Norma Jeane Becomes Her Dreams (excerpts)

Among other things each of the five excerpts below contains at least one example of how chance events in the interpersonal, institutional, or societal worlds around Norma Jeane/Marilyn gave her access to essential developmental opportunities just exactly when she needed them - chance opportunities which were critical in accelerating her development on the road to stardom.

"...Some people say that If Marilyn Monroe “hadn’t existed, the ‘50s would have had to invent her”. Marilyn’s mother obviously wasn’t one of them. In fact by the spring of 1926, Gladys Monroe Baker Mortensen was already taking definite steps to ensure that wouldn’t be necessary. Well separated from her 2nd husband and deep into the Jazz Age - a flapper “doing lots of fast living” - the 23 year old Hollywood film splicer suddenly found herself pregnant. With Stanley Gifford, Hal Rooney, Clayton MacNamara, Ray Guthrie and any other likely candidates all keeping a safe distance, Gladys’ mother, Della, hit upon a solution that encumbered no one. On June 13, 1926, 13 day old Norma Jeane Mortensen got her 1st big break on the road to stardom - her mother “dropped her off” just across the street from Della’s; dropped her off at Ida and Albert Wayne Bolender’s; dropped her off for 7 & 1/2 years of foster care.

Norma Jeane didn’t need any hunger or poverty or abuse from the Bolenders. That wasn’t necessary to become Marilyn. What Norma Jeane needed was 7 & 1/2 years without a mother or father; 7 & 1/2 years watching other kids come and go - 2,3,4. . . 8, 10, 12. . . and more - arriving like her, then growing and leaving - other kids with parents, with “someone to call mother and father”. What Norma Jeane needed was 7 & 1/2 years with only Ida and Albert - Ida who did her diapers and her meals, who ran up little blouses on her Singer, who marched her off to Sunday school - plain spoken, decent, God-fearing Ida - day after day after week after year - who was always there, but was “Not her mother “. Ida and Albert Wayne who had to be her daddy; who was ever shaving all the creamy off his face and forever answering her questions about God, and where He lived, and all the people in the world. Albert Wayne who had to be her daddy; had to be, but wasn’t..." continues in Arrival.

"... By 7 & 1/2 Norma Jeane needed something the Bolenders could never hope to give her. She needed to stretch that doubt, that hunger for love; she needed to pump them up into a way of living, a way of being, practically a philosophy. She needed a world where a little girl’s always last in line and first to get dumped, where she could never think of herself as much. A world where nothing’s real and nothing lasts, where everyone “lies about everything from soup to Santa Claus”, where noone’s ever what they claim to be. She needed a world just like Hollywood, a world of fantasy, where love’s just a song in your head, just golden greens & blues, and lavender, scarlet, shining white & bright, just colors flickering across a screen. Where a little girl’s only hope, only chance, is to play the waif, the stray, the little lost kitten - to play them for every scrap of her dreams.

What Norma Jeane needed was a world where the woman who sewed and wiped and fed and clothed her for week after week after month after year was just her aunt, and the shadowy, red haired woman who was never there, who never seemed to care, was her mother; a world where she was marched off to the pews by day and night, to the United Pentecostal Church, to promise and pray to God and Baby Jesus and Sister Aimee not to drink or smoke or buy or sell, or alcohol or tobacco; where next thing you know she’s at the picture show, and there’s no more tidy Ida, Baby Jesus or Albert Wayne; no more Holy Writs and rules, just cigarettes and beer and sweet lotions, just caps popping and tall beakers flowing; where her real mother, the red haired woman, is rolling the rug and dancing the jitterbug, cutting the cards and dealing.

What Norma Jeane needed was a world where all her singing and praying and testifying to God and Baby Jesus could fade right into the Pantages and Grauman’s Chinese, into sitting all day and half the night watching Mae West sparkling and Claudette bathing nude, watching Raquel Torres vamping Groucho right through the Duck Soup; into watching that platinum, glimmering, electric blonde simmering; watching Jean Harlow kissing, forgetting all about Ida & Albert Wayne and the holy Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission. What this little 7 & 1/2 year old needed was for her scrubbed & soaked & early to bed so tidy to slip right into chipped beef & melted cheese & hash on toast, into partying day & nightly with her new Aunt Grace, with the live in English couple and their daughter; into partying with all her new aunts and actors, stand ins, friends & splicers; into partying right there in Norma Jeane’s very own, brand new home, the one that belonged to her red haired mother.

