Born: June 1, 1926
Died: August 4, 1962
Norma Jean Dougherty, blonde, blue-eyed Los Angeles model, poses in “bathing suit” made of covers of five national magazines. Her picture was featured in all of them in one month. The Cincinnati Post, July 8, 1946
Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles. She was raised by a single mother who struggled with mental health issues, and Monroe spent a good part of her childhood and teenage years in foster homes and orphanages. She started modelling and quickly began to attract the attention of the movie studios …
Howard Hughes … was attracted by the cover girl and promptly instructed his aid to try signing her for pictures. She’s Norma Jean Dougherty, a model. New York Daily News, July 29, 1946
Marilyn Monroe, who is sort of a junior Lana Turner, has been signed by Fox and you’ll be hearing about her. Hollywood Citizen-News, December 9, 1946
The name change was suggested by the studio. A studio executive selected Marilyn, and Monroe is her mother’s maiden name. There are conflicting stories about how Monroe was discovered. Let’s start with the babysitting version …
Los Angeles baby-sitter, Marilyn Monroe, 18, was called to sit with a baby in the home of a 20th Century-Fox casting director. Impressed with Marilyn’s looks, the director forgot where he and the missus had planned to go that evening and spent the time getting the girl’s name on a movie contract. Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 1, 1947
The above was the photo caption in photo essay featuring Monroe that ran in several newspapers across the country. This story sounds like it was dreamed up by the publicity folks at 20th Century-Fox. Here’s another version that was in several newspapers a few years later …
She was working as a typist in a factory in California a couple of years ago when The Big Thing Happened. “I only did 35 words a minute and didn’t do them very well so they gave me a job inspecting parachutes,” she says. “One day some photographers came in and they said, ‘Where have you been hiding’?”
Very soon after that her picture was in magazines and a Howard Hughes scout phones her, but by that time she had already signed with Twentieth Century-Fox. Morning World-Herald, Omaha, Nebraska, August 14, 1949
This second version seems more likely to be the real story. However, the babysitting story was popular in the press …
Be kind to your baby sitter. She may be twinkling at you from the motion picture firmament one of these days. It has happened and could easily happen again. The lucky girl it happened to is 18-year-old Marilyn Monroe, who is making her screen debut with June Haver and Lon McAllister in Scudda Hoo, Scudda Hay.” Buffalo Courier Express, June 1, 1947
One thing the publicity folks at the studio didn’t seem to want out there was the fact that Monroe was married. She married James Dougherty in 1942, when she was 16. They divorced in 1946.
Monroe made the news again a few months later in a very strange and frightening way …
Identified by Marilyn Monroe, 19, actress, as the man who attempted to enter her Burbank home via a bedroom window, Charles Rosenberger, 25, a Los Angeles policeman was jailed today on charges of being drunk and suspicion of burglary … Miss Monroe, starlet at 20th Century-Fox studio, said she was awakened late last night at her home, 4215 Rowland ave., by someone attempting to force the front door. Unsuccessful, the intruder went around to the back door and finally came to her bedroom window and started tugging at the screen, the actress related to the police.
When she called out, “What are you doing – leave me or I’ll call the police,” the would-be burglar replied, “Go ahead.” Miss Monroe ran outside and to a next-door neighbor’s home and called police … Rosenberger was booked and relieved of his personal property which included his Los Angeles police credentials and service revolver.” The Valley Times, North Hollywood, California, December 12, 1947
Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! is about two brothers who live on a farm and have issues with one another. Scudda Hoo and Scudda Hay are what they yelled at their mules to direct them right or left. “They gave me a bit part in a picture but they cut it out,” Monroe told a newspaper. Monroe was dropped by 20th Century-Fox a few months later and it didn’t seem like her fledgling career was going to go anywhere. And then …
Hollywood’s newest Cinderella story stars a beautiful, 20-year-old Los Angeles girl, Marilyn Monrow, who was signed to a long-term contract by Producer Lester Cowan, it was announced today. A young [Ingrid] Bergman-line person, Miss Monroe’s road to stardom starts in Producer Cowan’s forthcoming Marx Brothers … “Love Happy,” which will be released early next year by United Artists. She makes her bow in the Groucho Marx sequences, which were just completed in Hollywood. Making Miss Monroe’s film fortune even more spectacular is her youthful years, 18 of which passed as a ward of the state of California. The Bakersfield Californian, November 20, 1948
Monroe appeared in one scene in Love Happy, with Groucho. It was not one of the better Marx Brothers movies, but this was the start of her road to stardom. Click here to watch Marilyn and Groucho.
Here’s a story about how she got this part …
One day she met Louis Shurr, the Hollywood agent … he suggested she go see Producer Lester Cowan. “Groucho Marx was there too. Groucho said, ‘You get behind me and walk like I do.’ Groucho did a girlish swagger, very much exaggerated. I did it, and they said, ‘You start tomorrow.’” Morning World-Herald, Omaha, Nebraska, August 14, 1949
Click here to watch Groucho’s version of how Monroe landed the role.
Monroe’s career was off and running and soon she would become one of the biggest names in Hollywood and an enduring legend.
Today her name, Marilyn Monroe, appears on billboards and advertisements for all films in which she plays. In a year she is to receive starlet roles, a fantastic (to her mind) salary and have her name above the title of the picture. Her latest picture is “All About Eve,” with Bette Davis, Anne Baxter – and Marilyn Monroe. New York Daily News, August 13, 1950
Click here to see Monroe in All About Eve.
If you found this story interesting, you might like to read my From Unknown to Famous stories about Ernest Hemingway, Amelia Earhart, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Elvis and Alex Trebek. Please subscribe to this blog and get alerts every time I post a new one (lots more are coming).
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