Pod Insights Hot History Marilyn Monroe About this episode A story that spans 36 years, from orphanage to the silver screen and perhaps even the White House... Today, we cover the woman, the legend, the pop culture phoenix: Miss Marilyn Monroe, aka Norma Jeane Mortenson.
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Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 This episode of Hot History contains themes which some viewers may find distressing, including but not limited to eating disorders, mental illness and sexual assault. Please take care when listening and seek out resources in the show notes below should you need. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Hot History. My name is Ainslie Harvey and I am so glad that you're here as we talk about all the things in history that you probably should know but don't. Now, it doesn't matter where you're tuning in from today, whether it's the treadmill, your morning commute, or from your very own fainting couch, because yes, today, we are getting glamorous. And I'm thrilled to have you, because we are talking about the woman, the legend, the original bombshell, Miss Marilyn Monroe.
0:43 Speaker 00 And you best believe, you need to buckle up, because her story is not just diamonds and white dresses. It's trauma, transformation, tragedy, and most importantly, an undying historical legacy. So let's get into it.
1:15 Speaker 00 So where does one start when approaching Marilyn Monroe? As I said at the top, she is one of the greatest pop culture icons in history, with a pretty meaty filmography and countless biopics, giving us a peek behind the curtain. But who was she really? Well, the answer to that is Norma Jean Mortensen. Yes, that's right, before she was Marilyn, before she was the platinum icon, before she was the woman singing Happy Birthday, Mr. President, she was a little girl named Norma Jean. And spoiler alert, it was not all satin sheets and sparkly lip gloss. So let's rewind to June 1st, 1926.
1:57 Speaker 00 So it's June 1st, 1926 in Los Angeles and a baby girl named Norma Jean is born. But she is just about the furthest thing one could get from the classic California girl. Her birth certificate listed a father she never met, which gave her deep-seated identity and daddy issues, which we'll get to later on, I assure you. While her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker, a film cutter in Hollywood, was severely mentally unwell. Suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, Gladys was simply unable to emotionally, financially, or practically care for her child. So much so that on one infamous occasion, she attempted to smother Norma Jean with a pillow, which led to her eventual institutionalisation.
2:41 Speaker 00 The result of which saw Norma Jean passed around from one family friend to another, before being dipped in and out of foster care and even spending time in an orphanage, often sleeping in iron cots with dozens of other children, crying herself to sleep, while wondering if anyone would ever come back for her. Decidedly not the picture of Hollywood vixen. And unfortunately, the traumas of her childhood did not stop there. Throughout her life, Marilyn spoke openly about the various abuses she suffered at the hands of multiple adults in her early years. She described traumatic incidences that occurred while living with foster families and family acquaintances, which left lasting psychological scars,
3:24 Speaker 00 stating that much of her later life was shaped by these early years of neglect, abandonment, and violations of her basic safety, something which many children, especially girls, in the foster system had little defence against. Living with these realities throughout her childhood, left the now-teenage Norma Jean with a simple, yet brutal, truth. In order to survive, she had to adapt, perform, charm, smile. Because if she wanted to stay in someone's home, she had to be the polite, pretty, pleasant girl that they wanted around. It came down to a matter of survival, which many men at the time passed off as seduction,
4:07 Speaker 00 largely in part to her adolescence granting her a woman's figure much earlier than her peers. For Norma Jean, this was an incredibly sharp, double-edged sword. On one hand, she later recalled and often emphasized that her body was the only source of power she had in an unstable world, which shaped how she learned to move throughout life, but it also made her a target for unwanted advances, objectification, and during her teenage years, sexual assault. But Norma Jean was a survivor, and despite the lifelong struggles with trust, intimacy, depression, and anxiety that came as a result of the various abuses in her life,
4:50 Speaker 00 she was determined to never be beaten down. So much so that when her foster family told her that they were moving out of the state and she would be placed back into the system, she planned her escape by marrying the 21-year-old neighbour, James Doherty, when she was only 16 years old. Again, this was not about love, or lust, or seduction, it was about survival. As for James, well, he was a quiet, conservative guy who worked in a factory before joining the Merchant Marines, and what he expected in a wife was a traditional domestic role. As I said before, Norma Jean was desperate and for a while played this role diligently,
5:32 Speaker 00 cooking, cleaning, and settling into the routine of dutiful, married life. But as a member of the Merchant Marines, and with the dawn of World War II approaching, James was sent to the continent, leaving Marilyn back home in California, where she decided to get a job. And not just any job, she worked in the radio plane company in Van Nuys, California, assembling drones for the US military. At this point, she's 18, she's married, she's living by herself, and finally, really for the first time, earning some of her own money, which gave her a far deeper sense of confidence in both herself and the idea that maybe life didn't have to be all about survival.
