July 19, 2024 • 9 mins
She was the sexiest, most beautiful actress in Hollywood during her short career. But Marilyn Monroe had a heartbreaking childhood with a mentally ill mother. Her upbringing destroyed her self-confidence. And that allowed Hollywood and dozens of men to use and abuse her.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, we all have our mother issues, and in fairness,
mothers have their kid issues. But imagine your single mother
abandons you at a foster home when you're just two
weeks old. Your childhood becomes a tangled maze through twelve
different foster homes, a couple of orphanages, and occasional returns
to your manic, depressive mom's home. Then you have a
(00:22):
series of affairs and marriages beginning at sixteen, some to
men who beat you. Added to all that you become
this thing, this object. I'm Patty Steele. Marilyn Monroe, arguably
the most famous sex symbol in Hollywood history and lifelong victim.
That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back. She
(00:49):
was maybe the most beautiful and fascinating Hollywood star ever,
but Marilyn Monroe was a psychological mess. Now imagine a
childhood where you're a single mom is in and out
of madness, dumping you at the homes of friends or
in foster homes or orphanages when she simply can't deal well.
It all starts in June of nineteen twenty six, when
(01:11):
Gladys Baker brings her two week old daughter Norma Jean
as Marilyn was named at birth, to her first foster
home in California. She drops in to visit the little
One from time to time, and when Marilyn is old enough,
Gladys brings her to her apartment in Hollywood for an
occasional sleepover. Gladys, who had grown up with an alcoholic
(01:33):
father who had fits of rage and finally died in
a mental institution, can't escape her own mental illness. When
Marilyn is three, Gladys shows up unexpectedly at the current
foster home and unsuccessfully tries to run off with Marilyn
by stuffing her in a duffel bag. Finally, when Marilyn
is seven, her mother brings her home, but a year later,
(01:56):
she watches her mother totally lose her mind. She's and
screaming like crazy before the cops are called in. Diagnosed
as a paranoid schizophrenic, Gladys is institutionalized for the first time.
For the next four years, Marilyn has no permanent home.
She mostly lives with family or friends, sometimes in the
(02:17):
La Orphans Home. She also lives in twelve different foster homes,
and horrifyingly, in two of them, she's sexually abused. She'd
always been shy, and now she becomes even more withdrawn,
and she develops a stutter. Marylyn feels abandoned for a
little girl, or for anybody. It is an unbearably painful
(02:37):
and unstable life. So this was when she began to
dream of an acting career. She later said, I didn't
like the world around me. It was grim. Some of
my foster families used to send me to the movies
to get me out of the house, and there I'd
sit all day and into the night there with the
screen so big, a little kid, all alone. I loved it.
(02:59):
That's what I wanted to be. Then, when the family
she was living with got transferred to West Virginia, Marilyn,
just sixteen years old, and trying to avoid a return
to yet another orphanage, got married to a neighbor. She
was totally bored, and while her husband was in the
Pacific for World War Two, she decided to sign with
a modeling agency. Finally, in nineteen forty six, her mother
(03:22):
gets released from the state hospital and comes to live
at a friend's house with her daughter. Just as Marilyn's
modeling career begins to take off and her marriage break up,
But during those years, Gladys is clearly not well. She
begins pretending she's a nurse and dressing up like one,
and she's emotionally abusive to Marilyn, attacking her about her
(03:43):
acting career. Right as Marilyn signs her first deal with
a movie studio, Gladys moves away with no forwarding address.
The Fox Studios publicity people are fine with Gladys's disappearance,
and they talk Marilyn into going along with their pr
story that both of her parents are dead, creating a
sort of sanitized version of her sad childhood spent bouncing
(04:06):
between relatives and foster homes. But the truth did come
out later and Marilyn had to deal with the blowback.
After moving to a new film studio and dyeing her
hair platinum blonde, Marilyn's career began to take off. But
here's the thing. She never was able to deal with
her horrifying childhood. Her insecurities just grew exponentially as her
(04:28):
star rose and Hollywood and a long list of men
simply used her. After her first divorce, Marilyn married superstar
baseball player Joe DiMaggio. The two met on a blind
date six months after he had retired from baseball. But
problem is, Joe was used to being the biggest star
in the room, and he was bothered by his twenty
(04:49):
six year old wife's enormous rise to fame. Numerous friends
said he beat her up on several occasions, and nine
months later they were divorced. Marilyn later said that that
iconic scene in The Seven Year Itch where she stands
over a subway grate and her skirt billows up, was
the end for her husband. He said to me, exposing
(05:11):
my legs and thighs and even my crotch, that was
the last straw. Her third and last husband was Pulitzer
Prize winning playwright Arthur Miller. They had a fairly happy
few years together until her drug addiction resurfaced. At the time,
she wrote in her diary, I've always been deeply terrified
to really be someone's wife, since I know from life
(05:34):
one cannot love another ever really. They finally divorced after
five years, just a year and a half before her death.
