Marilyn Monroe: Encyclopedia - Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson, June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was a twentieth-century movie star, sex symbol and pop icon. Known for her comedic skills and remarkable screen presence, many now consider her a legendary screen actress.

Marilyn Monroe - Early life

Marilyn Monroe was born on June 1, 1926 in the charity ward of the Los Angeles County Hospital. Her registered name was Norma Jeane Mortenson, but her grandmother, Della Monroe Grainger, later had her baptized as Norma Jeane Baker. For a while most biographers believed her biological father was very likely to be Charles Stanley Gifford, a salesman for the studio where Monroe's mother, the late Gladys Pearl Monroe Baker Eley, worked as a film-cutter. However her birth certificate lists Norwegian Martin Edward Mortenson as her biological father, and in later years some biographers have leaned towards believing that the birth certificate is telling the truth.

Gladys was unable to persuade her mother Della to look after the baby Marilyn, so Marilyn was placed with foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender of Hawthorne, California, southwest of Los Angeles, where she lived until she was seven years old. In her autobiography My Story, Monroe states she thought Albert and Ida were her biological parents until one day, rather rudely, Ida corrected her. Monroe's book, however, has not been considered a reliable source as it was ghostwritten by Ben Hecht and used as a publicity vehicle. After Monroe's death, Ida claimed that she and Albert had considered adopting her, for which they would have needed her mother Gladys' consent.

Again according to My Story, Gladys visited Norma Jeane every Saturday, but never smiled, hugged or kissed her. At some point, Gladys announced that she had bought a house for herself and her daughter, but a few months after they moved in, she suffered a mental breakdown. Marilyn recalled Gladys "screaming and laughing" as she was forcibly removed to the State Mental Hospital in Norwalk, California, the same hospital where Gladys' mother Della had died in August 1927. Gladys' father, Otis, had also died in a mental hospital (near San Bernardino, California) as a result of syphilis.

Consequently Norma Jeane was declared a ward of state and Gladys' best friend, Grace McKee (later Goddard) became her guardian. After Grace married in 1935, Norma Jeane was sent to the Los Angeles orphanage and then to a long succession of foster homes where it is alleged she was subjected to abuse and neglect. There is little evidence, however, that she lived in as many foster homes as has sometimes been claimed and Monroe herself is known to have given exaggerated information about her childhood during interviews.

In September 1941, Marilyn was reunited with her mother. The Goddard family, however, were moving to the East Coast and felt it would be best if the fifteen-year old Norma Jeane were to marry, as otherwise she would have to return to the orphanage. She had been introduced to a neighbor's son, James Dougherty, who would become her first husband.

Marilyn Monroe - Career

While her husband was away fighting in the Second World War, the young Norma Jeane began work in a factory spraying airplane parts with fire retardant. A young army photographer, David Conover, on the orders of his superior officer, Ronald Reagan, scouted local factories taking photos of pretty girls to boost soldier morale. He immediately saw her potential as a model and she was soon signed by The Blue Book modelling agency. She became one of their most successful models, appearing on hundreds of magazine covers. In 1946 she came to the attention of talent scout Ben Lyon who arranged a screen test for her with 20th Century Fox. She passed and was offered a standard six-month contract with a starting salary of $75 per week. She was given the name Marilyn after the actress Marilyn Miller and suggested her mother's maiden name Monroe as her surname. Thus the twenty-year old Norma Jeane Baker became "Marilyn Monroe".

