My journey ends here...
1961
JANUARY :
Keen to forget the difficulties of "The Misfits" and to overcome the failure of her wedding by getting down to a new project, Marilyn linked up to Lee Strasberg to suggest a TV movie based on "Rain"of Somerset Maugham. She wrote to Maugham who answered her from his residence on the Fench Riviera, touched and happy that Marilyn wished to play his heroine.
Strasberg, lacking of resources and wanting to direct "Rain", was accompanied with Marilyn to his appointments with the heads of NBC channel, which at that time, produced many TV versions of successful novels.
The negotiations were going well. The contracts were about to be signed with NBC. But Lee Strasberg's insistence to make the direction was a barrier, the heads of the channel not willing to give up. They suggested Marilyn to entrust an experienced movie or TV director with the direction, and she would be consulted about this choice. Strasberg reacted with rage and Marilyn, with her wonted loyalty and thinking she would surely be better directed by Strasberg, defended her teacher and refused to play in "Rain" if the TV movie wasn't directed by Strasberg.
Saturday, January 14 :
She wrote her second will up(
,
).
The main beneficiaries were Gladys
Baker, her mother (5 000$ a year), Berniece Miracle, her half-sister
(10 000$ a year), May Reis,
her private secretary (10 000$ a year), Lee Strasberg (her
personal property and clothes, and 75% of the remaining estate), Dr Marianne Kris
(25% of the remaining estate and the money should be used to advance
the work of all groups or psychiatric institutions of her choice), Patricia Rosten, daughter of her friends Norman and Hedda Rosten (5 000$ for Patricia Rosten's studies), Xenia
Tchekhov, widow of Michael
Tchekhov (2 500$ a year to provide for her needs).
Friday, January 20 : Marilyn, Pat Newcomb and Aaron Frosch (her lawyer in New York) left New York (
,
) and arrived in El Paso (Texas) and crossed
the frontier to go to Juarez, Mexico (El Paso and Juarez are
both on
the American-Mexican frontier)(
,
).
Marilyn and Pat Newcomb made a stop over in Dallas during which they watched John Kennedy's investiture ceremony
(
).
Arthur Miller, Joseph and Olie Rauh (Miller's lawyer in Washington), Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford were, among others, the
guests of the investiture ball (
,
).
The divorce of the Millers was granted for general incompatibility by judge
Miguel Gomez Guerra.
Miller obtained the guard of their basset hound Hugo and kept the Roxbury's farm,
which had been purchased with the income of the sale of his former
house; he made it his permanent residence and then lived there with Inge Morath, his third wife.
There were no alimony. Just the sharing out of some personal items.
Arthur having signed a release of his rights to contest a divorce unilateral request , had to appear in person.
Saturday, January 21, during the day, Marilyn was back in New York, welcomed by Lee Strasberg (
,
,
,
,
).
Tuesday, January 31 : she attended the sneak preview of "The Misfits" with Montgomery Clift, at the Capitol Theater, on
Broadway (
,
,
,
,
,
).
Arthur
Miller also attended, accompanied with is 2 children, Jane and Robert (
,
), but they carefully stayed clear from her.
The showing was a painful moment for her. Once the lights on, she left the room.
In New York, Miller met Inge Morath, photographer at the Magnum agency,
who had been on the set of "The Misfits", the first week of shooting.
On her suggestion, Miller settled at the Chelsea Hotel, where she liked
to stay.
Wednesday, February 1st : after the divorce, the failure of her last 2 movies, the end of the negotiations for "Rain", with no project of work to support her, Marilyn couldn't hold onto anything.
She mentionned to Marianne Kris the idea of suicide. She shut herself away for several days, taking many barbiturates.
Marianne Kris, afraid of an acting out, suggested her to make her enter the hospital.
Release of "The Misfits"
(
;
,
). as for "Let's Make Love",
her last movie was not well welcomed by the critics; the story
disconcerted the public and the way the actors acted disappointed.
