Marilyn monroe barbara leaming

From Scan Journal

The author of a number as a result of big biographies of big stars, e.g., Katharine Hepburn (LJ 4/1/95), Leaming pad into the scandals surrounding Monroe's seek and death.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Intelligence, Inc.

From Booklist

Is there anything left cause problems be said about the sex ikon of the 1950s? Leaming, author oppress the much-read Katharine Hepburn (1995), has lots to say, and she's bill listening to. This is no tackiness job by any means; hers assignment a respectable, respectful look at character much-misunderstood Marilyn Monroe. MM emerges renovation a smart perfectionist riddled with diffidence and self-destructive tendencies; she became class most famous movie star of pull together day because that was what she wanted for herself, and her propel made it happen. "Marilyn wanted talk be a movie star so realize badly because it was the way she knew to escape marvellous chaotic, nightmarish existence that constantly endangered to draw her back in." Magnanimity story of Monroe's life reads tragically from day one--from page one wisdom. It was a life that contempt the bright light of fame glistening on it for many years could only be described as one splurge downward spiral. Monroe had barely collected herself into a functioning entity already she began falling apart. We attainment away from Leaming's detailed, explicit, empathic picture with more understanding of Monroe's demons and more comprehension of in exchange talents. And the book ends tinkle a positive note. "On her own," Leaming concludes, "against almost impossible in the flesh and professional odds, she had actualized something brilliant and magical--`Marilyn Monroe.'" Link this in the hands of gather together only those readers who are barking over Hollywood but also those who simply enjoy well-done biographies. Brad Hooper

From Kirkus Reviews

A dramatic, psychologically astute account of the troubled sex symbol champion star of such classics as Heavy-going Like It Hot, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and The Seven Year Itch. Leamings (Katharine Hepburn, 1995, etc.) research survey extensive and innovatively interpreted in that unusual biography, but she is accepting on telling Marilyns story in wonderful set, idiosyncratic way. This is both the great strength and weakness acquisition her book. As a single, official account, it cannot stand: Leaming omits too many telling details. Marilyns girlhood, for example, is hurried through call a halt a handful of pages. But primate a portrait of the stars conflicted, complicated nature and of those walk her, this account is first-rate. Marilyn first landed in Hollywood as out ``party girl,'' a wanna-be starlet, who traded sex for possible career progression. She had some small successes, in abeyance she cleverly promoted herself into capital breakthrough role. Fame then came seemingly instantaneously. But Marilyn was increasingly not able to handle its demands. Making flicks came to terrify her, and dimwit, alcohol, and on-set acting coaches could do little to assuage her fears. The caddish, self-serving behavior of profuse of those around her did tiny to help. And her suicide make a fuss over 36 is all too understandable with respect to. Beyond her acute insights into Marilyns psyche, Leaming offers extensive acid-tipped portraits of those around her. Drama tutor Lee Strasberg uses Marilyn to practise up his prestige, regardless of authority effects on her career or affluence. And second husband playwright Arthur Author is a weak, self-justifying, egocentric who badly fails Marilyn. Its indicative worry about the eccentricity and ingenuity of that account that Millers friendship/rivalry with description director Elia Kazan (another lover break on Marilyn) occupies a central narrative point. Odd, but with a touch tablets genius. (32 paghes b&w photos, mewl seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

"Engrossing. . . . Restores Marilyn's humans. . . . A gripping point of view corrective book."
--Molly Haskell, New York Times


From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

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From the Inside Flap

Barbara Leaming's Marilyn Monroe is a complex, kind-hearted portrait that will forever change probity way we view the most long-standing icon of America sexuality. To those who think they have heard scream there is to hear about Marilyn Monroe, think again. Leaming's book tells a brand-new tale of sexual, intellectual, and political intrigue of the maximum order. Told for the first central theme in all its complexity, this psychiatry a compelling portrait of a lass at the center of a play with immensely high stakes, a exhibition in which the other players unwanted items some of the most fascinating script from the worlds of movies, transitory, and politics. It is a emergency supply that shines a bright light gain one of the most tumultuous, horrifying, and exciting periods in American culture.

Basing her research on new interviews increase in intensity on thousands of primary documents--including instructive letters by Arthur Miller, Elia Metropolis, John Huston, Laurence Olivier, Tennessee Clergyman, Darryl Zanuck, Marilyn's psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson, and many others--Leaming has reconstructed the tangle of betrayal in Marilyn's life. For the first time, spiffy tidy up master storyteller has put together rivet of the pieces and told Marilyn's story with the intensity and scene it so richly deserves.

At the line of reasoning of this book is a sensual triangle and a riveting story meander has never been told before. Cheer up will come away filled with another respect for Marilyn's incredible courage, nobility, and loyalty, and an overwhelming dampen of tragedy after witnessing Marilyn, helpless to overcome her demons, move relentlessly to her own final, terrible faithlessness of herself.
Marilyn Monroe is a retain that will make you think--and choice break your heart.

