" I was never used to being happy , so that was n’t something I ever took for granted . You see , I was brought up differently from the average American child because the average youngster is convey up expecting to be felicitous . " – MARILYN MONROE , 1954
ThoughMarilyn Monroe ’s difficult journeying along the course to Hollywood stardom is often traced back to her former calling as a simulation , her connections to themovieindustry go back much further . With the benefit of hindsight , it would be easy to claim that these puerility clash with Hollywood foretold her next career in show business , but in realness , manyLos Angelesnatives at one clock time or another have find oneself themselves connected to " the industry . "
Marilyn was no exclusion . Her female parent , Gladys Baker Mortenson , worked as a picture cutlery at Consolidated Film Industries , a processing lab for the Hollywood studio , at the clip of Marilyn ’s nascency .
Marilyn Monroe was carry Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1 , 1926 , at Los Angeles General Hospital . Gladys , not unmindful to the glamour and conjuration of the picture show , nominate her child after Norma Talmadge , who ranked among the most pop of screenland god during the early to mid-1920s .
Norma Jeane began sprightliness with one significant strike against her : She had no father to help elevate her , to protect her , or to have it off her . Though her nativity certification identifies her father as " Edward Mortenson , " who was Gladys ’s 2nd husband , most biographers harmonise that Norma Jeane ’s father was actually C. Stanley Gifford . Gifford also turn at Consolidated Film Industries , but he abandoned Gladys after being told of the gestation .
When she was a little girl , Norma Jeane asked her female parent about a exposure hanging on the paries . The photo showed an attractive man who wore a pencil - lean mustache , much like the one Clark Gable wear for most of his career . Gladys tell her girl that the photo was of her father .
Gifford was know to have resemble Gable , if only because of the moustache , and Norma Jeane fantasized for some sentence subsequently that her don was Clark Gable . She often told her schoolmate that she was the girl of the notable motion picture star .
Norma Jeane ( who was baptise " Norma Jeane Baker " ) would never formally meet Gifford , the man that she believed to be her father . When she was a teenager , she endeavor to speak with him by telephone . She discover herself as " Norma Jeane , Gladys ’s girl , " but the political party on the other end of the bank line simply hung up .
After Norma Jeane became the sensation call Marilyn Monroe , she supposedly essay contact with Gifford again , this prison term in someone . More than once , she drove in the south from Los Angeles with a near friend in tow to a small dairy farm near Hemet , California . On each occasion , she got out of the car , which was parked some distance from the farm , and walked toward the theatre alone . When she give to the car , she informed her fellow traveller that her Fatherhood had refused to see her .
Whether Marilyn really verbalize with Gifford on any of these occasions is not known . Perhaps she never find the nerve to actually knock on the front door ; perhaps the farm did not belong to Gifford ; perhaps Gifford was not her father at all .
Occasionally , the name " Edward Mortenson " crop up in early interviews and storey as the alleged father of Marilyn Monroe . Martin Edward Mortenson get married Gladys Baker in 1924 , but the couple had been separated long before Gladys became pregnant with Norma Jeane . Mortenson , an immigrant from Norway , was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1929 .
It ’s difficult to overemphasise the significance behind these stories . Marilyn feel a unsounded exit at having never acknowledge a founder . It pass on a scar that never healed . Her conflicting stories and fantasies about her father seem to represent her attempts to put her line in linear perspective or to total to grips with her hazy past times .
at last , these attempts were not enough . Just before her death in 1962 , Marilyn filled out an official form in front of her secretary , who witnessed the melancholy star bitterly scribble " unidentified " on the seam check " Father . "
Monroe biographers have learned that Marilyn ’s contradictory stories about her crime syndicate point out a problem in uncovering the facts of young Norma Jeane ’s past . Marilyn often exaggerated , embellished , and fantasized about the dismal issue of her childhood . Though a truly fair mortal at nitty-gritty , she plainly felt the con of her inauspicious beginnings to such a degree that it color her rendition of them .
Consequently , Marilyn ’s conflict report of certain incident in her life make couch together a definitive version of her formative years quite difficult . Some of what we do know about her puerility , including her time spent in an orphans' asylum and in foster care , can be establish on the next page .
Marilyn Monroe Enters Foster Care
Norma Jeane ’s mother , who most often used the name Gladys Baker , placed the babe Norma Jeane in the charge of Ida and Wayne Bolender of Hawthorne , California . Life had not been peculiarly genial to Gladys . She had had two nestling – Berniece and Hermitt Jack – by her firstmarriageto Jack Baker , but he had taken the nestling away from her and strike to Kentucky prior to her union to Edward Mortenson .
Supposedly , Baker had left a note for Gladys that take , " I have taken the children , and you will never see them again . " The absence of her first two fry induce Gladys great pain , and her unfitness to take fear of Norma Jeane added to that grief andstress .
Gladys ’s family had a story of genial instability . Both of her parents , Otis and Delia Monroe , finished out their lives in mental institutions , and Gladys ’s brother , Marion Monroe , suffered from a problem diagnosed at the clock time as paranoid schizophrenia . Gladys battle demons of her own and spend much of her adult life in institutions .
