Authors: Michelle Morgan
Whether or not Marilyn was fully truthful about her feelings to Schaefer is not known, but DiMaggio was concerned
enough by the relationship to hire private detectives from the City Detectives and Guard Service to follow the couple. The company began surveillance on 20 October, and trailed both Marilyn and Schaefer between various Los Angeles neighbourhoods, witnessing her picking up friends, visiting her attorney and calling on Natasha Lytess. On 24 October they followed the actress to the apartment of ex-boyfriend Fred Karger, who was now married to the actress Jane Wyman. However, if they were hoping to uncover some scandal there, they were disappointed as a quick check on the car parked outside revealed that Jane was at the apartment too.
They hoped for more success when they followed Schaefer to a nightclub, where they reported that he looked ‘very dopey’, though he was not drinking. Bizarrely, the detectives claimed to witness him ‘doing something to his arm’, and wondered if he was ‘shooting up’, but if they believed they were being inconspicuous, they were mistaken. Marilyn and Hal were very much aware they were being followed. ‘It was a sick and hostile situation because of DiMaggio,’ remembered Schaefer. ‘He hired private detectives and bugged Marilyn’s car, my car, and my apartment. We were followed everywhere and it was very scary. Marilyn was terrified.’
When she appeared at Santa Monica Court House on 27 October, Marilyn did not mention the surveillance, even though it was still going on. Instead, she leant on the arm of her business manager, Inez Melson, and told how her dream of marital bliss had turned into a nightmare of ‘coldness’ and ‘indifference’. She added, ‘My husband would get into moods where he wouldn’t speak to me for days at a time – a week, sometimes longer, maybe ten days. If I tried to coax him to talk to me, he wouldn’t answer at all, or he would say, “Leave me alone, stop nagging me!”’
As she dabbed her eyes, Marilyn explained that she had even offered to give up her film career to make the marriage work, ‘But his treatment of me made me ill and I was under the care of a physician quite a bit of the time.’ Despite Skolksy’s
earlier claims of being invited to dinner by DiMaggio, Marilyn explained that Joe refused to permit visitors to North Palm Drive, and when a friend came to visit her during an illness, ‘it was a terrible strain’.
Inez Melson also took to the stand and explained that she had witnessed DiMaggio pushing his wife away, and that he had admitted to Melson that he was indeed cold and that he now regretted his actions. Finally, after much tears and testimony, Marilyn was awarded a divorce and she left the court, noting that while she was glad it was all over, she and Joe would continue to be friends, adding, ‘I still don’t know anything about baseball.’
But Joe’s ‘friendship’ with Marilyn was verging on the obsessive, and on 5 November it came to a head when the private detective tailed her to 754 Kilkea Drive, the apartment block of Sheila Stewart, a friend of Marilyn and an ex-student of Schaefer. Bizarrely Joe DiMaggio was tailing the detectives (a fact that was recorded in their report). He was determined to catch Marilyn ‘in the act’ with Schaefer and stormed the apartment, along with the detectives and his friend, Frank Sinatra.
Aside from the fact that this was a ludicrous and highly illegal act, it was made even more absurd when it was discovered that the foursome had broken into the wrong apartment – that of Florence Kotz, who later described it as a ‘night of terror,’ adding, ‘I was terrified. The place was full of men. They were making a lot of noises and lights flashed on. They broke a lot of glasses in the kitchen getting out of there.’
Frank Sinatra later claimed that he had stayed in the car and smoked a cigarette, and when the case went to court in March 1957, Joe DiMaggio backed him up (though he wasn’t in court himself), while Private Detective Phil Irwin insisted that Sinatra was an active participant in the raid.
Active or not, the ‘Wrong Door Raid’ shook the entire apartment block, including Marilyn and Hal Schaefer, who were together in the apartment upstairs. At the time, both parties denied they were in the building, but some fifty years later,
Schaefer came clean: ‘The apartment belonged to an ex-student of mine who had become a friend. She knew about Marilyn and I, and when she went out of town, she gave me the key to the apartment so that we could use it. It was just Marilyn and me in the apartment when the raid took place and Marilyn was terrified. I don’t believe I’d be around today if they’d found me in the apartment. They almost wrecked the building – rammed the door down of the wrong apartment and the woman ended up suing. Marilyn and I managed to get out the back door.’
