WHEN I FIRST DISCOVERED Marilyn Monroe, it was 1985 and I was a teenager. I was at first attracted to her beautiful, glamorous image, but the moment I began reading about her, my feelings went far deeper. I soon realized that Marilyn had become a highly successful woman despite having many odds stacked against her. While her ultimate story was one of tragedy, the woman herself was a fighter, someone who began life as Norma Jeane—a little girl who lived in a series of foster homes—and yet fought her way to become not only an actress, but one of the most famous women in the entire world.
Yet while I could quite clearly see that Marilyn was an intelligent person, I found myself forever bombarded with comments such as “Oh, she was just a dumb blonde” or “You can tell she’s just playing herself on-screen.” These statements baffled me and always came from people who knew nothing at all about her (nor wanted to learn). More than thirty years later, I have covered aspects of Marilyn Monroe’s life in five books and find myself still dispelling myths, correcting untruths, and trying to educate people on one of the most universally intriguing stars of the cinematic pantheon. Happily, now many want to learn what Marilyn was really like. But it cannot be denied that history has been rewritten in the decades since her death, and the woman who achieved so much in the 1950s is often lost in a haze of modern-day Internet memes and rumors. I regard this book, therefore, as a means of redeeming her reputation.
The Girl, titled after her character in the 1955 comedy The Seven Year Itch, tells the story of how that film transformed Marilyn Monroe from another Hollywood star into “The Girl” of modern times—a true icon—and sent her on an unparalleled adventure of self-discovery and reflection. The years 1954 to 1956 were Marilyn’s most powerful and inspirational, and it was during this time that her most substantial decisions were made. Before Itch, she had been known for her mostly fluffy, dumb-blonde roles, and she was unhappily married to baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. But by the time the film opened, Marilyn was the president of her own film company, a student at New York’s Actors Studio, and embroiled in a battle with Twentieth Century Fox that would eventually gain independence not only for herself, but others working under the constraints of the studio system too. Shortly after the release, she legally changed her name to Marilyn Monroe, thereby divorcing herself from the troubled past of Norma Jeane once and for all. Her rebellion was remarkable and exceptionally rare during a time when women were expected to strive to be fantastic homemakers and actresses had to accept every kind of behavior imposed upon them by their male bosses.
While The Seven Year Itch played a pivotal part in Marilyn’s life, so it did in mine too. I can remember the exact date when I first watched the movie: it was December 24, 1986, and I was sixteen years old. I had been a fan for just over a year and had seen only a few of Marilyn’s movies at that point. I desperately wanted to see The Seven Year Itch because of the famous skirt-blowing scene, but what I remember most of all is just how luminous Marilyn Monroe looked in the film. Her hair, her skin, her costumes—everything glowed, and the magic of her personality shone straight out of the screen.
At some point during the evening, my grandparents came to visit. They sat down and watched the film with me, laughing when Marilyn made quips about keeping her undies in the icebox, and making comments about her strange habit of dunking potato chips in champagne. My grandparents were born just three years before Marilyn, which made her a star of their generation, not mine. However, I don’t ever remember them querying why their granddaughter was suddenly so obsessed with her. It was merely accepted that Marilyn—and The Seven Year Itch—could transcend generations and entertain in the same way they had during the 1950s.
Thirty years later, my thirteen-year-old daughter sat down to watch the same film and declared Marilyn to be “so pure.” This made me smile. The magic of The Girl, The Seven Year Itch, and, of course, the actress captured the imagination of a teenager once again. And so it is that Marilyn’s influence continues to inspire each new generation.
Marilyn always searched for ways to make her life more meaningful and profound. She was an exceptionally modern woman and fought the studio and her male bosses as if it were the most natural process in the world. She was glamorous but not scared to be seen without makeup. She could be flirtatious but demanded respect. She posed nude and totally owned the fact that she had done so. In an era of female restraint, Marilyn was an unlikely feminist and a person of such determination that she never ceased to amaze anyone lucky enough to meet her. In turn, her life, work, and rebellion have impacted the lives of people around the world.
This book presents Marilyn Monroe in a fresh light: strong, independent, brave, and authentically unique; a woman of Yeats, Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Tolstoy; a real-life human being who strived to better herself through education and action. Marilyn Monroe continues to inspire women well over half a century since her death. The Girl explores the many different ways this has come to pass.
—Michelle Morgan, October 2017