My journey ends here...
1950
JANUARY:
After having finished the shooting of "The Asphalt Jungle', Marilyn appeared in "The Fireball" (
,
,
) (produced by the Fox), a minor movie about the king of roller-skating embodied by Mickey Rooney, in which she played a young fan.
It was during this shooting that Marilyn met one of the Fox's hairstylists, Agnes Flanagan ; they struck up a friendship and Agnes Flanagan remaiend a faithful friend throughout her life.
), a movie produced by the MGM
where Marilyn played the unimportant part of Dusky Le Doux, young model
with who, during a cocktail party, a stranger flirted with. Her name
wasn't even credited.
Poor comedy, it was also a propaganda movie for the post-war American industry, financed by the General Motors.
Marilyn
played Miss Iris Martin, a pretty secretary who had to put up with the advances from a lecherous boss
(
,
,
).
It was during this shooting that she met for the first time the actor Peter Lawford (
).
Despite Johnny Hyde's praiseworthy efforts, the MGM didn't intend to offer a more interesting contract to Marilyn. The production director always put up the same arguments : the studio had already its blonde star, Lana Turner, and this one didn't need a rival.
FEBRUARY-MARCH :
When she didn't study with Natasha
Lytess, Marilyn posed for magazines covers in low-cut evening dresses or wearing bathsuits (
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
), and attended parties with Johnny Hyde (
.
Hyde's health had worsened but he refused to take the slightest rest. Obsessed by his protégé career, he wanted to expose her everywhere.
Often, he introduced her as his fiancée because he hadn't given up the hope to marry her one day.
Marilyn, for her part, had realized that Johnny was more harmful than beneficial to her career. She kept on being opposed to their union, which, she knew it, would harm her. Being taken seriously remained, actually, her main purpose. In everybody's eyes, she was only the mistress of an impresario, a buxom blonde of second-best movies.
Natasha Lytess had more than once enumerated the ordeals she had to go through if she wanted to become an actress worthy of this name. It was summed up in one word : work.
Johnny Hyde seemed less demanding. He thought that Marilyn only needed a good project and a producer. The camera would do the rest. The talent of course, was an asset but not really essential to access the heights of cinematography. Natasha accused him of being cynical, but finally, Johnny Hyde wasn't completely wrong. In the movie industry, only the appearance counted. Lighting, costumes, make-up, the camera angle were enough to change the reality.Between the 2 extreme positions, there should be a happy medium, but Marilyn was too intense to content herself with it. Natasha favoured the classical diction while to Johnny Hyde, she would rather bet on her natural advantages. On one hand, the desire to transcend her past, on the other hand, the necessity to accept her limits. Johnny saw her like she was, Natasha, like she could become.
Although she was used to submit to the intellectual discipline, Marilyn felt the need to complete her education.
One day, while she was rummaging in a Beverly Hills bookshop shelves with Rupert Allan,
she was filled with admiration for art books. She purchased some
and tacked up on her kitchen and bedroom's walls of North Palm Drive
(
)
where she still lived with Johnny Hyde, some reproductions of Fra
Angelico, Dürer and Botticelli. On her night table also stood the
framed picture of Eleanora Duse (
), the great Italian actress that Natasha Lytess venerated and held up as an example.
This
day, she bought the anatomy treaty "De Humanis Corporis Favrica" of
Vesale (a Flemish anatomist of the 16th Century) ; his studies
about the human body fascinated her. Since the following day, she went
back to the exrecises she had formerly started in Catalina Island and practised weightlifting (
),in order to perfect her musculature.
At that time, she also read "Letters to A Young Poet" of Rainer Maria Rilke.
Above all she adored the Russian literature she had discovered during her stay at the Actors Laboratory,
and partly thanks to the influence exerted on her by Natasha
Lytess. She read the short stories of Tolstoï and Tchekhov,
the novels of Dostoïevski and Tourgueniev, and the poetry of
Pouchkine and Andreïev.
APRIL :
Friday, April 7 : release of "Love Happy" (
;
,
,
).
Couldn't stand anymore to be out of work, she had get back in touch with Joe Schenck and was invited at his home, several times.
