My journey ends here...
1956
With the euphoria of her victory against the Fox,
Marilyn announced her first projects for the year.
She would go back to Hollywood to shoot for the Fox "Bus Stop", a movie version of the play with the same name, of
William Inge.
Audrey Wood, Inge's author's agent, was also Greene's neighbor. She asked Milton
Greene and Marilyn to read "Bus Stop".
They went to see the play which had a big success in Broadway, with
Kim Stanley playing Cherie, the part Marilyn was about to shoot.
Then she would go and shoot in London with the great English stage actor, Laurence Olivier,
in the movie version of the play "The Sleeping Prince" of Terence
Rattigan. This movie was the only one produced by the Marilyn Monroe
Productions.
Milton Greene saw her sinking in the barbiturates addiction. She could take some sedatives at 3.00 AM, while knowing she had to wake up at 6.00 AM for an appointment. She just got out of her stupor with stimulants and drunk more and more.
Despite the security her relation with Miller gave her, she kept on acting as a person unable to bear loneliness, mostly at night. More often than before, she called her friends at 2 not to say 3.00 AM.
To help her, Lee Strasberg, often invited her to come and sleep at his home.
JANUARY :
In
January, Marilyn received a telegram from Terence Rattigan which
annonced her that she had obtained the rights of the "The Sleeping
Prince". Much better, Laurence Olivier wanted to make the movie with
her.
(
;
).
End of January : Arthur Miller and his wife, Mary Slattery began to talk about divorce.
Marilyn and Arthur talked about marriage.
They spent the 2 first months of this year in New York City, strolling in Brooklyn Heights streets; Miller made her visiting the places frequented by famous artists and writers, telling her some anecdotes about his childhood.
Arthur
Miller entered a difficult period of his playwright career, while Marilyn was about to make a stunning come back on screen.
A difficult situation which had common points with the one she had lived with
Joe DiMaggio.
Furthermore,
on some reporters's instigation, and with the government's blessing,
some ultra-conservative lobbies were about to put a big hit on Arthur
Miller, who had several enemies among the right-wing writers.
The more abject of all was certainly the reporter and DiMaggio's friend, Walter Winchell (moreover friend and informer of
J .Edgar
Hoover, head of the
FBI).
FEBRUARY :
On the suggestion of the Marilyn Monroe Productions lawyer, Irving Stein,
she stayed for 2 weeks in the apartment 4-S, located 124, East
60th Street (address of press agent Lois Weber) where her
mail was addressed.
The goal was to obtain her address in New York so that she could change more easily her family name (have a look at March 12, 1956).
Sunday, February 5 : Laurence Olivier, his agent Cecil Tennant and playwright Terence Rattigan (the author of theplay "The Sleeping Prince" which was the basis of the screenplay) arrived in New York to talk about the terms of the project.
Olivier had to make the promotion for the premiere of his movie "Richard III" on NBC.
Marilyn planned to purchase the rights of theTerence Rattigan's work since 1954, on Charles Feldman and Hugh
French's suggestion, her agents at that time.
Marilyn didn't want anyone else than Laurence Olivier, because such an actors combination was unusual and may help her to enhance her actress image. She also hoped he would direct her in the movie.
Laurence Olivier agreed to play the part he had performed on stage only on the condition that he himself direct the movie and be the co-producer.
Tuesday, February 7 : after a wait of 1 hour and a half, they met Marilyn at her home, at 2 Sutton Place.
Olivier and Marilyn talked about the details of "The Sleeping Prince". She had agreed the 125 000$ for the movie rights, plus 50 000$ so that Rattigan wrote the screenplay. This day, Olivier agreed to direct the movie, to play the leading role and to co-produce it.
Wednesday, February 8 : Marilyn made a picture session at Milton Greene's studio, Lexington Avenue, a session known under the name of Black Sitting (
,
,
,
,
).
In the evening, she attended the premiere of "Middle of the Night" (
,
).
Thursday, February 9 at noon, a press conference was held in the Terrace Room of the Plaza Hotel, where Marilyn and Laurence Olivier, Terence Rattigan and Milton Greene, announced their production of "The Sleeping Prince"
The two actors congratulated each other in front of more than 150 reporters and photographers.
It was a major event which was about to gather together ca great English tragic actor and the greatest American sex-symbol.
Although
she had denied any premeditation, Marilyn perfectly orchestrated
the event , stealing the show to the "world greatest living actor",
when she bent down and one of the strap of her dress (designed by John Moore)
snapped off ( a trick the Fox publicity agent had taught her at her
early stages). The photographers became crazy. A safety pin was
hastily found, but the strap snapped off twice again, in font of reporters and photographers delighted by the incident (
,
,
).
Eve Arnold, her friend photographer who accompanied her, took her in picture this day (
,
).
The next day, she made headlines of several New York daily papers.
Sunday, February 12 :
in his radio program ( recorded by the FBI), Walter Winchell
announced to the whole nation that "the most famous blonde of the
American movie industry has become the sweetheart of the left
intelligentsia which included among its members, Communist militants".
At that time, Arthur Miller was one of the American writers the most closely watched by the government subcommissions who feared a coup d'état , according them imminent, orchestrated by Moscow. The FBI had formed a file about Miller which recounted his political itinerary since he had attended university.
Discharged at the moment of the Second World War, because of an injury (The FBI surely considered it as a lack of patriotism), he was an American Labour Party member.
It was at that era that Arthur Miller took Marilyn in Brooklyn so that she officially met his parents. Although some rumors had been published in the press, Miller still publicly denied any affair with her; however he admitted he was about to ask for a divorce.
Friday, February 17 : Marilyn played the scene of "Anna Christie" of Eugene O’Neill, with Maureen Stapleton at the Actors Studio.
Nobody
was supposed to applaud a presentation in the working group, but when
Marilyn ended, the public infringed the tradition and clapped and
cheered.
Lee and Paula Strasberg were literally transported; while Marilyn was sobbing on what she considered as a terrible performance, the Strasbergs declared that she was the greatest stage talent of the decade.
Saturday, February 18 : Marilyn drew her first will up, with the help of lawyer Irving Stein.
Her
property, estimated 200 000$ (an arbitrary
figure based in her future hopes), were divided as followed :
- 100 000$ to Arthur Miller, " to pay the most advantageous fiscal way"
- 25 000$ to Lee andPaula Strasberg
- 20 000$ to Dr Margaret Hohenberg
- 10 000$ to Xenia Tchekhov, widow of
Michael Tchekhov
- 10 000$ to the Actor’s Studio
- 10 000$ to Patricia
Rosten's studies , daughter of Norman and
Hedda Rosten.
She also left enough money to pay the health care center expenses of her mother, Gladys Baker (for a total amount of 25 000$) until the death of this one.
It
was for the occasion of the will's signature that Irving Steihn
asked her what she wanted to be inscribed on her grave.
She would have given this witty answer : "Marilyn
Monroe, blonde – 37-23-36".
Sunday, February 19, Marilyn and Laurence Olivier attended a representation of "The Diary of Anne Franck" in which Susan Strasberg played, at the Cort
Theater (
,
;
,
).
Wednesday, February 22 : at the New York Ambassador Hotel, she gave an interview to reporter Elsa Maxwell
(
,
), then, made a picture session (
), with photographer Cecil Beaton : with a flower
(
,
;
,
), a bird (
,
,
), in an armchair (
;
), and on a sofa (
,
) in a black dress (
,
).
Saturday, February 25 : with Milton Greene, Marilyn flew to Hollywood to begin the shooting of "Bus Stop"
(
,
,
;
;
,
,
,
).
