1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,400
Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.

2
00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:07,640
Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is

3
00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:26,440
Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. The stories about Marilyn Monroe

4
00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:31,200
Speaker 1: are insane. She was, without a doubt, the biggest female

5
00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:34,479
Speaker 1: star on the planet. She went from orphan to power

6
00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:37,959
Speaker 1: player at a time when actors, never mind female actors,

7
00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:44,040
Speaker 1: controlled little in Hollywood. Yet she was ravaged by anxiety, depression, addiction,

8
00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:48,040
Speaker 1: and insecurity, but it didn't hold her back. She single

9
00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:52,600
Speaker 1: handedly changed America's attitudes on sex posed nude in nineteen

10
00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:56,840
Speaker 1: fifty two and didn't apologize for it. She betted, married,

11
00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:02,000
Speaker 1: and otherwise conquered America's most impressive men Joe DiMaggio, Arthur Miller,

12
00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:05,320
Speaker 1: Frank Sinatra, and President John F. Kennedy, to name a few,

13
00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:10,960
Speaker 1: and up until her untimely death, Marilyn Monroe made great films.

14
00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:13,480
Speaker 1: Unlike that loop. I played few at the top of

15
00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:16,600
Speaker 1: the show that wasn't from a great film. That was

16
00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:19,920
Speaker 1: a preset loop from my melotron called the one that

17
00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:24,200
Speaker 1: says some Pulp MK two. I played you that loop

18
00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:27,240
Speaker 1: because I can't afford the rights to Hey Baby by

19
00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:30,959
Speaker 1: Bruce Chanel and why would I play you that specific

20
00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:34,640
Speaker 1: slice of dirty log dancing cheese? Could I afford it?

21
00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:39,200
Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on

22
00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:43,440
Speaker 1: May nineteenth, nineteen sixty two, And that was the day

23
00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:46,679
Speaker 1: of Marilyn Monroe saying Happy Birthday to the President of

24
00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:49,640
Speaker 1: the United States of America in front of the entire

25
00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:53,280
Speaker 1: world and firmly cemented the rumors that they were both

26
00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:57,920
Speaker 1: entangled in a scandalous affair, rumors that would prove to

27
00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:00,960
Speaker 1: be at the center of a long running concernspiracy theory

28
00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:07,760
Speaker 1: surrounding Marilyn Monroe's death three months later, on this episode Anxiety,

29
00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:13,640
Speaker 1: Female Power, Moves, Sex, scandal, conspiracy, and the all time

30
00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:23,600
Speaker 1: great Marilyn Monroe. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.

31
00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:39,320
Speaker 1: The opulent home of the powerful Hollywood Agent was packed.

32
00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:44,160
Speaker 1: It was New Year's Eve, after all, nineteen forty eight

33
00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:47,680
Speaker 1: was about to slide into nineteen forty nine, and the

34
00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:51,480
Speaker 1: agent's famous party was not to be missed. None other

35
00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:54,200
Speaker 1: than the writer, director, and star of the greatest film

36
00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:57,520
Speaker 1: ever made to that point, Citizen Kane, had remarked that

37
00:02:57,560 --> 00:03:01,040
Speaker 1: the agent's parties had the quote best Ktessen and the

38
00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:06,320
Speaker 1: best whoes in town. Other famous directors Auto Premiger, John Houston,

39
00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:11,080
Speaker 1: and William Wyler mingled amongst the housegirls, a mix of

40
00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:15,000
Speaker 1: call girls and young attractive female contract players on loan

41
00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:19,200
Speaker 1: from various studios. Tonight, the escorts were on loan from

42
00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:24,359
Speaker 1: Daryl Zannak and Harry Cone's twentieth Century Fox in Columbia Pictures, respectively.

43
00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:30,079
Speaker 1: Errol Flynn, the world's most handsome and openly Rakish screen

44
00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:34,440
Speaker 1: star since Douglas Fairbanks, was leaning against the Great Room's piano,

45
00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:39,040
Speaker 1: boring anyone in earshot with his tired story. They had

46
00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:42,400
Speaker 1: heard this one before, the one where W. C. Fields

47
00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:45,200
Speaker 1: and some of the other Bundy Drive boys stole their friend,

48
00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:48,760
Speaker 1: leading man John Barrymore's corpse from the Morgue a day

49
00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:52,520
Speaker 1: after his death, smuggled him into Flynn's home, propped him

50
00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:54,480
Speaker 1: up in a high backed chair with a drink in

51
00:03:54,520 --> 00:03:57,839
Speaker 1: one hand and a cigarette in the other. Flynn, when

52
00:03:57,840 --> 00:04:00,680
Speaker 1: he came home to see John Barrymore way waiting for him,

53
00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:03,720
Speaker 1: or John Barrymore's corpse rather waiting for him with a

54
00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:07,000
Speaker 1: drink in hand, Errol Flynn was so scared that he

55
00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:09,440
Speaker 1: sprinted out of the house and dove into the bushes

56
00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:14,360
Speaker 1: to hide. Yes, yes, yes, we've heard this one before, Errol.

57
00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:17,640
Speaker 1: The drinks were hitting Errol Flynn hard. Not one to

58
00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:20,800
Speaker 1: be embarrassed by the lack of response his story had generated,

59
00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:25,000
Speaker 1: Flynn decided to up the annie. If his famous stories

60
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,839
Speaker 1: wouldn't entertain the guests, then his famous penis would. So

61
00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:31,479
Speaker 1: out came little Ero Flynn, right there in the great

62
00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:34,599
Speaker 1: room of the party for all to see. Flynn turned

63
00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:38,040
Speaker 1: to the piano and plopped his significant manhood down onto

64
00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:41,359
Speaker 1: the keyboard and began pecking out the keys to a

65
00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:45,200
Speaker 1: familiar tune. And the guests were not all that surprised.

