But it wasn’t meant to be. On August 1, 1957, Marilyn awoke with a terrible pain in her stomach and the sadness of the realization that another pregnancy had most likely eluded her. Miller immediately called an ambulance to take Marilyn to the hospital and there her fears were confirmed. It turned out that she was suffering from a dangerous form of ectopic pregnancy and the embryo would have to be removed.
Following the operation to remove it, Monroe would stay in the hospital until she was deemed recovered enough to leave on August 10. She was not coping well and ended up overdosing on sleeping pills the next day. She was found passed out on her couch, but her husband managed to wake her. Just a few days later, Miller found Monroe in her bed with an empty pill bottle on her nightstand again.
This time Marilyn was completely unresponsive and Miller, not knowing what else to do, carried her to the bathroom, where he attempted to force her to vomit the drugs she had consumed. He laid her over his knee with her head positioned over the toilet and attempted to induce vomiting. He was eventually able to get his fingers into her mouth and forced her to gag and throw up the alcohol and pills that she had swallowed.
This overdose, so close to the sadness of her miscarriage, had all the signs of an early suicide attempt, but she would deny this charge later on. Or as she explained to her mentor Lee Strasburg shortly after this event, “I didn’t try to commit suicide. I just took too many pills.” Marilyn would briefly stay with the Strasbergs—the ones who seemed to comfort and console her best—shortly after this latest episode.
When Marilyn felt as if she had recuperated enough, she managed to score what would be her greatest role of all in the Bill Wilder comedic piece entitled Some Like It Hot. She starred alongside Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon, playing an aspiring singer named Sugar Kane Kowalczyk. It was yet another role that hit fairly close to home, with Marilyn playing a hopeful young entertainer, finding herself in comedic situations as she attempts to claw her way to stardom.
Wilder apparently had second thoughts about Marilyn after she was consistently late for tapes and otherwise difficult to work with, but his doubts disappeared in March 1959 when the box office results came back. The film was a massive success and one of Marilyn’s most notable performances, earning her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical Comedy.
By late 1959, Marilyn had garnered so much attention that even visiting heads of state were requesting her audience, as was the case when 20th Century Fox held a luncheon for the president of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev. The Soviet leader had apparently requested that Marilyn attend. Monroe readily assented to this invitation, but her husband Arthur Miller who was still under investigation for communism understandably declined to join her.
In those days, the fear of communism was at such a fever pitch it seemed as if you could get blacklisted just for talking to a Russian, let alone meeting with their leader. That didn’t prevent many other Hollywood moguls from attending the event, however, and Khrushchev was received in style with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Jimmy Stewart in attendance.
It was a rather odd affair from the beginning with the Soviet president’s wife Nina seated between Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra showing them baby pictures of her grandkids, while her husband gave a speech that angrily railed against capitalism and the United States. As soon as Khrushchev had finished his harangue, he waltzed right over to none other than Marilyn Monroe.
Often underestimated for her ability with language, Marilyn impressed everyone in the room by excitedly greeting the Russian leader in fairly well-versed Russian. As it turns out she had been coached shortly before the event by her friend Natalie Wood who was a Russian speaker.
Khrushchev was perhaps a bit more cautious under his wife’s wary eye, but he was obviously rather smitten. Marilyn’s charm had managed to break down his icy wall, and even the Soviet leadership proved to be a fan. Just leave it to Marilyn Monroe to end the Cold War without a single shot fired.
Chapter Nine
The Presidential Affair
“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
—Marilyn Monroe
As 1959 turned into 1960, Marilyn Monroe was busy working on a film called Let’s Make Love. It was yet another romantic comedy which reprised the role that had made Marilyn famous. As for her leading man in this film, initially that part was intended for Gregory Peck, but once he saw some of the screenplay rewrites that Marilyn’s husband Miller had inserted into the script he declined the offer.
Marilyn’s production team then inquired with both Cary Grant and Charlton Heston to fulfill the role, but both turned them down flat. Some believe that it was due to Marilyn’s reputation of being difficult to work with that caused them such difficulty in casting a leading man, but at any rate, the honor eventually fell on the shoulders of French actor Yves Montand.
Once the cast had been settled, Marilyn now had the task of settling her worsening nerves, only increasing her addiction to drugs. Those on set claimed that things were so bad that Marilyn’s dressing room looked like a pharmacy with all manner of anti-depressants, sleep aids, and tranquilizers lined up on the shelves.
Marilyn is reported to have become increasingly paranoid at this point and insisted that the FBI was following her and that Fox must have agreed to have her dressing room bugged with listening devices to send incriminating information back to the bureau. For anyone else to make such assertions, it would indeed seem like the ramblings of a paranoiac. However, Marilyn really was on the FBI’s radar due to her association with Miller. Marilyn even went so far as to have a private investigator look into the matter, but nothing was ever found.
As filming continued, Marilyn developed an affair with her leading man Montand. This latest excursion reportedly lasted six months; if Arthur knew of these happenings, it didn’t seem to concern him. Unlike Joe DiMaggio, Miller seemed to accept the fact that his wife was so larger than life, that more often than not she was public domain, and he had to share her as such. All the details would come out about the relationship after filming for Let’s Make Love came to a close, when Montand, himself a married man, openly confessed to the tryst.
