Joe and Marilyn: Legends in Love (36 page)

Marilyn contacted Lena Pepitone in New York and asked her to buy a cradle for the baby. “She told me she sensed it would be a girl,” recalled Pepitone, “so she wanted the cradle to be pink. ‘And if it’s a boy?’ I asked. ‘What’s the difference?’ said Marilyn. ‘No baby ever cared about the color of its cradle. That’s an adult perversion.’ So I went to an antique store and purchased a pink handmade wooden cradle, with a pink-checkered baby girl in a bonnet carved into the tiny headboard. A pink baby lamb had been etched into the side of the cradle.”

Shooting on
Some Like It Hot
came to an end on November 6. Billy Wilder threw a cast party but didn’t invite Marilyn, though in the end, it was largely her comic brilliance that made the film such a success.

On November 8 the Millers were back in New York. Marilyn placed
the tiny cradle next to her bed and spent most of the next five weeks at home, resting. She wrote poems, sending one or two of them to Norman Rosten with a letter that she signed “e. e. cummings,” in imitation of the famous American poet who rarely used capital letters. She took one night off to accompany her husband to the opening of Yves Montand’s one-man Broadway show in which the Italian-born (but French-speaking) actor demonstrated his skill as a singer.

Montand and his wife, actress Simone Signoret, had starred in the French film version of Arthur Miller’s play
The Crucible
, and the two men had become friends. Following the show that evening, Miller, Montand, and Monroe ate a late-night dinner and discussed the possibility of Yves and Marilyn working together on a film. When the Millers returned home, Marilyn admitted that she liked Montand and found him attractive.

Sadly, in mid-December, despite her precautions, Marilyn suffered yet another miscarriage. She was taken by ambulance to Manhattan Polyclinic Hospital. News of the miscarriage received wide media coverage. When he heard, Joe DiMaggio called her at home. They spoke briefly. DiMaggio told Paul Baer that Marilyn couldn’t stop crying.

Lena Pepitone had forgotten to remove the newly bought pink cradle from Marilyn’s bedroom. “I tried to take it out after she returned from the hospital,” said Pepitone, “but she insisted I leave it. That night, she hurled it against the wall, and it broke into pieces. ‘This was my last chance,’ she wept. ‘My last chance.’ ”

Late at night on December 26, a highly distraught Arthur Miller called Norman Rosten and asked him to come over as soon as possible. The Rostens arrived at three in the morning. Marilyn had taken Amytal plus Nembutal with wine. Unable to rouse his wife and seeking to avoid unwanted publicity, Miller had called a physician friend of his, who’d come over and pumped her stomach. She made a rapid recovery. On New Year’s Eve, the Millers attended an Actors Studio party given by Lee and Paula Strasberg.

Some Like It Hot
premiered to rave reviews and record box office
revenue on March 29, 1959, at Loew’s State Theater on Broadway. Plugging the film in Los Angeles, Tony Curtis was asked what it was like to have kissed Monroe in the film. “It was like kissing Hitler,” he said. Marilyn’s response to her costar’s hurtful remark was offered in a
Life
magazine interview conducted in the summer of 1962. Asked how she felt about Curtis’s earlier remark, she said, “That’s his problem.”

Tony Curtis perpetrated one further indignity against Marilyn, claiming in his book
The Making of
Some Like It Hot, published in 2009, and in a number of interviews publicizing the book, that he’d had a fleeting affair with Monroe during the production of the film. Yet in his autobiography, published sixteen years earlier, Curtis makes no such claim, stating only that he and Marilyn had dated informally when both were new to Hollywood. When asked about the discrepancy by
a British journalist, Curtis—who died in September 2010—responded, “I’m not the only Hollywood actor who fantasized about sleeping with Marilyn Monroe. To put it another way, I so frequently dreamed of sleeping with her that it seemed almost as if I had. But I do stick to my earlier statement: kissing Marilyn was like kissing Hitler. Of course, that’s also a debatable statement, since I never had the pleasure of kissing Herr Hitler—I never even met the man.”

•  •  •

In mid-April 1959 Truman Capote met with an editor friend to discuss his novella
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
, which was soon to be made into a feature film. Having just seen Marilyn Monroe in
Some Like It Hot
, Capote felt she would make a wonderful Holly Golightly, the book’s main character, a kind of wholesome harlot, a girl-woman with her own set of values and a singular vision of the world. “Marilyn’s perfect for the role,” Capote told the editor. He’d discussed the possibility with her, and she’d expressed interest.