What Norma Jeane needed was a life that flickered across the screen, like a fantasy, a nightmare, an endless dream; like the summer that faded to fall and winter; to Gladys, shrieking, laughing, stalking the hall; to Norma Jeane, front row center. To pills and prescriptions and doctors coming in; to Aunt Grace saying “not to worry”, “nothing’s wrong” to her little lost kitten.

A life that flickered across the screen, Fred & Ginger & Norma Jeane; dancing & singing, front row center. Gladys “insane” and picking at her plate and Grace chattering, right through Sunday dinner: “Norma Jeane’s doing just fine at school. Look at her pink ribbons. Now, Norma Jeane, show mother your little curls...." continues in Arrival

"...And so by the fall of ‘38 the lanky little 12 year old was set. Shy, withdrawn and filled with her constant doubt, Norma Jeane was once again the new girl in town. With little schooling, few friends and even fewer clothes, living out in West LA, on the wrong side of the tracks, with all the Okies and Mexicans and yet another aunt, Norma Jeane was set. She had her hunger - her desperate hunger for love - and she knew all about chasing her fantasies - how to smile and purr and play the little lost stray. And she knew all about ribbons and powder, rouge and tints and curls - all about what lipstick and mascara can do for a girl. By the fall of ‘38, the lanky little 12 year old was set. She just didn’t quite have all the tools yet.

With no phone, few friends, and no room to invite them in, after school was mostly just humming and dreaming, sunrise & sunset, Glenn Miller & his orchestra; Norma Jeane, “the string bean”, walking home. 12 to 13, day after day after week, walking to school, lanky and shy, new girl in town, first year at Emerson Junior High, pretty much walking and dreaming and humming alone.

But not for long. Before the year was out Norma Jeane had plenty of friends - horns honking, men waving, whistling; boys fighting to walk her home. Plenty of friends because by the fall of ‘39 Norma Jeane had “suddenly grown two heads”; plenty of friends because she knew exactly how to use them. Plenty of friends because by the fall of ‘39 Norma Jeane had all the tools she needed.

With Aunt Ana childless, vulnerable and on her own at 58, Norma Jeane got nothing but “kindness and love” whenever the teacher sent her home, sent her home to clean up her act, to take off her tight boys pants. Nothing but kindness as she poured herself back into the few clothes she had, back into her faded blue dress, with Ana’s hugs and caress, back into her tight, undersized dress with no bra and no underblouse. Nothing but kindness as she poured herself back, touched up her lipstick, and torched the math class. ... continues in Arrival

"... 15 and Norma Jeane was ready to move on. She knew all the dances, even the New Yorker; she didn’t need any more high school classes, kisses, or Coca-Cola. Norma Jeane was ready to graduate to the next level. What she needed was a nice, safe apprenticeship in the real thing - turning the hearts and heads of real men - what she needed was a nice, safe intro into using her body for the first time in bed. What Norma Jeane needed was an older, dependable, 21 year old protector - the kind of guy who’d give up a college football scholarship because his mom needed the extra money he could pull down working the swing shift; the kind of guy who’d play his guitar and listen, listen to Norma Jeane, soft and sweet and singing right along with him; the kind of “handsome, dreamboat of a Clark Gable” Norma Jeane couldn’t help but fancy. The kind of guy Grace needed to take over when she went East with Doc; the kind of guy she she could easily maneuver into those warm, shy, hungry arms - to stroll, chat, waltz and hold her - from the Christmas dance to the boat rides and hikes and picnic lunches Grace always packed; the kind of guy Grace could maneuver right up to the altar.

What Norma Jeane needed was a young merchant marine for a husband, a marine instructor based way out on Catalina Island, a marine whose job left her alone for days, weeks, months on the beach; alone in her shy smiles and “skimpy bathing suits”, just walking her dog and heating up the troops; alone for months of strolling and turning and glowing and strolling again, for months of “Gee fellas, can’t a girl get a tan?”.

Alone for months of specialist training at her own little boot camp way out on Catalina Island - months of seeing and feeling and tasting her power to move men, 1000s of men; of seeing it, feeling it, tasting it safely, ever so safely, as the untouchable, newly married bride of a young marine. What Norma Jeane needed was her perfect apprenticeship, as the untouchable Mrs James Dougherty.

And beyond that what she needed was an entree into the movie industry, an entree she was never gonna find in the dope room at Radioplane - working 10 hour days on the varnish spray - an entree Norma Jeane would have dumped altogether if she’d gotten her way - desperately “begging to have a baby” when Jimmie went overseas. An entree that fell in her lap, straight out of the blue, when the army’s shutterbugs marched in one day in the fall of ‘44 for a patriotic shoot - marched in and found “a photographer’s dream” right there on the assembly line, just smiling and folding the chutes...." continues in Arrival.