He stated directly to the press without any ambiguity, “Marilyn is a simple girl without any guile. I was too tender and thought she was as sophisticated as some of the other ladies I have known. Had Marilyn been more sophisticated, none of this would have happened. Perhaps she had a schoolgirl crush. If she did, I’m sorry. But nothing will break up my marriage.” Such a stinging rebuff from a lover off the set of a film entitled Let’s Make Love was as painful as it was ironic. Monroe’s next big role would be in the epic film The Misfits which she began work on in July 1960. Miller wrote the dialogue for this production and had promised that this piece would be a departure from her usual typecast roles.
That same month while she was beginning production of this movie, Marilyn took the time to be a part of the 1960 Democratic National Convention where she donated $3,000 to back an up-and-coming star of the party; the then senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy. Marilyn had briefly encountered Kennedy for the first time three years prior when both of them had attended a party that had been hosted by Kennedy’s sister Patricia and her husband, the actor Peter Lawford.
It was Peter Lawford that Kennedy would call upon to invite Monroe to an after-party of sorts at an Italian restaurant owned by another early Kennedy backer, Frank Sinatra. It was rumored among those in their respective inner circles that the two were already having an intimate relationship, and their behavior at Puccini’s seemed to confirm this belief.
Marilyn was seated at a booth right next to John F. Kennedy, allegedly snuggling with him while he caressed her. After this outing, Marilyn was next seen with Kennedy at the Los Angeles Coliseum on the July 15, listening to his rousing acceptance speech as the official presidential candidate for th
e Democratic Party. Marilyn attended another after-party following this iconic event where rumors circulate that she skinny-dipped with the presidential candidate.
In the meantime, while she was reportedly courting Kennedy on the side, her work on the set of The Misfits was getting off to a rough start. In this film, Marilyn starred alongside the classic star power of Clark Gable, and somehow she managed to rub Gable the wrong way almost immediately. He was soon at his wit’s end with her poor punctuality and lack of professionalism that she displayed on the set. Gable had commented to a colleague about her behavior, saying that “She is going to give me a heart attack.”
Strangely enough, shortly after they had finished filming, Clark Gable died of a heart attack. Marilyn was stricken with grief, and like anyone else in such a bizarre situation, blamed herself for what had happened—as did a few others. But truth be told, Gable was known to be suffering from heart disease from his years of heavy drinking, smoking, and hard living. It is unfortunate that he had chosen such language to vent his frustration because the sheer coincidence of his passing did nothing to help the image of Marilyn Monroe.
Understandably, Marilyn was devastated, and to make matters worse, the film itself was largely a box office failure. It became apparent that neither her professional nor personal collaboration with Arthur Miller was very successful, and the two were divorced soon thereafter. Marilyn would later comment about Miller, “He was a good writer, but a bad husband.” Miller, of course, had a few reservations of his own.
Chapter Ten
Locked in the Psych Ward
“I am trying to find myself; sometimes that’s not easy.”
—Marilyn Monroe
With her latest film a flop, her divorce, and being blamed for her co-star’s death among other things; in 1961, Marilyn Monroe was a wreck. She soon suffered a complete nervous breakdown as a result and was institutionalized on the orders of one of her doctors and made to check into the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. She was interned into this facility in February 1961, under the false name of Miss Faye Miller. It’s notable that after her divorce she would use her ex-husband Arthur Miller’s name; she was not willing to take his name as his wife, but she was seemingly ready to use it as her alias in a psych ward.
Even though Marilyn had voluntarily checked into this clinic, she soon realized that once she was there, it wouldn’t be an easy matter to get out. She was locked in a secure room and monitored around the clock. This room was sterile and bereft of any items that the facility considered a potential harm to patients. Designed for the suicidal and injurious, it consisted of bleak cement walls, a small cot of a bed, a wooden table, a sink, and a toilet. The room was little more than a prison cell, and as she heard the screams of her fellow patients in the adjoining rooms, Marilyn was completely traumatized by the event.
She felt that finally, just like her mother, she was now going to spend the rest of her life locked in this institution, with no way out. Despite repeated requests for the administration to approve her release, due to the nature of the admission her doctors had signed off on, she was denied. She would later recall that she felt so desperate, she stripped off her clothes and stood in the middle of the room screaming at the top of her lungs for them to release her.
But these cries for help only brought on the threat of her being put in a straitjacket to control her. Increasingly desperate, Marilyn resorted to a tactic common in many institutions; she went over to the small sink in her cell and turned on the faucet, allowing the water to run and begin to flood the room. This provoked medical aides to rush into the cell and lock the door to the bathroom.
Now unable to even use the bathroom in peace, Marilyn went ballistic and took the chair in the room and began to slam it into the two-way mirror through which she was being observed. She later remembered the incident and explained, “If they were going to treat me like a nut, I’ll act like a nut.” Marilyn again begged for them to let her go, but was informed that only upon the signature of her acting psychiatrist was she allowed to leave the facility.
