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Joe and Marilyn
He was the most famous and best ballplayer of his generation. She was America's blonde. They were intense, impassioned lovers, and, long after that, gentle and loving friends. The only thing that didn't work between Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe was their marriage. Joe & Marilyn is a portrait of DiMaggio, as godlike as his legend on the field, but vulnerable and intensely human off and of a stormy Marilyn of whom it was said, “She doesn't need a husband. She needs salvation.”
After DiMaggio retired from baseball, he saw a publicity photo of Marilyn and his courtship began. She was reluctant to meet him fearing an old, vulgar ballplayer and instead finding a poised and graying man—"a little shy, like me"—impeccably tailored and financially secure. When they married in 1954, reporters called them “Mr. and Mrs. America.” But their married life was strained from the start. She was messy. He was compulsively neat. He wanted a certain primness and she liked to show her storied body. The marriage lasted nine months.
In later years as Marilyn drifted through mental illness, DiMaggio reappeared as a stalwart friend. But even he could not rescue her. In the end all that was left for him was to plan her funeral. He barred some of Hollywood's most famous names. Why? "Because they killed her," he told a friend.
295 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
3 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Roger Kahn
44 books64 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Roger Kahn was best known for The Boys of Summer, about the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Roger Kahn was best known for The Boys of Summer, about the Brooklyn Dodgers.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
June 23, 2024
Sports celebrity romances and marriages. If you’re like me, you follow and obsess over them. Ok, maybe I have obsessed over one of them, and if you’ve followed me long enough, you know which one I’m referring to. Before there were (in reverse chronological order) TSwift and Kelce, ARod and JLo, Tom and Giselle, Jeter and Mariah Carey, et al, the couple of couples was Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe. The greatest living ball player and the hottest starlet in Hollywood. Even in the days long before social media and a twenty four hour news cycle, the couple was the number one news story for hangers on, paparazzi, and anyone one else hoping to catch a glimpse of these A-Listers. Roger Kahn covered all three New York baseball teams in the golden age of baseball. He wrote extensively about both the Dodgers and Yankees and was on a first name basis with most of the key players from the capital of baseball. Forty years later, Kahn occupied the upper echelons of sports writers as a senior statesman of journalism. He decided to track down Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio and visit a time in his life when he was the best ball player married to the best Hollywood star. As it had forty years prior, the story of stories would make for good copy.
For years after he retired, Joe DiMaggio had been given the moniker greatest living ball player. He had the five tools, and made a difference in countless Yankee pennant winning teams after Babe Ruth’s retirement. DiMaggio came from humble beginnings- an immigrant fisherman’s son who lived in a modest home with eight siblings. All of them had been expected to contribute to the family income, either as fishermen or elsewhere. The three younger DiMaggio sons displayed the natural gifts as ball players. Joe, the middle of the three younger boys, started for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League as an eighteen year old. At the time with only sixteen major league teams, the PCL was home to a wide array of talent good enough to play in the majors. By 1936, DiMaggio had been signed, sealed, and delivered to the New York Yankees, the class of Major League Baseball. He exhibited the five tools even as a prodigious twenty year old; the Yankees knew they had got someone special who would let fans move on from Babe Ruth and a declining Lou Gehrig. In Joe’s first four seasons, the Yankees won the pennant going away and the World Series. He would bookend his career with World Series titles in four out of his last five seasons. Before three new star center fielders lobbied for the title of the best in New York during the 1950s, the title was Joe’s and Joe’s alone. He was Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio, the best player in baseball.
Unlike his playboy, loudmouth successor Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio displayed an introverted personality. Kahn believes this stems from his Sicilian roots. DiMaggio kept a small inner circle and only felt comfortable around these few people. Yes, the girls would flock to him as he had irresistible looks that grew better with age; however, DiMaggio did not flaunt his looks or personality. Either he would schmooze with the guys at table one in Toots Shor’s restaurant or enjoy a day on the golf course and then retire for a night of watching sports on television. Joe and Marilyn hardly seemed a compatible couple. In the 1950s, she might have been a bigger star than he was. Kahn’s writing is undeniably pro DiMaggio due to his background as a sports writer. He had enjoyed a relationship with DiMaggio during the tail end of his career and kept those channels of communication open. Kahn wrote this book forty years after the events had taken place when DiMaggio was a striking good looking octogenarian and Monroe was long since deceased. Gone but hardly forgotten and preserved as a memory from those who remembered her best. Not the fans and hangers on, but the few people in her life who she actually had a real relationship with. Even forty years later, Marilyn Monroe was the love of confirmed bachelor Joe DiMaggio’s life.
