Authors: Adela Gregory
Crypt 33 (23 page)
As Christmas approached, Marilyn thought a shopping spree in Manhattan might provide a temporary respite from her obsession with death and desertion. But instead, when she saw so many people happily hugging and buying gifts for loved ones, she became more despondent. With no family of her own, Marilyn cried lonely tears, while everyone around her appeared to be enjoying the season. Empty-handed, she returned to her apartment considering ending her life. With nothing to look forward to, she found herself again eyeing the window and thinking of escape.
With Joe DiMaggio her immediate solution, she called and talked at length. Just knowing he was around was enough to make her smile again. After their phone conversation she confessed to Lena that she couldn't imagine committing suicide, asking, “How could I have been so crazy?”
After Marilyn's brush with wishing herself dead, Lena relayed her concern to May Reis. The consensus, especially after consulting with her attorney Aaron Frosch, was that she should get her affairs in order and draw up a will. Frosch would be the executor, her half-sister Bernice Baker Miracle and May Reis would be heirs, each receiving ten thousand dollars. Twenty-five percent of her estate would go to Dr. Marianne Kris to benefit the Hamptonstead Child Therapy Clinic in London. The Rostens were bequeathed five thousand dollars. The surprise was that Lee Strasberg would receive the balance of the estate, including Marilyn's personal effects. Attorney Frosch would supervise a trust for her mother's care as well. Marilyn reluctantly acquiesced to the will even though she thought it was “creepy.” She wanted a will she could change, and her preliminary choices didn't mean much to the actress. She figured she could change her mind about any of it at some later day. Joking nervously about her attraction to the window, Monroe reminded her maid to “keep the windows closed,” just in case she was ever tempted again.
Joe DiMaggio again became her lifesaver, and they resumed seeing each other frequently. Dressed in an elegant suit and taking the service elevator so as to not draw attention, DiMaggio would typically arrive after dinner with gifts and flowers, stay the night, then leave early the next morning before May Reis would show up. What a comfort it was for Marilyn's staff to know how content she was with Joe. A simple hello and the touch of his powerful steady arm around the woman he loved provided better therapy than any psychiatrist ever could. Marilyn appreciated the love of a man who could never be bought and paid for. Instead of lonely nights, a joyless marriage, and unending cold silence with Miller, the apartment now came alive. Even New Year's Eve for the Millers had always been depressing. December 31, 1960, was different, however. Marilyn had her cook prepare a special holiday dinner for the formerly married lovers. DiMaggio and Monroe dined on spaghetti with sweet Italian sausages. After dinner, Marilyn and Joe happily kissed and toasted their chef. For working late on New Year's Eve, Lena was generously tipped and left the two in each other's arms to usher in 1961.
When Lena returned the following morning, she prepared breakfast, noticing Marilyn and Joe still holding hands and calling each other “darling,” so unlike mealtimes with the Millers. In seventh heaven, both seemed completely serene and satisfied. Marilyn dared to confront Joe about making a commitment to marriage again. But to the Yankee Clipper, love was one thing and marriage another. His answer was, “Your career is killing you, and I want no part of it or Hollywood.” Only if she quit and stuck with him would it work. As adamant and stubborn as he was, Marilyn still wanted to marry him and prayed he would change his mind, wishing she were less stubborn about her own career. As long as DiMaggio continued to be around to pick up the pieces, Marilyn was patient and content to wait.
But Marilyn had clearly not resolved her marriage to Miller. By intensifying her relationship with DiMaggio, the actress was merely avoiding other problems and conveniently sweeping the recent losses of Miller and Gable under the carpet.
With a vast array of scripts coming in, Marilyn was pleased that her performance in
The Misfits
had been acclaimed. She was still a hot property, and the calls enticing her into one project or another continued. Even if
The Misfits
did not succeed at the box office, it would not faze Monroe. She was still in demand for lead roles, and with Joe by her side, she finally felt confident enough to file for divorce from her estranged husband.
The Misfits
had been acclaimed. She was still a hot property, and the calls enticing her into one project or another continued. Even if
The Misfits
did not succeed at the box office, it would not faze Monroe. She was still in demand for lead roles, and with Joe by her side, she finally felt confident enough to file for divorce from her estranged husband.
John Springer, from the Arthur Jacobs Agency, and his assistant, Pat Newcomb, along with Aaron Frosch, persuaded Marilyn to divorce Miller on the day the press would be busy covering John F Kennedy's inauguration. Marilyn and her crew flew into Dallas, Texas, then on to Juarez, Mexico, for a quickie divorce. Marilyn did not want to go to Reno, having just finished a film about a divorce there. She didn't want to go to Las Vegas, where years before she had divorced Dougherty, so Mexico was the choice. On a stopover, the foursome caught the momentous occasion of John Fitzgerald Kennedy's becoming President. Besieged by mostly European press, Marilyn deflected questions having more to do with her “involvement” with Montand than with Miller. Judge Miguel Gomez Guerra granted her a divorce on January 20, 1961, stating “incompatibility of character” as the reason.
Marilyn felt confident again as she flew back to New York, but her good spirits were suddenly dashed when she learned Arthur's mother had died. Mrs. Miller had treated Marilyn more like a daughter than a daughter-in-law She had practically begged Marilyn to give the marriage with her son another try, but Marilyn refused her pleas. One more death, this time of a woman who had come to represent her long-lost mother, was another blow. Monroe called DiMaggio, but he was in Florida on business and couldn't be reached. Having been increasingly intimate with DiMaggio over the last year, she had become dependent on him, too. His unavailability served only to renew her sense of abandonment. With her condition so fragile and still grieving for Clark Gable, her separation from Arthur, and then the sudden death of her ex-husband's mother, Joe couldn't fathom how to console her. His absence was a statement: he didn't want her to be constantly dependent upon him. Overcome by still another abandonment, her total collapse was almost inevitable. Neither reason nor understanding could calm her. As a result, her sleeping-pill dosage had to be increased. More sleepless nights, more barbiturates, more drinking, and her own preexisting frailties, were a disastrous combination.
By early February, Marilyn's anxieties had intensified to a level that caused her psychiatrist grave concern. In the throes of a nervous breakdown, she needed round-the-clock care, which her home life could not provide. One of her psychiatrists committed her patient to a sanitarium just ten blocks from Marilyn's apartment near the East River. But the bars and cell-like accommodations at the Payne Whitney Clinic were not what Marilyn had bargained for. In a panic and with a resurgence of anger over her mother's confinement, she made pleas to Lee Strasberg for rescue.
Dr. Kris has put me into the hospital... under the care of two idiot doctors. They both should not be my doctors. You haven't heard from me because I'm locked up with all these poor, nutty people. I'm sure to end up a nut if I stay in this nightmare. Please help me, Lee, this is the last place I should beâmaybe if you call Dr. Kris and assure her of my sensitivity and that I must get back to class so I'll be better prepared.... Lee, I try to remember what you said once in class, that “art goes far beyond the science.” Please help me. If Dr. Kris assures you that I am all rightâassure her I do not belong here! Marilyn. P.S. I'm on the dangerous floor. It's like a cell. ”
Neither Dr. Kris nor Strasberg acted to remove Marilyn from confinement. But Joe DiMaggio knew what his ex-wife neededâconstant love, especially in view of her debilitating series of separations. When Marilyn finally contacted Joe in Florida, he boarded the first flight out, secured her release, and placed her in a more suitable environment for rest. By the end of February, Marilyn was transferred from Payne Whitney to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where she stayed until mid-March.
She complained bitterly after her release about how much Payne Whitney was like a prison with bars, steel doors, and padded cells. She would stress, “The place was for real ânuts,'” the kind her mother was and the kind she was afraid she might become. The actress repeatedly thanked God for Joe's rescue. Since her mother and grandmother had been diagnosed with serious psychiatric disorders and been institutionalized, Kris automatically presumed that confining Miss Monroe was completely justified. Marilyn had simply inherited her mental illness. The insecure actress was not about to accept the diagnosis that she had been cursed with irreversible madness. She preferred Joe's remedyâunconditional love.
But even Columbia Presbyterian was sterile and impersonal, and Lena had a difficult time locating the actress's room. Her housekeeper's cherished dishes, including chicken soup, pasta, and chocolate pudding, helped to cheer up the ailing patient. Though pale and exhausted, Marilyn was surrounded by dozens of floral arrangements. Joe's love and attention made it possible for her to detox from the addictive sedatives. Her doctors slowly diminished the doses until Marilyn was gradually sleeping without barbiturates. Lena continued visiting, bringing a variety of gifts, from homemade foods to pretty nightgowns. Marilyn announced to her that she had finally experienced a full night's sleep without pills and nightmares. With Joe's constant attention and trusty strong arm to lean on, she slowly recuperated.