66
00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:47,839
Speaker 1: This was Errol Flynn after all, And though one of

67
00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:52,240
Speaker 1: the housegirls took note what men would do to avoid embarrassment,

68
00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:58,839
Speaker 1: she thought her wonderment was soon disrupted by a call

69
00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:00,920
Speaker 1: from the host to do a sweep of the room

70
00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:04,320
Speaker 1: and freshen up the men's drinks, and when that was done,

71
00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,039
Speaker 1: to empty the ashtrays, and of course, to remember to

72
00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:11,440
Speaker 1: flash that smile at all times. She did was she

73
00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:14,919
Speaker 1: was told she knew the stakes the men in this room,

74
00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:18,320
Speaker 1: not only the powerful agent who was hosting, but the directors,

75
00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:21,680
Speaker 1: the producers, and of course, the studio heads held her

76
00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:25,160
Speaker 1: future in the palms of their slick hands. They were

77
00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:27,520
Speaker 1: Hollywood's power center and the only people in the world

78
00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:29,920
Speaker 1: who could deliver on the promise she made to herself

79
00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:32,880
Speaker 1: when she changed her name from Norma Jean Baker to

80
00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:37,359
Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe, a promise to become the most famous actress

81
00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:41,279
Speaker 1: in the land. There were consequences, though. It was a

82
00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:43,680
Speaker 1: given that you'd be called upon to enter into one

83
00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:47,040
Speaker 1: of the homes many bedrooms, with whichever guests desired you.

84
00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:51,279
Speaker 1: Marilyn knew this coming into it. It wasn't her first rodeo.

85
00:05:51,839 --> 00:05:54,359
Speaker 1: She'd been filling her knights as a housegirl at various

86
00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:58,919
Speaker 1: parties for some time now. Transactional sex didn't bother. It

87
00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:01,880
Speaker 1: was how the game was played in Hollywood, especially in

88
00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:05,760
Speaker 1: the nineteen forties. But the thought of rape sent fear

89
00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:09,440
Speaker 1: down her spine. It wasn't long ago that three men

90
00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:11,760
Speaker 1: at one of the parties held her down and tried

91
00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:16,440
Speaker 1: to assault her. She escaped barely. She hid the trauma,

92
00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:20,640
Speaker 1: but the memories came flooding back. As a child, Marilyn

93
00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:23,560
Speaker 1: had been a victim of rape and sexual assault, going

94
00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:25,640
Speaker 1: back to the age of twelve when she was first

95
00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:28,880
Speaker 1: attacked at a foster home and subsequently kicked out of

96
00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:31,080
Speaker 1: the foster home as if it was somehow her fault.

97
00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:33,560
Speaker 1: Her mother blamed her. Of course, her mother blamed her

98
00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:37,719
Speaker 1: for everything. Marilyn was born out of wedlock, and Marilyn's mom, Gladys,

99
00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:40,599
Speaker 1: was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic who was in and

100
00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:43,640
Speaker 1: out of mental institutions, and the thought of said mental

101
00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:48,279
Speaker 1: institutions would terrify future Normangy aka Marilyn Monroe throughout the

102
00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:51,120
Speaker 1: rest of her life. When her mom Gladys was in

103
00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:54,479
Speaker 1: the picture, which wasn't often, she let young Normigene know

104
00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:57,920
Speaker 1: that she was born of sin and thus filled with sin.

105
00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:02,880
Speaker 1: Of course, Normigene sexually assaulted her mother thought she was

106
00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:08,240
Speaker 1: a very bad girl. A Norma Jean Baker was married

107
00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:10,240
Speaker 1: off by her foster mother at the young age of

108
00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:13,880
Speaker 1: sixteen to an older neighborhood boy, a twenty one year old.

109
00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:17,000
Speaker 1: In order to make the nuptial's work, Norma Jean had

110
00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:18,840
Speaker 1: a drop out of high school to take care of

111
00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:22,280
Speaker 1: the home. Her newlywed husband soon after shipped off to

112
00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:26,040
Speaker 1: World War II, and Norma Jean needed to work. She

113
00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:28,760
Speaker 1: founded at the Radio Plane Company near their home in

114
00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:31,920
Speaker 1: San Fernando Valley, and it was there, working on the

115
00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:35,120
Speaker 1: assembly line that she was found by a US Army

116
00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:38,480
Speaker 1: photographer for the first Motion Picture Unit, who made the

117
00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:41,880
Speaker 1: scene to document the women of the war. The photo

118
00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:44,840
Speaker 1: session led to a modeling opportunity, which led to some

119
00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:48,760
Speaker 1: of Norma Jean's pictures being published in Yank Magazine, which

120
00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:51,760
Speaker 1: led to a screen test with the film studio twentieth

121
00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:54,840
Speaker 1: Century Fox, which led to a gig as a contract

122
00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:57,760
Speaker 1: girl that spelled doom for her marriage, which led to

123
00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:00,520
Speaker 1: the changing of her name to Marilyn Monroe, which led

124
00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:04,480
Speaker 1: to her here now on the eve of nineteen forty nine,

125
00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:07,960
Speaker 1: contemplating her assent through the ranks of Hollywood to make

126
00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:11,720
Speaker 1: do on that promise to herself to become the most

127
00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:47,559
Speaker 1: famous actress in the land. Joe DiMaggio hated crowds. In fact,

128
00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:50,000
Speaker 1: the verdict was out on whether or not the retired

129
00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:53,400
Speaker 1: New York Yankee slugger even liked people, and that's what

130
00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:57,040
Speaker 1: they said anyway. Joe Dee retired with a lifetime batting

131
00:08:57,040 --> 00:08:59,600
Speaker 1: average of three twenty five and a famed hit streak

132
00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:03,600
Speaker 1: of six straight games. A record that still stands, a

133
00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:06,240
Speaker 1: streak that accounted for roughly a third of the season,

134
00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:11,120
Speaker 1: that captivated the country and had everyone talking a true deform,

135
00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:15,640
Speaker 1: Joe said little. It was just his way. He liked people.