The mind probably befuddled by the impressive amount of drugs she took, Marilyn didn't really have the measure of such a step.
She wasn't put in an usual room, as it had been planned with Marianne Kris, but at the Payne Whitney Clinic, the psychiatric department of the hospital where the great troubled people were locked up. She was locked up in a padded cell for troubled people only.
When she realized she was in a security wing, Marilyn collapsed.
Her worse nightmare, being locked up as had been her mother and grand-mother, came true; she had an hysterics, wanted to get out and was so agitated that she was threatened with the straitjacket. Her clothes and purse had been taken off.
This hospitalization was so sudden that her circle, the Strasbergs, Pat Newcomb,
John Springer (of the public relations agency of Arthur
Jacobs), May Reis and Ralph
Roberts, was taken by surprise.
), they received on Wednesday, February 8.
But the Strasbergs had no power and surely not the one to demand Marilyn's release.
Thursday, February 9 : without any news from the Strasbergs, Marilyn was allowed to give a phone call, and called DiMaggio; he arrived from Saint Petersburg Beach, Florida, where he trained the Yankees team during winter, and commanded Dr Kris to let her getting out and entrusted him with her.
Friday, February 10 :
To avoid any publicity, it was her friend, masseur, Ralph Roberts, who took Marilyn back home, accompanied with Marianne Kris. Marlilyn violently criticised her therapist and after having dropped Marilyn home where Joe was waiting for her, Ralph Roberts drove Dr Kris back home.
Marilyn never saw again Marianne Kris, but ironically, she belonged to her heirs because her name appeared in the will she had signed hardly a month earlier.
DiMaggio understood that, whatever Marilyn's conditon before her hospitalization, she was very unhappy.
She agreed to enter a hospital in a more comfortable and less menacing place, on conditon that Joe spent his days with her.
The press wasn't informed.
During her stay and her insomnia nights, Marilyn read Freud's correspondence, many books about psychoanalysis and psychiatry, and Sean O'Casey's biogaphy, an Irish playwright.
The Fox continued to consider Marilyn as an asset, despite her condition. It was also Lee Strasberg's opinion who still tried to edit "Rain". To his eyes, psychoanalysis probabaly wouldn't improve Marilyn's condition before many years, while a real drama part would allow her to channel her anger. He absolutely didn't intend to let the Fox forcing her to shoot "Good Bye Charlie".
But Marilyn's hospitalization postponed the contract signature with NBC for "Rain".
Only Joe DiMaggio seemed convinced that Marilyn's career was killing her.
When Arthur Miller learned that Marilyn had entered the Payne Whitney, he was very affected and contacted Nan Taylor (the wife of his friend and producer of "The Misfits", Frank Taylor) because he thought about getting in touch with her. But Marilyn not belonging anymore to his life, Nan advised him not to meddle in.
).
MARCH:
Thursday, March 2 : she wrote a letter to Dr Greenson, in which she told him about her stay at Payne Whitney
(
,
,
,
,
,
,
).
Sunday, March 5 :
After a 23 days rest cure, she got back to her apartment on 57th Street.
When she left the hospital, 7 guards escorted her through a crew of fans, reporters and photographers
(
,
,
,
,
). May
Reis, Pat Newcomb (
,
,
,
,
,
,
) and her colleague of the Arthur Jacobs agency in New York, John Springer, were there to help her.
Joe DiMaggio invited her to join him in Florida, where he made the spring training of the Yankees in St Petersburg. Marilyn grasped the opportunity to get away for a while and to receive the friendship and the security DiMaggio offered her.
She spent few days resting in her apartment, with May Reis and Pat Newcomb.
At that era, Pat was very protective toward Marilyn.
Wednesday, March 8 : accompanied with May Reis, Marilyn attended Augusta
Miller's funeral, Arthur Miller's mother
(
,
), despite their recent break-up and her outing of the hospital.
She offered her condolences to Arthur and cheered her ex father-in-law up, Isadore. This one had to have a surgery when his wife died. He left the hospital to attend her funeral.
