My journey ends here...
SKOLSKY Sidney
Date of birth : May 2, 1905, New York City.
Date of death : May 3, 1983, Los Angeles (
).
Addresses
in 1938 : 167 South Martel avenue, Hollywood
in 1940 : 415 North Las Palmas Avenue, Los Angeles.
Occupation
Famous Hollywood reporter; he wrote articles and columns in several newspaper on the East and West Coast, and kept himself closely informed about the Hollywood life. He devoted himself to discover young talents.
His office was located on the mezzanine of the Schwab's Drugstore
;
,
;
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
He had chosen this place for a very simple reason : the Schwab's gave
him every drugs he wanted. At that time, the American government hadn't
yet regulated the drugs sale and there was no opprobrium linked to the
regular use of barbiturates and amphetamines.
Story
Originated in Russian jew, small, stocky, he boasted about identifying the talent right away.
In the 20's, he was a press agent in New York City.
On August 27, 1928 he married in New York Estelle (or Esther) Lorenz (born March 22, 1909). They had two daughters, Betty Nina (born December 31, 1933, New York) and Stephanie "Steffi" (April 16, 1935, Los
Angeles-February 22, 1933, New York) (
;
;
).
Then he left New York to Los Angeles where he was recognized as a movie critic.
Witty and fierce, he soon became a local celebrity. His witty remarks went around the studios as a wildfire.
He was famous for having given a smacking to Shirley Temple who had damaged his new hat.
His columns dealt with each subject more deeply than Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper's gossips, and he treated his readers to technical informations about cinema, despising the backstage gossips.Capricious, unpredictable, hypochondriac, he had a phobia of water, cats, dogs and everything else.
He periodically had some depressive episodes.
He haunted the Twentieth Century Fox premises; he knew all the heads of the studio, including the 2 publicity veterans, Harry Brand and Roy Craft.
December 31, 1948, he attended the New Year's Eve party at producer Sam Spiegel's house
He met Marilyn in 1949.
For a long time, he was one of the passionate people who accompanied her everywhere, as Marlene Dietrich had done it several years earlier.
He became one of her most fervent partisans and one of her safer accomplice in the press; she often called him to ask for an advice about her publicity but also about her clothes and the image she had to forge. He helped her to promote her career while she started it, and he would have convinced the producer Jerry Wald to give her a part in "Clash By Night" (1952).
Several times, he wrote some press releases to help her to come through delicate situations, as for the nude calendar scandal (March 13, 1952) or when it was revealed that her mother was still alive, while the studio had always maintained that she was an orphan.
In 1950 he accompanied her in Palm Springs, where she wanted to meet her potential father, Stanley Gifford.
In 1950 on the set of "All About Eve" 
From 1952 to 1954 when Marilyn lived with Joe DiMaggio, he was often her partner at the show business parties (DiMaggio didn't want to be publicly reminded that his wife was the biggest sex-symbol of the country).
1952, shooting of "Niagara" 
-
February 9, 1953, the Photoplay prizegiving 
,
February 14, 1953, wedding of Sheila
Graham 
,
,
In February 1953, party for the Redbook magazine awards 
,
,
He interviewed Marilyn at Doheny Drive on July 3, 1953 for the article "I Love Marilyn", published in Modern Screen magazine on October 1953.
Bookcase
,
,
,
;
-
Sofa
,
-
,
,
-
Armchair
,
,
-
-
,
-
Modern Screen magazine 
,
,
March 8, 1954, the Photoplay prizegiving
,
,
,
;
;
October 6, 1954, he attended the press conference announcing her divorce with DiMaggio
,
,
,
October 27, 1954, he accompanied her at the Santa Monica court, for the appearance for her divorce from
DiMaggio 
,
In 1954 he wrote Marilyn's second biography. He met her, after her divorce from DiMaggio, at the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel.
November 6, 1954, Charles Feldman organized a party in Marilyn's honor at Romanoff, consacrating her finally
as a star; Sidney Skolsky attended this party 
,
,
November 19, 1954, he went, with Marilyn, to see Ella Fitzgerald who performed at El Mocambo
On the set of "The Seven Year Itch"
-
;
,
;
-
;
-
,
On the set of "There's No Business Like Show Business" 
,
;
On the set of "Some Like It Hot" 
,
;
On the set of "Let's Make Love" 
,
;
;
Like Marilyn, he periodically suffered from
depression and they both abused of drugs; as his office was located in
a drugstore, he had access to an almost unlimited stock.
With Marilyn, they planned to shoot another movie, "The
Jean Harlow Story" in which Marilyn had to get the leading role.
On August 4, 1962 he had an appointment with her to talk about the direction of the movie; but their meeting was postponed on August 5, 1962. In July 1962, they had both visited Jean
Harlow's mother and obtained her blessing for the movie.
Picture with Dean Martin, in 1960, on the set of "Who Was that Lady" 
"Marilyn",
Sidney Skolsky, New York, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, 1954
"Don't Get Me Wrong - I love Hollywood", Sidney Skolsky, New York, The Putnam Berkeley Group,
1975.
BACK TO ALPHABETICAL INDEX
NEXT FILE