136
00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:19,400
Speaker 1: He was just quiet, stoic. He reserved his affection for

137
00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:22,480
Speaker 1: those he truly loved and for moments when it really mattered.

138
00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:27,840
Speaker 1: In these days, Joe DiMaggio really loved his wife, Marilyn Monroe.

139
00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:32,080
Speaker 1: But now wasn't one of those moments. This moment, right

140
00:09:32,120 --> 00:09:34,679
Speaker 1: now that he was navigating through, fighting his way through

141
00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:37,839
Speaker 1: a massive bunched up New Yorkers on Lexington over By

142
00:09:37,920 --> 00:09:43,640
Speaker 1: fifty second was troublesome, to say the least. Joe, with

143
00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:48,120
Speaker 1: syndicated and ruthless newspaper calumnist friend Walter Winchell at his side,

144
00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:50,680
Speaker 1: was trying to get to see his wife, but so

145
00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:54,480
Speaker 1: too were a thousand strangers jam tight under movie set

146
00:09:54,559 --> 00:09:57,280
Speaker 1: cleag lights trying to catch a glimpse of Hollywood's new

147
00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:02,559
Speaker 1: Girl nineteen fifty. Marilyn and Rose Star have been in

148
00:10:02,679 --> 00:10:05,640
Speaker 1: near constant ascent since her days in the late forties

149
00:10:05,679 --> 00:10:09,440
Speaker 1: as a Hollywood house girl, and this was no ordinary

150
00:10:09,480 --> 00:10:12,760
Speaker 1: Star turn. Marylyn seemed to be not only blazing a

151
00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:15,840
Speaker 1: lucrative and exciting career for herself, but to also be

152
00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:20,600
Speaker 1: changing America's attitude on sex in the process. In the

153
00:10:20,679 --> 00:10:23,680
Speaker 1: early fifties, while Marilyn was just starting to break through

154
00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:26,440
Speaker 1: in the film business due in part to her small

155
00:10:26,559 --> 00:10:30,880
Speaker 1: role in John Houston's expertly made crime drama The Asphalt Jungle,

156
00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:34,720
Speaker 1: nude photos of her from her modeling days had gone public.

157
00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:39,120
Speaker 1: The studio heads at twentieth Century Fox begged Marylyn to

158
00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:42,119
Speaker 1: deny that the photos were of her, which was ridiculous.

159
00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:45,320
Speaker 1: I mean, they were photographs. The studio was nervous that

160
00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:48,000
Speaker 1: all they had invested in this contract girl was about

161
00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:50,120
Speaker 1: to go up and smoke just as she was breaking

162
00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:53,480
Speaker 1: through because of the scandal, and they weren't wrong to

163
00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:57,720
Speaker 1: be nervous. This was zeroly nineteen fifties, after all, attitudes

164
00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:00,319
Speaker 1: on sex were light years from where they are today.

165
00:11:00,760 --> 00:11:03,480
Speaker 1: To say it was an ultra conservative mainstream culture as

166
00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:07,800
Speaker 1: an understatement, but Marilyn refused to be shamed into denying

167
00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:12,240
Speaker 1: the photos were hers. Instead, she leveled with the American people,

168
00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:14,840
Speaker 1: explaining that she took the photos back in the forties

169
00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:17,320
Speaker 1: at a time before she was a star a time

170
00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:19,520
Speaker 1: when she was behind on rent. It was on the

171
00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:22,959
Speaker 1: verge of being evicted. Marilyn was asked by a reporter

172
00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:25,200
Speaker 1: if the rumor about the nude photos was true and

173
00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:28,560
Speaker 1: if she had anything at all on. She replied that

174
00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:32,920
Speaker 1: she had the radio on. Copping to the photos had

175
00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:36,560
Speaker 1: the opposite effect. The studio feared being honest, authentic. It

176
00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:39,880
Speaker 1: made Marilyn more relatable, and America opened their arms to

177
00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:45,440
Speaker 1: the beautiful and now vulnerable blonde. Marilyn further cemented her

178
00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:49,000
Speaker 1: status in American consciousness with a bit part showcasing not

179
00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:52,599
Speaker 1: only her undeniable beauty, but also her effortless sense of

180
00:11:52,679 --> 00:11:56,040
Speaker 1: humor in All About Eve, a film that won five

181
00:11:56,160 --> 00:12:00,280
Speaker 1: Academy Awards, including the Best Picture. She smoldered in the

182
00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:04,520
Speaker 1: film Noir Niagara as the murderous Seductress. Yet after these

183
00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:07,800
Speaker 1: two films and a string of others in between, Marilyn

184
00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:11,640
Speaker 1: seemed to land on something crucial regarding her craft. She

185
00:12:11,679 --> 00:12:15,000
Speaker 1: could easily grab America's attention with sex appeal she put

186
00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,480
Speaker 1: front and center in Niagara, but she could get America,

187
00:12:18,559 --> 00:12:21,640
Speaker 1: all of America, men and women, to fall in love

188
00:12:21,679 --> 00:12:24,080
Speaker 1: with her by using her sense of humor. Which she

189
00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:28,240
Speaker 1: definitely deployed and all about eve. Marilyn put it all

190
00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:32,040
Speaker 1: together in her next film, Gentlemen Prefer Blonde, starring alongside

191
00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:35,920
Speaker 1: Jane Russell, another Hollywood sex symbol with brains, ambition, and

192
00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:41,079
Speaker 1: experience that would inspire Marilyn. In Gentlemen Preferred Blondes, all

193
00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:44,559
Speaker 1: of Marilyn Monroe is on display. She is a supernova

194
00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:47,160
Speaker 1: talent that is as attractive as she is hilarious as

195
00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:50,680
Speaker 1: she is talented. She sings, she dances, she entices, she

196
00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:53,160
Speaker 1: plays the ditch to get you to laugh. She's the

197
00:12:53,160 --> 00:12:56,160
Speaker 1: most beautiful woman you've ever seen, but non threatening because

198
00:12:56,160 --> 00:12:58,600
Speaker 1: it's all a joke to her. How could it not be?