During her first six months at 20th Century Fox, Monroe was given no acting work but instead learned about hair, make-up, costumes, acting and lighting. After six months Fox decided to renew her contract and in the following six months she was given minor roles in two movies, Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! and Dangerous Years, both released in 1947. Both films failed at the box office and Fox decided not to renew her contract again. Monroe returned to modelling work and began to network and make contacts in Hollywood. In 1948 a six-month stint at Columbia Pictures saw her star in one movie, Ladies of the Chorus, but it was not a success and she was dropped. She then met one of Hollywood's top agents, Johnny Hyde, who had Fox re-sign her after MGM had turned her down. Fox Vice-President Darryl F. Zanuck was not convinced of Monroe's star potential, claiming her voice was squeaky, her nose bulbous and fat, and she was completely unphotogenic. However, due to Hyde's persistence, she gained small roles in All About Eve and The Asphalt Jungle. Those two very minor roles, movie-goers took notice and Monroe began receiving more fan mail than the top-billed actresses at that time.

Monroe played her first role as a leading lady (excluding Ladies of the Chorus) in Don't Bother To Knock, portraying a deranged babysitter who, in a rage, attacks the little girl in her care. Although it received mixed reviews, Monroe later claimed it to be one of her favorite performances. Her performance in the film has later been acknowledged as one of the strongest of her career by many critics, such as Donald Spoto.

Her performance in Niagara (1953), however, left little doubt about her on-screen sex appeal. In this picture, she played the character of an easy virtue, a troubled and misbehaving Rose Loomis who is planning to murder her equally unbalanced husband. The film was designed to highlight Monroe's face and body and to establish her as a major movie star, and the plan worked.

It was around this time that nude photos of Monroe began to surface, taken by photographer Tom Kelley when she had been struggling for work. Prints were bought by Hugh Hefner and in December 1953 appeared in the first edition of his new magazine, Playboy. To a journalist asking what she had on during the photoshoot, she famously replied: "The radio!" To a journalist asking what she wore in bed, she famously replied: "Chanel No. 5!" Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, together with Niagara, both released in 1953, catapulted Monroe into A-list status and she quickly became the world's biggest movie star. In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a camp musical which in many ways was exceptionally daring for its times, is now regarded as one of the best comedies ever by many critics, and Monroe's turn as the gold-digging showgirl Lorelei Lee is generally considered to be one of her most alluring on-screen efforts. Her rendition of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" is among the best-known scenes in Monroe's career.

In How to Marry a Millionaire, Monroe played a short-sighted dumb blonde named Pola Debevoise. Even though the role was in many ways a stereotype, Monroe garnered favorable reviews, and for the first time in her career, critics noticed her comedic timing.

Her next two films, River of No Return and [[There's No Business L

Marilyn Monroe - Marriages

Marilyn Monroe - James Dougherty

Aged sixteen, Monroe married James Dougherty on June 19, 1942. In the books The Secret Happiness of Marilyn Monroe and To Norma Jeane With Love, Jimmie, Dougherty claimed that he and Monroe were in love and would have lived happily ever after had dreams of stardom not lured her away. Monroe, however, always maintained that the marriage was a marriage of convenience foisted upon them by her foster mother Grace Goddard. Marilyn divorced James Dougherty on September 13, 1946.

In the 2004 documentary Marilyn's Man, Dougherty made three significant claims: that it was he who had invented the "Marilyn Monroe" persona; that Fox had forced her to divorce him; and that she had always yearned to return to him. To date, however, no evidence to support these claims has been published, nor any evidence that Monroe and Dougherty remained in touch after their divorce. Monroe was reportedly furious when Dougherty gave an interview to the fan magazine Photoplay in 1953 and claimed that she had threatened to jump off the Santa Monica Pier if he ever left her. Later he later appeared as a contestant on the gameshow To Tell the Truth as "Marilyn Monroe's real first husband".

Dougherty's own actions did not support his claims of being Monroe's Svengali, nor her only true love. He remarried only a few months after Monroe divorced him; when informed of her death, the New York Times reported that he had simply said "I'm sorry" and continued his LAPD patrol; and he did not attend her funeral. In an interview for the A&E Network, Dougherty admitted that his mother had been approached by Grace Goddard and afterward had asked him if he'd be willing to marry Norma Jeane to prevent her from being sent to an orphanage.