In her short life, Marilyn Monroe was the Hollywood starlet. I knew her from Some Like it Hot starring Tony Curtis, but Kahn does not even list the film among one of Marilyn’s best. The film that defined her career was most likely Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Yes, she appeared as a ditzy blonde; however, Marilyn Monroe was not the type to sleep her way to the top. She enjoyed a few romances with older Hollywood men, undoubtedly replacing the father she never had. Her first marriage fizzled out because she could not keep house. No, Marilyn Monroe was not a 1950s housewife and never would be. Playboy calendar: sure. Movies where she appeared naked: absolutely because it’s business. By the time DiMaggio ended his playing career after the 1951 season and was “available,” Monroe claimed to not know who he was. She did not care for baseball. What she did care for were good looking men and hot romance. Somehow they were intimate on their first date although DiMaggio denied it. The marriage would not last due to disparate personalities and lives. They attempted to make it work for nearly a year, and both stars realized that they were better off as lovers than as a married couple. When Kahn penetrated DiMaggio’s psyche in researching this book, Joe could not talk about Marilyn at length. He wanted to preserve the love and romance that they shared and chose to keep the memories to himself. Whether their marriage was steamy or fizzled out is left to one’s imagination. In this current era of shared parenting and couples remaining as friends after divorce, I do wonder if this A-list couple could have made it work for the long haul. That speculation is what drives celebrity romances of today and keeps them relevant long after they have burnt out. I do wonder though how things would have played out and so does Kahn.
Without DiMaggio’s most intimate memories about Monroe, Kahn did not have quite enough background for a full length book. He interspersed the romance and marriage with background on both of their careers. This introduced both DiMaggio and Monroe as huge stars, contributing to the steaminess of their romance. I do wonder if in today’s age of social media if a couple like this would have survived. They would have had to be discreet, something Monroe was not, or the news would have dissected their every move. Just look at every celebrity couple today: most do not last. On the other hand, Monroe despised the media and the people who ran Hollywood. Perhaps she would have made this romance and marriage work only to spite them. I am on the fence as to whether the marriage would have endured the media. Even the greatest football player got cheated on and most likely Marilyn would have done the same to Joe. That’s what their marriage was: the union of two A-List celebrities at the top of their chosen fields. It made for a sizzling romance perfect for summer reading that Roger Kahn brought back to life amongst these pages.
4 stars
For years after he retired, Joe DiMaggio had been given the moniker greatest living ball player. He had the five tools, and made a difference in countless Yankee pennant winning teams after Babe Ruth’s retirement. DiMaggio came from humble beginnings- an immigrant fisherman’s son who lived in a modest home with eight siblings. All of them had been expected to contribute to the family income, either as fishermen or elsewhere. The three younger DiMaggio sons displayed the natural gifts as ball players. Joe, the middle of the three younger boys, started for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League as an eighteen year old. At the time with only sixteen major league teams, the PCL was home to a wide array of talent good enough to play in the majors. By 1936, DiMaggio had been signed, sealed, and delivered to the New York Yankees, the class of Major League Baseball. He exhibited the five tools even as a prodigious twenty year old; the Yankees knew they had got someone special who would let fans move on from Babe Ruth and a declining Lou Gehrig. In Joe’s first four seasons, the Yankees won the pennant going away and the World Series. He would bookend his career with World Series titles in four out of his last five seasons. Before three new star center fielders lobbied for the title of the best in New York during the 1950s, the title was Joe’s and Joe’s alone. He was Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio, the best player in baseball.
Unlike his playboy, loudmouth successor Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio displayed an introverted personality. Kahn believes this stems from his Sicilian roots. DiMaggio kept a small inner circle and only felt comfortable around these few people. Yes, the girls would flock to him as he had irresistible looks that grew better with age; however, DiMaggio did not flaunt his looks or personality. Either he would schmooze with the guys at table one in Toots Shor’s restaurant or enjoy a day on the golf course and then retire for a night of watching sports on television. Joe and Marilyn hardly seemed a compatible couple. In the 1950s, she might have been a bigger star than he was. Kahn’s writing is undeniably pro DiMaggio due to his background as a sports writer. He had enjoyed a relationship with DiMaggio during the tail end of his career and kept those channels of communication open. Kahn wrote this book forty years after the events had taken place when DiMaggio was a striking good looking octogenarian and Monroe was long since deceased. Gone but hardly forgotten and preserved as a memory from those who remembered her best. Not the fans and hangers on, but the few people in her life who she actually had a real relationship with. Even forty years later, Marilyn Monroe was the love of confirmed bachelor Joe DiMaggio’s life.
