Spoto, Donald. Marilyn Monroe: The Biography. New York: HarperCollins 1993. Print
First Sentences:
Description:
After recently reading the brilliant novel, Blonde, the fictionalized biography of Marilyn Monroe by Joyce Carol Oates, I really wanted to find out the true story of Monroe's life. While Blonde is a highly-detailed, compelling and believable account of the actress' life, it does mix true incidents and people in Monroe's life with events and characters created entirely by Oates. I was curious to separate fact from fiction in the life of this fascinating actress.
So I turned to Marilyn Monroe: The Biography by Donald Spoto. Spoto is the respected author of biographies for Audrey Hepburn, Alfred Hitchcock, Joan of Arc, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, Joan Crawford, and Grace Kelly among others. In this 700-page Monroe biography, he has plenty of space to present data from 35,000 previously sealed files including Monroe's contracts, diaries, poems, and personal letters. Also Spoto digs into numerous interviews with Monroe's professional colleagues, friends, and family as well as explored news and publicity articles. He skilfully shows how each item and person affected her actions and decisions, giving me what I was looking for: the real Norma Jeane Baker/Marilyn Monroe story.
Monroe did have a difficult childhood. Her mother, Gladys, unable to both work and care for a baby, gave little Norma Jeane (the spelling was later changed to "Jean" in homage to Jean Harlow) to an orphanage and later to foster families and distant relatives. After eight years, Gladys reclaimed Norma Jeane, but due to her work hours, first-grade Norma Jeane was often sent alone to movie theaters to spend the day. There she was introduced to Hollywood actors and films, dreaming that someday she would become a star like Jean Harlow.
Monroe's mother was soon after placed in a "rest home" for her depression and schizophrenia where she would spend the rest of her life. Norma Jeane again was placed with foster families and distant relatives from first grade through her high school years. With this background, it isn't hard to understand her lifelong quest for family, security, and acceptance.
Monroe was first noticed in a wartime munitions plant where she worked while her first husband (who she had married at age 16 to escape returning to the orphanage) was at sea. David Conover, a photographer, shooting publicity shots of women in wartime factories, zeroed in on her raw beauty, shooting her and then circulating her image internationally in military magazines. She soon quit her factory job and took up modeling for Conover, shooting cheesecake photos for camera magazines, advertisements, catalogs, and calendars. Her brown hair was bleached blonde to show up better in photos. According to Conover after their first meeting:
Spoto carefully tells the details of what follows in her life with the film industry, with celebrities, and with prescription drugs. Her search for love and a child led her to marriages with powerful, confident men like Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller. Each failed when her needs or his expectations were not met or if they threatened her film career. Her drug life was started and supported by the studios who sent a special doctor to provide her sleeping pills or stimulants whenever something was needed to get her to the set.
I was also fascinated to hear new insights into Monroe's mysterious death by drug overdose. What Spoto points out is that Monroe and DiMaggio had reconciled from their divorce, and were deep into planning a second marriage. To Spoto, it seems unusual that Monroe would take her own life at a time when friends felt she was happy in her life (after signing to do a new film) and with her future with Joe. Spoto gives no explanation behind her death, but offers several possible scenarios. Nothing was even hinted at regarding any John F. Kennedy connection as was presented by Oates in the fictional Blonde.
I feel both Oates' Blonde and Spoto's Marilyn Monroe are equally fascinating and compelling. The truth of one proves as interesting as the fiction from the other. Reading about the people of the film industry and the incidents behind the creation of movies is compelling, especially when revealing the life of such a complex, troubled, and brilliant star like Marilyn Monroe. Highest recommendation.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Blonde: A Novel
Marilyn Monroe's maternal great-grandfather was Tilford Marion Hogan, born 1851 in Illinois to farmer George Hogan and his wife Sarah Owens, not long after their emigration from Kentucky.
By the age of twelve, Tilford was six feet tall and reed-thin, but strong enough for rough farm labor.
Description:
After recently reading the brilliant novel, Blonde, the fictionalized biography of Marilyn Monroe by Joyce Carol Oates, I really wanted to find out the true story of Monroe's life. While Blonde is a highly-detailed, compelling and believable account of the actress' life, it does mix true incidents and people in Monroe's life with events and characters created entirely by Oates. I was curious to separate fact from fiction in the life of this fascinating actress.