James Dougherty remained married to his third wife until her death in 2003. He lived in Maine until his own death from complications due to leukemia on August 15, 2005.

Marilyn Monroe - Joe DiMaggio

In 1951 the baseball star Joe DiMaggio saw a picture of Monroe with two Chicago White Sox players, but waited until his retirement from baseball before asking the man who arranged the picture to set up a date. At first Monroe did not want to meet Dimaggio, fearing a stereotypical jock, but after a two-year courtship they eloped and married at San Francisco's City Hall on January 14, 1954. During the couple's honeymoon, Marilyn was asked to take a detour to Korea to entertain the troops. She performed ten shows over a four day tour in freezing temperatures. Her audience consisted of more than 100,000 soldiers and marines.

Unfortunately the marriage would quickly prove to be undermined by DiMaggio's jealousy over Monroe's overtly sexual image. Although they both claimed to want to settle down, Monroe wanted to perfect her acting skills. Friends claimed that Joe became possessive and controlling as Marilyn became more and more defiant of his wishes. After filming the notorious skirt-blowing scene in The Seven Year Itch, for example, director Billy Wilder recalled the "look of death" on DiMaggio's face as he watched alongside fans and extras as her panties were revealed over and over again. Marilyn's makeup man, Allan "Whitey" Snyder, also recalled that soon after the skirt scene, Marilyn appeared on set with bruises on her upper arms. Furthermore, DiMaggio's biographer Richard Ben Cramer claims that DiMaggio was so "disgusted" by Monroe's "sloppiness" that he began to abuse her. On October 27, 1954, 274 days after their marriage, Monroe was pressured by 20th Century Fox to obtain a divorce from DiMaggio on the grounds of mental cruelty. Strangely enough, on her 29th birthday, DiMaggio escorted Monroe to the opening of the movie that essentially ended their marriage.

Soon after her divorce from her third husband, Arthur Miller, Monroe returned to her self-destructive ways, falling in with people he felt detrimental to her (including Frank Sinatra and his "Rat Pack"). Rumors about Monroe's physical and mental health became widely publicized by newspapers and gossip columnists. Monroe's psychiatrist arranged for her to be admitted to the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic in Manhattan. Unable to voluntarily check herself out, Monroe called DiMaggio to rescue her. On February 10, 1961, DiMaggio secured Monroe's release (she was reportedly placed in the ward for the most seriously disturbed). She later joined him in Florida. Their "just good friends" claims did not stop rumors of remarriage and during the 1960 Academy Awards telecast entertainer Bob Hope even dedicated Best Song nominee The Second Time Around to them. According to DiMaggio biographer Maury Allen, on August 1, 1962 DiMaggio quit his job with a military post exchange (PX) to return to California and ask Monroe to remarry him.

Monroe was found dead on August 5, 1962 in her small Brentwood Home. One of the last people she spoke to hours before her death, was Joe DiMaggio's son, Joseph DiMaggio Jr. Joe Jr. claimed Monroe was in a great mood, very up-beat and thrilled when he told her he had called off his engagement after a long troubled relationship. He was in disbelief when he learned Monroe had died hours later.

Monroe's half-sister Berniece Baker Miracle, allowed an inconsolable and grief-stricken DiMaggio to make all arrangements. Devastated, he claimed her body, and arranged her funeral. At DiMaggio's request, the public and Hollywood elite were denied entrance. DiMaggio said, "Tell them, if it wasn't for them, she'd still be here." He was reported by the New York Times to have knelt beside her casket whispering over and over, "I love you."

For more than twenty years, DiMaggio had a dozen red roses delivered to Monroe's crypt three times a week. Much to his annoyance, many of Monroe's fans stole the roses from her crypt, stained the pink marble with their lip prints, and turned her grave into a Hollywood attraction. Unlike her other two husbands, or the men who have claimed to know her intimately, he never talked about her publicly.

