Crypt 33 (22 page)

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Authors: Adela Gregory

BOOK: Crypt 33
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Approximately eight million people observed the debates on national television between Marilyn's future lover, John F Kennedy, and Richard M. Nixon. Monroe did not vote but prayed that Kennedy would win the election. In the meantime, it was back to the studio to wrap up the picture and her marriage.
 
First Marilyn and Eli Wallach were photographed in a Dodge truck against a rear-screen film projection of the swirling dry-lake dust. Frank Taylor was relieved to have the semblance of a first cut. Mrs. Huston was especially impressed with Marilyn's performance, and both Bill Weatherby, a United Artists executive, and Taylor were confident they had captured the story of Marilyn's “spiritual autobiography.”
Miller was seeing Inge Morath and Marilyn was waiting to see Joe DiMaggio again, while giving a passing thought or two to John Kennedy. The stagehands worked more feverishly than in Reno. At the end of the working day everyone went to their homes or favorite hotels and the Los Angeles weather was a major relief. The skies were clear in the morning and the temperature steadied at seventy-five degrees. The comfort of the surroundings made for more efficiency, though Huston was now sporting a cane because of an injured ankle.
The director worked with Gable and Monroe on the last scene of the picture. Gay has released the last Mustang for the woman he loves and, while seated in the cab of the Dodge, he tells her, “Just head for that big star straight on. The highway's under it: take us right home.” Whitey Snyder noticed the sweat pouring from Gable's forehead during the shoot and wondered whether his high blood pressure was acting up again. With his face appearing inordinately red, and powdered to take some of the shine down, Gable was obviously uncomfortable but endured every take.
The producer had the rough cut of the film to preview with Max Youngstein, a United Artists executive assigned to oversee production. There was a long silence in the screening room after the viewing. Max Youngstein quietly took Taylor aside and told him how disappointed he was. The conflict and turbulence, so visible amongst the actors on location, had disappeared on film. Youngstein did not even recognize the work of John Huston, know to function like a pressure cooker who would build up steam for a terrific ending. Huston's usual signature did not appear at all on the footage. Taylor made excuses, saying he had tried to supervise Huston and Miller but left the men mostly to their own devices, staying back to listen to them, while trying to be a kind of invisible catalyst.
When Taylor confronted Huston, Huston blamed the script, protesting that what Youngstein was looking for was not in the script and could not be manufactured by the director. In typical Hollywood fashion, the principals blamed each other. With an artistic failure on his hands, Miller started rewriting, specifically the Stix house scene, in a vain effort to get more “joy” into the dancing. Instead of reshooting, the film editor located some lively footage of dancing and drinking. Miller approached Gable with his changes, but Gable argued against them, wanting to see the first cut before making a decision. When he and Monroe viewed the rough-cut version with their MCA agent, George Chasin, Gable became more certain he did not want to reshoot or change any scenes.
Gable prevailed. He told his agent that Miller and Taylor were further botching the screenplay and he would not have any part of it. After Gable's conversation with Chasin, Marilyn caught up with Clark as he was leaving the studio. Gable concluded, “It's finished.”
Surprised, she asked, “Didn't you get their revisions?” He replied, “Don't worry, hon, I'm finished today and they can't do anything without me.”
Instead of revising the early scene, on November 4 Huston reshot the final scene with Gable and Monroe. Both performers were in the cab again “shooting for the stars.” The director got it in one take and said, “Cut!” for the last time. The film finally wrapped. Before leaving, Gable hung around chatting with friends and fans, then suddenly left, saying he wasn't feeling too well and thought he was coming down with the flu. He went home to his ranch in Encino.
Gable would boast about his earlier days at MGM, about the wild partying on weekends that went on late into the night and how, instead of going home, he would hit the studio makeup department in his tuxedo, wait until his valet undressed him, and study his lines for that day's shooting. At age fifty-nine, he no longer carried on like that.
Back at Stage 2, Marilyn attended the wrap party celebrating the end of the picture. She bought a fifth of whiskey for each crew member, and Snyder personally gave them to those who had shared the tedious, grueling experiences near Reno. Miller avoided the party altogether, driving back to the Beverly Hills Hotel in his rented car, alone.
 
By the time
The Misfits
was finally released on February 1, 1961, there had already been mixed notices about the story line, but the reviews hailed both Gable and Monroe's performances. Paul V. Beckley of the
New York Herald Tribune
wrote, “It is hard to believe Miller could have written it without Marilyn Monroe. There are lines one feels Miss Monroe must have said on her own. There is much evidence in the picture that much of it has a personal relationship to Miss Monroe, but even so her performance ought to make those dubious of her acting ability reverse their opinions. Hers is a dramatic, serious, accurate performance; and Gable's, as I said in my review, is little less than great.”
Despite the accolades for both lead performances, the film bombed at the box office just as Marilyn had predicted. Neither the Academy nor the public gave the two-hour film the critical acclaim that Arthur Miller had hoped for and Frank Taylor had counted on.
14
The Pinch-Hit Hitters
N
othing felt better to Marilyn than returning to her suite at her favorite hotel after spending four grueling months on a film that had torn her heart out. But before she could even begin to unwind, Marilyn asked Miller to leave. May Reis packed her former boss's clothing and papers in boxes and, in the middle of the night, Frank Taylor, his aide Edward Parone, and Miller loaded Taylor's small station wagon, and Miller retreated to the Sunset Towers Hotel, where he remained until he returned to New York.
At the Beverly Hills Hotel, a relieved Marilyn slept late, relishing her privacy. She drew the blackout drapes to ensure the bright California sunlight streaking through the windowpanes of her lavishly decorated bungalow-suite would not tarnish her sleep. By the time she woke and called room service for breakfast in bed, the hotel had already started lunch but made an exception for Marilyn's eggs and salmon. Impatiently waiting for her pot of coffee, she felt sluggish with the previous night's sleeping pills still in her system.
As breakfast arrived, Marilyn shuffled around the bedroom of the suite looking for her bathrobe. She signed the check and tipped heavily. She phoned her New York apartment to prepare housekeeper Lena Pepitone for her arrival. Expecting the actress to have gained weight from all the heavy catered food Marilyn had complained about on location, Lena was busily mending and altering her clothes. They chatted about Marilyn finally getting some sleep and the relief of not working.
Phoning her publicity office, Marilyn was informed that Rupert Allan had signed an exclusive contract with Grace Kelly and was no longer available. Her relationship with her former press agent, Pat Newcomb, had been severed during the filming of
Bus Stop.
But, once again needing help with the nearing publicity onslaught, Marilyn turned to Pat Newcomb. May Reis was only working part time, supervising most of the actress's activities. Now with Pat, Reis was assured more assistance in handling Monroe. Together they arranged for the actress to travel back to New York incognito. Just thinking about the hullabaloo that would immediately follow the announcement of her impending divorce from her third husband made Marilyn tremble. Though permanent separation was absolutely necessary, separation under any circumstances never came easily for the woman who suffered so severely from an abandonment complex.
Monroe's anxieties abated just a little when anticipating her upcoming visit from Joe DiMaggio. No longer would she have to sneak phone calls or arrange clandestine meetings with her love. With the arrangements in place to travel to New York, she called DiMaggio to notify him of her decision. He did not wish to be the cause of her marital breakup and wanted her to be certain her problems with Miller were unresolvable. Joe assured his ex-wife he loved her more than anyone else, but he still did not have the stomach for the daily ins and outs of her showbiz life. He loathed the cut-throat phonies and didn't need their money or fame. In any event, Marilyn was finally free to see Joe on a regular basis, which he wanted, and she would be satisfied with that arrangement for now. Without any foundation of love, Marilyn had endured four years of marriage fraught with trials and tribulations. The end couldn't come soon enough to suit her.
As Marilyn lounged around her room, enjoying late breakfasts in bed, beluga caviar and champagne, massages, long, hot baths, TV, and daydreams about DiMaggio, within days her health was rejuvenated. She could not forget Clark Gable's kindness, which made almost tolerable the ordeal of shooting
The Misfits.
When she remembered their bedroom scene, she got goosebumps all over again. She remembered his self-effacing attitude toward his own charm and sensuality. Being modest, he would say there were millions of guys who looked better than he did. On location, when a fan was carrying on about how handsome he was, rather than bask in the flattery, Clark suddenly pulled out his set of false teeth and exclaimed, “See, I'm just an old man, like all the rest.”
With all the wonderful memories of her recent experiences with the icon, Marilyn nevertheless realized that Arthur Miller had used Gable to entice her into the film she felt was “hopeless” and that had been self-servingly written only to showcase his talents.
The word was already out.
Misfits
would not be a critical or financial success. The executives at United Artists would release a thousand prints, hoping to ride on the publicity of the stars alone. Only then would the studio have a chance of making back the $4 million spent on the most expensive black-and-white film ever produced.
 
Once her sleeping improved and she began to relax, Marilyn packed up to go back to her apartment in New York and settle her affairs with Miller. Her press agent, Arthur Jacobs, consulted with Marilyn and decided the best place to announce the pending divorce would be in New York City, where she and Miller had resided.
Arriving in New York, she avoided the press, quickly dashing into her apartment through the wide-open doors to announce to Lena that she was finally home. Once she settled in, her phone never stopped ringing as friends and associates wanted the scoop on the separation, before the official notice. Miller soon came by to remove his remaining belongings. While he shuffled through his papers, mementos, boxes, and clothing, Marilyn stayed in her bedroom. Lena went to her room while he was finishing up, to report he looked very sad. Marilyn responded, “Tell me when he's gone!”
Only after the last of his belongings were removed and he had gone did Marilyn ask Lena to open his study door to inspect the premises. There on the desk, was a photo of her. Hurt that he had purposely left it behind, Marilyn realized he, too, wanted to forget her. Tears rolled down her face as she turned to her consoling housekeeper for comfort. Then Marilyn felt more consolation devouring another home-cooked Italian meal, drinking her favorite splits of champagne, and gossiping on the telephone to a slew of callers. When Joe phoned to wish her well, she expressed how much she was looking forward to seeing him as soon as the announcement was public.
But before that event, news that Clark Gable had suffered a heart attack rocked the nation. Marilyn went into shock. His first day after
The Misfits,
Gable chose to lie low, playing with his stepchildren and dog. While changing a tire on his Jeep, he was suddenly brought to his knees by an acute chest pain, accompanied by profuse sweating. Kay thought he merely looked tired and suggested he have an early dinner and go to bed, which he did once the pain subsided. Awakened in the middle of the night by what he believed was a headache and indigestion, he took an aspirin and slept until 7:30. While pulling his khaki pants on, he doubled over in worse agony than before. Still vainly believing it indigestion, he was confounded, later describing the pain as feeling like “a huge hand had crawled inside of me and was tearing my rib cage apart.” But he still didn't think it was necessary to call a doctor. Over his vehement protests, Kay persisted and phoned Doctor Fred Cerini, who instructed the Encino Fire Rescue to use emergency oxygen while transporting the actor to Van Nuys Presbyterian Hospital. Not wanting to upset his pregnant wife, Gable remained calm while riding to the hospital, all the while ruefully apologizing.
He was diagnosed as having a coronary thrombosis, which had damaged the back of his heart muscle. He was given anticoagulants, sedatives, oxygen, and a pacemaker, and the doctors watched Gable's improvement. His life had been endangered by the extensive heart damage, though the immediate peril had passed. President Eisenhower's heart specialist, Dr. George Griffiths, was summoned to preside over his recuperation.
Within days Gable had recovered sufficiently to vote by absentee ballot in advance of the national election and was already sifting through the thousands of get-well letters, cards, and flowers sent to him. Even President Eisenhower wired him his regards. His friend Howard Strickling and his wife Kay were the only ones close enough to him to transfer information about his health.
News spread that Gable had recovered and was doing well, but Marilyn was in a panic, fearful of a possible recurrence. She called constantly for the latest information about his health.
On the night of November 16, 1960, Kay Gable kissed her husband and went to the adjacent hospital room at 10
P.M.
Near eleven o'clock Gable put his magazine down, rolled his head back, and succumbed. After being told of his death, Kay returned to his room and held the father of her unborn child in her arms for nearly two hours. Finally, after the doctors insisted, she let them remove his body to the hospital morgue.
After all those years of admiring Clark Gable, fantasizing about him as a father, finally working with him and finding him to be such a wonderful man, Marilyn took his death hard. She hopelessly cried bitter tears. Clark had been so kind to her, kinder than anyone could comprehend. His playful joking and encouragement had kept Marilyn smiling throughout a horrible period. She repeatedly cried, “I love him.” Suddenly she realized that most of her life had been spent trying to win the affection of her make-believe father. She had finally arrived when her “father” grew to know her so well, worked with her for four months, and satisfied her longings.
And now he was dead, completely gone from her life.
Because of her distress, the actress refused to attend Gable's funeral in Los Angeles. She feared she would again break down in public, as she had done at Johnny Hyde's funeral. And there were additional fears. Rumors were rampant throughout the entertainment industry that Marilyn's chronic lateness had caused the exhausted fifty-nine-year-old's heart to stop. Nobody would ever mention Miller—his inability to complete his screenplay within the given time frame, his insistence on authenticity that had subjected the aging actor to inhumane working conditions in the alkali-dusted heat. And Marilyn knew that reporters at the funeral would demand a statement from her. The only words released to the press were through Rupert Allan, who suggested she say she was sorry and leave it at that.
Rumors continued to circulate for weeks that Marilyn's lateness, her illnesses and frequent fights with her husband had driven the actor to such acute levels of stress that his heart simply gave out. Rather than release his pent-up nerves, Gable's choice to remain patient and calm throughout the filming proved too much for him. The heat, the dust, the heavy consumption of alcohol, and the rigorous lassoing of mustangs may also have been factors—but they weren't part of the rumors. Though Marilyn avoided the funeral, she couldn't avoid the rumors and prayed for another chance to change her habits. If only she had known, she never would have been late or sick. There was nothing she wouldn't have done for the love and life of Clark Gable.
True to her character, she began blaming herself for his death. Wallowing in guilt, she took more sleeping pills than before. But even the barbiturates did not erase the horrendous, disturbing nightmares. In her despairing solitude, she lost her appetite and lay in bed for days. Lena's cooking did not change her mood. Joe came to comfort her after she became hysterical on the phone. DiMaggio was well aware of how overwhelming the grief could be for the child without a father, and his compassion toward his ex-wife was extraordinary. A sure sign of love is when a man can comfort a woman over the death of another man. As much as he understood and deeply cared for her, his love could not stop the anxiety and resurgence of all the pain from previous separations. Even Miller's departure began to hurt. She wished he had at least loved her, but it was painfully evident he didn't. Marilyn deteriorated to the point where she refused to leave her apartment, even to see her therapist. She called Kris for protracted telephone sessions. Marilyn punished herself for Gable's death, which brought to the surface past guilt over “killing” Johnny Hyde. And she had always felt she had somehow caused her father's disappearance, that she had done something to make him go away. But Kris hammered back that, by appearances, it seemed Clark Gable had done himself in, with all his drinking and smoking against his doctor's advice.
Marilyn always had difficulty accepting logical feelings; it sounded right, but did not feel right. She couldn't give up her guilt. By now she was grieving over the loss of all her previous relationships, including the one with her mother. She felt guilty about not visiting her. She felt guilty about divorcing James Dougherty who, she now understood, had really loved her. She was wrapped in guilt over the marriage to Joe DiMaggio and the pain she caused them both. And now she blamed herself for the breakup of her marriage to Arthur Miller and wondered how she had caused him to hate her too! Self-loathing snowballed to the point that Lena actually caught her nearing the bedroom window in a way that suggested she was about to jump to her death. Lena seemed to grab her just in time. Marilyn fell into her arms sobbing.
 
Official word that the Monroe-Miller marriage was over came on November 11, 1960, when Marilyn acknowledged that she and Arthur Miller had separated. On the sidewalk in front of Marilyn's New York apartment building on 57th Street, Pat Newcomb met a press corps large enough for any head of state. Newcomb calmed the fears of the reporters by telling them there were no immediate plans for a divorce. Reporters then left in search of Miller, hoping to get his statement. Arthur would inform them later: “Our marriage is over and there seems to be no possibility of reconciliation.” His friend James Proctor justified their action, disclosing, “She is not just a star, she is an institution and must constantly be the center of excitement and activity. The nature of Miller's work requires him to be frequently alone and away from the stresses of show business.”

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