Meeting Marilyn...

Do you ever wonder what it would have been like to have met Marilyn? Even if it had been just a passing glance? I wonder this all the time! I've been lucky enough to speak to a few people that did actually meet her or catch a glimpse of her in real life  - one of those people emailed me recently and it was such a lovely story that I asked him if I could share it on Loving Marilyn and he kindly agreed.

This is Jim's story...

"I did meet Marilyn many years ago. I was 12 or 13, this was around 1959 or 1960. School was out and I was home for the summer. My dad came home and said "Guess whose apartment I'm painting tomorrow?". This was in NYC, and it was around the time Some Like it Hot was in the theaters, she was constantly in the magazines.   

He had painted the apartments of Patrice Munsel (an opera singer who also had a variety show on TV), and the apartments of Zacherly (the host of a local NYC area Saturday afternoon Monster movie show), and the apartment of William Bendix, an actor who was in the movie 'Lifeboat' with Tallulah Bankhead.   

My mom, immediately told him that I should come along (probably because she thought Marilyn would 'make a move' on the house painter). So the next day I went with my dad.  Back then, walls were painted with enamel paints which smelled, so all windows had to be opened, and we spread heavy canvas drop cloths over everything. I did NONE of the painting, he was a perfectionist, NO rollers! it all had to be painted by brush! 

At that time, the only way I knew of movie stars, was thru magazines like Photoplay or Life, newspaper stories, or sometimes on the news. I had never seen her in a movie, and there were no computers at that time.  What I knew of Marilyn, was big shiny lips, tight sparkly dresses, a fur stole and a wiggle. That was how she looked in every magazine, therefore, in my mind, that was how she looked ALL the time. That would be how she looked when she woke up. Movie stars don't have to comb their hair... its perfect all the time... that's why they're movie stars.  

The night before, I imagined what going there would be like. The apartment would be all marble columns and gold furniture, crystal chandeliers, Marilyn reclining on a sofa, dressed in furs and diamonds, with maids, feeding her the most expensive chocolates. I truly believed this. I really did. 

I also thought maybe she would have an exotic pet, maybe a leopard or a cheetah on a diamond leash. 

When we got to the apartment the next morning, some lady let us in, not Marilyn. It was not the gold and marble palace I had imagined, just a regular apartment. All morning long people came and went, phones rang, but no Marilyn. It was very hot and we had the living room windows open. I spent some time spitting out the window and watching it fall all the way to the sidewalk. I was SURE my dad had made a mistake, this had to be someone else's place. It was too normal, too ordinary. 

Sometime in the afternoon a girl walked from a room in the back, thru the living room. My dad said "That's her! That's her! Go talk to her!" I could not believe that the girl was Marilyn. No gold gown, no fur, no shiny lips, no wiggle.

I went into the kitchen where she was. She  asked if I wanted a Coke, I said OK, and she gave me one. I said "Thanks", and she said "You're welcome" and I turned and walked out, I couldn't think of anything else to say. I still could not believe it was her, a pretty girl, yes, but not the glossy Marilyn I expected. She had bobby pins in her hair. Lots of them. No glossy red lips. I had also somehow expected her to be very tall, but she wasn't.  

That was all I saw of her, she disappeared back into those rooms and didn't come out anymore. I wish there was more to the story, I wish I had talked to her more, but I didn't, and cant do anything about it now, that's just the way it happened. 

Many years later, while walking in midtown Manhattan, I saw where they were having the Christies auction. They were having a preview of her stuff, and you could go in and look, for free, so I went. I saw some furniture that I remembered, especially a large glass clock. I remember my dad taking it down and carefully wrapping it in drop cloths. It was pretty big for a clock. 

I kept that empty Coke bottle she gave me for many years, and eventually it ended up on a shelf in my garage, until one day it was gone. My son had taken it to the park to shoot bottle rockets out of, and left it there. He didn't know its history, or that it meant anything to me."

Did you meet Marilyn? Even if you didn't have the opportunity to speak to her it would be lovely to hear from you!

Please email me at shar@lovingmarilyn.com if you have memories of Marilyn that you'd like to share!