The very next day, on 6 November, Marilyn was honoured at a party held at the famed Romanoff’s restaurant. The stars invited that night included Marilyn’s childhood idol, Clark Gable, and she fulfilled a fantasy by dancing in his arms. ‘I turned the colour of my red chiffon dress,’ she later exclaimed. A couple of weeks later, on 21 November, it was reported that Monroe and Gable were ‘Hollywood’s Newest Romance’; it was not true, of course, but it was an interesting story nevertheless.
The rest of the year was busy and Marilyn was full of plans for the future. However, having been presented with the script for
How to be Very, Very Popular,
she knew that there was no way she wanted the part, and decided to move to New York to set up her own production company with photographer Milton Greene. Unfortunately, before she could put any of her plans into action, she first had to contend with another gynaecological operation, which took place on 8 November.
In spite of everything, Joe and Marilyn somehow remained friends and he sat beside her hospital bed for many hours, prompting the press to wonder if there was any chance of reconciliation. Some friends stated that DiMaggio was being successful at winning his wife back, while others said there was no chance at all and he should move on. Finally, after they had been seen dining at the Villa Capri on 13 November, Marilyn released a statement which read, ‘Joe and I are just friendly, that’s all. There’s nothing to it.’
After that, Marilyn sought privacy at the home of old friend Anne Karger, Fred’s mother, while making plans for the move
to New York to begin her new life. Before she left, however, she had a few loose ends to tie up, including breaking the news of her departure to Hal Schaefer. He remembered: ‘Shortly after the Wrong Door Raid she went to New York to begin her new life, and that was the last time I ever saw her. She phoned me and said she didn’t know how long she’d be there, but I never saw her again.’
But it wasn’t all bad news for the respected vocal coach, as not long after he met the woman who was to become the love of his life: ‘I was extremely happy with my wife, Brenda – who shared the same birthday as Marilyn. Brenda was the best thing that ever happened to me. She was a remarkable woman.’
When Marilyn arrived in New York she was met by Milton and Amy Greene and taken immediately to their large sixteen-room farmhouse in Weston, Connecticut. She was rundown, suffering from anaemia and in desperate need of a rest, which she received during the festive season with the Greenes, their baby son, Joshua, and their maid, Kitty Owens.
For Marilyn, this must surely have been a strange time: unwell; living with a family she did not know particularly well; and in an environment very different from the one she’d known in California. But despite that, she busied herself with everyday life; babysitting Joshua, talking to Kitty in the kitchen and sharing housework with Amy. She also talked excitedly with Milton about their future venture, Marilyn Monroe Productions, for which she planned to produce films and television, along with a book to showcase Milton’s photos of her. In her spare time she would read, speak to Joe DiMaggio on the telephone and take walks in the woods near the Greenes’ home, content to be by herself for the first time in many months.
Meanwhile, virtually no one knew where Marilyn was living; Fox insisted that she was still living in California, while reporters wondered where she was and continued to run stories of affairs with Frank Sinatra and Clark Gable. Marilyn had no intention of giving herself up just yet, and instead transferred all her business affairs to New York. She dropped Inez Melson as her business manager (although she continued to handle all affairs related to Gladys Baker); fired Charles Feldman as her
agent; and neglected to contact Natasha Lytess, who was at a loss as to what was going on with her star pupil.
On 3 January 1955 Marilyn attended a meeting with the new board of directors for Marilyn Monroe Productions, including Milton Greene, Joe Carr and Frank Delaney. Delaney had found several ‘holes’ in her contract with Fox and, much to her joy, declared Marilyn a free agent. With that in mind, on 7 January the ‘new Marilyn Monroe’ appeared at the home of Delaney, where she announced her intention to take the female lead in
The Brothers Karamazov
by Dostoevsky, and also raised eyebrows by claiming she no longer had a contract with Fox.
This news came as quite a shock to the studio, and by the time Marilyn arrived at Fox on 9 January for retakes on
The Seven Year Itch,
the executives were in no mood to discuss it. While they declared they would use ‘very legal means’ to enforce the agreement, Marilyn was forced to admit she was still under contract but hoped that they could reach an understanding. Delaney was not so accepting, however, and reaffirmed that her contract had been terminated and abandoned.
All this resulted in media frenzy, with newspapers predicting that if she were kept off-screen until her contract expired, she might end up a has-been. So-called friends also came out of the woodwork to pronounce Marilyn ‘stubborn and impatient’, while even Natasha Lytess got in on the act by commenting, ‘nobody’s indispensable’. Marilyn herself saw it in quite a different way: ‘I never tried to be independent just to show my independence. It wasn’t so much that I objected to doing one kind of role. I merely wanted the freedom to do other kinds of roles too.’
