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Marilyn Monroe was born June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California with no knowledge of who her father was, and her mother being in the psychiatry, she grew up in foster homes. All Monroe has ever wanted was to have her own child. Her personal life was difficult to separate from her acting life. She has also had numerous love affairs.
Marilyn Monroe was found dead – or rather alive? (That’s still uncertain, this mystery is yet to be solved) in her house at Brentwood, Los Angeles on August 5, 1962. Monroe died at the age of 36 on what was said to be an overdose of sleeping pills (barbiturates), her death was ruled as a “probable suicide,” due to her history of drug use.
Although it’s been alleged that her death was caused by her lover, there’s no evidence yet, to back this claim.
In the new documentary The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, now streaming on Netflix, the icon herself was heard saying, “How do you go about writing a life story? Because the true things rarely get into circulation. It’s usually the false things. It’s hard to know where to start if you don’t start with the truth.”
The film began with audio recordings from the research that journalist and author Anthony Summers began in 1982 when the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office started a threshold inquiry into Monroe’s death by barbiturate overdose, a precursor to deciding whether to open a full-blown investigation.
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Anthony Summers interviewed a thousand people, including 650 on tape, two dozen of whom are heard from here.
Here’s what was uncovered about Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe’s – Drinking And Drug Habits
When Monroe reported for work on The Misfits, which was written by Miller, she was drinking heavily and abusing drugs— amphetamines to stay up and barbiturates to sleep.
“Very soon we were aware that she was a problem,” director John Huston told Summers. “She’d be late on the set always. Sometimes the whole morning would go by. Sometimes she’d be alright. Occasionally, she’d be practically non-compos mentis,” meaning not of sound mind.
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Huston said he found out throughout the film what the problem was, and “I remember saying to Miller one day,” he recalled, “I said, you know, that if she went on at the rate that she was going, she’d be in an institution in two or three years, or dead. And I said anyone who allows her to take a drug ought to be shot.”
Marilyn Monroe’s – Secret And Alleged Affair
Monroe was close to the family of the psychiatrist who treated her in the last year of her life, Dr. Ralph Greenson. He died in 1979, but his wife Hildi, daughter Joan and son Danny all spoke to Summers for his research into the actress’ last days— Joan recalled Monroe telling her about a “really terrific, really neat, cute” new man in her life, whom the actress said was too important to identify, instead just calling him “the General.”
According to multiple Kennedy and Monroe biographers, the actress’ alleged affair with John F. Kennedy continued into his presidency and was largely conducted out in California. He would go out there plainly to visit his brother-in-law and Rat Pack member Peter Lawford, who’d throw devalued parties at his Malibu home—as remembered to Summers by Dean Martin’s ex-wife Jeanne Martin.
But “the General” Monroe referred to was believed to be U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, John’s younger brother and a married father of 10 with one on the way when he was assassinated in 1968.
“Peter would obviously be sort of pimping for both Kennedys,” Jeanne said of Lawford planning gatherings that served as a convenient place for illicit meetings. “They would do it just as soon in front of anybody, wives [such as herself] could be in the other room.”
Monroe “spoke quite openly” about her feelings for Bobby Kennedy, her friend Arthur James told Summers. “Oh, nothing but love. Nothing but admiration.”
Marilyn Monroe’s – Rejected
A couple of months after Monroe’s infamous performance of “Happy Birthday” for President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, according to multiple accounts, Bobby told her to never call either him or John again.
“She was hurt, terribly hurt when she was told directly never to call or contact again, Robert or John,” her friend Arthur James told Summers. “That was an order. Jack didn’t contact her, Bob did. And that’s what killed her.”
Marilyn Monroe’s -Final Hours
According to the original account of Marilyn’s final hours, her housekeeper Eunice Murray recalled the actress retiring to her bedroom at 8 p.m. on Aug. 4, 1962. At around 3 a.m., Murray woke up and saw that Monroe’s bedroom light was still on. The door was locked and there was no answer, so Murray called Dr. Greenson who drove the mile-and-a-half to Monroe’s house and could see through her bedroom window the star lying in bed on her stomach. Police were called at 4:25 a.m.
But Summers uncovered an alternate version of events, one in which Monroe was technically still alive during the ambulance ride to St. John’s hospital in Santa Monica, and after she died she was transported back to her house. All this was purported to give Bobby Kennedy enough time to get to the airport and have Monroe’s home cleared of any trace of her association with either brother.
Marilyn Monroe’s – Death Report
Irrespective of the pile-up of hints and finger-pointing, Summers’ conclusion was still that Monroe took too many sleeping pills all on her own and died.
Whether it was her intention to kill herself or an accident remains the unsolvable mystery, though the heartbreaks leading up to that night always seem to add up in a way that suggests she was unhappy enough not to have cared what happened to her.
Noting how “wonderful” Cukor had been to her on the set of Something’s Got to Give, which was never finished, Monroe said, “To be happy is almost as difficult as trying to be a good actress. You have to work at both of them.”
The Los Angeles D.A.’s 1982 inquiry, which started in the face of renewed speculation that Monroe was murdered because of her political ties, re-confirmed the original findings from 1962.
“Based on the evidence available to us, it appears that her death could have been suicide or come as a result of an accidental drug overdose,” then-District Attorney John Van de Kamp said at a press conference. “Permit me to express a faint hope that Marilyn Monroe be permitted to rest in peace.”
The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes is streaming on Netflix.
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Editorial credit: Kobby Dagan