Women, Power, Hollywood, and Marilyn Monroe

The Investigation Room – Blog
VoiceAmerica Variety Channel, 3/6/15, Goodnight Marilyn: Women, Power, Hollywood, and Marilyn Monroe
The investigation Room is designed to expel fact from fiction, and probably theory from outlandish rumor. Each week if and when one of the guest shares something of use to the investigation, we will share our finding with you.
FACT – Objective and multiple sources confirm and/or there is tangible evidence to back it up.
PROBABLE THEORY – Subjective however most people can understand the line of reasoning.
OUTLANDISH RUMOR – Subjective and is a person’s point of view that no one can substantiate or see as plausible.
THEORY/FACT – We are still working to determine this. __________________________________________________________________________
This week’s guest experts included Marijane Gray, and Leslie Kasperowicz from immortalmarilyn.com.
Marijane Gray is a contributor on www.immortalmarilyn.com.
Marijane Gray:
Marilyn is multi-faceted, every fan who loves her sees a different side of her he/she can identify with
• THEORY: Self-worth is all in how you look and your appearance – Marilyn experienced that as well.
• FACT: Marilyn’s candor was remarkable. She was very open about her fears and insecurities. To be as open as she was about herself in that time and era, it was unheard of and, made her that much more relatable.
• FACT: Misquote: “To all of the girls who think you are fat because you are not a size zero, you’re the beautiful one. It’s society that is ugly”
o Marilyn averaged 120 pounds and wore size 2-4; her clothes were put on modified child mannequins. The term was coined 4 years after her death, a size zero was non-existent during her lifetime.
• THEORY/FACT: Marilyn did not sleep her way to the top. She prided herself on never have being a kept woman. She was propositioned by the head by Columbia Studios, but declined it and was very famously dropped.
o “I’ve always worked hard for the sake of someday becoming a talented actress. I knew I would make it if only I kept at it and worked hard without lowering principles and pride of myself” – Marilyn in 1962
• FACT: She actively took acting, dancing and elocution classes – displayed so much drive and ambition.
• FACT: Marilyn would have absolutely been a humanitarian if she had the chance to live longer. She did charity events for St. Jude’s, Toys for Tots and Muscular Dystrophy – devoted her time to help the underdog.
Marijane describes Marilyn as hopeful

Leslie Kasperowicz is a contributor at www.immortalmarilyn.com
Leslie Kasperowicz:
• FACT: Who she was on screen was not who she actually was in real life, people often mistake her for the image she plays: the dumb blonde.
• THEORY: Marilyn’s power came from being ahead of her time – being willing to be who she was no matter what anyone else thought. She was part of the beginning of the end of Hollywood Studio System which put actors in contracts where they were stuck with a studio.
• FACT AND THEORY: Marilyn fought studios repeatedly to get the respect she deserved. She was underpaid, but what she really wanted was artistic freedom – choose her script, the kind of roles she took and how she appeared on the screen. She didn’t understand her power at the time, it took a lot of strength and courage to speak up about that.
• FACT: Marilyn was one of the first women to start her own production company – with partner Milton Green. 20th Century Fox suspended her immediately after she announced her company.
• THEORY– Did she renegotiate with Fox?
• FACT: She was still in negotiations at the time of her death, she very much wanted to go back to work. Marilyn had met with executives but, nothing was finalized at the time of her death.
• PROBABLE THEORY: There were rumors, but the only evidence was from her lawyer, who stated he had a new contract ready to sign but she passed away before then.
• PROBABLE THEORY: Fox was stringent and demanding in terms of the conditions — wanted her to publicly say she had a mental illness, fire her acting coach and representatives, etc.
• FACT: Huge misconception about Marilyn’s talent: She was always working on herself, constantly developing her craft. Worked with well-known foremost acting coaches of her era, who really believed at her – one even compared her to Marlon Brando.
• FACT: Controversial — Ella Fitzgerald: Marilyn never stepped on anyone to get to where she was, she lifted people up at every turn and was very supportive of women in Hollywood
• One word to describe Marilyn = Courageous