The days following Augusta Miller's funeral, Marilyn regularly called Isadore, talked to his doctor and sent him some flowers.
Monday, March 13 : Marilyn, with the Strasbergs, attended a party in aid of the Actors Studio at the Roseland Dance City, in
New York (
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
).
End of March : she joined Joe DiMaggio in Florida (
,
). He took her at the quiet and peaceful seaside resort of North Redington Beach.
They stayed at the Tides Motor Inn, in 2 separated rooms (
,
,
,
).
They rested (
,
,
,
), swam, picked some shells up
(
,
,
), had dinner alone and went to bed early.
Once or 2 times, they went to St Petersburg, at Fort Lauderdale, to attend a Yankees training (
,
,
,
,
,
).
She also visited her sister Berniece, in Gainesville and stayed with DiMaggio in a motel in Gainesville.
This stay hugely helped Marilyn changing her mind.
Legally, the Fox had until April 14, 1961 to make Marilyn work, at the risk of completely losing her.
While the legal department was threatening Cukor with a trial, the heads of the studio, distraught, was looking for an available director approved by Marilyn.As long as the Fox would have one of the 16the directors on the list, Marilyn had to shoot "Good Bye Charlie", and the heads of the studio had to try hard to join them.
They contacted Billy Wilder, John Huston, Joshua Logan, Elia Kazan, William Wyler, George
Stevens, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock and Carol Reed.
APRIL:
Sunday, April 2 :
Joe
DiMaggio and Marilyn were back to New York city, after their stay in Florida (
,
,
,
, 
).
Back
from Florida, Marilyn found a letter from Frank Ferguson, the lawyer of
the studio, announcing her about Cukor's withdrawal.
He informed Marilyn the Fox had postponed the beginning of the shooting
of her movie. In case of the director's resignation, indeed, the studio
could receive a 4 weeks postponement.
Tuesday, April 11,
Marilyn and Joe attended a opening game of the base-ball season,
between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins, at the New
York Yankee Stadium (
,
,
,
,
,
).
She received a letter from Kay
Gable, Clark Gable's widow, dated from April 11,1961 (
).
End of April :
After
6 years spent on the East Coast, Marilyn decided to settle again
on the West Coast. New York represented for her too many painful
memories. In Hollywood, there were the shootings and Dr Greenson in who she put her safety.
Accompanied with Paula Strasberg, Marilyn arrived in Los Angeles with the firm intention to reach an agreement to be able to shoot "Rain" with Lee Strasberg.
She stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Thursday, April 20 : Frank Ferguson, the studio's lawyer, explained her that all the efforts had been done to contact one of the directors of the list, but none of them was available. So the Fox wanted to meet her to talk about a substitute.
For its part, the MCA, the agency which represented her, tried again.
Wednesday, April 26 : George Chasin, of the MCA, informed by phone Spyros Skouras (head of the Fox), the studio had let go by the date on which they had to start "Good Bye Charlie". If Skouras still wanted to work with Marilyn, he had then to enter in to an agreement with her production company. She would have been entitled to the project and the choice of the director. And of course, he had to make an upper financial proposal.
After having hung up, Skouras reread Marilyn's contract. Actually, he discovered that the counter had started to turn since April 14, the date on which Marilyn was supposed to introduce herself to Cukor. Obviously, the studio had until May 12 to put Marilyn on a movie.
The Fox intended to continue her efforts to found a substitute to Cukor, efforts which from then on, focused on Lee Strasberg.
When the Fox finally got hold of him in New York, Strasberg declared he would be available for a project which interested him.
Then, on Joe's advices, Marilyn contacted again Jane Ziegler, daughter of Viola Mertz, her former owner of 882 Doheny Drive, where she lived in 1952. By hazard, an apartement had just been free in the same building.So she hastily moved in, purchased some furniture, shelves, a big bed she put in the sitting-room, a dressing-table and a wardrobe.
