Marilyn Monroe- it’s a name that everyone knows. One of Hollywood’s most famous celebs of all time and a timeless beauty, Marilyn Monroe was loved and adored by fans during her time and still is today. However, her life wasn’t always glitz and glamor. Born as Norma Jean Baker in a small town to a single mother, her early childhood was rough. Taking care of Marilyn became too much for Gladys, a single mother with mental health issues, to handle, and she had a mental breakdown. She became institutionalized and Marilyn was sent to live in foster care. A she got older, Marily learned to fend for herself, eventually joining the army during World War II where she worked assembling drones. This was where she was discovered by a photographer and her whole life changed…
Going Under The Knife
Naturally, the world ached to know every little detail about Marilyn Monroe’s personal life – a craving that only grew after her untimely death. Still, Marilyn managed to keep some intimate details away from the public sphere.
Marilyn was no stranger to plastic surgery – she had a nose job as well as a chin implant to change her facial structure. Marilyn was actually brave in undergoing the knife, seeing as plastic surgery in the 50’s was no way near as advanced as it is today.
The Einstein Affair
Although Marilyn always portrayed a brainless, blonde bombshell in her films (a persona she hated), in reality she was in fact the opposite.
WSL – Spurs
It is reported that she had an IQ of 160+ – although there isn’t any proof that she had actually took the standardized IQ test. Still, that score is classified as a genius! There were also rumors of Monroe getting intimate with Einstein, although it is hard to tell if these rumors had any basis to them.
Working With Explosives
During the war, Marilyn worked in an explosives factory, and interestingly enough, these photos of her are what initially set her career in motion.
David Conover, an army photographer, was sent to her base to take pictures of Women in War Work. He moved down the assembly line taking shots of the most attractive employees when he came upon a girl putting on propellers. Loving Marilyn’s ‘plain Jane’ look so much, Conover sent her straight to Hollywood.
Nonstop Disappointment
Marilyn’s mother, Gladys, attempted at a normal life – trying to piece her life back together, her mother gathered what little money she had and bought a house just for the two of them.
Sadly, little Marilyn was just too much to handle and Gladys, having enough on her plate, felt overwhelmed as she tried to support and take care of both herself and her daughter. Unfortunately, a few months afterwards she had a mental breakdown and had to be institutionalized.
Her Own Words
Few know that Marilyn was a secret poet, mostly thanks to her many psychologists who pushed her to write down her deepest, darkest thoughts:
“I think I am very lonely—my mind jumps. I see myself in the mirror now, brow furrowed—if I lean close I’ll see—what I don’t want to know—tension, sadness, disappointment, my [“blue” is crossed out] eyes dulled, cheeks flushed with capillaries that look like rivers on maps—hair lying like snakes. The mouth makes me the sadd[est], next to my dead eyes…”
Way Ahead Of Her Time
The contouring queen may often be associated with reality stars of the Kardashian descent, but it was Marilyn who nailed the trick of using several shades to tone her face better.
To make her lips appear fuller, Monroe applied 5 different shades of lipsticks and gloss, thus creating dimension. Darker reds went on the outer corners, while lighter reds were brushed on the middle of the lips. This created a shadowy 3D effect giving the lips a plumper look.
Who Was She Really?
Monroe was so aware of her persona, her friends frequently commented on how different she acted when she wasn’t “in character.”
Author Truman Capote noted that he once found her gazing into a mirror and asked what she was doing, to which she replied, “Looking at her.” Monroe’s Misfits co-star Eli Wallach recalled walking around NYC with her, saying, “Nobody noticed who she was because she was just being herself — suddenly her walk, attitude and appearance would change and in moments everyone would be ogling her and asking for autographs.”
Evil Side
Few people know that rock musician Marilyn Manson derived his stage name from Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson. When asked for the reason behind those two particular names, Manson replied that it was in order to project a dichotomy between good and evil.
But oddly enough, in his autobiography, Manson smirked as he stated nobody ever suspects that the Monroe half might be just as dark as the Manson half. “Marilyn Monroe had a dark side, just as Charles Manson has a good, intelligent side,” he wrote.
Skinnier Than Most
Somehow the news have spread about Marilyn Monroe being a size 16, but Sara Buys, a fashion editor for The Times of London utterly dismissed that rumor, as she had the opportunity to try on articles of Monroe’s clothing.
“Quite the opposite,” wrote Buys. “While she was undeniably voluptuous — in possession of an ample bosom and a bottom that would look at home gyrating in a J-Lo video — for most of the early part of her career, she was a size 8 and even in her plumper stages, was no more than a 10.”
Still Successful Post Death
Forbes magazine ranked Marilyn Monroe as 2013’s sixth highest-earning dead celebrity, entering a very prestigious list after Michael Jackson, Elvis, Charles M. Schulz, Elizabeth Taylor and Bob Marley.
She was also named the new face of Chanel No. 5 in October of that same year, which should have occurred much sooner considering she was a volunteer advertiser for their perfume in her prime, as well. One of her most famous quotes was her answer to the question “what do you wear to bed?” – to which she replied, “my Chanel No.5.”
Threat To National Security
The FBI investigated Marilyn because they thought she was a communist sympathizer. They compiled a 34-page file monitoring the actress for ties to communism in the years before her death.
