Authors: Adela Gregory
Crypt 33 (27 page)
Back in Los Angeles, with the major players for
Something's Got to Give
in place, Marilyn gave her stamp of approval to George Cukor as director. His string of successes was impressive indeed. And she would be starring with two friends, Dean Martin and Wally Cox. Levathes had granted Marilyn carte blanche on this latest project. She was finally feeling her power and learning to actually enjoy it.
Something's Got to Give
in place, Marilyn gave her stamp of approval to George Cukor as director. His string of successes was impressive indeed. And she would be starring with two friends, Dean Martin and Wally Cox. Levathes had granted Marilyn carte blanche on this latest project. She was finally feeling her power and learning to actually enjoy it.
Ever aware of his increasing influence, Dr. Greenson deluded himself into believing that he was making much more progress with the actress than Dr. Kris ever had. Based on the certainty that increased self-esteem was what she most needed to combat her deep-rooted insecurities, his manipulation and interference violated all professional rules of conduct for a psychiatrist. At $50 an hour and $1500 monthly, Greenson was ensuring his future as well as the actress's.
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While slowly attempting to extricate the family from its involvement with the mafia, Joe repeatedly reminded JFK that the “mob should be working for you, not the other way around.”
The Kennedys now thought that their gradual disengagement from mob involvement would be more effective than a radical change in behavior. But Hoover was in charge. By February 27, 1962, the FBI director sent duplicate memos to Robert Kennedy and Kenny O'Donnell, a JFK devotee and appointments secretary, stating his concerns about Jack's mistress Judith Campbell being an associate of John Roselli and Sam Giancana. Hoover's well-placed wiretaps had picked up at least three phone calls to the White House. (Later on, White House logs would reveal that Campbell had telephoned the White House seventy times.) Still unaware of the Sinatra-Campbell connection, the attorney general grew alarmed and warned his brother. But Jack neither changed his attitude nor plans with his mistress Judy, or with Rosselli for that matter. JFK was a highly competitive, driven, and drugged man who did not comprehend that he was being set up.
On March 22, the FBI chief met with the President for a private White House luncheon. He must have threatened Kennedy, telling him of the secret FBI files on a former lover, Inga Arvad, an older woman who had been linked as a Nazi spy. Hoover obviously did not want his own office compromised by any evidence leaked to the press about JFK's Mafia ties, which in turn could lead to an investigation uncovering Hoover's own earlier “favors” to Joseph Kennedy. (During his bootlegging days, Joseph Kennedy had donated large sums of money to the J. Edgar Hoover Foundation, helping to secure cover for his own covert operations.) The credibility of both Hoover and JFK was in jeopardy, and Kennedy's political life was on the line.
With this menacing situation in mind, Jack phoned Judith from the White House for the last time. Just two days short of the President's planned vacation at Frank's Western White House and now threatened with exposure, Bobby made the fateful call to his brother-in-law Peter pleaded with Robert to change his mind, knowing of Frank's full-time preparations and the anger and possible retribution that would be forthcoming. Bobby refused his appeals. Peter frantically telephoned the President, but even Jack stood firm on the decision, explaining, “I can't stay there... while Bobby's handling the Giacana investigation. See if you could find somewhere else. As President I just can't stay at Frank's and sleep in the same bed that Giancana or any other hood slept in!” Obviously not privy to Jack and Sam's shared mistress, Peter reluctantly obeyed the President's command to handle the sudden change in plans. The Secret Service objections would make a good cover, so they agreed to give Frank the excuse. Even though Sinatra's home and grounds were immense, Peter used the lame excuse that it would not be as efficient for the Secret Service operations and that the President would end up staying at Bing Crosby's home while the house of Crosby's next-door neighbor, Jimmy Van Heusen, could act as headquarters for the Secret Service, thereby serving to protect the President better than Frank's Western White House.
Livid and especially angry that a Republican and former rival would end up the choice, the singer blamed Peter and called Bobby directly to complain. Bobby told Frank that for the sake of appearances, it would not be possible. Still enraged, Frank proceeded to sledgehammer the entire helicopter pad. Though Sinatra was told that the President had promised later to assuage Ol' Blue Eyes, the fiery singer continued venting his anger, calling Bobby Kennedy a hypocrite, by taking “hoodlum money and not taking their friendship.”