She tried to forget her business problems and instead busied herself with improving not only her talents, but her social life too. She moved into New York’s Gladstone Hotel on 19 January, and began going to museums and attending the theatre on a regular basis. ‘People often recognize me in museums,’ she said, ‘but they seem to leave me alone there. They don’t come up to me unless they’re children.’ She began mixing with theatre actors
such as Dame Edith Sitwell, and authors like Elsa Maxwell, who described Marilyn as, ‘The most exciting girl in all the world,’ whilst also observing that she seemed like a child, ‘who was trying to appear sophisticated and grown-up’.
Marilyn began acting lessons with Constance Collier in early 1955, and shortly after, Broadway producer Cheryl Crawford encouraged her to take lessons with Lee and Paula Strasberg, who ran the Actors Studio, which Crawford had helped found. The studio taught the ‘Method’, a technique derived from the teachings of Constantin Stanislavski, which was considered controversial due to its requirement that the actors completely immerse themselves in the characters they played. ‘I feel that I can learn many things about acting in New York,’ she said. ‘What I want is to apply in Hollywood what I learn in New York. I think it will bring the best result.’
When Marilyn first began studying with the Strasbergs, she attended lessons with Lee, and later became an observer at the Actors Studio itself. She enjoyed the experience, although worried that she felt so much older than the other students there: ‘I guess I’m not a lot older than they are, but I feel like it,’ she said.
Meanwhile, her arrival at both the Actors Studio and the private lessons was treated with curiosity by many of the students there, although reports of a hostile reception were perhaps exaggerated. Fellow student Stefan Gierasch was witness to Marilyn’s early days at the school and remembered: ‘I was surprised to see someone like Marilyn in the Studio. We were like a club, but we tried to welcome her; I don’t believe we were unkind to her at all. Strasberg was her mentor and he and Paula were always around her. After class the students would sometimes dine together for lunch; Lee and Paula would escort Marilyn and she would be quite giggly. She was quite retiring and quiet, but that depended on circumstances. She sat at the back, blended into the crowd, and didn’t draw any attention to herself. She came to be more relaxed in the restaurant as time went on, and she was always tended to by Paula.’
Another student, Mark Weston, remembered Marilyn being known as ‘The Golden Girl’: ‘Before Marilyn arrived in Lee’s private class, he asked us all to treat her like just another student. My introduction to Marilyn was abrupt and painful; she would attend class and just take up space. She’d wear mink coats in the summer and different coloured shoes on each foot. Well, I had arrived late to class while a scene was in progress. My usual seat was on the middle aisle three rows behind where Lee sat. I groped myself across the aisle and accidentally stepped on the Golden Girl’s open-toed high-heeled shoes. I sat and watched the scene being performed. I eyed the Golden Girl then turned away . . . on my third viewing of her I realized it was Marilyn! Ms Monroe never again wore make-up, dresses, furs, and heels!
‘My first impression and sympathy towards Marilyn, who sat next to me, was when something humorous happened on the stage all would laugh, including Marilyn. However, instead of an instantaneous laugh she would look at someone then laugh, stop, and repeat the action again and again. My feelings were that the studio had created a robot. She was aware of her every response.’
While she seemed quite unapproachable at first, Marilyn longed to make friends and later said that the greatest thrill of her life came one morning when she arrived late to class. ‘Most of the other students were already there,’ she said. ‘A couple of them looked up, waved and said casually, “Hi Marilyn.” It was a simple thing, but it meant they had accepted me. I was one of them.’
Away from the lessons, she was happy to take part in charity and publicity functions such as acting as an usherette at the premiere of the James Dean movie,
East of Eden,
and riding on a pink elephant at Madison Square Garden. Despite being away from Hollywood, for the first time ever her fan mail at Fox hit 8,000 – the highest of any star in the entire history of Fox studios. She had finally arrived, but despite being one of the world’s most famous women, she never stopped caring about the man on the street, as witnessed by Richard Shepherd,
who handled her PR for a short time during 1955. His friend and client Steve Hayes later remembered: ‘My agent Richard Shepherd [who would later co-produce
Breakfast at Tiffany’s]
was in his New York hotel waiting to escort Marilyn to an awards dinner, when after being two hours late she showed up with a sailor who was battered and bleeding. He’d had an accident of some kind and Marilyn, on seeing his condition, picked him up and insisted Dick help her get the unfortunate man to an emergency hospital.’