Though Gladys was most potential manic depressive , some have labeled her paranoid schizophrenic . It was not uncommon during the 1930s and forties for those get from manic depression to be diagnose as paranoid schizophrenic , which calculate for the discrepancies in give-and-take of Gladys ’s case story .
Whatever the exact nature of Gladys ’s disorder , Marilyn had a pathologic fear of genetic insanity throughout her biography . Though frenzied and schizoid disorders have a tendency to ladder in families , this does not necessarily mean that Marilyn inherited an emotional disorder . It is just as likely that her former living of deprivation and insecurity account for her late psychiatrical problems .
Ironically , perhaps , when Gladys boarded out Norma Jeane to the Bolenders 12 days after the baby ’s birth , it was because of financial difficulties – not mental ones . Gladys go back to body of work at Consolidated Film Industries , pay the Bolenders five dollar per week to look after her baby . Each Saturday , Gladys would take the tramcar to Hawthorne to visit Norma Jeane , who remember Gladys as " the lady with red hair " rather than as her female parent .
A devoutly religious couple , Wayne and Ida Bolender lived a comfy existence in Hawthorne , a less - than - stylish suburbia of Los Angeles . Wayne worked as a postal carrier and was fortunate enough to remain employ throughout the Depression . In his bare time , he printed religious tracts .
Marilyn would later remember the couple ’s devotedness to their religious belief as one that approached zealousness . She claimed that as the untested Norma Jeane , she had to promise never to fuddle or trust , she had to attend church several times a week , and she was repeatedly told that she was go to Hell . Norma Jeane quickly learned to veil from the Bolenders if she wanted to sing , terpsichore , or act out a illusion lifespan " more interesting than the one I had . "
Though Norma Jeane regularly assist church with the Bolenders , she was claim by her nan , Della Monroe , to the Foursquare Gospel Church to be baptized by the flamboyant evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson . Della , a devout follower of Sister Aimee , had her granddaughter christened " Norma Jeane Baker . "
When Norma Jeane was two class erstwhile , Della suffered a complete nervous breakdown , which run to her commitment to the Metropolitan State Hospital at Norwalk in Los Angeles County . A month subsequently , Della die of a heart attack during a ictus .
Around 1933 , Gladys and Norma Jeane know a change in fortune . Gladys had earned enough money to put something down on a white cottage near the Hollywood Bowl ; for the first time , Norma Jeane actually lived with her female parent .
At the clock time , Gladys was work as a picture show cutter at Columbia Pictures , but to make ends meet , she rent out most of the star sign to an English couple who had fringe occupation in the moving picture manufacture . The man was a sales booth - in for the English actor George Arliss , while his married woman was registered as an extra .
The atmosphere around the home was much loose than it had been at the Bolenders , and Norma Jeane ’s activity were not as restricted as before . She frequently take care the movie , most often at Grauman ’s Egyptian Theater but also at Grauman ’s Chinese Theater .
There , in the famous cement forecourt , she would put her modest feet in the footprints of Gloria Swanson and Clara Bow . Much later in her living , when the cosmos knew her as Marilyn Monroe , she would literally follow in those whiz ' footsteps when her own photographic print were captured for posterity .
The reunification of Gladys and Norma Jeane was all too brief . As the calendar month run low by , Gladys became progressively depressed until , one morning in January of 1935 , she lost control . Unable to tranquilize Gladys down , the English dyad telephoned her closemouthed Quaker , Grace McKee , who suggest they call an ambulance .
Some accounts of this tragic episode report that Gladys came after Grace with a kitchen knife . Whatever the specific event , Norma Jeane ’s mother was taken away , first to Los Angeles General Hospital and then to Norwalk , where Della Monroe had died just a few years before .
Except for very brief periods , Gladys was institutionalized for the rest of her life . As she grew older , she too became fixated on religion and the need to expiate for preceding wickedness , just as Della had done .
The English couple , whose name are not make love , kept Norma Jeane for the better part of a class , though they were forced to move to a small-scale flat when they could not keep up the requital on Gladys ’s bungalow . finally , the couple return to England , and Norma Jeane be active in with some neighbors , the Harvey Giffens .
Giffen offered to lawfully adopt Norma Jeane , as did one of Gladys ’s coworkers from Consolidated Film Industries , but Gladys refused . After the Giffens displace to Mississippi , Grace McKee was name sound guardian for the luckless little girl .
On September 13 , 1935 , Grace take Norma Jeane to the Los Angeles Orphans Home Society because she was ineffective to financially provide for her at that time . Norma Jeane ’s admittance to the orphanhood represent rock bottom to a child whose brusk life had been nothing but a sequence of low point .
In a 1962 interview , Marilyn recalled her immediate reaction to the orphans' asylum : " I start out to cry , ' Please , please do n’t make me go inside . I ’m not an orphan , my female parent ’s not stagnant . I ’m not an orphan – it ’s just that she ’s mad in the hospital and ca n’t take care of me . Please do n’t make me survive in an orphans ' home . ' "
Marilyn often paint a dark portraiture of her two years in the orphanage , kick in the stamp that it was much harsh than it actually was . She claimed that she had to rinse 100 cups , 100 shell , and 100 knives , fork , and spoon three fourth dimension a solar day , seven day a workweek . For her efforts , she pick up five cents a month , four of which went into the collection plate at church building .
after , official would argufy her version of day-to-day liveliness at the orphanhood , indicate out that the children were not regimented to certain undertaking and that great pains were taken to make the children feel they were part of one , giving , happy family . More than likely , Norma Jeane was never mistreated at the Orphans Home Society , but her feelings of desertion , loneliness , and insecurity were certainly accentuated by the experience .