6:17 Speaker 00 It was this belief or experience which really honed Norma Jean into Marilyn Monroe. Because it gave her the ability to use that charm she had developed in her teen years and turn it up to the max to produce a stratospheric level of charisma. And it was this that David Conover, a photographer sent by the US Army, realised. Now, he was in California to take morale boosting photos of, quote, "pretty girls doing their part for the war effort", when he spotted the eighteen-year-old across the factory floor and found himself dumbstruck. She was beautiful, of course, but it was her smile and charm that drew him in, and so he asked if he could snap a couple of pictures.
7:02 Speaker 00 She agreed and posed for him, which is when Marilyn Monroe first truly appears. She didn't just have camera presence, she was a natural-born star and David encouraged her to pursue modelling with a few minor enhancements to suit the consumer appetite. And within months, Norma Jean had straight peroxide blonde hair and a contract with Blue Book Modeling Agency. She quickly became one of their most successful models, appearing in advertisements, pin-ups, and eventually on magazine covers. Now, Norma Jean's success in print was best summed up in her equal balancing of innocence and allure, which made her stand out from the rest of the mid-forties modelling scene.
7:45 Speaker 00 She was obviously hot, but she had this innocence, this sense of demurety, which made her even more appealing. And it was this duality which caught the attention of Ben Lyon, a talent executive at Twentieth Century Fox. Now, Lyon had been a silent film actor himself before working behind the scenes and decided to arrange a test meeting with the young model gracing the pages of the magazine. He reached out to Norma, who agreed to come in for a test, something which she felt had a sense of destiny, given her own mother's role in the film industry. And the screen test went ahead in July nineteen forty-six. And although she wasn't a trained actress, yet there was something undeniable about her presence.
8:27 Speaker 00 So Fox signed her to a six-month contract with a starting salary of seventy-five dollars a week. But there was a problem. The name Norma Jean did not match the woman in front of the camera. She was fierce, full and fabulous, much like one of Ben Lyon's favourite Broadway stars, Marilyn Miller. So he suggested the change from Norma Jean to Marilyn Jean. Something which she took even further by adopting her mother's maiden name, Monroe. Now I am going to call her Marilyn Monroe from here on out. So Marilyn had not only a job of her own accord, but the beginning of a career. And no longer in need of her husband's protection, she divorced him in nineteen forty-six
9:11 Speaker 00 and got stuck in to her six months at Twentieth Century Fox. They were, however, hardly glamorous. She spent the majority of her time here being put through acting classes and taught how to move and speak on camera while slowly but surely being moulded to fit the studio's idea of a screen siren. She was cast in a few minor roles, including background parts in Skoda Who, Skoda Hay, nineteen forty-eight, where she had one line, most of which was cut, and Dangerous Years in nineteen forty-seven. The roles were brief and honestly forgettable. But Marilyn spent the time in these precious first months watching, learning and absorbing everything around her.
9:54 Speaker 00 But still, Fox wasn't really sure what to do with her. So they let her contract lapse in nineteen forty-seven. Now, this was a huge blow for Marilyn, but she refused yet again to give up and instead continued her education and craft at the Actors Lab in Los Angeles, a place known for teaching serious emotionally grounded acting techniques based on method acting. She also took on modelling jobs to pay the bills, often risque ones, including the now infamous nude calendar shoot taken in nineteen forty-nine, which would resurface and explode once she became famous, and we'll get to that later.
10:31 Speaker 00 A year of struggle passed and Marilyn finally signed a new deal with Columbia Pictures. But again, this didn't stick. So she decided to pivot her approach and began taking odd jobs at parties where she networked relentlessly while continuing her acting lessons. Finally, those lessons began to pay off and she returned to Fox in nineteen fifty for small but memorable roles, including an appearance in The Asphalt Jungle nineteen fifty and All About Eve nineteen fifty. They were short but magnetic and critics and audiences alike began to ask, who is that girl? So while her early years at Twentieth Century Fox weren't filled with stardom, they were foundational.
