Everyone recognizes her face. The blonde hair,
the red lipstick, that white dress. Marilyn Monroe
was one of the most famous women in history.
But do you know her life outside of the movies?
Welcome back to the Learn English Podcast, the
podcast teaching English in context so you can
learn naturally. It is March, which is Women's
History Month. And March 8th is International
Women's Day. In honor of this month, I wanted
to talk about one of the most famous women from
the past hundred years, and that is Marilyn Monroe.
But a lot of people don't know her story and
really only know her from her famous roles. So
on today's episode, we are going to talk about
her early life, the creation of Marilyn Monroe,
the roles that made her famous, and the parts
of her life that many fans didn't know about.
As we do this, you're going to hear real, natural
English vocabulary that we use to tell the story.
Words about identity, fame, and of course, Hollywood.
So are you ready to practice your listening comprehension
and learn these vocabulary terms? Then follow
along, because we're about to begin. Now let's
talk about Marilyn Monroe. Before she was known
by that name, she was actually Norma Jean. Norma
Jean Mortensen was born in Los Angeles in 1926.
That's right, she was actually a California and
LA native. Sadly though, her childhood was very
unstable, meaning that she didn't have one consistent
home. Her mother struggled with mental health
issues and spent a lot of time in hospitals.
Norma Jean therefore got sent to live in different
locations, including even foster homes and orphanages.
Foster homes are homes where you are sent to
live with someone who is not your biological
family. Sometimes it's a temporary situation
or sometimes it lasts much longer. This is usually
because a child does not have a very stable parent
to take care of them. During this time, she did
not feel very secure and she may have even been
abused at one or more of these places. As a result,
she became withdrawn, which means that she was
very quiet and she did not connect with other
people easily. She did not have a very friendly
or outgoing personality. Her childhood had a
lasting effect on her. She learned that things
could change really quickly and that the people
around her might just disappear at any time.
As a teenager, she left high school, got married
very young, and then took a job in a factory
to support herself during World War II. While
she was working in this factory, a photographer
noticed her. He took photos of her for a magazine
and those photos changed the course of her life.
She began to model and quickly found success.
It was during these modeling years that she straightened
her natural dark curly hair and also started
to lighten it. This was the beginning of her
physical transformation. In 1946, she signed
a contract with 20th Century Fox, a major Hollywood
film studio. A contract is a legal document and
an agreement to work, and it was necessary in
the studio system that existed in Hollywood at
that time. We will talk more about the studio
system next week, but for the moment, it's just
important to know that when you signed a contract
with a Hollywood film studio, they took control
of your life. The studio gave her a new name,
Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn was inspired by a Broadway
actress, and Monroe was her mother's maiden name.
A maiden name is a woman's last name before she
gets married. At the same time, her appearance
was strictly controlled. The studio had her dye
her hair blonde and maintained as part of her
public image. From that point on, Marilyn Monroe
was no longer a private citizen. She was a professional
creation created for studio audiences. In Hollywood,
Marilyn was given a very specific role. She was
typecast. Typecast means to be given one type
of role in multiple different movies or TV shows.
In Marilyn's case, she was typecast as the dumb
blonde. Blonde because that was the color of
her hair, and dumb because the roles were always
women who did not seem very intelligent. Even
though she herself was very intelligent and worked
very hard, the studios continued to put her in
these roles that focused more on her appearance
than her acting abilities. Some of her most famous
roles are 1953's Gentleman Prefer Blondes and
How to Marry a Millionaire. But the most famous
image of her in that white dress comes from the
1955 movie The Seven Year Itch. That image became
iconic and entered into pop culture, which means
that it became widely known. Of course, her beauty
helped her, but it was her comedic timing that
really made these movies popular. and made her
famous. Comedic timing means knowing when to
speak or react in order to be funny. As she became
more famous, her private life, the life that
she lived away from the camera, became harder
to protect. Many people expected her to act like
the characters that she played on screen. This
caused her a lot of stress and her private life
began to suffer. In 1954, she married the famous
baseball star Joe DiMaggio after meeting him
on a blind date. If you listened to our Valentine's
Day episode on dating vocabulary, you will know
what that term means. Their relationship was
not good, mainly because he was so jealous and
because she was so famous and got so much public
attention. There are even reports that suggest
that the relationship turned violent after he
saw the white dress scene. in The Seven Year
Itch. Later, she had a relationship with the
writer Arthur Miller and married him in 1956
after he divorced his wife. I mentioned Arthur
Miller in the episode I did on the Salem Witch
Trials because he was a famous playwright and
he wrote a play about those trials. With him,
she was hoping to find stability and to be taken
more seriously for her intelligence. She even
told him that she was willing to leave Hollywood
and just go live a quiet life with him. But that
didn't happen. She continued acting, and she
continued to struggle more. Monroe was an avid
reader, which meant that she read all the time,
in dressing rooms, on film sets, on planes. Reading
for her was not just a hobby, it was a form of
self -development and a way to obtain knowledge.