In her short life, Marilyn Monroe was the Hollywood starlet. I knew her from Some Like it Hot starring Tony Curtis, but Kahn does not even list the film among one of Marilyn’s best. The film that defined her career was most likely Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Yes, she appeared as a ditzy blonde; however, Marilyn Monroe was not the type to sleep her way to the top. She enjoyed a few romances with older Hollywood men, undoubtedly replacing the father she never had. Her first marriage fizzled out because she could not keep house. No, Marilyn Monroe was not a 1950s housewife and never would be. Playboy calendar: sure. Movies where she appeared naked: absolutely because it’s business. By the time DiMaggio ended his playing career after the 1951 season and was “available,” Monroe claimed to not know who he was. She did not care for baseball. What she did care for were good looking men and hot romance. Somehow they were intimate on their first date although DiMaggio denied it. The marriage would not last due to disparate personalities and lives. They attempted to make it work for nearly a year, and both stars realized that they were better off as lovers than as a married couple. When Kahn penetrated DiMaggio’s psyche in researching this book, Joe could not talk about Marilyn at length. He wanted to preserve the love and romance that they shared and chose to keep the memories to himself. Whether their marriage was steamy or fizzled out is left to one’s imagination. In this current era of shared parenting and couples remaining as friends after divorce, I do wonder if this A-list couple could have made it work for the long haul. That speculation is what drives celebrity romances of today and keeps them relevant long after they have burnt out. I do wonder though how things would have played out and so does Kahn.
Without DiMaggio’s most intimate memories about Monroe, Kahn did not have quite enough background for a full length book. He interspersed the romance and marriage with background on both of their careers. This introduced both DiMaggio and Monroe as huge stars, contributing to the steaminess of their romance. I do wonder if in today’s age of social media if a couple like this would have survived. They would have had to be discreet, something Monroe was not, or the news would have dissected their every move. Just look at every celebrity couple today: most do not last. On the other hand, Monroe despised the media and the people who ran Hollywood. Perhaps she would have made this romance and marriage work only to spite them. I am on the fence as to whether the marriage would have endured the media. Even the greatest football player got cheated on and most likely Marilyn would have done the same to Joe. That’s what their marriage was: the union of two A-List celebrities at the top of their chosen fields. It made for a sizzling romance perfect for summer reading that Roger Kahn brought back to life amongst these pages.
4 stars
February 20, 2010
Too much baseball & not enough "Joe & Marilyn". Sorry Yankee fans.
August 2, 2012
http://xoxoxoe.blogspot.com/2012/07/j...
"In Joe & Marilyn, published in 1986, author Roger Kahn, probably best known for his book The Boys of Summer, announces early on that he is convinced Marilyn had mental problems, was depressed, and killed herself. That is his opinion, and he is entitled to it, but such a sweeping, un-nuanced statement leaves out any other possible interpretations. And it also keeps his hero, Joe DiMaggio, at a safe distance."
"In Joe & Marilyn, published in 1986, author Roger Kahn, probably best known for his book The Boys of Summer, announces early on that he is convinced Marilyn had mental problems, was depressed, and killed herself. That is his opinion, and he is entitled to it, but such a sweeping, un-nuanced statement leaves out any other possible interpretations. And it also keeps his hero, Joe DiMaggio, at a safe distance."
March 21, 2013
The trouble with "Joe and Marilyn" is that it wasn't long enough a relationship to carry a book, so 45 percent of it is about Joe and baseball, 45 percent of it is about Marilyn and Hollywood, and 10 percent — less than we'd hope, given the title — is about their intersecting paths.
Roger Kahn is an outstanding writer and journalist, a pleasure to read in any event.
Roger Kahn is an outstanding writer and journalist, a pleasure to read in any event.
October 3, 2009
Of course I liked this book, I love Marilyn and it gave great insight to the psychology of Joe Dimaggio. You can understand why he wasthe way he was, after reading this.
April 8, 2015
Too much Joe Di Maggio, not enough Marilyn. Too little time dedicated to their actual relationship.
June 24, 2023
Not a bad book for Dimaggio enthusiasts and baseball fans, and there's a meager amount of analysis of the marriage between the athlete and the actress. It's hard to consider it a measured account, as Marilyn Monroe's biography is limited to about 1/3rd of its chapters. Any complexity applied to Dimaggio grows redundant, who's the first to admit he's a simple guy who likes playing ball and showgirls. For Monroe, it reads like other too many other speculations and often turns pitying, tabloid and graphic. The color of Monroe's pubic hair compared to endless NY Yankee contract negotiations don't mix. Also, author Kahn has a timeline impossible to follow, sometimes jumping between 1940 to 1945, with WWII and several World Series in between.