"...A year later and Marilyn was still cycling to the studio, to dancing & singing & acting lessons, still stealing scripts and sneaking home to practice them, still haunting wardrobe and makeup and publicity in her tight sweaters and eager smiles, still posing in negligees and bikinis, pestering anyone who could help her - asking about fabrics and foundations and period costumes, about lighting and camera motion and makeup, about toning, outlining, eyeshadowing for color, for black ‘n white.

A year later and Marilyn was still eager, still hungry, still desperate to learn, to change, to become her new name, still asking, “How do you become a star?”

A year later and Marilyn was still a walkon in Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay, a 14th credit in Dangerous Years; still invisible at the bottom of Zanuck’s photo pile, still a “no call”, going nowhere.

A year later and Marilyn was doing her last photocall for Fox - just another starlet posing for the cameras, caddying a 2nd string lead man round the Cheviot Hills golf course. Caddying a tall, handsome, a gentle, a decent man . . ."continues in Arrival

Information and quotes re Norma Jeane/Marilyn in above come primarily from Spoto (1993), Guiles (1992), Monroe (1976), Rollyson (1986), Summers (1990), Clarke (1989), and Dyer (1993).

re theoretical discussion of the critical role of chance events in accelerating NJ/Marilyn's development in each of the above excerpts, see Chaotic Matching/ Spwins.

Notes in Arrival relevant to the first excerpt above ("...Some people say.. to .. had to be, but wasn't") consider how the interpersonal quality of NJ’s 7 1/2 years with the Bolenders had many of the characteristics described in research on maternal deprivation, institutional care, and childhood antecedents of borderline personality [minus the physical and sexual abuse, with reference to eg, Herman et al (1989); Ogata et al (1990); Zanarini et al (1997), Rutter (1979); Tizard & Rees (1975); Gunderson & Englund (1981); Zanarini et al (1989), etc.

Notes in Arrival relevant to the second excerpt above ("By 7 & 1/2 Norma Jeanne... to.. show mother your little curls") consider various factors which would have contributed to Norma Jeane’s sense of being vulnerable, out of control, “last in line/ first to get dumped”, and learning to cope by playing the “waif”/ ”little lost kitten”, with reference to eg, Conger et al (1993); Hodges & Tizard (1989); Tizard & Hodges (1978); Zanarini et al (1989); Brown & Finkelhor (1986); Harter (1978); Golombok & Fivush, 1994, pp18-32. etc.

Notes in Arrival relevant to the third excerpt above ("And so by the fall of ‘38 ... to ... torched the math class") consider how early maturation played a crucial role in Norma Jeane/Marilyn’s development by making her immensely popular with older males and focussing her self definition around her body image and relationships with the opposite sex; on how instead of experiencing rejection by her peers for being different, early maturation transformed Norma Jeane from an outsider/ loner into a magnet for male attention (attention she had been craving for years). Instead of pressurizing her to engage in behaviors well beyond her experience, early maturation gave Norma Jeane the perfect outlet for her years of training with makeup/ self-display in the safe, stable, conservative school environment of pre-War L.A.. this is discussed with reference to eg, Durkin (1996); Silbereisen et al (1989); Simmons & Blyth (1987); Graver et al (1997); Caspi et al (1993); etc

The crucial role of Aunt Ana in providing “psychological safety/ freedom” to facilitate Norma Jeane learning/ risking her creative self-display, and essential parental “collusion” in undercutting the objections of school authorities; and in the process cushioning Norma Jeane against overinvolvement with deviant peers, is also discussed with reference to eg, Rogers (1969); Palazzoli et al (1978); Caspi & Moffitt(1991); Silbereisen (1989), etc.

Notes in Arrival relevant to the fourth excerpt above ("15 and Norma Jeane was ready..to .. and folding the chutes") consider Norma Jeane’s involvement with an older male (Jim D) and the expectations that she could somehow adjust to marriage at 16, with reference to Caspi & Moffitt (1991); Simmons & Blyth (1987); etc. and how Jim D's insistence that Norma Jeane not get pregnant when he went overseas was of course crucial to NJ/Marilyn’s future with reference to the effects of War mobilization on delayed entry into family roles, eg, Elder (1987).

all of the above references are available in Arrival. see Sources.