1992
Documentary about Marilyn's last interview in July 1962 for Life magazine. With
rare audio of Marilyn's interview and rare footage. Marilyn's words had been
edited together for this show.
Marilyn Monroe born Norma Jeane Mortenson June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962
It has been 90 years since the most beautiful woman in the world was born, and 54 years since her life was cut short at much to early an age, just 36 years old. Today she remains nearly as popular as when she was in her prime, and in nations like China she remains the number one Hollywood icon. She was a breath of fresh air in a time the world needed to recover from World War II.
Candle in the Wind
Goodbye Norma JeanThough I never knew you at allYou had the grace to hold yourselfWhile those around you crawledThey crawled out of the woodworkAnd they whispered into your brainThey set you on the treadmillAnd they made you change your name chorus: And it seems to me you lived your lifeLike a candle in the windNever knowing who to cling toWhen the rain set inAnd I would have liked to have known youBut I was just a kidYour candle burned out long beforeYour legend ever did Loneliness was toughThe toughest role you ever playedHollywood created a superstarAnd pain was the price you paidEven when you diedOh the press still hounded youAll the papers had to sayWas that Marilyn was found in the nude
(repeat chorus)
Goodbye Norma JeanThough I never knew you at allYou had the grace to hold yourselfWhile those around you crawledGoodbye Norma JeanFrom the young man in the 22nd rowWho sees you as something more than sexualMore than just our Marilyn Monroe (repeat chorus)
Music: Elton JohnLyrics: Bernie TaupinPiano and Vocals: Elton John
Who done it? You Solve the Mysterious murder of Marilyn Monroe
You help solve the mystery of who killed the most famous Hollywood icon of the 20th Century. When the world awakened on August 5, 1962, the most celebrated actress in Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe, was found dead in her home in California at the young age of 36.
It was the end of a tumultuous and meteoric rise from rags to riches for America's sweetheart and Hollywood icon whose name crossed paths with the rich, the powerful, the revered and the most sinister characters in the world.
The medical examiner quickly concluded she died of an overdose of prescription medicine but forensic evidence was insufficient to declare it a suicide so her death was labeled as "probable suicide".
The mishandling of the crime scene, the manipulation of evidence, the inconsistency or her actions prior to the death and the onslaught of media hype pushing the suicide theory by powerful forces triggered a firestorm of suspicion and doubt.
But a series of national and international events the next 15 months would bury her story in the avalanche of media coverage of the Cold War with the Soviets, the Kennedy administration war with the La Casa Nostra, the evolving Vietnam war and the Kennedy assassination.
For the past 52 years the American public has been brainwashed with stories of the addictions and depression of film legend Marilyn Monroe that led to her death by suicide.She has been pictured as an insecure and fragile girl whose mother was sent to an insane asylum as Marilyn was bounced from foster home to foster home to orphanage.
In fact, according to Marilyn she was sent to ten total places, foster homes and the orphanage, before she married a merchant marine when she turned 16 to avoid being sent back to the orphanage.Because of her shuffling between homes she attended 6 different elementary schools in seven years.
But the vast majority of her experiences were good, she got along well with other children and often created games for her friends to play.It was during this period she developed her desire to be a star and began to create the persona she believed she needed to be successful.
Her first marriage lasted about 4 years, 1942-1946, although her husband was away during most of World War II.She was working in an armament factory toward the end of the war when she was discovered at an assembly line by a photographer searching for the next pin up queen for the soldiers.
By 1946 Norma Jean first began using the name Marilyn Monroe when her popularity as a pin up queen got the notice of movie studios.Marilyn had already begun singing and dancing lessons and had developed exceptional fitness and diet routines on her own, routines that would result in her being known as the most beautiful woman in the world.
At first it was her voice that got recognized although she did not get along with the movie tyrant Darryl Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, her studio most of her short career.Many of her early film roles were uncredited, even when performing songs, a way the studio could avoid paying performance fees to actors.
