The Secret Letters of Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy (5 page)

S
ENATOR AND
M
RS
. J
OHN
F. K
ENNEDY

3321 Dent Place

Washington, D.C.

Mrs. Joe DiMaggio

2150 Beach Street

San Francisco, California

April 2, 1954

Dear Marilyn,

How very remiss of me not to have gone into details regarding the responses to my question about you. Fortunately, I kept my columns and thus am mailing the relevant ones to you for your amusement. I do hope you will enjoy reading them.

Warm regards,

Jackie

M
RS
. J
OE
D
I
M
AGGIO

2150 Beach Street

San Francisco, California

Senator and Mrs. John F. Kennedy

3321 Dent Place

Washington, D.C.

April 10, 1954

Dear Jackie,

Thank you for sending me the columns. I was so glad to get them and they made me laugh a lot. But I wish those polite and friendly answers were closer to what men really said to me on dates, but they couldn’t he further from the truth. When I used to date—and it seems like forever ago—men would all say the same stupid things, like “Gee, you’ve got such lovely white skin,” or “You look smaller than in the movies.”

It must have been wonderful to have such an important, serious job on a newspaper. I’m only ever on the receiving end of newspaper reporters, and most of them, particularly the women, write about me as if I were some kind of exotick [
sic
] dumb animal, and not a person at all. Living and working in Washington must be so much better than being in Hollywood and doing what I do. I’d love to know more about your life there, so please write back and tell me about it when you have the time.

Love,

Marilyn

P.S. What did men say to you on dates? I am sure the Senator said some special, clever things to you, not like the men I knew.
*

__________________________

*
Marilyn was clearly so gratified by Jackie’s friendly response, and her thoughtful gesture of sending her the columns, that she began the letter in a spontaneous frame of mind, thus manifesting the first indication of how much Jackie’s approval and friendship would come to mean to her. It is only when she ended her own letter that Marilyn reminded herself of Jackie’s role as Jack’s wife and probed as to whether Jack (who never paid her compliments) was in the habit of complimenting Jackie, his wife.

S
ENATOR AND
M
RS
. J
OHN
F. K
ENNEDY

3321 Dent Place

Washington, D.C.

Mrs. Joe DiMaggio

2150 Beach Street

San Francisco, California

April 15, 1954

Dear Marilyn,

How extremely enjoyable our new correspondence is! But I am deeply saddened Co learn that men didn’t always treat you with the courtesy you so richly deserve.

As for the Senator, he did, indeed, have an enchanting way of talking to me during our dates. He was amusing, witty, and endlessly curious about me. Or so he seemed. I, in turn, was fascinated to hear about his childhood amid such a large family, the Ambassador (who, as I am sure you know, is a unique individual),
^*
and of the time they all spent in England. But no matter what he is speaking about, Jack has an almost hypnotic quality—as if he is peering straight into your heart and mind.
^*
As if he can read your thoughts, which I found both disquieting and somewhat flattering. Being the focus of his attention is rather like burning up in a red-hot beam of light—spellbinding.

I am deeply flattered that you would like to know more about my life in Washington. In comparison to the glittering existence you must lead in Hollywood, mine will sound extremely turgid. At the moment, I am drowning in books on American history
^†
(which I am studying at Georgetown University), and am also trying golf (which I am not crazy about).

As for cooking, most of the time I tear up to a little Greek place that makes wonderful casseroles and bring them home for dinner. Or else Jack takes me out. I signed up for a cooking course because I definitely did not want to be one of those bird-brained housewives who burn everything. The great day dawned when I was to make my first ever supper for Jack. I don’t know what went wrong, but I rubbed the potatoes in olive oil, just like the course taught. First, I placed them in the gas oven, then I closed the kitchen door with a sigh of relief, and went into the bedroom to read
Gone With the Wind
(for the fifth time), until the potatoes were done. Next thing I knew, the whole house was full of smoke and the neighbors had called the fire engines!

Jack has just walked in and saw that I am writing to you. He says he would adore meeting you when we come out to California this summer. Naturally, my sentiments are identical and I should find it enchanting to meet you and Joe if you both happen to be in California when we are.

Warm regards,

Jackie

__________________________

*
Here Jackie is slyly alluding to what she believes to be Marilyn’s illicit affair with her father-in-law, Joe Kennedy. In reality, Marilyn never met Joe Kennedy. However, had she ever been in his proximity, with her fondness for dominant, controlling men, she would probably have been susceptible to him.

Jackie’s own fondness for Joe Kennedy is a matter of record (see Bradford, Klein, Heymann) and she prided herself on being the one woman who was capable of manipulating him. A cousin once said of Jackie’s attraction to men who resembled the bootlegger and kingmaker Joseph P. Kennedy, “If Jackie were at the court of Ivan the Terrible, she’d say, ‘Ooh, he’s been so misunderstood.’ “

*
Myriad women have breathlessly enthused about Jack Kennedy’s charisma. One of many examples: “I was almost hypnotized by the sight of this man. He was such a stunning figure. He didn’t have to lift a finger to attract women; they were drawn to him in the battalions, by the brigades.…” (Gloria Emerson to Seymour Hersh in
The Dark Side of Camelot
[Boston: Little, Brown, 1997])

^†
“My brother and Jackie knew everything about the Civil War,” Teddy Kennedy recalled. “She had a fantastic desire for historical knowledge, and she was a sponge once she learned it. She caught every nuance.” (Sarah Bradford,
Americas Queen: A Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
[New York: Viking Press, 2000])

M
RS
. J
OE
D
I
M
AGGIO

2150 Beach Street

San Francisco, California

Senator and Mrs. John F. Kennedy

3321 Dent Place

Washington, D.C.