At a complete loss, Marilyn eventually reached out to the one lifeline she had left, Joe DiMaggio. She had often referred to Joe as her lifeguard who would pull her out of troubled waters when she had gone too deep; now she depended on him more than ever. Fortunately for her, Joe loyal until the end promised her that he would be there the very next day.
As rocky as their marriage together had been, right when she needed him the most Joe was there to comfort and protect her. He immediately headed over to the psych ward that held her captive and demanded that she be released. The nurse practitioner at first refused to release Marilyn without her psychiatrist’s signature. But Joe wouldn’t have it any other way, and informed the nurse that if Marilyn was not released immediately, he would tear the place apart, “brick by brick."
Chapter Eleven
Marilyn’s Last Year
“The nicest thing for me is sleep; then at least I can dream.”
—Marilyn Monroe
After busting Marilyn Monroe out of the institution that had held her confined, Joe and Marilyn began to rekindle their romance right where they had left it. Over the next few months, they were practically inseparable, but unfortunately, their renewed love interest would fizzle out over one of their more mundane hang-ups from the past: money.
Joe had happened to pick up a receipt Marilyn had left behind from a grocery run, but Joe ever the scrutinizer had apparently determined that she had been overcharged for the items she purchased. After everything they had been through, it was this trivial issue that set off an explosion. It is quite common for couples to argue about money, but in the case of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, who were both well off, the penny-pinching was unexpected.
Joe, who prided himself with his meticulous management of his finances, had always been appalled by what he deemed to be Marilyn’s inordinate waste of money. And to see this failure to mind her finances again, struck a nerve with him. So he confronted Marilyn and reprimanded her, “Why don’t you look the bills over before you pay them?”
Resenting being treated like a child, Marilyn was immediately enraged and snatched the receipt out of Joe’s outstretched hand as she shouted at him, “It’s my money, not yours!” This then kicked off a major blowout that ended in Joe angrily marching out of the door. This argument over a grocery receipt would, a few days later, be compounded by a visceral exchange over a puppy.
The puppy was a fluffy, white, French Poodle that arrived at Marilyn’s home, courtesy of Frank Sinatra. Wondering why Monroe was receiving such gifts from his own old friend, the monster of jealousy began to re-emerge from Joe DiMaggio’s soul, and he demanded of her why such trinkets of affection were being bestowed upon her. Marilyn’s withering response was, “It’s none of your business Joe. You and I are no longer married. I don’t have to answer you.”
Despite his heroic efforts at springing her from the psych ward and their brief spat of renewed interest in each other, Marilyn had just given Joe a dose of reality that he didn’t want to hear. She reminded him that she was not exclusively his, and she probably never would be. And in June 1961, almost seemingly out of spite against Joe, Marilyn moved into Frank Sinatra’s house in California.
The move was supposed to be temporary, just while she had a work crew renovating her home, but the stinging betrayal DiMaggio felt cannot be underestimated. The rest of that year Marilyn was hanging out with Sinatra’s whole cast of characters, including Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. of the Rat Pack. Seemingly dispensing with any previous notion she had of rehabilitation, with this crew of legendary musicians and alcoholics, Marilyn Monroe drank her way well into the New Year, which would be her last.
Conclusion
The year 1962 was one that held remote promise for Marilyn Monroe. After all of her upheaval, she was scheduled to work on a new release entitled Something’s Got to Give. But this film would never be finished, and the title would come to bear an all too fitting i
rony on her tragic life.
By February 1962, Marilyn was becoming more involved with the Kennedy clan meeting up with John F. Kennedy’s brother, Robert, at a dinner hosted by Peter Lawford. Marilyn sat right next to Robert and apparently impressed him throughout most of the night, not only with her looks but also with her politics. She asked him wide-ranging and in-depth political questions that left him fascinated by her.
Marilyn for her part seemed to still have an eye on John F. Kennedy, now president of the United States. This was famously demonstrated on the president’s birthday on May 19, when she went on stage at Madison Square Gardens to sing him “Happy Birthday.” Her “Happy Birthday Mr. President” was well-received by the president who commented, “I can now retire from politics after having had Happy Birthday sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way.”
After this performance, however, the Kennedy clan allegedly abruptly cut off contact with Monroe. As crushing as this rebuke was, to make matters in her life worse, she had become so behind in the filming of Something’s Got to Give that 20th Century Fox decided to fire her from the project. It was only after protests from her co-stars that the contract was reinstated, but Marilyn was already too disturbed to work on set anyway.
With the trouble of her personal and professional life building to a crescendo pitch, Marilyn Monroe was found dead on August 5, 1962. Due to the empty pill bottles and the toxicology test that ensued, her death was ruled an overdose and probable suicide. Some have since instigated conspiracy theories that perhaps the Kennedys had her killed because she was causing too much trouble.
But in all reality, anyone who looks into Marilyn’s history would be able to see her troubled history. And unfortunately, as high as the flame of Marilyn Monroe had ascended, she had snuffed out the spark of her life for good.
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