In the summer of 1937 , Grace at last rescued Norma Jeane from the orphanage . in the beginning that class , Grace had married Ervin " Doc " Goddard , who had three children from a premature marriage . The duo was trying to make some likeness of a normal family life in Doc ’s slight home in Van Nuys .
Despite her endeavour at domesticated harmony , Grace resolve to localise her ward in afoster home . For wretched Norma Jeane , it was a pillowcase of jump out of the frying genus Pan of the orphans' asylum into the flame of a sequence of foster homes .
During the Depression , span who took in foster child received money from the state , an arrangement that did not encourage the noblest of motivations for helping out parentless tike . Norma Jeane was so wretched in the foster homes in which she was placed that she asked Grace to institutionalize her back to the orphanage . It was then that Grace and Doc decided to keep Norma Jeane themselves .
At some point in her childhood , perhaps during this hazy period of foster - home creation , or perhaps even sooner , Norma Jeane was sexually chivy . In recounting the story in later audience , Marilyn variously give her old age at the meter of the incident as 6 , 8 , 9 , or at some time in adolescence . According to Marilyn , a family booster or boarder in the foster home in which she live at the time molested – or raped – her in his elbow room .
When she told her foster mother what had happened , the woman refuse to think her . In some reading of the story , the foster mother actually slap Norma Jeane , shout , " I do n’t believe you . Do n’t you defy say such affair about that skillful valet de chambre . " The resultant hurt left the panic-stricken girl with a stutter , though in early interviews Marilyn attributed her puerility stammer to her desertion at the orphanage .
Her want of specific recall and her overall tendency to embellish stories about her childhood have lead some insensitive biographer to sham that Marilyn invented or greatly exaggerated the molestation story to realise fellow feeling . Those who knew her in person , however , attest to the emotional money plant in her recountings of the past . Though the detail of her story may alter , the canonic verity seems to be that she was sexually abused as a minor , and the store haunted her for the residue of her life .
ascertain out about Marilyn ’s increase into a young woman and why and who she get married so young on the next page .
Marilyn Monroe Marries Jim Dougherty
Despite Grace McKee ’s determination to keep Norma Jeane , setting did not permit it . Now an adolescent , Norma Jeane went to live nearby with Grace ’s maiden aunt , Ana Lower . The musical arrangement turned out to be a blessing in camouflage because Aunt Ana ply the most unchanging dwelling environment that the inauspicious girl had ever get it on .
Aunt Ana belonged to the Christian Science Church , and she innovate the young missy to its teachings . Norma Jeane rest a Christian Scientist for over eight age , marking her only survive religious influence .
Though the tenets of the church eventually fade in grandness for Norma Jeane , Aunt Ana ’s steering never did . One of Norma Jeane ’s most prized possessions was a book Ana had apply her about Christian Science . The lettering read , " Norma lamb , study this ledger . I do not leave you much except my making love , but not even death can diminish that ; nor will end ever take me far away from you . "
Norma Jeane take care Emerson Junior High School in Westwood Village set out in September 1939 . Thirteen age old at that time , she presently grow tall and her figure developed rapidly , do a wizard among the boys at school . For the first time in her life , Norma Jeane get to receive favorable attending . Her stammer fall and her degree of confidence soar up .
It was quite a change from the old class , when the male child had called her " Norma Jeane the Human Bean " because of her rail - tenuous trunk . Though she had fallen behind in schoolhouse and had to repeat the seventh grade , she eventually made it up by skipping the latter half of the eighth grade .
Norma Jeane entered Van Nuys High School in September of 1941 , but her days as a distinctive high - school miss were keep down . At about that fourth dimension , Doc Goddard received a line of work furtherance that require him to relocate his family to West Virginia . At some decimal point it was set that Norma Jeane would not make the move with the Goddards , and that 61 - year - sometime Aunt Ana could no longer take upkeep of her .
Grace decided that a convenient solution to all involved would be Norma Jeane’smarriageto a local male child , 21 - year - old Jim Dougherty . The only alternative , according to Grace , would be to send Norma Jeane back to the orphanhood .
The Doughertys live in the same neighborhood as the Goddards , and vernal Jim sometimes drove Norma Jeane and Eleanor " Bebe " Goddard home from schooltime . Norma Jeane harbored a crushed leather on Jim , who had been a football star and scholarly person eubstance prexy at Van Nuys High School .
Jim – consider quite a match by Grace and Aunt Ana – had a good occupation at Lockheed Aviation , anaircraftfactory , where he wreak alongside a well-favored immature man diagnose Robert Mitchum . A dozen eld afterwards , Mitchum would costar in a film called River of No Return with Marilyn Monroe – the former Mrs. James Dougherty .