The studio had purchased the movie rights, and it was Joshua Logan, one of the 16 directors of the list, who had to direct her. She had to start the pre production work at the Fox on Monday, February 27.
Amy (
), Milton Greene and their 2 years old son Joshua (
,
), and also Irving Stein accompanied her.
It was more than a year she hadn't come back in Hollywood.
A bustling welcome waited for her (
,
,
) :
hundreds of reporters were present, and there was such a crowd that she
could get out of the airport only 2 hours later; she
held a press conference within the airport
,
,
;
,
,
,
).
With Milton, Amy and Joshua Greene, David Maysles, Milton's
assistant, the 2 servants of the Greenes (Kitty and Clyde) and Florence Thomas, her own housemaid, she stayed in a 9 rooms house rented by Milton Greene at 595 North Beverly
Glen Boulevard, (
,
) Holmby Hill, West Los Angeles, for the sum of 995$ a month (
,
,
,
).
The house was located in the area of Westwood, close to the UCLA (University
of California Los Angeles) and the Fox, where the outdoor scenes of "Bus Stop" had to be shot.
Milton and Marilyn woke up at 6.00 AM, a car from the studio coming to pick them up at 7.00 AM. They worked all day and went back home after having seen the rushes. Everybody was in bed at 11.00 PM and the same scenario occured again every day
(
,
).
Natasha Lytess, still employed by the Fox, tried to call Marilyn several times, and dropped several letters at Beverly Glen, during the first week. But Marilyn, who had replaced Natasha Lytess by her new drama teacher Paula Strasberg, coach and advisor, ignored them.
Tuesday, February 28 :
Marilyn, accompanied with her lawyer Irving Stein, appeared at the Beverly
Hills City Hall for having driven without a license 2 years earlier, in November
1954, on Wilshire Boulevard. She had to pay a 55$ fine (
,
,
).
MARCH:
Thursday, March 1st : Marilyn,
Milton Greene and Jack Warner (
,
,
,
,
) announced that a distribution agreement (
) had been concluded between the Marilyn Monroe Productions and the Warner for "The Sleeping Prince". Director Billy
Wilder was there this day
(
,
) ; her press agent Pat Newcomb was also present (
,
).
Saturday, March 3 : lawyer Irving Stein called Natasha Lytess and asked her not to try to join Marilyn anymore.
l
Monday, March 5 ,
seriouslyt physically and psychologically affected (at that time, she
suffered from a cancer), Natasha Lytess came at Marilyn's home, but
Marilyn's agent, Lew Wasserman, still refused her to access, threatening her to deprived her of her job at the Fox, the only means of support she had.
Marilyn
had learned from Maurice Zolotow, a friend of Arthur Miller,
that Natasha Lytess was writing a book about her. Himself wanting
to write a biography and having had 3 interviews with Marilyn at the Waldorf Astoria, in New York.
To help him inb his researches work, he had hired Jane Wilkie, reporter for Photoplay magazine. This one had made contact with Natasha Lytess for a testimony about Marilyn, but the project had materialized into a book (the unpublished manuscript is in the Zolotow legacy at theTexas University).
Natasha Lytess was dismissed from the Fox; she would pour her resentment in the press, and never saw Marilyn again.
She tried to live by teaching drama lessons, and sold her North Crescent Drive house (
), she had purchased with Marilyn's help.
The fact that Marilyn had ignored such a poignant call for help, she had refused a recommendation she could easily have given, she had turned away from a person who had sacrificed herself, still remain incomprehensible.
But finally wasn't Natasha a mother figure, like Grace McKee-Goddard?
Monday, March 12 :
after having been Norma Jeane Mortenson for 10 years (the name she
used to sign the official papers), she officially became Marilyn Monroe.
This day she swore in : "I'm an actress and as such, I consider that my family name is a handicap. It's been years that I use the pseudonym of Marilyn Monroe, a name become famous I would like to make mine definitely".
Wanting to go back to success, she had asked that the director of "Bus Stop" was John Huston (who had already directed her in "The Asphalt Jungle") but he was unavailable.
It was her MCA agent, Lew Wasserman who got in touch with director Joshua Logan to direct Marilyn in "Bus Stop".
He was among the 2 or 3 most popular directors in Broadway ; he had recently shot "Picnic" where he had immortalized
Susan Strasberg's performance (
,
) Lee and Paula's daughter.
Logan questioned Lee Strasberg about Marilyn ; this one was
full of praise for Marilyn, and that's how Logan agreed to
direct her.
Marilyn
imposed Paula Strasberg as her personal coach, with a weekly salary of
1 500$. So she had the role of Lee Strasberg's substitute for the use
of the Method he taught at the Actors Studio. Marilyn was delighted and relieved to havePaula next to her
(
,
).
Joshua Logan was appalled when he learned about Marilyn's demand to have Paula Strasberg on the set. The devotion of this one toward Marilyn was sincere, but led the directors to fit of hysterics.
Joshua Logan talked about it with Milton Greene, who was himself engaged in talks with Lee Strasberg, at the end of which Paula granted an enclave : Marilyn's dressing-room.
Paula stayed at the Château Marmont
Hotel (
) in Los Angeles.
Usually Marilyn prepared herself for her parts by breaking up the screenplay scene by scene, then by working each gesture and the pronunciation of each line. As for Paula, she made her work the spontaneity, at least during the rehearsals. For "Bus Stop", she particularly worked hard on Cherie generous South accent , the character embodied by Marilyn.
For Marilyn it was a unique opportunity to be taken seriously in an important movie, and she knew that nothing had ever to be left to chance nor improvised.
However, while with Natasha Lytess each originality was bypassed, with Paula, the inspiration gushed as if by magic.
Milton Greene had worked on the plastic and the structure of each scene, while he studied the screenplay.
He
had likewise worked on Marilyn's make-up, a make-up with a ghostly
paleness for a woman who sings and dances all night, sleeps almost the
whole day, and so to speak, hardly see the sun (
).
In March, there was a press conference for the shooting of "Bus Stop" in the house of North Beverly Glen Boulevard
(
,
,
,
,
,
), and also a party given by Look magazine (
,
,
).
She made several picture sessions with photographers Gene Lester (
,
,
,,
,
,
,
,
) and Gordon Parks (
,
).
Monday, March 12, Marilyn discovered, along with Joshua Logan and Milton Greene, the sketchs of her costumes for "Bus Stop"
(
,
,
).
She refused to wear the sumptuous costumes the Fow owned; on the contrary she chose a minor dress (
),
a worn out gold and green coat, and deliberately got a run in her
fishnet stockings. She gave her singer character, Cherie, a stutter at
the difficult moments of the movie.
By dint of rehearsals late at night with Paula, Marilyn, emotionally empty, was unable to sleep. Milton obtained the barbiturates she needed from Los Angeles or New York doctors (his brother was doctor in New York City), in more or less important quantity. When the morning came, Marilyn was hazy and hard to get out of be, and even more difficult to drag her on the set.
Tuesday, March 13
: Joshua Logan went off to Arizona for reconnoitre in order to
organize the first day of shooting, a huge parade in the heart of
Phoenix. There would be cow-boys and Indians, scout troupes and brass
bands. Each year, 25 000 spectators watched the show from the benches
erected all along of the avenue. "Bus Stop" being shot in Cinemascope,
so the picturesque setting was important.
,
,
) and arrived in Phœnix
(Arizona) for the outdoor shooting of the movie (
,
,
).
The
rodeo annual festival had to be the setting of
several important sequences and Joshua Logan wanted to used
the thousands of spectators as walk-on actors (
,
).
