The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

I also owe a debt of gratitude to Donald Spoto, the best-selling author of the excellent Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, for his having donated all of his interview tapes for that project to the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His generous donation made it possible for me to obtain background and quotes from Marilyn Monroe’s publicist, Patricia Newcomb, and also from other sources who are either dead or were simply not available to me at this time. I also must acknowledge Maurice Zolotow, who wrote the first in-depth biography of Marilyn Monroe—Marilyn Monroe—published in 1960, before her death. Mr. Zolotow stored many of his papers in a collection at the University of Texas, and his impeccable research was vital to my own. As a side note, I have always been moved by the poignant last passage in Zolotow’s book about Marilyn. He wrote, “Now, at thirty-four, Monroe has it all… [but her] great achievement has been the making of herself and the imposition of her will and her dream upon the whole world.… In one sense, then, her life is completed because her spirit is formed and has achieved itself. No matter what unpredictable events may lie in her future, they cannot change who she is and what she has become. And there will be many surprises and alterations in her life ahead; there will be, in Hart Crane’s phrase, ‘new thresholds, new anatomies.’ In her heart is a questing fever that will give her no peace.… her soul will always be restless, unquiet.”

I would be remiss in not mentioning the other preeminent Marilyn Monroe biography, and that is, of course, Anthony Summer’s Goddess. It’s one of the first books historians most often turn to when trying to understand Miss Monroe—and rightly so.

Numerous other organizations and institutions provided me with articles, documents, audio interviews, video interviews, transcripts, and other material that was either utilized directly in The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe or just for purposes of background. Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude to the following institutions: the American Academy of Dramatic Arts; the American Film Institute Library; the Associated Press Office (New York); the Bancroft Library (University of California, Berkeley); the Billy Rose Theater Collection in the Library of the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, New York; the Boston Herald Archives; the Beverly Hills Library; the University of California, Los Angeles; Corbis-Gamma/Liason; the Ernest Lehman Collection at USC; the Glendale Central Public Library; the Hedda Hopper Collection in the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills; the Lincoln Center Library of the Performing Arts; the Kobal Collection; the Los Angeles Times; the Los Angeles Public Library; the Louella Parsons Collection at the University of Southern California; the Margaret Herrick Library (Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences); the Museum of Broadcasting, New York; the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio archives, now part of the Turner Entertainment Group, Los Angeles; the Museum of the Film; the National Archives and the Library of Congress; the New York City Municipal Archives; the New York University Library; the New York Daily News; the New York Post; the New York Times; Occidental College (Eagle Rock, California); the Philadelphia Public Library; the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News; the Time-Life archives and Library, New York; the Universal Collection at the University of Southern California; the University of Southern California; and, finally, Rex Features.

SOURCES AND OTHER NOTES

In all of my books I provide documentation of firsthand sources, which I think is very important to most readers. I also usually set forth the hundreds of other books, periodicals, magazine, and newspaper articles consulted by myself and my researchers. After careful deliberation, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that the listing of such material is nothing more than typing practice for all concerned. In truth, in my twenty-five years of authoring books about public figures, I have encountered very few people who have ever actually paid attention to such material. Therefore, with this, my fifteenth book, I am going to dispense with the customary page-after-page accounting of secondary source material, if only for the sake of space and time considerations. In a few cases, I will mention secondary source material in the notes that follow if I think it’s important to understanding my research. Generally, though, I can assure my readers that many books about Marilyn Monroe, the Kennedys, Frank Sinatra, and others were reviewed as part of my research, as were countless newspaper and magazine articles.

Also, in writing about a person as popular and also as beloved as Marilyn Monroe, a biographer is bound to find that many sources with valuable information prefer to not be named in the text. This is reasonable. Throughout my career, I have understood that for a person to jeopardize a long-standing, important relationship with a celebrity or a famous person’s family just for the sake of one of my books is a purely personal choice. Nevertheless, I appreciate the assistance of many people close to Marilyn who, over the years, gave of their time for this project. I will respect the wish for anonymity of those who require it, and, as always, those who could be identified are named in these notes.

The following notes and source acknowledgments are by no means comprehensive. Rather, they are intended to give you, the reader, a general overview of my research.

PART ONE: THE BEGINNING

I relied heavily on the interview with Nancy Jeffrey, only surviving foster daughter of Ida and Wayne Bolender, conducted on May 21, 2008. I thank her so much for her trust and confidence.

I’d also like to thank Louise Adams for her insight into the lives of Gladys Baker and Ida Bolender. Also, Rose Anne Cooper—who worked at the Rock Haven Sanitarium in La Crescenta, California—was extremely helpful and spent more hours with me in 2007 and 2008 than I’m sure she cares to remember. She even had photographs of Rock Haven, key to my understanding of the environment there. I owe a real debt of gratitude to both Ms. Adams and Ms. Cooper, both of whom I interviewed on February 1, 2007, April 10, 2007, June 15, 2007, and January 3, 2008.

I must give special acknowledgment to Mary Thomas-Strong, whose mother was a close friend of Ida Bolender’s. I interviewed Ms. Thomas-Strong on April 1, 2008, April 3, 2008, and April 10, 2008. She also provided me with boxes of material invaluable to my research and to my understanding the complex relationship between Ida, Gladys Baker, and Norma Jeane. This material included correspondence files between her mother and Ida Bolender. It also included The Legend of Marilyn Monroe, a rare film source of information from 1964, from David L. Wolper Productions, Inc. This documentary features what I believe to be the only televised interview with Ida and Wayne Bolender. Ms. Thomas-Strong also provided for me the medical files of Della M. Monroe from the Norwalk State Hospital, including her death certificate (#4081). Moreover, she provided me with a copy of the documentary Marilyn: Beyond the Legend.

Special acknowledgment must be extended to the family of Bea Thomas, who knew Grace Goddard. Ms. Thomas was interviewed in January 1990 by Elvin Summer for a family history. I obtained that history from a private source.

Thanks also to Esther Thompson, whose mother, Ruth, worked with Grace McKee at Consolidated Studios. Ms. Thompson spent many hours with me reconstructing certain events for this book and I thank her for the interviews I conducted with her on July 2, 2007, and February 1, 2008.

Mary Robin Alexander’s father, Albert, was a close, personal friend of George and Maud Atkinson’s. I thank her for sharing her dad’s memories of the Atkinsons and Norma Jeane Mortensen with me on July 2, 2007, and August 11, 2007.

Dia Nanouris’s mother was an assistant film editor at Columbia who worked with Grace Goddard at that company. She provided absolutely invaluable insight in my interview with her on December 15, 2007.

Also, Eleanor Ray’s mother knew Grace Goddard and Ms. Ray spent many hours with my researchers in preparation for this book. I interviewed her as well on February 1, 2008. Also, she provided me with details of Grace Goddard’s suicide found in California State File #53–087308.

Thanks to Elliot Ross for providing us with the files of the Los Angeles Orphans’ Home having to do with “Norma Jeane Baker,” including correspondence from 1937 relating to Grace Goddard, Ida Bolender, and the orphanage’s headmistress, Sula Dewey. Also, Magda Bernard’s stepbrother, Tony, was at the orphanage at the same time as Norma Jeane, and Ms. Bernard provided me with a terrific amount of background and color when I interviewed her on March 2, 2008, and April 13, 2008.

For many sections of this book, I also relied on voluminous correspondence between Norma Jeane and her