Showing posts with label Hollywood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hollywood. Show all posts

Sunday, August 05, 2018

CPT Spirits in the Sky - Marilyn Monroe - A Tribute and a Challenge - "a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love."



Marilyn Monroe born Norma Jeane Mortenson
June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962
It has been 92 years since the most beautiful woman in the world was born, and 56 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 56 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.


From this point on the supposedly dumb blond pulled 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, ChicagoMiami and Los Angeles mob boss
Joseph Kennedy, patriarch of Kennedy family
John F. Kennedy, former president
Jackie Kennedy, wife to JFK
Robert Kennedy, former attorney general
Peter Lawford, Kennedy in law
Arthur Miller, former husband to Marilyn
Santo Trafficante, Jr., Florida mob boss
Ralph Greenson, Marilyn psychiatrist
Eunice Murray, Marilyn housekeeper

Can you guess who did it???.

Marilyn Monroe - When Norma Jean grew up - Singing and Her Last Interview just Days Before her Death




Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend
Double click for full screen.






Published on Nov 26, 2013
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.
Double click for full screen.





I Wanna Be Loved By You
Double click for full screen.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Entertainment Award Shows - An Idea whose Time is Done?

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When we open the envelope and announce the winner why is it the entertainer has to become a politician, a special interest advocate, or try to create personal attention for their own career?  If they choose the latter, it is usually through the use of provocative techniques.


Whatever the point, they are constantly driving down the number of people watching the shows and a trend that started a decade ago seems to be well established.


Why are winners not able to be humble and thank their fans and those helping them in their career?  The last thing anyone wants to hear is some millionaire entertainer telling us what is in our best interests, or what is wrong with the world we live in.


If I want to watch a political sideshow, there are much better, and more informed sources than the singer or actor who spends most of their life living other people's lives on screen or stage.  Political rants come from all types on the award shows and the hypocritical speeches often are lost in the reputation and actions of the speaker.


Note to nominees - you are not me, you are an entertainer.  Stick to entertaining, that gives you the big bucks to stand on your soapbox and preach to the masses.  A handful of entertainers actually do spend some time the rest of the year helping legitimate causes but they are few and far between.


Here is what the news media has to say about the award show ratings this past year.





Grammys Ratings Woes Worse Than They Appear: A Bad Sign for Oscars?





TV Ratings: Grammy Awards Hit All-Time Low in Key Demo








Sharp drop in ratings for Grammy Awards this year
The television audience for Bruno Mars' dominating night at the Grammy Awards was a sparser one than music's big night has seen for nearly a decade, and a steep decline of 24 percent from the program a year earlier.

The Nielsen company estimated Monday that 19.8 million people watched the Grammys, compared to 26.1 million last year. It was the Grammys' smallest audience since 19 million watched in 2009.
The viewership decline was notable compared to other awards shows recently. The most recent Golden Globes and Oscars telecasts were down 4 percent from the previous year, while last September's Emmys viewership was roughly the same as the year before, Nielsen said.
Grammy viewership has generally been between 20 and 30 million this past decade, from a high of 39.9 million people who watched in 2012, when the awards took place shortly after Whitney Houston's death.
TV Ratings: Oscars Drop to 32.9M Viewers, Telecast Takes a Bigger Hit With Younger Set
After initial indicators had Sunday's lengthy show off from 2016, time-zone adjusted tallies give this year's Oscars an average 32.9 million viewers. That marks a 4 percent drop in viewership from the prior. Early stats had the show averaging an overnight 22.4 rating among metered market households. (Last year's outing saw its overnight score, a 23.4 rating, ultimately translate to 34.4 million viewers.) In the key demo of adults 18-49, this year's show averaged a 9.1 rating — off a more dramatic 14 percent from the 2016 telecast, which averaged a 10.5 rating among the advertiser-favored viewers.


NBC's telecast of Golden Globe Awards draws 19 million viewers, down 5% from last year
On a night when politics nearly overshadowed show business, NBC's telecast of Golden Globes Awards was watched by 19 million viewers on Sunday, a 5% decline from 2017.

But this year's show saw an 11% year-to-year decline in the 18-to-49 age group that advertisers covet most.




Emmys ratings sink to all-time low of 11.3 million viewers

The show, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel for ABC, fell 5% from last year’s broadcast and 22% in the key demo of adults aged 18-49.







The 2018 Grammy Awards Was a Tone-Deaf, Out-of-Touch Mess

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