Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters (9 page)

Note: Ida Bolender and her husband, Albert Wayne, cared for Norma Jeane at their home in Hawthorne from June 1926, shortly after her birth, and she stayed with them until she was seven. The child called Ida Wayne’s husband “Daddy” despite the fact that Ida Bolender would have preferred her to call him “Uncle Wayne.” The Bolenders adopted two children: Nancy, who was five years younger, and Lester, who was the same age as Marilyn.

Notes:

The Peter who is mentioned is possibly the British-born actor Peter Lawford, a friend of Marilyn’s and brother-in-law to the Kennedys through his marriage to Pat, the president’s sister.

If indeed it is the name Jack that is written (the writing is difficult to decipher), it could refer to Jack Cole, a dancer friend of Marilyn’s who coached her on the films
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
and
There’s No Business Like Show Business
.

Notes:

Marilyn was a guest on Edward R. Murrow’s very popular TV show
Person to Person
on April 8, 1955.

A.I. was probably Aunt Ida, that is, Ida Martin, the other Aunt Ida (the first being Ida Bolender), a great-aunt with whom Marilyn lived from November 1937 to August 1938 in Compton, California.

In the spring of 1938, Marilyn may have suffered a sexual assault by one of her fellow boarders, who could be be the Buddy mentioned here.

“The D.” may be short for either “doctor” or “demon.”

In a bookstore in Los Angeles, February 1953 On the set of
The Seven Year Itch
, 1954

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