She was influenced by writers and thinkers who
were critical of racism, censorship, and authoritarian
power. These were writers like James Baldwin,
John Steinbeck, Walt Whitman, and her husband
Arthur Miller. Monroe was also rather politically
liberal for her time. She supported civil rights,
workers' rights, and peace movements. This was
not always safe to do in Hollywood at that time.
There was something called the McCarthy era that
was occurring. What it meant was that if you
were seen as being too liberal, you could actually
destroy your career. But Monroe knew that she
could use her fame to help change things. She
publicly praised African -American artists when
that was not socially safe to do, and she maintained
close friendships with Black musicians and actors.
One of the most documented and important actions
she took was her support of Ella Fitzgerald.
Ella Fitzgerald was an African -American jazz
singer and is considered to be one of the best
and most important jazz singers in American history.
But at the time, many of the top clubs in Los
Angeles and Las Vegas were segregated. I've mentioned
segregation in previous episodes, but it was
a practice where the American citizens were separated
based on race. Because the clubs were segregated,
that meant that black performers were often not
allowed to perform for white audiences. Monroe
used her fame because she personally called the
manager of the Macabo Club in Los Angeles and
said, If you hire Ella Fitzgerald, I will sit
in the front row every night. Of course, the
club agreed because she was Marilyn Monroe. And
her presence made press come to the club. as
well as members of the public. Because of that,
Ella Fitzgerald's career exploded. As her career
continued, Marilyn Monroe tried to change the
way she was seen. She started studying acting
seriously and tried to take more challenging
roles. She really wanted to be respected for
her abilities as an actress. However, this pressure
that she put on herself affected her confidence.
She started getting very anxious. worrying that
she was making mistakes, and started to doubt
herself. She often needed reassurance from those
around her. Reassurance means that you get emotional
support or encouragement from someone. She also
started spending a lot of time with her acting
coach. These struggles started to affect her
professionalism, which means how reliable she
was on the film set. She could arrive late, not
remember her lines, and not be able to film a
scene. Of course, this started frustrating people
around her. This tension is shown in the film
My Week with Marilyn, which depicts a week of
1956 when she was filming The Princess and the
Showgirl. This movie depicts her as vulnerable,
struggling with her acting, her fame, and her
marriage. But the movie also showed that she
was really difficult to work with and how she
was maybe taking advantage of how people, especially
men, treated her. As the pressure increased,
her health declined. She started relying more
on prescription medication to help with her anxiety
and exhaustion. Over time, the situation worsened.
She suffered multiple miscarriages and was hospitalized
after a severe drug overdose. However, she continued
acting and made one of her most successful films,
Some Like It Hot. She struggled while filming
this because she did not know her lines and constantly
fought with the director. However, the film was
a massive success. And it is considered one of
her best performances. But after that movie,
her reputation for being difficult and her increasing
drug use really started to affect her career.
She tried to change her image, but she was still
struggling with addiction and her mental health.
And sadly, in August of 1962, she was found dead
in her house after an apparent overdose. Of course,
you can watch any of Marilyn Monroe's famous
films if you want to see how she was as an actress.
And you can also see some fictional depictions.
Like I said, there is the film My Week with Marilyn,
which shows how she was struggling later in her
career. Also shows how she could be very charming
and very charismatic. There's also the 1996 HBO
television film called Norma Jean and Marilyn.
This separates Norma Jean and Marilyn as two
different identities and shows the conflict she
had with her identity and with her mental health.
You'll notice that a lot of depictions of her
try to show the struggle that she had especially
later in her career. I know she's known for being
very beautiful but to me she always seemed like
such a sad and tragic figure. She had a difficult
life, she struggled with her mental health and
addiction, and she died very young. And also,
Sally, that's a story that we see with a lot
of different celebrities. However, even after
death, she still remained famous. Her image is
still referenced today, all of these decades
later. However, a lot of people might just remember
her for being as simple and not as the full person
that she was. When people get known for one image,
a lot of the time the rest of their life is ignored.
And remembering that can help us understand her
life more clearly and more honestly. I hope you
enjoyed this episode and I hope you learned a
little bit about Marilyn Monroe. And more importantly,
I hope you learned some natural English terms
that you can use in everyday conversations. A
reminder to look at the description of this podcast
episode for helpful links. and for the vocabulary
list. If you enjoyed this episode, if you want
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