Did Marilyn Monroe make Idaho Famous ?
MARILYN MONROE GLAMORIZED IDAHO POTATOES
HISTORY CORNER
July 06, 2014 at 5:00 am | By SYD ALBRIGHT/Special to The Press.
Marilyn Monroe was no dumb blonde. She had an IQ of 168 and she was smart enough to know that she would look sexy dressed in an Idaho potato sack. It was all part of a Twentieth Century Fox publicity stunt answering a columnist who called her cheap and vulgar, claiming she'd look better in a potato sack.
A different story was more flattering: Someone wisecracked that Marilyn could even make a potato sack look sexy, so Fox decided to prove it and set up a photo shoot.
It was a roaring public relations success - Marilyn and Idaho potatoes were publicized around the world.
She quickly became the blond bombshell poster girl of the 1950s. Even today, who can forget the picture of her holding her billowing dress down while standing over an air vent; or singing Happy Birthday to JFK? And who doesn't know that her second husband, Yankees baseball great Joe DiMaggio sent flowers to her crypt for 20 years after she died, keeping his promise that he would do so if she passed away first?
She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, in the charity ward of the Los Angeles County Hospital. Her mother was Gladys Baker, a film cutter at RKO Studios, who had severe mental problems, causing her to be institutionalized. Her father is undetermined.
Like writer Ernest Hemmingway of Ketchum, she too had a family history of mental illness - both families having relatives who committed suicide.
Norma Jeane spent her childhood bouncing between foster homes and orphanages, and at age 11 moved in with family friend Grace McKee Goddard. Memories of her peripatetic childhood, sexual abuse in foster homes, and a mentally ill mother would haunt her the rest of her life.
In 1942, the Goddards were transferred to West Virginia and couldn't afford to take Norma Jeane with them. The 16-year-old could either go back to an orphanage or get married.
She chose marrying her neighbor, 21-year-old Jimmy Dougherty, and they seemed happy until he joined the Merchant Marines and sailed off to the South Pacific.
While waiting for Jimmy's return, Norma Jeane took a "Rosie the Riveter" job in Burbank with Radio Plane Munitions Factory. Then everything changed when Yank Magazine photographer David Conover saw her while on assignment. Soon she was on magazine covers and enrolled in acting classes, hoping to follow in the footsteps of her idols - Jean Harlow and Wallace's Lana Turner.
When her husband returned in 1946, she had to make a choice: Jimmy or show biz?
She signed a contract with Fox, earning $125 a week. Taking charge of her own career, she dyed her hair blonde and changed her name to Marilyn Monroe, using her grandmother's last name.
After a few non-descript film roles, Marilyn hit stardom in the movie 'Niagara' as the beautiful young wife plotting to kill her older and jealous husband, played by 1940s superstar Joseph Cotton. Next were: 'Gentleman Prefer Blondes,' followed by 'How to Marry a Millionaire.' Photoplay Magazine named her Best New Actress of 1953.
She was big time Hollywood at age 27.
Then she married Joe DiMaggio, after they dated a couple of years. The marriage started shakily on their honeymoon in Tokyo, when Marilyn was entertaining American troops serving in Korea. Joe didn't like thousands of GIs ogling his bride.
Back in New York, on the day they shot the famous air vent photo, their relationship hit another rock. It took place outside the Trans-Lux Theater on 52nd St. and Broadway during the filming of The Seven Year Itch.
She was standing over a subway ventilator on the sidewalk, and the air rushing up was blowing her skirt in every direction, much to the delight of photographers and fans. Marilyn was enjoying the attention, while Joe stood by fuming. Finally, he stormed off in a rage, and later they had a huge fight in their hotel.
Two weeks later, their marriage crashed and they divorced after only nine months. But in her troubled life Joe DiMaggio was probably her greatest love. They remained close friends, as Joe became pitchman for Mr. Coffee and Marilyn moved on into higher circles.
By 1955, Marilyn was tired of her "shallow blonde" image and wanted to perfect her acting. She quit movies for a while and studied under Lee Strasberg in New York. Then she set up her own Marilyn Monroe Productions and made "Bus Stop," followed by "The Prince and the Showgirl," with Laurence Olivier.
At Strasberg's Actors Studio she met playwright Arthur Miller and they married, but this marriage also collapsed.
She was clearly an accomplished actress, and in 1959 received a Golden Globe for Best Actress in "Some Like It Hot." They honored her again two years later naming her as female World Film Favorite.
