There are icons, and then there are icons. It takes a certain je ne sais quoi to become larger than life; to become someone whose name not only conjures a brand, or a face, but a feeling. American actress Marilyn Monroe was someone who had “it”.
Lauded for her beauty generations after her death, Marilyn Monroe remains an alluring and fascinating figure for billions of people worldwide, more than 50 years after her life was cut short. But Monroe was more than just a pretty face everyone can instantly recognize — she was an actress, model, singer, comedian, and producer.
And she was bi.
Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. “Marilyn Monroe” was a stage name adopted later — “Marilyn” was suggested by a studio head; Monroe was her mother’s maiden name. Norma Jean had a tragic upbringing; her father remains little known and was out of the picture by the time she was born. Her mother had fled Marilyn’s father, an abusive husband named John Newton Baker. In retaliation, he kidnapped Monroe’s brother and sister, whose existence she didn’t discover until age 12. It wasn’t until she was an adult that she was able to meet her siblings. Her mother, Gladys, was financially and emotionally unstable for much of her youth, at points suffering mental breakdowns and being institutionalized.
As a result, Monroe spent much of her youth as a ward of the state, in and out of friends’ homes, orphanages, and the foster system, where she suffered sexual assault multiple times at the hands of her custodians. When she was 12, Monroe found more stable living conditions with her mother’s friends. Her scholastic career was unremarkable. Despite writing for her high school newspaper, Monroe was a mediocre student, in part due to her dyslexia, from which she also developed a stutter.
In 1942, the family she was staying with moved — but California law didn’t allow Monroe to go with them. Faced with the dismal prospect of going back to an orphanage, her friends arranged a marriage between Marilyn, just 16, and her next-door neighbor, James Dougherty.
Not long after, Dougherty joined the Merchant Marines and was shipped off to the Pacific to fight in WWII. Monroe dropped out of high school and took up work in a munitions factory in Van Nuys to bring in cash and help with the war effort. There she was discovered by a photographer, and soon quit the factory and began a new career as a pin-up model.
After a few years of modeling success — including dying her hair to its now-recognizable platinum blonde — Monroe was given a screen test at 20th Century Fox where she earned her first contract as well as her new stage name. Monroe wrote to Dougherty of the developments, and he replied that it was all well and good — but he expected her to drop the career and play the good housewife upon his return. In response, Monroe moved to Reno, Nevada for six weeks — the requisite span of residence to obtain a divorce. Monroe wrote Dougherty a “Dear John” letter and returned to Los Angeles, ambitious to fulfill her lifelong dreams of becoming an actress.
Monroe went in and out of movie contracts for the next few years, studying acting, singing, and dance when she wasn’t landing bit parts, most playing girl-next-door types. Monroe also continued to model during this time, at one point posing nude in order to get her car out of repossession.
A few years later, she had her first string of hits, including The Asphalt Jungle (1950), All About Eve (1950), and Gentleman Prefer Blondes (1953), playing the “dumb blonde” stereotype, and her star soared. That's when publisher Hugh Hefner bought the negatives from the nude shoot and used them in the centerfold of the first issue of his new magazine, Playboy.
In that era, at the height of morality clauses and buttoned-down sexuality, instead of evincing shame or shock at the discovery, Monroe told the truth: she did it, and she did it for money. In an era where revelations of nude shoots were a death sentence for a young woman’s career, Monroe’s open and unapologetic attitude only propelled her success further. To this day, actors still scramble to do PR and damage control in the face of leaked photos, which underscores just how bold and brave Monroe was, both for her time and our own.
Monroe had noted affairs with men in her industry and married twice more in her life; to retired Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller. Monroe also said in taped sessions (released after her death) with her psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson, that she had sex with Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich (#Bi2), her acting coach Natasha Lytess (whom she lived with for several years), and a handful of other women. Sigmund Freud’s daughter, Anna, also psychoanalyzed Monroe for a week and heard the same admissions. Given the fact Monroe had no reason to lie to Dr. Greenson or Freud about her sexual exploits, we can clearly surmise her bisexuality from these testimonies.
There was a lot more to Monroe than the brand of the blonde bombshell would let on. She was a voracious reader, possessing hundreds of books and usually reading several at the same time. She also adored children and dogs and had many canine companions throughout her life. Monroe was known for her sly wit, often infusing answers to press junkets with double entendres and candid observations. When she went to perform for the USO trips during the Korean War, she had no qualms with going into unsafe zones and greeting as many soldiers as possible, staying long after her performances, and getting in as much time with the troops as possible.
Monroe is also one of the reasons jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald rose to international fame, as this brief video summarizes.
In the mid-1950s, Monroe wanted to stretch as an actress and leave the “dumb blonde” roles behind, but studios were loath to relinquish her highly bankable if condescendingly formulaic typecast. Taking her career into her own hands — at the height of her success — Monroe moved to New York, started her own production company, and began taking classes at the Actor’s Studio. In the course of this time, Monroe also divorced DiMaggio.
This may seem like a common leveraging maneuver these days, as a path taken by stars like Jodie Foster and Natalie Portman, but it was unheard of in Monroe’s time — especially for a woman to step away at her pinnacle to study and develop a greater range. Starting her own production company also sparked a trend that spelled the beginning of the end for the studio system’s stranglehold over their hired players.
This power play ultimately led Monroe to greater opportunities, including perhaps her best-known work in Some Like It Hot (1959). This was also a turbulent time for Monroe, who married Arthur Miller and suffered two miscarriages as well as an ectopic pregnancy linked to her endometriosis. She experienced an overdose and battled unshakable rumors that she was difficult to work with. Monroe had undergone periods of anxiety and depression, including at least one suicide attempt earlier in her life.
In the summer of 1962, Monroe was on a career upswing when she was found dead in her bedroom. The coroner deemed it suicide by barbiturate overdose, but to this day, conspiracy theories swirl around the true cause of her death, including her alleged romantic link to President John F. Kennedy.
It’s impossible to ever truly sum up a life — especially of someone as luminous as Monroe. She was a complex and in some sense troubled woman, but she was also a driven artist and bold personality whose legacy will last long into the future.
Marilyn Monroe was far more than “just a pretty face”. She was, and always will be, a total #bicon.
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