Marilyn seemed to know what was expected of Hollywood stars in the golden age of film and she gave the studio what it wanted.She quickly grew from a $125.00 a week extra to singing and then acting roles as she became more popular but as did most studios at the time, she was treated as a commodity.
In 1952 and 1953 her film roles pushed her to the top of the list in popularity but her studio handlers still insisted she play the dumb blond in comedies and though her films made more money than those of Elizabeth Taylor, Monroe was paid $100,000 per film compared to Taylor at $1 million per film.
Our next installment will review the actions the supposedly dumb blond pulled that turned the movie industry upside down and eventually would force the studios to give her challenging dramatic roles like she wanted along with a salary equal to Elizabeth Taylor.
While she would be known as Marilyn Monroe from the late 1940's on she did not have her name legally changed from Norma Jean Mortensen to Marilyn Monroe until 1956.
As for the mystery of her death, by 1953 she was already acquainted with several people on the list of suspects or collaborators whose connections to others on the list in the immediate future would result in her becoming a serious threat to their careers and would endanger her life.
Probable Suspects, Collaborators and Contributors
Frank Costello, Joseph Kennedy partner and New York mobster
Sam Giancana, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles mob boss
There is only one Chairman of the Board, golden voice, leader of the Rat Pack, king among celebrities, and legend, Frank Sinatra. The Jersey boy who was declared dead at birth in his parent's home when the doctor said he did not survive the birth complications, only to be revived by his grandmother and given a second chance at life, ranks second to none as an American icon.
Here is an excerpt of what Bob Pisani of CNBC said about Frank today.
Frank Sinatra's favorite toast was,
"May you live to be 100, and may the last voice you hear be mine."
He didn't make it to 100, but the
business of Frank Sinatra is still going strong.
Seventeen years after his death,
that voice can still be heard in restaurants, bars, airports and other public
spaces all over the world.
And why shouldn't business be good,
with a legacy like this: 1,400 recordings. Thirty-one gold, nine platinum, three
double-platinum and one triple platinum album. And he appeared in 60 films!
And the business keeps expanding.
The following are comments from around the world on Frank.
This Dec. 12,
Frank Sinatra would have turned 100 years old. James Kaplan’s two-part
biography of the legendary singer only seems that long.
Lady sings the blues
Sinatra said
Billie Holiday was the single biggest influence on his music.
Photo: AP; Redferns
Billie Holiday,
just eight months older than Sinatra, had been a success long before he was,
recording hits while Frank was scrounging for singing gigs in Hoboken.
He was in love with the ragged
texture of her voice and her incomparable laid-back phrasing, and in love, too,
with Billie herself: her sultry, wounded, distant presence both regal and
ravaged. “It is Billie Holiday who was,
and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me,” he said. In July 1959, Holiday, a longtime
narcotics addict, lay dying in Harlem’s MetropolitanHospital.
According to Jacobs, he and Frank visited a gaunt and wasted Lady Day in her
hospital room, where three cops were stationed at the door. She was thrilled to
see Sinatra, who made happy talk about how he’d loved her latest album and how
much she’d influenced his phrasing. “I may have showed you how to
bend a note, Frankie, that’s all,” Holiday
said. Then she leaned over to him and whispered, so the police couldn’t hear,
“Will you cut the s–t, baby, and get me some dope?” Sinatra, despite his hatred of
drugs, tried to get heroin for Holiday as a
medical necessity. When that didn’t work, Frank bought it himself from a
dealer. With police outside Holiday’s door, though,
there was no way to get the drugs through. Billie’s liver failed, and she
went into a coma and died on July 17, 1959. Sinatra was disconsolate, holed up
in his apartment, drinking, weeping and playing her records over and over for
four days.
Broken Marilyn
Sinatra had
thought about marrying Marilyn, just to save her.
