Remembering ‘Marilyn! The Musical’

First posted here on December 28, 2017 Must Close Saturday: The Decline and Fall Of The British Musical Flop, a new book by Adrian Wright, covers Mort Garson's short-lived 1983 show, Marilyn! The Musical. Despite winning an endorsement from Anna Strasberg, the executor of Marilyn’s estate, the show failed to win over critics and closed...

Marilyn: The Quest For An Oscar

First posted here on January 6, 2016 As this year’s awards season gets underway, many MM fans will bemoan the fact that she never won, or was even nominated for an Oscar. Of course, there will always be sceptics who believe she was more of a star than an actress. However, when we consider how...

Marilyn and Khrushchev in Hollywood

First posted here on December 22, 2015 This second extract from Alistair Cooke at the Movies focuses on ‘The Script That Got Away: Mr Khruschev’s Propaganda Tour at US Expense’, an article about the Soviet premier’s historic visit, published in The Guardian after Marilyn attended a Twentieth Century-Fox luncheon in Khrushchev’s honour on September 20, 1959. “He was whizzed so fast...

The Day Marilyn Kept Rockefeller Waiting

First posted here on August 6, 2015 Newsday has dug into its archive for an account of Marilyn’s belated arrival in New York on July 2nd, 1957, from her summer home in Amagansett, to launch the construction of a new Time-Life building. Arthur Miller wrote about the event in his autobiography, Timebends, recalling his astonishment...

Death in Hollywood: Amber Tamblyn on Marilyn

First posted here on April 8, 2015 Actress Amber Tamblyn – who has appeared in TV shows including Joan of Arcadia, House M.D., and Two and a Half Men, and films such as Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Ring – is also an accomplished poet. Her third collection, Dark Sparkler, focuses on tragic...

Marilyn’s Directors: Howard Hawks

First posted here on December 9th, 2011 In this extract from the filmmaker and critic Peter Bogdanovich’s anthology, Who the Hell’s In It? (2004), he recalls an interview with classic Hollywood maestro Howard Hawks, who directed Marilyn in Monkey Business (1952) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953.)   “Monroe was frightened to come on the stage...

Richard Avedon’s ‘Sad Marilyn’ Plate Sold for $75K

First posted here on April 6th, 2019 Richard Avedon’s melancholic 1957 portrait of Marilyn, one of 35 plates printed in 1970 as part of a ‘Minneapolis Portfolio’, fetched an impressive $75,000 today in a Photographs auction at Sotheby’s in New York. ‘Nothing Personal’: Richard Avedon’s Marilyn First posted here on November 6th, 2017 Nothing Personal, Richard Avedon's...

Beloved Collaborators: Richard Avedon, Truman Capote and Marilyn

First posted here on February 5th, 2018 Richard Avedon and Marilyn had a dear mutual friend – the novelist Truman Capote, who provided the text for Avedon’s 1959 book, Observations. "Truman leapt at Dick’s invitation to collaborate on a book project. He sent his text to Dick in stages, written in his fussy little hand on...

Something Personal: Richard Avedon and Marilyn

First posted here on December 1st, 2017 This photo of Marilyn chatting with photographer Richard Avedon at a 1961 Actors Studio benefit at New York’s Roseland Ballroom is published in Avedon: Something Personal, a new biography by Norma Stevens and Steven M.L. Aronson. (I have included the colour version above for comparison.) Marilyn is mentioned...

Inge Morath on Miller, Huston and Marilyn

First posted here on October 16th, 2016 Inge Morath: On Style is a new book focusing on the late photographer’s work in fashion and film. Her images of Marilyn on the set of The Misfits are elegant and tender, and the knowledge that Morath would become Arthur Miller’s third wife adds a note of poignancy. Author Justine Picardie...