THE PRINCE AND THE SHOW GIRL - THE LEGEND OF MARILYN MUNROE

The Prince and The Show Girl - The Legend of Marilyn Monroe

                                                                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926 - August 5, 1962) remains a cultural icon 53 years after her death. When I write this Blog on this day, June 1, 2015, if she were alive, Marilyn Monroe would have turned 99. The American actress, model, and singer ruled Hollywood as one of the most beautiful actresses and a sex symbol.

 

Born as Norma Jeane, she accepted the screen name Marilyn Monroe while making her film debut.

Marilyn Monroe had relationships with many influential and politically powerful men in her life, like John and Robert Kennedy. Her colorful life and mysterious death were of great significance to her biographer. The star and a muse, Marilyn was a photographer’s delight. The heavenly beauty was the ultimate dream girl.

 

 

Madhubala, a yesteryear Bollywood actress, was India’s answer to the beauty of Marilyn Monroe and was her contemporary.

There were many Bollywood and regional film actresses who met with their end of their life in mysterious circumstances and were suspected of suicide, like Marilyn Monroe. 

Parveen Babi, the Bollywood actress, had a relationship with many influential people, such as a Film Director, Bollywood Actors, and a Spiritual Philosopher, and had long-term depression before meeting with the end of her life in mysterious circumstances, like Marilyn Monroe. She was using liberal doses of Marijuana and LSD during her last days. Parveen Babi, the Bollywood siren, was found dead in her cozy apartment in Juhu, Mumbai, on January 20, 2005, after her residential society secretary complained to the police that she had not collected milk and newspapers from her doorstep for two days. Parveen Babi was a prominent Bollywood actress who appeared in numerous blockbuster Hindi films.

The Malayalam film actresses Vijayashree and Shobha, as well as the Tamil film actress Silk Smitha, also met with a somewhat similar fate.

 

 

 

 

The classic scene of Marilyn Monroe, the blonde bombshell’s skirt billowing out in the wind by a passing train, is famous. Many other filmmakers copied that scene, such as the one picturized with Kelly LeBrock in the 1984 release “The Women in Red”.

A brief biography  -

Marilyn Monroe was born in Los Angeles County Hospital, the third child of Gladys Baker, on June 1, 1926. Her mother was emotionally unstable and frequently confined to an asylum, so Norma Jean, aka Marilyn Monroe, was reared by a succession of foster parents and in an orphanage. At the age of 16, she married a fellow worker in an aircraft factory, but they divorced a few years later. She took up modeling in 1944 and in 1946 signed a short-term contract with 20th Century Fox, taking as her screen name Marilyn Monroe. She had a few bit parts and then returned to modeling, famously posing nude for a calendar in 1949.

She began to attract attention as an actress in 1950 after appearing in minor roles in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve. Although she was onscreen only briefly playing a mistress in both films, audiences took note of the blonde bombshell, and she won a new contract from Fox. Her acting career took off in the early 1950s with performances in Love Nest (1951), Monkey Business (1952), and Niagara (1953).

 

Celebrated for her voluptuousness and wide-eyed charm, the Goddess of beauty, she won international fame for her sex-symbol roles in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954). The Seven-Year Itch (1955) showcased her comedic talents. In 1954, she married baseball great Joe DiMaggio, which attracted further publicity; however, they divorced eight months later.

         

In 1955, she studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York City and subsequently gave a strong performance as a hapless entertainer in Bus Stop (1956). In 1956, she married playwright Arthur Miller. She made The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier in 1957, which was a box office disappointment, but in 1959, she gave an acclaimed performance in the hit comedy Some Like It Hot. Her last role, in The Misfits (1961), was directed by John Huston and written by Miller, whom she divorced just one week before the film’s opening. The unknown details of her final performance only add to her mystique.   

          

On August 5, 1962, movie actress Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her home in Los Angeles. She was discovered lying nude on her bed, face down, with a telephone in one hand. Empty bottles of pills, prescribed to treat her depression, were littered around the room. After a brief investigation, Los Angeles police concluded that her death was “caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide.”

Marilyn Monroe’s film Some Like It Hot became a resounding success, earning six Academy Award nominations. Monroe was acclaimed for her performance and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Wilder commented that the film was the biggest success he had ever been associated with.

                                 

 

 

 

Bus Stop was followed by The Prince and the Showgirl, directed by Laurence Olivier, who also co-starred. Before filming, Olivier praised Monroe as "a brilliant comedienne, which to me means she is also an extremely skilled actress". During filming in England, he resented Monroe's dependence on her drama coach, Paula Strasberg, regarding Strasberg as a fraud whose only talent was the ability to "butter Marilyn up". He recalled his attempts at explaining a scene to Monroe, only to hear Strasberg interject, "Honey—think of Coca-Cola and Frank Sinatra. Olivier later commented that in the film, "Marilyn was quite wonderful, the best of all. Monroe's performance was hailed by critics, especially in Europe, where she won the David di Donatello, the Italian equivalent of an Academy Award, as well as the French Crystal Star Award. She was also nominated for a BAFTA. It was more than a year before Monroe began her next film. During her hiatus, she summered with Miller in Amagansett, New York. In 1956, she was pictured in Life magazine with Victor Mature, greeting the Queen of the United Kingdom.

 

Marilyn Monroe was voted 'Sexiest Woman of the Century' by People Magazine. 

 

 

There is no business like show business. During her lifetime, the beautiful Marilyn was considered the dream girl and captured the hearts of people worldwide. Now, more than half a century later, the world continues to recognize her as an enduring icon of beauty and celebrity.

 

A fond adieu, Marilyn, the Venus of Beauty!