Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe

by Anthony Summers

Marilyn Monroe. Her rollar-coaster life. Her deception - shrouded death. Her divided secret life. Her legion of lovers. Her intimacies with JFK and Bobby Kennedy. Her mafia connections. This is the one book that tells the whole naked, deeply moving truth about the all - too-beautiful talented, and tormented woman who played a role in public and in private that was too much for flesh and spirit to survive.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Audiobook, Film, Ebooks

688 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1985

About the author

Anthony Summers is the bestselling author of eight nonfiction books. His investigative books include Not in Your Lifetime, the critically acclaimed book about the assassination of John F. Kennedy; Official & Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover; and most recently The Eleventh Day, on the 9/11 attacks—a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for History.

Reviews

[Maddy ✨ ~The Verse Vixen {AFK brb} · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glamour in Lights. Icon in Print. Dreamgirl in Pieces...

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”

― Marilyn Monroe

I picked this book up casually — just to inch closer to my promise of reading more biographies & memoirs this year — and oh man, I didn’t expect it to gut me this beautifully. and suddenly I was holding back tears in a velvet-draped spiral of stardom, sorrow, and so much silence.but it consumed me. What started as a casual read turned into late nights of emotional spiral, admiration, and a new kind of ache. Marilyn wasn’t just a woman. She was a phenomenon. A mystery. A soft, glittering storm.

Marilyn Monroe wasn’t just glamour in lights.
She wasn’t just the icon on glossy print.

She was a dreamgirl —
But the kind who broke quietly,
Beneath everyone else's fantasies.

This book doesn’t just tell her story — it reminds you she was human first.

“She was the dream girl. And yet, no one let her just be a girl.”


📍We see:

-A girl who never knew stability.

-A woman who crafted her image, knowing exactly what men wanted to see.

-A human being addicted to sleeping pills, validation, and escape.

-An artist who studied acting, literature, and psychoanalysis with haunting dedication.

-A figure entangled with the Kennedys, politics, Hollywood, and conspiracy.

A death that still stirs debate — overdose or something darker?
We meet Norma Jeane, the girl before the stardom. The one who bounced through foster homes, who ached for stability, who wanted to be seen beyond her curves and smile. the girl no one ever looked close enough to see.
The girl who was passed from house to house, man to man, studio to studio.
Loved on posters. Abandoned in real life.
She was adored by millions. Yet somehow, no one stayed.
Her vulnerability is so raw in these pages, I had to stop reading just to breathe.

“If you’re gonna be two-faced, at least make one of them pretty.”

Sassy. Smart. Misunderstood.

And then? The Kennedys. The whispers. The affairs. The endless pills. The handlers. The loneliness.
Was her death a suicide? Was she silenced? Was she just… forgotten by the people who were supposed to love her

Anthony Summers doesn’t write her like a fairytale. He writes her like a post-mortem.
600+ interviews. FBI files. Secret tapes.
It reads like a whisper behind the glamour. Like peeling diamonds off damaged skin.

Summers doesn't lean on gossip — he lays out the timeline, the evidence, the testimonies. And let me tell you: it’s chilling. You feel like you're reading about a woman who knew too much, loved too hard, and collapsed under the weight of being everyone’s fantasy.

“Honey, we all got to go sometime, reason or no reason. Dyin’s as natural as livin’; man who’s afraid to die is too afraid to live, far as I’ve ever seen. So there’s nothing to do but forget it, that’s all. Seems to me”

And here’s the real kicker:
She gave the world absolute cinematic GOLD.
Some Like It Hot, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire — she carried the era.
She gave iconic lines, iconic fashion, and that Marilyn glow that people still imitate.
But no one gave her peace. Or protection. Or even basic human care.

📌Marilyn in Her Many Roles:
-The Orphan — neglected, passed between homes, always waiting for someone to stay.
- The Starlet — made herself into what Hollywood demanded.
- The Thinker — loved poetry, psychoanalysis, intellectual conversations.
-The Wife — of Joe DiMaggio (jealous, controlling), of Arthur Miller (disappointed).
-The Lover — of presidents, of power, of possibility.
-The Addict — dependent on pills to sleep, to smile, to survive.
-The Mystery — whose death is still wrapped in silence.

It’s not a perfect book. Some parts feel speculative. Some theories spiral. But maybe that’s how it should be. Her life was messy. Complicated. Unfinished. And this book leans into that.


~The raw, haunting honesty in her own words:

“I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure… I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”

― Marilyn Monroe-My lady🧎🏻‍♀️🤍

~Her subtle resistance to expectations:

“I don't mind living in a man's world, as long as I can be a woman in it.”

