Tribute to Norma Jean
It’s hard to explain exactly why I am sharing this information on my website this way.
I have always been driven by this desire to help free Norma Jean. I feel her essence and beauty were trapped, caged and forced to live in a fantasy form . She was denied her place in the order of things, some way or another. She wasn’t recognized. Marilyn was recognized. And I think Norman Jean was the true beauty. I think she was even more beautiful than Marilyn, if they’d left her alone.
I want to give Norma Jean back the spotlight. I’m doing this for her.
Marilyn Monroe was a Hollywood creation who, without the essence of Norma Jean, would have been no more than a department-store mannequin. Norma Jean was the one who dreamed the dreams, worked the hardest, fought the fights and suffered the most.
It was Norma Jean who looked out at the camera and us through Marilyn’s eyes. For one to know who Marilyn was, one would have to know who Norma Jean was.
Some say Marilyn had no talent. Some say she did. If I say Marilyn had talent, I feel I’ve been caught in a lie. Norma Jean was very talented but Hollywood made it very hard for her to develop it and enhance it. They bombarded her with roles that had no substance and no meaning. In the last years before her death, she got a few good parts and oh, did she shine.
I followed Norma Jean’s career from the time she came to Hollywood. When she first started in movies she was described as “robust, healthy, with a really fine attitude toward life”. By 1946, she was on 33 magazine covers and by 1954, she had finished 24 movies.
Contrary to what some say, she was very much in control. And then, came Marilyn…..
I watched all the changes as, outwardly, Norma Jean became Marilyn. It makes me very angry that, after all Norma Jean’s hard work, Marilyn stole the spotlight.
The Transformation
I began to notice changes in Marilyn after her marriage to Joe DiMaggio. I believe this was due to his possessiveness and his negative attitude toward her, personally, and toward her acting. His attitude seemed to make her doubt herself and tore down her confidence in her acting ability. Soon, instead of the smiling and confident Marilyn, there emerged a sad and frightened Marilyn.
I also believe that her acquaintances at Cal Neva played a big part in her undoing. Cal Neva Lodge is a thorn in my side. It is my belief that Marilyn was used as a pawn in that house of chance and that she was used unmercifully. I cannot put down here all that I believe for it frightens me, as if I had been caught leaking classified information.
Aside from Joe and Cal Neva, I believe that the person that contributed most to Marilyn’s downward spiral was her psychologist. In 1960, Marilyn started seeing Dr. Ralph Greenson.
Her coach had suggested she get some psycho-analysis to enhance her acting technique. The only thing Dr. Greenson enhanced was his pocketbook. His answer was to keep her in a drug-induced stupor and totally dependant on him. He not only drowned her with pills but gave her injections as well.
He did what the powerful of Hollywood and the heads of Washington couldn’t do. He shut her down completely, gradually but surely. He turned off all the lights and left her in the dark.
The Kennedy’s treatment of Marilyn was heartless. First, there was the affair with Jack and his eventual rejection of her. But I don’t believe this break-up was of great significance to Marilyn. I believe it was just that: an affair.
But I think Bobby was another story. This relationship was much more meaningful to Marilyn. When he broke it off, she was devastated, hurt and angry. She felt betrayed and used. She was so angry, she threatened to tell it all at a press conference which she had scheduled for August 6, 1962.
She never made that press conference. She died August 4, 1962.
Some think Dr. Greenson adminstered the final injection that killed her. This could be true but it has been recorded that Bobby Kennedy and Peter Lawford sat in vigil at her bedside along with Dr. Greenson for six hours preceding her death. Could they have saved her? It seems to me they had ample time. Why didn’t they?
In the last hours of August 4, 1962, there was no Marilyn. Only Norma Jean. It was she who was frightened and tormented. It was she who died.
Marilyn Monroe, the Hollywood creation, was laid to rest and multitudes mourned for her. I cried for Norma Jean. I still do.
The Glamour of Hollywood Marilyn: No one could strike a pose like Marilyn. Long before Madonna tried, this effortless mastery belonged to one woman, and still does. Susan Strasberg once told of walking down the street with Marilyn and noticing that no one at all was recognizing her. Marilyn said to just wait a minute and she literally “turned on” her glow, so to speak and suddenly, everyone was flocking around.
Marilyn in white and in THAT DRESS Probably the most famous photos of Marilyn revolve around an airblown white skirt. Once seen, it cannot be forgotten. There is something almost prophetic, I think, about the way she laughs at what she cannot control. In that case, just wind…..
