The Final Years of Marilyn Monroe: The Shocking True Story (35 page)

So where was Marilyn when her doctor was making these outlandish claims? We have been reliably informed that she was still resting in bed. This is partly true. However, Fox documentation reveals that, during the afternoon of Thursday 7 June, just moments after Greenson had returned from his emergency meeting at the studio, she left her home and was driven to her 52-year-old plastic surgeon, Dr Michael M. Gurdin, at his clinic in Beverly Hills. Fearful that her nose had been broken, she informed him that, between 2 and 3am, she had slipped in the shower. But her home did not possess such a device. The truth about the incident was very different indeed.

During Greenson’s first visit to Marilyn that day, hot-foot from his plane journey, and shortly before he left for his meeting at Fox, discussions between him and the actress became so intense that he struck her hard across her face. With Monroe now seriously undermining his position at the studio as one of the country’s most eminent psychoanalysts, he vented his anger in the only way he knew: violence.

Examination of Gurdin’s original case notes reveal there was ‘No nose bleed, no loss of consciousness and mild laceration of the nasal dorsum, the bridge of the nose, and swelling of the right lower lid.’ As normal in circumstances such as these, Gurdin sent her for X-rays. The distressed actress was driven by Greenson to doctors Conti and Steinberg at 416 North Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills. Photographs showed her nose was not seriously damaged but the black and blue marks on her face were very prominent. Reporters camped outside her Brentwood home naturally caught sight of the contusions as the heavily camouflaged actress dashed out of her doctor’s car. When asked about them, she repeated the tale that she had taken ‘too much medication and had fallen in the shower’. Greenson was naturally desperate to keep his outburst a secret. He knew that, should news of it leak out, his career as one of the country’s finest psychoanalysts would be well and truly over.

Ominously, however, his reappearance in the actress’s life seemed to have the desired effect. Less than 20 hours after his return, he intimidated the actress into ringing Fox herself. At 8am on Friday 8 June, Monroe (completely unaware of the plans to replace her) called Weinstein and excitedly announced she was ‘ready and eager to go back to work’, reiterating both Newcomb and Greenson’s promise that she would be ‘back on the set first thing on Monday morning’. Unfortunately, the declaration failed to appease the producer, who flipped uncontrollably when he heard the news. ‘She is
not
ill,’ he exasperatedly announced in a private call to the always-listening Hollywood gossip columnist, Hedda Hopper. ‘I have no official notification of illness. All I have is that she’s coming but she
never
does.’

Monroe’s no-show on Friday, despite the fact that the movie was now 16 days behind schedule and almost $2 million in debt, meant that the totally innocent, hardworking crew on
Something’s Got To Give
had lost another week’s salary. That was what really angered Weinstein. The
Los Angeles Herald Examiner
concurred. ‘Marilyn Monroe’s wilful irresponsibility,’ they wrote, ‘has taken the bread right out of the mouths of men who depend on this film to feed their families.’ Oblivious to the ensuing troubles, that afternoon Marilyn dashed to the nearby Vicente Pharmacy at 12025 San Vicente Boulevard, where, with lack of sleep and her facial bruises still causing her immense distress, she purchased a sleep shade and an ice bag.

Across Los Angeles, the actress’s troubles were about to escalate further. Fox’s vice-president, Peter Levathes, had arrived back at the studio. Seeing severance with a troublesome player as the most obvious way to solve the company’s unending problems, when he was informed of the actress’s obstructive tactics on
Something’s Got To Give
, he became agitated and, after discussing the matter with studio board member Milton S. Gould, immediately instructed the studio’s manager, Phil Feldman, to concede defeat and cancel her contract. At 3pm, Marilyn was officially sacked. At 3.45pm, Feldman called Rudin at his office and informed him of their decision, adding that Marilyn was in breach of contract and that they would be pursuing the matter in that regard. Rudin fought back, reiterating that his client
was
unwell and would be ‘fit to return on Monday morning’. His claims fell on deaf ears.

Immediately after finishing the call, Feldman advised the studio’s legal department to press ahead with a Superior Court ‘damage’ suit against the actress and announced he was not going to waste any more of 20th Century-Fox’s money on ‘uncertainties’. Despite solid promises from Greenson, Newcomb, Marilyn and now Rudin that she would be ‘fit and ready’ in three days’ time, it was too late. Levathes, Cukor and Weinstein had reached the end of their tether and were united in their opinion that Marilyn Monroe, one of the world’s most celebrated movie stars, must go.

A statement to that effect was hastily prepared and released. It read:

Marilyn Monroe has been removed from the cast of
Something’s Got To Give
. This action was made necessary because of Miss Monroe’s repeated breaches of her contract. No justification was given by Miss Monroe for her failure to report for photography on many occasions. The studio has suffered losses through these absences and the 20th Century-Fox Film Company will take legal action against Miss Monroe.

A $500,000 lawsuit was registered by the studio at the Los Angeles
Superior Court with just two minutes to spare before filings were due to close for the evening. Studio attorney Jesse R. O’Malhey had signed the action on Fox’s behalf. Speaking on the day of the lawsuit, he stated that ‘Marilyn Monroe had signed a “Four-pix pact” on December 31, 1955 for $100,000 per picture and received $142,000 on the execution of the agreement. She had completed two pictures (for Fox) up to January 16, 1961 and since April 16, 1961 (
sic
) has refused and neglected to render her services under her contract. Fox at all times performed all conditions of the agreement and has been damaged to the tune of $500,000.’ The time difference between the actresses’s sacking and the registering of the lawsuit was just three hours.

‘No one was more surprised than I when I heard on Friday night that I was fired,’ Marilyn remarked to James Bacon. ‘How could they expect me to work when I was sick?’ When
The New York Post
asked him for a quote about her axing, Dean Martin remarked, ‘Gee, that’s a shame. I’m really sorry. If they’d kept Marilyn in the cast, I think it would have made a very fine picture. But she was too sick to go ahead with it. So that’s it.’

News that the actress had been handed her pink slip soon reached Spyros Skouras, who was still recuperating in his bed at St Luke’s Hospital. Immediately, he called Levathes and attempted to dissuade him from carrying out his actions. But it was far too late, and Skouras was too weak to engage in any such negotiations.

Henry Weinstein naturally moved quickly to uphold the studio’s action against Monroe, remarking in a statement, ‘She has completely flouted professional discipline and is responsible for putting 104 crew members out of work. And when she
did
turn up for work, the most she could deliver was a page and a half of script a day compared with three or four pages from the other actors. Yet she was fit enough to jet off to New York to sing “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy and fit enough to go to a baseball game.’

Meanwhile, in an interview with
Variety
, Peter Levathes announced that he had been warned before shooting commenced that Marilyn would ‘cut a caper or two’ and he’d be sorry. ‘She convinced me that she would come through like a sound trooper and that I had nothing to fear,’ he dejectedly remarked. His comment came at a time when the price of Fox’s stock had dipped from $39 to $20 and their great rivals, United Artists, were expected to announce, at their annual general meeting on Tuesday 12 June, an
increase
in earnings for the first quarter of the year. It was a dire time for Fox.

When the announcement of Marilyn’s sacking reached the news wires, a pack of information-hungry, bloodthirsty journalists unsurprisingly descended upon the studio gates, desperate to get their hands on the latest news. Keen to offer his take on the matter, a front office spokesman was
heard to remark, ‘It’s sad. But no one studio these days can afford to have Liz Taylor and Marilyn Monroe working at the same time, especially a studio that lost $25 (
sic
) million last year.’ Fox’s forthright spokesperson continued, ‘Marilyn claims she couldn’t work because she was sick. I actually believe she
is
sick. It’s all in her mind, of course, and maybe her mental condition makes her physically ill. I don’t think she can control herself. She wants to work, wants to be a great actress and
is
a great star. But whatever her ailment is, it just won’t let her work.’

However, possibly the most poignant remark about the actress came from an unnamed source at Fox. In an interview with Hedda Hopper for her weekly ‘Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood’ column, the source, described as ‘one of the most knowledgeable men in the industry’, remarked, ‘I believe it is the end of her [Marilyn’s] career. She wants to do the picture but she has no control of herself. Her performance is not good. It’s as though she’s acting underwater. And she’s intelligent enough to realise this.’

Hopper herself even joined in the onslaughts, theorising forlornly:

Marilyn Monroe is at the end of the road. As a movie star who could write her own ticket and command fantastic salaries, she has had it . . . Marilyn, I feel, is mentally or emotionally disturbed and I feel desperately sorry for her. But there was ruthlessness about her behaviour in the last months that it is impossible to forgive . . . At 34, she had not only failed at marriage she had lost the Hollywood people who helped her. [Director] Billy Wilder vowed he never would work with her again [and] Orry-Kelly, the designer who fashioned her wardrobe swore he would never do another thing for her. She ripped the lining out of his gowns so they would cling closer to her body.

Her tirade raged on (although her final comment, as we know from the surviving footage, is completely unwarranted):

Her fans deserted her.
The Misfits
lost money . . . I don’t think
Let’s Make Love
ever earned back the cost of the negatives. Marilyn even lost Yves Montand, who was her romantic interest after the Miller divorce . . . I think Marilyn fell for him pretty hard. But she was in the hospital for a week and he wouldn’t even talk to her on the phone . . . On the few days she showed up for work in
Something’s Got To Give
her performance was bad. She behaved as if she was in a trance.

Attacks from Monroe’s contemporaries were commonplace. ‘I was proud to be part of this industry when Marilyn was fired,’ declared actress Joan Crawford, a self-confessed Monroe hater. ‘I don’t think she has a
friend. She hasn’t taken time to make a friend in this industry. And many people have tried to befriend her.’ Surprisingly, even Billy Wilder, one of the actress’s few true supporters in the industry, joined in the onslaught. Early that month, he was quoted as saying, ‘The question really is, whether Marilyn is a person or one of the greatest synthetic products ever invented. She has breasts like granite and a brain like Swiss cheese, full of holes. She defies gravity. She hasn’t the vaguest idea of time. She arrives late and tells you she couldn’t find the studio, although she’s been working there for years.’

While the American press, her enemies and her so-called best friends were continuing their diatribe against the actress, 20th Century-Fox unsurprisingly became defiant that Marilyn’s firing did not mean the end of
Something’s Got To Give
. On the afternoon of Friday 8 June, while the lawsuit against Monroe was being prepared and filed, 26-year-old blonde thespian Lee Remick was hastily approached by Fox executives to be the movie’s new leading lady. First Kim Novak and then Shirley MacLaine had already been briefly considered but since Remick still owed the studio two more movies and shared her predecessor’s dress size, she was the obvious choice.

Just hours after Marilyn’s sacking, Remick was whisked to the Fox lot and pinned into several of the actress’s costumes so that the studio could take pictures of her smiling and reading a copy of the movie’s script alongside George Cukor. Plans for her to recreate Marilyn’s famous naked swim were apparently even discussed. In an interview with
New York Post
reporter Don Forst, Henry Weinstein announced, ‘I expect her to duplicate the nude bathing scene. I expect her to follow the script and, where it calls for that scene, she will be asked to fulfil the role.’

In 1982, however, the actress revealed that, in fact, her tenure on the film had been just ‘20 minutes’, adding, ‘I certainly wasn’t interested in it. Marilyn and I were as different as two actresses can be. But the studio told me, “We have a contract with you, and we want you to fulfil your obligation.”’ True, she did have a commitment to Fox, but in reality, it was highly unlikely that the studio would ever hire her to fill Monroe’s shoes. Fox were well aware that, several weeks before the actress was approached, she had signed with Columbia Pictures to make the suspense drama
The Running Man
for director Sir Carol Reed in Spain and Ireland. Although the film was not set to start rolling until July, Remick didn’t pull out. She had guessed all along that she would never make
Something’s Got To Give
and only agreed to do the film if they agreed to pay her $80,000 whether it was made or not.

‘No star is bigger than the studio,’ 20th Century-Fox proudly announced at the time of Marilyn’s sacking. But the truth was that, in June 1962, the ailing, cash-starved studio was in a bind. They knew in their
heart of hearts that she was irreplaceable. (For the record,
Something’s Got To Give
would resurface in December 1962 as
Move Over, Darling
, starring Doris Day and, ironically, James Garner.)