― Marilyn Monroe

~The heartbreak buried in playful lines:

“Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.”

― Marilyn Monroe

💔 And what do we learn?

That fame is a knife in silk gloves.
That beauty makes you a target, not a treasure.
That the world loves its women more when they’re silent, soft, and broken.
That we all wanted a star — and no one protected the girl inside the glow.

🎬 And yes —if you're into visual storytelling... the Netflix documentary is based on this book (The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes).
Hearing those voices? Those confessions?
It feels like walking through a house where grief still lingers in the walls.

💭 She gave the world everything.
The walk, the laugh, the kiss blown in slow motion.
The films that still light up rooms. The quotes we hang on Pinterest.
But what did she get back?

Drugs. Loneliness. Secrets.
And a death wrapped in silence and shadows.

The book itself is deeply detailed, occasionally heartbreaking, filled with photographs and facts, yes — but also filled with shadows. It’s like standing backstage behind a red curtain, peeking into the life no one clapped for.


Final Thoughts:
This book shattered me in the most sacred way.
It reminded me that beauty often comes at the cost of being known.
That fame is a spotlight and a shadow.
That Marilyn Monroe — the dreamgirl — was also the loneliest girl in the room.

So if you're drawn to broken brilliance, haunted icons, or complex women who the world misunderstood — this one’s not a biography. It's an autopsy of a myth.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

2022 Reread Because Netflix and Kim Kardashian

I obviously watched the Netflix documentary
The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes. Which is basically a condensed version of this book. Although I thought it should have been a documentary series and not just a movie, there's just too much info to cram into one documentary.

Now on to the book review.

I've read this many many times. The first time I read was as a teenager when I was first discovering my obsession with Marilyn Monroe. Each time I read it my feelings change. I always enjoy it but my perspective is always evolving. With this re read I was surprised that I never noticed just how much of the Marilyn/JFK/RFK information was based on the reporting of right wingers. 1960's right wingers were different from 2022 right wingers but once this clicked in my head I felt even more sure that this book is more fiction than fact.

From everything I've read or watched about Jack & Bobby Kennedy they were most definitely slutty whores and I often wonder when they found the time to conduct the nations business. I don't think they killed Marilyn Monroe to keep her from talking. Even the author admits that Marilyn had a reputation for lying and her struggle with mental illness was well known, so had she held a press conference as it is alleged in this book she planned to do. Its doubtful anyone would have believed her. Also we have to remember that in the 1960's the media didn't report on the lives of politicians. I once read that Ben Bradley the former editor of The Washington Post & friend of JFK said that the press could have walked in on JFK having sex with intern and no one would have reported it.

I love Marilyn Monroe. I love her movies, I love her songs(I'm Through With Love is my fave) and I love reading about her life. I don't think she committed suicide. I think she was addicted to opiates likes millions of other Americans and she simply took too many pills. That doesn't make it any less tragic or interesting. Marilyn Monroe probably had Bi-Polar Disorder and like lots of people self medicated with drugs.

While I don't believe most of what's written in this book but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it. And that doesn't mean that I don't find certain things in this book to be very very likely the truth.

I think this book is a must read for Monroe obsessive. Even if I think it's a just conspiracy theory the events written about in this book are an important part of the Marilyn Monroe myth and legend.

Read-A-Thin May Challenge: Read a book featuring mental illness.
2018 Badass Books Reading Challenge: A book published the year you were born.
Suspenseful Clues and Thrilling Reviews Book Club.

[Alex.andthebooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bardzo nierówna i chaotyczna. Momentami interesująca, momentami rozczarowująca.
Przykro czytać biografię kobiety, którą w dużej mierze zniszczyli mężczyźni, a o której mówią w niej praktycznie wyłącznie mężczyźni.
Miałam wrażenie, że jest to spis facetów, którzy twierdzą, że z nią spali i przez to mają prawo jakkolwiek ją oceniać.

[Jillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Marilyn Monroe I read almost every book I come across about her . Each book adds a little something to the story about her life . I liked this book . But my favorite ones are the books that don’t have crazy conspiracy theory’s those ones are entertaining but not based in anything but rumors .

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very tabloidish. Have no idea what to trust. Pretty much the entire book is "he said she said". The author could well be making everything up. He gets so involved in rumors and conspiracy theories (particularly about her death) that I felt very removed from Marilyn by the end. Disappointing.