Photo: Getty Images
Frank was fond of
Marilyn Monroe, even buying her a poodle she named Maf — short for “Mafia.” But
Jacobs said that his boss was disgusted by Marilyn’s slovenliness and
disdainful of her intellect.
Still, Sinatra had considered
marrying Marilyn, just to save her.
“He felt if she were his wife,
everyone else would back off, give her some space and allow her to get herself
together,” a friend recalled. “ ‘No one will mess with her if she’s Mrs. Frank
Sinatra,’ he said. ‘No one would dare.’ ” When Marilyn died, Frank was
“devastated,” his valet recalled. Joe DiMaggio was devastated, too, and
furious. He blamed the Kennedys — “she was a toy for them,” he said — as well as
Sinatra. DiMaggio organized Marilyn’s
funeral and would not invite a single movie star. Frank arrived at the cemetery
with bodyguards and tried to force, then bribe, his way in. He was turned away.
Yesterday Marilyn
Marilyn Monroe rejected Frank Sinatra's marriage proposal a
year before her death, new book claims
18 OCT 2015
By Christopher Bucktin
A new biography of the singer claims the Hollywood
beauty turned him down because she was secretly back with estranged husband Joe
DiMaggio
Marriage proposal: Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe look at a
photo from fellow actor Peter Lawford's new polaroid camera
Sinatra thought he alone could stop Monroe’s downward spiral
that would lead to her death from a drugs overdose, aged 36, in 1962.
But he
was rebuffed because the Hollywood icon was
secretly back with her former husband, baseball playerJoe DiMaggio.
In his book The Chairman, James Kaplan says
Sinatra once took Monroe to his Cal-Neva resort
in Lake Tahoe and looked after her when she
was ill.
Sinatra supposedly
believed he could save Monroe
from the vultures he saw as leading her towards her doom.
By that time Sinatra
had divorced second wife Ava Gardner but had not yet married his third wife Mia
Farrow - while Monroe
had divorced her third and final husband Arthur Miller.
Jilly Rizzo, Sinatra’s
closest aide, told the author: “Yeah, Frank wanted to marry the broad.
"He asked her and
she said no.”
Rat Pack
The one song Sinatra hated? My Way... and other odd facts
about Ol' Blue Eyes on the eve of his 100th birthday
Published: 21:02 EST, 9
December 2015 | Updated: 04:31 EST, 10 December 2015
Rumours and truths: This week
marks the 100th anniversary of Frank Sinatra’s birth
This week marks the 100th anniversary of Frank Sinatra’s
birth.
To celebrate the life of one of the world’s greatest entertainers,
here are some facts you probably didn’t know about Ol’ Blue Eyes — from his
strange backstage demands to his links with Scooby Doo.
SINATRA WAS GIVEN UP FOR DEAD AT BIRTH
The delivery of the
13lb baby in his parents’ New Jersey
kitchen on December 12, 1915, was traumatic. When he finally emerged, there
were no signs of life. So the doctor put him to one side to attend to his
mother, Dolly.
It was only when the
child’s grandmother picked up the baby, ran cold water over him and slapped his
back that he started breathing.
HE WAS CALLED FRANK AFTER A MIX-UP
He was supposed to
be called Martin after his father, but the priest who conducted his baptism
accidentally named him after Frank Garrick, the family friend who was there as
the baby’s godfather.
Sinatra’s mother
chose to stick with the name, believing the mistake must be a good omen.
HIS TEEN NICKNAME WAS SCARFACE
The forceps used
during his birth had left scars on the side of his face, and adolescent acne
added further marks. Throughout his life, Sinatra wore make-up to hide the
scars — and even then hated being photographed on his left side. (The forceps
also punctured his eardrum — during World War II this was the reason he was
ruled unfit for military service.)
THE FIRST GIRL FANS WERE PAID TO SCREAM
The young singer
certainly had appeal — but George Evans, his publicist, wasn’t taking any
chances. He auditioned girls to find those who could scream the loudest, then
paid them $5 to sit at carefully chosen points in the audience, so creating
even more of a frenzy.
