The Biographies Of Marilyn Monroe By Owings

Marilyn Monroe was a very well known actor, though she did not have the glamorous life you think she did. She was in many movies and shows throughout her life, but there are many things you may not know about her. The book I found is called Marilyn Monroe (hollywood icon) by Lisa Owings. Lisa writes many different books but mostly biographies. Marilyn Monroe had many ups and downs during her life from getting into drugs to almost losing her whole career. Marilyn Monroe is an icon to most teenage girls because of her graceful walk and the calming way she talked, not to mention she was beautiful. It took Marilyn a long time to get her acting career up and going. But when she did everything changed.

Norma Jean Mortenson (later known as Marilyn Monroe) was born on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother's name was Gladys Baker. Norma had been Glady’s third child, during her second marriage to Edward Mortenson. But before Gladys was pregnant she had also been seeing Charles Stanley Glifford. Most biographers believe that one of them was Norma Jean’s father. But Edward accepted the role of being Norma’s father so she took his surname legally. Just 12 days after Norma Jean was born Gladys realized she could not take care of Norma so she put her in a foster home. Norma eventually found foster parents. Her foster parents were Ida and Wayne Bolender. They were very loving to Norma and they treated her like their own child. The two had cared for many other children, not just Norma. Norma was happy and she had lived with the Bolenders for the first 7 years of her life. On Sundays Gladys would come and visit her daughter but she eventually determined she wanted her daughter back. Ida had grown to love Norma and she did not want to give her up just yet. In June of 1933, the Bolenders let Norma keep a stray dog named Tippy. He was a nuisance to the neighbors. Tippy would constantly bark, the neighbors got so fed up with the dog they killed him. Norma Jean was so traumatized after the death of her beloved pet that Ida felt Gladys should step in. After Gladys and her best friend Grace helped Norma bury the dog they packed up and then they took Norma to Hollywood. Once they moved to Hollywood, Gladys became overwhelmed with taking care of her daughter. One day Glady’s got terrible news. The first was that her son from her first marriage had died of kidney trouble. Then second was her grandfather had committed suicide. Gladys was having trouble coping with these difficult things, so she turned to medicines. The medicine only worsened her conditions. By early 1934, Gladys was sent to a rest home and Norma Jean was then being cared for by Gladys friend Grace. Grace loved Norma and at this point she wanted to give Norma a semi normal childhood. Norma wanted Grace to be her legal guardian, but the state would not approve until they investigated and could prove Grace was a good mother to Norma. Grace had fallen in love with a man named Doc Goddard. They got married in August 1935. Norma, Grace, and Doc were all a family, but then something changed. They were struggling to care for Norma, so she had to go to the adoption center, once again.

Eventually Norma was able to live with her Aunt Ana. Norma Jean later recalled of Aunt Ana “She changed my whole life. She was the only person who loved me and understood me… She was all kindness and love.” Norma's aunt supported her dream of becoming an actress. As Aunt Ana was getting into her late sixties, she had realized she could not take care of Norma Jean anymore. Norma went back to live with the Goddard family. Norma’s life was good for a while, she loved her school, she had bonded with Beebe, one of Docs daughters. But she also, one of Goddard's neighbors, had a handsome 19-year- old son, whose name was Jim Doughterty. Norma immediately fell in love with Jim. Both families arranged Jim to take Norma to a Christmas party, Norma of course said yes. They had fallen in love with each other, they wanted to get married as soon as possible but there was one problem. Doc was offered a job on the East Coast and he planned to relocate the family. Doc could not be able to take Norma Jean with them, he did not have the money, love, or ability to support another child but Grace came up with an amazing idea. That summer Norma would turn 16, the legal marrying age in the state of California. Jim agreed to marry Norma, their wedding was on June 19, 1942, just weeks after her birthday. Norma and Jim settled into married life in California while World War 2 was raging. Norma Jean eventually had dropped out of school and Jim wanted to serve in the military. This made Norma Jean feel betrayed and abandoned. Norma Jeans chaotic childhood had left her with deep insecurities about people leaving, she felt if Jim went he would never come back. But in 1943, Jim had joined the US Merchant Marine, he was stationed on Catalina Island in California. In 1944 when Jim was overseas. Norma had taken a job at a Radio Plane factory. At the factory she applied varnish to cloth that was used to manufacture planes. David Conover was a photographer looking to take pictures of women contributing to the war effort. Conover enjoyed working with Norma and could tell she had special talents in modeling. In August 1945, Emmeline Snively signed Norma a contract for Blue Book Modeling Agency in Los Angeles. Norma was seen on many magazine covers, she was proud of the growing of her portfolio.

