Many people know Marilyn Monroe as a beauty and pop culture icon, an actress, and a singer. But, many do not know just how she was discovered. If someone asked you to guess how she was discovered, what would you guess? Sitting in a restaurant, dining on gourmet food? Standing in line for a movie or play, all dressed up? How about working in an airplane factory, aiding in the war effort? Marlin got her start as a model for David Conover, who worked as an army photographer for the 1st motion picture unit. Because he was sent to take pictures of women in war work, he discovered Marilyn Monroe, who even though she was covered in dirt, still stunned Conover by her beauty. Marilyn credits Conover by saying, “Yes, I always knew the camera was kind …show more content…
She was born in Hollywood and raised as an orphan in Los Angeles County. Born Norma Jeane Mortensen, her father was killed in an accident when she was little and her mother was a schizophrenic and was constantly in and out of mental hospitals. Marilyn was virtually abandoned and was raised by foster families until age 16. She moved around as a child to 11 private homes, most of which were poor. When turning 16, rather than moving in with another family, she married a 21-year-old merchant seaman named Joe Dougherty on June 19, 1942. Some may think this is quite a young age for marriage, but Marilyn, once she developed, never quite looked her age. She always wore the same baggy blue dress and blouse the orphanage provided. It made her look like an “overgrown lummox.” (Monroe pg. 20) She never smiled or had friends until one day, when she borrowed a sweater of one of her younger “sisters” and wore it to school. This immediately attracted attention from her fellow classmates and also upperclassmen as well as men on the street. It was quite snug and showed off her shapely figure. This began her beautifying herself even more. Soon she darkened her eyebrows and put on lipstick. Then came mascara. Because of this, her looks improved and her popularity increased. Because she was an orphan, she was easily picked on. So, since her popularity increased, so did the jealousy of other girls. And vicious rumors were spread as a result. …show more content…
This time, however, it was the head of the Blue Book Model Agency in Los Angeles, Emmaline Snively. She sent Marilyn a brochure and showed interest in using her as long as she would take Blue Book’s 3-month modeling course. Marilyn almost denied Snively’s request because of the modeling course’s $100 fee. In pursuit to get Marilyn to sign with Blue Book, Snively agreed to let Marilyn not pay. Instead the compensation was taken out of her modeling payment. Snively was willing to do almost anything to get Marilyn. She once said, “Models ask me how they can be like Marilyn Monroe and I say to them, honey, I say to them, if you can show me half the gumption, just half, that little girls showed, you’ll be a success too…there’ll never be another like her.” During this coarse, Marilyn was taught to lower her smile to alleviate the shadow cast by her nose. This resulted in the quivering lips that would soon become Marilyn’s trademark. Her first assignment with Blue Book was a 10-day hostess job in Holga Steel’s booth at an industrial show at the Pan Pacific Auditorium. The more assignments she went on, the more famous Marilyn became. Soon, she was offered contracts from the biggest movie and television production companies in the country, such as Fox. (Doll
Marilyn being one of the world's most gratifying women in history, has stood the test of time and her self-loving messages stay strong today. Ms. Monroe was no size 0. She had curves, and she embraced them. She is one that young girls should idolize for time to come. She was far from perfect, she knew it, and never one did she try to be. Nor did she pretend to be. If only women today would share the same confidence and embrace their
These titles may sound flattering to some, and maybe at times she enjoyed them. But her restrictive Hollywood image only seemed to add to her insecurity and troubles. The sexual glorification of Monroe stems from the constant exploitation that she has described from her earlier days in the business. While she both despised and played to this, “Marilyn Monroe would resent being typecast as a not-too-smart sex symbol and would fight a very hard but ultimately losing battle to get the public to believe that she was smarter (and less man-hungry) than the women she portrayed on the silver screen” ("Ten Things You Might Not Know About Marilyn Monroe.”). But why did a part of her also accept this? Why did she have this overwhelming need to satisfy the same people who held her down? She feared disappointing the public who put her on this pedestal and seeming imperfect. She was said to wash her face up to 15 times a day in fear of blemishes and sweat ("Marilyn's Beauty and Style."), and at the 1950s Academy Awards, she burst into tears. It seems that she failed to give herself the love and appreciation that she needed. As a result, she mistakenly turned to the camera for
She was also often anxious and had moderate colds and coughs. Marilyn Monroe spent the majority of her early years living in a fictional world she created as an escape from reality. She sometimes told the other children in her orphanage eccentric tales about her having loving parents who had just went on a trip. Monroe would create fake postcards, she would sign from her parents to go along with her story (Spoto, 1993, p. 47). She had also managed to convince herself that Clark Gable was her father, although it was not a possibility (Spoto, 1993, p. 45; 54). After growing up in orphanages, Marilyn realized the only way to be released from the foster system was to get married. Marilyn Monroe decided to drop out of high school and marry her boyfriend at the time. Her first husband was a merchant marine by the name James Dougherty (Hendrickson, 2000). Dougherty was much older than Monroe who was then only sixteen years old. Although like the marriages to her other two husbands, Joe DeMaggio and Arthur Miller did not last for various reasons.