HE MADE SEVERAL SUICIDE ATTEMPTS
Frank's stormy
relationship with actress Ava Gardner upset him so much that on more than one
occasion he tried to kill himself.
Gardner once walked into the bedroom to find
him holding a gun to his head. As she struggled to take the weapon from him it
went off, but the bullet missed them both.
Another attempt came
during Sinatra’s dip in popularity in the Fifties. Walking through New York’s Times Square,
he saw a crowd of girls waiting to see new showbiz sensation Eddie Fisher.
He went back to his
apartment, turned on the gas stove and waited to die. Fortunately, he was found
by a friend.
Band of brothers: The 'Rat Pack' aka
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop
always preferred to call themselves ‘The Summit’
HE LOATHED HIS CLASSIC HIT MY WAY
It became one of his
most famous songs, but according to his daughter Tina, he ‘always thought that
song was self-serving and self-indulgent’. But it ‘stuck and he couldn’t get it
off his shoe’.
IT'S THE NEW
YORK, NEW YORK
YANKEES
The New York Yankees
baseball team play his signature song New York, New York after every home game in the Bronx.
For a while they
played Sinatra’s version only after victories — following a defeat they would
play Liza Minelli’s rendition. But when Minelli complained bitterly they
stopped the practice.
AT 5ft 7in, HE WORE LIFTS IN HIS SHOES
Sensitive about his
modest height of 5ft 7in, the singer used what Americans call ‘elevator shoes’,
some of them the work of celebrity Los Angeles shoemaker Pasquale di Fabrizio.
HE INSPIRED THE NAME SCOOBY DOO . . .
Scooby Doo was
originally going to be called Too Much. But during a flight to a development
meeting, CBS executive Fred Silverman heard Sinatra’s recording of Strangers In
The Night.
The ‘dooby do’
lyrics at the end gave him the idea for the cartoon hound’s new name.
... AND A SUCCESSFUL BRITISH POP GROUP
In 1972, Belgian
artist Guy Peellaert (who designed album covers for David Bowie and the Rolling
Stones) published a book called Rock Dreams.
It told the story of
popular music in 125 paintings. One depicted Sinatra’s move from singing into
acting as a newspaper article headlined Frankie Goes Hollywood.
The Liverpool band added the extra word ‘to’ to form their
name Frankie Goes To Hollywood and had a string of hits including Relax and Two
Tribes.
Tragic: Frank's relationship with Ava
Gardner upset him so much that he attempted suicide
J.F.K. DIED AS HE FILMED A FUNERAL
The movie Robin And
The 7 Hoods was a re-telling of the Robin Hood myth featuring Chicago gangsters. While shooting a scene at
a funeral in 1963, the cast and crew received news that John F. Kennedy had
been shot and killed. Sinatra, who had been friends with the President, was
traumatised.
HE WAS ALWAYS READY FOR A KIDNAP
As if the JFK
coincidence wasn’t spooky enough, Sinatra learned during the filming of a
kidnap scene in Robin And The 7 Hoods that his own son, Frank Jnr, had been
kidnapped. (The scene was cut from the final version of the movie.)
Following the
abduction on December 8, 1963, Sinatra received a ransom demand of $240,000,
together with the instruction that he must only call the kidnappers from pay
phones. In the middle of one call, he ran out of money, and panicked that the
error had cost his son’s life.
But after payment of the ransom, Frank Jr was
released. His father vowed he would never be caught without coins again and
always carried a roll of 10 cent coins.
THE RAT PACK DIDN'T USE THAT NAME
Sinatra’s famous
gang of friends — which included singers Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr, comic
Joey Bishop and actor Peter Lawford — were given their famous nickname by Hollywood
star Lauren Bacall. But they always preferred to call themselves ‘The Summit’,
after a 1960 meeting of world leaders in Paris.
