The
Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe ,
by J. Randy Taraborrelli
When she sang "I Want to be Loved
by You" in the movie "Some Like it Hot,"
Marilyn Monroe could have been awarded a summa cum
laude degree from the method school of acting. It
was not even a remote stretch for her to draw on her
own background and emotions as motivation for a plea
for love. Norma Jeane Mortensen-Baker-Gifford?-Dougherty-DiMaggio-Miller-Monroe
spent her entire life looking for love. Born to a mother
with a history of mental illness, her placement in foster
care was arranged by her grandmother before Norma Jeane's
birth. For the first 7 years of her life, she lived
with foster parents, Albert and Ida Bollender, who made
her a natural part of their family. However, her mother
Gladys then stepped in and took Norma Jeane to live
with her. What followed was 10 years of a series of
homes -- with Gladys and her assorted men, with friends
and relatives and even stays in orphanages. At 17, Norma
Jeane was persuaded to marry James Dougherty, a neighbor's
son. When she started to receive notice as a model,
the marriage ended. She went on to pursue a career in
Hollywood, aided by numerous influential men and women
who fell prey to her beauty, her vulnerability, her
star power.
J. Randy Taraborelli's comprehensive expose
of Marilyn's life was made possible by the 2006 Freedom
of Information Act release of FBI documents as well
as his thorough and exhaustive research, including interviews
with anyone he could find who'd known Marilyn/Norma
Jeane at any stage of her life. The Secret Life of
Marilyn Monroe reads like a novel, but the narrative
is composed of not just an author's tale, but rather
is woven from fragments of shared experiences, remembered
conversations and personal comments of hundreds of people
who knew Marilyn or her friends, family or co-workers.
Taraborelli is so skillful at incorporating witness'
accounts of Marilyn's actions and comments that it's
difficult to remember that unless Marilyn is being quoted
directly, her reported feelings are only conjecture
and hearsay. This account of Marilyn's early years,
her rise to stardom, her quest to find love is a sad
story, but it is Marilyn's story. What makes this book
a stunningly engaging auditory experience is Robert
Petkoff's convincing portrayal of Marilyn and her famous
friends, lovers and costars. Spoken with eerie similarity
to their actual voices, it's as if Marilyn, Dean Martin,
Clark Cable, Jane Russell, Bobby Kennedy and others
are narrating the book, not Petkoff.
Although she gained a reputation for being
difficult to work with, according to Taraborelli her
behavior was the result of extreme stage fright, not
the selfish action of a spoiled superstar. In fact,
she did not even realize she was a star until she saw
her name on a movie marquee late in her career. Probably
the greatest tragedy of Norma Jeane's life was her addiction
to drugs and alcohol. What started as a way to get to
sleep, to overcome performance anxiety, to ease her
worries about her mental illness legacy soon became
an addiction to prescription medicine. As one acquaintance
observed, "There was always some doctor willing
to help her to oblivion." Whether she committed
suicide or was the victim of an accidental overdose
will probably never be proven. There were probably few
of her friends who hadn't feared that she would succumb
to one or the other, being witness to numerous close
calls with overdoses and threats to end her life. This
is a book that deserves to be listened to more than
once, not only to appreciate the talent and depth of
this tragic star, but to understand the era in which
she shone.
Ruth
Mormon
9/16/09
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