Norma was then starting to have the life she had always dreamed of. After only one year at Blue Book Modeling agency Norma Jean had been featured on more than 30 magazine covers. As her portfolio was growing, Snivley told Norma she would have to dye her hair blonde because of the high demand for blond models. Snively did not think Norma could make it in the modeling industry if she was a brunette. After Norma dyed her hair she got more assignments than she ever had. Norma was thrilled with her modeling career, but her husband Jim has preferred she stay the dutiful housewife. Norma was not going to put her husband's dreams in front of her own, so she kept modeling. Jim and Norma were getting tense. Norma's mother had moved back in with Norma after treatment, meaning there was not enough space for everyone, Jim was getting sick and tired of it. In the spring of 1946, Norma filed for divorce. After the devorce Norma was allowed to pursue her dream of being a model. Norma’s manager, Emmeline Snively kept looking for opportunities for Norma to be on movies, shows, and magazine covers. An opportunity came along in 1946, Howard Hughes, filmakere, aviator, and businessman had seen Norma on a magazine cover and he was impressed and made arrangements. Norma Jean had gotten a screen test at Hughes’s studio, Radio Keith-Orpheum (RKO) Pictures. Norma captured the interest of Hughes, he had started to make her more attractive to other studios, including Twentieth Century Fox. That summer Norma met Ben lyon, a casting director for Twentieth Century Fox. They gave Norma a screen test, one the men who interviewed her said “I got a cold chill. This girl had something I had never seen since silent pictures. She had a kind of fantastic beauty.” But Darryl Zanuxk was not impressed, he had preferred brunette actresses over blondes, and Norma had no acting experience. Zanuck decided to sign her a 6 month contract. In August of 1946, it had become official, Norma Jean was a starlet actress of Twentieth Century Fox. Lyon had explained that Norma Jean Doughtery was too hard to pronounce and not a star name. After discussion Norma had decided to couple Galdy’s maiden name, Monroe, with the first name of an actress Lyon had loved. Then that was the beginning of Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn Morne was young for an actress, though she was pretty, she had received acting, singing, and dancing lessons to prepare her for her career. After Monroe’s contract was up, if she was not considered “star material” she was fired. In February 1947, Monroe’s contract to Fox was renewed. Marilyn Monroe was signed to many different movies and shows, including Ladies in Chorus, which was not a success, Dangerous Years, and Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! These roles were not enough to convince Fox that Marilyn should stay, so they dropped her contact after her first year. Monroe was crushed, but she did not take anytime off. She had worked for months trying to attract attention from other studios. Then Marilyin found Joe Schenck, he was running Fox alongside Zanuck. Schenck was known for having extravagant parties, which Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures studio had attended. Schenck and Marilyn quickly developed a friendship. Since Zanuck was not ready to take Marilyn Monroe, Schenck called Cohn and got Marilyn a screen test at Columbia. He immediately signed Monroe. Monroe rang in the new year of 1949 at a party in Hollywood with many different talent agents, including Johnny Hyde. He fell deeply in love with Monroe almost immediately after they met. In early 1949, Monroe auditioned for a role in a Marx Brothers film called Love Happy. Monroes part in Love Happy Lasted only 38 seconds, but those few second helped establish her as the sex symbol she soon became. Shortly after she was asked to do a nude photo shoot with Tom Kelley, for a calendar image in May 1949. Monroe agreed, she had been becoming recognized for these photos. By this happening it made her job become of risk, as well as public humiliation. During the summer of 1949, Monroe’s career was not progressing how she wanted it to. At that same time Hyde had left his wife and children for