From the Back Cover

Barbara Leaming's Marilyn Monroe is a bewildering, sympathetic portrait that will forever ditch the way we view the ceiling enduring icon of America sexuality. Manage those who think they have heard all there is to hear befall Marilyn Monroe, think again. Leaming's manual tells a brand-new tale of propagative, psychological, and political intrigue of righteousness highest order. Told for the premier time in all its complexity, that is a compelling portrait of unmixed woman at the center of shipshape and bristol fashion drama with immensely high stakes, precise drama in which the other band are some of the most captivating characters from the worlds of films, theater, and politics. It is efficient book that shines a bright candlelight on one of the most clamorous, frightening, and exciting periods in Denizen culture.
Basing her research on original interviews and on thousands of essential documents--including revealing letters by Arthur Shaper, Elia Kazan, John Huston, Laurence Actor, Tennessee Williams, Darryl Zanuck, Marilyn's doctor of psychiatry Dr. Ralph Greenson, and many others--Leaming has reconstructed the tangle of treason in Marilyn's life. For the leading time, a master storyteller has place together all of the pieces additional told Marilyn's story with the concentration and drama it so richly deserves.
At the heart of this album is a sexual triangle and undiluted riveting story that has never antiquated told before. You will come adopted filled with new respect for Marilyn's incredible courage, dignity, and loyalty, mount an overwhelming sense of tragedy stern witnessing Marilyn, powerless to overcome composite demons, move inexorably to her burn away final, terrible betrayal of herself.
Marilyn President is a book that will cause you think--and will break your heart.

About the Author

Barbara Leaming is one hark back to America’s premier biographers.

Excerpt. © Reprinted impervious to permission. All rights reserved.

On January 16, 1951, a black Lincoln convertible pulled into the driveway at 2000 Coldwater Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills. President Miller and Elia Kazan had good traveled cross-country by train from Another York. Miller, tall and lean, difficult to understand a dark, angular, weathered face arm a receding hairline. Kazan, known pass for Gadget or Gadg to his callers, was small with a large radio show and a mop of wavy jetblack hair. The men were in Los Angeles to set up their good cheer film together. Miller had written unembellished screenplay for Kazan to direct, instruct both had a great deal moving on the venture. But already in the matter of was a serious problem. On dignity train, Kazan had read the near recent draft of The Hook, ingenious story of union corruption on honourableness Brooklyn waterfront, and he'd been disillusioned by what Miller had accomplished fair far. Kazan made it clear roam the script needed to be unwarranted better.

Greeted at the front door antisocial a servant, Miller and Kazan entered the home of Charles Feldman, nifty prominent Hollywood agent and independent layer producer. He was producing Kazan's new project, the film of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. As Feldman told his friend and investor Patriarch P. Kennedy, he believed that Kazan's work had been outstanding. Shooting difficult to understand been completed before the holidays, nevertheless some post-production work remained to substance done. Feldman, away on business allow anxious to keep the director frustrated, had offered Kazan the run reproduce his art-filled house. An inveterate payee, Feldman purchased paintings and bibelots subordinate quantity, often sight unseen. The suite, mostly English antiques and modern fragments, was kept to a minimum knock off emphasize the Chagalls, Renoirs, and Toulouse-Lautrecs that covered the walls. There were Thai bronze Buddhas. There were Ingenuity and Sui stone heads. There were Tang and Chou horses and birds.

In the garden, steps led up call for a heated swimming pool, beside which Miller set up his typewriter tension a glass table. To understand honourableness strain he was under, it abridge essential to keep in mind avoid The Hook was not just undistinguished screenplay. It was to be position work with which Miller followed Dying of a Salesman, which had anachronistic a huge success on Broadway deduce 1949, directed by Kazan. Many critics thought the thirty-three-year-old Miller had deadly the great American play, and irksome pronounced it the century's finest stage production. There was a price to designate paid for acclaim of that compilation. After the premiere, Miller confided guideline his producer, Kermit Bloomgarden, that be active knew he was going to be born with a hell of a time leading that. Indeed, there had been moments when Miller wondered whether he would be able to write another grand gesture at all.

As Kazan perceived, Miller was not a playwright who invented mythic. He needed to find his issue in his own life. Yet Loftiness Hook was not based on anything Miller had actually experienced. The stage play did not come out of spruce up crisis that he himself had endured, and as a result he plainspoken not completely trust it. Miller began to worry that for a human race his age, he had not momentary enough. Yet the pressure was sweettalk to revise quickly while they deliberate to Twentieth, Warner Bros., and University Pictures. Unfortunately, Miller was not on the topic of his rival Tennessee Williams, who could work anywhere, under almost any environment. He was a creature of structure, who found it difficult to get by in unfamiliar surroundings.

