7
“NOW I’M MARILYN MONROE”
Let me tell you more about my first screen test at Fox. It was a silent test. There was no dialogue. Mr. Leon Shamroy was the motion picture cameraman who they said was the best in the business. He would photograph my screen test. [At the time] there was a film in production called Mother Wore Tights, with Betty Grable.
Secretly one morning around five thirty, Mr. Shamroy and myself sneaked on the set. I made up in a portable dressing room that Mr. Lyon sneaked out of wardrobe. [The dress] was lovely, a sequined evening gown for me to wear for my big scene. Mr. Shamroy lighted the set himself and loaded his motion picture camera and served as his own camera operator.
We rehearsed my first big scene and then I began the scene and prayed silently that this was my start, the beginning of becoming a motion picture actress. This is what my big scene consisted of: I walked across the set; I had to light a cigarette, inhale, then blow the smoke out, get up, then go upstage, cross, look out a window, sit down, come downstage, and then exit the set. Those bright lights were blinding me, and for some strange reason—instead of being nervous and scared as I thought I’d be—I just did the best I could.
I tried very hard, I did my best, because I knew Mr. Lyon and Mr. Shamroy were taking an awful chance if the test didn’t work out well. They’d be in a lot of trouble, maybe even fired. Darryl Zanuck I was told was a tyrant, a real SOB. I just couldn’t let them down; most of all I couldn’t let myself down. This is what I wanted more than anything else. This is what I’d been waiting for—I just had to make it.
Both men privately screened my test without my being invited. I guess if it was a flop they didn’t want me to see it. But Mr. Shamroy did confess to me later on that watching my screen test he got a cold chill. The girl up there on that screen had something he had not seen since the days of silent pictures. This girl had sex on a piece of film like Jean Harlow had. Every frame of that film radiated. And all this without a sound track. Up there was a girl, the first he had seen that he said looked like one of those lush silent-days screen stars. He explained that I had shown I could sell emotions, sex in pictures. He claimed that was stirring the audience. Movies are pictures that create
GEORGE BARRIS: Marilyn once told me that only a few men had helped her in the early days of her career. She knew that she had the physical beauty, personality, desire, and talent she needed. But in Hollywood, where every girl wanted to be in films, she soon discovered that knowing the “right people” in the industry could open doors for her. One of the men who helped the most early on was Ben Lyon.
A Twentieth Century-Fox talent scout, Lyon, along with Leon Shamroy, the stu-
emotions, not just people up there opening and closing their mouths. “And, baby,” he said, “you certainly have got it!”
Ben Lyon agreed, and was so excited that he sneaked my test into the daily film rushes that Mr. Zanuck would be viewing. “Who is that girl?” and “Who authorized that screen test?” Zanuck shouted. Quite nervous, Ben Lyon admitted he had made the test on his own. There was tension in the air. Zanuck, taking a deep puff on his cigar and blowing out the smoke, was silent for a while. Lyon, holding his breath, wondered if he and Shamroy would get the ax. “That’s a damn fine test. Who is the girl? I hope you signed her,” shouted Zanuck. The gamble these men took on me paid off.
“Now Norma Jeane,” Mr. Lyon said, “take this contract home and have your legal guardian sign it.” When I got home and showed the contract to my aunt Grace, who was my legal guardian, I also told her my new name as an actress would be Marilyn, as suggested by Mr. Lyon. Before I could tell her what my last name would be, Aunt Grace said, “Sounds fine for a first name. Why not use your mother’s maiden name Monroe for your last name?” With this, I hesitated, then replied, “Well, I don’t
“And, baby,” he said, “you certainly have got it!”
dio’s great cinematographer, shot the test without the authorization of the all-powerful Darryl Zanuck. On the set of a Betty Grable movie at five in the morning, Marilyn, wearing a gown borrowed from wardrobe, had her secret screen test. Zanuck’s highly favorable response when he viewed the test ensured that a starlet was born. And Norma Jeane Mortenson was no more. She became Marilyn Monroe. She was just twenty years old.
know.” But Aunt Grace insisted it would make [my] mother so proud if [I] did. Then I laughed and shouted to Aunt Grace, “I thought so, too. Now I’m Marilyn Monroe.” We all started to laugh as Aunt Grace gave me a big hug. She said, “That’s my girl.” From that day on, I had to get used to my new name—I’d better remember who I was. Most important, I’d better know how to spell my name, too. What if someday someone asked me for my autograph and I signed it Jeane—or even if I didn’t know how to spell Marilyn Monroe!
With a new name and a studio contract, my new life had begun. I was on my way to being a film actress. What I’d been dreaming for now had happened. Photography had shown I was what they were looking for up there on the silver screen. Now I had to prove I could act. For voice parts, I was told I would be given lessons at the studio’s school that they had for what they called their “starlets,” of which I was now one.
Later that year, Jim [Dougherty] finally gave in and signed our divorce papers. I was granted a divorce in Reno, Nevada, just six weeks before I had signed my movie contract with one of the largest motion picture studios, Twentieth Century—Fox. And I was now twenty years old.
Life is certainly strange. It seems like only yesterday. It’s amazing how much a person’s mind has the capacity for recalling. In my mind I was on my way to stardom, but to the studio I was just another starlet who, if she was lucky enough, would get a small walk-on or speak a word or two that you wouldn’t even notice if you’re not a careful observer during a movie. In other words, I had been told it is unusual for a starlet to become a star. This I would find out for myself the hard way.
For the first six months I worked very hard, attending classes in acting, pantomime, singing, voice, and dancing. I could never afford all this on my own. I could thank my lucky stars it was all free.