[Eyehavenofilter · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I felt like I was reading one of those creepy rags that you see at the checkout counter. Tell all about a star without her there to defend herself. Marilyn has always been, to me, one of the most misunderstood "stars" of the universe. Perhaps it was her destiny to carry the mental illness that crippled her mother. We will never really know.
Modern medicine was not as modern back then and Marilyn seemed destined to live a life of depression and desperation, that was constantly medicated.
She always said she just wanted to be loved, but perhaps she never really knew what that word meant. When I read this I had the feeling that she felt alienated from everything and everyone around her, trying desperately, to find some sort of common thread, no matter how tattered, thin, or tenuious it might have been.
Her choices were compulsive, anyone who showed her attention or compassion in at small way was something she latched onto like a drowning woman in the middle of the ocean.
I doubt that anyone really had her best interests at heart, they all wanted a piece of Marilyn Monroe, and in the end, she broke, into a million pieces.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of work has clearly gone into this book, and I feel this is a pretty definitive recounting of the life of a beautiful, talented, troubled and abused human being.

[Stephen McQuiggan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The word depressing doesn't quite cover this. Norma Jeane goes from wannabe to starlet to icon, used and abused at every stage. Her psychological state was always precarious, exacerbated by a prodigious drink and drug intake, a wealth of abortions and an inability to orgasm. Becoming little more than decorated meat, her problems led to institutions and suicide attempts. The main thrust of the book deals with her relationship with the Kennedys, her death, and the persuasive conspiracy theories that inevitably followed. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of this very thorough trawl is the insight given to her early years, which only highlight the fragile, intelligent woman beneath the image.
Who, in their right mind, would actually want to be famous?

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 2017 revised edition of ‘Goddess’ is an extensive body of work, documenting the life of Marilyn Monroe. The first half of the 688 pages tells of Marilyn’s private and public life until the year of her death. What follows are the facts that had been uncovered at the time of her death, and over the past 50 year years. The post script is a must read!
This biography brings us into the world of old Hollywood, politics and the rich & famous.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a mess! Meticulously researched fascinating history of what must be the most epic backstory of Hollywood history. The exploitation of a dangerously unstable woman by the great powers of media and politics is fifty years later still nauseating. Anyone still clinging to Bobby Kennedy mythology should stay far away from there.

[Kirsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

I suddenly had a hankering for a fun, hot and juicy read, and what better to turn to than a Marilyn Monroe biography, right? Forget it. I read the first 40-50 pages (skimmed through the rest), but that was MUCH more than enough for me. I was so disappointed and disgusted, yet nothing really came as much of a surprise as I had already read bits and pieces of her depressing tale. The book's entree was a (very) long listing of Marilyn's sexual conquests, with a side of sadness that she was obviously nothing more than an invented and perfected sexual object. Yuck and sad.

[Andrea Salayová · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading this book when I was maybe 13 and being completely mind blown. It made me obsessed with MM for quite some time. And a little bit sad for her. Very sad for her actually...

But to the point - this is very good biography, it includes the pictures (even the one where she is dead, which I was weirdly fascinated with). It is also very detailed and writing style is kind of poetic for biography, which I loved.

Also I own more than 3 copies. Of the same edition. No shame.

[Colette · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I found this lacking in nuance and modern understating and extremely sexist and disrespectful to Marilyn and her complicated legacy.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how much of this book can be truly believed, with many of the anecdotes coming from sources that seem even less trustworthy than Marilyn herself. This book paints her as a promiscuous, delusional, pathological liar, but it certainly doesn't spare her friends and lovers, many of whom took advantage of her mental illness in order to sleep with her and discard her. It's a harrowing look at the corrupt intersection between Hollywood and the politics of the times.

It doesn't conclude for sure that she was murdered, but maintains she was dating both Jack and Bobby Kennedy at the time of her death in August 1962, and both men had reason to need her to shut up and stop telling her friends. She was calling Washington all the time, and telling people Bobby was going to marry her. Her drug use was out of control, so her death could have been suicide, accidental, or murder. Apparently, her phone records were lost, and her pill bottles were discarded, and the autopsy information was incorrect. Her gangland lovers, Frank Sinatra and Sam Giancana, refused to shed light on the matter.

There's lots of scandal and intrigue here, and stories about the famous and powerful of the times. These men were able to keep secrets that today's politicians could only dream about.

[Merry · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5* A lot of research went into this book, but most of the evidence seems to be hearsay. The conclusions may be plausible, but I don't think the author's case is anywhere near proven. In the end, I think I would have preferred not to know his version. A distressing story about an unhappy, unbalanced woman with a sad background, the people who tried to love her, and the people who used and abused her.