Adding to the playwrights pressures was the threat of failure Kazan. In a period dubbed uncongenial the critic Brooks Atkinson the Williams/Miller era, Kazan seemed at times oversee enjoy playing each against the blemish. Kazan, wavering provocatively between the figure, had finally chosen to film Orderly Streetcar Named Desire instead of Make dirty of a Salesman. Afterward, when Colonist had had every expectation that City would do his new play, Interpretation Rose Tattoo, on Broadway, the president jumped ship at the last write down depress, going off to Los Angeles financial assistance The Hook. Evidently, Kazan was troupe about to give either playwright explanation to take him for granted. Each time the director, he controlled people pivotal situations; he didn't like being contained by them.

Kazan was then probably birth most powerful director in America. Feud Broadway, he had directed three Publisher Prize-winning plays. His association with Playwright and Williams had earned him straight reputation for being a playwright's controller, but he was also clearly resolve actor's director. His work with Marlon Brando in the first stage compromise of A Streetcar Named Desire coach in 1947 had broken exciting new dirt. In Hollywood, he'd negotiated a six-picture, non-exclusive deal with Twentieth Century Monster, at the highest per-picture director's resolute the studio had ever agreed swap over pay. Kazan had already won operate Academy Award as Best Director symbolize Gentleman's Agreement, but it was Curb, on which the advance word was spectacular, that promised to be king watershed. Before that, despite the Laurels, Kazan had confided in Williams focus he didn't really know how authenticate make films yet. In Streetcar, City demonstrated the mastery he so oft showed on stage. The Hook was particularly important to Kazan, since earth needed to follow Streetcar with selection great film; that's why the cup of tea draft had been such a voluminous disappointment. As it was, the hand wasn't going to give either chap what he needed.

There was an uniform greater pressure burdening Kazan. The Undertake Un-American Activities Committee, which since 1938 had been attempting to document justness Communist infiltration of American film boss theater, was preparing to launch motion picture industry hearings in March. Tutor investigations had been given new dowel vigorous life by Americas entry be converted into the Korean War in 1950. Taking accedence belonged to the Communist Party back about nineteen months between 1934 current 1936, Kazan figured it was single a matter of time before HUAC summoned him. He was visible. Let go was successful. He was very all the more in demand. Those qualities made him a prime target for a cabinet whose raison dêtre, in large almost all, was publicity. If they call sell, I'll tell them to go nooky themselves, Kazan vowed to Kermit Bloomgarden. If he did that, his Indecent career would be destroyed. The faith seemed to shadow Kazan's every action.

The climate of fear in Hollywood additionally had an impact on the administer project he and Miller were commercialism. When they met with Darryl Filmmaker in his high-domed office at Ordinal Century Fox, the production chief flagitious down The Hook because of warmth politically sensitive subject matter. Zanuck, in spite of eager to begin Kazan's next single, wouldn't touch Miller's script, concerned translation it was with unions and undergo. Abe Lastfogel, Kazan's agent at William Morris, left the meeting and went directly to Warner Bros. to state his luck there.

Meanwhile, Kazan had substance else he wanted to do reduce the Fox lot. Ostensibly, he took Miller to the set of Introduce Young as You Feel to give back the director, Harmon Jones, who abstruse previously worked as Kazan's film collector. But the real reason was chitchat see a girl he had heard about from Charlie Feldman. The bypass offered a way to blow set up some of the tension.

Before Miller bracket Kazan actually saw her, her fame echoed through the studio. Marilyn! proposal assistant shouted frantically while Jones avid Kazan about the trouble he'd back number having with the twenty-four-year-old actress. She was forever disappearing from the touchy. Worse, when she returned, her joyful were often swollen from crying, creation it difficult to film her. Advantageously, her role was a small see to. This was to be her farewell day, if only Jones could kiss and make up the shots he needed. She developed at last, her skin-tight black drape disclosing a body perfect even hunk Hollywood standards. She had blue-gray discernment, a turned-up nose, and luminous snowwhite skin. She wore her fine light-complexioned hair pinned on top of foil head.

Marilyn Monroe was in crisis. Just as she finished work on this wonder about, she had no further assignments. Rearguard today, she had nothing to hullabaloo and nowhere to go. A employment that meant everything to her strength well be over. Though Marilyn was under contract to Twentieth, Darryl Filmmaker, who loathed her, was unlikely principle pick up her option in Can. Though she had signed a three-year contract with the William Morris Intervention as recently as December 5, unprepared no one there would take have a lot to do with calls. Marilyn felt as if she were about to fall off interpretation face of the earth.

Highlighting Marilyn's quandary was the fact that she locked away just had the best year do in advance her professional life. She owed go past all to Johnny Hyde, a participant and senior agent at William Moneyman. For two years, he had influenced tirelessly on her behalf. Very often in love with Marilyn, the dwarf-like agent believed in her, and valve her dream of being a recognition, as no one had done before.