My Week with Marilyn #6

MY  WEEK  WITH  MARILYN  #6

Sunday, 16 September

'Well well. Who's been a naughty boy, then?'

Next morning, at Runnymede House, Anne Bushell was positively flirtatious. 'Tony nearly had an apoplectic fit when he saw Marilyn in the back of Roger's car.'

'Me too.'

'Oh, so you didn't know she was going to be there? It wasn't all a cunning plot?'

'If it was, I wasn't in on it, I can assure you. It was just a sudden whim of Marilyn's. She wanted to escape that stuffy house, and all those people telling her what to do. She can be tremendous fun, you know.'

'I'll bet she can,' said Anne.

I ignored the innuendo.

'What did you two do together, exactly?'

'We went to Windsor Castle and met my godfather — he's the Royal Librarian. We had lunch at a tea shop and then we visited Eton College.'

'That all sounds very nice and cultural, but it doesn't quite explain your appearance when you got in last night.'

I had gone straight up to my room, but Anne always noticed everything.

'You looked as if you'd been swimming to me. Can Marilyn swim?'

'Well, er . . . yes, she can, actually, very well, and you see, it was so frightfully hot, so we went for a dip in the river at a little spot I knew from when I was a schoolboy.'

'Quite,' said Anne. 'I'd better not ask what you used for swimming costumes.'

I was temporarily saved from this line of questioning by the telephone ringing in the hall.

Predictably, it was Milton Greene. 'Hey, Colin, I wonder if I could drop over for a chat. Everything's fine. Don't worry, I'm not going to scold you. I just think we should talk — man to man.'

'Anne, is it all right if Milton comes over? ... OK, Milton,' I said wearily. 'Come over, but Anne's going to give us lunch at one o'clock, so you'll have to be gone by then.'

'Take him out into the garden,' said Anne after I'd hung up. 'Perhaps the English countryside will help him to calm down.'

Ten minutes later, Milton drove up.

'Let's walk down to the river's edge,' I said. 'This place is called Runnymede. Do you know why Runnymede is famous?'

'No,' said Milton.

'Runnymede is the island on the River Thames where King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta on 15 June 1215. Every English .schoolboy knows that. That's 741 years ago, Milton, and the Magna Carta is still the foundation of the British Constitution today. Among other things, it guaranteed every man the right to a fair trial. The barons had to capture London before the King would agree to sign it. I only mention this because I want to put my little trip with Marilyn into perspective.'

'Hey, Colin, I'm not mad at you. Not mad at all. I've just come over to give you a word of advice. I'm entirely on your side. I just don't want you to get hurt, that's all.'

Oh, sure, I thought. Except you wouldn't mind if I broke every bone in my body falling off a cliff.

'How kind of you, Milton.'

'You see, I've known Marilyn for a very long time — it must be seven years now — and I understand where she's coming from. I fell in love with her just like you did. She was living with a powerful Hollywood agent called Johnny Hyde and I was a photographer for Life magazine, and she and I had a ten-day romance. That's the trouble with Marilyn, and there's no way I can break this to you gently, Colin. Marilyn has a romance with anybody who happens to take her fancy. I know you put her on a pedestal. We all do. But it's a mistake to fall in love with her. She'll only break your heart. You've obviously had a great time together. Now leave it at that. Get out before you get burned.'

'Finished, Milton?'

'Hey, don't get mad. I'm sorry I had to tell you this, but it's for your own good.'

'Firstly,' I said, 'Marilyn may have "a romance", as you put it, with the man in the moon for all I care, but she isn't having one with me. It is possible to spend the day together and have a lot of fun without romance, you know.'

Milton looked doubtful. 'She said you kissed her.'

'Secondly, I have not fallen in love with Marilyn. I don't know about Hollywood, but in England we take a little longer than a day to fall in love. And thirdly, I have not put Marilyn on a pedestal, or anywhere else. To me she is just a beautiful, funny, rather sad lady whose company I enjoy enormously. Of course I realise that she's also the most famous film star in the world. Nor have I forgotten that she's on her honeymoon, and that her husband is a well-known writer. But she is under tremendous pressure. She's trying to give a great performance in a very difficult film. Her co-star is being horrid to her. She doesn't know who she can trust.'