But behind all the glitter and glamour was a darker side to Marilyn Monroe's life. Apart from the Korean War and civil rights turmoil, the 1950s was a relatively calm period, but there were still undercurrents that affected her life. She supported rights for African Americans; liked what was going on in China under Mao; detested Senator McCarthy's hunt for Communists and hated FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
All this caught FBI attention and thinking she had "drifted into the Communist orbit," she ended up on their watch list, along with her ex-husband Arthur Miller, also suspected of being a Communist.
Behind Marilyn's fetching smile, there was a troubled soul sinking deeper into depression, and she sought out psychiatric help.
Then there was Frank Sinatra and his "Rat Pack," which included Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford - JFK's brother-in-law. That led her to the Kennedys. Soon, tongues started wagging that Marilyn was having affairs with both JFK and his brother Bobby. The FBI and the Mafia were interested because the FBI considered Marilyn a security risk, and the Mafia because Bobby as U.S. Attorney General was coming down hard on them. sexy evening dresses cheap
There are many pieces to this puzzle, but Marilyn was clearly in over her head. As dark clouds gathered in her life, there was sunshine in new movie projects ahead. But it all ended with a bottle of pills.
About 10 p.m. on Aug. 5, 1962, Marilyn Monroe took an overdose of sleeping pills and died at her home in Brentwood, Calif. The official cause of death was suicide, but there are other theories. To this day, many don't believe she killed herself.
Fearing a scandal involving JFK, one report says that at her home, "Some items were allegedly removed, including a diary and an incriminating note which could have far-reaching implications, if discovered."
L.A. County Coroner Thomas Noguchi said no one would likely ever know all the details of her death. "Until the complete FBI files are made public and the notes and interviews of the suicide panel released, controversy will continue to swirl around her death." Another report says bluntly, "In the final analysis, J. Edgar Hoover and his Mafia cohorts are directly responsible for the murder of Marilyn Monroe."
But she remains part of Idaho history because of the potato sack dress. The picture of her wearing it caught the attention of one Idaho farmer who sent her a sack full of potatoes - which she never received. "There was a potato shortage on then," she explained, "and the boys in publicity stole them all. I never saw one."
"Her apparent vulnerability and innocence," one writer wrote, "in combination with an innate sensuality, has endeared her to the global consciousness. She dominated the age of movie stars to become, without question, the most famous woman of the 20th Century."
When Marilyn was 12, she learned she had a half-sister, Bernice Baker Miracle, seven years older. They stayed in contact thereafter and Marilyn left her $10,000 in her will, and Bernice wrote a biography called "My Sister Marilyn."
Fans still bring notes and roses to a simple crypt in a small cemetery hidden behind a tall building on Wilshire Boulevard near UCLA, where Marilyn Monroe finally is at peace.
Joe DiMaggio never remarried, and died in 1999 at age 84. His last words were, "I'll finally get to see Marilyn."
Both were legends in their own time.
Syd Albright is a writer/journalist/biographer living in Post Falls. Contact him at silverflix@roadrunner.com.
Correction: In last Sunday's History Corner article about Lord Selkirk, it should have been American patriot Thomas Paine that Selkirk met in Paris, not John. Thanks to reader Kenneth W. Burchell, Ph.D, G.G. for the correction.
Side-by-side for eternity
Playboy Magazine guru Hugh Hefner owns the burial vault next to Marilyn and intends to be buried there. The photo of her lying nude on red velvet was the centerfold in Playboy's first edition.
Marilyn's best friends weren't diamonds
At age 27, the iconic blond in her breathy voice sang Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend in the movie Gentleman Prefer Blondes. But they weren't her best friends. Except for a diamond ring and a strand of pearls given to her by her second husband Joe DiMaggio, she wore only costume jewelry.
I Love Lucy picks up on the burlap dress idea
A 1956 episode has Lucy begging Ricky for a Jacques Marcel designer dress after attending a fashion show, refusing to eat if she doesn't get one (Ethyl sneaks her food). Ricky and Fred surprise their wives with dresses they had made out of potato sack burlap, attaching Jacques Marcel labels. Ecstatic, the girls prance around like models after seeing the designer's name.
One publication wrote ...
That Marilyn "Doesn't care too much for potatoes because it tends to put on weight," but noted that the publicity started a potato boom. Accompanying a photo of Marilyn wearing the Idaho potato sack was "The apple grows so bright and high, and ends its days in apple pie. The potato grows in mud so low and puts on weight where it's sure to show."