[Laila · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't wait to be done with this. Some interesting sections, well-researched but I don't need the exhaustive detail about anyone's life, especially when it includes overdose after suicide attempt after miscarriage after abortion on a seemingly endless loop.

[Bookygirls Magda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Przeważnie nie czytam biografii, zwłaszcza ludzi, którzy interesują mnie ... średnio. A pierwszy film z Marilyn obejrzałam zaledwie dwa miesiące temu, więc nie zdążyłam wytworzyć w sobie ani specjalnej sympatii ani szczególnego zainteresowania. Dlaczego więc zdecydowałam się przeczytać uzupełnioną o ponad 100 dodatkowych stron biografię Monroe? Nie wiem xD Ale nie żałuję, bo była świetna. Wiedziałam, że czeka mnie przeprawa przez dziesiątki obcych nazwisk, próba zorientowania się kto jest kim i jakie xyz miał znaczenie 300 stron wcześniej. No ale właśnie koło tej 350/400 strony, gdy do gry wkroczyli bracia Kennedy wszystko nabrało wręcz fabularyzowanego tempa. Uważam to za szczyt reporterskiego kunsztu, żeby pisać o czyimś (nudnym lub nie) życiu w taki sposób, by być konkretnym, profesjonalnym i rzetelnym, a równocześnie tak dobrze opowiadać historię. Przede mną niemal cała filmografia Marilyn i szczerze mówiąc, po przeczytaniu tej książki nie mogę się tego doczekać.

[Immigration Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

This well researched biography focuses on the "post-childhood" Marilyn Monroe. It is centered around the major movies in which she starred, her two marriages, and the many, many (I mean many) love affairs and sexual flings that connected her post-childhood years to her movie star fame and to her untimely demise.

The last sections of the book read more like a murder mystery than a biography. And these sections are really good -- honestly, they are fantastic!

Anthony Summers thoroughly investigated all the conflicting facts in the historical record (or, more accurately, what remains undestroyed from the historical record) to piece together a highly probable and compelling account of Marilyn's last day alive (including the vile involvement of RFK).

Was she murdered? Probably not. Was she in a Kennedy-triggered downward spiral of depression and accidentally overdosed? Most likely. Did she commit suicide? Probably not.

Did RFK (directly with Peter Lawford, or indirectly through crooked law enforcement officials and others) disturb and destroy evidence in the room where Marilyn was found dead (I mean, how else could RFK cover-up his sexual relationship -- AND JFK's sexual relationship -- with Marilyn)?

Given that the Kennedy-Monroe naked hijinx took place in plain sight of the Rat Pack and infamous Mobsters (who would have, or could have, found and then leaked evidence linking the Kennedy boys to the exact house -- and maybe even the exact room -- where Marilyn died), Summers has convinced me that RFK most probably did destroy evidence, and performed in a co-starring role in the drama of Marilyn Monroe's death.

And then, afterward, having departed Marilyn's home (most certainly) and the room in which she died (most likely), RFK, the good family man, went to Catholic Mass the next morning.

In short, the life of Marilyn Monroe was sad. She sought love from lecherous men who mindlessly, like nerve endings, sought stimulation in their small, narrow "whore-Madonna" view of life. Most guys used her, then dumped her, and many then went home to their wives. Yet, Marilyn claimed to have wanted love and a family, but her erratic behavior continually drove her into the arms of the same type of guy over and over and over again: the Slam-Bam-Thank-You-Ma'am kind of guy who is trouble right from the start.

Maybe Marilyn herself summarized her story better than any person could -- "I'm a failure as a woman. Men expect so much of me, and I can't live up to it. They expect bells to ring and whistles to whistle, but my anatomy is the same as any other woman's. I can't live up to it."

There was a huge self-worth deficit (a deep dark pit of low self-esteem ) gnawing away at Marilyn. This ongoing feeling of being unworthy was the underlying connection between the sad choices she made, in life and attempted love, and the sad consequences that followed each choice. The story is sad. Tragic.

Yet this book is a respectful, rational, and sober accounting of this sad, tragic life. And its conclusions are supported by monumental scholarly research.

5 Stars.

[Freddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2: An exhaustive, sometimes exhausting, account of Monroe’s years of stardom, as well as her death, with little psychological analysis or exploration of her childhood. I appreciate Summers’ journalistic practices and instincts, but this biography reads more like syrupy tabloid gossip.

