- Dec 17, 2009
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Did anyone catch the docudrama about Marilyn Monroe last night? I think it was on HBO, but not for sure.
I didn't care for the format, but I did learn more about her than I knew. She had tried to start her own corporation, but I believe that the persona she had created stood in the way of her being a success. She did manage to get more money out of 20th Century Fox.
There were some journal entries about her psych hospital stay which I found interesting. Man, they were spot on. Institutional care is, IMO, only moderately better than it was in those days, but she nailed it when she talked of the staff asking her why she wasn't 'happy' there. WTF? Who could be happy in a psych hospital? They also expected her to 'interact' with the other patients, play checkers, cards, etc. Then the asked her why she thought she was so different from the others. She said she knew the staff wouldn't understand so she said, 'I just am.'
And her shrink wrote that when it came to movie stars the psychiatrist should get 'personally involved.' What a sleaze. And at that time Freudian theories had not yet been mostly discredited as they are today. She didn't have a chance once she got depressed.
Jo DiMaggio is probably the one who signed her death warrant, even though he is remembered as the one who 'claimed her body'. He went in and threatened to take the institution apart if they didn't let her go. It was documented that she was suicidal when she was discharged.
There was no mention of the Kennedys other than her bucking 20th Century Fox and singing for JFKs birthday.
I have some unlikely 'most admired.' I think Marilyn is making the list. They told how hard she worked once she signed on with Fox, singing lessons, dance lessons, work outs, college classes even though she dropped out of high school. I think she tried really hard, and being so young myself in that era, it is difficult to say whether I think she could have ever succeeded, or if her end was what was to be based on the times she lived in.
I didn't care for the format, but I did learn more about her than I knew. She had tried to start her own corporation, but I believe that the persona she had created stood in the way of her being a success. She did manage to get more money out of 20th Century Fox.
There were some journal entries about her psych hospital stay which I found interesting. Man, they were spot on. Institutional care is, IMO, only moderately better than it was in those days, but she nailed it when she talked of the staff asking her why she wasn't 'happy' there. WTF? Who could be happy in a psych hospital? They also expected her to 'interact' with the other patients, play checkers, cards, etc. Then the asked her why she thought she was so different from the others. She said she knew the staff wouldn't understand so she said, 'I just am.'
And her shrink wrote that when it came to movie stars the psychiatrist should get 'personally involved.' What a sleaze. And at that time Freudian theories had not yet been mostly discredited as they are today. She didn't have a chance once she got depressed.
Jo DiMaggio is probably the one who signed her death warrant, even though he is remembered as the one who 'claimed her body'. He went in and threatened to take the institution apart if they didn't let her go. It was documented that she was suicidal when she was discharged.
There was no mention of the Kennedys other than her bucking 20th Century Fox and singing for JFKs birthday.
I have some unlikely 'most admired.' I think Marilyn is making the list. They told how hard she worked once she signed on with Fox, singing lessons, dance lessons, work outs, college classes even though she dropped out of high school. I think she tried really hard, and being so young myself in that era, it is difficult to say whether I think she could have ever succeeded, or if her end was what was to be based on the times she lived in.