199
00:12:58,920 --> 00:13:02,440
Speaker 1: No blonde could be that dumb that Marilyn Monroe had

200
00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:06,360
Speaker 1: created a character to inhabit, the dumb blonde, a character

201
00:13:06,400 --> 00:13:10,760
Speaker 1: that was at odds with who she really was. Intellectually curious, ambitious,

202
00:13:10,800 --> 00:13:13,800
Speaker 1: serious minded about her craft and career, but at the

203
00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:18,079
Speaker 1: same time, she was uneducated, a high school dropout, deeply

204
00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:21,920
Speaker 1: insecure about her intelligence and talent, overly reliant on her

205
00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:24,680
Speaker 1: beauty and the power that came with her sex appeal.

206
00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:29,559
Speaker 1: Many men underestimated her, but regardless with this new character

207
00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:33,080
Speaker 1: on display and gentlemen preferred blondes, and later in How

208
00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:35,880
Speaker 1: to Marry a Millionaire with Betty Grable and Laura Bacall,

209
00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:38,599
Speaker 1: it was clear that whatever went into the character and

210
00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:43,839
Speaker 1: persona Marilyn Monroe had created, America couldn't get enough. Both

211
00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:48,000
Speaker 1: films were massive hits, and Marilyn was now one of

212
00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:49,720
Speaker 1: the biggest stars on the planet.

213
00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:56,439
Speaker 2: We'll be right back after.

214
00:13:56,160 --> 00:14:04,439
Speaker 1: This, We're we're where. Judging by the crowd on Lexington

215
00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:08,480
Speaker 1: Avenue on September fifteenth, nineteen fifty four, it was easy

216
00:14:08,559 --> 00:14:12,640
Speaker 1: to tell just how famous Marilyn Monroe had become, and

217
00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:16,160
Speaker 1: her newlywed husband, Joe DiMaggio was not happy as he

218
00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:18,840
Speaker 1: fought through the crowd that was jamming up traffic in

219
00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:23,400
Speaker 1: all directions there to catch a glimpse of his wife.

220
00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:25,800
Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe was in town to film the new Billy

221
00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:29,480
Speaker 1: Wilder comedy The Seven Year Itch. Her arrival in New

222
00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:33,840
Speaker 1: York and her on set appearances had dominated newspaper coverage.

223
00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:38,160
Speaker 1: Joe DiMaggio didn't sign up for this. This was something else.

224
00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:41,440
Speaker 1: One thousand hard hats and pencil necks, wolf whistling at

225
00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:44,960
Speaker 1: his wife in public horny newspaper men documenting her every

226
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:49,320
Speaker 1: move in their daily columns. Walt Winchell's eagerness to get

227
00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:51,000
Speaker 1: up in front of the crowd to catch a glimpse

228
00:14:51,040 --> 00:14:54,880
Speaker 1: of Joe's wife was fueling the Slugger's anchor. Joe knew

229
00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:58,120
Speaker 1: going into his marriage with Marylyn back in January that

230
00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:01,240
Speaker 1: their relationship would be fought her for the He was

231
00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:04,200
Speaker 1: arguably more famous than she was at the time, but

232
00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:06,640
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, Joe wanted a wife,

233
00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:10,000
Speaker 1: not a supernova sex symbol whose fame had grown so

234
00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:13,280
Speaker 1: immense that American men felt entitled to a piece of

235
00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:16,360
Speaker 1: whatever action she was laying out for the world to see.

236
00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:20,680
Speaker 1: Winchell grabbed the attention of two beat cops and pointed

237
00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:23,479
Speaker 1: out that he was with Joe d mister Marilyn Monroe,

238
00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:26,040
Speaker 1: formerly the Yankee Clipper, and that the two of them

239
00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:29,000
Speaker 1: needed help getting up front to the set where Marilyn was.

240
00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:32,320
Speaker 1: The cops cleared the way and escorted Joe and Winchell

241
00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:35,760
Speaker 1: to the set. When they finally got up close, Joe

242
00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:40,360
Speaker 1: couldn't believe what he was seeing his wife in a

243
00:15:40,360 --> 00:15:43,360
Speaker 1: thin white dress under a searing barrage of four to

244
00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:46,800
Speaker 1: ten two came Mole Richards in motion picture lights, standing

245
00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:50,240
Speaker 1: in heels over a subway grate with an industrial sized

246
00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:53,720
Speaker 1: prop fin, blowing her dress up above her thighs. Cameras,

247
00:15:53,800 --> 00:15:58,280
Speaker 1: rolling photos, snapping, director barking, extras, gawking, and New Yorker's

248
00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:00,480
Speaker 1: as far as the eye could see, screaming in delight,

249
00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:03,880
Speaker 1: Do it again, Do it again, and Billy Wilder obliged.

250
00:16:04,080 --> 00:16:07,440
Speaker 1: He kept calling for more shots. Marilyn's dress flapped over

251
00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:11,920
Speaker 1: her bare legs. Higher, the crowd demanded, cut action, higher, higher,

252
00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:14,280
Speaker 1: and the fan roared, and so did the crowd. When

253
00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:17,920
Speaker 1: the dress blew up to Marylyn's shoulders, her womanhood exposed.