The apartment was blue with mirrors from the floor to the ceiling in the dressing, and a black lacquered front door. She only did few changings, only brought few personal things ( her books, make-up and a suitcase of clothes) and didn't hang on the walls any of the reproductions which would make the place familial.
To eliminate the fans and tourists, her mail box had the name of Marjorie Stengel, Montgomery Clift's former secretary, who had briefly worked for Marilyn in New York during May Reis absence.
For her, it was only a place to crash. From there, she went for a drive in a Limo, for her sessions at Greenson's place, or at Dr Engelberg's office, to meet an agent, a publisher, a screenwriter or a producer.
Still sensitive to the noises, she only slept with Nembutal.
For the whole Spring, Marilyn suffered from a pain in her right flank, and had frequent indigestions.
MAY:
thursday, May 4 : 8 days before the sheduled date of the shooting, Frank Ferguson, the lawyer of the Fox, sent a telegraph to Aaron Frosch, Marilyn's lawyer, informing him that Strasberg planned to shoot "Good Bye Charlie". The studio looked forward to talk about it with Marilyn.
She received an invitation from Clark Gable's widow, for the christening of her son, John Clark. The ceremony demolished the rumor according to which Kay Gable reproached Marilyn for having caused the death of her husband with her constant lateness
and her whims on the set of
"The Misfits" (
,
,
,
,
).
Marilyn entered the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, where Dr Leon Krohn had a surgery on her to relieve her of a chronic endometritis.
During this whole period, she saw Dr Greenson a lot, whom Dr Marianne Kris had visited in Los Angeles, in March, in order to ralk about their patient.
Considering the resentment Marilyn felt from her Payne-Whitney stay, it was advisable another doctor took her in chargen but at that moment, it could only be Greenson.
She also mixing with Frank Sinatra a lot (
). When she had been hospitalized in New York, Sinatra had been very kind with her, calling her, giving her many presents.
Pat
Newcomb offered her a white poodle she named Maf (
,
,
).
With him, she made a picture session with photographer Eric Skipsey at the Beverly Hills Hotel
(
,
,
;
,
,
,
) in November 1961.
Sinatra took her at Peter Lawford's place in Santa Monica (
,
,
,
), where, during the parties organized there, alcohol flowed.
Peter Lawford's connection with the Kennedys gave the actor with a quite modest career, a new dimension and his parties had become the popular place.
Robert Kennedy was in Los Angeles to discuss about the production of the movie version of his book, "The Enemy Within", which was an account about his investigation concerning Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters Union, while Robert Kennedy was
chief advisor for the Senate Subcommittee on
Investigations (
)(a committe which fought against the organized crime).
It was Jerry Wald, producer at the Fox, who had purchased the rights of the book.
Robert Kennedy went to his brother-in-law, Peter Lawford, and met Marilyn for the first time, on this occasion.
Lee
Strasberg, for his part, looked forward to know the salary the studio
would give him for the direction of "Good Bye Charlie.
14 years
earlier, the Fox had dismissed him. The memory was bitter and he didn't
intend to put up with another affront : this time, he would be paid for
his own true worth.
The studio offered him 22 5000$, but Strasberg bitterly retorted that the suggested amount was unworthy of him.
Robert Goldstein (the new head of the Fox) agreed to raise up to 50 000$.
Again, Strasberg considered it wasn't enough.
At
the last lminute, Spyros Skouras (from then on president of the
Fox board of directors) finally decided not to sue Marilyn, and against
all expectation, allowed her not to shoot "Good Bye Charlie". In
return, Marilyn's lawyer, admitted she still owed a movie to the studio, whose beginning would be postponed on November 15.
Meanwhile, Skouras allowed Marilyn to shoot "Rain", on condition that she would have finished for October 30. Yet, NBC didn't give any credit to Strasberg.
The TV channel had no intention to engage an unexperienced director, contrary to the studio. Finally, Marilyn refused to shoot Rain" without him.
