Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962), was an American actress of the 20th century. Her sizzling screen presence and mysterious death at the age of 36 would make her a perennial sex symbol, and later a pop icon.

Early life

A Los Angeles native, she was born in the charity ward at 9:30 in Los Angeles County Hospital, and registered as Norma Jeane Mortenson. Her grandmother, Della Monroe Grainger, later had her baptized Norma Jeane Baker. Biographers used to differ on whether the man listed on her birth certificate, Norwegian-born Martin Edward Mortenson, was not her true biological father. The most likely candidate for a while seemed to be Charles Stanley Gifford, a salesman for the studio where Marilyn's mother, the late Gladys Pearl Monroe Baker Eley, worked as a film-cutter. In later years, more biographers have accepted the theory that Mortenson was in fact her true father.

Related Topics:
Los Angeles - Los Angeles County Hospital - Norwegian - Charles Stanley Gifford - Film-cutter

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Unable to persuade her mother Della to take care of her baby, Marilyn's mother placed her with Albert and Ida Bolender of Hawthorne, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles, where she lived until she was seven years old. The Bolenders were a religious couple who supplemented their meager income by being foster parents. In her autobiography, My Story, ghostwritten by Ben Hecht (not always a reputable source because it was largely a publicity vehicle), Marilyn said she thought Wayne and Ida were her parents until Ida, rather cruelly, corrected her. After Marilyn's death, Ida claimed that she and Wayne had seriously considered adopting her, which they could not have done without Gladys's consent.

Related Topics:
Hawthorne, California - Los Angeles - Foster parents - Ghostwritten - Ben Hecht - Publicity vehicle

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According to My Story, Gladys visited Norma Jeane every Saturday, but never hugged or kissed her, or even smiled. At some point, Gladys announced that she had bought a house for herself and her daughter. A few months after moving in, she suffered a mental breakdown. Marilyn recalled Gladys "screaming and laughing" as she was forcibly removed to the State Mental Hospital in Norwalk, California, where her grandmother, Della, had died in August 1927. Although Gladys's father, Otis, had died in a mental hospital near San Bernardino, California, his condition was caused by syphilis, not any inheritable trait.

Related Topics:
Mental breakdown - Norwalk, California - Mental hospital - San Bernardino, California - Syphilis

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Norma Jeane was declared a ward of the state. Gladys's best friend, Grace McKee, later Goddard, became her guardian. After Grace married in 1935, Norma Jeane was sent to Los Angeles Orphanage, then to as many as twelve foster homes, in which she was allegedly subjected to abuse and neglect. However, there is little evidence that Marilyn had actually lived in so many foster homes and had been abused. In her interviews Marilyn often gave exaggerated information about her childhood. In September 1941, her mother took her in again. She was then introduced to a neighbor's son, James Dougherty, who would become her first husband. The Goddard family were then moving to the East Coast and felt that marriage would be the best solution for the then-teenage Norma Jeane. Since Marilyn was underage at the time, she had to get married or otherwise she would have had to return to the orphanage. Norma Jeane had come to think little of herself, yet also developed a gritty, opportunistic side and a super-human drive. She was very intelligent and more unhappy than her screen image suggested.

Related Topics:
Ward - State - Guardian - 1935 - Los Angeles - Orphanage - Foster homes - Abuse - Childhood - 1941 - James Dougherty - East Coast

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