HIS HOTEL SPANNED TWO U.S. STATES
At one time, Sinatra
was part-owner of the Cal Neva Lodge resort and casino in Lake
Tahoe. The resort was so-called because half of it was in California and half in neighbouring Nevada.
SINATRA HATED THE GODFATHER
In the classic Mafia
novel The Godfather, later made into an Oscar-winning series of films, the
entertainer Johnny Fontane receives help with his career from organised crime
figures.
Although the book’s
author, Mario Puzo, denied that the character was inspired by Sinatra, the
singer — always surrounded by rumours of Mafia links — took it as an insult.
When the two met in
Los Angeles restaurant Chasen’s in 1970, Sinatra screamed: ‘I ought to break
your legs!’
HE WAS A FUSSPOT ABOUT RED CARPETS
HIS contracts always
specified that the red carpet leading from his dressing room to the stage must
be anchored by tacks no more than 18in apart.
Broadcaster Clive
James introduced Sinatra at a 1988 concert to mark the opening of the Sanctuary
Cove resort in Queensland, Australia. He
witnessed the singer’s lawyer bending down with a tape measure to ensure that
the clause had been complied with.
HIS TIPPLE WAS JACK DANIEL'S
‘This is a
gentleman’s drink,’ he said of the his favourite drink, Jack Daniel’s. He
always had two fingers of whiskey, four ice cubes and a splash of water.
For some reason,
Sinatra would never touch the rim of the glass — he cupped it in his hand,
protected by a cocktail napkin.
HE NEVER LEARNED TO READ MUSIC
Though he began
performing professionally as a teenager in the late Thirties — as a singing
waiter at the Rustic Cabin club in Englewood,
New Jersey — he never learned formally
to read music, instead relying on a good ear to help him hold a tune.
HIS LAST WORDS WERE ‘I'M LOSING’
Ol’ Blue Eyes
suffered a heart attack on May 14, 1998. His journey to hospital was through
empty streets because most people were at home watching the final episode of
the TV comedy Seinfeld.
Sinatra’s life
couldn’t be saved. His last words were: ‘I’m losing.’ The EmpireStateBuilding was lit up in
blue in tribute.
BURIED WITH BOOZE AND CIGARETTES
His friends placed a
bottle of Jack Daniel’s in his pocket when he was buried and put a pack of
Camel cigarettes and a Zippo cigarette lighter in his coffin. His gravestone
reads: ‘The best is yet to come.’
When he died his funeral was larger than the funeral for President Kennedy. Here is a news account of the event.
That's Life
New Jersey
Online
Family, Stars bid Sinatra Farewell
May 21, 1998
By JEFF WILSON
Associated Press Writer
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- It was the passing of a legend, another time
marker for the century, and Hollywood's royalty bid farewell to Frank Sinatra
with touches of kindness, doses of laughter and moments of reflection.
``Barbara, Frank loved you very much,'' Kirk Douglas, his speech still
showing the effect of a stroke, told Sinatra's widow. ``We all know that, so
don't cry too much. Think of Frank up there with Dean Martin, up with there
with Sammy Davis Jr.
``Boy, heaven will never be the same!''
There was hearty applause from the 400 mourners packed inside Good Shepherd
Catholic Church for Wednesday afternoon's two-hour service, which included a
funeral Mass officiated by Cardinal Roger Mahony, the archbishop of Los
Angeles.
It was uplifting, as Mrs. Sinatra asked, but there was no escaping reality:
As speakers paraded to the microphone and Communion was served, eyes were
focused on the metal casket in front with the body of Ol' Blue Eyes.
Sinatra died of a heart attack last Thursday at 82.
Just before the funeral began, Nancy Sinatra placed her head on her father's
casket and prayed. Nearby, Liza Minnelli hugged Mia Farrow, who was briefly
married to Sinatra in the 1960s. Another touching moment came when ``Put Your
Dreams Away'' by the man known as The Voice boomed from speakers.
