Marilyn Monroe: The Biography (112 page)

449

I was her therapist: Ralph Greenson to Marianne Kris, Aug. 20, 1962.

450

the sad fact: Quoted in
Time
, vol. 76, no. 21 (Nov. 21, 1960): 61.

450

I kept him waiting: Skolsky, p. 230. He locates this conversation in Los Angeles after Gable’s death, but that is impossible: it must have occurred between the first heart attack and the second, fatal one, for when Gable died MM was in New York.

451

I take a lot: Vernon Scott, “What’s the Next Move for Marilyn Monroe?”
Los Angeles Times
, Nov. 30, 1960.

Chapter Nineteen:
1961

453

Scott,
art. cit
.

453

My work is: Alan Levy, “Marilyn Monroe: ‘A Good Long Look at Myself,’ ”
Redbook
, Aug. 1962, p. 77.

453

splendid: W. Somerset Maugham, in a letter to MM dated Jan. 31, 1961.

455

because the press: Pat Newcomb to DS, Aug. 3, 1992. Henceforth, all quotations attributed to Pat Newcomb are taken from this interview unless otherwise noted.

455

incompatibility of character: Divorce proceeding reported in the
New York Times
, Jan. 22, 1961, p. 86; see also
ibid
., Jan. 25, 1961, p. 35; and the UPI wire service dispatches dated Jan. 21, 23, and 25, 1961.

455

I am upset: UPI wire service story dated Jan. 21, 1961; see, e.g., the
Hollywood Citizen-News
, that date.

455

It would be:
Ibid
.

455

Mr. Miller is: MM to Hedda Hopper in July 1961, released in her syndicated column on Sunday, July 16.

456
ff

The details of MM’s sojourn at the Payne Whitney Clinic of New York Hospital were provided in interviews with Norman Rosten, Ralph Roberts, Susan Strasberg and Pat Newcomb. For the medical evaluation of her as “extremely disturbed and potentially self-destructive,” see a report obtained by the
New York World Telegram
and published on Feb. 10, 1961, p. 1.

457

MM’s letter to the Strasbergs was first printed in
The Daily Mirror
(London), Aug. 5, 1981; in abbreviated form, it is also in Guiles,
Legend
, p. 402.

458

On DiMaggio’s life from 1955 to 1961, see Bob Dean, “Marilyn to Wed Again?”
Photoplay
, May 1961; also Allen, p. 194ff.

458

He carried a torch: Quoted in Allen, p. 186.

458

take the hospital: Quoted by many of MM’s friends—e.g., in Rosten, p. 93.

458
–
459

Kris’s remarks to Roberts were relayed to DS and are also found in Susan Strasberg,
Marilyn and Me
, p. 228.

464

I feel wonderful: UPI wire service story for March 6, 1961; see, e.g., the
Los Angeles Examiner
, “Marilyn Whisked From Hospital,” that date.

464

as radiantly:
Ibid
.

464

She had just been discharged: Wagenknecht, p. 49.

465

Joe DiMaggio deeply loved: Allen, p. 189.

465

The attraction to Joe:
Ibid
., p. 199.

466

I’m very happy: Jonah Rudd, “Now That I Am 35,”
The Daily Mail
(London), June 5, 1961.

466

There’s no doubt that: Milton Ebbins’s recollections about Sinatra and MM, and about MM up to the night of her death, were provided in his interviews with DS in Beverly Hills on August 6 and September 22, 1992.

467

It was scary: A composite statement of the same sentiments, expressed by MM to Rupert Allan and Susan Strasberg.

468

I told [Arthur]: Rosten, p. 91.

468

Henceforth in the text, all the remarks attributed to Ralph Roberts derive from the interview with DS on March 2, 1992, and from subsequent, supplementary telephone conversations in May, June, August and September of that year. See also Susan Strasberg,
Marilyn and Me
, p. 230.

469
ff

Details of the Greenson-Monroe relationship derive from previously dated interviews with Ralph Roberts, Susan Strasberg, Allan Snyder, Pat Newcomb, Rupert Allan; from a conversation with Greenson’s then brother-in-law and attorney, Milton Rudin; and from interviews with three layfolk who knew Greenson personally and two of his Los Angeles psychiatric colleagues, whose five separate requests for anonymity DS has honored so that their professional confidence may be maintained.

470

He overstepped: Robert Litman, M.D., to DS, April 23, 1992.

471

Help Help: Norman Rosten, “About Marilyn,”
McCall’s
, Aug. 1972, p. 132. These words were not new from MM but apparently recaptured by her: they are found as early as 1956, shortly after she arrived in London and found Arthur’s notebook entry (MG IV, 5, p. 5).

471

She began to get rid: Ralph Greenson to Marianne Kris, Aug. 20, 1962: Greenson Papers, UCLA Special Collections.

