Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury (27 page)

Santa will bring me a Christmas Tree

A long red scarf,

and an apple pie . . .

Santa will bring me a Christmas Tree—

and oh, how happy I will be!

The other children made fun of Norma Jeane. Even the real little kids knew Santa Claus was not real. It was the Depression.

Norma Jeane made up a new song.

Jesus will bring me a Christmas Tree

A long red scarf,

and an apple pie . . .

Jesus will bring me a Christmas Tree

and take me to heaven when I die!

August 4, 1962

Marilyn Monroe’s bedroom

Marilyn Monroe is dying.

Her diaphragm has quit working and her breathing is now all from the stomach. Her skin has a bluish cast, and if you were to take her wrist, you would find her pulse only with difficulty.

In this dark room, with no one to see, points of light, little stars, are gathering.

A glowing dome of light covers her.

June 7, 1937

Jean Harlow died. Age: 26.

June 26, 1937

Norma Jeane left the orphanage. Something had happened, she was not sure what, but now Aunt Grace wanted her . . . Aunt Grace
would
take her in.

Norma Jeane stood in front of the Los Angeles Orphans Home Society. She wished she had a derby to tip in farewell.

A thought came to her, and she claimed to remember it years later.

—Jean Harlow was dead. It was not right that the world did not have a Jean Harlow. That meant I would have to make things right and become Jean Harlow—or maybe I already was . . . It was a very strange feeling. I still feel that strange feeling sometimes.

Then she got into Aunt Grace’s Buick and went home.

Saturday, July 24, 1937

Norma Jeane waited in the long line at Grauman’s Chinese. The film,
Saratoga
, had been released the previous day.

It starred Clark Gable and Jean Harlow.

It was Jean Harlow’s final film.

Norma Jeane watched the movie.

And without watching—not exactly—she seemed constantly aware of shifting waves of light above.

June 19, 1942

Norma Jeane married the boy next door. Nice guy: Jim Dougherty. She was sixteen. He was twenty-three. She married him to stay out of the orphanage. (Aunt Grace could not keep her any longer.) Jim married Norma Jeane because he was a nice guy.

That’s part of it; there were other reasons.

Jim was away for a long time with the Merchant Marine.

Norma Jeane had a factory job, but she was pretty and had a va-va-voom figure. She soon got other jobs: modeling in shorts and skimpy tops and bathing suits. She did one picture looking back over her shoulder like Betty Grable. Her smile was not as perfect as Betty Grable’s, but her tush was better than Betty Grable’s.

Lots of guys saw pictures like that of Norma Jeane in
Wink
and
Laff
and
Picture Parade
and
Caper
and
Gala
.

Nice guy Jim did not like all the guys looking at photographs of Norma Jeane’s tush.

So they got divorced.

“She told me she wanted to be a movie star. I told her with looks like that, she was a natural. She asked if I meant it. Sure, I meant it, I told her. She asked if I could give her a buck for a sandwich and coffee. I gave her a buck for a sandwich and coffee. Then she said she just had to do something nice for me, so I let her, you know what I mean? Marilyn Monroe, for cryin’ out loud.”

—Randy Bleischer, who’s scored many free drinks with this story

N
orma Jeane posed nude.

Calendar Girl.

Marilyn in the flesh on swirls of red velvet.

Photographer Tom Kelley had no problem with lighting.

She glowed. She
was
the light.

Tom Kelley called the picture
Golden Dreams.

He understood.

A
nd so:

Got a nose job.

Gave some blow jobs.

Changed her name.

Marilyn Monroe.

Muh-Muh-Marilyn Monroe.

—No, goddamnit! Marilyn goddamnit Monroe goddamnit.

Unbilled extra.

—How about a tumble?

Extra. Two days.

Took voice lessons.

Took acting lessons.

Marilyn Monroe.

Walk-on.

Chorus girl in
Love Happy
with Harpo and Groucho Marx.

Banged Groucho.

Banged Harpo.

John Carroll (B-movie star) and his wife, Lucille (Director, Talent Department, MGM). Three-way.

Banged Joe Schenck (Chairman, 20th Century-Fox).

Banged Harry Cohn (President, Columbia Pictures).

Banged Johnny Hyde. She called him “the kindest man in the world.”

Johnny Hyde said —Marry me. I’ve got a bad heart. I’ll croak soon, leave you fixed like the Queen of the Nile and not a poor
shiksa
nafke
.

She said —No.

He died.

Second billing in
Ladies of the Chorus
.

Tah-dah!

She got to act. She got to sing.

She sang “Every Baby Needs a Daddy.”

You know, all in all, it did not take that long.

Not really.

Marilyn Monroe was becoming a star.

1952

Hollywood Success Story.

Monkey Business
.

20th Century-Fox.

Cary Grant. Ginger Rogers. A chimpanzee named Esther.

Second billing: Marilyn Monroe.

Cast as a secretary named Lois LaVerne.

—You’ll have to be funny.

—Funny? I can do funny.

—But . . .