11:13 Speaker 00 They taught her how Hollywood worked and how it didn't work for women like her unless they forced the doors open for themselves. It was a slow burn, but Marilyn was playing the long game and her recognition in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve, she was able to negotiate a new contract for herself, which led her to her first major role in nineteen fifty-three's Niagara. In the film, Marilyn played a femme fatale opposite Joseph Cotton, and it was the first time Marilyn's sensuality was fully on display in blazing technicolor. The impact was simply explosive.
11:52 Speaker 00 Suddenly, she wasn't just a prominent starlet, she was the woman everyone wanted to see, which led her to the big, big break that same year when she was cast opposite Jane Russell in Gentleman Prefer Blondes. Based on Anita Loos's bestselling novel and the nineteen forty-nine Broadway musical, the role of Lorelai, aka the stereotypical dumb blonde who by some strike of luck is secretly brilliant with both money and men, was up for grabs because Jane Russell was already cast for the role as Dorothy. It was Niagara's success that saw Marilyn become the living, breathing embodiment of this dumb blonde stereotype.
12:36 Speaker 00 And to be fair, she herself admitted that she understood who and why Lorelai was the way that she was. She too understood the character's fragility, charm, and most importantly, the role that her performative femininity played in allowing her to live a better, safer life.
12:55 Speaker 00 Through Lorelai, Marilyn wasn't just playing, she was. And while some studio execs doubted her ability to play a more in-depth acting role, no one could deny that Marilyn was perfect for it. But that didn't mean they were going to pay her for that perfection. Indeed, it's hard to believe, given how very famous Marilyn Monroe is today, that she would ever be second fiddle. But initially, she was offered about one-tenth of Jane Russell's salary, despite overshadowing the renowned starlet in nearly every single scene. Jane, an established actress who, like I said, made far more money from the film than Marilyn, didn't mind that the young blonde became the undoubting star.
13:37 Speaker 00 When asked, she said, "She was the blonde, I was the brunette, she had the best part." And it's true, one only needs to watch Marilyn's performance of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend to understand her star power. Not in the least, because the performance has become one of the most important cultural touchstones in human history, being recreated and reinvented in everything, from I'm Just Ken at the Oscars to Harley Quinn and everything in between. More on that later. What we need to know is that it was gentlemen prefer blondes that took the overlooked studio girl and transformed her into the pink-gloved powerhouse.
14:16 Speaker 00 And it was this moment that the world truly met Marilyn Monroe.
14:25 Speaker 00 But despite that, there was still doubts from studio execs that Marilyn could really hold her own opposite serious actors, with many believing gentlemen prefer blondes was just really a fluke. Those thoughts, however, got put to bed later that year when she appeared in How To Marry A Millionaire alongside Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall, where she played, yet again, the dumb blonde who wows everyone with her knowledge of men and money. Now Marilyn had everything she ever wanted. She was earning good money, acting alongside serious actors with big roles in strong pictures, and she even had a new man on the scene in famous New York Yankees baseball player, Joe DiMaggio.
15:08 Speaker 00 After meeting the year earlier, the pair fell in love and married on January 14, 1954. She was secure and moving forward in her life and career. But still, Marilyn was more than a dumb blonde. In fact, she wasn't a dumb blonde at all, and she wanted roles beyond that stereotype. She was tired of playing wide-eyed girls chasing rich men and longed for the kind of serious dramatic roles that could prove her depth as an actor. But the studios weren't interested in Marilyn the artist. They wanted Marilyn the product, Marilyn the star, which is where we get The Seven Year Itch. Now, for those of you that don't know, The Seven Year Itch is the picture which had the famous subway skirt moment.
15:53 Speaker 00 And this was the point that Marilyn went from dumb blonde to sex icon. And it was entirely fabricated by the men at Fox Studios. It was also the time that Marilyn's Nude Calendar came out, giving The Seven Year Itch an ungodly amount of publicity.
16:15 Speaker 00 This obviously led to huge sales and success for the film, international fame for Marilyn, and ultimately the end of her marriage with Joe DiMaggio, who was deeply uncomfortable with her fame and public sexuality.