472

I never heard: Betsy Duncan Hammes to DS, July 22, 1992.

473

You must have: David Brown to DS, Nov. 11, 1992.

474

in a shambles: Milton Gould to DS, November 10, 1992.

474

a tall, dark: Negulesco, p. 224.

474
ff

The production history of
Something’s Got to Give
described herein and in the following chapter derives from an interview with the original producer, David Brown (to DS, November 11, 1992), and from Brown’s book,
Let Me Entertain You
(New York: Morrow, 1990), pp. 53–56; from Patricia Newcomb; from the Fox production files; and (as detailed below) from interviews with those involved in the production, especially Evelyn Moriarty, Henry Weinstein, Allan Snyder and Marjorie Plecher Snyder.

475

There was nothing: Arnold Shulman to DS, July 28, 1992.

475

Have
you
been trapped: Johnson and Leventhal, p. 206.

475

quick, she was gay:
Ibid
., p. 207.

475

The change: Peter G. Levathes to Spyros P. Skouras, cable dated Jan. 10, 1962, in Box 45 of the Skouras Collection, Stanford University.

476

how much: Peter G. Levathes to DS, Oct. 8, 1992.

476

Her therapist: David Brown to DS, Nov. 11, 1992.

476

essentially a different: Douglas Kirkland to DS, July 24, 1992.

477

If I am a star: Many times, e.g., to Richard Meryman, July 1962, as in
Life, art. cit
.

478

I encouraged her: Greenson, in a deposition to the Estate of Marilyn Monroe, preserved in RRG/UCLA.

478

The doctor thought: Eunice Murray, in Wolper,
Legend;
see, similarly, Eunice Murray, with Rose Shade,
Marilyn: The Last Months
(New York: Pyramid, 1975), p. 43; hereinafter referred to as Murray.

478

there was nobody else: Ralph Greenson to Marianne Kris, Aug. 20, 1962: Greenson Papers, Special Collections, UCLA.

478
ff

Details on the background and biography of Eunice Joerndt Murray Blackmer were ascertained from the Advancement Office of Urbana University, in Urbana, Ohio; from the Annual Catalogue of the Urbana University School Academy and Junior College for 1917–1918; from the Library and Archives of the Swedenborg School of Religion in Newton, Massachusetts; from Eunice’s son-in-law Philip LaClair (interview July 22, 1992); from County records in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Bath, Maine; from Frank Higgins,
Urbana College
(Urbana, Ohio: Urbana College, 1977); from the obituary of John Murray in the
Albuquerque Tribune
, Nov. 24, 1958.

479

mere shadow: Eunice Murray Blackmer to Audrey Stevens, May 13, 1983.

479

constantly to engage: Higgins, pp. 6–7.

479

controversial, alienating:
Ibid
., p. 108.

481

It was strictly: Philip LaClair to DS, July 22, 1992.

481

in any kind: Murray, p. 7.

482

At first: Pat Newcomb to DS, Aug. 3, 1992; henceforth all quotations attributed to Newcomb were derived from this interview unless otherwise noted.

482

very strange lady: Alan Snyder to DS, May 2, 1991.

Chapter Twenty:
January–May 1962

N.B.: Citations from the daily production reports and call sheets for
Something’s Got to Give
cited in the text are drawn from those files: Picture No. A-855, Twentieth Century–Fox Film Corporation, 1962.

484

Regarding the cost and mortgage of 12305 Fifth Helena, see the
Los Angeles Times
, Aug. 11, 1962 and the relevant Los Angeles County tax records for 1962.

484

I felt badly: Quoted in Murray, p. 49.

484

she was talked: Evelyn Moriarty to DS, Feb. 17, 1992.

486

but there isn’t: Cherie Redmond to Hedda Rosten, MM daily secretarial and business report from Los Angeles to New York, dated Sunday, Feb. 25, 1962.

486
ff

For accounts of the brief encounters between MM and President Kennedy (hardly constituting a romance), DS relied on interviews with Ralph Roberts, Allan Snyder, Rupert Allan, Susan Strasberg, Pat Newcomb, Milton Ebbins and Joseph Naar; see also Skolsky, pp. 233–234; and Wilson,
Show Business Laid Bare
, pp. 56ff.

489
ff

On Robert Kennedy’s friendship (it can be called nothing else) with MM, DS relied on interviews with Edwin Guthman (October 29, 1992) and those listed in the note on p. 493; see also Skolsky, p. 234; Wilson, pp. 60, 84. In his appearance on the television program
60 Minutes
in 1973, Norman Mailer admitted that, contrary to the allegations in his then recently published book on Monroe, he did not believe that she was romantically involved with Robert Kennedy, but that his publisher had offered him a lot of money when he “needed quick cash,” and that this element made a good story. Granted.