Marilyn’s Emerson Junior High Admirer

First posted here on August 13, 2012 After writing a tribute to Marilyn for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle received this letter from a reader: “Dear Mr. LaSalle: Reading your August 3 article about Marilyn Monroe [‘The Power of Marilyn‘] put me in mind of a family story about her that supports your analysis of her special...

Monroe Forum Theatre Opens in Lankershim

First posted here on August 16, 2012 Broadway World reports on the opening of the Monroe Forum Theatre, a second stage at the El Portal Theatre, which is located directly behind Lankershim Elementary School, once attended by Norma Jeane. The inaugural performance was Sunny Thompson’s one-woman show, Marilyn: Forever Blonde, on the 50th anniversary of MM’s...

Marilyn Goes From Hollywood to Love Field

First posted here on August 16, 2012 Writing for Dallas News, Nancy Churnin investigated Marilyn’s possible connections with the city. “When seeking as I always do for a Texas connection, I received a slender link courtesy of Gregory Schreiner, Marilyn Monroe expert and the President and founding member of the longest running Monroe fan club in existence...

Doreen Provost Remembers Marilyn

First posted here on August 11, 2012 81 year-old Doreen Provost – a resident of Greenspring Retirement Community in Springfield, Virginia – recently told Jessica McKay at Burke Patch of her encounter with Marilyn Monroe back in 1954. “In January 1954, Provost, a UCLA graduate, was working as an assistant buyer in the bridal department at the...

Marilyn’s Coroner and Pallbearer Remember Her Death

First posted here on August 7, 2012 Former coroner Bob Dambacher has spoken to Jeff Jardine of the Modesto Bee about his memories of investigating Marilyn’s death. “Bob Dambacher’s phone rang sometime about 7:30 a.m. His orders? Double-time it over to the Westwood Mortuary and pick up a body from an apparent suicide. Normally, Los Angeles...

Retracing Marilyn’s ‘Valley Girl’ Connections

First posted here on August 6, 2012 A young Marilyn lived in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, at various homes during the years 1937-47. Her cousin Eleanor ‘Bebe’ Goddard, and movie stand-in Evelyn Moriarty were Valley residents. And the bandleader Ray Anthony hosted the famous ‘My Marilyn’ party at his Studio City home in...

If Marilyn Had Lived…

First posted here on August 6, 2012 The Huffington Post asked John Strasberg (son of Lee and Paula Strasberg), plus authors Sarah Churchwell (The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe) and Joyce Carol Oates (Blonde) what direction Marilyn’s career might have taken if she had lived beyond 1962. “Back in those days, women, after a certain age, just...

Mona Rae Miracle: ‘My Aunt Marilyn’

First posted here on August 5, 2012 Mona Rae Miracle, daughter of Berniece Baker Miracle and niece of Marilyn Monroe, has spoken to The Mirror about her famous aunt. “‘Norma Jeane told me she was very pleased to meet me and I could tell she really was. She loved children. She would tumble about on the...

Marilyn’s Death in the Mirror, and TIME

First posted here on August 5, 2012 UK tabloid The Mirror (formerly the Daily Mirror) has reposted its original front page story on Marilyn's death, written by Stan Mays and John Edwards on Sunday, August 5th, and published on Monday, August 6th, 1962. Interestingly, while it is often said that the investigation mistakenly placed Marilyn's...

‘On the Waterfront’: Marilyn and John Garfield

First posted here on July 16, 2017 Three years after their encounter on the set of We Were Strangers (see here), Marilyn and John Garfield were early contenders for the lead roles in On the Waterfront, according to Marilyn’s photographer friend, Sam Shaw, who was then developing it as a screenplay. (Director Elia Kazan denied all of this, but...