Marilyn Monroe Essay, Research Paper

Biography

Norma Jean Baker was born on June 1st 1926. She said that she came from an unhappy and deprived childhood. Galdys was Norma’s mother. She had two children with Jack Baker (Norma’s father) while still very young. Her father died in a car accident soon after she was born and at the age of 26 Galdys remarried to Edward Mortenson. Edward didn’t want children but Galdys did so she divorced him. Soon after that Galdys couldn’t take care of Norma anymore so she gave her up for adoption. In an interview Norma said that her grandmother tried to “mother” her with a pillow and how she was forced to do the dishes (at age 5) in an orphanage and that she was abused in one of the families that she was adopted by, and the fact that she was raped by a policeman.

On June 19th 1942- two weeks after her 16th birthday Norma Jean married to James E. Dougherty. The marriage lasted for 4 years and by the time the divorce was granted she was well- known as “Marilyn Monroe”. The name “Marilyn Monroe” came from the Broadway musical actress, Marilyn and she got Monroe from her grandmother.

In July 1942- during the war there was a great demand for pin-up pictures for the soldiers. One of the soldiers took plenty pictures of Marilyn but they were never printed, he said that they were lost in the mail. So Marilyn went to Blue Book Modeling and studio Agency and was put to work immediately. This is when it all went big for her. By this time she was about 19 years old.

She started at $75 a week and reached $1500 by her 7th year (her contract). Bound by her contract, Marilyn only made $18,000 on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, while her co-star made $100,000. She wanted to be an all round girl so she took up lessons on singing, dancing and acting. Her second marriage wad to Robert Slatzei, who she knew since 1952 but her marriage was over because her boss at FOX said her ratings would drop. She began to make lots of movies and plenty money. In 1952 Marilyn and Baseball player Joe Dimaggio met and in January 1954 they got married. Their marriage was going great but Joe said himself that he didn’t like Hollywood and he hated Marilyn’s “phony” friends. The famous skirt scene came from the movie The seven year itch. This film showed the transformation from Norma Jean to the sex symbol, Marilyn. Her movie Niagra was released in 1956 broke all records and Marilyn was one of the top grossing stars.

For a little while Marilyn escaped from Hollywood to the country where she met Arthur Miller. Miller was a playwright(Death of a salesman). Marilyn and miller were married on June 29th 1956. Slowly Monroe began to control her own career. She made another deal with FOX, where she would make a minimum of 100,000 a movie and she could also make her own. Her first film with this agreement was Bus Stop. Marilyn began to hit her 30’s and she began do drugs and having a drinking problem. She was prescribed pain killers by her doctor for endometriosis.

In the making of The prince and the showgirl Marilyn had a clash of personalities between her and Oliver. Some would say “it was not a very good film by Marilyn, she could have done better”. In the movie The Misfits Monroe fell in love with Yues Montand. This ended her marriage with Arthur Miller. She had many physical and mental breakdowns during filming. The death of Clark Gable put a lot of strain on her. Her career and life was beginning to downfall. Clark gables’ wife suggested that Marilyn’s behavior led to his heart attack, Monroe was very sad and very upset

Marilyn Died at a very early age, from a drug overdose.