That's where Marilyn mer her partners of the movie, Don Murray (
) and Hope Lange (
)(who were engaged in the real life and would get married). Don Murray was the son of a stage-manager.
She stayed at the last floor of the Sahara
Motor Hotel.
When
she arrived in Phoenix, Milton Greene refused that Marilyn was
interviewed or taken in picture; this only privilege granted him (
,
,
,
).
Logan
knew how to deal with Marilyn : he well knew Stanislavski
and his Method (he was the only American director to have studied
with him in USSR), and from an abstract point of view, they were on the
wavelength (
,
).
As
the shooting advanced, Milton Greene strengthened the supervision
around Marilyn, for the reporters misfortune who couldn't make their
way through her (
,
,
).
Arthur Jacobs, who ran the press agency which took care of Marilyn, sent several of its employees on the spot, including Pat
Newcomb.
Marilyn soon seemed to like her and they became friends (
), often eating together.
But this one conflicted with Marilyn and Arthur Jacobs called her back to Los
Angeles.
On the set she was made up by Whitey
Snyder (
,
,
) and her hair tidied by Gladys Rasmussen (
,
,
).
Sunday, March 18 :
Milton and Marilyn argued about the expenses caused to the Marilyn
Monroe Productions by Lee Strasberg's visit on the set.
Monday, March 26 : the crew of the movie changed
without transition from the Arizona heat to the snow storm of Sun
Valley, Idaho, where the other outdoor shooting had to be shot during 5
days (
,
,
,
,
,
).
They shot at the North Fork General Store.
While she was in Idaho, Arthur Miller left to Washington DC to talk with his lawyer Joseph Rauh,
about his passport problem to England. Miller not only wanted to be
present for Marilyn's shooting in "The Sleeping Prince" but also to
attend the premiere of his play "A View From the Bridge",
in London.
Tuesday, March 27 : Joseph Rauh studied Miller's situation. The main danger was that the passport request might set off a summoning the House Un-American Activities Committee threathened him with for a long time.
Friday, March 30 : en route, back to Los Angeles, Marilyn had a stopover in Boise (Idaho) where she was snapped against her wishes : 
.
APRIL :
Back to Los Angeles, Marilyn and several of her partners of "Bus Stop" (Arthur O’Connell, Betty Field and Hope Lange) were struck down by the flu. Marilyn had worked many hours in coldness, being lightly dresses for the need of the film.
From Thursday, April 5 to Monday 9, Marilyn entered the St
Vincent Hospital of Los Angeles for exhaustion, burnout, acure bronchitis and high fever. She was treated by Dr Nathan Headley.
So the shooting was interrupted until April 24.
At the same time, Arthur Miller settled at Guest Ranch in a small house of Pyramid Lake, 60 kilometers from Reno(Nevada), where he started a 2 months retreat, necessary for the quick getting of a divorce (he had to stay 42 days in a row in Nevada).
Everything
had been considered so that he would be free to celebrate his wedding
with Marilyn, before they would go in England in July.
He rented a cottage located next to the one of writer Saul Bellow (who was there for the same reasons than Miller, while working on his novel "Henderson, the Rain King").
In
Reno, Arthur Miller met some men who captured wild horses, they then
resold and from which food for pets was made; he wrote a short
story in 1957 based on this meeting ("The Misfits").
Tuesday, April 24 : after 12 days of absence on a 45 days plan of shooting , Marilyn finally came back on the set. When she saw the rushes of "Bus Stop", she was delighted, notably by the bus scene where her character of Cherie talked at length about her past. She talked about the men of her life, her hopes and dreams, the kind of man she wanted to meet. Marilyn had never played a scene with so much text.
In this Spring 1956, each day during 8 weeks, Marilyn and Arthur Miller called each other, under the pseudonym of Mr and Mrs Leslie, a code taken in Vina Delmar's novel "About Mr Leslie", which told the story of a night-club singer and a married man who lived together 6 weeks in a year.
They also wrote a lot to each other (
).
Marilyn had difficulty keeping their relation secret and wanted to
inform her favorite reporters. May Mann, reporter for the New York Herald Tribune, had a call from Marilyn, informing her about her wedding in Summer.
MAY :
Tuesday, May 1st : Miller was back from Reno.
Marilyn made the cover of Time magazine, which included along article of reporter
Eszra Goodman, alluding to her love affair with Miller.
Week-end of Saturday, May 12 and Sunday 13
: Arthur Miller was in Los Angeles to see Marilyn. After this week-end,
he came back to Reno in order to present his passport request at
the end of the week.
It just remained to hope that the passport request didn't set off a summoning in Washington DC, from the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Tuesday, May 22,
she attended Susan Strasberg's birthday (
,
).
Tuesday, May 29 : the shooting of "Bus Stop" ended.
Marilyn
was about to go back to to New York, and Miller also had to
go back there after his stay in Nevada, since June 11.
JUNE :
Friday, June 1st :
Indonesian president Soekarno was in Los Angeles to visit the studios
and make a speech at the Association Motion Picture Producers.
Joshua
Logan organized a party at the Beverly Hills Hotel, for the
Indonesian president, because it was his brother, Marshall Noble,
who organized the president's visit in Hollywood. Marilyn attended
this party (
).
Saturday, June 2 : she went back to New York City (
,
,
,
,
,
); she still ived at 2 Sutton Place South.
In Los Angeles the Greenes servants stayed to pack the stuff and close the house of Beverly Glen. It wasn't a really relaxing activity because the occupiers hadn't taken a lot of care of it during their 3 months stay and the house seemed to have been the siege of inveterate revellers.
In a letter dated from June 15, 1956,
Al Delgado from the MCA wrote to his colleague Jay Kanter : "It's
as very serious case, because we're talking about a luxurious house
with expensive furniture, and the inventory is probably 40 pages long.
When the owners will be back, I think that Milton will have some
problems and he might be sued... I'll do my best to refurbish a
part of the furniture. I must admitt that I don't really like this
story, because the house was in perfect condition when they moved in ".
The case was settled in Fall 1956.
Friday, June 8 : Arthur Miller, still in Nevada (he had to leave officially 3 days later, on Monday 11), was ordered to appear in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington DC, on Thursday, June 14.
The members of Parliamant had decided to question him about his relationships with Communism, and also about the reasons of his journey in England.
It soon became obvious that , despite the FBI efforts, there were no evidence of Miller's adherence to the Communist Party, not even a living witness who could connect him to the Party or even a copy of his Party membership card. Miller admitted that he had attended Party writers meetings, but he refused to admit having been under the "Communist influence", and refused to cite names.
Until
1956
this Committee hadn't found any valid reason to subpoena Miller,
although he was the target of constant and noisy attacks from the
left-wing. A protest campaign against his first play "All My sons" led
to its ban in the occupied Germany.
In 1949,
left-wing activists prevented from the access to theaters which
showed "Death of a Salesman". Maccarthysm was in full swing. When
Miller would publish "The Crucible", everyone would understand the allusions, but he would get away with.
But if Miller had to testify for June 11, he had to go right away to Washington DC to prepare his summoning. And yet, if he'd leave Nevada before this date, he would't be able to sue for divorce.
Lawyer Lloyd Garrison (another lawyer who worked for Miller) asked for a hearing adjourment on a later date. He explained that his client had to stay in Nevada few more days so that he could sue for divorce. The House Un-American Activities Committee agreed and postponed the hearing to Thursday, June 21. So, that gave Miller one more week.
Monday, June 11 : the divorce between Arthur Miller and Mary Slattery was granted, and wasn't dispute by Mary.