16:29 Speaker 00 Now, in their relationship, there is strong evidence, both anecdotal and documented, that Joe DiMaggio took this discomfort out on Marilyn through both emotional and physical abuse. There was one incident, which occurred the night after The Seven Year Itch wrapped, where it's widely believed that he physically assaulted Marilyn during an explosive argument in their hotel room. This incident was a turning point and contributed directly to her decision to file the divorce just weeks later, citing mental cruelty.
17:02 Speaker 00 Joe did become a better ex-husband than he ever did husband for Marilyn in the years that followed and indeed the rest of her life, being devoted to her so much that he took charge of her funeral, banning Hollywood figures from attending and ensuring it was private and dignified. Most poignantly, he even arranged for roses to be delivered to her grave three times a week for twenty years. None of that, of course, excuses his abuse or behaviours towards her during their marriage. Now, once The Seven Year It premiered and her nude calendar was leaked, Marilyn was tired of being a mere sex symbol, with her body once again getting more attention than
17:43 Speaker 00 her craft or her brain. And so in nineteen fifty-five, she did something daring. She walked out on Fox's contract and moved to New York to study acting seriously with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. There, she trained further in method acting and surrounded herself with intellectuals and artists, including the playwright Arthur Miller, who she would go on to marry the following year. Many saw the pair's marriage here as Marilyn's attempt to shed the dumb blonde stereotype which had haunted her, once and for all, by moving in more intellectual circles. Miller, he definitely fit that mould. He won two Pulitzer
18:26 Speaker 00 Prizes for The Crucible and Death of a Salesman. And really, when you look at the various stages of Marilyn's life, you kind of see through her husbands, they become mirrors. First, you have Doherty, which is all about safety. Then you have DiMaggio, love and admiration and the pain that comes as a result of that. And finally, Miller, which focuses on more intellectual respect, which she wanted from others, yes. But most importantly, she found in herself by taking complete control of her career, and many people don't actually know this, but founding her own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, an astonishing move for a woman in nineteen fifty's Hollywood.
19:10 Speaker 00 Now alongside her business partner Milton Green, a photographer who entirely believed in her vision, Marilyn Monroe Productions was a game changer. It helped her renegotiate a contract with Fox in 1956, one that gave her more control, higher salary and approval over scripts. Her first film, Under This New Deal, Bus Stop 1956, marked a turning point in her career, earning her critical praise for a more grounded and dramatic performance. Then came The Prince and the Showgirl in 1957, a passion project that paired her with Sir Laurence Olivier. Behind the scenes, the shoot was a disaster.
19:51 Speaker 00 Olivier was condescending and Marilyn felt dismissed, but on screen, she glowed. Even Olivier later admitted she had a natural screen presence that technique alone couldn't teach. But starring in films and running her own production company put a strain on her relationship with Arthur, who himself was a creative and often troubled man, experiencing bouts of brooding and dismissal of his wife. Their relationship grew incredibly complex, marked by love, creative collaboration and increasingly growing distance. But still, they persevered, with Marilyn starring as Sugar Kane in 1959's Some Like It Hot.
20:33 Speaker 00 In this, she was funny, fragile, magnetic and radiant, and is still considered one of the best comedies of all time. Marilyn's comedic timing and emotional depth were pitch perfect, earning her a Golden Globe. She tried to follow this with Let's Make Love in 1960, a musical which didn't quite land right, before consulting her husband for her next role. Dedicated to trying to please his wife, Arthur wrote The Misfits for Marilyn in 1961. It was raw and melancholic, and Marilyn delivered a heartbreaking performance as a lost soul drifting through a crumbling world.
21:13 Speaker 00 This, it turned out, was not just art. It was art imitating life, with Arthur and Marilyn divorcing the same year. It was also the final film that the star would ever make. Which brings us, unfortunately, to the elephant in the room.
21:31 Speaker 00 Marilyn Monroe was a prolific abuser of substances. This began all the way back in the forties when she was still Norma Jean, with photographers and agencies often using barbiturates and amphetamines for models and actors to pep them up. And for Marilyn, who struggled with anxiety, insomnia and bouts of depression even in her early twenties, she began using sleeping pills to calm her mind and stimulants to stay awake and energised during crawling studio sessions. This only got worse. Unfortunately, as the demands of her career expanded and the increased focus on her body and appearance put more pressures on the star. The prescriptions of these drugs were also far more liberal
22:13 Speaker 00 given her mother's mental health struggles and her various gynecological issues, including endometriosis and severely in- and incredibly dangerous miscarriages that she endured. These in particular caused the star incredible physical pain, combined with the obvious emotional grief, as she always wanted a family, having grown up without one. And this led doctors to prescribe incredibly strong pain medications, adding another layer to her dependence. It was around this time that she began mixing pills, sleeping aids like chloral hydrate, anti-anxiety drugs like Librium, and stimulants to counteract the sedation.