In the 1970's and '80s, DiMaggio was well known as a television pitchman for Mr. Coffee automatic coffeemakers. He never remarried. He died on March 8, 1999, a victim of cancer. His son, Joseph Jr. died a few months later.

Marilyn Monroe - Arthur Miller

On June 29, 1956, Monroe married the playwright Arthur Miller, whom she had first met in 1951, in a civil ceremony. A Jewish ceremony followed two days later, prior to which Monroe had converted to Judaism. After she had finished shooting The Prince and the Showgirl, Monroe and Miller returned to the States from England and discovered she was pregnant. However, Monroe suffered from endometriosis and the pregnancy was found to be ectopic, so it was aborted in order to save her life. A subsequent pregnancy ended in miscarriage.

By 1958, Monroe was the couple's main breadwinner. Not only did she pay alimony to Miller's first wife but Miller reportedly charged her production company for buying and shipping a Jaguar car to the United States. His script for the film The Misfits was meant to be a Valentine gift, but by the time filming started in 1960 their marriage was broken beyond repair. A Mexican divorce was granted on January 24, 1961 and on February 17 Miller married the German-born Inge Morath, one of the Magnum photographers recording the making of The Misfits.

In January 1964, Miller's After the Fall opened, featuring a beautiful, child-like, yet devouring shrew named Maggie. The similarities between Maggie and Marilyn did not go unnoticed by audiences and critics, many of which sympathized with the fact that Monroe could not defend herself to such a portrayal. Miller's last Broadway-bound work before his death, Finishing the Picture, was based on the making of The Misfits, Marilyn's last movie, and again painted a similar portrait of Monroe. Arthur Miller died on February 10, 2005 at the age of 89.

Marilyn Monroe - Death and aftermath

Monroe was found dead in the bedroom of her Brentwood, California home on August 5, 1962, by her live-in housekeeper Mrs. Eunice Murray. She was thirty-six. Her death was apparently caused by an overdose of barbiturates, although as with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, several theories have sprung up around the circumstances. Most try to make a case for murder due to her connection with the Kennedy family (John F. Kennedy in particular) and there has also been speculation about the relationship between Mrs. Murray, Monroe's psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson – who hired Mrs. Murray – and Monroe's personal publicist, Pat Newcomb, who joined the Kennedy administration a few months after Monroe's death. Suspicion also arises in the fact that up to 4 hours passed between the discovery of her body by her housekeeper, and the phone call to the Los Angeles Police Department. Murder theorists also point to the oddity that Monroe left behind no suicide note as well as the statements made by the first officer on the scene, Jack Clemmons that what he encountered that morning was, "unlike any other suicide scene."

DiMaggio planned Marilyn's funeral, and exclusively excluded all he deemed morally responsible for her death. Her long-time makeup man, Whitey Snyder, prepared her face for her last appearance, a promise he had made her if she were to go before him. She was put in her favorite green Emilio Pucci dress and held a small boquet of pink teacup roses. The service was held at the Westwood Memorial Park Chapel in Hollywood, and only 30 people were in attendance. Marilyn's acting coach, Lee Strasberg, delivered her eulogy, and Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow" played.

Monroe was interred in a pink marble crypt at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Los Angeles. This is the cemetery where her foster mother Grace Goddard's aunt was buried and where Monroe in turn had arranged for Grace to be buried.

Gladys, Monroe's biological mother, had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic and between periods in mental hospitals had married her last husband, John Stewart Eley. He died in 1952. In the early 1970s she walked out of a sanitorium and flew to Florida, where her daughter, Monroe's half-sister, Berniece Miracle met her at the airport. She died on March 11, 1984 at a Florida nursing home, refusing to the end to discuss either Norma Jeane or Marilyn Monroe.

Currently, (as of 2005) Monroe's half-sister Berniece Miracle and niece Mona Rae reside in Florida. She published a book in the 90's about her relationship with Monroe titled, "My Sister Marilyn".