Monroe. Hyde started to pressure Monroe to marry him, he loved her and he believed she could be a star. But he was also very verbally abusive to her, in turn she did not love him back. Hyde finally started to live up to his promises of making Monroe a star. After playing in The Asphalt Jungle, Monroe was in many things after that. In December 1950, after All About Eve was released, Hyde died of a heart attack, then Monroe sunk into depression. Monroe did actually love Hyde. Monroe started living with Natasha Lytess, Lytess could tell that Monroe was taking pills to cope with the passing of her husband. One day Lytess came home to Monroe laying limp in her bedroom. Monroes mouth had been filled with sleeping pills, thankfully she had not swallowed them, but Lytess was terrified. Fast forward a few years, Marilyn had many different roles in movies. Monroe had also played a blonde bombshell that relied on her body more than her brain. In 1951 Monroe had roles in Home Town Story, As Young as You Feel, Love Nest, and Let’s Make It Legal. In early 1952, Monroe met Joe DiMaggio on the set of Don’t Bother to Knock. As their relationship progressed someone had recognized Monroe from the nude photoshoot, it was all over the news. She came forward and admitted to doing the photoshoot for Kelley. Monroe’s friend Skolsky made arrangements for Monroe to do an interview with United Press International. In the summer 1952, tension was building between Monroe and DiMaggio. Monroe had experienced the same thing with Dougherty, DiMaggio wanted Monroe to give up her career and settle down with him. Monroe was exhausted from the back-to-back filming, she had no time to sleep, so she started on sleeping pills. Marilyn kept depending on drugs to help her sleep, she eventually had to be hospitalized, but that did not stop her from using them again. In January 1954 DiMaggio asked Monroe to marry him, then on January 14 DiMaggio and Marilyn Got married in San Francisco, California. DiMaggio started to abuse Monroe shortly after they got married. Monroe later told her hair dresser “ Joe beat me up twice. The first time, I warned him. ‘ Don’t ever do that again.’ I’m not going to stand for it.” She then divorced DiMaggio in October. In the early months of 1965, Monroe was filming Bus Stop. At this time she had many health problems including bronchitis due to her use of drugs. Due to these health issues Monroe was often not on set. In 1956 Monroe's drug addiction was also combined with alcohol. Marilyn Monroe then married Arthur Miller, they wanted a baby. Monroe had a miscarriage, then her depression deepened. She turned to pills, champagne, and food. Marilyn then had a second miscarrage. Her loss of the second baby was difficult to overcome. Monroe did not appear in another film until 1960, two years before her death.

Miller was sick of Monroe's unpredictable behavior, their marriage was coming to an end. Monroe depended on her doctor, Dr. Ralph Greenson, for dangerous medicine. It was not long until exhaustion, the extreme heat of the Arizona filming location, and the combination of the drugs and alcohol became too much for Monroe. She was flown back to Los Angeles and put in a hospital. In January 1961, Monroe and DiMaggio finally divorced, instead of the divorce helping her mental state it hurt her. Monroe admitted to having suicidal thoughts. In the summer of 1961, she had turned 35, and was casually dating Frank Sinatra. Monroe went to a dinner party for The Kennedys in 1962. President Kennedy invited Monroe to accompany him to Palm Springs. Rumors were spread that there was an affair but there was no proof. On August 4th, 1962 Monroe's life came to an end. Monroe was found in her bedroom laying face down on the floor. She was later pronounced dead from a drug overdose. Not many people know if it was intentional or not. But Monroe’s legacy still lives on today. She is well known by many people young and old. Many young teens look up to Marilyn as a role model, but was she the best role model. Many things happened to Marilyn that nobody knows about. She struggled with many things throughout her life. There was a funeral held for Marilyn Monroe on August 8th, 1962, she died at the age of 36.