This
Day In History: 15th September, 1954 Posted
by: Terri Knudsen Source:
THN Date: 15th September 2005
1954
- Marilyn Monroe's skirt scene filmed
Hands up if you've
seen a picture of Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway vent, holding her skirt
down to prevent it from blowing up over her head. Yes? The infamous picture is
taken from the movie, "The Seven Year Itch" - and was filmed on 15 September
in 1954. Her husband, baseball star Joe DiMaggio, went it was exhibitionist, and
the couple divorced shortly after.
Norma
Jean Mortenson - also known as Norma Jean Baker, but better known as Marilyn Monroe
- was born on 1 June 1926. She had an American mother of Scottish heritage and
a Norwegian father, Martin Edward Mortensen, emigrated from Haugesund, Norway.
Her father left before she was born, causing confusion for Marilyn regarding who
her real father was. Her mother, Gladys - a negative cutter at several film studios
- brought in a string of men, causing further confusion. Gladys became mentally
unstable and was institutionalised when Marilyn was five. This lead to Marilyn
spending most of her childhood in foster homes where she suffered from neglect
and abuse, and later ended up in an orphanage. At age 16, she quit high school
and married a 21-year-old aircraft plant worker named Joe Dougherty, and divorced
him four years later.
In 1944, two years before her divorce, she worked
as a paint sprayer in a defence plant, a photographer spotted her, she began modelling
swimsuits and bleached her mousy-brown hair blonde and the rest is history, as
they say. When one shot reached RKO Pictures head Howard Hughes, he offered her
a screen test, but an agent suggested 20th Century-Fox as a better, bigger and
more prestigious choice. She signed with them, acted in a movie, but her scenes
were cut out. Columbia signed her too, but dropped her after one film, "Ladies
of the Chorus", where she performed two songs. This was when she posed nude
for the grand price of 50 bucks for a calendar that went on to selling a million
copies, making $750,000.
She started using the name Marilyn Monroe in 1946,
but did not legally change it until 1956. In 1950, Fox signed her again, this
time touted her as a star and started giving her feature roles. In 1952 she appeared
for the first time as a platinum blonde on the silver screen, the public was getting
to know her and liked that they saw: a blonde bombshell with a childlike innocence.
In 1953 she starred with Jane Russell in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".
When told she was not the star in the movie, Marilyn was quoted as saying, "Well
whatever I am, I'm still the blonde." She started dating Joe DiMaggio, married
him in January 1954, starred in "There's No Business Like Show Business"
and "The Seven Year Itch". Marilyn and Joe didn't even last a year.
Her work slowed down, supposedly caused by her habit of showing up late,
and being unwilling to cooperate with producers, directors and fellow actors.
She announced she wanted to found her own studio and began studying acting with
Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York, followed by a comic performance
in"Bus Stop" in 1955. In 1956 she married playwright Arthur Miller.
The year after she filmed "The Prince and the Showgirl" in Britain,
the movie went on to making a fair bit of money, but the critics weren't impressed.
After a year off, she appeared in "Some Like It Hot" with Tony Curtis
and Jack Lemmon.
In 1961 she made her last film, "The Misfits",
which Arthur Miller wrote especially for her, which also turned out to be Clark
Gable's final film, who died the same year of a heart attack. She showed her gratitude
by divorcing him a week before the film opened. She was set to appear in "Something's
Got to Give", but was fired from the set for her frequent illness and absence.
On May 29, 1962 she performed for president John F. Kennedy at his 45th
birthday at Madison Square Garden. She famously sang "Happy Birthday".
The dress she wore was so tight she had to be sewn into it. On 5 August the same
year her housekeeper found her dead. The official cause of death was an overdose
of sleeping pills, but many still believe she was taken care of for what she knew
about the Kennedy family. One question to ask is obviously, if she wanted to die,
why did she die with the phone in her hand? Years after her death, Elton John
and Bernie Taupin penned the song "Candle In The Wind", exclusively
about Marilyn Monroe, a song that was later re-written to suit Princess Diana.
Both blondes died at the age of 36.
"Hollywood is a place where they'll
pay a million dollars for a kiss... and fifty cents for your soul."
