“There was something exceptional about Marilyn Monroe. Sometimes she could be ethereal and sometimes like a waitress in a coffee shop.”
- Truman Capote
She died exactly 60 years ago, yet she is more alive than ever: one of the most discussed people of all time, Marilyn Monroe was the emblem of a sexual revolution that took hold during the 50’s and didn’t extinguish until the late 70s.
Innumerable things have been told about this amazing, tormented woman, since before her death. But the real Marilyn remains unknown.
We have tried to rebuild the real essence of this outstanding beauty icon with the words of the people who knew her.
“Oh yes, there is something there. She is a beautiful child. I don’t mean that in the obvious way. I don’t think she’s an actress at all, not in any traditional sense. What she has, this presence, this luminosity, this flickering intelligence, could never surface on the stage. It’s so fragile and subtle, it can only be caught by the camera. Absurd of me to say, but somehow I feel she’ll go young. I hope, I really pray, that she survives long enough to free the strange lovely talent that’s wandering through her like a jailed spirit.”
- Constance Collier, actress
“To understand Marilyn best, you have to see her around children. They love her; her whole approach to life has their kind of simplicity and directness.”
- Arthur Miller, writer (and third husband)
“She knows the world, but this knowledge has not lowered her great and benevolent dignity, its darkness has not dimmed her goodness.”
- Dame Edith Sitwell, poet
“I have the same problem as Marilyn. We attract people the way honey does bees, but they’re generally the wrong kind of people. People who want something from us – if only our energy. We need a period of being alone to become ourselves.”
- Montgomery Clift, actor
“She was pure of heart. She was free of guile. She never understood either the adoration or the antagonism which she awakened.”
- Edward Wagenknecht, literary critic
“You say hello to her or it’s a nice day today, and she answers with a line from the script. She forgets everything but the work.”
- Jean Negulesco, director
“On the surface, she was still a happy girl. But those who criticized her never saw her as I did, crying like a baby because she often felt herself so inadequate.”
- William Travilla, makeup-artist
“I asked her where she lived, and when she said at the Studio Club, I was impressed because I knew that a girl who looked like that could have the biggest house in Beverly Hills, she could have whatever she wanted because men would give it to her. Therefore, if she lived at the Studio Club it was because she had character.”
- Ben Lyon, studio executive
“She seemed very shy, and I remember that when the studio workers would whistle at her, it seemed to embarrass her.”
- Cary Grant, actor
“She was not the usual movie idol. There was something democratic about her. She was the type who would join in and wash up the supper dishes even if you didn’t ask her.”
- Carl Sandburg, writer
“As we were about to meet the Queen, I rushed to one of the dressing rooms, to check if my makeup was all right. And who do I see? Marilyn! So there we were, powdering our noses, looking at each other saying ‘hello-hello’. I really saw her close up. She was ravishing. It was the only time I saw Marilyn, and I will always remember it. I find her wonderful. She is a woman who was exploited, whom none understood. Behind her sexy looks she was so incredibly lovely, like…a baby.”
- Brigitte Bardot
We share a birthday; I’ve always felt close to or admired she and other artists (Morgan Freeman, et. al.) with whom I share that day (June 1). A true beauty, in and out, and just…a legend.