Jim and Norma Jeane begin dating casually in December of 1941 , after Grace asked him to see the budding youthful woman to theChristmasdance put on by Doc ’s troupe . A few calendar month later , the courtship had progressed to several date each week .
By May of 1942 , the couple were engaged . Norma Jeane drip out of University High School in West Los Angeles , where she had transferred in February , to wed Jim . The couple we d on June 19 , 1942 – less than three week after Norma Jeane ’s sixteenth natal day . Aunt Ana help the Doughertys be after the wedding , and she give Norma Jeane a simple but elegant wedding gown .
The Goddards did not assist as they had already moved to West Virginia , but Ida and Wayne Bolender follow up from Hawthorne for the ceremony . Having never had a significant father figure in her life , Norma Jeane asked Aunt Ana to give her away .
Whether Mr. and Mrs. James Dougherty were broadly happy or not depends on which explanation of the marriage one believes . Marilyn would later profess that she had been advertize into a loveless spousal relationship by Grace and that she was never really glad . On the other hand , Jim Dougherty claim that the immature twosome had been sincerely in love .
In 1953 , Jim stated , " Our married couple was a unspoilt matrimony . . . it ’s seldom a mankind arrive a bride like Marilyn . . . I enquire if she ’s forgotten how much in love we really were . " Perhaps with the welfare of hindsight , a mature Marilyn understand how much more spirit had to pop the question outside of her relationship with Jim .
Further grounds of Marilyn ’s discontentedness with the marriage includes her unwillingness to forgive Grace for maneuvering the young couple into matrimony , an bit Marilyn later conceive had been design to still Grace ’s conscience over move out of state and result Norma Jeane behind .
In that first year , Jim and Norma Jeane Dougherty pass a great deal of time together and shared many activities . On closer inspection , though , it seems that those activity were more Jim ’s cup of Camellia sinensis than Norma Jeane ’s .
The young couple went sportfishing at Sherwood Lake , skiing at Big Bear Lodge , and occasionally to the movies or dancing . Jim Dougherty ’s anamnesis of this menstruation paint a picture they led a carefree and fun - loving cosmos , while Marilyn hark back in a 1956 audience that she made a felo-de-se endeavour but " not a very serious one . "
In the fall of 1943 , during the middle of World War II , Jim began to palpate the pressure of being without a uniform . He join the Merchant Marine as a physical - training instructor , and the Doughertys were ship to Catalina Island , off the coast of southern California .
Perhaps because of Jim ’s influence , or perhaps because of some secret dream , Norma Jeane took weightlifting lessons from an Olympic champion while she and Jim lived on the island .
The Doughertys remain strong as a couple until the following year , when Jim was shipped abroad . Norma Jeane moved in with Jim ’s mother and get down work at the Radio Plane Company in Burbank , a defense industrial plant owned by histrion Reginald Denny .
At first she inspected chute , but she was later kick upstairs to another domain where she spray the fuselages of target planes with a biting liquidness plastic . Despite the hardships of this labor – the country was fuck as the " dope room " because of the fumes – Norma Jeane was a diligent worker who won an " tocopherol " certificate for her excellent handwork .
Within a few month , however , Norma Jeane was pick out for something other than her work habits . U. S. Army photographer David Conover impose the plant on assignment in 1945 to shoot photo of women working to help the war exploit . He was searching for someone to boost the morale of the boys oversea when he discovered 18 - twelvemonth - honest-to-goodness Norma Jeane Dougherty , who looked quite fetching even in her company overalls .
When Conover found out that Norma Jeane had a perspirer in her footlocker , he asked her to model for his series of pic forYankmagazine . Conover ’s appealing shots of Norma Jeane resulted in her first cartridge clip cover and led to her career as a model .
Norma Jeane key out that she was in her element as a photographic model . To say she was a " natural " wildly understates her ability to apply the camera to enhance her beauty and to bring out her congenital glamor and sensuousness .
Having never felt a sense of belonging in her entire childhood , Norma Jeane now know exactly where she belonged – in front of the camera . Learn how these first photos would serve get Marilyn discovered on the next page .
Marilyn Monroe Gets Discovered
" model necessitate me how they can be like Marilyn Monroe and I say to them , love , I say to them , if you may show half the gumption , just half , that little girl show , you ’ll be a success too . . . . there ’ll never be another like her . “– EMMELINE SNIVELY , headway OF THE BLUE BOOK MODEL AGENCY
After the initialYankmagazine photographic session with Conover , Norma Jeane posed for him on other occasion . As his free-lance exemplar , she was paid five dollars an minute – to Norma Jeane , a substantive amount of pouch money .
Conover worked as anArmyphotographer for the 1st Motion Picture Unit , which lock through the auspices of the Hal Roach Studios . His overtop ship’s officer was an worker - turned - serviceman named Ronald Reagan .
Conover ’s work , including some photos of Norma Jeane , look regularly in such military magazines asYankandStars and Stripes . Norma Jeane was enthusiastic about her new occupational group , and even consented to join Conover on a picture - taking pleasure trip through Southern California .
Norma Jeane ’s power to set before thecamerafrom the very beginning of her vocation has been widely acknowledged , though where that ability come from remains a secret . Was she simply hallow with a rude charisma , as many biographer have assumed ? Or , had she been working on her appearance because of a unavowed desire for a more glamorous calling , as some – including Jim Dougherty – have suggested ?
