Family Woolcly
February 22, 1959
Look urftoi back
m j te J
Remember that movie star with the pendulum
swing to her walk and dresses that seemed
handed up from her kid sister?
That's right Marilyn Monroe. Didn't think you
could forget her even if she hasn't made a picture
in more than two years.
This disturbing recession in American living will
be remedied soon when MM appears in "Some
Like It Hot" with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.
You'll recognize her by the blond hair, childishly
simple face, and the well, you'll recognize her.
But will you know her?
What's happened to Marilyn as the wife of prize
winning playwright Arthur Miller ("Death of a
Salesman," "A View from the Bridge") and as an
"observer" at New York's Actors' Studio (alumni:
Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, among others) ?
Is she a better actress, an "intellectual" blonde,
a more assured personality?
After interviewing MM and talking with co
workers and friends, I can report only one startling
change Marilyn has developed a new wiggle. This
one utilizes her fingers yes, her fingers and helps
her get into the mood for an important scene. .
Her detractors concede that Marilyn did a good
job in her first major picture, "Asphalt Jungle."
But, they add, it was an undemanding role. They
disagree with some critics who lauded Marilyn's
talents in "The Prince and the Showgirl" with Sir
Laurence Olivier and refer to that effort only as a
box-office disappointment.
Marilyn has her defenders, of course. Arthur
Miller thinks she's already a highly skilled actress;
so does Paula Strasberg, her current mentor and
wife of Lee Strasberg, head of Actors' Studio.
But these authorities may be prejudiced. Miller
is a rarity among movieland husbands inasmuch
as he really means it when he says he's his wife's
best fan. And Paula may be influenced by Marilyn's
financial contributions to her husband's school.
Billy Wilder, MM's director in "Some Like It
Hot," mugwumps the controversy by saying, "She's
one of the two super-stars of our decade." He
carefully dodges any opinion of her artistry.
Does acting, however, really matter to anybody
but Marilyn? The only lines the public expects her
to deliver were bestowed on her by nature. In
"Some Like It Hot," for example, she spends about
one-third of the footage in a wool-knit bathing
suit. When it comes to that kind of a performance,
Monroe could teach Stanislavsky!
No, the marilyn you'll see on the screen won't
be changed much. But the Marilyn behind the
screen has undergone some transformations. In
her early career, she was an interviewer's delight;
but today she ranks as one of Hollywood's most
uncooperative stars.
Ordinarily, Marilyn just won't be interviewed.
An English publication sent its London corre
spondent to Hollywood to talk to Marilyn, but
after two days she gave up and returned home
with only one piece of fresh information Marilyn
owns a white dress!
Yet Marilyn talked to me in New York for two
hours. Why? because Marilyn is unpredictable.
Later, in California, I experienced the Monroe
chill and got to see her only because Billy Wilder
personally ushered me into her dressing room and
demanded to know why she was so difficult to see.
"But I'm not," Marilyn cooed, blinking her eyes
innocently. And her charm, I might add, was put
on just as thickly as her make-up.
Even if an interviewer sees Marilyn, he's wasting
his time. She won't talk about marriage, children,
religion, past, politics, superstitions. As she says
herself, "Why see anybody? There's nothing ieft
for us to talk about!"
What Marilyn says makes sense in another re
spect. The Monroe story has been so painstakingly
explored that there is nothing left to tell about her.
Her dreary past has been spelled out in lurid detail
how, as a child, she became a ward of the county,
was placed in an orphanage, and matured through
a series of shocking experiences.
Marilyn's soul was laid as bare as that famous
calendar photograph of her. Nothing was left to
the public's imagination, and Marilyn is woman
enough to recognize this as a mistake. So she has
shrewdly become "uncooperative," exposing only
enough of Monroe to arouse curiosity, not boredom.
Caught in the middle of this reverse press
agentry is Arthur Miller, who is besieged by news
men trying to glean some fresh facts about his
wife. Once he mentioned they had bought a horse
for their two-acre Connecticut farm, and reporters
buzzed off as excitedly as if they had just un
covered a Pulitzer-prize winning story.
To her credit, Marilyn remains cooperative in
one area. She still appears as grateful to the public
as she was after her first break, and her fans are
refused nothing. Where a newsman draws a blank
stare, an autograph hound gets respectful atten
tion. If a movieland tourist wants to take a snap
shot of her, Marilyn dutifully poses although no
studio can release a professional still shot without
her approval and she rejects approximately 90
percent as "unworthy."
Marilyn seems to sense that though she may
have made enemies in Hollywood, the public still
loves her. They have seen a parade of imitators
. m "f Vi4V )' .M ' '-'-f ,... J, " On location for "Some Like It Hot," MM dis-
u. .,;.... iA d .fa 6.1 lU ri-J -.U V I Yi''B plays familiar "charms in 1920 bathina suit,
Marilyn mugs with (believe it or not) Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. I ' ; J an (above) familiar smile with husband.
6 Family Weekly, February 22, 1959 " : m&.h-,AyCi.iU:.'-j;