So I turned to Marilyn Monroe: The Biography by Donald Spoto. Spoto is the respected author of biographies for Audrey Hepburn, Alfred Hitchcock, Joan of Arc, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, Joan Crawford, and Grace Kelly among others. In this 700-page Monroe biography, he has plenty of space to present data from 35,000 previously sealed files including Monroe's contracts, diaries, poems, and personal letters. Also Spoto digs into numerous interviews with Monroe's professional colleagues, friends, and family as well as explored news and publicity articles. He skilfully shows how each item and person affected her actions and decisions, giving me what I was looking for: the real Norma Jeane Baker/Marilyn Monroe story.
Monroe did have a difficult childhood. Her mother, Gladys, unable to both work and care for a baby, gave little Norma Jeane (the spelling was later changed to "Jean" in homage to Jean Harlow) to an orphanage and later to foster families and distant relatives. After eight years, Gladys reclaimed Norma Jeane, but due to her work hours, first-grade Norma Jeane was often sent alone to movie theaters to spend the day. There she was introduced to Hollywood actors and films, dreaming that someday she would become a star like Jean Harlow.
Monroe's mother was soon after placed in a "rest home" for her depression and schizophrenia where she would spend the rest of her life. Norma Jeane again was placed with foster families and distant relatives from first grade through her high school years. With this background, it isn't hard to understand her lifelong quest for family, security, and acceptance.
Monroe was first noticed in a wartime munitions plant where she worked while her first husband (who she had married at age 16 to escape returning to the orphanage) was at sea. David Conover, a photographer, shooting publicity shots of women in wartime factories, zeroed in on her raw beauty, shooting her and then circulating her image internationally in military magazines. She soon quit her factory job and took up modeling for Conover, shooting cheesecake photos for camera magazines, advertisements, catalogs, and calendars. Her brown hair was bleached blonde to show up better in photos. According to Conover after their first meeting:
There was a luminous quality to her face...a fragility combined with astonishing vibrancy.From there, it was only a small step to her first screen test for Darryl Zanuck who gave her a small role. The cinematographer, Leon Shamroy, who shot her silent film test recalled:
This girl will be another Harlow! Her natural beauty plus her inferiority complex gave her a look of mystery....This girl had something I hadn't seen since silent pictures. She had a kind of fantastic beauty like Gloria Swanson...and she got sex on a piece of film like Jean Harlow. Every frame of the test radiate sex...she was creating effects visually. She was showing us she could sell emotions in pictures.A standard contract was signed and her name changed by the studio to "Marilyn Monroe" since MM initials were considered interesting and lucky. And so a career began.
Spoto carefully tells the details of what follows in her life with the film industry, with celebrities, and with prescription drugs. Her search for love and a child led her to marriages with powerful, confident men like Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller. Each failed when her needs or his expectations were not met or if they threatened her film career. Her drug life was started and supported by the studios who sent a special doctor to provide her sleeping pills or stimulants whenever something was needed to get her to the set.
I was also fascinated to hear new insights into Monroe's mysterious death by drug overdose. What Spoto points out is that Monroe and DiMaggio had reconciled from their divorce, and were deep into planning a second marriage. To Spoto, it seems unusual that Monroe would take her own life at a time when friends felt she was happy in her life (after signing to do a new film) and with her future with Joe. Spoto gives no explanation behind her death, but offers several possible scenarios. Nothing was even hinted at regarding any John F. Kennedy connection as was presented by Oates in the fictional Blonde.
I feel both Oates' Blonde and Spoto's Marilyn Monroe are equally fascinating and compelling. The truth of one proves as interesting as the fiction from the other. Reading about the people of the film industry and the incidents behind the creation of movies is compelling, especially when revealing the life of such a complex, troubled, and brilliant star like Marilyn Monroe. Highest recommendation.
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Oates, Joyce Carol. Blonde: A Novel
Fictionalized, but nevertheless riveting account of Monroe's life. Although many of the characters a made up, the actions only imagined by the author, it is a highly engrossing, detailed, and believable re-telling of the people, films, emotions, and life of the famous actress. (previously reviewed here)
Wilson, Victoria. A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940
Absolutely one of the best books to read for learning about Barbara Stanwyck and her rise to film stardom. Fantastic, details stories behind the movies, stars, and creators of these films as well. (previously reviewed here)
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