Brought into this world in June of 1926 was a baby girl named Norma Jeane Mortenson, otherwise known as Marilyn Monroe. Her childhood was mostly spent in the orphanages and foster homes in California. This was a result of never
We can understand why she became this well-known person if she did not have support or a “normal” childhood. There are seven major perspectives that can help us understand someone’s life and their outcomes. I personally believe that with Marilyn Monroe’s life, Psychodynamic Perspective is a way someone can understand how things went. It explains how the roles of someone’s life experiences, like childhood, can affect the rest of their life. As I said before, she did not have a typical childhood. She had a rough life before the age of 16. Not having a steady home to grow up in could make it hard on a person, especially a child. Those are the years we develop most as humans, and create a foundation on how our lives may become. With her life, it could cause a sense of misplacement or even change her views of affection. This could alter the way someone views affection and what they think is normal compared to others. In Monroe’s life, she was abandoned from any reality or normalcy in her life. She did not get that affection and that is an important part of life. She then had three marriages that did not last that long, and that shows that even when she did try to have a normal life and find that true love, it just did not work well for her. This could be one of many reasons why she turned to alcoholism or
Watching Marilyn Monroe as she moves across the large silver screen with her signature sensual grace in the 1961 film The Misfits, it is hard to believe that by this point in her career, she had lost virtually all sway over her impulsivity. Her day to day existence had become a series of endless crises that grew more frantic and destructive. She was in a desperate and losing struggle within herself. In retrospect, the wrenching dilemmas she faced off the set gave her portrayal of Roslyn a surreal if not convincing quality that provoked familiar feelings of pity, tenderness, and compassion.
Marilyn Monroe, during the 1950’s was the most popular sex icon during that time period. She was born on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California as Norma Jeane Mortenson to Martin Edward Mortensen and Gladys Pearl Baker. Some theorize that Martin Edward Mortensen isn’t Marilyn’s real father because Stanley Gifford was listed on Marilyn Monroe’s birth certificate. Her father Martin is said to have had an affair with her mother Gladys, during the time when Norma Jean was conceptualized. Her childhood was rough because her mother was put into a psychiatric hospital for her paranoid schizophrenia. Marilyn Monroe was put into the foster care system and went through 11 foster parents. At the Children’s Aid Society Orphanage in Los Angeles
It was arranged for the couple to meet secretly at the Palm Springs estate of Bing Crosby. When one of Crosby’s other guests stumbled on the couple he said “It was obvious they were intimate.” Monroe’s condition that night was usual for her. She had always struggled with psychiatric and emotional problems on top of alcohol and prescription abuse. Confiding the most intimate details of her affair to a close friend, Marilyn was convinced Jack F. Kennedy was about to leave his wife for her. “Can’t you just see me as first
Marilyn Monroe was a popular actress and model in the 40’s and 50’s. She was born on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, California as Norma Jeane Mortenson. Her mom was a film-cutter and mentally ill, so she abandoned Marilyn to foster homes. She studied acting at the Actors’ lab in Hollywood and took literature courses at UCLA downtown. 20th Century Fox gave her a contract and so did Columbia, but Fox’s lapsed while Columbia didn’t. With Columbia she was in 3 different movies. After that Fox re-signed her with a 7-year contract and got her 2 movies that made her have a bad image.
Marilyn Monroe had a difficult childhood. Marilyn was born on June 1, 1926. In Los Angeles, California to mom Glady Baker and her danish father who is unclear. Marilyn Monroe was born with the name Norma Jean. As a child Norma Jean didn’t feel loved or wanted. Glady Norma’s mom was mentally unstable and her father was absent. Norma spend the majority of her childhood in foster care. In 1937 Grace and Doc Goddard's raised Norma Jean for a couple of
Along with her brilliant acting, Marilyn Monroe is remembered as a sex icon, which began with nude photos of her in Playboy Magazine. The photos were originally taken in the 1940’s for a calendar under the name Mona Monroe. One article mentioned, “When nude shots of her from a 1949 calendar popped up again in 1951, her fame spread” (DISCovering Biography). This was in reference to her photos from the calendar being bought by Hugh Hefner for the debut of Playboy Magazine. Fox, her employer at the time, worried the photos would cause problems or a scandal. When referring to the nude photo one article stated,“Instead of ending her career, news of the photo only added to her sexual mystique” (Knight). As she was already very attractive the photo
Marilyn Monroe’s legend remains as the ultimate blonde bombshell and as one of the most recognizable faces ever to grace the silver screen. Born June 1, 1926 she was baptized Norma Jean Baker. Her turbulent youth was due to an absentee father and a mentally unstable mother. By 1933 she went to live with her mother’s best friend, Grace McKee, and she was the first to give Norma Jean the idea of becoming a movie star.
Marilyn was the daughter of Gladys Pearl Baker and Martin Edward Mortenson. Gladys's madden name was Monroe and that is where Marilyn got her last name. Her dad was not in the picture so she lived with her mom. She only lived with her mom for seven years due to a disease her mother got which caused her to go to a mental hospital. Her mom had paranoid schizophrenic which was a disease that had ran in her family. When her mother went to the hospital, Marilyn went to an orphanage for two years and then went to a foster home for a few years. In these few years, Marilyn was sexually abused. She was abused by one of her foster "mom's" son. Although this did scar her for life, she pushed through to become the great actress, singer, and model she was.
Marilyn Monroe was one of the most popular stars of the 50's recognized as an international symbol for beauty, but her life is full of poor choices and horrible encounters.Throughout her career she had many encounters that ended poorly, movies that flopped, and marriages that ended destructivley.
The iconic sex symbol of the 50’s has history unlike any other Hollywood superstar. Marilyn Monroe was born into an unstable family, and soon later given up for adoption. However, two points don’t add up. Her mother Gladys Pearl Baker was involved in the film industry during her pregnancy with Monroe (Jackson, Denny). Why would a film star abandoned her soon to be superstar daughter? The un-luxurious life of Norma Jeane Baker, a.k.a Marilyn Monroe, took place in foster homes and oddly old “parents”. Monroe was unclear that connections through Hollywood were brewing as