22:56 Speaker 00 The effect was a constant chemical juggling act, and by the late fifties and sixties, her drug use was no longer hidden. She was often late to set, sometimes unable to perform and visibly impaired during filming and during all of this. The people around her, including doctors and studio executives, often enabled her rather than helping her recover. In the end, she was really caught in a system that wanted her to be perfect, while frequently feeding her the means to keep functioning no matter the cost. A story that is told time and time again, from star to star, and even presidents.
23:38 Speaker 00 Yes, we have finally arrived to talk about one John Fitzgerald Kennedy, thirty-fifth president of the United States of America. Now, I've actually done an episode on him, which you can go and listen to right now, and I also talk about Marilyn there, but this is entirely from her point of view, and it is a different story. So the relationship between Marilyn Monroe and JFK is one of the most infamous and speculated about affairs in American history. And though it was never officially confirmed, most historians do agree that Marilyn and JFK had a brief, likely incredibly casual affair sometime in the early nineteen sixties. But how?
24:22 Speaker 00 Well, they were introduced through mutual friends, likely at a party hosted by actor Peter Lawford, JFK's brother-in-law, in the wake of her marriage struggles with Arthur. So again, this is all around the time of filming Misfits and the end of their marriage and JFK's term in office. Meanwhile, both of them, I mean Marilyn and JFK, are pepped up on god knows what drugs with god knows who around them. JFK more so was protected, not just being that he was president, but because he was a man. Whereas Marilyn was largely thrown to the wolves, or in this case, one in particular. Anyway, they met and are said to have engaged in conversation which seemed lively and spirited, and many enjoyed the idea of the world's most famous sex symbol
25:05 Speaker 00 and the world's most powerful man hitting it off. Perhaps they did, but the public speculation truly intensified on May nineteenth, nineteen sixty-two, when Marilyn walked on stage in the now iconic, skintight, flesh-toned gown covered in rhinestones, which was so tight that she had to be sewn into it, and sang a sultry, breathy version of Happy Birthday, Mister President, which I will not attempt to do. So let's have a listen.
25:35 Speaker 01 Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Mr. President. Happy birthday to you.
26:00 Speaker 00 Like I said, it's famous for a reason. And at the time, it cemented the rumours that their relationship was more than just friendly. Behind the scenes, it is believed that the affair, if any, was short-lived, with JFK focusing on politics and maintaining his image, while Marilyn is reported to have called his wife Jackie and told her of the affair, to which she replied, "That's great Marilyn, you move in here and deal with the role as first lady, and I'll move out." The affair, again if any, reportedly came to an end very quickly after that. For Marilyn, however, who often felt abandoned and discarded by the powerful men in her life, no doubt due to her struggle with her father's identity, was said to have been emotionally hurt by the breakup,
26:44 Speaker 00 which turned her further into her substance abuse. The truth about the relationship, though, is unknown. And I don't think we will ever truly figure it out. I don't think it will ever really come to light. But it doesn't necessarily matter. Like so much about Marilyn, and indeed so much about JFK, it's entirely wrapped up in this intense mythology, with the idea of America's golden girl and golden boy being caught in a fleeting, high-stakes moment of American fantasy, continuing to captivate the imaginations, resulting in a near-century's worth of whispers, cover-up conspiracies, and mystery of what really happened between the actress and the president.
27:29 Speaker 00 But back to what we know for certain, is that by May 1962, Marilyn Monroe was incredibly unwell. She began working on Something's Gotta Give, a romantic comedy, but the shoot was played with problems. Marilyn was often sick, late, or entirely absent. And the studio fired her, then tried to rehire her days later, when they realised they couldn't replace her star power. She accepted, but spent her time before the shoot recommenced hiding out in her modest, Spanish-style home in Brentwood, Los Angeles.