[A_Place_In The_Orchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

As other reviewers have noted, what could have been a great book is diminished by what appears to be the author's primary concern - advancing those conspiracy theories that he subscribes to, and peremptorily dismissing anything that he disagrees with, usually with a vague reference to "this author"'s belief or research. It all gets a little self-serving after a while, which is a shame because when Summers allows the story to speak for itself, Goddess simply rattles along.

The first third of the book is by far the best, although it too has its problems - Summers' arrogant dismissal of Norma Jean's childhood and early teenage years as a subject that has already been covered elsewhere, for example, could easily translate as "I can't be bothered to write about it." Things pick up once she begins modeling, and the book maintains its pace through her first few movies. If Summers could have expended the same amount of energy on this "pre-fame" period as he does on the Kennedy connection, Goddess would deserve at least one more star.

In the event, I found myself losing interest around the time of the Miller marriage, and I never regained it thereafter. It's very hard to shake that sinking feeling you get when you realize you're just 40% of the way through a Monroe biography, and the story is already up to The Misfits....

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew nothing of Marilyn Monroe other than the wild speculation surrounding her death, her singing Happy Birthday to President Kennedy and standing over a grate with her dress blowing up.
I found this book in a bookshop and attracted by the blurb, title and photograph I took it to the counter.
The person at the till told me that as a self confessed Marilyn obsessive this was the best book about her he had ever read.
I can well understand it.
This is possibly in the top 3 books I have ever read. The level of detail and corroboration of facts is beyond anything I have seen outside of a University text.
The book covers her life from her earliest days through her rise to stardom and her work at getting recognised for her talent through to the periods she fell into drug misuse and ultimately death.
Her lovers generally and her marriages were sprinkled with high points but ultimately she cut a very forlorn figure despite her immense fame and throughout the book I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her and wondering how different her life would have been if she had found a constant to be by her side throughout everything.
RIP Marilyn

[Tonya Wertman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first biography that I ever read....I was a Freshman in high school and this book and Marilyn Monroe's story have stayed with me ever since.

It is the most in-depth and personal account of this truly unique woman. It's an absolute page turner and you are sure to discover many things that will shock you. By the end of the book I was emotionally attached to Marilyn and she will forever be a goddess to me.

Why such a tragic ending for an immaculate screen goddess? The real tragedy is that she never realized the consequences of her actions. Her lifestyle- non-stop drugs & sexual promiscuity- destroyed any ounce of hope & future that was awaiting her. This book teaches many lessons and unfortunately, the most beautiful woman in the world lost her life in the process. Then there's the question of her death being a murder.

I hope that one day the truth comes out so that dignity and respect can finally be given to woman who was stripped of everything during her lifetime, but her soul. *A Hollywood drama till the very end.*

[Laurie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the worst famous Monroe biography. It is far to conspiracy based and doesn't look at the simple truth which is usually correct. I love conspiracy books, but only when they have a story and admit that is only opinion. Any actual Monroe fan hates this book. I knew the Marilynettes hated it and after 4/5 years of everyone discussing why, I can see. It speed untrue stories which add to the supposed "mystery" around Monroe. It even has an autopsy photo, which Monroe fans don't want to see as we want to focus on her life, not her death. And to add about her Kennedy "affair" she never slept with RFK who always remained faithful to Ethel his wife and only met JFK 4 times; 3 of those in public which can be backed up by anyone who knew her and the Kennedy's.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched. However completely disjointed, frenetic in a bad way, and completely shames Marilyn. Read another Marilyn biography.

[Wordsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

WARNING—WARNING-NO PEEKING!!!!
This picture sizing is going to be the death of me!



THIS IS BEING EDITED- THIS IS A WORK IN PROCESS
GODDESS

‘She did originate something. She was the first person I know of who was truly unconventional. She was a sixties person before it started—way before it started—like ten years.’
—ARTHUR MILLER
[image error]
Marilyn Monroe Pictures
‘I saw that what she looked like was not what she really was, and what was going on inside was not what was going on outside, and that always means there may be something there to be worked with. It was almost as if she had been waiting for a button to be pushed, and when it was pushed a door opened and you saw a treasure of gold and jewels. She was engulfed in a mystic-like flame, like when you see Jesus at the Last Supper and there’s a halo around him. There was this great white light surrounding Marilyn.’
—LEE STRASBERG, MONROE'S ACTING TEACHER

‘Oh, yes, there is something there. She is a beautiful child. I don’t think she’s an actress at all, not in any traditional sense. What she has—this presence, this luminosity, this flickering intelligence— could never surface on the stage. It’s so fragile and subtle, it can only be caught by the camera. It’s like a hummingbird in flight; only a camera can freeze the poetry of it. But anyone who thinks this girl is simply another Harlow or harlot or whatever, is mad. I hope, I really pray, that she survives long enough to free the strange lovely talent that’s wandering through her like a jailed spirit…’
—CONSTANCE COLLIER, MONROE'S ACTING COACH