Knowing that Miller had taken their dog, Hugo, as part of the divorce settlement (Marilyn kept the apartment while Miller kept the recently remodeled Connecticut home) and always having a good heart, Frank Sinatra wasted no time in giving her a white French poodle, as a token of his affection. Convinced that Sinatra's friends looked like gangsters, and against his wish, Marilyn called the dog “Maf,” short for Mafia. Ultimately, Frank sportingly accepted Marilyn's name choice, even if it did embarrass him a little.
DiMaggio continued seeing Monroe, but due to his ongoing commitment with the Yankees for openings and appearances, he could not spend as much time with his ex-wife as she wanted him to. She longed to be closer to him, perhaps moving in for a while until her life got back on track, she rationalized. But the reality was that she wanted marriage. Though she thought he would eventually change his requirements, he didn't. He would remain her best friend and lover, but no more.
Fortunately for Marilyn at this time, her half sister, Bernice, came into her life. Mrs. Bernice Miracle and her husband had been living a quiet life in Gainesville, Florida. Like Marilyn, she had also been separated from her birth mother, only at a younger age. Still a youngster when her father fled with her and her brother (who would soon die) out of state, Bernice barely remembered any contact with her mother. Marilyn and she had their whole lives to catch up on. Initially Marilyn suspected Bernice was trying to cash in on her fame. But she soon realized Mrs. Miracle's intentions were sincere. Actually it was her fame that allowed Bernice to find Marilyn in the first place. Soon, getting to know and love her only other family (other than their institutionalized “dead” mother) became the superstar's highest priority.
The actress gave Bernice and her husband a whirlwind tour of New York City. Putting them up in an expensive hotel with a chauffeur to tour the Big Apple, she even set her sister up with all the privileges of stardom, including her very own Manhattan hairdresser, Kenneth. Recognizing some resemblance between the two, for fun Marilyn did her best to transform Bernice into her identical twin. Although Bernice was slightly shorter and trimmer, the two sisters did look remarkably alike. Still the glamour-queen makeover didn't quite gel with the more humble sister.
Disheartened by DiMaggio's inconsistency, Marilyn plunged into trying to establish a deep, lasting relationship with Bernice. Blood relatives had been virtually unknown to Marilyn. Though she continued sending substantial amounts of money to contribute to her mother's care, just thinking of her made the actress sad and depressed. Now, identifying with her “normal” sister, Marilyn could finally become grounded. She set out to elevate Bernice's standard of living, bestowing boundless energy, time, and money upon her. But the two felt uneasy discussing their mother. Both had been brutally separated as early adolescents, which resulted in permanent emotional damage. Neither had resolved her hurt and anger regarding their childhood feelings of betrayal by their parents. The fact that both women yearned so for their mother's love and affection drew them even closer together.
Grateful and appreciative of finding her “other half,” eventually Marilyn felt at ease and brought Bernice to the farm in Connecticut to show her the pleasures of a simpler life. Under the guise of retrieving her personal belongings, she, Bernice, and her masseur, Ralph Roberts, traveled to Miller's home. She bragged to her sister how she had helped turn the place into the gracious farm it was (of course with her own money). Marilyn purposely downplayed her glamorous image in order to demonstrate to her sister that she, too, was “down to earth.” She had bought additional lots to enhance the privacy and value of the home and, like the generous woman she was, Marilyn gave her interest in the property to Miller, but she had some regrets as she had enjoyed the solitude and quiet of Connecticut.
Miller was happy to receive the spoils of their marriage. With a large sum of money in the bank from
The Misfits,
he was able to “retire” in comfort. The remodeled house and expanded acreage made his property much more valuable as well. Living in financial security, he was still hoping for a movie career as a screenwriter, fantasizing that
The Misfits
would be respected as Academy Award fare.
The Misfits,
he was able to “retire” in comfort. The remodeled house and expanded acreage made his property much more valuable as well. Living in financial security, he was still hoping for a movie career as a screenwriter, fantasizing that
The Misfits
would be respected as Academy Award fare.
Other books
Watchstar by Pamela Sargent
The Silent Cry by Kenzaburo Oe
Dying Wishes by Judith K Ivie
Barbara Cleverly by The Last Kashmiri Rose
The Victorian Mystery Megapack by Various Writers
Illusions Complete Series by Annie Jocoby
Access Restricted by Alice Severin
Fortune's Journey by Bruce Coville
The Dead Play On by Heather Graham