Milton frowned.

'Now her husband has left her for ten days, I can't imagine why. So she jolly well deserves a day off, and if she chooses to spend it with me, I just count myself incredibly lucky, and I certainly won't refuse.'

'Did she say anything about me? Or the filming?'

'Nothing. Not a word. She did not utter one word of complaint the whole day. We went to see my godfather . . .'

'Yeah, I heard. Gee, I'd sure like to see those pictures. Those Holbein drawings are probably the greatest portraits in the world. I'm a portrait photographer, don't forget.'

'Maybe we can go over there one day. Then Marilyn and I went out to lunch — always with Roger by our side — and then we went to look at my old school. Marilyn was more interested in culture than romance.'

'And then you went for a swim. She said you went for a swim, and kissed in the water.'

Poor Marilyn, I thought. She's like a little girl. Why does she tell Milton everything, as if he was her father? 'Daddy, Daddy, I kissed Colin.' She's trying to rebel, I suppose.

'Well, she's home now,' I said, 'safe and sound. Perhaps a little fresh air and exercise will have done her good. I hope Sir Laurence realises that I've been working hard for him all weekend. We've still got a film to make.'

'Marilyn had forgotten that she'd promised to go over her lines with Paula Strasberg this afternoon, so they're doing that now. Paula said Marilyn was very nervous, and asked for some pills.'

'Pills? What the hell does she need pills for?'

'Colin, you don't understand.'

'I understand, all right. She's scared — of Paula and you, as well as Olivier. You're all meant to be working with her, not against her. And I think she's hooked on those pills. She can never be herself. None of you want her to be herself. You want her to be "Marilyn Monroe, Hollywood sex goddess", because that's where the money is. Just imagine how difficult it is for her. Even in the movie, she can't be "Elsie Marina, the showgirl" — she has to be "Marilyn Monroe, the Hollywood sex goddess, acting Elsie Marina, the showgirl". That's why she has such difficulty with her part, and can't remember her lines. Underneath it all she's just a lonely, simple child, who deserves to be happy, just like any child. But you lot stretch her until she's about to break. And one day she will break, and where will you be then? Long gone, and making a fuss of someone else, I'll bet.'

'Hey — so you are in love with her, Colin!^'

I could only groan.

To do him justice, Milton seemed genuinely upset by my attack on his motives. He paced up and down that beautiful island on the Thames just as King John must have paced over seven hundred years ago, and told me the whole history of his relationship with Marilyn. After their short affair they had become friends. Marilyn was a victim of the old studio system, whereby actors got trapped in long-term contracts from which they could never escape, no matter how famous they became. The studios would dictate the roles they played, ruthlessly typecasting them to exploit their fame. The studios squeezed every possible dollar out of their films, while still paying the star the tiny salary they had originally signed for. Milton had persuaded Marilyn to rebel. By clever manipulation, and with the help of his lawyer friend Irving Stein, Milton had enabled Marilyn to escape from her contract with Twentieth Century-Fox, and to ensure that when she re-signed it — not even Marilyn, it seems, can operate without a contract — it was on much better terms. From then on Marilyn could decide which films she did or didn't make, and even make a film entirely on her own. The Prince and the Showgirl was the first film being made by Marilyn Monroe Productions, of which Milton was an equal partner.

'Well, not quite equal, Colin,' Milton admitted. 'Fifty-one per cent to her, and 49 per cent to me. But heck, 49 per cent of Marilyn Monroe can't be bad, can it?'

'I'd like 1 per cent,' I said.

Milton grinned ruefully.

'Marilyn's hard to pin down. It's like owning 49 per cent of a dream. It doesn't mean very much. I think you do own 1 per cent of her right now, Colin, and it's probably worth more than my 49 per cent. The trouble is, for how long?'