As for her lovers, it was a long list, but
it included some of the biggest names of the nineteen
fifties and early sixties. Including Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, and
of course President John Kennedy and his brother Bobby Kennedy.
(05:58):
The Kennedys met her through Frank Sinatra and their brother
in law, actor Peter Lawford. He managed the Kennedy's relationship
with her. It's clear something went on between them. One
well known Hollywood private eye said he had audiotape of
JFK having sex with Marylyn after bugging Lawford's house for
a political opponent. And some folks think the Kennedys played
(06:20):
a role in Maryland's death, including Demaggio himself, who said
the Kennedys are lady killers, and Marilyn told me someone
was going to do her in. I always knew who
killed her, but I didn't want to start a revolution.
One biographer says the Kennedy's relationship with Marylyn started to
get sticky after her sexy rendition of Happy Birthday for
(06:42):
JFK at his forty fifth birthday celebration at Madison Square
Garden in May of nineteen sixty two, just months before
her death, her appearance in the infamous see through dress,
which of course we all saw, trotted back out on
Kim Kardashian at the met gala a couple years ago,
was apparently humiliating for JFK. He never wanted to see
(07:04):
her again. The biographer says, while he hasn't seen proof
that the Kennedys were involved in her death, it was
pretty clear she had sex with both Bobby and Jack.
One fairly damning story has it that Bobby Kennedy was
with Marylyn the night she died, trying to calm her
down over her upset that JFK wasn't speaking to her.
(07:24):
He left the house, but later that night Peter Lawford
found her there after calling and getting no answer, and
she was dead. He had Kennedy's people come to the
house and remove any evidence tying the brothers to her
before the cops were called in. As for her relationship
with her mother, the two shared bouts of mental illness,
(07:44):
and when Marilyn was committed to a mental institution in
nineteen sixty one, her mom slid her own wrist. She survived,
but the last time mother and daughter saw one another
was when Gladys visited Marylyn at the hospital. As she left,
Marilyn slipped a flask of booze into her mom's purse
and Gladys smiled. Without saying goodbye, she simply said, you're
(08:08):
such a good girl. Norma Jean Gladys managed to outlive
her daughter, Marilyn Monroe by another twenty two years. Hope
(08:29):
you're enjoying The Backstory with Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe
for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, and feel
free to dm me if you have a story you'd
like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and
on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory
is a production of iHeartMedia, Premieer Networks, the Elvis Durand Group,
(08:52):
and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our
writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every two day,
Day and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me
with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real
Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for
listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of
(09:13):
history you didn't know you needed to know
Well, we all have our mother issues, and in fairness,
mothers have their kid issues. But imagine your single mother
abandons you at a foster home when you're just two
weeks old. Your childhood becomes a tangled maze through twelve
different foster homes, a couple of orphanages, and occasional returns
to your manic, depressive mom's home. Then you have a
(00:22):
series of affairs and marriages beginning at sixteen, some to
men who beat you. Added to all that you become
this thing, this object. I'm Patty Steele. Marilyn Monroe, arguably
the most famous sex symbol in Hollywood history and lifelong victim.
That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back. She
(00:49):
was maybe the most beautiful and fascinating Hollywood star ever,
but Marilyn Monroe was a psychological mess. Now imagine a
childhood where you're a single mom is in and out
of madness, dumping you at the homes of friends or
in foster homes or orphanages when she simply can't deal well.
It all starts in June of nineteen twenty six, when
(01:11):
Gladys Baker brings her two week old daughter Norma Jean
as Marilyn was named at birth, to her first foster
home in California. She drops in to visit the little
One from time to time, and when Marilyn is old enough,
Gladys brings her to her apartment in Hollywood for an
occasional sleepover. Gladys, who had grown up with an alcoholic
(01:33):
father who had fits of rage and finally died in
a mental institution, can't escape her own mental illness. When
Marilyn is three, Gladys shows up unexpectedly at the current
foster home and unsuccessfully tries to run off with Marilyn
by stuffing her in a duffel bag. Finally, when Marilyn
is seven, her mother brings her home, but a year later,
(01:56):
she watches her mother totally lose her mind. She's and
screaming like crazy before the cops are called in. Diagnosed
as a paranoid schizophrenic, Gladys is institutionalized for the first time.
For the next four years, Marilyn has no permanent home.
She mostly lives with family or friends, sometimes in the
(02:17):
La Orphans Home. She also lives in twelve different foster homes,
and horrifyingly, in two of them, she's sexually abused. She'd
always been shy, and now she becomes even more withdrawn,
and she develops a stutter. Marylyn feels abandoned for a
little girl, or for anybody. It is an unbearably painful
(02:37):
and unstable life. So this was when she began to
dream of an acting career. She later said, I didn't
like the world around me. It was grim. Some of
my foster families used to send me to the movies
to get me out of the house, and there I'd
sit all day and into the night there with the
screen so big, a little kid, all alone. I loved it.