Others have attributed her photogenic quality to her skill at draw in the regard of man – a attainment she supposedly perfected to gain the attention she was denied as a child .
Those who claim that Norma Jeane was simply fortunate to have a magnetic , natural ability regard this stage of her life as a predestined pouf narration , in which her talent would have been rewarded no matter what the odds . Those who suggest that she had been harbor a underground desire to be a modelling or flick whizz inculpate that she not only had some control condition over her life story but was also actively work on to fulfill her dream .
And those who insist that Norma Jeane was subconsciously trying to gain the attention or affections of men paint a portrait of a woman who was frightfully insecure and easily manipulate . The truth of Norma Jeane ’s abilities and motivations is probably a combining of these scenario ; each of them seems to be an accurate verbal description of her at certain points of her lifetime .
No definitive result can be pieced together from the recollections of Conover , the lensman who " discovered " Marilyn Monroe . allot to him , his cause for choosing Norma Jeane over the other girls at the Radio Plane Company was just that " her eye held something that touched and intrigued me . "
Norma Jeane ’s ability to magically transmute herself before the tv camera will in all probability never be fully explained ; perhaps it is an iniquity to her to prove .
A commercial-grade photographer named Potter Hueth became interested in Norma Jeane on a professional level after Conover showed him some of his photographs . Hueth ask Norma Jeane if she would be willing to work on " spec . " That is , he would shoot some photos of her and then tout them to various magazines , but Norma Jeane would not get paid unless the photos were sold .
She agreed , providing she could bewilder in the eventide , after her faulting at the defense plant life . Find out what pass off with these photo and the history behind Norma Jeane becoming a blond on the next page .
Marilyn Monroe Becomes a Blonde
Some of Potter Hueth ’s photo of Marilyn ended up on the desk of Emmeline Snively , head of the Blue Book Model Agency in Los Angeles . Snively sent Norma Jeane a pamphlet and express interestingness in using her if she was uncoerced to take Blue Book ’s three - month modeling course .
Though the agency ’s $ 100 fee almost frighten Norma Jeane away , Snively assured her that the fee could be read out of her exemplar ’s salary . Norma Jeane signed a contract with Blue Book in the summertime of 1945 and landed a modeling assignment right away , though it was not in front of thecameralens .
She was hire by Holga Steel for a ten - day engagement as the stewardess for their stall at an industrial show at the Pan Pacific Auditorium . After the show had conclude , Norma Jeane reluctantly return to the defense lawyers flora but remain to take care Blue Book ’s classes .
In family , Snively teach Norma Jeane to lower her grin to relieve the shadow throw away by her nose . This modified way of smiling resulted in the quivering lips that would later become Marilyn Monroe ’s trademark .
For sure modeling assigning , Snively temporarily alter Norma Jeane Dougherty ’s name to the more sophisticated " Jean Norman . " Norma Jeane ( sometimes mistakenly consult to during this period as Norma Jean ) was eager to surpass at her new profession and operate intemperately to please everyone at Blue Book .
She would study every photograph made of her , find fault out the I she think were not successful , and ask the photographers what she had done incorrectly . She took their advice very seriously and never take over what she considered to be a mistake .
One afternoon in 1946 , Snively sent Norma Jeane to Frank & Joseph ’s Beauty Salon to have her hair done for a modeling assignment for Rayve shampoo . Frank & Joseph ’s had build a solid reputation by styling the hair’s-breadth of such Hollywood notability as Rita Hayworth , Ingrid Bergman , starlet Judy Clark , and even professional wrestler Gorgeous George .
On that Clarence Day in 1946 , a fainthearted Norma Jeane walked into the salon and asked if something could be done to make her appear better for her shampoo shoot that evening . Tint technician Sylvia Barnhart and store owner Frank immediately set out to tidy Norma Jeane ’s hair , which Barnhart has described as " chocolate-brown and kinky . "
The stiff root used in the process also buoy up her hair , commit it a ruby - blonde cast . Norma Jeane was quite pleased by the essence and wanted to go blonder . Over the next four to five months , Barnhart change the coloring of the young simulation ’s hair to a gold beloved - blonde by lighten and toning it a step at a fourth dimension .
Barnhart disputes the oftentimes - told tale that Norma Jeane did not want to be a blond and that she resisted any suggestion to transfer herhair color . To the contrary , Norma Jeane felt a lighter coloring helped accentuate her oculus , which Barnhart has described as " beautiful [ and ] lambent . "
Sylvia Barnhart and Norma Jeane Dougherty became friends during this period ; Barnhart often bought tiffin for Norma Jeane . Though sometimes angered by Norma Jeane ’s predilection for lateness , Barnhart never remained angry for long . She call up that Norma Jeane had her and Frank " wrap up around her finger’s breadth . "
Barnhart continued to style Norma Jeane ’s hair for the next five to seven years , long after the shy , timid Norma Jeane had become starlet Marilyn Monroe .
In the next part , you ’ll learn about the events that extend up to Marilyn ’s divorce from her first married man , Jim Dougherty .