Peter quickly invited Marilyn Monroe to spend the weekend with the President. And Marilyn obliged. Waiting in the living room of her home, Peter paced the floor impatiently while Miss Monroe ran to Greenson's house to wash her hair because her plumbing had been disconnected. Lawford would serve as escort and chauffeur. For several hours, Kennedy and Marilyn lounged around Bing's house, drinking and kissing, with Kennedy fully dressed in a turtleneck and slacks and she in a robe. That evening, while the President was frolicking with the actress, JFK suggested that Peter call Sinatra to invite him to Bing's, ostensibly to apologize for the earlier decision. Sinatra declined to accept the left-handed invitation, saying that he had “friends” waiting for him in Los Angeles. Rumor had it that the “friends” referred to, in actuality, were none other than Jack Kennedy's former lover and Frank's former costar Angie Dickinson. Although at the time she was mum on her affair with the President, Angie would later remark that Frank complained bitterly, “If he would only pick up the telephone and call me and say it was politically difficult to have me around, I would understand. I don't want to hurt him. But he never has called.” Sinatra justified his rage without ever bad-mouthing the President, only Bobby Kennedy and Peter Lawford. It appeared that Jack had attempted a reconciliation with Sinatra against his brother Bobby's wishes. Aside from flirting with political disaster, Kennedy attempted to fiercely challenge Sinatra in wooing the same beautiful women, superficially having the last word.
So the attorney general stepped up his surveillance on the mobsters, especially Sam Giancana. Bobby never wanted anybody in the administration or the public to assume, sense, or suspect that his family had ever associated with the mob or taken their favors. His compulsive appetite for convicting gangsters (in 1961 his conviction record was over one hundred underworld figures) should prove to the world that the rumors of his family's ties with organized crime were absolutely false. Out to show the skeptics were wrong in doubting his qualifications and competence to hold the key cabinet position, the attorney general was also determined to prove himself worthy of his appointment.
Jimmy Hoffa and Sam Giancana also continued their surveillance of the Kennedys while the FBI relentlessly tried to maintain its “tough on crime” image. While still collecting “dirt” on his “hypocritical” friends, Giancana got word through Judith Campbell that the FBI was on to Jack's scheme of using her as a courier. Incensed over the unraveling situation, the mobster understood the President's motives. By minimizing his contact with Judith, Kennedy was protecting himself. The weekly FBI reports of the activities against the mob chieftain would no longer be forthcoming but Kennedy had been cheating him all along, pretending to release entire reports, but actually eliminating any notations regarding surveillance on Giancana. But now even the show of cooperation would be irregular.
Giancana was still content to perform occasional “dirty tricks” for the CIA, including international smuggling and money-laundering ventures. After finally admitting to Bobby Kennedy that they had done favors for Giancana, the CIA insiders risked losing their jobs, but no action was taken. Feeling confident that his control was still intact, Giancana no longer needed to rely on Sinatra or Judith Campbell for information or influence, though he continued seeing Campbell on a regular basis. The Chicago mobster took matters directly into his own hands. Although he continued developing his case for blackmailing the President, CIA contacts warned him that total exposure of the President would curtail Giancana's own activities by drawing attention to the mob's profit-making rackets. On the inside track, Giancana still had to contend with G-men Bill Roemer and Ralph Hill, assigned to trail his every move.
Not a complete stranger to the world of espionage, Marilyn recalled the days right after her separation from DiMaggio when he enlisted private detective Fred Otash to keep an eye on her activities by “bugging” her. John Danoff, who worked with Otash in the early 1960s, admits to wiring Monroe's apartment and Peter Lawford's house as early as 1961. Jimmy Hoffa hired Bernard Spindel, “king of the wiretappers.” In the middle of construction, Marilyn's house made an easy target, and the most celebrated clandestine tapper had little trouble with the phone tap lines and room bugs. A pioneer in the field of electronic eavesdropping, Spindel had mastered his skills during World War II. By the fifties, Hoffa had hired him to bug his own union and to debug his offices. Bobby Kennedy actually tried to turn Spindel against Hoffa, but his maneuvers backfired and Spindel remained hostile toward Bobby until his death. With his expert skills, Bernie had ingeniously placed taps in the Justice Department. Later when Bobby Kennedy was aware of the possibility that he was being bugged, he began carrying antibugging devices in his briefcase at department meetings. But Bobby didn't know of the tail on Marilyn or that his visits to her home were all being recorded.
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Production on
Something's Got to Give
was slated for early April, and Monroe began testing for wardrobe and hairstyles, typically changing outfits and hairstyles up to seven times a day. Whitey Snyder and Marjorie recalled that Marilyn looked as beautiful as she had ten years before. Her eyes were clear, her skin radiant, and her body was trim and in terrific shape. The lighting director perfected a method of softening the actress's screen appearance by grouping amber and pink lighting. George Cukor's refusal to attend the tests initiated their long, bitter struggle over control on the set. In all his inexperience, producer Henry Weinstein simply paced the floor, fearing the worst. But his fears were assuaged when the test results proved that Monroe was still at the top of her form and that she could compete with much younger women.