Miller left to New York City, to join Marilyn (
).
The
press camped in front of 2 Sutton Place South and followed the
couple when they went to have dinner at Arthur's parents place in
Brooklyn (
,
).
Tuesday, June 19 : Marilyn called her lawyer Irving Stein and announced him that she wanted to modify her will, and left all her property to Arthur
Miller.
She worried about Arthur's finances. His plays "The Crucible" and "A View From the Bridge" had made big takings. He paid an alimony to his ex-wife and his children. Now, big legal costs were about to more put a strain on his meagre budget.
If he would be convicted for contempt and had to appeal, he could become gravely in debt. So Marilyn asked her lawyer to draw up a new will (while she had drawn one up on February 18 of this year). Except some money she reserved for her mother's care, she wanted to leave everything else to Arthur. She also asked Stein to study the possibility the Marilyn Monroe Productions would purchase the movie rights of Miller's work.
Wednesday, June 20 : Spyros Skouras
(president of the Fox) saw Marilyn and Arthur Miller in New York and
tried to convince Miller to cooperate with the Committee like Elia Kazan had did it before.
Skouras pointed out that the members of the Committee were personal friends of him, reasonable people.
He suggested to organize a testimony in camera for Miller, if he agreed to betray some names.
This visit could only be understood in an implicit way about the devastating effects Miller's testimony might have on Marilyn's career. Skouras hoped that Marilyn would see the things his way and convince Miller to cooperate with the Committee. If Miller insisted to be a non cooperative witness, Marilyn's name shouldn't ever been associate to his ones.
Miller refused and Marilyn was proud of this integrity.
Thursday, June 21 : Miller, accompanied with his lawyer Joseph
Rauh, appeared in front of the Committee in Washington DC
(
).
Marilyn,
on Millers' request, remained in New York City.
He also declared, calmy and quietly, that he had indeed denounced the Committee when it had investigated on the "Hollywood Ten" (a group of screenwriters put on the black list for their political opinions considered as dangerous); the fact he had been opposed to the Smith law, which considered as outlaw everyone who commended the governement overthrow because "if such a pleading constitute an offense, if there's a crime while there haven't been any action, I can't work and the literature can't exist : a man must be able to write a play or a poem whatever the topic".
His
statements were published in every newspapers through the country, and
to Marilyn's big pleasure, he became kind of a hero of the censure and
repression fight.
Immediately, there was a threat of a subponea, suggested by the Member
of Parliament Francis
E.Walter. This one offered Joseph Rauh that the hearing and the
eventuality of a subponea could be given up if Marilyn agreed to be
taken in picture shaking Walter's hand; Miller hastened to reject and
denounce such a proposition.
From the start of this confrontation, Miller was calm, dignified and respectful. He did his best to cooperate.
From the beginning, it was a fight Miller managed with Marilyn beside him.
She admired Miller's determination to consider that a writer was free to write what he wanted and not to denounce the others to save his hide.
Working
with the Committee, Frances Knight from the Passport Division,
asked him his motives for the passport request; Miller answered that he
planned to go in England to accompany the woman who would be his wife at
that time, and that he wanted to attend the premiere of one of his play
"A View from
the Bridge".
It's likely that Marilyn' s support toward Miller saved him from more detailed investigations from the Committee in his poltical activities, including the reality of his membership to the Communist Party.
Because of his love affair with Miller, whose work had been condemned by the FBI for "denigration of the American way of life", Marilyn also had a file at the FBI.
In addition of Arthur Miller, several colleagues of Marilyn belonged to the left-wing, according to the 50's standards.
The Committee had notably files on Lee and Paula Strasberg (Paula had been member of the Communist Party).
When
her future wedding was announced, the press camped in front of
Marilyn's apartment at Sutton Place; photographers bombarded her since
the morning (
,
), and Marilyn organized a press conference, later that day, in the lobby of her building (
,
,
,
,
,
).
Friday, June 22 : Miller was back in New York.
He consulted his lawyer Lloyd Garrison, at his office, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind,
Wharton and Garrison, on Madison Avenue.
The
Department of State couldn't possibly give a passport to Miller without
a written statment under oath in which he would admit never having been member of
the Communist Party. Joseph Rauh, Miller's lawyer in Washington
DC, had prepared a rough draft during the week-end and had sent it to
Lloyd Garrison so that Miller sent it back and signed it.
He asked Miller to sign another statement including passages of his literary work and interviews which well showed his faith in democracy.
If the Committee would recommend a charge for contempt , the Department of State surely wouldn't grant his passport to Miller.
Marilyn had an appointment with her psychoanalysis. Dr Hohenberg, who still exerted a huge influence on Marilyn's public and private life, approved this wedding. So she advised Marilyn to face the press right away.
At 4.30 PM this day, Marilyn held a press conference in the lobby of her building.
She appeared with Arthur hand in hand, in front of the lobby of Sutton Place (
,
,
,
,
,
,
).
Sunday, June 24 : Arthur and Marilyn left New York (
) and went to Miller's house in Roxbury
(
,) (Connecticut). This evening, Isadore and Augusta Miller had arrived from Brooklyn. Arthur's children, Jane, 11 and Robert, 9, were also present, waiting for a departure in a holiday camp in Massachusetts, the following week.
During this year, she had been surrounded by Jewish friends (the Strasbergs and the Rostens) and had become attached to their tradition. Marilyn's ardor soon was ahead of Miller's one. In Roxbury, she bugged Augusta so that this one taught her Jewish recipes (bortsch, chicken soup with unleavened bread dumplings and thin slices of liver).
It
was on Marilyn's insistence, who wanted to convert, that the Millers
contacted a rabbi from the Judaism reformed branch, rabbi
Robert
Goldberg, who agreed to give Marilyn a brief religious instruction and to celebrate the wedding.
Isadore Miller was proud of his friendship with Marilyn; she always remained in good terms with him, even after her break-up with Arthur, and would write to each other long letters.
Monday, June 25 : Arthur and Marilyn got ready to have dinner at Arthur's cousin's place, Morton Miller, who lived next to the Roxbury house; they nevertheless took time to pose for the reporters (
,
,
,
).
The wedding was planned for Sunday, July 1st at Miller's author's agent, Kay Brown, in South Salem, State of New York, just behind the border with Connecticut. It was rabbi Robert Goldberg from New Haven, known for his progressive ideas, who had to celebrate the religious wedding.
Friday, June 29 : Arthur and Marilyn left to South Salem. Because there wasn't yet any decision from the Committee, they were very tense.
This day was tragic because of the death of the reporter Mara Scherbatoff, head of the New York office of Paris-Match. magazine. The reporters had hounded Arthur and Marilyn with a car; those ones had to have a quiet lunch with Miller's parents at Morton Miller's home, few kilometers from there. The reporters got wind of the family lunch at Morton's place.
The
car of the future married couple (a green Oldsmobile) was driven by
Morton Miller, who had sped up to escape the chasers. The reporter's
car sped up too, but, not knowing the road, had crashed into a tree (
).
The reporter, thrown against the windshield, had been serioulsy injured and was taken to the New Milford Hospital.
For all that, the press conference wasn't postponed and it was
Milton Greene, arrived from Weston, who annonced them to the press (
,
).
At
4.00 PM, in front of Arthur's house in Roxbury (Old Tophet Road),
Connecticut, Arthur and Marilyn annonced their civil wedding (
,
,
,
,
;
,
,
).
It was after the press conference that they were informed about Mara Scherbatoff's death, Marilyn considered of ill omen.
