While so many exciting facts remain about Marilyn Monroe, some are more well-known than others. In this article, we shed light on less popular facts about one of the most sought-after actors in the History Of Hollywood
The popular name ‘Marilyn’ that she was popularly known as was not her real name but a stage name. Her birth name was Norma Jeane Baker, and while she wanted to get into Hollywood as Norma, it didn’t quite work out.
She was married at 16, and the marriage was an arranged marriage. When she was 15, her foster family couldn’t take her with them as they were relocating, so they asked their neighbour, James Dougherty, to marry Marilyn.
Marilyn was put in foster care when she was just two weeks old because her mum, Gladys Baker, was to be admitted to a psychiatric facility as she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Marilyn Monroe had three husbands. The first was James Dougherty, an American Police officer she was with from 1942 to 1946. When the relationship ended, she married Joe DiMaggio, an American baseball player, and they were together from 1954 to 1955. Her last husband was Arthur Miller, an American playwright, and they were married from 1956 to 1961.
In the early stages of WWI, she interrupted her honeymoon with her second husband, Joe DiMaggio, to visit American troops in Korea in February 1954. She did ten shows in four days, despite the freezing temperatures that eventually contributed to her developing pneumonia.
Marilyn Monroe was institutionalized in 1961. Having witnessed how being mentally ill affected her mother and grandmother, Marilyn Monroe had a lifelong fear of losing her sanity. She was eventually admitted for a brief period at the Columbia University Presbyterian Hospital, where she received treatment in a private room.
Marilyn Monroe stuttered from her childhood till way into her teens. The stutter disappeared later in life, but while filming her final movie, “Something’s Got to Give,” the stutter came back due to the amount of stress she went through.
She had flowers delivered to her grave for 20 years. Before Marilyn Monroe died, she made her ex-husband, Joe DiMaggio, promise to leave flowers on her grave every week if she died before him. He fulfilled his promise and had a half-dozen red roses delivered three times a week to her crypt for 20 years.
Contrary to the popular belief of her time, Marilyn was a thoughtful, sensitive and intelligent woman who, by all accounts, was ahead of her time.
