marilyn monroe, blonde bombshell. get out the fire hose. hollywood super star. the late marilyn monroe. tragic victim. the story of marilyn monroe is an authentic tragedy. when we talk about marilyn poor marilyn, this vulnerable passive woman who is being destroyed by hollywood. that s the way the story frames her. after a reckoning in hollywood, it s time to reframe her story. now it can hit pause and roll it back a bit and ask ourselves, okay, what is it that we think we know? she was quite ahead of her time. and she was very much an architect of her own fame. you must think i was born yesterday. her performances are layered. they re funny. they re tender. they re human. they feel modern. bingo. she had a deep inner life. she was an artist. she was a poet. she was a businesswoman. what a power broker she was, renegotiating her contract, creating her own production company, getting films made. it s actually rather frustrating that people can t
transformed spanish dancer margarita cansino into hollywood star rita hayworth in the 1930s. she was what they would have called ethnic in those days, meaning she was latina. and they dyed her hair. she underwent electrolysis to raise her hair line so she looked more waspy. and it turned her into a huge box office star. hollywood studios are pressuring people to meet an ideal. in some cases, it s about enhancing beauty. in other cases, it s about wiping away ethnic traces. for marilyn, going blonde, it was like the hollywood star building machine. and she saw what it could do for her. it gave marilyn an extra charge in her looks. it took her to another level.
in that they controlled everything. the studio system operated a pool of aspiring talent, what they called stock contract players. being a contract player didn t mean that you were going to be a star. you were shuffled from one movie to the next. and often, you were a glorified extra, essentially. hollywood has always been a difficult place for women. hollywood treats women as disposable, as you don t bring any talent to the screen, you bring beauty. when you weren t working, they stuck you in front of the camera and you posed for all kinds of pin-up pictures. i didn t really feel specifically like a commodity at the time. it s only on looking back that i
girl? in walked the most gorgeous young girl, 20 years old. what s your ambition, to be a film star. they had a color test, which was unusual, i think they had high hopes for me. she was to walk across the room, sit down and light a cigarette. and smile. as soon as the camera started rolling, something magical happened. she has this fresh-faced beauty, this luminous prettiness on the screen. she could manifest the kind of magic, she came into the world with it. ben lyon was very enthusiastic. said i looked so fresh and young. they said that i had a three dimensional quality having to do with sex. norma jean doherty lands a one-year contract with fox, the
this is hollywood, a place, an industry, a state of mind. here, magic carpets fly. let s have a good look. i went to 20th century fox where ben lyon was head of casting. and he says, who is this girl? in walked the most gorgeous young girl, 20 years old. i said, what s your ambition? she said, to be a film star. and then they made a technicolor test, which was unusual. but i think they had high hopes for me. she was to come in, walk across the room, sit down and light a cigarette. and smile. as soon as that camera started rolling, something magical happened. she has this kind of fresh-faced beauty and this kind of luminous prettiness on the screen.