April 25, 1954

Dear Jackie,

I am so excited that you and the Senator are coming to California. I know that once you get here you won’t want to leave, at least that’s what most people say. I’ve missed L.A. so much that I’ve convinced Joe to let us move back next month and I’m so glad. Because although it is pretty here, and close to the Manna, there is nothing like L.A. I know that you will love it.

I feel as if we know each other so well already and are so similar.
Gone With the Wind
is one of my favorite books, and I am not great at cooking either.
^*
I do try and cook for Joe—Italian, of course, he insists—but sometimes I long for the days when I was broke, living in a rooming house and
just eating yogurt mixed with raisins, fresh fruit, and peanuts and not having to cook at all. But men do seem to like us cooking for them, and they get so mad if it doesn’t work out exactly the way they want. It doesn’t always go well. I tried homemade noodles and the book said wait till they dry, but they didn’t. By then the dinner guests arrived, but they still hadn’t dried, I gave the guests drink after drink, and in the end dried the noodles with a hair dryer. Never told anyone, because when I did tell people that I washed lettuce leaves with Brillo, they thought I was a weirdo or something. I didn’t want them to say that about the noodles because I knew I was right.

Maybe when you come out, you would like to take a tour of the studio, and I can arrange it, though there isn’t much to see. Washington must be so much more exciting. History was always one of my favorite subjects at school, and there is so much of it in Washington, but I’ve never been there, or to Europe either. My movies don’t do badly over there, so maybe one day they’ll send me for publicity.

Please let me know the dates of your trip so I can look forward to it.

Love to you and the Senator,

Marilyn

__________________________

*
The fact that Marilyn and Jackie both adored
Gone With the Wind
(see Chris Anderson,
Jack and Jackie
[New York: Morrow, 1996], and Colin Clark,
The Prince, the Showgirl and Me
[New York: St. Martin’s, 1996]) is indicative of their underlying similarities. Like Scarlett, Marilyn and Jackie were both wilful, self-centered, narcissistic, iron-willed, intensely ambitious, accomplished actresses—in Jackie’s case, off-screen.

S
ENATOR AND
M
RS
. J
OHN
F. K
ENNEDY

3321 Dent Place

Washington, D.C.

Mrs. Joe DiMaggio

508 North Palm Drive

Beverly Hills, California

May 15, 1954

Dear Marilyn,

I must apologize for the delay in writing, but we have only recently firmed up the plans for our Californian trip. This will be my first visit since our brief stay there during our honeymoon, and I am wild with excitement and anticipation.

Jack has been so dear and says that as the trip falls during my birthday—at the end of July—he wants to make it one, big gigantic birthday surprise. He has even enlisted his brother-in-law Peter Lawford—perhaps you know him?—as co-conspirator.
^*
He insists that you contact Peter directly—via the studio—and co-ordinate our meeting with him, as I am to be kept in the dark! How very mysterious it all is, and very unlike Jack, too, which makes it all the more intriguing!

A studio tour would be delightful, thank you for suggesting it. I hope you will not be offended by my request—which I make at the risk of sounding like a soppy fan
*
—but if Clark Gable is affiliated—is that the right term?—with Twentieth Century-Fox and if you know him, I would adore meeting him, if only briefly. Primarily because of my passion for
Gone With the Wind,
and Rhett, but also because he is a dead ringer for my father, and I have been passionately in love with him since I was just knee-high.
^†
In the eventuality that you can, indeed, arrange a meeting, I promise to be dignified, ladylike and not fling myself at Mr. Gable’s feet! I hope my request is not too troublesome, and shall, of course, fully understand if it is too difficult to arrange.

Please give my best to Joe.

Warm regards,

Jackie

__________________________

*
British movie actor Peter Lawford was sexually enthralled by both Marilyn and Jackie—as well as being Jack’s friend and, some say, pimp. Enamored of Marilyn (although never willing or able to consummate the relationship), he would also go on to have a 1967 dalliance with Jackie during her trip to Hawaii. “I only know that Patricia Kennedy was livid that Peter and Jackie were in Hawaii together. And I do think they had a flirtation. Jackie definitely was sexually attracted to Peter.” (Patricia Seaton Lawford quoted in Wendy Leigh,
Prince Charming: The John F. Kennedy, Jr., Story
[New York: Dutton, 1993])

*
Jackie’s fascination with Hollywood is a matter of record, and remained strong throughout her life (see Bob Colacello, Holy Terror:
Andy Warhol, Close Up
[New York: HarperCollins, 1990], for her curiosity about Elizabeth Taylor, and
Prince Charming
for her cross-examining her son, John, regarding Madonna).

^†
Jackie says that she has always been in love with Gable since she was knee-high; however, her unconscious emotions came to the fore when writing this sentence, which reads that she has been passionately in love with her father since she was knee-high. Sarah Bradford noted that Jack Bouvier’s obsession with Jackie bordered on the unhealthy and was reciprocated in kind: “But his passion for Jackie (and hers for him) was overriding and semi-incestuous.”

Because Marilyn never knew her father, and Jack Bouvier’s emotions and behavior toward Jackie (see Klein on the young Jackie’s favorite game with her father—guessing which women were his lovers) tended toward the inappropriate, neither woman grew up with the security generally provided by a traditional father. Consequently, Jackie and Marilyn always gravitated toward father figures in their romantic lives. Part of Jack’s attraction for both of them (Marilyn was nine years younger than Jack, and Jack was twelve years older than Jackie) lay in his ability to listen intently to their concerns and give stellar advice, which lent him a paternalistic patina and an authority both women found alluring.