Director
Joseph L.Mankiewicz , who had won the Academy Award for Best Writing,
Screenplay fo "A Letter to Three Wives", prepared a new movie which was
about to be produced by Darryl Zanuck, at the Fox.
Under
the temporary title "Best Performance", the screenplay related the
story of a famous stage actress and her young stand-in and rival. It
was an imbroglio witty and full of emotions, where shone through the
fierce jealousies, the fears and ambitions of stage people. In Spring,
Mankiewicz found the final title : "All About Eve".
Johnny Hyde read the screenplay. He found a small part for Marilyn and informed the director of his thoughts : this one agreed. The part of the pretty beginner who used her physical attributes to serve her career, perfectly fitted Marilyn.
The part of Miss Caswell was more sophisticated than the one of Angela in "The Asphalt Jungle".She only appeared in 2 scenes, but considering that her personality reflected Eve's one, it was an important character.
Mankiewicz had already auditioned other actresses, but he quickly chose Marilyn (
,
).So she had a contract with the Fox,
for the lenght of the shooting (from May 11 to June 7), and she was paid 500$ a week :
.
MAY :
The
2 sequences of "All About Eve" took 2 months of shooting. It took place
in New York City : at the John Golden theater, the Club 21,
the Schubert theater and Curran theater, at the hotel Taft and in
an apartment of Park Avenue. There were also some shots in New
Haven and in Canada.
Marilyn's
performance in "All About Eve" was, to every points of view, conform to
the screenplay demands. Wearing a low-cut white dress, with elegant
tidy hair, she played her part with a trust underlain of seduction (
,
,
).
Unfortunalety, her performance (too short) didn't catch the attention of the critics. Johnny Hyde hoped that after having seen the rushes, Darryl Zanuck would sign her a long-term contract, but Zanuck didn't notice anything remarkable.
Her friend, reporter Sidney Skolsky
visited her : 
.
Insensible to the protests of his colleagues of the William Morris Agency, Johnny Hyde kept on behaving as if Marilyn was her only and single client.
In the absence of great parts, he made her shot a TV advert (besides, the only one) for an oil mark (Royal Triton :
) and publicity pictures, including one for a reducing cream (
).
Friday, May 19 : release of "A Ticket to Tomahawk" :
.
Tuesday, May 23 : release of "The Asphalt Jungle" (
;
,
,
,
,
;
) ; the movie was acclaimed by the critics and obtained 4 nominations to the Academy Awards.
JUNE :
For her birthday (her 24th birthday), Joe Schenck offered her a chihuahua dog named Josefa : 
,
.
JULY :
Thursday, July 20 she visited the US Marines before they left to Korea and was dubbed "Miss Morale of the Marine Corps" :
,
-
,
AUGUST:
With Johnny Hyde she attended a party given at Danny Kaye's home, in honor of the actress Vivien Leigh who arrived in Hollywood to shot "A Streetcar Named Desire", directed by Elia Kazan.
She met Elia Kazan and Laurence
Olivier (
), Vivien Leigh's husband, for the first time this evening.
SEPTEMBER
Monday, September 25, the Fox signed her a permission (
) so that the company LeGalion Perfume Co, use the name and the image of Marilyn Monroe for the" Sortilege Perfume" in adverts.
FALL:
Marilyn decided to follow the evening courses of literature and history of art at the UCLA (University of Californie Los Angeles); her teacher was Claire Seay. She assiduously attended the university on Tuesday evenings, during 10 weeks.
At that time, and to spare some expenses, she agreed to share Natasha Lytess apartment, a nice 2-rooms duplex, located 1309 North Harper Avenue, West Hollywood :
.She
slept on the sofa bed of the living-room, studied and read a lot, took
care of Barbara, Natasha's daughter and of her chihuahua, Josefa.
Every evenings, Natasha and Marilyn worked. According to a tacitly established code, a sign from Natasha was enough to indicate Marilyn a mistake of tone or movement.
What Natasha called the character motivations, plunged Marilyn in perplexity. John Huston, neither Mankiewicz had talked about motivations.Fed with the principles of the Moscow Art Theater, Natasha persisted : the great performances requested a huge mental effort; the understanding of a character went through the in-depth study of her motivations in relation with her past...