“Have you seen her lately?” asked Capote’s companion. “I heard from Delos Smith that her psychiatrist put her on Tuinal, a barbiturate composed of Seconal and Nembutal. She takes five Tuinal pills at night
to try to sleep. Seven Tuinal can kill you. She’s two pills away from oblivion. I have the feeling that girl’s not going to be around much longer. Delos agrees. He says in class at the Actors Studio she sits next to him and keeps whispering to him, ‘Let’s kill ourselves.’ ”

“She should be monitored,” remarked Capote. “Blood tests and all that. Her shrink’s got to monitor her.”

Capote went on to say that there were two Marilyns. There was the frenetic, fast-talking, street-savvy, tough, sometimes mean and spiteful Marilyn, often so drugged and drunk that she didn’t know who or where she was. But when she felt relaxed, she changed into the other Marilyn. She became a soft, lovely person with a wonderfully sweet smile and a full, hearty laugh, a bit shy, a keen listener, with wide, inquisitive eyes, nice but always naughty.

“The two Marilyns in combination,” said Capote, “are what make her the perfect Holly Golightly.”

Lee and Paula Strasberg were against Marilyn’s accepting the role. The last thing she needed was to play the part of a hooker, even a sophisticated one. Paula called the producers to remove Monroe’s name from the list of actresses being considered. Audrey Hepburn came away with the part. When the film came out in 1961, Marilyn sent Hepburn a telegram congratulating her on a fine performance. She graciously told Truman Capote, “Audrey probably did a better job of it than I would have.”

•  •  •

“Joe DiMaggio finally confided in my father about seeing Marilyn again,” said Robert Solotaire. “I believe she considered him a great friend, somebody she could always count on. She obviously didn’t want to lose him. She enjoyed sleeping with him, so that feature became part and parcel of their new arrangement. Being on intimate terms with Marilyn Monroe, sex goddess, idol of millions, probably meant more to Joe than it did to Marilyn. He believed no other man could love her as much as he did. And he was probably right.”

DiMaggio sent Marilyn flowers when, on June 23, 1959, she underwent surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York to try again to correct her chronic endometriosis, an ailment that would continue to flare now and then until the end of her life.

Marilyn saw Joe at Paul Baer’s house in early September. Then, later in the month, she flew to Los Angeles to attend a Twentieth Century–Fox luncheon for the Russian premier, Nikita Khrushchev. Spyros Skouras, organizer of the event, had called Marilyn in New York to tell her that Khrushchev had personally requested her presence at the function. Perhaps because he wanted to avoid further problems with the government, Arthur Miller had refused to attend.

Zsa Zsa Gabor, one of the four hundred invited guests, recalled that the guest list featured some of Hollywood’s most recognizable names, including Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Charlton Heston, Jimmy Stewart, Yul Brynner, David Niven, Shelley Winters, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, Rita Hayworth, and Kim Novak. Elizabeth Taylor was there with her then husband Eddie Fisher, and they were seated opposite Debbie Reynolds, of all people, the woman Fisher had dumped to marry Liz. Nina Khrushchev, wife of the Russian premier, sat between Bob Hope and Sinatra, and showed them snapshots of her grandchildren. Sinatra looked bored. Marilyn Monroe entered via a side door on the arms of a pair of Fox security guards and was placed at a table near the dais, between Josh Logan and producer David Brown. Khrushchev gave a very long and angry speech, in Russian, which was then translated into English by an interpreter. “It contained all the usual and expected attacks on the sins of capitalism,” said Gabor, “and was followed by a few lighthearted comments by Darryl Zanuck.”

When the luncheon ended, Khrushchev headed straight for Monroe. He spoke to no one else. “To everyone’s amazement,” said Gabor, “Marilyn addressed him in Russian, having worked out a little welcoming speech with Natalie Wood, who spoke fluent Russian. Khrushchev seemed impressed, all the more so because Marilyn smiled sexily and
wiggled her hips. In broken English, Khrushchev told her how popular she happened to be in Russia. If his wife hadn’t been there, I don’t doubt for an instant he would’ve enjoyed going off with her someplace.”

•  •  •

Returning to Twentieth Century–Fox for her next film, Marilyn Monroe decided on
Let’s Make Love
, a romantic comedy directed by George Cukor and produced by Jerry Wald. Shooting had been scheduled to begin in the fall of 1959, but as was commonplace on most Monroe films, there were problems. In the first place, Marilyn was unhappy with Norman Krasna’s film script; she insisted that Arthur Miller be brought in to “doctor” the script, though he’d already begun working on a script for Marilyn’s next film,
The Misfits
, based on a short story he’d written. In need of money, Miller was only too glad to turn his attention to
Let’s Make Love
.