254
00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:21,400
Speaker 1: Joe could see it, so can most of Lexington Avenue,

255
00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:26,920
Speaker 1: including Winchell the Purf. Joe turned in disgust and headed

256
00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:29,240
Speaker 1: back to the couple suite at the Saint Regis, but

257
00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:31,880
Speaker 1: not before shouting out to Winchell in the earshot of

258
00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:34,880
Speaker 1: everyone else around him in the crowd, that he'd had it.

259
00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:38,880
Speaker 1: He and Marylyn would remain married for another month, but

260
00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:43,720
Speaker 1: effectively their marriage ended that night. All in, it was

261
00:16:43,760 --> 00:16:49,320
Speaker 1: a nine month marriage. Marilyn Monroe, the most famous woman

262
00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:52,120
Speaker 1: in the world, would once again be alone, an orphan,

263
00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:54,200
Speaker 1: then a star, married to one of the most beloved

264
00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:57,800
Speaker 1: men in America, and then shockingly alone once again, but

265
00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:01,560
Speaker 1: not for long, and had rekindled a crush from some

266
00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:04,720
Speaker 1: years back with another one of America's most interesting men,

267
00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:09,600
Speaker 1: this one with an intellect is accomplished as Joe DiMaggio's athleticism.

268
00:17:10,119 --> 00:17:14,320
Speaker 1: Arthur Miller arguably the country's greatest playwright, author of Death

269
00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:16,840
Speaker 1: of a Salesman, the nineteen forty nine play that won

270
00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:19,439
Speaker 1: both the Tony for Best Play and the Politzer Prize

271
00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:22,359
Speaker 1: for Drama, and made Miller a household name and the

272
00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:26,600
Speaker 1: envy of writers from Broadway to Hollywood. Arthur Miller was

273
00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:30,760
Speaker 1: not an obvious choice for Marilyn Monroe, America's girl compared

274
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:33,960
Speaker 1: to Joe D. Miller was a nerd an egghead. But

275
00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:37,560
Speaker 1: for Marylynd he validated something in her, her need to

276
00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:41,200
Speaker 1: be respected as a serious actor and as an artist herself.

277
00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:44,359
Speaker 1: If she could capture the heart and therefore the approval

278
00:17:44,359 --> 00:17:46,639
Speaker 1: of none other than Arthur Miller, then it couldn't be

279
00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:49,439
Speaker 1: said that she was just another dumb blonde, or so

280
00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:52,760
Speaker 1: went her insecure thinking. The flip side was that the

281
00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:56,439
Speaker 1: two really loved one another. Arthur Miller bestowed upon Marilyn

282
00:17:56,520 --> 00:17:59,479
Speaker 1: Monroe the type of emotional attention and affection that Joe

283
00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:04,080
Speaker 1: Demaije was incapable of expressing, despite whatever sincere feelings he

284
00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:08,680
Speaker 1: had for her. But the relationship, like all of Marilyn's relationships,

285
00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:14,960
Speaker 1: would be short lived. John Houston sat in the dusty Reno,

286
00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:18,080
Speaker 1: Nevada bar with Arthur Miller and told him straight up

287
00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:21,919
Speaker 1: his wife, the star of Houston's new film, The Misfits,

288
00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:25,760
Speaker 1: was losing it. The Miller Monroe marriage had become a

289
00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:30,240
Speaker 1: braid of dueling destructive ironies. The Misfits was a screenplay

290
00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:33,119
Speaker 1: that Arthur Miller poured his heart and soul into in

291
00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:35,800
Speaker 1: an effort to satisfy his wife's desire to show off

292
00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:39,840
Speaker 1: for serious acting chops. She was training with legendary acting

293
00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:43,520
Speaker 1: coach Lee Strausburg, found and director of the Actors Studio,

294
00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:47,280
Speaker 1: creator of the Method acting technique, and instructor to James

295
00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:50,560
Speaker 1: Dean and a slew of other serious minded East Coast actors.

296
00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:54,280
Speaker 1: In The Misfits was a vehicle created by Arthur Miller

297
00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:58,520
Speaker 1: to cast Marylyn opposite her childhood hero Clark Gable, to

298
00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:01,040
Speaker 1: cheer her up after she missed carried for the third

299
00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:04,840
Speaker 1: time in nineteen fifty eight, losing another baby. While unable

300
00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:08,760
Speaker 1: to stop perspiraling use of barbituates and booze. In her

301
00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:13,399
Speaker 1: guilt ridden depression, Marilyn attempted suicide by overdose, and it

302
00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:16,600
Speaker 1: was not her first time. The fear among those who

303
00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:19,679
Speaker 1: cared about her was that her previous breakdowns in overdose

304
00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:23,040
Speaker 1: is one in forty four in another in nineteen fifty

305
00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:26,639
Speaker 1: were either outright suicide attempts or at the very least

306
00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:31,440
Speaker 1: cries for help. After the most recent overdose in nineteen sixty,

307
00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:34,560
Speaker 1: with her marriage to Miller falling apart, she was eventually

308
00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:38,760
Speaker 1: committed to New York's Pain Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. It was

309
00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:43,160
Speaker 1: a nightmarish four day ordeal, locked in a literal padded cell,

310
00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:46,439
Speaker 1: subjected to forced baths, living out her worst fear of

311
00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:49,880
Speaker 1: becoming her mother. The more Marilyn rejected this cruel form

312
00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:52,679
Speaker 1: of quote unquote care, the more the doctors thought she

313
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:56,760
Speaker 1: was in psychosis. It was her ex Joe DiMaggio, who

314
00:19:56,840 --> 00:20:02,320
Speaker 1: secured her release, But for Arthur Miller, the climax of

315
00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:05,359
Speaker 1: this drama was still a few months away, and the

316
00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:08,600
Speaker 1: Reno Bar. With John Houston cutting through the bullshit, he

317
00:20:08,680 --> 00:20:11,520
Speaker 1: still couldn't get over the irony, the irony that he'd

318
00:20:11,560 --> 00:20:13,760
Speaker 1: written the screenplay out of a desire to help his

319
00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:16,679
Speaker 1: wife cope, and now the film was in danger of

320
00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:20,040
Speaker 1: falling apart due to his wife's inability to hold herself together.

321
00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:24,400
Speaker 1: But for Marilyn, the irony was darker, more bitter. As

322
00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:27,280
Speaker 1: Marilyn lost herself further in the hall of mirrors of

323
00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:30,159
Speaker 1: her own life, the reflection she saw looked more and

324
00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:33,439
Speaker 1: more like her cruel, unbalanced mother, who herself was an

325
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:38,520
Speaker 1: institutionalized schizophrenic who rejected Marilyn over and over again, just

326
00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:43,080
Speaker 1: as Marilyn believed her body had rejected her babies. Marilyn's

327
00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:46,920
Speaker 1: deepest fear of turning out like her was coming dangerously

328
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:51,880
Speaker 1: close to being reality. John Houston told Arthur Miller Marilyn

329
00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:54,000
Speaker 1: needed to get off the drugs and lighten up on

330
00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:56,760
Speaker 1: the drinker. Not only would the film die on the vine,

331
00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:01,800
Speaker 1: but so too would his wife. On some level, Arthur

332
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:04,639
Speaker 1: Miller knew this, but he was hapless to do anything

333
00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:08,400
Speaker 1: about it. He tried, but Marilyn her fame, her problems,

334
00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:13,040
Speaker 1: they were all consuming. She was, as he said, devouring me,

335
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:16,920
Speaker 1: and they separated. During the shooting of The Misfits. There

336
00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:20,439
Speaker 1: was no saving America's Girl. Arthur Miller found out what

337
00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:23,720
Speaker 1: Joe DiMaggio knew. It was a fact. Frank Sinatra would

338
00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:26,200
Speaker 1: soon learn the same hard truth, and so too would

339
00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:30,040
Speaker 1: his buddies, the Attorney General and President of the United States,

340
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:31,960
Speaker 1: Robert and John F.

341
00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:53,320
Speaker 2: Kennedy.

342
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:02,520
Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe wasn't alone in her Brentwood hacienda style home,

343
00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:06,960
Speaker 1: but she felt like she was. Her housekeeper Eunus Marity

344
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:11,600
Speaker 1: was somewhere else in the house. Marylyn's blackout bedroom curtains

345
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:15,119
Speaker 1: were doing their best to keep the piercing California afternoon

346
00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:20,000
Speaker 1: sun outside where it belonged. Marilyn couldn't sleep the night before,

347
00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:24,639
Speaker 1: which wasn't unusual. The barbituates and librium worked until they didn't,

348
00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:27,160
Speaker 1: and then you were up all night biting your fingernails

349
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:30,240
Speaker 1: and staring at the ceiling, making plans for your next

350
00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:34,200
Speaker 1: picture to start in or to produce. Marylyn won her

351
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:37,879
Speaker 1: freedom from twentieth Century Fox a few years back. Freedom

352
00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:41,000
Speaker 1: might be too strong a word, but compared to other stars,

353
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:44,680
Speaker 1: it wasn't nothing. The ability to choose your own director

354
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:48,080
Speaker 1: and cinematographer, the right to story approval, and to star

355
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:50,960
Speaker 1: in your own films that you produce outside the studio

356
00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:53,720
Speaker 1: for your own production company that you founded, and to

357
00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:57,080
Speaker 1: command a competitive and respectable fee for the studio pictures

358
00:22:57,119 --> 00:22:59,639
Speaker 1: you did choose to do. It was a major victory

359
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,120
Speaker 1: for her, Carolyn, but it didn't come without a fight.

360
00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:05,760
Speaker 1: She'd been battling with Twentieth since her days with Joe.

361
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:09,120
Speaker 1: Joe knew about contract negotiations, and he helped her out

362
00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:13,080
Speaker 1: tremendously throughout the process as a good partner should he

363
00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:16,720
Speaker 1: was like that still was. He'd never really disappeared from

364
00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:19,880
Speaker 1: her life completely. He still called in to check on her.

365
00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:22,399
Speaker 1: It was clear he still loved her and was there

366
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:24,680
Speaker 1: for her if she wanted him. She was the love

367
00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:27,760
Speaker 1: of his life. She knew this, but she was interested

368
00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:31,679
Speaker 1: in another man at the moment. Man actually one for

369
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:35,160
Speaker 1: his brain, one for well, his brain too, but also

370
00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:39,120
Speaker 1: everything else. A few weeks back, she'd been summoned by

371
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:42,240
Speaker 1: none other than John F. Kennedy, the thirty fifth President

372
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:45,399
Speaker 1: of the United States, to meet at Bing Crosby's house

373
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:50,159
Speaker 1: in Palm Springs. The President made no pretenses about their meeting.

374
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: They met in Bing's guest room, talked for a bit,

375
00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:56,639
Speaker 1: and then had sex. Then they talked some more, and

376
00:23:56,720 --> 00:24:00,280
Speaker 1: the President complained about his back. It was a constant problem.

