Marilyn Monroe: The Biography

Praise for
M
ARILYN
M
ONROE

“This is a book that wound up teaching me a great deal about Hollywood, the social history of California, the movie business, the trials of female actors in American show business, and the life of a woman who has been so mythologized that often the real woman is obscured from actual view. Donald Spoto has accomplished what I would have thought was impossible: he has made me into a Marilyn Monroe fan after all these years.”

—Erica Jong,
Washington Post Book World

“Immensely readable, this book lacks sensationalism and is more scrupulously researched and better written than all those previous hack jobs.”

—
New Statesman
(London)

“[Spoto] offers a welcome challenge to the muckraking, unsubstantiated tales that have been published in the years since the actress’ demise in 1962.”

—
Free Press
(Columbus, Ohio)

“Spoto puts new life into the tradition of biography, and his book is fresh and important. His life of Monroe does much to remind us that biography is a branch of history.”

—
London Sunday Telegraph

“[Spoto] has researched Monroe’s life quite brilliantly and his riveting book comes up with the facts, pure and simple.”

—
Birmingham Post
(London)

“[A] well-written and well-researched work.”

—
Arkansas Democrat Gazette

“[
Marilyn Monroe
] digs behind the usual drivel to celebrate a woman of warmth, wit, and considerable resources, all backed up with Spoto’s renowned research, objectivity, and evident admiration. [An] inspired biography that will endure longer than most.”

—
Empire
(UK)

ALSO BY DONALD SPOTO

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life
Laurence Olivier: A Biography
The Hidden Jesus: A Life
The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock
The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures
Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean
Falling in Love Again: Marlene Dietrich (A Photo-Essay)
The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams
Stanley Kramer, Film Maker
Camerado: Hollywood and the American Man
Diana: The Last Year
The Decline and Fall of the House of Windsor
Notorious: The Life of Ingrid Bergman
Madcap: The Life of Preston Sturges
A Passion for Life: The Biography of Elizabeth Taylor
Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich
Lenya: A Life

MARILYN
MONROE

THE BIOGRAPHY

DONALD SPOTO

Copyright © 1993 by Donald Spoto
(restricted in British Commonwealth, excluding Canada)
First Cooper Square Press edition 2001

The frontispiece and the photograph on page 598 are by Milton H. Greene.

This Cooper Square Press paperback edition of
Marilyn Monroe
is an unabridged republication of the edition first published in New York in 1993. It is reprinted by arrangement with the author.

Designed by Alma Hochhauser Orenstein

All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

Published by Cooper Square Press
A Member of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
200 Park Avenue South, Suite 1109
New York, New York 10003-1503

Distributed by National Book Network

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Spoto, Donald, 1941-
  Marilyn Monroe: the biography / Donald Spoto.—1st Cooper Square Press ed.
    p. cm.
  Originally published: New York : Harper Collins, 1993.
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  ISBN: 978-0-8154-1183-3
     1. Monroe, Marilyn, 1926–1962. 2. Motion picture actors and actresses—United States—Biography. I. Title.

PN2287.M69 S66 2001
791.43’028’092—dc21
[B]

2001028721

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America.

for ELAINE MARKSON
with gratitude and devotion

She brings him good every day of his life,
and when she speaks it is always wisely.
Praise her for all she has accomplished.

THE BOOK OF PROVERBS

Contents

Acknowledgments

  
1
   T
O
J
UNE
1926

  
2
   J
UNE
1926–J
UNE
1934

  
3
   J
UNE
1934–N
OVEMBER
1937

  
4
   N
OVEMBER
1937–J
UNE
1942

  
5
   J
UNE
1942–N
OVEMBER
1945

  
6
   D
ECEMBER
1945–A
UGUST
1946

  
7
   S
EPTEMBER
1946–F
EBRUARY
1948

  
8
   F
EBRUARY
1948–M
AY
1949

  
9
   J
UNE
1949–D
ECEMBER
1950

10
   J
ANUARY
1951–M
ARCH
1952

11
   M
ARCH
–D
ECEMBER
1952

12
   1953

13
   J
ANUARY
–S
EPTEMBER
1954

14
   O
CTOBER
1954–J
ANUARY
1955

15
   F
EBRUARY
–D
ECEMBER
1955

16
   1956

17
   1957–1959

18
   1960

19
   1961

20
   J
ANUARY
–M
AY
1962

21
   M
AY
–J
ULY
1962

22
   A
UGUST
1–4, 1962

23
   A
UGUST
5, 1962

24
   A
UGUST
6–8, 1962

Afterword

Notes

Bibliography

The Films of Marilyn Monroe

Index

Photographs follow
pages 138
and
394
.

It
is
glory—to have been tested,
to have had our little quality and cast our little spell . . .
to have made somebody care.

H
ENRY
J
AMES
,
The Middle Years

If one tells the truth, one is sure,
sooner or later,
to be found out.

O
SCAR
W
ILDE
,
Phrases and Philosophies
for the Use of the Young

Acknowledgments

T
HE KINDNESS AND GENEROSITY
of many people made this book a reality.

Lisa Callamaro, in the offices of my agent Elaine Markson, introduced me to Gordon Freedman, a film and television producer of admirable integrity and intelligence. He first suggested this book and introduced me to the family of Milton H. Greene and the representatives of Greene’s Estate. As Marilyn Monroe’s friend, photographer and business partner, Greene had kept massive and detailed archives covering much of Marilyn’s life—materials that include her production and legal files as well as various personal documents, tapes and letters. I owe Gordon Freedman enormous gratitude for providing access to those who made this historic cache available to me.