The
civil wedding took place at the Westchester County Court House, in
White Plains (Westchester County, State of New York), at 7.30 PM,
celebrated by judge Seymour
Rabinowitz and only lasted few minutes(
,
,
,
,
).
Sam Slavitt, a lawyer, friend of Miller, organized the ceremony.
Attended Milton Greene, Lee and Paula Strasberg, John Moore
(Marilyn's firend, decorator and dress designer), and on Miller's side,
his cousin Morton Miller (Arthur's best man) and his wife Florence.
On the papers, at name of the father, Marilyn wrote Edward Mortenson.
Miller had ordered a ring to Cartier, but because it wasn't ready, he borrowed his mother Augusta's wedding ring, for the ceremony.
At the time, the press didn't know anything about this ceremony.
The newly weds went back to Roxbury at 9.30 PM.
JULY :
Sunday, July 1st :
This morning, Marilyn was converted to Judaism (22nd Tammouz 5716 of the Jewish calendar). Her certificate of conversion
(
) was signed by Milton Greene, Arthur Miller, Kermit Miller (his brother) and rabbi Robert Goldberg.
Arthur
and Marilyn's religious wedding was later celebrated by
rabbi Goldberg, at Miller's author's agent, Kay Brown
(
), in South Salem
(State of New York), assisted by Kermit Miller and Hedda Rosten.
Her bridesmaid were Amy Greene (who helped her to dress and make up)(
), Hedda Rosten and Judy Kantor.
Her wedding gown in beige chiffon had been designed by dress designers John Moore and Norman Norell
(
).
Milton Greene accompanied her and confided her to Lee Strasberg's arm (final expression of his role as a father toward Marilyn) who led her to the altar, under the wedding canopy.
According
to the Jewish ritual, the newly weds drank some wine, exchanged the
wedding rings and Miller broke his glass in the memory of Jerusalem
destruction (
,
,
,
).
During the last 2 days, Miller had purchased a golden ring, engraved " A. to M., June 1956. Now is forever".
The ceremony lasted 10 minutes.
There was about 25 guests at this wedding (
,
,
,
,
), including George
Axelrod, the screenwriter of "The Seven Year Itch", Arthur's children, his brother Kermit, his sister Joan, his cousin Morton and their husbands and wives, the Strasbergs, the Rostens and the Greenes,
and also John Moore.
The menu was made up of, among others, roast beef, thins slices of turkey and champagne.
Before leaving to London, Arthur put up for sale his house of Roxbury.
Monday, July 2 : the Herald Tribune published the following classified ad : "Love nest of the playwright and the movie star.
7 rooms, 3 bathrooms, pool, tennis court, garage for 2 cars, small studio. 2 hectares. 29 500$ (38 500 with 12 hecatres more)".
The house was quickly sold for 27 500$ ; after having settled a small mortgage and the expenses, the remained sum was deposited in third hand in preparation for the purchase of a neighboring property.
Lee
Strasberg met and negotiated with Milton Greene Paula's presence fees on the set of "The Sleeping Prince", in London.
He asked for 25 000$ for 10 weeks of work (2 500$ a day), plus the
expenses, and the double for the overruns (so a total of 38 000$).
Failing that, Strasberg suggested that the Marilyn Monroe Productions gave him a commission on the movie takings. Lee added that if his demands weren't fullfilled, Paula wouldn't leave to England.
Strasberg didn't refrain from sniping at Laurence Olivier. According to him, Olivier, who despised the Method and the Actors Studio, and hadn't the slightest respect for Strasberg himself, wasn't the right director Marilyn needed. Strasberg wanted George Cukor to be engaged in its stead. Milton Greene considered Strasberg as a blackmailer, but Marilyn refused to discuss and insisted on granting Strasberg everything he wanted.
It was obviously much more than the Marilyn Monroe Productions could afford; Marilyn suggested to give a part of her fee, and that's how Paula became the 3rd best paid person of the movie, after Laurence Olivier and Marilyn.
Tis first week fo July was full of tricky negotiations, all under Milton Greene's responsability.
With Irving Stein, they had to settle many legal and commercial questions : disagreement with Laurence Olivier about the agreement between the Marilyn Monroe Productions and Olivier's production company; discussions involving the MCA and Jack Warner; and with the British employment department which didn't appreciate the unsual number of American people taking part in this coproduction.
The Millers asked their friend Hedda Rosten to join the company as Marilyn's private secretary, with a salary of 200$ a week.
At the last minute, Miller's lawyer in Washington DC, Joseph Rauh managed to an arrangement with the Department of State if Miller signed a letter under oath, promising to come back in case he would be judged for contempt, he would have a valid passport for 6 months (and not 2 years, the usual length). So it was very good news and Miller got his passport.
This
week, Marilyn made the fitting of the costumes for "The Sleeping
Prince" and on this occasion, was once again taken in picture by Milton
Greene (
,
,
,
).
Monday, July 9 : Milton Greene and
Irving Stein left to London.
Tuesday, July 10 : the House Un-American Activities Committee voted and recommended the US Congress to charge Miller with contempt. Miller had to leave the country on July 13; so that meant the Congress would vote, Miller and Marilyn would already be in London.
Friday, July 13 : the Millers left to London (
,
,
,
,
,
).
Saturday, July 14 :
They arrived in London for the shooting of "The Sleeping Prince" (
,
,
,
,
).
Laurence
Olivier and Lady Olivier (Vivien Leigh) were waiting for them at the airport (
,
,
,
), with more than 70 policemen in charge of channeling the 200 wild reporters and photographers.
A brief press conference took place at the bar of the airport (
,
;
,
,
,
).
An Austin Princess limo drove the Millers to Surrey (
,
). Milton Greene and Arthur Jacobs
(who was in charge of Marilyn's public relations) also went there, escorted by 4 policemen.
The Millers setlted at Parkside House (
),in Englefield Green, Egham (
,
,
) (near Windsor Park, an hour by car from London). They rented the superb Georgian manor to Lord
North, director of the Financial Times
and his wife, the actress and pianist Joan Carr.
This
manor from the 18th Century, included 5 rooms, a living-room with oak
beams, 2 bathrooms and service rooms, and was surrounded by a 5
hectares park and a rose garden (
,
).
In this house, heavy curtains had been set at Marilyn's bedroom window, because she could only sleep in complete darkness. The room, at Milton Greene's initiative, had also been furnished in white (bed, curtains, furniture, carpet) like in her New York apartment.
In the finest British tradition, the reporters besieged the property gate during their whole stay.
Sunday, July 15 : after a picture session in Egham (
,
,
,
,
), a press conference was held in the Lancaster room of the London Savoy Hotel, to announce the beginning of the shooting (
,
,
;
,
,
,
,
;
,
).
,
,
,
).
Wednesday, July 18, Thursday 19 and Friday 20 :
Marilyn made the fitting of the costumes and the make-up tests
with Milton Greene for the shooting in Technicolor (
,
,
).
Laurence
Olivier had planned 3 days of screen-tests.
Marilyn met Jack Cardiff (
,
),
the head cameraman (who had been awarded by an Academy Award), and
who Marilyn had wanted to be hired for "The Sleeping Prince". She wanted
to use the white pearly make-up she wore in "Bus Stop", but Cardiff
warned her that a too pale make-up might made her teeth appeared grey.
As
she hadn't yet seen the final version of "Bus Stop"; they both
went in the Fox private screening-room in London, to watch it
together. Marilyn saw that Cardiff was right : Cherie's make-up
couldn't fit her character of "The Sleeping Prince".
Nevertheless he took her in picture during the shooting (
,
,
).