She did not want to cause a p-p-problem, no, she didn’t, but just one change, really, if they could, it m-muh- . . . mattered . . .

All right. Okay.

Second billing: Marilyn Monroe.

Cast as a secretary named Lois Laurel.

1953

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Starring Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe.

How to Marry a Millionaire.

Starring Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall.

She was a big star.

A very big star.

January 14, 1954

Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio. “Joltin’ Joe.” “The Yankee Clipper.” Hemingway called him “the Great DiMaggio” and “the Dago.” She called him “my slugger.” Three-time MVP winner. Thirteen-time All-Star.

Helluva ballplayer.

Joe DiMaggio was shy. He didn’t say much. Hated that celebrity spotlight. Hated it a helluva lot more when it wasn’t illuminating Joe DiMaggio.

And Hey! Did
not
like his wife in it.

He thought she should come with him to San Francisco. Learn to cook linguini with a nice clam sauce. Cannelloni. Braciole like Mama Rosalie. Have a bunch of kids.

She thought she should star in a movie called
The Seven Year Itch
.

New York. Publicity shot. Police keep the crowd behind barricades. Marilyn Monroe on the subway grating at Lexington and Fifty-first. Wind machine kicks in. Her skirt billows up.

I see London.

I see France.

I see Marilyn Monroe’s underpants.

And a whole! lot! more!

I see London.

I see France.

I see Marilyn Monroe’s whosis!

Joe DiMaggio has a problem with this aspect of moviemaking.

Restaurateur and longtime friend Toots Shor explains it to him: —Giuseppe, What do you want? She’s just a goddamn dumb whore.

The marriage lasts 276 days.

August 4, 1962

Marilyn Monroe’s bedroom

Los Angeles

Marilyn Monroe is dying.

Drugs are taking a long time to kill her.

Or perhaps, even with no audience, Marilyn Monroe is working the drama of it all.

Light gathers, phosphorescent waves all about her.

S
he wants to be smart.

She wants people to think she is smart.

She wants to think she is smart.

(Let’s hear it for the only girl Blackbird!)

She wants to act.

Chekhov. Dostoyevsky.

A review:
In the demanding role of Grushenka, Marilyn Monroe exhibits what noted theater critic and raconteur Groucho Marx has acclaimed nothing less than “a million dollar ass.”

She wants to be praised.

She wants to be loved.

June 29, 1956

She married Arthur Miller. Playwright.
All My Sons. Death of a Salesman. The Crucible
. A talent. An intellect. We’ve got a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Howzat? You want better? Check with his mother, Augusta . . . Gussie: —
Oy
, even when he was just a
pisherke
, what a
kopf
he had!

House Un-American Activities Committee comes after Arthur Miller. Pinko stuff in his plays. Hangs out with Commies. He wears glasses. Come on, I gotta spell it out? He’s a Hebe!

Marilyn Monroe saves Arthur Miller’s bacon—you should pardon the expression. Arthur Miller is married to Golden Dreams, for cryin’ out loud. Not the girl next door, but the kinda sweet, kinda daffy, impossibly sexy roundheels you wished lived next door. How much more American can you get?

Miller, aw, he’s okay. Don’t bust his chops. Let him cop a walk.

Marilyn Monroe calls Arthur Miller
Pops
.

Arthur Miller introduces her to the work of many writers.

She writes poetry. Sad dolls. Weeping willows. Staircase men. Balloons. Jean Harlow.

She is scared to show Arthur her poetry. She doesn’t want to hear that sniffy-nose thing he does.

She discovers Edgar Lee Masters. She loves
Spoon River Anthology
.

Late in the evening, the hi-fi playing Respighi’s
Pines of Rome
, she’s had enough to drink (1953 Dom Pérignon), and so she reads a few lines of Edgar Lee Masters to Arthur Miller.

Immortality is not a gift,

Immortality is an achievement;

And only those who strive mightily

Shall possess it.

Arthur Miller shakes his head. —Drivel, he says. —The quintessence of pulp-pap passing as profundity. Edgar Guest with a college sophomore’s vocabulary and keen intellectual grasp. It is not impossible that
everything
that is wrong with America is contained in those resoundingly
dreadful
lines.

She finds the courage. —I . . . I luh-like . . .

—Of course, says Arthur Miller.

Shortly thereafter, she finds the journal he has accidentally left open on her dressing table.

. . . such a dumb
shiksa, takeh a goyishe kopf
. I do feel pity for her, but perhaps not love. And, selfish though it may be, I wonder what deleterious effects she might have on my
own
career . . .

The Millers’ marriage, uh, not in great shape.

He wrote a screenplay called
The Misfits
.

—Just for you.

Her role: a depressed divorced dancer, desperate for approval, acceptance, love.

She is NEED come a-’walkin’—with a great body!

John Huston directed the film.

Clark Gable costarred.

It was Gable’s last film.

The film wrapped. Two days later, massive heart attack.

Clark Gable died ten days later.

Marilyn Monroe divorced Arthur Miller on January 20, 1961.