January 17: A terrified Montand, who does not know much English, works on his lines with his wife, the actress Simone Signoret. Marilyn suddenly informs the studio that she will not be coming in the n...
January 16: Arthur Miller arrives in Hollywood to work on a screenplay with his friend, director Elia Kazan. Marilyn meets playwright Arthur Miller on the set of her film, As Young as You Feel.
January 15: Marilyn’s lawyer sends a letter to Fox stating it has failed to honor its obligation to put her in a picture in 1957. She was now owed $100,000 for a picture she did not make, and she now...
January 15: Gladys is declared insane and committed to the Norwalk Mental Hospital.
January 15: Columnist Bob Thomas publicizes Marilyn’s doubts about the Something’s Got to Give script.
January 13: Marilyn shows up at the studio for still shots, but then departs not wanting to be present for a discussion of her next production with screenwriter Nunnally Johnson.
In the only picture Brennan ever did for the legendary director John Ford, the character actor worked well beside Ford stalwarts such as Ward Bond, playing one of Earp’s brothers. Indeed, what is most...
In a memo dated April 22, 1942, concerning a script conference about Maryland, Darryl Zanuck rejected the idea of making a radical change in Brennan’s screen persona. Brennan simply could not be prese...
In June 2000, I had settled into a cosy stay at Pilgrim’s Lane. Only later would I begin to see that by providing me with so much access and comfort, Michael was buffering the biography. I don’t mean...
I noticed that he wasn’t looking at me while we talked. After we finished the take, I asked him where he’d been looking. Your ear, he replied. Why? I asked in surprise. Because that way more of my fac...
Hazlitt, Swift, and Stendhal filled Michael with all sorts of conceits about the nature of love that grew to have for him a consecration of its own, perhaps best exemplified in Hazlitt’s Liber Amoris,...
February 8: Marilyn does her black sitting session with Milton Greene. Marilyn poses in black hat and fishnet stockings, her face partially in shadow. She also appears in a shot where she lies down, h...
February 27: Muncher Illustrierte (Germany) displays Marilyn and Jane Russell in showgirl costumes, holding black top hats above their heads.
February 27: Marlon Brando sends Marilyn an encouraging telegram, saying, in part, [D]on’t be afraid of being afraid. It can only help. Relax and enjoy it. I send you my thoughts and my warmest affect...
February 26: Marilyn begins work on Monkey Business with director Howard Hawks. As usual, she is late to the set, but Ginger Rogers, in a starring role, said Marilyn always knew her lines. Billy Travi...
February 24: Marilyn is the honored guest at the home of Mexican actor, writer, and director Emilio Fernández Romo and his wife, Colunga. Marilyn is introduced to José Bolaños, a well-dressed, twenty-...
February 23: Marilyn applies to legally change her name to Marilyn Monroe.
February 21: Marilyn arrives on the set at 10:30 a.m. Academy Award nominations have just been announced, but her performance in Some Like It Hot has not been acknowledged. Nevertheless, Marilyn happi...
February 21: Joe DiMaggio escorts Marilyn to the airport for her flight from Miami to Mexico. She flies to Mexico with Pat Newcomb and her staff on a shopping expedition to furnish her new hacienda-st...
February 16: Marilyn flies to Seoul, South Korea, to begin entertaining the troops at ten different sites. Her outfit for her performances includes a skin-tight, low-cut, plum-colored crepe cocktail d...