But she also saw that her favorite scene, the one where Cherie longly spoke about her past , had been cut. Sure to have been excellent in this scene, Marilyn thought that her drama acting allowed her to be an actress considered for her own true worth.
She
sank in despair. In one second, her whole world collapsed and all her
anger focused in Joshua Logan. Convinced to have been betrayed, sure
that he had never believed in her as he had claimed it, she didn't
ever want to admit that, actually, Logan had fought to keep the scene,
but Buddy Adler (
)
(producer at the Fox) and Spyros Skouras (director of the Fox), who
found it unnecessary, had themselves decided to cut the scene.
To Marilyn, the first director she had chosen had deceived her.
This week, Arthur and Marilyn had many time for them (
,
,
,
).
Monday, July 23 : Paula Strasberg, Hedda Rosten, Amy
and Joshua Greene arrived in London. Hedda Rosten was there, officially to be Marilyn's secretary.
The
Greenes settled at Tibbs Farm, in Ascot.
Miller explained to Milton Greeen his own financial situation : he had to pay 16 000$ a year to his 2 children; his ex-wife earned 40% of his income; and he had problems with the taxes and was indebted to his lawyers. Wouldn't it be possible to add his income, besides, low, to Marilyn's one? Could them have a common tax return?
During the rest of the year, the Marilyn Monroe Productions tried to find a way to arrange the situation. Those discussions took place despite the repeated advices of Miller's agent and friend, Kay Brown, who advised him to stand apart Marilyn's career.
Tuesday, July 24 : Terence Rattigan (author of the play "The Sleeping Prince") gave a ball in Marilyn's honor, in Little Court, his Surrey country house.
The Little Court garden was decorated with multicolored paper lanterns. There were tables with white tablecloths and a buffer with a lobster curry. Later, they danced inside the house.
Terence
Rattigan and Laurence Olivier welcomed the guests, who began to arrive at 9.00 PM.
Rattigan had invited Lady Diana Cooper, Tyrone
Power, Sybil Thorndike (who played in "The Sleeping Prince"), Margot Fonteyn, John Gielgud, Peggy
Ashcroft and other celebrities.
Columnist Louella Parsons
had also came from the USA, the powerful press group Hearst had
put pressure on Milton Greene to send an invitation to its reporter.
The Millers arrived around 11.00 PM (
,
,
). They danced cheek to cheek , holding tightly each other, under the eye of everybody.
The presence among the guests of Winthorp Aldrich, the US ambassador in London, had the most interest for Marilyn : few hours before the US Congres vote, which had to charge Miller with contempt and which had to take place the following day, Marilyn proved with her actions that she totally supported her husband.
They left the party around 4.00 AM. The next day, Wednesday, July 25, they stayed at Parkside
House and rested the whole day.
During the day of Wednesday, 25, they learned that Miller was charged of contempt by the US Congress, with 379 votes versus 9. This charge would be passed to the public prosecutor for investigation and possible proceedings.
Monday, July 30 : the rehearsals of "The Sleeping Prince" started. But with her concerns about Arthur Miller, Marilyn wasn't in a favorable state of mind to begin the rehearsals.Laurence Olivier was already working for 45 minutes with the other actors, Sybil Thorndike (
,
), Richard Wattis and Jeremy
Spenser, when Marilyn arrived, Paula Strasberg on her heels.
This delay was Marilyn's first mistake. Her neglected appearance and her shagged mood were the second one. The third was Paula's presence.
When Olivier had agreed to direct the movie, he didn't know that Marilyn would insist to come with her drama teacher. It was only during the first weeks of pre-production he had discovered that Paula belonged to the crew. For a man with Olivier's pride, the presence of another artistic counselor was itself unbearable. Milton Greene had promised him that Paula would remain in Marilyn's dressing-room and wouldn't show in the set.
This movie was a production of the Marilyn Monroe Productions : Marilyn herself had instigated the project. She had negotiated with Rattigan. She had won the race of rights of "The Sleeping Prince". She had convinced Laurence Olivier to direct it, to play the masculine leading role and to co-produce it. But once she had arrived for the rehearsals with Paula Strasberg, everything as changed as if she was working in someone else movie.
Several
reasons for this. The fact the movie was shot in an English studio with
English crew and actors, put Marilyn in an inferiority position. To
make things worse, Olivier had already directed this story on stage; so
he was familiar to the text.
Lastly, he had his artist stature; it was
hard for her to consider the project as hers.
Olivier introduced her to the other actors, to his associate director and to several production representatitves.
Laurence Olivier had talked with 3 directors who had directed Marilyn : John Huston, Billy Wilder and Joshua Logan, who emerged hurt but triumphant from the shooting of "Bus Stop". Logan wrote several times to Olivier to warn him : "Don't dictate her what she had to do. She probabaly knows more about the movie acting that anyone else. Don't give her orders, it takes her aback, and you wouldn't be able to obtain anything else".
AUGUST :
This shotting should be Miller first experience of life with Marilyn in the middle of a shooting, while he had to work on his next play.
He had never had to face Marilyn's anxiety and insomnia when she was shooting. He had never had to put up with alcohol and drugs with which she tried to overcome the test.
Tuesday, August 7 : beginning of the shooting after a week of rehearsals at the Pinewood
Studios (
,
,
).
Like Olivier, Marilyn should have arrived at the studio at 7.00 AM, in order to be dressed and made up. But she only arrived at 8.30 AM with Paula. From the start, it was obvious that Paula not at all intended to remain in Marilyn's dressing-room. Milton Greene's assurances went up in smoke.
Actually, Greene couldn't promise anything else. It was ages Marilyn didn't listen to him anymore. Even if Joshua Logan had managed to ban Paula from the set of "Bus Stop", "The Sleeping Prince" was a Marilyn Monroe's production, with a participation of Jack Warner, limited to the financing and the distribution. On this point at least, Marilyn was using her authority. Paula stayed on the set and Olivier couldn't do anything. Of course, he could give the project up, but he had invested too much time and money to envisage it.
For "Bus Stop", Paula was only a coach. For "The Sleeping Prince", she seemed to assume the role of Marilyn's personal director.
Paula's conspicuous presence on the set proclaimed that Olivier was unable to run an actress of the Method.
Greene
had wanted to be Marilyn's executive producer; her, had wanted to be
able to choose what was the best for her.
But Greene had thought he
would be the great producer and that Marilyn would work for him.
To
establish his primacy on the set and to thwart Paula's huge influence,
Laurence Olivier adopted the most condescending behavior (
): to him, his partner was only a Hollywood product from who would demand the greatest docility.
The shooting couldn't begin in a worse way : Marilyn, who finally was getting rid of the sexy parts stranglehold she had been confined in, and eagerly applied the introspection and the motivation search commended by the Strasberg's Method, received from Laurence Olivier the instruction to "be sexy"'.
Marilyn, indignant, ran away from the set. But Olivier, wanted her to become "Marilyn", had only expressed the trust he had in her as an actress.
Since this moment, Marilyn was sure that even in her own production, she was compelled to the treatement without any respect the Fox already imposed her.
She called Lee Strasberg in New York and poured her sadness and anger; Strasberg inevitably knew that Marilyn couldn't work in this condition. It was essential that her first independent production would succeed; she absolutely had to do the movie. Strasberg was very angry with Laurence Olivier.
This incident caused the end of any normal work relations between Marilyn and Olivier. From then on, she completely ended to believe that the part she had so difficulties to obtain, could change the image she had. Mortified, she felt stupid to have been able to imagine that Olivier could take her seriously.
