwear, shirts and trousers or skirts.

  Bill Fredenhall arrived at the orphanage in March 1934, eighteen months before Norma Jeane. He has many memories of his time there, and of the festive season in particular: ‘At Christmas we had several special trips out to large parties. One year I remember I attended a party where Joe E. Brown was the master of ceremony. You will remember him as Jack Lemmon’s “boyfriend” in Some Like It Hot. We would receive gifts at these occasions and one Christmas my brother and I were taken out and given complete outfits: suits, shirts, ties, shoes. We wore these clothes when we left the Home for good in 1940.’

  There were also Christmas trees in different areas of the orphanage, each one containing toys and gifts for the children. Photographs of the home, taken around the time of Norma Jeane’s stay, show children clutching hobby horses, huge dolls, roller skates and teddies, while gifts also came from local people and even the fire brigade. Bill Fredenhall remembers: ‘The Fire Department favoured the home at Christmas; they would arrive with the sirens going and a truckload of gifts. That was exciting! That happened each year. Christmas was a big deal at the Home and is another example of how they made it a swell place to be – remember this was in the depths of the depression and in that regard we were quite fortunate.’

  Shortly after settling into life at the home, Norma Jeane was asked to look after Bill, as he was younger than she was, and the staff thought it would do her good to look after someone other than herself. The girls at the orphanage all had a younger boy that they ‘mothered’, and this practice went on until the home finally closed its doors in 2005. ‘My time with Norma Jeane would have been after meals in the yard,’ remembers Bill. ‘On the swings with other kids of similar ages; I remember very clearly the swings, slide and holding hands, and she would give me a peck goodnight when it was time to go in.’

  Whilst at the orphanage, Norma Jeane’s day would start with breakfast, and then she would clean her teeth and brush her tongue. The reason for this practice became apparent as she and the other children passed the home’s nurse on the way out of the building: she would examine their tongues and if there was the slightest hint of a ‘coating’, the children would be given a dose of castor oil. Needless to say they made sure they kept their mouths extremely clean.

  After the inspection, Norma Jeane made her way to Vine Street School, which she later recalled as the hardest thing she had ever done in her life. According to Marilyn, the girls would all wear different coloured gingham dresses, and she would often hear other pupils pointing towards her and her friends, whispering, ‘They’re from the home.’

  Shortly after beginning her schooling at Vine Street, she became friendly with three boys in her class. This was shortlived, however, when they found out their new friend was from the orphanage. The boys made fun of her status; the friendship turned sour and Norma Jeane went deeper into her shell. ‘I was always shy and scared,’ she later recalled.

  The school was close to orange groves, and on a cold day Norma Jeane and the children would stand out in the yard and look at the smoky skies caused by the burning pots of oil, protecting the groves from frost. After school she would make her way back to the home and play until dinner was ready, then there was time to listen to the radio, or read a book from the extensive collection in the library; much of which had been donated by Oliver Hardy, one half of the famous Laurel and Hardy duo.

  At the weekend Norma Jeane was taken to Sunday school at the Vine Street Methodist Church, where each child was given a penny to put into the collection. Some of the children got wise to this, however, and soon started hiding their pennies in their clothes – particularly the boys’ neckties, so that they would not be found when required.

  But the weekends were not just about going to church. There were also trips to such places as the Ringling Brothers circus, Tom Mix circus, the Ambassador Auditorium, Griffith Park Observatory, the Le Brae Avenue Tar Pits, and various parks. Bill Fredenhall also recalls a studio birthday party for Shirley Temple, along with movies at the nearby RKO studio, held at least once a month. These outings would often result in autographs and presents for the children, along with the odd penny or two from actors on the lot. There were also several movies made at the home, some of which included the children as background players.

  When Norma Jeane was old enough, she was given the opportunity of working in the laundry or the kitchen to earn money, and it is here that a large part of the controversy creeps in regarding her memories of the home and her role within it. Marilyn would later complain to interviewers that she often had to wash and dry hundreds of dishes, but Bill Fredenhall remembers it a little differently: ‘Marilyn was talking about the job of kitchen help. We were paid, and this was obviously the type of chore that needed doing daily. We had lots of help and we made lunches too . . . I recall the fun of spreading butter, and peanut butter on a huge layout of sliced bread, and then slapping on a leaf of lettuce and putting it into a bag together with apples and oranges.’

  So what about Marilyn’s tales of hundreds of dishes and chores? ‘I am sure her comments about the dishes were coloured by her biographers,’ says Bill. ‘Part of the poor, unhappy child routine. I would guess there were fewer than twenty staff, including matrons, cooks, hospital and laundry staff, but we were loved, protected, trained and cared for.’

  One of the people responsible for caring for the children was Mrs Sula Dewey, whom Grace had written to about Norma Jeane. Out of all Marilyn’s recollections of the orphanage, perhaps the only happy one was that of Mrs Dewey allowing her to apply a little make-up to her cheeks and being able to pat her little dog. She was kind and caring, but could also give out discipline when it was called for.

  There have been many tales of the unhappy life lived by the children at the home, but very few of these are true. One of the more outlandish stories is that of birthday celebrations: it is said that on a child’s birthday, a large cake would be wheeled out so that the children could sing ‘Happy Birthday’. However, this was no ordinary sponge; it was made of wood with only a tiny space inside for one piece of real cake. The ‘orphan’ would eat the real slice, and the wooden cake would be wheeled back into the cupboard until the next birthday came along. However, this is untrue. ‘A wooden cake? I doubt it,’ says Bill Fredenhall. ‘I never saw it. It sure sounds like one of those “tales”. I don’t remember any birthday celebrations. But almost for sure Mrs Dewey would take the opportunity to give one a few pieces of candy, at least.’

  While Bill can’t recall any specific birthday
parties at the home, there was at least one party each year, given by Lorena Ann Taplin, whose father, Judge Taplin, had spent eight years of his childhood there. On 19 April 1936, Lorena travelled to the orphanage and celebrated with the children, sharing a frosted birthday cake and ice cream, and treating them all to a film screening. The celebrations were intended for all the children, and almost certainly included Norma Jeane.

  For the most part, Norma Jeane kept herself out of trouble at the orphanage and tried to settle in as best she could; her grades were good, she was quiet and well-behaved, and participated in all activities, but there were times she found herself getting into trouble, just like any other ten-year-old child. When asked about her escapades years later, Marilyn admitted that after some encouragement by the ‘tough’ children, she agreed to escape from the orphanage by jumping over the hedge. Of course, the escape did not go to plan, and before they knew it, the disgraced youngsters were hauled back into the building.

  Chapter 3

  ‘Norma Jeane, Human Bean’

  Much has been said about how long Norma Jeane actually lived at the Los Angeles Orphans Home, with most authors agreeing that her stay was around two years, beginning in 1935 and ending in 1937. However, court records show that the last payment made by Grace Goddard to the orphanage was on 21 June 1936, and she had certainly removed Norma Jeane from the home by October 1936, since this is when she started to be paid for her care.