‘You’re right about her not being easy to know. One sees her with intensity—sees her more than one sees almost anyone; but then one discovers that that isn’t knowing her.’
—HENRY JAMES "The Wings of the Dove"
‘I can’t tell the whole story…Talk to Robert Kennedy.’
—DR RALPH GREENSON, MONROE’S PSYCHIATRIST

I have never been what one could call a Marilynophile. I've never owned a picture of her, quoted her or idolized her. But, one can always change. Or not. Still, funny what one book can do. It's not that I haven't read other biographies about her. Nor have I lived my life in a bubble, in a cave, on the moon or in a vacuum. Still, here I was, going about my life under the assumption I knew as much, if not more, about the iconic legend that is Marilyn Monroe as the next person. And what I was aware of was enough for me. Sure, I've seen her movies. Well, most of them. I think. I'll be honest, it's been awhile. I do seem to recall she had been raised in foster homes and was "discovered" at Schwab's Drugstore. I did know for a fact, as surely most people on the planet are, that she had been married to baseball legend Joe DiMaggio as well as New York playwright Arthur Miller. Yes, like millions of others I considered myself well-informed on the subject of her addictions; how her problems with drink and pharmaceuticals had set the stage for her downward spiral. I somehow "knew" (how? osmosis?) these addictions were prompted in part, by her "sensitive" and "insecure" nature. That the combination of her child-like nature along with her increasing need for more pills mixed with more booze led her to even more hurtful backlashes of promiscuity, leading to that never-ending cycle of "looking for love in all the wrong places," and it was this cycle that would prove so deadly a mix which led her to that final resting place in Westwood Memorial Park. [I didn't know that was her resting place. I learned that from the book ; ) ]Actually, that's alot to know about a person you never knew, a dead woman, dead before you even turned two, celebrity or no. Even this much, to me, seemed a little like "too much information." I admit I felt a little cheapened myself, even as I downloaded the book and began reading it. Now—I am big reader of biographies, don't get me wrong. Even, at times, ones on celebrities, though normally if that's the case, I'll opt for a memoir. Let them tell of their own life. Historical biographies interest me much more. But as I read the I introduction then delving further into the book, I realized that carrying out this kind of research to such a high degree, sparing nothing to obtain the highest accuracy possible partnered with his keen insight for detail was a painstaking process years in the making leading me to the conclusion that what Mr. Summers had written was indeed worthy of consideration as a historical document. I also realized there was much more behind the facade of blonde than certainly I had been aware of, I would not be surprised if I was the only one. Before the publishing of his book, "Goddess: The Secret Lives Of Marilyn Monroe," in 1982 with revisions in 1996, much of what Summers has documented here was at one time mere innuendo. Rumors are one thing—Fact quite another.

"...twenty years later, in 1982, the Los Angeles District Attorney reopened inquiries into a case that had never ceased to be the subject of rumor and controversy. His brief was limited. Was there sufficient evidence to open a criminal investigation? Could Monroe have been murdered? After four months the DA was advised that the evidence ‘fails to support any theory of criminal conduct.’ This, though, had been only a ‘threshold investigation.’ It was indeed; the investigators did not even interview the detective who attended the scene of the death[...]The 1982 report acknowledged that ‘factual discrepancies’ and ‘unanswered questions’ had surfaced during the Monroe inquiry. Privately, officials today make it clear that they felt they had stumbled into a morass of untruth and obfuscation. Marilyn Monroe may, they surmise, have died by her own hand. Yet they feel something was indeed covered up in 1962."

While Summers does not gloss over the hardship of her early years, neither does he re-hash events which are well documented elsewhere and have been for some time. "It was a time that the grown woman would never forget nor allow her public to ignore — ten foster homes, two years in the Los Angeles Orphans’ Home, another foster home, and finally four years with the guardian appointed by county authorities after her mother’s departure to an asylum." Her mother was kept confined to the institutions with what we would now call schizophrenia which led to a childhood filled with unhappy rounds of musical chair foster homes for the pretty, young, Norma Jean Baker. "Family life was virtually nonexsistent." It through one of these foster homes that her first marriage was arranged, when she was only fifteen.
Norma Jean Baker:

After the decision had been made, Jim Dougherty, a friend of that family and Norma Jean were given a period of several weeks in which to "court', until she turned sixteen and more "mature" for marriage.
Marilyn and Jim Dougherty