Marilyn Monroe Gets Divorced
Norma Jeane ’s hair may have been advance nicely during the mid-’40s , but her personal life was another matter . There is little doubt that her marriage to Jim Dougherty was based on a shaky emotional consignment from Norma Jeane . Still , the effect of her young profession on her man and wife would not be pronto apparent for a few month .
In the summer of 1945 , Norma Jeane was still live on with her in - laws , but their disapproval at her vocation made a move back to Ana Lower ’s more well-off for all concerned . Jim ’s mother had suggested that Norma Jeane write to Jim , who was still oversea , to ask his legal opinion before she embarked on her modelling career . Norma Jeane had insisted there was not time .
By the time Jim came home around Christmas on his second farewell , Norma Jeane had lay off her caper at the Radio Plane Company and was pursuing simulate full time .
Though Norma Jeane seemed happy to see her hubby , a number of changes were readily ostensible to Jim – changes that both surprised and disappoint him . He point out a wad of unpaid note from local section stores lying on the table , which led to his discovery that Norma Jeane had spend most of his allotment as well as their saving on wearing apparel and accessories . She defended her action by telling him the clothes were necessary for her career .
Hercareer became Norma Jeane ’s primary topic of conversation , as opposed totheirfuture . She also drop a swell pile of prison term on modeling assignments while Jim was home on leave-taking , include an protracted excursion to the Pacific Northwest with lensman Andrè de Dienes . Dougherty ’s disappointment was fuel by the realisation that he was no longer the center of her attention . Now he was only incidental to her lifespan .
In his 1976 bookThe Secret Happiness of Marilyn Monroe , as well as in various interviews and articles , Jim Dougherty blames the breakup of his union on his Merchant Marine duties . He paints an idyllic portrait of his life with Norma Jeane in the geological period before he was ship overseas .
Dougherty implies that if he had not left Norma Jeane alone , circumstances would have been dissimilar for them . He talk of Norma Jeane Dougherty and Marilyn Monroe as though they were two unlike people – as if in his absence seizure persons and forces beyond his control switch his naive , unsophisticated Norma Jeane into an ambitious , calculating career woman .
When Jim shipped out again , he knew that Norma Jeane was slipping away from him . She sent him no missive once he was back out to ocean , whereas before , she had written almost every sidereal day .
After several weeks , he heard from her Las Vegas attorney . Norma Jeane had established residency in Nevada and lodge fordivorce . Jim defy to sign the papers until he hail home on leave of absence once more , and they could have a recollective talk . The discussion had little effect on Norma Jeane ’s decision . She was determined to become an actress , and , agree to Dougherty , had been told her chance of a contract with a major film studio were next to out of the question if she were married .
Finally , in the early fall of 1946 , Dougherty reluctantly signed the divorcement papers ; Norma Jeane was gone from his life . Meanwhile , her career as a pinup was on the rise . hear more about this part of her journey to stardom in the next section .
Marilyn Monroe’s Pinup Career
In 1946 , Norma Jeane ’s molding career had contain off , concur with the bonanza in victimisation magazines . Though virtually nonexistent today , these types of publication flooded the market after World War II , specially after paper rationing end in 1950 .
Several types of victimization powder store seem on newsstand espouse the warfare . Some were devoted to lurid crime stories , others to dimestore romance or Hollywood scandal . A pregnant identification number were aimed at workforce .
Because Norma Jeane was not the tall , willowy type best suited for mode moulding , she began to make her St. Mark in pinup cartridge holder such asLaff , Peek , See , Glamorous Models , Cheesecake , andU.S. Camera . A result of the popularity of the pinup during the war , these cheap magazines sport the skillful in cheesecake photography .
Contrary to what might be assumed today , the magazines did not include photographs of nude sculpture but display women in washup wooing , negligees , towel , and other scanty but neat attire . By modern standards , the layout are comic , even destitute .
The pinup magazines played an indirect role in the Hollywood star system during this era by bringing certain models to the attention of the movie studios . Although eventually replace and later forced into extinction by the bolderPlayboyand its many imitators , these early magazine supply priceless exposure for many challenging models who aimed for Hollywood career .
Norma Jeane pose for a number of photographers who sell their work to pinup magazines . One of the best of these photographers was André de Dienes , a all right technician gifted with a sore eye that enable him to lick with equal succeeder in colour and disgraceful and white .
De Dienes worked with Norma Jeane from 1945 to 1949 , catch her at the point of her mould calling . Their photographic excursion into Nevada , Oregon , the Mojave Desert , and Yosemite in the wintertime of 1945 result in the famous series of photo of a fresh - faced Norma Jeane conquer the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest .
Their last sitting together was a series of coast picture shot at Tobey Beach in 1949 , when Norma Jeane – by that time Marilyn Monroe – was in New York City to promote one of her early films . Sometime in between , de Dienes fall in dear with his young model , proposing to her just before he moved back east . According to de Dienes , Norma Jeane consort to marry him but broke off the participation after he left Los Angeles .
Others who used Norma Jeane as a photographic manikin admit calendar and powder magazine illustrator Earl Moran . Moran first lease her in 1946 and used her off and on until 1950 . As discover in the eighties , some of Moran ’s photos of Norma Jeane , used by the creative person as mention for his then - popular cheesecake representative , are hit trailer truck - nudes .
Moran provide Norma Jeane with one of her few steady sources of income during those lean years when she was trying to break into the movie diligence . Marilyn would later say , " Earl saved my liveliness many a time . "
Find out how Marilyn ’s picture vocation evolved from her pinup days on the next page .
Marilyn Monroe’s Movie Ambitions
Norma Jeane ’s employment for Earl Moran and other photographers and her appearances in pinup magazines had a verbatim relationship to her ulterior success as a movie headliner . Her entrance intomovieswas not just a prosperous break , as some biographers have incriminate , and her moulding experience was more than just a way for her to distinguish clock time .
In trueness , Norma Jeane ’s other modeling experience are integral parts of a prospicient air of cautiously planned effect that direct to her first pic contract . That movie stardom was the goal of Norma Jeane and Blue Book ’s Emmeline Snively is apparent from certain strategies and tactics employed from almost the get-go of their professional relationship .
In 1945 , for example , Norma Jeane made her first appearance before a picture camera at the Blue Book Model Agency . Actually no more than an recreational screen trial , the footage register a smile , curly - haired young modelling with the name " Norma Jean Dougherty " in block letters beneath her . It seems improbable that Blue Book would have bothered with such a test if the movies had not been Norma Jeane ’s ultimate goal .
Sylvia Bamhart , Norma Jeane ’s hairdresser , confirms this August 15 in her unpublished memoirs about her friendly relationship with the young model . She not only mentions that Norma Jeane discussed her ambitions with her but also notes that she was uncoerced to endure change in her physical appearance in parliamentary procedure to achieve her goal .
Snively also directed Norma Jeane toward pinup modeling when she realized that the immature lady friend ’s figure and born charisma were not suited to fashion photography . for certain , Snively knew that Norma Jeane ’s natural covering photographs on pinup magazines could attract the aid of sure movie producer .
When Norma Jeane return from Nevada after charge her divorce papers in the summertime of 1946 , she discover that Snively ’s design for her had spring up in dimension . Eager to appeal the aid of Hollywood , Snively had embed an particular in the gossipmonger column about Norma Jeane .
At the prison term , Howard Hughes– millionaire industrialist , aviator , and president of RKO Pictures – was recuperate in the hospital from a serious flight stroke . On July 19 , 1946 , the come after particular appear in the gossip column of the Los Angeles Times : " Howard Hughes is on the fixture . Picking up a magazine , he was pull in by the cover girl and readily apprize an aide-de-camp to sign her for pictures . She is Norma Jeane Dougherty , a mannequin . "
Over the preceding months , Norma Jeane had appeared on the cover ofLaffmagazine four time , using her veridical name as well as her alias , " Jean Norman . " Hughes – infamous for his interest in pretty women – purportedly glanced at pinup magazines for the purposes of observe starlet ; it is possible that he saw her on these blanket .
A Hughes aide did make an enquiry about Norma Jeane , but whether Hughes himself had acknowledge her magazine encompass stay unnamed . Over the year , this story has been endlessly recount and reinterpreted until the fact have become dominate by publicity and myth .
In some versions of the story , Emmeline Snively transmit the promotional material notice to brawny Hollywood columnists Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper because they owe her a party favour . Snively ’s variation of the notice read , " Howard Hughes must be on the road to recuperation . He turned over in his iron lung and wanted to screw more about Jean Norman , this month ’s cover girl onLaffmagazine . "
In simpler recounting of the fib , Hughes supposedly noticed Norma Jeane because she appeared on four or five magazine get over in a unmarried calendar month , prompting him to track her down .
The particular of the story aside , Hughes ’s nominal interest in Norma Jeane was parlay by her novel agent into grabbing the attention of other film studios , most notably Twentieth Century - Fox . Realizing the need for professional help if Norma Jeane were to snag a picture contract , Snively had enlisted the aid of agent Helen Ainsworth of the National Concert Artists Corporation .
After fielding some of the calls herself , Ainsworth handed Norma Jeane over to one of the agency ’s talent representatives , Harry Lipton . Almost immediately , Lipton set up a coming together with Ben Lyon , the casting theatre director at Fox .
Norma Jeane must have known that the betting odds were pile against her and that a break that might lead to movie stardom was unlikely . But this only strengthened her firmness to pass her goal .
Marilyn recall later , " I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night , ' There must be thousands of girls sit alone like me , dreamingof becoming a movie star . But I ’m not going to interest about them . I ’m stargaze the hardest . ' "
See the next page for the tale behind Norma Jeane alter her name to Marilyn Monroe .
Norma Jeane Becomes Marilyn Monroe
"I kept driving past the theater with my name on the marquise . ' Marilyn Monroe . ' Was I excited . I wished they were using ' Norma Jeane ' so that all the small fry at the home and schools who never noticed me could see it . “– MARILYN MONROE , ON THE RELEASE OFLADIES OF THE CHORUSIN 1948
Norma Jeane walked into Ben Lyon ’s office at Twentieth Century - Fox in July of 1946 unsure of her future but certain of her finish . Lyon interviewed her about her background signal and inquired about any training she might have had in show business .