She went to the Los Angeles Crescendo Club (
) ; there, she met there Ray Charles (
) and
Ella Fitzgerald (
).
JUNE:
Thursday, June 1st : Marilyn celebrated her 35th birthday.
She became closer to Pat
Lawford Kennedy and often went to their home with Frank Sinatra, Dean and Jeanne Martin.
Wednesday, June 7 : Sinatra, who performed at the Las Vegas Sands (
,
), gave a party in the honor of Dean Martin's
44th birthday (
,
). Peter and Pat Lawford, Jean Kennedy Smith (sister of
Pat,
John and Robert Kennedy), Peter Lawford (
), Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie
Fisher
(
,
), and Marilyn (
,
), among others, attended the party.
Week of Sunday, June 25 to Friday 30 : back to
New York (
,
), Marilyn, still suffered from painful digestive disorders.
Wednesday, June 28,
accompanied with Joe DiMaggio and May Reis (
), she entered the Manhattan
Polyclinic
Hospital (
,
)
in New York, where the doctors diagnosed a cholangitis (bile duct
inflammation), the reason of her chronic pains and indigestions, which
led her to raise the barbiturates doses.
Thursday, June 29
: she had a gall bladder surgery.
When she awoke, Joe DiMaggio was at her bedside.
Durung her stay at the hospital, he visited her every day (
).
Then familial issues took him back to San Francisco from where he then left abroad for his business. Marilyn remained in constant touch with him.
JULY:
Tuesday, July 11 :
Marilyn left the hospital and was plagued with a crowd of 200 fans, reporters and photographers (
,
,
,
,
,
,
).
She rested in her New York apartment, 444 East 57th Street.
Kenneth Battelle (
,
,
), the famous New York hairstylist Marilyn had met during the shooting of "Some Like it Hot" in 1958, came to her place to take care of her hair.
Pat
Newcomb arrived from Los Angeles to help her.
Her half-sister, Berniece Miracle, also visited her and took care of her; they talked a lot about their mother, Gladys Baker, whom Marilyn still paid the stay in an institution.
End of July :
before Berniece Miracle went back to Gainesville, Florida, where she
lived, Ralph Roberts drove them both to Miller's farm in Roxbury,
where Marilyn had to get some stuff back (books, sculptures
including a bust of Carl Sandburg
(
)), delicate china, cocktail glasses and a big TV set, a gift from the RCA). Miller, knowing she came, was absent.
AUGUST:
Tuesday, August 8
: Marilyn went back to Los Angeles and stayed briefely at
Coldwater Drive, Frank Sinatra's place, who was on tour in
Europe.
She justified her return in Hollywood with the fact she still owed a movie to the Fox. But she hated the studio. The contract which had represented a real triumph to her, didn't mean a lot at that time.
At the Fox, everyone agreed to think that the period when she brought money in was over, behind her, prematurely old-looking aged 35, by suffering and alcohol and drugs abuse.
She asked Ralph Roberts to join her in order to be her companion, chauffeur (she had difficulties to drive since her gall bladder surgery) and masseur. This one agreed with delight.
She rented him a room at the Château
Marmont Hotel (10 minutes from her apartment of Doheny Drive). They wouldn't part until November.
Ralph helped her to settle in her apartment (he installed thick curtains), dropped her to the beautician, drove her every day at 4.00 PM at Greenson's home for her daily sessions, and at night, they often had dinner in the terrace.
Greenson was particularly cooperative : she could reach him night and day, and granted her a preferential fee of 50$ the session. Those ones lasted 2 to 3 hours. Later, when the problems got worse, he almost saw her every day, not to say twice a day.
She seemed to take it easy, was in best health, had refound her energy
and seemed happy and full of optimism. But her friends
Ralph Roberts, Pat
Newcomb, Susan Strasberg, Allan Snyder and Rupert Allan,
thought her psychotherapy didn't do her good, and the more she invested
in her psychoanalytical work, the more she seemed depressed.