More than ever, Marilyn waited Arthur's visits on the set. He was there to help her to overcome this test.
When it was obvious that Greene had no more influence in Marilyn, and couldn't do anything against Paula, Olivier turned toward Arthur Miller. Marilyn trusted Arthur, and he may ensure that she arrived at the studio on time. It was also Miller's interest because each delayed day engendered a loss of money of Marilyn's production company.
,
,
,
,
).
But it was obvious that Laurence Olivier and Marilyn, were wrong about each other.
Each evening when she came back, she let her anger exploded. She
didn't end shouting after Olivier. Her long conversations with Lee
increased her anger. The crisis she went through prevented her from
finding sleep, and Arthur spent sleepless nights, while he needed calm
and isolation to work. The only way she had to sleep was to take drugs.
She expected Arthur to share her indignation and interpreted every disagreement as a treason.
Att the end of this week, Marilyn, searching for a copy of her screenplay (
),
came in the music room of their rented manor. Arthur wasn't there. She
saw the screenplay she was looking for on Arthur's desk, next to one of
his notebook. The first lines concerned her. She was appalled. In his
notebook, Arthur had expressed his disappointment about her, his doubts
on their union he felt as a load and his fear that Marilyn would
compromise his own creativity.
She was different from what he imagined, and Marilyn convinced herself that he regretted having married her.
Trusting her feelings, she had dared feeling worthy of being loved. But the discovery of the notebook had changed everything.
She was convinced that Arthur would abandon her, like the others.
Saturday, August 18 : the Millers attended a second party organized by Terence Rattigan.
Laurence Olivier was absent : he has remained at home, at his wife's bedside, Viven Leigh, who had just had a miscarriage.
Friday, August 24 : Arthur Miller announced his leaving to the USA on Sunday, August 26.
The prosecutor who dealt with the contempt cases at the US Congress, was on vacation and had to go back to work only on the second week of September. Miller intended to spend 10 days with his children before going back to England. He travelled under the name of Mr Stevenson, not to face the reporters.
This Friday, he came to pick Marilyn up at the Pinewood Studios. Actually she went back with Paula while Miller agreed to have a drink with Milton Greene and Laurence Olivier in the dessing-room of this one. Marilyn took it the wrong way because she demanded that Miller, in her conflict with Olivier, completely and radically took her side.
Arthur
didn't leave on Sunday, but postponed his leaving on Thursday, August 30.
Before going back to the USA, he wanted to travel to Paris to see
Yves Montand and his wife, Simone Signoret who were shooting a version
of "The Crucible" on a screenplay of Jean-Paul Sartre.
Monday, August 27 : seeing that Miller's leaving was a desertion, Marilyn didn't go to the studio.
Tuesday, August 28 : she arrived at the studio to work.
In the evening, Milton Greene had to bring her some other pills : she had had an argument with Arthur, and he had ended by withdrawing. It was on the phone that her psychoanalyst, Margaret Hohenberg, managed to calm her down enough so that the sedatives could take effect and that she sleeps.
Wednesday, August 29 and Thursday 30 : Marilyn didn't go to the studio.
Thursday, August 30, Miller left England to the USA via his stay in France; Marilyn accompanied him to the airport
(
,
,
,
,
).
Friday, August 31 : Milton Greene called Irving Stein, lawyer of the Marilyn Monroe Productions, to announce him that Marilyn was pregnant. A gynecologist, come in Parkside House, confirmed the pregnancy.
Anxious by the idea of losing her baby, Marilyn began to drink, adding sedatives to champagne. Hedda Rosten didn't leave her.
Marilyn and Arthur, arrived from New York, talked for hours.
To Marilyn, Olivier didn't work with her, but competed with her.
Milton Greene didn't end commuting between Marilyn's home, the studios and London, doing his best to create a minimum harmony between Marilyn and Laurence Olivier, and the English press. Without Greene, the movie wouldn't have ever been finished.
One
of Milton's stratagems to control Marilyn, was to provide her all the
drugs she needed (or she believed she needed) to hold one day to
another.
It seemed well that
Greene only had this position left. He gave her tonics to invalidate
the barbiturates effects she took in big quantities, at night. When the
sedatives didn't work enough quickly, Marilyn took some more,
forgetting how many she had already swallowed.
In England, the stimulants hadn't the same color that the ones Marilyn was used to, and she accused Greene not to give her the good drug.
It's sure that this shooting was the beginning of the end of her partnership with Milton Greene.
As
associate within the production company, Milton Greene didn't really
like to see Arthur Miller more involving in the aforementioned
productions. Arthur took advantage of a kind of tension in Marilyn and
Milton's relations, to try to better control the Marilyn Monroe
Productions (first semester1957).
A year later, (Aoril 1957) Greene was dismissed.
Miller started to express his doubts about Lee Strasberg and his almost religious influence on Marilyn. He had never much appreciated the "cultural aura" surrounding the Method and hadn't liked the fact that, just before his appearance in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Lee and Paula Strasberg had suggested him to appear as a "friendly" witness , what Paula had herself done several years earlier. Miller, like Elia Kazan, was skeptical about the way Strasberg made the actors dependent on him.
However, in his play "After the Fall", published 2 years after Marilyn's death, there was a scene where the feminine leading role, Maggie, found a note which upset her.
Miller was taken in Marilyn's torments (nasty relations with Laurence Olivier about who she thought that he despised her as a person and as an actress, then the difficulties with Milton Greene) who prevented him from devoting to his work.
Laurence Olivier also had serious problems with his wife, Vivien Leigh. She was for a long time prone to nervous breakdowns and fits of anger, where she lost her cool. The 2 wives had also had a miscarriage.
Those tragedies brought Arthur Miller and Laurence Olivier closer together.
On Marilyn's request, Lee Strasberg arrived in London, paid for by the Marilyn Monroe Productions.
Despite rumors and frictions, the movie didn't exceed the budget, and only 2 days were necessary to take some scenes again.
Marilyn went to do some shopping and bought some presents for Arthur's children, at Harrod’s, in London;
a crowd of fans pressed around her, in such a point that the police had
to be called to restore law and order. She also bought some things at
Marks and Spencer store, privately, after the leaving of the others
clients (
,
).
Friday, August 31 : release of "Bus Stop" (
;
). Marilyn, shooting in England, couldn't attend the premiere.
Marilyn was convinced that her character, Cherie's monologue, cut during the editing, had cost her a nomination to the Academy Awards.
However, the movie was acclaimed by the critics.
SEPTEMBER:
Wednesday, September 5 : having learned that Marilyn was pregnant, Miller was back to England, a week earlier before the scheduled date (Wednesday, September 12).
Saturday, September 8 : Marilyn had a miscarriage, and lost her child.
Sunday, September 9 : whatever
were Marilyn's doubts about her wedding, she publicly defended Arthur
when Lord Chamberlain wanted to forbid "A View from the Bridge" for its
allusion to homosexuality. Shocked by the censure, Marilyn was one of
the first people to join the Watergate Theater Club, an association
which protested against each form of interference in arts :
The Marilyn Monroe Productions's lawyer, Irving Stein, after months of scowling exchange of letters and threats of summoning, met the owners of the Beverly Glen house, occupied in Spring by Marilyn and the Greenes, during the shooting of "Bus Stop", and which had been goven back with many damages.