Something's Got to Give
was slated for early April, and Monroe began testing for wardrobe and hairstyles, typically changing outfits and hairstyles up to seven times a day. Whitey Snyder and Marjorie recalled that Marilyn looked as beautiful as she had ten years before. Her eyes were clear, her skin radiant, and her body was trim and in terrific shape. The lighting director perfected a method of softening the actress's screen appearance by grouping amber and pink lighting. George Cukor's refusal to attend the tests initiated their long, bitter struggle over control on the set. In all his inexperience, producer Henry Weinstein simply paced the floor, fearing the worst. But his fears were assuaged when the test results proved that Monroe was still at the top of her form and that she could compete with much younger women.
Producer David Brown, who had been vying for eventual appointment as head of Twentieth-Century Fox, was set to produce
Something's Got to Give,
and Cukor was confident that he would be the right ally and adviser to help keep control of the set. But the executives had assumed that Greenson, Weinstein, and Cukor would make a better combo to keep Marilyn in line and on time, so Weinstein had replaced Brown. Once Cukor found out that Weinstein had been chosen because of his artistic association with Marilyn's therapist, he blew his stack, commenting, “So you think you can get Marilyn to the set on time? Let me tell you something. If you placed Marilyn's bed on the set and the set were fully lighted, she wouldn't be on time for the first shot!”
Something's Got to Give,
and Cukor was confident that he would be the right ally and adviser to help keep control of the set. But the executives had assumed that Greenson, Weinstein, and Cukor would make a better combo to keep Marilyn in line and on time, so Weinstein had replaced Brown. Once Cukor found out that Weinstein had been chosen because of his artistic association with Marilyn's therapist, he blew his stack, commenting, “So you think you can get Marilyn to the set on time? Let me tell you something. If you placed Marilyn's bed on the set and the set were fully lighted, she wouldn't be on time for the first shot!”
The two were to clash throughout the making of the pictureâMarilyn defending her criticism of the screenplay and decisions that would affect her character, while Cukor insisted that lines be changed by his latest choice of writer. Cukor detested women who were unwilling to submit to his control.
Like the studio system he belonged to, Cukor hated ceding power in a business at which he truly excelled. After so many highly acclaimed films, including
Little Women, Camille, Romeo and Juliet, The Women, A Star Is Born,
and
The Philadelphia Story,
in an effort to maintain his lofty stature Cukor signed a two-picture contract with Fox, starting with
Let's Make Love.
But against his better judgment, Skouras reassigned Cukor to
Something's Got to Give.
Little Women, Camille, Romeo and Juliet, The Women, A Star Is Born,
and
The Philadelphia Story,
in an effort to maintain his lofty stature Cukor signed a two-picture contract with Fox, starting with
Let's Make Love.
But against his better judgment, Skouras reassigned Cukor to
Something's Got to Give.
Committing to
Something
only after his attorney had made threatening gestures to the top brass, Cukor already loathed Monroe, telling Nunnally Johnson, “She is a spoiled, pampered superstar and represents all that is bad about Hollywood today.” Ironically, his impression of the actress was not too far from what some in the industry thought of him. With his penchant for overstatement, he lived a luxurious life in a seventeenth-century Mediterranean villa where he entertained sailors and “wannabe” actors at his gay soirees, had a personal valet, and drove a Rolls-Royce.
Something
only after his attorney had made threatening gestures to the top brass, Cukor already loathed Monroe, telling Nunnally Johnson, “She is a spoiled, pampered superstar and represents all that is bad about Hollywood today.” Ironically, his impression of the actress was not too far from what some in the industry thought of him. With his penchant for overstatement, he lived a luxurious life in a seventeenth-century Mediterranean villa where he entertained sailors and “wannabe” actors at his gay soirees, had a personal valet, and drove a Rolls-Royce.
Cukor feverishly consumed amphetamines to control his appetite and his figure. And by the end of a day on the set the uppers would usually send the director into a tailspin. He frequently aimed his drug-induced tantrums at Marilyn Monroe.
Attempting to imbue the film with his own style, Cukor went so far as to re-create for the picture his very own Sunset Boulevard mansion, down to the minutest detail. Proud of having directed the grand leading ladies of the day, he tried to intimidate Monroe with his absolute control over the set, replicating even the beach balls given to him by Vivien Leigh on the set of
Gone With the Wind.
Clark Gable refused to work with the “gay” director who favored the “girls” too much and demanded Cukor be replaced by Victor Fleming.
Gone With the Wind.
Clark Gable refused to work with the “gay” director who favored the “girls” too much and demanded Cukor be replaced by Victor Fleming.
The garish replication made executives request everything possible to change cinematic angles in order to avoid such a conspicuous display of Cukor's own gaudy personal tastes. Insulted by the rejection, Cukor became even more incensed with Marilyn.
Living in a drug-induced fog, Cukor even became paranoid about a conspiracy between one of the screenwriters and the original script writer, Nunnally Johnson, believing they had banded together to change the script without his approval. His contract called for his final script approval, not Marilyn's. He would be damned if he'd let her have the final say. But she eventually would.
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