(02:59):
That's what I wanted to be. Then, when the family
she was living with got transferred to West Virginia, Marilyn,
just sixteen years old, and trying to avoid a return
to yet another orphanage, got married to a neighbor. She
was totally bored, and while her husband was in the
Pacific for World War Two, she decided to sign with
a modeling agency. Finally, in nineteen forty six, her mother
(03:22):
gets released from the state hospital and comes to live
at a friend's house with her daughter. Just as Marilyn's
modeling career begins to take off and her marriage break up,
But during those years, Gladys is clearly not well. She
begins pretending she's a nurse and dressing up like one,
and she's emotionally abusive to Marilyn, attacking her about her
(03:43):
acting career. Right as Marilyn signs her first deal with
a movie studio, Gladys moves away with no forwarding address.
The Fox Studios publicity people are fine with Gladys's disappearance,
and they talk Marilyn into going along with their pr
story that both of her parents are dead, creating a
sort of sanitized version of her sad childhood spent bouncing
(04:06):
between relatives and foster homes. But the truth did come
out later and Marilyn had to deal with the blowback.
After moving to a new film studio and dyeing her
hair platinum blonde, Marilyn's career began to take off. But
here's the thing. She never was able to deal with
her horrifying childhood. Her insecurities just grew exponentially as her
(04:28):
star rose and Hollywood and a long list of men
simply used her. After her first divorce, Marilyn married superstar
baseball player Joe DiMaggio. The two met on a blind
date six months after he had retired from baseball. But
problem is, Joe was used to being the biggest star
in the room, and he was bothered by his twenty
(04:49):
six year old wife's enormous rise to fame. Numerous friends
said he beat her up on several occasions, and nine
months later they were divorced. Marilyn later said that that
iconic scene in The Seven Year Itch where she stands
over a subway grate and her skirt billows up, was
the end for her husband. He said to me, exposing
(05:11):
my legs and thighs and even my crotch, that was
the last straw. Her third and last husband was Pulitzer
Prize winning playwright Arthur Miller. They had a fairly happy
few years together until her drug addiction resurfaced. At the time,
she wrote in her diary, I've always been deeply terrified
to really be someone's wife, since I know from life
(05:34):
one cannot love another ever really. They finally divorced after
five years, just a year and a half before her death.
As for her lovers, it was a long list, but
it included some of the biggest names of the nineteen
fifties and early sixties. Including Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, and
of course President John Kennedy and his brother Bobby Kennedy.
(05:58):
The Kennedys met her through Frank Sinatra and their brother
in law, actor Peter Lawford. He managed the Kennedy's relationship
with her. It's clear something went on between them. One
well known Hollywood private eye said he had audiotape of
JFK having sex with Marylyn after bugging Lawford's house for
a political opponent. And some folks think the Kennedys played
(06:20):
a role in Maryland's death, including Demaggio himself, who said
the Kennedys are lady killers, and Marilyn told me someone
was going to do her in. I always knew who
killed her, but I didn't want to start a revolution.
One biographer says the Kennedy's relationship with Marylyn started to
get sticky after her sexy rendition of Happy Birthday for
(06:42):
JFK at his forty fifth birthday celebration at Madison Square
Garden in May of nineteen sixty two, just months before
her death, her appearance in the infamous see through dress,
which of course we all saw, trotted back out on
Kim Kardashian at the met gala a couple years ago,
was apparently humiliating for JFK. He never wanted to see
(07:04):
her again. The biographer says, while he hasn't seen proof
that the Kennedys were involved in her death, it was
pretty clear she had sex with both Bobby and Jack.
One fairly damning story has it that Bobby Kennedy was
with Marylyn the night she died, trying to calm her
down over her upset that JFK wasn't speaking to her.
(07:24):
He left the house, but later that night Peter Lawford
found her there after calling and getting no answer, and
she was dead. He had Kennedy's people come to the
house and remove any evidence tying the brothers to her
before the cops were called in. As for her relationship
with her mother, the two shared bouts of mental illness,
(07:44):
and when Marilyn was committed to a mental institution in
nineteen sixty one, her mom slid her own wrist. She survived,
but the last time mother and daughter saw one another
was when Gladys visited Marylyn at the hospital. As she left,
Marilyn slipped a flask of booze into her mom's purse
and Gladys smiled. Without saying goodbye, she simply said, you're
(08:08):
such a good girl. Norma Jean Gladys managed to outlive
her daughter, Marilyn Monroe by another twenty two years. Hope
(08:29):
you're enjoying The Backstory with Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe
for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, and feel
free to dm me if you have a story you'd
like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and
on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory
is a production of iHeartMedia, Premieer Networks, the Elvis Durand Group,
(08:52):
and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our
writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every two day,
Day and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me
with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real
Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for
listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of
(09:13):
history you didn't know you needed to know
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