The owners, Mr and Mrs Sidney Lushing, asked for the repayment of many broken or damaged items : 2 electric blankets; 6 pillows; 8 sheets; 5 wool blankets; 10 chair covers; an invoice of 300$ for the cleaning of the carpets and furniture; a phone invoice of 300$; more than a dozen of cups, saucers, glasses and tumblers in crystal, broken; 3 broken lamps; 3 curtains; 2 pieces of garden furniture. Besides, the workers had to remove the heavy black tissue Marilyn had made nailed inside her bedroom (the slightest light prevented her from sleeping, whatever she took or not some sedatives). Such damages were hard to explain. The demolition work seemed to be due to fool parties, a photographer overburdened with work who tried hard to take his new responsibilities, to a sometimes unstable movie star and an atmosphere where the alcohol and the drugs use had someting exacerbated.
(
,
) and "Caucasian Chalk Circus" of Bertold Brecht at the Palace Theater
(
,
,
,
).
OCTOBER:
Marilyn met the poet Dame Edith Sitwell (
), she had already met in November 1954 in Los Angeles; together, they talked about English poets Dylan Thomas and Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Wednesday, October 3 : Marilyn didn't go to the studio.
Lee
Strasberg had arrived the previous day and came to the Pinewood
studio: he wanted to be on the set with Paula to guarantee Marilyn's
correct performance.
Milton Greene was sent to dismiss Lee Strasberg at the entrance of the studio.
Lee Strasberg having been expelled by Laurence Olivier, Paula went back to New York, accompanied with Hedda Rosten (who drank so much that she couldn't help anybody and had to take care of her daughter, Patricia, who startes a new school year).
The expenses were paid by the Marilyn Monroe
Productions.
Their leaving plunged Marilyn in a deep loneliness. So Milton Greene made Dr Margaret Hohenberg come ; many expenses for few results because Dr Hohenberg directly announced that "Milton had been wrong to found the Marilyn Monroe Productions with Marilyn, and that she didn't know how long the partners could keep on working together in such a tense atmosphere".
Of
course, Marilyn saw a complete reject of her professional life by
her own psychiatrist. However, Dr Hohenberg advised her
to see her old friend, Anna Freud (
) (Sigmund
Freud's daughter) and famous analyst in London.
Friday, October 12 :
Miller and Marilyn, Laurence
Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and Jack Cardiff and his wife, joined
together to have a drink at Lowndes Cottage, in Belgravia, London,
before attending the premiere of "A View From the Bridge", Miller's
play, at the Comedy Theater (
,
,
,
,
;
,
,
,
,
;
,
).
Few days later (October 17 or 18) "Bus Stop" was presented in London, and Marilyn got many praises.
Monday, October 29 : Marilyn was introduced to the Queen of England, at the Empire Theatre, in Leicester Square.
Before a showing of the British movie "The Battle of the River Plate" (
,
,
,
,
), 20 movie stars were introduced to the Queen, including Brigitte Bardot (
), Joan
Crawford, Anita Ekberg and Victor Mature (
,
,
,
).
Shortly after, Marilyn was immortalized at the wax museum Mrs Tussaud.
The agreement between Milton Greene and Laurence Olivier gave the title of "executive producer" to Milton Greene; but in the end of October, Laurence Olivier found that inappropriate, and clearly put the dispute in Jack Warner's hands. In the first copies of the movie, Milton Greene's name appeared, but thereafter, his name mysteriously as unfairly disappeared.
Marilyn wrote to Jack Warner (Warner Brothers was the distributor of the movie) and told him she was convinced that Milton had undertaken some cuts on the movie, behind her back. She did her best so that Greene wasn't credited as executive producer, a point on which they had agreed to at the beginning.
A day of October, Paula Strasberg called Marilyn from New York, to tell her that her work permit had expired and that someone seemed to have used its authority to avoid her return.
Marilyn,
convinced that Laurence Olivier and Milton Greene had got
something to do with it, swore she stopped working until Paula wouldn't
be back on the set. Olivier stepped in, in this direction, and Paula
was back on the set on Wednesday, October 31.
Actually, during Paula's absence, Olivier had engaged another
American in the production of "The Sleeping Prince", deliberatly.
Indeed, the movie was made thanks to the Eady Plan, a subvention
program to help the British movie industry, for which the government
provided a financial help; in this way, the number of Americans on the
hired employees records was limited. With the quota filled during her
whole absence, Paula wasn't anymore allowed to come back to work in
England.
Paula was convinced thta it came from Laurence Olivier, but actually, Marilyn put pressure on him and it was thanks to him that Paula could obtain a new work permit and come back in England.
NOVEMBER:
Arthur and Marilyn attended a discussion about the English theater at the Royal Court Theater :
,
,
;
Milton
Greene got more and more angry about Miller's influence on Marilyn;
Miller openely expressed to Marilyn his hostility toward Milton Greene
and advised her to completely take the control of the production
company.
At the end of the shooting, Miller and Milton Greene almost didn't talk to each other.
It was during the shooting that Milton Greene got closer to Jack Cardiff, with who he planned to set a company to make movies in England.
Cardiff had purchased some plays he wanted to direct for his own production. Among others, he had bought the screenplay of "Sons and Lovers" of D.H.Lawrence, he later successfully shot. But Greene's projects were stopped by Arthur Miller.
At that time, Miller started the writing of a short story inspired by an experience he had lived while he was waiting for sueing for divorce, and being able to start a new life with Marilyn. In Reno, Nevada, he had spent time with 2 cow-boys who hunted wild horses. It was the beginning of the writing of "The Misfits".
Then, Miller received a summoning from the Foreign Office, which asked him when did he plan to come back to the USA to appear in front of the Grand Jury. Miller informed them that, contrary to many people having fled the Maccarthysm and having settled in England, he planned to soon come back to the USA.
Milton Greene had managed not to exceed the budget and to finish the movie within the given time.
Thursday, November 22 : Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh accompanied Marilyn and Arthur Miller at the airport
(
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
).
They all put up a good show, while the life of each of them had been shattered since they had met there in July : Viven Leigh had lost her baby and through this, each opportunity to save her marriage. Laurence Olivier had missed the occasion of the personal revival he hoped to achieve before his fifties. Arthur Miller had understood that his life with Marilyn would be different than everything he had imagined. And Marilyn, still upset by what she had read in Arthur notebook, had all the reasons to believe that her wedding as her first independent movie were doomed to failure.
,
,
,
). DECEMBER :
Tuesday, December 4 : she went to the Actors Studio, in order to do promote the play "Baby Doll", to the benfit of the Actors
Studio (
,
,
,
,
;
,
,
,
,
,
;
,
).
Tuesday, December 18 : premiere of "Baby Doll" at the Broadway Victoria
Theater (
,
,
,
,
,
,
).
With Arthur, then they attended the dancing evening given at the Waldorf Astoria
(
,
,
), during which Marilyn gave an interview on the radio (
,
).
Laurence Olivier arrived in New York and came to show the first editing of "The Sleeping Prince" to Jack Warner, the distributor of the movie. Everybody was worried about the fact that the movie was too long and not particularly funny.
The Warner Brothers, attentive to the success in movie theaters, insisted on changing the title which became "The Prince and the Showgirl".
The studio thought that Marilyn, who would atttact the public, should be represented in the title.
Milton Greene, maybe realizing but too late he hadn't made the right movie, decided of a publicity which would show Marilyn and Olivier in each other's arms. At the beginning, Olivier refused; but he wanted the movie to earn money and after many hesitations, ended by agreeing.
The picture session took place at Milton's studio, on Lexington Avenue (
,
).
This year, Darryl Zanuck, head of the production at the Fox, had resigned from his position and had emigrated to Europe where he worked as independent producer.
Buddy Adler replaced him.
Marilyn was nominated for the "Best Foreign Actress" in "The Seven Year Itch" by the
British Academy Awards.
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