28:03 Speaker 00 On the day of August 4th, 1962, Marilyn lived like any other for her at the time. She'd spoken on the phone with several people, including her psychiatrist, Dr Ralph Greenson, her publicist, Pat Newcombe, and actor Peter Lawford, brother-in-law of JFK and the one who, whose party they may have met at. When interviewed later, all three of these people agreed that Marilyn sounded fragile, tired, and perhaps disorientated, but other than that, she was the normal Marilyn. Her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, was staying overnight and claimed that she saw Marilyn around dinner on August 4th, then again later in the evening. According to Murray, Marilyn went into her bedroom around 8pm, closed the door, and
28:48 Speaker 00 did not emerge. But here is where things get weird. At some point, Murray became alarmed, supposedly because the bedroom light was still on late into the night, and Marilyn wasn't responding to her. So she entered the bedroom to find her body at 1am, after which she rang Marilyn's psychiatrist, Dr Ralph Greenson. Not the police, not her physician, Dr Engelberg, but Greenson, the psychiatrist. He then arrived on the scene with Marilyn's physician, who was finally told about the situation, at 3.30am and declared her dead. So you have the housekeeper finding her at 1am and then calling the psychiatrist, and
29:33 Speaker 00 then the psychiatrist and the physician arriving at 3.30am, like three and a half hours later. Anyway, it's just bizarre. To add even more to it, the police then arrived at 4.30, so an hour later, because the housekeeper said that she had to wait to get the okay from 20th Century Fox publicity department, and it took a bit of time. The okay for what? The okay to call the police when someone's dead? It just is so, so strange.
30:04 Speaker 00 And it's borne a lot of speculation as a result. Um, primarily that there'd been some kind of cleanup of the scene, which really still to this day has this like eerie sense of staging. I don't want to get into this too much, but Marilyn was found nude, face down in bed with an empty bottle of Nembetol, which was a barbiturate, and other prescription medicines opened nearby with a phone in her hand. The official ruling was probably suicide by overdose, but many question this still to this day. Why did Mari wait so long to call for help? Why were there no pill remnants in Monroe's stomach at the late autopsy? Or glass of water to take so many pills? It was estimated she took up to fifty pills.
30:49 Speaker 00 You can't do that without like any sort of lubricant, I'm sorry, impossible. Was there a cover up involving the Kennedys, the FBI, or the Hollywood elite? Are the mob involved? And what happened in that precious hour between her physicians arriving and the police? Well, unfortunately, we don't know. And even more unfortunately, it gets worse. Because rumors emerged that Marilyn's body went missing for six hours after she was found by the police and then taken to the morgue. The trip should have taken forty five minutes. This has led to the belief that she had been taken and abused
31:34 Speaker 00 before reaching the morgue, where her autopsy was also tampered with, according to mortician Dr. Thomas Naguchi, who claimed that materials from her stomach and intestines had been destroyed. Now, the Salt Lake Tribune investigated her death and autopsy later and claimed that some standard tests were never completed during the autopsy, which support the rumor that her death was perhaps not an accidental overdose. Another mortician, Alan Abbott, claimed in his book Pardon My Hearse, which came out in 2015, that Marilyn was unrecognisable. Quote, "When we removed the sheet covering her, it was almost impossible to believe that this was the body of Marilyn Monroe", end quote.
32:17 Speaker 00 He said, which could also support rumours that her body was abused. Again, this is all circumspect, we do not know the truth. And eventually, her remains were released to ex-husband Joe DiMaggio, who arranged her funeral alongside Marilyn's half-sister Bernice Baker Miracle and Marilyn's business manager Inez Melson. The funeral was deliberately incredibly small, and she was finally laid to rest and entombed at crypt number 24 at the Corridor of Memories. According to Time Magazine, there was then a bidding war for the ownership of the crypt above and next to Marilyn, with some horrific rumours suggesting the man above her asked to be buried facedown.
33:02 Speaker 00 The plot next to Marilyn was eventually sold to Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who died in 2017, stating, "I'm a sucker for blondes. I will be spending the rest of my eternity with Marilyn." Truly, indescribably, in every way, shape and form, a reflection of, one, how Marilyn was treated, really, more so mistreated, and viewed by men at the time, and two, just plain old fucked up. Marilyn was seen as a thing, a product, an idea, a commodity. And the fact of the matter is, is that Marilyn Monroe died alone.
33:43 Speaker 00 Despite the fans and the celebrity and the men and the magazines and the movies and all of it, she died alone.