Marilyn much associated with the Lawfords, Dean Martin (
), Sinatra and his gang, and spent a
week-end with him on the yacht of Romanoff (
,
,
,
,
,
), the owner of the famous restaurant with his name.
Friday, August 25 :
Marilyn was combed by Agnes
Flanagan and made up by Whitey Snyder for a picture session for Look magazine at John
Engstead's studio.
SEPTEMBER:
From Los Angeles, she called Lena
Pepitone, her New York housemaid and asked her to bring her the dress especially designed for her by dress designer Jean Louis (for the sum of 3 000$), because she wanted to wear it for the great ball she had to attend with Sinatra.
Pat Newcomb took the necessary arrangements and Lena Pepitone took the dress to Los Angeles. The evening of the ball, Sinatra offered her emerald and diamonds earrings (value 35 000$).
OCTOBER :
Monday,October 16 : the Fox informed Marilyn she would shoot with George Cukor in "Something's Got
to Give", a remake of "My Favourite Wife", a comedy of 1959.
This news caused within her what her doctor diagnosed as a deeply paranoid and depressive reaction . After "Let's Make Love", she was convinced that Cukor held it against her. She planned to give cinema up and talked about suicide, a threat Dr Greenson took very seriously. It was once again necessary to detoxify her of barbiturates, but after the Payne-Whitney event, Greenson didn't think wise to make her enter in a specialized health center.
At that time, the Fox wasn't anymore the awesome company which was the pride of its founder, Darryl
Zanuck. It didn''t finace anymore big movies and didn't earn one single dollar, on the contrary. Only in 1961,
its losses exceeded 22 millions $, which a big part would have been due
to the problems met with in Roma, for the "Cleopatra" production.
), metMilton Rudin (
), Frank Sinatra's lawyer, to talk about a contract with his client. Rudin was married with one of Greenons's sister.Preoccupied with Marilyn's condition, and estimated it was better for her to shoot a movie and free herself from the contract which linked her to the Fox, Greenson had asked his brother-in-law to step in.
Rudin
explained that Marilyn's problems with the Fox were purely
psychological. For her, it wasn't only a matter of salary or
contractual right of inspection, but a matter of respect. What she
needed was to be treated with dignity.
While the Fox mentionned George Cukor to shoot "Something's
Got to Give", the studio perfectly well knew that this one would be
occupied with the shooting of "The Chapman Report" for the Warner
until December 26,
ie more than a month after the deadline to put Marilyn back to
work. Nevertheless, Marilyn's contract with the Fox didn't force the
studio to start the shooting at that date. As a consequence, rather
than venturing on loosing the last movie she owed, the Fox rather
liked to keep on paying her, waiting for Cukor to finish "The Chapman
Report".
NOVEMBER :
Saturday, November 18 : Marilyn had dinner at the Greensons.
She often stayed to have dinner after her sessions, sometimes 4 times a week.
Greenson sent Ralph Roberts back, who came to pick her up after the session, and a member of the Greenson family, drove her back home later in the evening.
But rather than helping Marilyn to find within her new resources to assert her independence, and acquire an autonomous judgment, he reinforced her dependence and domination on her. And because he had suggested it to her, Marilyn started to more and more rely on his family : she called at their home whatever the hour to talk about her dreams, fears, hesitations on such or such screenplay, her sentimental issues.
Because it seemed that she belonged to the family, she adopted a behavior in consequence, asked Joan Greenson to drive her here and there when Ralph wasn't available.
Greenson hoped that by exposing Marilyn to a close-knit family warmth and affection, he offered her a compensation of the emotional lack she had suffered from since her childhood, and would pull her from her painful loneliness. But by welcoming her at his home, he also tried to show himself to be a real human being. He tried hard to make his patients admit that human beings weren't perfect and had to learn how to live in uncertainty.
He had diagnosed on Marilyn a borderline personality, drug addict and paranoid; this kind of personality afraid of being abandonned.
Sunday, November 19: invited to have dinner at Lawford's place, she met President John Kennedy (
,
).