At first the young couple were happy but when WWII broke out and Dougherty joined up and had to join the ranks of his garrison away from his pretty, little, wife danger came 'o knocking in the quise of photographers. Soon her modeling book was chock full of dates, the curvaceous, vivacious Marilyn found herself in high demand in this era of pin-ups.A chance meeting in the lobby of Twentieth Century Fox with a man who would remain a life-long friend, (and he says, a secret husband for three days) prompted Marilyn's first screen test. The year was 1946, and the rest is history.
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Two days later a movie camera turned its glass eye on Norma Jeane for the first time. Dressed in a sequined gown, teetering on high heels, she obeyed instructions to ‘walk across the set. Sit down. Light a cigarette. Put it out. Go upstage. Cross. Look out of a window. Sit down. Come downstage and exit.’ The cameraman, Leon Shamroy, would one day photograph Marilyn in There’s No Business Like Show Business. Now, as he looked at the rushes, he got a cold chill. ‘This girl,’ he was to say, ‘had something I hadn’t seen since silent pictures. She had a kind of fantastic beauty like Gloria Swanson … she got sex on a piece of film like Jean Harlow. … She was showing us she could sell emotions in pictures.’ Within a week Darryl Zanuck himself had seen the footage, enthused, and agreed that Norma Jeane Dougherty should be signed as a contract player, at $75 a week, to be reviewed in six months. Her weekly pay would then probably go up to $100.
In 1947, at 21 years of age, having been rechristened Marilyn Monroe by actress Bebe Daniels, she made her first walk across a soundstage in the film "Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!" She even made it out of the cutting room with one line. Well, word. "Hello." It was during this time she began her life-long quest for knowledge, becoming a voracious reader of works such as Freud, Wolfe, Keats, Joyce, Whitman and Sandburg. She held a special affinity for Abrahamn Lincoln, mind and body. One of the men who seemingly captured her heart, for she had certainly caught his was the seventy-something Joseph Schenck, one of the original founders of Twenthieth Century Fox. Which is not purely indicative of Marilyn's taste, seeing how she also fell for Charlie Chaplin Jr, who was the same age as she was, but thought to be, said Mrs. Chaplin, "really naive, not at all sophisticated, like a little country girl,"

"‘I got a call from Joe Schenck. He said, “I’m indebted to her, and if you can give her twenty-six weeks, I’d appreciate it.” I went to see Harry Cohn, and he said, “Well, if he needs it that bad, give it to him. Put the girl on.”’ Amy Greene, Marilyn’s close friend in the mid-fifties, said, ‘She did give me the impression she slept her way to her start.’ Marilyn talked of this time, said Greene, using an obvious allusion: ‘I spent a great deal of time on my knees.’ The final word on this subject should be Marilyn’s. When British writer W. J. Weatherby asked her whether the stories about the casting couch were true, she responded, ‘They can be. You can’t sleep your way into being a star, though. It takes much, much more. But it helps. A lot of actresses get their first chance that way. Most of the men are such horrors, they deserve all they can get out of them!’"

It was the following Spring that Marilyn was to find herself in the company of a woman who would go on to become one of the most important influences in her life. Natasha Lytess, a failed actress was currently the head drama coach at Columbia. She had fled Nazi persecution in Germany where she had worked under the great Max Reinhardt and a marriage to Bruno Frank, a novelist of some repute, certainly in left-wing circles.
M.M. & Natasha Lytess Acting Coach#1_M.M. & Lee Strasberg Acting Coach#2
**[image error]**[image error]**
"‘I was not impressed,’ Lytess said years later. ‘She was inhibited and cramped; she could not say a word freely. Her habit of speaking without using her lips was unnatural, obviously superimposed. Her voice was a piping sort of whimper.’ Rumors abound to this day regarding the nature of their relationship, as close as it was. Years later, Marilyn herself was quoted was saying, "‘People tried to make me into a lesbian. I laughed. No sex is wrong if there’s love in it.’ Earlier, speaking of her life in 1948, she said the sexual side of relations with men had so far been a disappointment. ‘Then it dawned on me,’ she said, ‘that other people — other women — were different than me. They could feel things I couldn’t. And when I started reading books I ran into the words “frigid,” “rejected,” and “lesbian.