And then there was the question of whom to cast in the romantic male lead opposite Monroe. Initially cast in the role, Gregory Peck withdrew when he read Miller’s rewrite. Cary Grant and Charlton Heston turned it down as well. Arthur Miller suggested his old pal Yves Montand, and Marilyn may well have recalled the discussion they’d had about working together on a film. Familiar to French film audiences, Montand remained a relative unknown in the States. Monroe convinced Darryl Zanuck and George Cukor to offer him a contract, assuring them that he was a first-rate actor.

“I could tell Marilyn felt something for Montand, at least physically,” said Lena Pepitone. “After Twentieth Century–Fox offered him a contract, and before she left for Hollywood, she said, ‘He’s great looking. He looks just like Joltin’ Joe. If Joe could act and sing, he’d be Yves Montand.’ ”

Arthur and Marilyn departed for California in early November, nearly a year to the day after shooting ended on
Some Like It Hot
. They checked into the same bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel they’d occupied during
Some Like It Hot
. “Marilyn arrived armed to the teeth with
every drug imaginable,” said Whitey Snyder, who was again working with her. “Her psychiatrist, Dr. Kris, prescribed drugs, and Paula Strasberg’s doctor also prescribed medication for her. And if she wanted additional drugs, she’d go see some local quack. In those days, they were only too happy to oblige.

“Her dressing room for
Let’s Make Love
looked like a pharmacy. I remember seeing bottles of Amytal, Tuinal, Nembutal, Doriden, Luminal, and Seconal. I thought she probably had more of the same back at the hotel. I made a list of the drugs to show to my own doctor. I also noticed she’d arrive on the lot in the morning and swallow a handful of pills with a glass of ice tea laced with gin. And then she’d continue, another additional effect on her mood swings. The large quantities of medication caused chronic constipation, so that by the end of 1959, she’d subject herself to occasional enemas. I regret I didn’t say anything to her about her drug and alcohol use. Neither did Arthur Miller. He seemed content to let her consume whatever it took to get through the day.”

Although Whitey failed to address Marilyn’s drug issues, he did mention Joe DiMaggio: “I asked if she’d heard from him recently, and she looked at me as if I knew something I shouldn’t know. In truth, I hadn’t spoken to Joe in nearly a year. I learned later they were having a secret affair, but at the time, I knew nothing. Marilyn smiled and said, ‘Joe’s my personal lifeguard. He’s always there to look out for me. And when he sees I’m drowning, he swims out and pulls me to safety.’ ”

Toward the end of 1959, Marilyn learned that Carl Sandburg was in Hollywood writing the film script for
The Greatest Story Ever Told
. Owning a copy of his biography of Abraham Lincoln, she sought him out and the two met. One evening Arthur Miller and Marilyn took Sandburg out to dinner at Chasen’s. They were eating when the door to the restaurant opened, and in walked Joe and Dom DiMaggio. Joe was in Los Angeles on behalf of the Monette Company, and Dom had flown in to get together with his brother. The restaurant meeting with Marilyn was purely a chance encounter.

“Marilyn saw us from across the room and waved,” said Dom DiMaggio. “We went to her table. She stood. Joe took her hand and pressed it. I kissed her on the cheek. She introduced us to Arthur Miller and Carl Sandburg. Strange as it may seem, Sandburg knew my brother from some charity event they’d both attended years before. Marilyn seemed impressed. ‘You know everyone, Joe,’ she said. We remained standing while Miller and Sandburg half stood and shook our hands. This marked the one and only time Joe came face to face with the playwright. I can’t say Miller was all smiles, but he certainly wasn’t unfriendly. On the whole, he seemed almost pleased to have finally met Marilyn’s previous husband. Perhaps he felt sorry for Joe because he knew firsthand how difficult it sometimes was to be with Marilyn—it was like living with a hurricane, only you never knew in which direction the wind might blow.”

In early 1960 Yves Montand and Simone Signoret arrived from France. They were placed first at the Chateau Marmont and were then moved into bungalow 22 at the Beverly Hills Hotel; the Millers occupied bungalow 21. As work progressed on
Let’s Make Love
, Marilyn became friendly with Signoret, who the year before had won an Oscar for her performance in
Room at the Top
. Every evening after filming ended, Monroe would appear in the Montand bungalow to talk and sip champagne with the French actress. Signoret soon noticed what everyone else had sensed for weeks: Marilyn’s mood shifts were becoming increasingly erratic—so erratic she began to feel that Marilyn might be suicidal.