``Our world is a better place because Frank Sinatra passed through it,'' Douglas said.
Mourners spanned the generations: James Darren, Bruce Springsteen, Vic Damone,
Sidney Poitier, Jerry Vale, Tony Bennett, Debbie Reynolds, Tom Selleck, Dionne
Warwick, Angie Dickinson, Wayne Newton, Quincy Jones, Milton Berle, Ernest
Borgnine, Gregory Peck, Joey Bishop, Tony Curtis, Paul Anka, Red Buttons, Nancy
Reagan, Bob Newhart.
During his remembrance, Frank Sinatra Jr. noted his father had the mystic
romance of Rudolph Valentino, the aloofness of James Dean, sexiness of Marilyn
Monroe and the appeal of Elvis Presley.
``Unlike the others, he lived to a ripe old age,'' his son noted.
Looking down at the casket 10 feet away, he concluded: ``So long buddy, and
take care of yourself.''
The church was a floor-to-ceiling ocean of white flowers -- orchids, roses,
mums and Sinatra's favorite, gardenias. Pallbearers, including Don Rickles,
Steve Lawrence, Tom Dreesen and Sinatra Jr., wore gardenia boutineers.
Mrs. Sinatra, wearing black, sat in the front row with her son, Robert Marx,
who delivered one of the brief eulogies. ``He made her feel like a little girl.
She called him her knight in shining armor. And he was,'' said Marx, whom
Sinatra considered a son.
The tributes were by turns touching and racy, reflecting the personality of
a man whom Peck described as a ``reckless rogue, sentimental fella.''
Producer George Schlatter offered a slightly off-color remembrance: ``His
favorite words were `Jack' and `Daniel's.' His least favorite: `Take two.'''
Following the tributes, Sinatra's casket was carried out of the church to a
hearse, amid the din of four media helicopters hovering overhead and dozens of
reporters and camera operators behind police lines across the street.
As news helicopters followed, the hearse drove to Van Nuys airport, where
the casket was loaded on a private jet that flew with the immediate family to
the desert town of Palm Springs
some 110 miles east.
In a simple ceremony at modest DesertMemorial Park in nearby CathedralCity, Sinatra was buried next to his
parents and his best friend, Jilly Rizzo, in a plot near the road.
Sinatra fan Earl Timko, 80, drove up to the cemetery in his golf cart and
recalled that he had seen the Chairman of the Board when he was alive.
``He and his friends, they knew how to live it up.'' Pallbearers at Sinatra Funeral
Pallbearers and some of the other notables who joined Frank Sinatra's family
in mourning at Wednesday's funeral:
PALLBEARERS
Tom Dreesen, Mason Golden, Steve Lawrence, Robert Marx, Tony Oppedisano, Don
Rickles, Frank Sinatra Jr., Eliot Weisman.
HONORARY PALLBEARERS
Tony Bennett, Milton Berle, Ernest Borgnine, Hank Cattaneo, Kirk Douglas,
Quincy Jones, Billy May, Wayne Newton, Gregory Peck, Susan Reynolds, George
Schlatter, Danny Schwartz, Jerry Vale, Jerry Weintraub.
MOURNERS
Paul Anka, Joey Bishop, Red Buttons, Diahann Carroll, Rosemary Clooney, Tim
Conway, Tony Curtis, Vic Damone, Marvin Davis, Tony Danza, James Darren, Angie
Dickinson, Phil Donahue, Mia Farrow, Lee Iaccoca, Alan King, Larry King, Steve
Lawrence, Jack Lemmon, Sophia Loren, Larry Manetti, Ed McMahon, Liza Minnelli,
Bob Newhart, Sidney Poitier, Nancy Reagan, Debbie Reynolds, Carol Bayer Sager,
Tom Selleck, Suzanne Somers, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Stack, Marlo Thomas,
Robert Wagner, Dionne Warwick, Lew Wasserman. .