Did you know?
One very apt dialogue exchange was added to the script of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Marilyn herself! In the film, her fiancé’s father says, “I thought you were dumb!” to which she retorts “I can be smart when it’s important, but most men don’t like it.”
Did you know?
Marilyn worked hard to make the best of her natural assets, but there were some features she was never happy with. She once told Simone Signoret, “They all think I’ve got beautiful long legs; I have knobby knees and my legs are too short.” She also thought her hands were too fat; she avoided wearing rings because she didn’t want to draw any attention to them.
What Marilyn Monroe Ate
During the modeling years: raw hamburgers, peanut butter, hot dogs, chili, crackers
Typical breakfast, 1951: warm milk, two raw eggs, a dash of sherry
Typical dinner, 1951: broiled steak, lamb chop or liver, raw carrots
On first date with Joe DiMaggio: anchovies on pimento, spaghetti al dente, scallopini of veal
For her 1952 birthday dinner at the Bel-Air Hotel: steak
Favorite appetizer circa 1952: tiny tomatoes stuffed with cream cheese and caviar
While filming River of No Return, 1953: lobster
For her DiMaggio wedding dinner: steak, cooked medium-well
While in Korea: cheese sandwiches
At the Romanoff’s party in her honor: Chateaubriand
While filming Bus Stop, 1956: raw steaks
Typical breakfast, 1957: three poached eggs, toast, a Bloody Mary
Typical lunch at the Roxbury farm, 1957: salami and cheese sandwiches
What Lena Pepitone cooked for Marilyn: spaghetti, lasagna, sausages, peppers
On New Year’s Eve, 1960: spaghetti with sweet Italian sausages
While filming The Misfits, 1960: buttermilk, borscht
Typical breakfast, 1961: egg whites, poached in safflower oil (Marilyn had Eunice Murray regularly save the egg yolks to use in the holiday pound cakes.)
Typical breakfast, 1962: hard-boiled eggs, toast
Typical lunch, 1962: a broiled steak
Favorite Italian dinner, 1962: fettucini Leon and veal piccata
Favorite snack when not dieting: hot dogs
On a 1962 picnic in the backseat of her Cadillac: cold steak sandwiches
What Marilyn especially disliked: olives
The last breakfast, on August 3, 1962: a grapefruit
Did you know?
Norma Jeane starting menstruating in September 1938, at the age of twelve. Throughout her life Marilyn suffered debilitating menstrual pains and cramps. At the worst of times friends recall her sobbing in pain, writhing on the floor, and being incapacitated. Many years later, Marilyn inserted a clause into her contracts with Twentieth Century-Fox excusing her from work during her periods. Gynecological problems dogged her life, including chronic endomentriosis. On November 7, 1954 Marilyn checked in to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles under surgeon Leon Krohn, “for correction of a female disorder she has suffered for years.” This operation was to correct chronic endometriosis. On June 23, 1959 Marilyn was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital where Dr. Mortimer Rodgers operated on her once more for chronic endometriosis. Dr. Krohn operated on her again in 1961, and then again just two weeks before she died.
Did you know?
During Marilyn’s starlet years, according to Shelley Winters, as a game the two young actresses drew up a list of their “Most Wanted” Men. Marilyn’s list was:
- Harry Belafonte
- Charles Bickford
- Charles Boyer
- Albert Einstein
- Ernest Hemingway
- John Houston
- Dean Jagger
- Elia Kazan
- Charles Laughton
- Arthur Miller
- Yves Montand
- Zero Mostel
- Clifford Odets
- Nick Ray
- Jean Renoir
- Lee Strasberg
- Eli Wallach
Did you know?
Schoolgirl love and not a higher calling attracted Norma Jeane Baker to the world of theater, in the form of a play called Art and Mrs. Bottle at Van Nuys High School. She auditioned but didn’t get the part. Years later she told biographer Maurice Zolotow, “I wanted to be in it because a boy I had a crush on, Warren Peek, was playing the lead.”
Did you know?
Marilyn frequently listened to The Lady Is A Tramp by Frank Sinatra and Who Cares? by Judy Garland.
Did you know?
In the days before Marilyn’s death, she had been reading Captain Newman and To Kill A Mockingbird.
Did you know?
Marilyn’s favorite flowers were delphiniums. Roses of all colors were also among her favorites.
Did you know?
Without makeup, Marilyn had freckles. Her freckles were most noticeable on her arms.