Marilyn took great care to it with fervour. Thanks to those exercises, she would be suitable for, afterwards, standing up to different directors, hostile to such introspections.Between the university and her drama lessons, Marilyn found time to visit Joe Schenck. She neglected Johnny Hyde for several weeks. This one spent most of his time in his villa of North Palm Drive. Confined to bed because of a cardiac failure more and more serious, he kept on contacting his relations by phone, always trying hard to launch Marilyn.
OCTOBER :
Wednesday, October 4 : release of "All About Eve" (
;
,
,
,
).
Marilyn attended the legendary Schwab’s Drugstore (9024 Sunset Boulevard), whose floor was used as the office of the famous movie critic, Sidney Skolsky. He had chosen this place for a very simple reason : Schwab’s provided him all the products he wanted. At that time, the American government hadn't yet regulated the sale of drugs, and there wasn't any opprobrium linked to the regular consumption of barbiturates and amphetamines.
His columns (in theCitizen News Hollywood) had the virtue of treating each subject deeper than the gossips of Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper, and he treated his readers to technical informations about movies, despising the backstage gossips.
He travelled the Twentieth Century Fox premises, knew all the masterminds of the studio, including the 2 publicity veterans, Harry Brand and Roy Craft.
NOVEMBER:
Thursday, November 9 : release of "The Fireball" :
.
Friday, November 10 : Marilyn appeared in Fox publicity pictures for Thanksgiving (
,
,
).
.
DECEMBER :
Saturday, December 2, Marilyn unveiled a plane of the Mexican Airlines, the first direct flight Los Angeles-Mexico in 5 hours
(
,
,
,
).
Tuesday, December 5 :
Marilyn
(a year after her meeting with Johnny Hyde) signed the form
authorized by the Movie Actors Association, which officially linked her
with the William
Morris Agency for a term of 3 years.
Thursday, December 7 :
Johnny
Hyde called her; he had used all his influence and had called all the executives of the Fox. At the end of long transactions,
a screen test had been decided. If it worked, Marilyn would obtain a
6-months contract, plus an important part in a planned movie,"Cold
Shoulder" and maybe even a long-term contract.
The same evening, she started to work her scene with Natasha.
Sunday, December 10 :
Marilyn
arrived on the set to shot the screen test. She was wearing the
becoming dress she wore in "The Fireball", "Hometown Story" and "All
About Eve". She had to embody a gangster's girlfriend.
Saturday, December 16 : Johnny Hyde went to rest in Palm Springs, with his secretary.
Sunday, December 17 : he was at the Racquet Club
Resort Hotel in Palm Springs when he had a heart attack. He was transported in emergency to Los Angeles.
Marilyn made the fiiting of the costumes for "As Young As You Feel" (
,
).
Monday, December 18 : Johnny Hyde died of a heart attack at the Cedars
of Lebanon Hospital.
Hyde's wife and children demanded that Marilyn was kept away from the funeral which took place at the Forest Lawn Cemetry, Hollywood Hills; but she nevertheless attended with Natasha Lytess.
One hour later, everyone had gone. Marilyn came near the grave recovered by flowers and planted a white flower, a dried rose she had kept for years between the pages of a Holy Bible.
She stayed a long time in the cemetry, shattered.
She was fired from the North Palm Drive's house by Hyde's family, who also took back the clothes and jewels Johnny had offered her.
Although he had informed his lawyers about his wish to leave a third of his property to Marilyn, he hadn't yet modified his will and Marilyn didn't receive anything.
Few days later, Joe Schenck called her and offered his condolences.
During the following weeks, Natasha often saw her crying. With Johnny's death she had lost an ally, a friend and a father.Sunday, December 24 : the presents Johnny Hyde destined to her arrived; she received a mink stole.
Natasha Lytess arrived at his apartment on Harper Boulevard and found a note on the door : "I leave my car and my mink stole to Natasha", and a second one inside the apartment which asked Barbara, Natasha's daughter, not to come in the bedroom. Natasha then discovered Marilyn, unconscious, having taken some drugs from Schawb’s. She was transported to the hospital where she had a gastric lavage.
This year, she visited Stanley
Gifford, in Palm Springs, accompanied with her friend Sidney Skolsky, but
Gifford didn't want to see her..
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