A nervous and frightened Norma Jeane admitted that she had no training or experience , but she volunteered , " I ’ve test to nibble up all thecameraexperience I can around the photographers who ’ve used me . "
Impressed by her appearance but suspicious of her naiveté , Lyon asked her where she was living . When Norma Jeane replied that she currently repose at the Studio Club , Lyon knew that she was probably as innocent as she sounded .
The Studio Club , located in the heart of Hollywood , was a residential hotel affiliated with the YWCA that catered to young women attempt study in the film business organisation . Norma Jeane was patently " not play the Hollywood game , " as Lyon referred to it . That is , she was not the toy of a Hollywood producer or tycoon but was honestly attempt to break into the motion-picture show industry on her own .
Lyon had been in show commercial enterprise much of his life , first as an actor and then as aradiopersonality in England . matrimonial to actress Bebe Daniels , he had team up up with his wife for a series of film comedies in the States and then a long - running radio program in London .
Lyon ’s most substantial function as an actor was in the filmHell ’s Angels , the larger-than-life World War I aviation adventure produced by Howard Hughes in 1930 . At Lyon ’s goading , Hughes had replaced the Norwegian actress Greta Nissen with Jean Harlow on that film when Nissen ’s accent became too much of a problem .
Lyon reportedly said of Norma Jeane Dougherty , " It ’s Jean Harlow all over again . " appoint executive endowment director at Fox after the warfare , Lyon was adept at recognizing possible screen stars .
He was less interested in the amount of dissemble talent that Norma Jeane possessed than in her charisma and unique charm , which he knew would be magnified on the screen door . Norma Jeane had concealment presence – just as Harlow had – and Lyon saw it .
A few day after his initial confluence with Norma Jeane , Lyon set a screen test for Norma Jeane and set up a probationary contract with her federal agent , Harry Lipton .
Lyon superintend her screen test , which was shot by veteran soldier cinematographer Leon Shamroy . The test was shot in colour because Lyon realize that the staring nature of mordant - and - white photography might accent Norma Jeane ’s lack of experience , while color film would sure impart out her good qualities and raise her screen impact .
Norma Jeane ’s " carrying out " lie primarily of walking : She walk across the set , sat down , lit a cigarette , and put it out . She then walked upstage , looked out a windowpane , sat down once more , walked downstage , and leave off - tv camera .
Though the test was unsounded and hold up only a few transactions , Shamroy , too , noticed Norma Jeane ’s resemblance to Jean Harlow . Shamroy subsequently said , " This lady friend had something I had n’t seen since still impression . She had a kind of howling beauty like Gloria Swanson . . . she get sexual urge on a piece of motion-picture show like Jean Harlow . . . . She was showing us she could betray emotions in picture . " The Harlow equivalence would surface again in the years to derive .
A week later , Darryl Zanuck , who was promontory of production at Fox , see the screen test and O.K. Norma Jeane ’s contract . She was to receive $ 75 per week for six months , at which clip she would be reviewed and possibly signed for another six month . Norma Jeane Dougherty signed her first movie contract in August of 1946 .
Only 20 years honest-to-goodness at the time , Norma Jeane had to need Grace McKee Goddard to cosign the contract for her . Though Grace readily obligate , there were really very few family fellow member to joy in Norma Jeane ’s first winner .
Grace and Doc Goddard had prompt back to California after the war , but the kinship between Grace and Norma Jeane rest forced . Norma Jeane ’s female parent , Gladys Baker , had been released from a San Francisco institution in 1945 , just as her daughter ’s modeling career was getting underway , but Gladys had been ineffective to withstand the pressures of daily life . She had rejoin to an institution , this fourth dimension in Los Angeles , by the time Norma Jeane sign that first contract .
Because Norma Jeane and Jim Dougherty were on the verge of divorcement , she had lost contact with the Dougherty clan as well . The aging Ana Lower remained her only snug family tie .
Norma Jeane chose to celebrate her adept lot with her new familiar – Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels . The first society of business was to change the young actress ’s name – Lyon dead loathed " Norma Jeane Dougherty . "
Lyon remembered a stagecoach actress from the twenties whom he had long admired – a melodic performing artist named Marilyn Miller . He think " Marilyn " would better suit Norma Jeane ’s new , glamourous identity as a Hollywood starlet .
For her part , Norma Jeane suggested her mother ’s family name , " Monroe , " as a last name . Lyon like the initial rhyme of " Marilyn Monroe , " and told Norma Jeane that the double " M " was a lucky Muscat and Oman . So it was that in the course of instruction of one afternoon , Norma Jeane Mortenson Baker Dougherty was translate into Marilyn Monroe .
She was forever grateful to Lyon for his support and his assistance . A few years later , when Marilyn Monroe was on top , she sent Lyon a photograph inscribed : " You obtain me , nominate me and believed in me when no one else did . My passion and thanks forever and a day . "
fortify with a new name , and perhaps a new common sense of aim , Marilyn prepared herself for a vocation in motion word-painting . Unfortunately , even temperate achiever would elude the hopeful starlet for several twelvemonth . To learn about her other twenty-four hour period as an extra and bit player at Fox , read the next clause in our serial , Marilyn Monroe ’s Early Career .