377
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:02,600
Speaker 1: He could barely walk. He was able to hide it

378
00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:04,920
Speaker 1: from the public because the press was in no rush

379
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:07,440
Speaker 1: to let the public know about it. It was sort

380
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:10,720
Speaker 1: of the same situation with his girlfriends. The press knew

381
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 1: all about JFK's many, many women, but protected him. What

382
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 1: good would it do the country if the President woke

383
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:19,600
Speaker 1: up one morning embroiled in a public scandal surrounding his

384
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:24,240
Speaker 1: extramarital affairs and so on the thinking Jack Kennedy was

385
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:27,399
Speaker 1: brazen about his adultery, so much so that he eagerly

386
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:30,479
Speaker 1: jumped on the phone with Marilyn's doctor, Dr Greenson at

387
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:32,920
Speaker 1: her insistence when she rang him up from bed. Upon

388
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:37,280
Speaker 1: hearing about Jack's back problems, Doctor Greenson was shocked. It

389
00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 1: was clear to him on the other end of the

390
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 1: line that the couple had just had sex. Jack didn't care,

391
00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:45,320
Speaker 1: and the doctor wouldn't say anything, just like the press,

392
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:47,560
Speaker 1: just like Bing, and just like all the guests milling

393
00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:50,040
Speaker 1: about Bing's property who were there to welcome the President

394
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:54,160
Speaker 1: and show him a good time. Nobody would say anything.

395
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:59,000
Speaker 1: The party at Bing Crosby's was supposed to be at

396
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,919
Speaker 1: the Palm Springs home with another recent flame of Maryland's,

397
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:05,440
Speaker 1: Frank Sinatra, but at the last minute, the President's brother,

398
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:09,400
Speaker 1: Robert F. Kennedy, insisted that they moved the location. Frank

399
00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:12,760
Speaker 1: kept company with disreputable men, the type of men that

400
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 1: Jack and Bobby's own father, Joe Kennedy Senior, made his

401
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 1: fortune with the generation prior qualified men, connected men, Italian men, gangsters.

402
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:27,920
Speaker 1: Jaegar Hoover, director of Bobby Kennedy's FBI, knew all about it,

403
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:30,480
Speaker 1: and as of late, was delighted to let Bobby know

404
00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:34,320
Speaker 1: that he knew. Hoover, that duplicitous scheming phony had a

405
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,639
Speaker 1: heart on for the Kennedy's the size of Lyndon Johnson's ego,

406
00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:41,720
Speaker 1: that is to say, the size of Texas. In private,

407
00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:44,639
Speaker 1: Frank Sinatra made no secret about his friends. He was

408
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:47,800
Speaker 1: who he was, and of Jaegarhoover. Bobby Kennedy didn't like it. They,

409
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:50,280
Speaker 1: along with the rest of the world, could go pound sand.

410
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:53,919
Speaker 1: Frank gave marilynd a Maltese puppy during their time together.

411
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:59,520
Speaker 1: She named it mof short for mafia. Marilyn knew what

412
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:02,160
Speaker 1: her flame was with the President. It was just that,

413
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:05,679
Speaker 1: a fling, nothing more, but still she was eager to

414
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 1: cozy up to him again, though it never happened. So

415
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:12,600
Speaker 1: his brother R. FK, arguably the second most powerful man

416
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,399
Speaker 1: in the United States given his role as Attorney General

417
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:18,400
Speaker 1: in closeness with his brother the President, would have to do.

418
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:21,720
Speaker 1: She tried impressing him at a party for the Attorney

419
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:24,200
Speaker 1: General in Santa Monica at his brother in law, Peter

420
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:28,479
Speaker 1: Lawford's house. She succeeded, but not in the way she wanted.

421
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 1: It was hard for Marilyn not to impress, wearing a

422
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:35,720
Speaker 1: strapless black dress with peekaboo fabric, but Marilyn drank too

423
00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: much don Perion, nearly passed out and ultimately needed to

424
00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:42,399
Speaker 1: be driven home by Bobby himself, joined by his press

425
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,639
Speaker 1: aide Edwin Guthlan, so that nobody would get the wrong idea.

426
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 1: After all, despite her drunkenness, the Attorney General found Marilyn interesting,

427
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:54,399
Speaker 1: as most men did. While at the party, Marilyn pressed

428
00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:57,280
Speaker 1: Bobby for information on his efforts to advance the civil

429
00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:00,399
Speaker 1: rights movement. She aimed to show him her pass for

430
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:04,000
Speaker 1: the same issue. It worked. Bobby gave her his office

431
00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:06,399
Speaker 1: number and told Marilyn he'd be happy to discuss the

432
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:10,679
Speaker 1: matter further whenever she had the time. So here she

433
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:14,159
Speaker 1: was lying in her bed on a sunny afternoon, wearing

434
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:17,480
Speaker 1: nothing but an untied bathroom butting her nails on one hand,

435
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:20,159
Speaker 1: pressing the phone to her head, with the other hanging

436
00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:23,720
Speaker 1: on the Attorney General's every word. He was entertaining her

437
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:27,120
Speaker 1: and himself. It was an indulgence he hardly had time

438
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:30,640
Speaker 1: for about when he relished. Nonetheless, she was, after all,

439
00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe, and next to his brother's wife, First Lady

440
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:38,280
Speaker 1: Jacqueline Kennedy, Marilyn was arguably the most famous and most

441
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:43,479
Speaker 1: beautiful woman in the world. In that voice, breathy, eager,

442
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:46,840
Speaker 1: always on the verge of excitement. Sure, he'd let her

443
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:49,320
Speaker 1: ramble on for a few minutes about Martin Luther King

444
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:53,040
Speaker 1: Junior or Thurgood Marshall. The women in the office snickered.