A formal reinvestigation in 1982 by the Los Angeles County District Attorney uncovered no evidence of foul play in Monroe's death, but concluded that the original investigation into her death had not been conducted properly. The officers that arrived at her home had failed to secure the crime scene, people came and went about the house, possibly contaminating or destroying evidence. The reinvestigation also made known that all lab work, tissue samples, and test results from the Monroe autopsy disappeared from the LA County Cornoner's Office immediately after the official ruling had been made public in 1962. County coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi, who conducted the autopsy, claims that misplacement of samples has never happened in another case before or since. The autopsy report also suggests that Monroe's body may have been moved after death as lavidity had sat in different parts of her body at different times. In his memoir Coroner, he also states that it was "highly likely" that Monroe's death was suicide. He concedes, however, that no trace of the barbiturates Monroe purportedly took were found in her mouth, stomach or intestines. This has led some theorists to suggest that Monroe had been rendered unconscious (for instance via chloral hydrate) and the overdose administered by intravenous injection, or, more likely, by rectal suppository.

On August 5, 2005 the Los Angeles Times published an account of Monroe's death by former Los Angeles County prosecutor John W. Miner, who had been present at Monroe's autopsy. It also published his claim that notes he had taken from tapes supposedly recorded by Monroe for Dr. Greenson shortly before her death indicated that she was not suicidal. The tapes themselves, however, remain lost or destroyed, so there would seem to be no way to verify Miner's story.

Marilyn Monroe - Miscellaneous

• The town of Haugesund, Norway, birthplace of Monroe's probable biological father Martin Edward Mortenson, has a lifesize statue of Marilyn Monroe.
• Childhood pictures show that Marilyn was born a blonde, but her hair turned "mousy" brown as she grew up. She dyed her hair several different shades of blonde as an adult.
• The 1973 song Candle in the Wind, written by Bernie Taupin and performed by Elton John, was originally about Monroe. In 1997 Elton John revised the lyrics before performing the song at Diana, Princess of Wales' funeral.
• James Cunningham outlined Monroe's life in his 1974 song Norma Jean Wants To Be A Movie Star.
• Unlikely Monroe fans included Albert Einstein, Ayn Rand, Jean-Paul Sartre, Edith Sitwell and (perhaps less unlikely) Vladimir Nabokov.
• Actor Colin Farrell has admitted that as a child he would put sweets under his pillow for Monroe when she came down to visit him from heaven.
• When Prince Rainier III of Monaco was looking for a famous wife to marry, Monroe was suggested. However, since he was a devout Catholic, the oft-married, non-Catholic and somewhat scandalous Monroe could not have been a possibility. Instead, Rainier married Grace Kelly.
• Monroe's features are copyrighted to her estate and are not allowed to be reproduced exactly.
• Monroe had a mild stutter, which was most severe during her teens. She commented in an interview, "I stuttered... Later on, in my teens, when I was at Van Nuys High School, they elected me secretary of the English class and every time I had to read the minutes I'd say, 'Minutes of the last m-m-m-meeting.' It was terrible." [1]
• Her first screen test was shot by legendary cinematographer Leon Shamroy.
• Hugh Hefner bought a crypt next to Monroe's for $85,000. The other crypt next to hers was sold for $125,000. There are no empty spots available near Monroe.
• The myth that Monroe was born with six toes resulted from the publication of photos taken by Joseph Jasgur in March 1946 and published in The Birth of Marilyn: The Lost Photographs of Norma Jean by Jasgur and Jeannie Sakol. Two pictures can be interpreted as showing six toes, although they can be explained as tricks of light. Other photos taken by Jasgur that very day show her bare feet with 5 toes on each foot. And there are numerous baby photos of a bare foot Norma Jeane clearly showing no more than 10 toes. The story is commonly dismissed as an urban legend. [2]
• Monroe was named Miss Artichoke in 1948.
• As bystanders could see a little bit too much, Monroe had to wear two pairs of white underwear under her famous white dress for the "subway grate" scene in The Seven Year Itch. Ultimately the scene was reshot back at the Fox studios, since the crowds proved too distracting.
• Director Billy Wilder, who made The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot with Monroe, said she had breasts like granite and a brain like Swiss cheese. However, Wilder also said Monroe was a genius, so one could call their relationship somewhat on/off.
• Monroe was once a roommate of actress Shelley Winters.
• Monroe was said to be quite intelligent, although it was hidden behind her image as a dumb blonde with beautiful features. She wrote poems, enjoyed literature and always regretted never continuing high school.
• Celebrity photographer George Barris claims he took the last pictures of Monroe. However, it was Allan Grant who took the last pictures of Monroe, during an interview for Life magazine on July 7, 1962.
• Among the men Monroe allegedly had affairs with were: President John F. Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, and Yves Montand. It has also been claimed she had a one-night stand with Joan Crawford.
• Frank Sinatra gave her a Maltese puppy that she named "Maf Honey". The "Maf" was supposedly short for "Mafia".
• Contrary to some opinion, the beauty mark above her lip was genuine. It was a very pale mole that she darkened with makeup. [3]
• Author Truman Capote wanted her to play the part of Holly Golightly in the film adaptation of his book Breakfast At Tiffany's. The role eventually went to Audrey Hepburn.
• Monroe was voted "Sexiest Woman of the Century" by People magazine in 1999.
• Her likeness appears on the sleeve of The Beatles LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Monroe purportedly shaved a quarter of an inch off many of her right high-heeled shoes to accentuate the wiggle in her walk.
• The diamonds she wore as she performed Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend were not really diamonds, but rhinestones.

