Mo' MARILYN

“All I ever wanted out of life is to be nice to people and have them be nice to me. It’s a fair exchange and I’m a woman. I want to be loved by a man, from his heart, as I would love him from mine. I’ve tried, but it hasn’t happened yet.“ 

- Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe Personal Notes

Three pieces of paper torn from a telephone message pad with deeply personal musing in Monroe’s hand in pencil reading in part, “In a way I feel better when I feel terrible because at least I’m feeling something” and “Depression - it starts to depress me when I feel that I have exposed my truest feelings to people - I am afraid that they see through me - my faults and the fact that I am really a phoney who needs and wants admiration and love (I do not want to be like this - to depend on this need - its almost a form of being an ego maniac - I don’t really like my self…” One of the pages has “Oct. 15” written, but no year is indicated

Thought For The Day: it is entirely possible that Marilyn did so much to promote the wearing of jeans women might not have taken to wearing them at all? She loved the relaxed comfort and freedom they provided and prior to her wearing them women seen in them were largely home spun farm girls only. Never a fashion item until she started wearing them. Imagine today a world where women didn’t wear jeans!?

She was ahead of her time in many ways and you right her off as a dumb blonde at your peril! I liked her, (can you tell?). Avid reader, actor, writer of poetry, friend to intellectuals, troubled for sure, damaged by life’s circumstance and highly sensitive to the plight of others. Sexually interfered with at age 8 and raped at 11 we think, she struggled with relationships the rest of her adult life. Self medicated with alcohol and prescribed medicines into an early grave she suffered at least five miscarriages that we know of and unable to bear children, it was that which finished her relationships with most men. She suffered terribly from chronic dysmenorrhea. 

Despite all that she seemed to light up whenever company demanded and she could appear to actually be a source of light when being “her”, the legendary MM! The camera adored her. Women found her surprisingly warm and friendly at a time when the ‘bitch’ ruled and back stabbing competition amongst female stars was everything she was genuinely interested in her sisters.

“I like to have time for the things I do. I think that we’re rushing too much nowadays. That’s why people are nervous and unhappy—with their lives and with themselves. How can you do anything perfect under such conditions? Perfection takes time.” 

—Marilyn Monroe to Georges Belmont for Marie Claire.