445
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:56,439
Speaker 1: They knew about Marilyn's calls. Bobby didn't hide them. It

446
00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:59,880
Speaker 1: was completely innocent when it came to politics or any

447
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:03,159
Speaker 1: else rather that didn't involve acting her sex. None of

448
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:07,399
Speaker 1: them took Marilyn Monroe seriously. Marilyn was an entertainer and

449
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:11,560
Speaker 1: should stick to that entertaining. So it was that she

450
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:15,399
Speaker 1: was invited, along with other entertainers Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Darren,

451
00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:19,040
Speaker 1: Maria Kallis, and host Peter Lawford to the President's birthday

452
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:23,760
Speaker 1: party on May nineteenth, nineteen sixty two, at Madison Square Garden.

453
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:27,440
Speaker 1: The first Lady wouldn't be attending. It was a big

454
00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 1: bash a listers. The President's availability would be limited. Marylyn

455
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:36,480
Speaker 1: would need to make an impression. Intimate political discussion wasn't

456
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: going to be an option. She'd need a weapon. She

457
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:43,280
Speaker 1: was more familiar with sex, and she had two bullets.

458
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:47,840
Speaker 1: One the song she was singing, the innocuous Happy Birthday,

459
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:50,640
Speaker 1: but she would work it up into a steamy, sultry

460
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 1: ballot all breath and whisper in your ear innuendo. The

461
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 1: second bullet was the dress. She'd use that for the

462
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:01,640
Speaker 1: kill shot bank, shoot him down, the President of the

463
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:04,720
Speaker 1: United States, right there in public, and she'd knocked the

464
00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:07,440
Speaker 1: rest of them dead too. With her sequin Jean Louis

465
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 1: skin and bead's gown she was being sewn into it

466
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,640
Speaker 1: at the moment hours before the event, and practicing her

467
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 1: version of the song, everyone she knew begged her not

468
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:19,320
Speaker 1: to go through with it. With this particular rendition of

469
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:23,880
Speaker 1: the song, hyper sexualized in the dress address that gave

470
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 1: the impression that she was actually nude, accenting her curves

471
00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:30,560
Speaker 1: and nearly see through, she would wear no wonderwear to

472
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 1: further drive home the point she was Marilyn Monroe. She

473
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,920
Speaker 1: may no longer be missus Arthur Miller or missus Jo Deimaggio,

474
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 1: and she may never be missus Bobby Kennedy or missus JFK.

475
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 1: But she'd make them all feel the pain of not

476
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,479
Speaker 1: being with her that loneliness. Even if they felt a

477
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 1: small fraction of the longing, she felt it would be

478
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:56,040
Speaker 1: worth it. She wasn't a vindictive woman, but life's injustices

479
00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:57,080
Speaker 1: had been adding up.

480
00:29:57,120 --> 00:29:57,720
Speaker 2: As of late.

481
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,400
Speaker 1: She was thirty five years old, three failed marriages, a

482
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:05,200
Speaker 1: tumultuous relationship with the movie studio she felt perpetually at

483
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:08,640
Speaker 1: war with, having been suspended for turning down the comedy

484
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:11,840
Speaker 1: The Girl in the Pink Tights, dragged through contract fights

485
00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 1: in the press, and even now fighting with Twentieth to

486
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,520
Speaker 1: take the days off to visit New York for this performance,

487
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:21,840
Speaker 1: and as of late, she'd grown increasingly dependent on the

488
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 1: pills prescribed by doctor Greason in the psychoanalysis he was

489
00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:28,000
Speaker 1: providing for her. It was all adding up to an

490
00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:32,000
Speaker 1: insurmountable tangle of anxiety, like a net closing in on her.

491
00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 1: That resulted at the end of the day when she

492
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: drew the blackout curtains and tried to escape into hard

493
00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:41,360
Speaker 1: to find sleep, into a feeling of being utterly alone.

494
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 1: So tonight, in front of the world, she'd make them

495
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:48,240
Speaker 1: all feel the pain of what they were missing her.

496
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 1: She took the stage and killed with one of the

497
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:58,800
Speaker 1: most iconic public performances of all time. Marilyn Monroe made

498
00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 1: Happy Birthdays sound like a poem by one of Caligula's chambermaids,

499
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:06,480
Speaker 1: Madison Square Garden. Couldn't believe it. America couldn't believe it.

500
00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 1: The President couldn't believe it. After the performance, Jack Kennedy

501
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:14,720
Speaker 1: took the stage and his first words into the mic were,

502
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 1: thank you. I can now retire from politics having happy

503
00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 1: Birthdays sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome manner.

504
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 1: If only that were true. But this story Marilyn Monroe's story,

505
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 1: It's ending is anything but sweet and wholesome. In our

506
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:34,560
Speaker 1: next episode, why everything you think you know about Marilyn

507
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:38,080
Speaker 1: Monroe's deaths is probably wrong and a shocking answer to

508
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:42,440
Speaker 1: the question that's haunted true crime fans for decades, Who

509
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:47,920
Speaker 1: really killed Marilyn Monroe? I'm Jake Brennan in this episode

510
00:31:47,960 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 1: of Disgraceland is to be continued. Disgracelam was created by

511
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:06,960
Speaker 1: Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.

512
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:09,440
Speaker 1: Credits for this episode can be found on the show

513
00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:13,200
Speaker 1: notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as

514
00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:16,600
Speaker 1: a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for supporting the show.

515
00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 1: We really appreciate it, and if not, you can become

516
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:22,800
Speaker 1: a member right now by going to disgracelampod dot com

517
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 1: slash Membership. Members can listen to every episode of disgracelan

518
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 1: ad free, Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode

519
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 1: every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and

520
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:40,360
Speaker 1: early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelampod dot com

521
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:43,560
Speaker 1: slash membership for details, rate and review the show and

522
00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:47,640
Speaker 1: Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook at disgracelampod,

523
00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:51,760
Speaker 1: and on YouTube at YouTube dot com, slash at disgracelampod,

524
00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:53,200
Speaker 1: rock a roll

525
00:32:59,560 --> 00:32:59,760
Speaker 2: Man,