• 1947: Dangerous Years
• 1948: Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! ; Ladies of the Chorus
• 1949: Love Happy
• 1950: A Ticket to Tomahawk ; The Asphalt Jungle ; The Fireball ; All About Eve ; Right Cross
• 1951: Home Town Story ; As Young as You Feel ; Love Nest ; Let's Make It Legal
• 1952: Clash by Night ; We're Not Married! ; Don't Bother to Knock ; Monkey Business ; O. Henry's Full House
• 1953: Niagara ; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ; How to Marry a Millionaire
• 1954: River of No Return ; There's No Business Like Show Business
• 1955: The Seven Year Itch
• 1956: Bus Stop
• 1957: The Prince and the Showgirl ¹
• 1959: Some Like It Hot
• 1960: Let's Make Love
• 1961: The Misfits
• 1962: Something's Got to Give (unfinished)

¹ Monroe also credited as Executive producer.

Marilyn Monroe - Awards and nominations

• 1952 Photoplay Award: Special Award
• 1953 Photoplay Award: Most Popular Female Star
• 1954 Golden Globe, World Film Favorite: Female
• 1956 BAFTA Film Award nomination: Best Foreign Actress (for The Seven Year Itch)
• 1956 Golden Globe nomination: Best Motion Picture Actress in Comedy or Musical (for Bus Stop)
• 1958 BAFTA Film Award nomination: Best Foreign Actress (for The Prince and the Showgirl)
• 1958 Golden Laurel Awards: The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) Top Female Comedy Performance (4th place)
• 1958 Golden Laurel Awards — Top Female Star (14th place)
• 1958 David di Donatello Award (Italian): Golden Plate (for The Prince and the Showgirl)
• 1959 Crystal Star Award (French): Best Foreign Actress (for The Prince and the Showgirl)
• 1959 Golden Laurel Awards — Top Female Star (6th place)
• 1960 Golden Laurel Awards — Top Female Star (6th place)
• 1960 Golden Globe, Best Motion Picture Actress in Comedy or Musical (for Some Like It Hot)
• 1960 Golden Laurel Awards: Some Like It Hot (1959) Top Female Comedy Performance (2nd place)
• 1961 Golden Laurel Awards — Top Female Star (10th place)
• 1962 Golden Laurel Awards — Top Female Star (10th place)
• 1962 Golden Globe, World Film Favorite: Female

Monroe has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6104 Hollywood Blvd.