At the Actors Studio, in NYC, Marilyn would appear in baggy sweater and jeans, without makeup, and seek out the most obscure place in the room. Actor Kevin McCarthy hardly noticed her at first, as they sat side by side watching a badly acted scene from Chekhov’s Three Sisters. When he did recognize her, he observed Marilyn’s disconcerting ability to switch her Monroe persona from ‘off’ to ‘on,’ from obscurity to the white light of Strasberg’s perception. ‘This tousled piece of humanity was sitting on my right,’ McCarthy remembered, ‘looking like nothing. Then, fifteen minutes later, after I’d interrupted the scene with some fairly rude comments, I looked again. I realized that a breathing, palpitating Marilyn Monroe had developed out of that nothing … I remember looking and thinking, “My God, it’s her” — she’d just come to life.’

The Many Faces Of Marilyn:



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Marilyn with Joe DiMaggio:


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Marilyn with Arthur Miller:



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Marilyn with Marlon Brando:

Marilyn with Ronald Reagen

Marilyn with Robert Mitchum on set:

Marilyn with Clark Gable:

Marilyn with Lee Strasberg: (Acting Coach Two)

Marilyn With Johnny Hyde

The only surviving image captured by a lens of Marilyn with Bobby Kennedy, The Attorney General, along with Jack, his brother, The President Of The United States. Notice Harry Belafonte in the background:

Ratpackers
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Frank Sinatra with John F. Kennedy:
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The Kennedy Brothers:

Peter Lawford, his Kennedy wife Pat, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe at Lawford's beach house, a few doors down from Marilyn's home:

Drinking


Three Of The Last Friends To Talk With Her: Brando, Bolanos and Lawford
Marlon Brando

Marilyn with José Bolanos:
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Marilyn Monroe and José Bolaños Pictures
Marilyn Monroe—Addict? Jilted Lover? National Security Risk?
The Funeral—Her casket flanked by Joe DiMaggio who assumed the care and custody of Marilyn's body:

Her Crypt

[Maja - one more chapter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nisko to oceniłam ponieważ że mogę przywyknąć do tego stylu pisania mimo że doszłam do 67 strony to nie czuję presji żeby dalej to czytać. Jest to mój pierwszy raz z biografią i wiem że ta nie przypadła mi do gustu.

[Joost Nixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reporting, actually, was top notch. 5 stars. Marilyn herself, well, she’s complicated.

The entertainment industry is… gross, heartless, exploitative, godless. But she signed up for a double helping. Many do, and many more would, if they could.

The author seeks to deal with her life in an honest, balanced, straightforward way. She is a tragic figure, but a good amount of the tragedy was self-inflicted. Only Christ can satisfy…

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a while to get through this as there was so much detail.
I was always a bit ambivalent about MM but sad to say I now like her even less. I know she had a horrible start in life but still: all those men/marriages messed up by her promiscuity and the fact that she was a Black Hole of neediness/all those dreadful repeated abortions while telling everybody that she was desperate to have children… Drug and alcohol abuse followed by more affairs and more abortions or miscarriages..
Ugh. Sordid and nasty.

I have little patience with people who say MM was a victim and was terribly exploited; this book makes clear that she had a great many people who cared very much about her, including her 3 husbands - and as far as I can see she was the one who exploited herself and destroyed all that was good around her. I guess when you set yourself up to be the most desirable woman in the world you then have to act the part constantly while leaving yourself empty in your psyche.

One quote from her a month before she died pretty much sums it up:

“I’m a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because of the image they’ve made of me and that I’ve made of myself, as a sex symbol. Men expect so much and I can’t live up to it. They expect bells to ring and whistles to whistle, but my anatomy is the same as any other woman’s. I can’t live up to it.”

What a shame. She might have been happier if she’d given up her image and quietly married and had the family she wanted.

[Simona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zo začiatku som nemala o Marilyn lichotivý názor ale postupne som ho zmenila. Marilyn bola podľa mňa chorá a Hollywood nebol pre ňu.Ten svet ju totálne zničil a aj vďaka tomu choroba ktorou trpela prepukla ešte viac a narobila ešte väčšie škody.Keby žila inak,možno by to dopadlo úplne,úplne inak.Škoda jej,Hollywod ju zničil,pre ten život bola veľmi krehká a zraniteľná a nezvládla to a nezvládla ani boj s veľmi mocnými ľuďmi ktorý ju podľa mňa s tohoto sveta zniesli.Skvelá kniha,odporúčam.

[Lindsay Moffatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one took me a while to finish. It felt very clunky, super heavy with background information on people that didn’t seem very relevant. This book made it clear that fame and fortune do not equal happiness and satisfaction in life. Her life story reads as a person, forever, searching for meaning, for belonging, and for love that felt genuine. Her sadness is palpable within these pages, one can only hope that she finally found what she’d search for all of her life.