The
night before, Kennedy had made a speech at the Hollywood Palladium and
had only few hours of rest before going back to the Beverly Hilton to
prepare a serie of interviews with Adenauer, Chancellor of West
Germany.
By moving in Sinatra and Lawford's circle, Marilyn plunged back in a world she had desperatly tried to flee from.
Influenced by Greenson, Marilyn didn't have the heart to be opposed to her doctor's decision who arbitrarily put an end to a strong and salutary friendship.
She was called to the Fox to which she still owed 2 movies.
Since the signature of her contract in 1955, she had only shot 2 movies for the Fox, "Bus Stop" and "Let's Make Love" and her 4 movies contract ended in 1962.
The Fox suggested her "Something’s Got to Give" directed by George Cukor, on a screenplay (
) of Nunnally Johnson.
She didn't want to shoot this movie but her lawyer, Milton Rudin
had told her that the studio could hinder her career if she refused.
Greenson, who also avised her, encouraged her to shoot htis
movie, so that she got rid of her obligations toward the Fox.
Marilyn made a picture session with a young photographer, Douglas Kirkland (
,
,
).
He worked for Look magazine who prepared a special issue for its 25th birthday.
He had already took picture of Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland and Shirley Mac Laine.
He met her 3 times. The first time, Kirkland went to her home with 2 assistants.
A second time, 2 days later, when the picture session took place in a photographer studio (
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
).
Then, 2 days after the session, when Kirkland came to show the proofs.
Greenson suggested Marilyn to purchase a house on her own, in the same Spanish style than his own house
(
,
,
,
) Marilyn liked a lot.
But she was quite reluctant to this idea, she didn't intend to stay nor
settle in California, and hoped to go back to New York after the
shooting of the movie. But under Greenson's rising influence, she
wasn't anymore able to decide.
Few days later, Eunice Murray
(
)
arrived at Marilyn's place in Doheny Drive, sent by
Greenson. She was her housekeeper, female companion, chauffeur, and
nurse.
As soon as she met Marilyn, Eunice considered her as a recalcitrant ( as Greenson had described her) and Marilyn's friends soon realized that Eunice treated her with such a condescension, and suggested her with a fawning gentleness, desirable schedule and company. Used to obey Greenson's decisions, Marilyn didn't resist.
DECEMBER :
Marilyn reluctantly agreed the movie the Fox suggested to her; she would have never shot this movie if Greenson hadn't convinced her. He was very involved in the various aspects of the production.
In December, the Fox sent her the screenplay of "Something's Got to Give", with a letter explaining that the screenplay had been specifically modified for her and wasn't still final.
She attented a party given at Henry Weinstein'splace, future producer of "Something's Got to Give", where also attended poet
Carl Sandburg. Photographer Arnold Newman took some pictures (
,
,
,
).
Wednesday, December 20 :Milton Rudin called Frank Ferguson, the lawyer of the Fox, and informed him that Marilyn demanded some changings on the screenplay of "Something's Got to Give". She also wanted that the cameraman of "Some Like it Hot" would be hired and wanted to have a right of inspection on the casting and the promotion.
She left for a week in New York and went back to Los Angeles for Christmas.
Again, she fell in depression.
Saturday, December 23 : DiMaggio arrived in Los Angeles. He bought some caviar, champagne and a Christmas tree they decorated together.
Marilyn had agreed an invitation for them both to celebrate Christmas Eve at Greensons's home; Joe, very shy with strangers, reluctantly agreed the invitation.
Sunday, December 31 : Joan Greenson, daughter of Dr Greenson, visited Marilyn and DiMaggio, in Marilyn's apartment , on Doheny Drive. There, they spent the New Year's Eve together.
In this end of year, Greenson advised her in many subjects : the friends she had to keep, with who she could go out, where she had to live. He urged her, so that bringing a little bit of stability in her life, to purchase a house and Marilyn asked Eunice Murray to find her one in a Mexican style the same syle than the Greenson's home.
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