Milton suddenly sat down on the grass and put his head in his hands. 'I'm not sure I can go on for much longer, but I've got no choice. I've got every single penny I ever earned invested in Marilyn, and she simply doesn't understand what that means. I've been paying her living expenses for over a year now — her apartment, her staff, her shopping, her doctors — it adds up to thousands of dollars. Twentieth Century-Fox won't release any money until she starts working for them again, so I have to pay. Don't get me wrong. Marilyn doesn't ask for lots of cash; she just never gives it a thought. She's not interested in money, actually. She's only interested in her career. But she loves to be generous, and that can cost a lot. And Arthur needs money, and Lee Strasberg needs money, and they both treat Marilyn like a bank. Now, Warner Brothers have put up the cash for this film, but when I start taking some of my investment back, Marilyn thinks I'm swindling her. I'm sure she's been put up to that by Arthur. He's definitely not on my side, Colin. He's looking out for himself. But Marilyn worships him, you know.'

'I certainly don't worship him,' I said. 'I think he's too vain. I don't think he loves Marilyn as much as she thinks, either. Not in the way she deserves to be loved, anyway.'

'You're right. He's a bigger damn prima donna than she is. Now he's behaving like he'd had some awful surprise. He must already have known what life with Marilyn would be like. When he first met her she was Elia Kazan's mistress, and she was very mixed up. Then he saw her when she was filming Bus Stop with Josh Logan. She'd phone him for hours on end, and it can't have been hard to see how nervous she got when she had to give a performance. I think he just liked the image of himself as the man who captured the most famous woman in the world. It made him as famous as her. He wants to control her, and that makes him try to turn her against me. And now he's gone running off to Paris, and from there he's going to New York, as if he was fed up with Marilyn after only four weeks. I'd much rather Marilyn ran off with you, believe me.'

'Me too. But that's not going to happen, Milton, I can assure you, so you can relax.'

'Paula's after Marilyn's money too. Well, it's not really Paula, it's Lee. Paula is a very unstable lady — which is sort of a pity, since Marilyn depends on her for her stability. Paula's a frustrated actress.

She has no self-confidence at all. She pours all her hopes and fears into Marilyn — like a typical Jewish mother, I suppose. That feeds into Marilyn's insecurity, and Lee takes advantage of it. Lee wants to be a great impresario, and Marilyn is his passport to the fame he thinks he deserves. He's charging a fortune for Paula to be here. More than anyone else. Much more than me. Why is everybody in the film business a frustrated something or other, who thinks they deserve to be paid thousands of dollars a week?'

'I don't think Olivier is that frustrated,' I said. 'Except perhaps in bed. And I don't think he's that interested in money, either.'

'No, basically Olivier is one of the good guys. He's just out of his depth. He doesn't have any idea what's going on in Marilyn's head. He treats her like a silly little blonde, even though he can see in the dailies that she's really very good — better than he is, I'd say. Olivier is an old-fashioned actor with a great reputation. Marilyn thought that if she acted with him she'd be taken seriously at last. That's why she wanted to buy the rights to The Sleeping Prince — so she could tempt Olivier with a script she knew he liked. After all, he'd done it onstage, and with his wife. Imagine if little Marilyn could steal a part from the great Vivien Leigh, and maybe seduce Laurence Olivier as well. I must admit I thought she was crazy, but she brought it off — almost.'

'Poor Marilyn. She must be disappointed. She couldn't seduce Olivier, so she ended up with me.'

'You're making her happy right now, Colin. But, as I said, for how long? Nobody makes Marilyn happy for very long, and that's the truth.'

At one o'clock Tony came to tell me that lunch was ready, and Milton left. Tony was in a terrible sulk, so it was an uncomfortable meal. I felt sad that I had disobeyed his orders, especially as I was a guest in his home, but I had no regrets. Looking back on it, Saturday had been the happiest day of my life.

..........

To  be  continued