'Marilyn Monroe syndrome': what the actress hid behind the playful smile of a seductress
'24.09.2020'
Source: Mix News
A platinum blonde in a fluttering dress - this is how Marilyn Monroe remembered millions of fans around the world. However, few people really knew her real one. And despite the incredible success, shy and insecure Norma Jeane all this time lived inside the brilliant Marilyn Monroe, writes Mix News.
7 little-known facts about the actress that show the downside of her success and the high price she paid for her fame
Marilyn did not know her father, and her mother gave her to a foster family
Marilyn, or rather, Norma, as the actress was called before the start of her career, was the third daughter of Gladys Baker. However, who was the girl's father remains a mystery. Norma did not know maternal love either, since soon after her birth, the girl was taken by the foster family.
Gladys spent some time with her foster family to help raise Marilyn, but due to her work in Hollywood (and she worked as a film editor at RKO Pictures), she only saw her daughter on weekends. Unfortunately, the mother of the future star was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and she spent most of her life in hospitals. So Norma passed from family to family, occasionally meeting with her sick mother. For a while, the future actress even lived in an orphanage.
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It was because of a difficult childhood that the little girl thought about becoming an actress, because the representatives of this profession are admired:
“I first thought about becoming an actress at the age of 5,” Marilyn recalled. - I liked to play. I didn't like the world around me. Some of my adoptive parents took me to the cinema to get me out of the house, and there I sat in front of a big screen. That's how I fell in love with cinema, ”the actress said in an interview.
The whole relationship of the actress was complicated
At 16, Marilyn had to marry her 21-year-old neighbor. She had to do this because the family with whom she lived moved to another state, and according to the laws of California at that time the girl could not be taken with her. Thus, immediately after she turned 16, Marilyn got married so as not to return to the orphanage.
The actress recalled that her first marriage was very calm, she and her husband spoke very little. A year after the wedding, her husband joined the Navy, and Norma began working at an aircraft factory.
It was there that the future star was noticed by a photographer who offered her a job as a model. Marilyn agreed, and her career began to develop rapidly: small contracts in the theater, a change in appearance, a new stage name and ... a divorce. The husband did not accept the girl's new lifestyle and the couple decided to leave.
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The situation will repeat itself a few years later in a second marriage, this time with baseball star Joe DiMaggio. The athlete had severe bouts of jealousy, because he was married to one of the most desirable women of that time.
The iconic flapping dress scene in The Seven Year Itch was the last straw for the jealous Joe. The recording of this scene lasted several hours and attracted a crowd of onlookers on the street. Joe was furious.
Marilyn's third marriage - with director Arthur Miller - also ended in a breakup. According to rumors, the director's creative crisis contributed to the collapse of the relationship and, in addition, he felt financially dependent on his wife, and Marilyn considered herself unworthy of the role of his muse.
All her life she hid psychological problems behind a big smile.
It is known that Marilyn underwent several plastic surgeries to improve her appearance. To make her forehead taller, her hairline was surgically lifted. The actress etched her hair with peroxide to an ashy blonde. The bite of the teeth was corrected, a silicone prosthesis was implanted in the chin, and the shape of the nose was corrected.
Marilyn became an icon of beauty, but she was still ashamed of herself and her body.
“She suffered from dyslexia and stuttering more than anyone could have imagined. Throughout her life, she suffered from terrible nightmares that contributed to her constant insomnia. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was often out of touch with reality. And that's not to mention the fact that she constantly suffered from terrible pain during her period. The actress had a skin rash and hives, and she eventually developed chronic colitis, which caused abdominal pain and nausea. She was haunted by problems from childhood - a mother in a psychiatric hospital, a father she never knew, wandering between foster families and an orphanage. And then there were various medications that she took to cope with Hollywood pressure: to calm down or gain strength, ”- recalled Marilyn's friend, Milton Green.
However, the actress had a talent that admired everyone around. In just an instant, she turned from a reserved woman into an attractive seductress, bewitching everyone around her with her smile.
The actress was afraid of the stage and attention
Stage fear always haunted Marilyn, as she was a very shy person by nature. But even when she was already known, the actress continued to take acting classes and behaved as modestly as possible in the student circle. This is how Sam Kushner described her in his article "Marilyn and Her Monsters":
“She was always late for class. The teacher was strict about not letting her in in the middle of the exercise or, God forbid, in the middle of the stage. Marilyn came without makeup, with shiny hair hidden under a scarf, and tried not to draw attention to herself. She usually sat in the back of one of the dark rooms at Malin Studios on 46th Street, in the heart of the theater district. When she raised her hand to answer, she spoke in a weak, low voice. Marilyn didn’t want to draw attention to herself, but it was hard for other students to notice that the most famous movie star in the world is in the same acting class as they are, ”is how Sam Kushner described her in his article“ Marilyn and Her Monsters ”.
Even when Marilyn was already very popular, she received a relatively small salary. This was because she signed an unprofitable long-term contract and could not demand more money or even choose which films to star in.
Marilyn really wanted to have children, but could not keep the pregnancy
Another reason for the actress's uncertainty was that Marilyn really wanted to become a mother, but suffered from endometriosis, which made pregnancy very difficult. The actress had three miscarriages, but she did not lose hope. The fourth pregnancy has always been the subject of rumors and debate. In photographs from the 1960s, Marilyn is shown with a rounded belly. At the time, it was rumored that she was not pregnant with her then husband, director Arthur Miller, but with the famous French singer and film actor Yves Montand. However, what happened and why the pregnancy failed remained a mystery.
Marilyn more than once wanted to part with the role of a sexy beauty
The image of a seductive blonde began to bore the actress, and at the height of her career, she felt that she could try other, more dramatic and more serious roles. The attempt to change the course of his professional career led to several scandals with studio executives who were reluctant to abandon a character that was making huge profits.
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The showcase story happened when the star starred in The Prince and the Dancer alongside the famous actor Laurence Olivier, who also directed and produced the film. It turns out that Lawrence did not take his partner seriously and annoyed her terribly when he said: "All that is required of you is to be attractive." Marilyn replied that Lawrence had not learned to respect actors and that he was very arrogant.
Over the years, Marilyn even founded her own production studio, but the venture was not very successful. Then she realized that in order to remain in demand in Hollywood, she must remain “stupid blonde”.
"Marilyn Monroe Syndrome"
The life story of the actress gave the name to a special term in psychology. With the help of "Marilyn Monroe syndrome" psychologists try to explain the condition when the emptiness and loneliness of a person is hidden behind social success and well-being.
The term was first used in the book Love Illness: The Marilyn Syndrome by Dr. Elizabeth McAvoy.
“Even before she died physically, Marilyn was already dead inwardly in her emptiness and loneliness,” writes Elizabeth in her book.
Behind all this glitter, spotlights and the famous lines “Happy Birthday, Mr. President,” boldly sung for John F. Kennedy, stood a long-broken woman. She understood that happiness was what everyone expected to see in her films, but her reality was selfish and frustrating.