July 19, 2025
Such an odd book. It functions as two split mini biographies, with sections entirely on Joe and sections entirely on Marilyn. Their actual time together is relegated to a few chapters at the end. There are no references for most of the claims made here, we just have to take the author's word. And although he does have a sympathetic view towards Marilyn, it's both fascinating and sad to see the way that she was thought of even in 1986, decades after her death... it is impossible for the author to mention her without referencing her body, her sex appeal, and what drove her to sleep with or reject different lovers. This book is more of a time capsule than a reference, showing the mentality that Marilyn the human being was up against.
June 12, 2020
I picked up this book because I’m a fan of Marilyn Monroe. If you look at a list of Mr. Kahn’s books, they are all about spirts. This book is mainly about Joe DiMaggio. Only the last 25 pages is about Joe and Marilyn’s marriage. From what he writes about Joe DiMaggio, it is no surprise that his marriage to Marilyn didn’t work out. He doesn’t come off as an easy man to live with. I was disappointed that he didn’t write about their post-marriage friendship.
May 11, 2025
This wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t what the title suggests. It is mostly about DiMaggio’s baseball career, which was interesting. However, there was definitely not much new information about Marilyn or her relationship with DiMaggio. This book was written before DiMaggio’s death, so I expect there was some eggshell-walking to keep his reputation intact while he was alive. The author’s tone is kind of gossipy, which I didn’t really enjoy. Lots of unattributed “information” & quotes.
June 18, 2022
When I was younger I was fascinated with MM & her early demise despite all the adulation she received & success she had achieved so I read many books about her. This, however, is the first I have read specifically about her relationship with Joe DiMaggio & it was fairly interesting as I knew very little about him.
November 11, 2023
I was very disappointed by this. From the title it rightfully should be an account of the relationship between Marilyn and Joe, but this felt much more to me like a biography or Joe and not an account of their relationship with far smaller sections of information about her and their romance . I gave it 3 stars because I will admit that it was well written, but still it was not what I expected.
April 23, 2018
The book leaves you wanting more, which is exactly what these two larger-than-life individuals did. There is more substance about Joe DiMaggio, less about Marilyn, and little of their relationship, which seems, again, a rather accurate rendering.
March 1, 2020
Not the usual heartbreaking Joe and Marilyn saga. Kahn, being a sportswriter, treats Marilyn as if she were a kind of athlete too, bringing surprising new insight to the classic star-crossed romance. And of course, it's his writing, as always!
July 11, 2021
Don’t bother. The book is 90% about baseball. Joe and Marilyn don’t get married until of 244 and the marriage is over 20 pages later.
October 8, 2025
More about Gusieppe than Marilyn. Two very famous people constantly in the public eye- tough lives.
February 24, 2015
This was ok. For one thing the author turned me off when he said Marilyn committed suicide. But I continued. As another GoodReads reader commented...there was not enough to write a book on their relationship. Instead, it was a good deal about Joe's life and a little about Marilyn. Since I didn't know much about Joe, it explained a good deal...still not sure how these personalities managed to get along at all....! Should have stayed an affair..:) A very hot one at that...
March 14, 2016
This book should have been called 'Joe'. Out of almost 300 pages, 'Marilyn' was mentioned in about 25 pages. DiMaggio's career was thoroughly tracked from his rookie year through his retirement including his stats, world series plays, records, etc. It's a good thing I like baseball or I wouldn't have been able to get through it. Oh yeah, and in the final chapter, Joe married Marilyn and their marriage lasted nine months and then they divorced. The end.
January 18, 2021
This writer is a real critic.Criticizing as is he is a perfect person.Anyway I like the flow of the book and the way writer has written down external factors effect to their lives.Also I think too much of baseball related stuff is written.Seems writer has depreciated Marilyn and appreciated Joe.He is a real sexist I guess.Anyway the book is a good one.Im glad I met this book even though it was 20-30 years old.
March 19, 2014
Fascinating story about Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe. Most of the book is dedicated to their beginnings and rise to fame during an era long gone. The story ends with the 9 month marriage and ultimate suicide of Marilyn. If you like history/sports this is a great quick read.
December 21, 2010
Too very different people.
October 10, 2011
Decent. Written in the 80's. Doesn't believe any of the conspiracy theories about Marilyn's death. She simply wanted to die more than live any more. Joe was basically a jerk.
September 29, 2012
Listened to the audio of the love story of Joe and Marilyn, their short but bittersweet marriage and divorce.
September 1, 2015
Not as good as it could have been..sad..
July 3, 2016
Very little about the relationship, but a lot on Joe and a fair amount on Marilyn. Worth the read.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews