The Final Years of Marilyn Monroe: The Shocking True Story (63 page)

This quality was even more evident when she was in the stage. I am truly sorry that the public who loved her did not have the opportunity to see her as we did, in many of the roles that foreshadowed what she would have become. Without a doubt she would have been one of the really great actresses of the stage.

Now it is at an end. I hope her death will stir sympathy and understanding for a sensitive artist and a woman who brought joy and pleasure to the world. I cannot say goodbye. Marilyn never liked goodbyes, but in the peculiar way she had of turning things around so that they faced reality, I will say au revoir. For the country to which she has gone, we must all some day visit.

Throughout the subdued 23-minute service, Marilyn’s body lay in a partially opened, bronze-carved, $800 casket lined with champagne-coloured satin. In her hands was a posy of baby pink tea-cup roses, a gift from DiMaggio, who sat with his son Joe Jr near the front of the chapel.

‘I have never seen Marilyn look more beautiful, like a small child,’ remarked Don Prince, an operative at 20th Century-Fox, who had been employed to help with the arrangements. ‘At the funeral, I was heartbroken,’ Sydney Guilaroff admitted. ‘Her sister came up to me and said, “Don’t cry, she’s better off where she is.” I looked up and thought, “That’s true.” Marilyn
was
at last at peace.’

In total, there were 23 invited guests, although 31 were in the chapel during the service. In addition to the aforementioned DiMaggio, Miracle, Melson, Guilaroff, Snyder and Lee Strasberg, the others present included Pat Newcomb, Eunice Murray, Dr Ralph Greenson, his wife Hildi and two children, Dan and Joan, Lee’s wife Paula, Inez’s husband Pat, Joe’s son Joe Jr and close friend George Solotaire, and Snyder’s wife, Beverly and daughter, Sherry.

Friends from Marilyn’s near and distant past included Aaron Frosch and Milton Rudin, personal secretary May Reis, acting coach Lotte Goslar, former foster parents Enid and Sam Kindelcamps, friends Anne and Mary Karger, chauffeur Rudy Kadensky, hair stylists Agnes Flanagan and Pearl Porterfield, long-time friend, confidant and masseur Ralph Roberts, personal maid Florence Thomas and a neighbour of hers from New York, Richard Diebald. Walter Winchell, a close pal of DiMaggio, was the only newspaper reporter permitted into the chapel. For the most part, it was a day rich in respect. As author George Miller remarked, ‘It was a lesson in dignity Hollywood had needed for many years.’

At Joe’s request, Allan Abbott was positioned at the chantry’s door to check names against the list of invitees and to hand out the special memorial programme. Controversially, following DiMaggio’s strictest instructions, not one of Monroe’s Hollywood friends was on this inventory, even though many flew in to Los Angeles especially. Dean Martin was one. Marilyn’s co-star on
Something’s Got To Give
was on holiday with his family at the Alisal Dude Ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley, near Santa Barbara, when he heard that the actress had died. Upon hearing the news, he immediately cut short the vacation and drove the 150 miles back to Los Angeles just to attend her funeral. But his plans were in vain. He was not permitted to come.

Another such individual was Pat Lawford. She was ‘shocked’ to discover that she had been barred from attending, as was her husband Peter. At his Santa Monica beach house that day, Lawford told newsmen, ‘Pat flew in on Monday night from Hyannis Port where she had been vacationing with
the kids, just to attend Marilyn’s funeral. But we were not invited. I don’t know who’s responsible. But the whole thing is badly handled.’ He concluded, ‘Marilyn had lots of good friends here in town that will miss her terribly and would love to have attended her final rites.’

On the day of the service, Sergeant Robert Byron of the Los Angeles Police Department attempted to contact the actor, but was told by his secretary that he was ‘not available for an interview’ and had ‘taken an airplane’ to an unknown destination. Lawford’s aide added that she did not ‘expect to hear from him’ and would put out a request for him to ‘request the department at his earliest convenience.’ In fact, at 1pm, shortly after speaking to the reporters, he had caught a flight to join the rest of the Kennedys at their compound in Hyannis Port. He would manage to evade speaking to the authorities about Marilyn’s death for a further 13 years. Frank Sinatra was naturally aghast at the rejection. Through his office, he issued the following brief statement, although his name did not appear on it: ‘Some of the people who are at the funeral
barely knew
[emphasis added] Marilyn. Her half-sister, who apparently is in charge of inviting or barring guests, only met Marilyn
once
in her whole lifetime last summer.’ The actress’s long-standing publicist, Arthur Jacobs, was quick to side with the singer. In a short statement released on the day of the burial, he remarked, ‘About half the people in there [the service], wouldn’t even be there if Marilyn had anything to do with the invitations. A lot more of her friends
would
be there.’

DiMaggio ran the funeral with an iron fist. Among the other celebrities excluded were Sammy Davis Jr, Gene Kelly and the Mirisch brothers (the producers of
Some Like It Hot
). The repercussions spread far and wide. A day before the funeral,
The New York Post
quoted Milton Rudin as telling DiMaggio, ‘You are keeping out Marilyn’s close friends.’ To which he apparently replied, ‘If it hadn’t been for some of her friends, she wouldn’t be where she is.’ Even a request by Lawford for those barred from the service to attend a special midnight organ tribute for Marilyn was rejected. DiMaggio’s close friend, reporter Walter Winchell, was asked why the baseball legend had barred Tinseltown from the simple service. ‘Would you invite your wife’s murderer to her funeral?’ he retorted.

Furthermore, DiMaggio was determined to avoid the Hollywood flamboyance which had ruined many film-star funerals in the past. Just prior to the service, a spokesman forlornly explained, ‘I think it’s a shame that Marilyn’s friends could not be there to pay their final respects. If we allow the Lawfords in, then we’d have to allow half of the big stars in Hollywood. Then the whole thing would turn into a circus.’ As Donald Stewart, a columnist for
Uncensored
magazine, wrote, ‘The cause [of Marilyn’s death] was listed as an overdose of sleeping pills, but the real
killer was Hollywood. Joe DiMaggio knew this. That was why he refused to turn the funeral into a circus. Not a single movie star or executive was allowed to attend the last rites for America’s Golden Girl.’

Meanwhile, in a joint statement issued on the day of the funeral, DiMaggio, Miracle and Melson announced, ‘We could not in conscience ask one personality to attend without perhaps offending many, many others and for this reason alone, we have kept the number of persons to a minimum. Please, all of you remember the gay [happy], sweet Marilyn and say a prayer of farewell within the confines of your home or your church.’

Guy R. Hockett, the managing director of the Westwood Village Memorial Park, was quick to point out that their decision to keep the number count low was actually down to the ‘space limitations’. But in truth, despite the forceful protestations from Marilyn’s Milton Rudin, DiMaggio did not want Marilyn’s Hollywood acquaintances there. He had blamed them for her death and he was not ready to forgive. As the actress’s New York publicist John Springer revealed, the names of Lawford, Sinatra and Dean Martin had been included in the original inventory of invitees, but when DiMaggio saw it, he became angry and began furiously crossing them off, one by one. Speaking in 1998, Springer said, ‘He looked at the list and said, “No, no, no, no, no, they’re the people that killed her.” I have
never
seen a man so grief-stricken.’

Neither of Marilyn’s other husbands were present. Arthur Miller was perhaps the more surprising absentee. When a reporter called asking whether he would be attending, he immediately snapped back, ‘She won’t be there,’ and hung up the phone. He admitted he had answered without thinking. But in truth, he was never going to go. As Miller remarked in his 1987 autobiography,
Timebends
, ‘The very idea of a funeral was outlandish . . . to join what I knew would be a circus of cameras and shouts and luridness was beyond my strength . . . and to me it was meaningless to stand for photographs at a stone.’

After the service, and just at the point when they were preparing to escort Marilyn’s body to her crypt, DiMaggio had a sudden desire to see his former wife just one more time. As they opened her coffin, a gust of wind blew some of Marilyn’s wig hair out of the casket. People watching nearby gasped in shock. It appeared as though she was rising up out of the coffin. Just before the casket was closed for the very last time, DiMaggio leant over, kissed his former wife on the forehead and whispered, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.’ It was out of character for such a reticent man, but perhaps that made it all the more sincere. Her casket was then hermetically sealed. DiMaggio strode out of the chapel and with grief continuing to engulf him, was seen with his head in his hands, furtively wiping tears from his eyes.

Dutifully followed by DiMaggio, his son, who was dressed in his Marine Corps uniform, and the other mourners, the hearse was driven 125 yards and, once a blanket of carnations had been removed, the coffin was slid into a crypt in a pink marble hall at Westwood’s ‘Corridor of Memories’. Marilyn’s final resting place was near the grave of Grace Goddard, formerly McKee, the woman who had befriended her early in her life. Touchingly, Marilyn had taken care of Grace’s burial arrangements nine years earlier. In front of the actress’s crypt was a plain marble slab, which simply read: ‘Marilyn Monroe 1926–1962’. The actress was finally at peace.

Following orders from Chief Bill Parker, more than 50 Los Angeles police officers were in attendance to watch over the proceedings and keep out the uninvited. Forty security guards, hired especially by 20th Century-Fox, assisted them. The funeral director, Allan Abbott, ordered six more. At a cost of $578.25, charged to Marilyn’s estate, they were hired from the privately run guard and detective organisation, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Their directive from DiMaggio was simple: stop anyone not invited by him or Berniece Miracle from entering the cemetery at any time during the service.

Barriers were set up outside the north wall of the cemetery to accommodate the 100 members of the press, while snappers not allowed to enter positioned themselves high above, atop the nearby Kirkeby Building.
Life
magazine’s Leigh Weiner and the world-renowned freelance snapper Gene Anthony were the only two photographers permitted to stroll freely during the proceedings that day, although film-maker David L. Wolper was present to capture a celluloid record of the event. (Short clips would appear in his 1964 movie,
Legend Of Marilyn Monroe
.) Going through the large number of photos taken by Weiner, it’s interesting to note that Joe’s apparent niece, June DiMaggio, was nowhere to be seen among the mourners. She has claimed on numerous occasions, most notably in
Playboy
magazine, that she was at the Westwood ceremony that day.

In death as in life, Marilyn managed to attract a huge throng of curious fans. By the time of the service, approximately a thousand of her worshippers had gathered on the streets and clambered on to walls surrounding Westwood Memorial Park; around one hundred, in order to get the best vantage point, had been clustered in position since midnight. (Originally, there had been more. The crowd thinned when they were informed by the police that there would be no public viewing of Marilyn’s body.)

Unfortunately, many of the remaining rubbernecks had clearly not dressed for such a sombre occasion. To accommodate the scorching 93-degree heat, many had arrived sporting abbreviated swim suits and
two-piece bikinis. The women in colourful Capris and brightly coloured sun dresses and men in summery sport shirts and swimming trunks stood in stark contrast to the cemetery’s decidedly solemn surroundings. Thankfully, to begin with, they were orderly, dignified and sentimental and observed the unfolding events in a respectful silence.

The service drew to a close and the mourners dutifully began to depart. Just as Eunice Murray was exiting the cemetery, a man called out to her. It was Bill Alexander, the owner of the Brentwood Country Mart store. When the actress was perusing the contents of his shop just seven days before, he had strolled up to her and heart-warmingly requested her hand in marriage. ‘Do you realise,’ Alexander told Murray, that’s it’s just a week ago to the hour that you and Miss Monroe were in my shop.’ Murray was shocked. As she remarked in
Marilyn: The Last Months
, ‘It was difficult to believe. The whole world had changed meanwhile.’

Regrettably, the bystanders’ discretion at the service did not last. Just minutes after the mausoleum housing Monroe’s body had been sealed and the mourners had slowly and silently departed, approximately 200 observers began streaming up the paths leading to the actress’s final resting place. Their harmonious walk soon turned into a discordant run. Their mission was clear. They wanted to snatch a souvenir from Marilyn’s crypt.

Once they reached it, they began pushing and shoving each other. Flowers were disrespectfully trampled as they ruthlessly fought over buds, ribbons and sprays sent by movie-industry people and close friends such as Arthur Miller, Frank Sinatra, Clinton Webb, Shelley Winters, Billy Wilder and Jack Benny. The damage did not end there. The cross of flowers purchased by Berniece Miracle and the huge heart of red roses, white carnations and orchids sent by Joe DiMaggio were also sent flying.

Due to the superb work of two burly security guards, the unruly individuals were prevented from getting near Marilyn’s vault. But pandemonium still raged. When one reserved, highly respectful onlooker vented her disgust at the theft of the actress’s flowers, a woman clutching a handful of blossoms snapped back, ‘Why shouldn’t I? It’s silly just to leave them here. They’d just die.’ ‘Of course they would,’ a second woman concurred, twirling a single red rose. It was a truly sad finale to a genuinely emotional day.