33:53 Speaker 00 In many ways, her death became a tragic symbol of the very system that built her up, used her, and ultimately failed her. Her legacy endures, not just as a sex symbol, but as a woman whose brilliance and brokenness continue to haunt the world, she once dazzled.
34:13 Speaker 00 So this is a long episode today, because there is so, so much to cover, and I still haven't gone into the depths and the detail here, but we'll be here for a million years if we ever do. Before we get to our three big questions that we usually answer, I wanted to answer one more, which is often largely dismissed, but I think is really important, not so much to me personally, but it was a question that was really important to Marilyn and formed a lot of the relationships that she had with men as a result. And that is, who was Norma Jean's father? On her birth certificate, it was listed as Edward Mortensen, but all evidence suggests that this is entirely incorrect. Marilyn herself didn't believe it, and instead believed that her biological father was likely
34:55 Speaker 00 Charles Stanley Gifford, a coworker of her mother at Consolidated Film Industries, after it was revealed the pair reportedly had a brief affair in the mid 1920s. Now, Gifford denied paternity his entire life and refused to meet Marilyn, even after she became famous and reached out to him. Every time, he turned her away, and this rejection deeply affected her, as she fundamentally believed that the more famous she became, the more likely he would want to meet her. That was never the case. There was some sort of end to the saga, though, for, in 2022, French researchers confirmed through DNA testing, comparing hair samples from Marilyn and a living descendant of Gifford,
35:40 Speaker 00 that he was indeed her biological father.
35:44 Speaker 00 So while we've covered only thirty-six years' worth of time from Marilyn's birth in nineteen twenty-six, right up to her death in nineteen sixty-two, there is an absolute shit-ton of history in there. So who else was kicking around at the time? Well, as we know, JFK became president the year before Marilyn died. Elvis Presley was born nine years after Marilyn was. Audrey Hepburn became famous the same time that Gentleman Preferred Blondes hit cinemas. And although I doubt she would have started it, Marilyn never did get to see The Sound of Music because it was made three years after her death.
36:21 Speaker 00 Lastly, and what I always find incredibly interesting, Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth II were born on the same year. Asking this next question has never felt so redundant, but what influence does Marilyn Monroe have on modern times? Well, more than sixty years after her death, she remains one of the most recognisable and mythologised figures in pop culture and really history at large. She spearheaded and invented the modern celebrity brand, long before social media influencers. She mastered the art of image creation, right down to her name, voice, hair and persona, which is exactly why Kim Kardashian coverts her so and the reason she decided to wear her happy birthday Mr. President dress to the twenty-twenty-two Met Gala.
37:04 Speaker 00 An abomination in historical conservation, if I ever did see one. Marilyn's career also exploded the tension between being seen as a sex symbol and being taken seriously as a performer, a conflict that many modern actresses still face. She fought back against the studio system, demanded better roles and founded her own production company. Today, female creatives like Reese Witherspoon, Zendaya and Margot Robbie follow a similar path of combining stardom with creative control. Marilyn's iconic red lips, winged eyeliner and platinum curls remain a universal focus point, and her symbolism as a victim of improper medical care and mistreatment of mental illness
37:45 Speaker 00 has opened up many conversations about trauma, depression, addiction and the emotional toll of public life. Something that stars today still deeply struggle with, but society at large is far more willing to address. Head on.
38:00 Speaker 00 And lastly, how is Marilyn Monroe remembered in pop culture? Well, she's been portrayed in countless films, books and series. From My Week with Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams, who earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal, to Netflix's Blonde, the fictionalised and highly controversial version of her life where she is played by Anna de Armas. She is the subject of Candle in the Wind by Elton John, written in 1973, while Nicki Minaj, Lana Del Rey and Ariana Grande have all referenced her in lyrics and visuals. In art, she was epitomised by Andy Warhol's 1962 silk-screen Marilyn Diptyque, which turned her face into a pop art icon.
38:42 Speaker 00 And as I said before, her performance of Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend has inspired Madonna's Material Girl, Ryan Gosling's I'm Just Ken at the 2024 Oscars, and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, just to name a few. And that brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History. If you'd like to support us, then you can find us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts as Hot History. Follow us on TikTok at Hot.History and on Instagram at HotHistoryClub. As always, it is a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you and tune in next time as we discuss the discovery of the Terracotta Warriors.
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