Marilyn Monroe - Marilyn Monroe in popular culture

• The music video for Madonna's Material Girl is a copy of Monroe's Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend number from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
• Blonde is the title of the popular novel published in 2000 by the prolific writer Joyce Carol Oates. Blonde is an extremely fictionalized account of Norma Jean Baker/Marilyn Monroe's life.
• The Misfits took their moniker from Marilyn's last completed movie The Misfits.
• Glenn Danzig wrote and recorded a song called Who Killed Marilyn? which was released on August 5, 1981 as a 7" single. The Misfits also recorded the song on several occasions.
• The band Sonic Youth wrote a song called "Sugar Kane", named after Marilyn's character in Some Like It Hot.
• Marilyn Manson took his first name as an homage to her enduring popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
• In the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction a Monroe impersonator (Susan Griffiths) appears in a scene and is seen to be emulating the famous "subway grate" scene from The Seven Year Itch.
• In her video for Cool, Gwen Stefani is made-up like a late-1950s Monroe.
• In the music video for Nelly's song Tilt ya head back featuring Christina Aguilera, Aguilera is dressed like Monroe in Some Like It Hot.
• A computer-generated representation of Monroe can be found in the highly popular computer game The Sims: Superstar.
• The 1985 single Some Like It Hot by The Power Station took its title from the film Some Like It Hot.
• Mariah Carey bought Marilyn's white baby grand piano -which had originally belonged to Marilyn's mother- for a whopping $663,000.00 in 1999.
• Anna Nicole Smith rented the home Monroe died in for a few months in the early to mid-90's.

• Marie Claire printed a photograph of her in their September 2002 issue in which she was visiting American troops in the 1950s and wearing a bomber jacket. They wrote that she had "made even military-issue jackets sexy."
• The flesh colored rhinestone encrusted gown Monroe wore to sing happy birthday to President John F. Kennedy sold in 1999 for over $1,500,000.00.

Marilyn Monroe - Depictions/Movie References

Marilyn Monroe - Films

• Goodbye, Norma Jean (1976)
• Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn (1989)
• Pulp Fiction (1994) (A Monroe look-a-like is a waitress in a 50's themed restaurant.)
• Death Becomes Her (1992) (Party scene shows Monroe talking to Andy Warhol.)
• Fade to Black (A girl who looks like Monroe is stalked by an obsessed fan.)
• Calendar Girl (Three young men persue a date with Monroe in the summer of 1962.)
• Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (Three drag queens steal a classic car, one of them is Monroe.)
• Holy Matrimony (A carnival performer impersonates Monroe in her act.)
• Cool World
• Wonder Boys (A collector has the wedding suit Monroe wore to marry DiMaggio in 1954.)
• Just a Dream (A young boy meets Monroe in Nevada while she's filming The Misfits.)
• Bordello of Blood (Vampire seductress takes the form of Monroe.)
• Finding Graceland (A Monroe impersonator meets up with a man who believes he is Elvis.)

Marilyn Monroe - Television

• Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996, HBO miniseries)
• Quantum Leap (season 5) (Sam leaps into the body of Monroe's personal driver.)
• The Rat Pack
• Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
• Curb Your Enthusiasm (Larry meets Marilyn Monroe in Heaven.)
• Marilyn and Me (A man has a secret relationship with Marilyn Monroe.)
• Blonde (Fictionalized biography of Monroe's life and career.)
• Growing Pains, Season 6, Episode 7. (Halloween episode in which Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, Colonel Sanders, Liberace and Truman Capote are patrons of a restaurant of the deceased.)
• Lizzie McGuire (season 2) (Lizzie and Miranda are watching a scene of Some Like It Hot at the high school cinema club.)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Marilyn Monroe", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki