Marilyn New Stamp Provides A Great Reason To Remember America’s Sweetheart

Here are some things that you may not know about Marilyn Monroe: During World War II, her pinups led the Seventh Division Medical Corps to vote her “the girl (we) would most like to examine.”

In “Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay!” (1948), her screen debut, all of Marilyn’s close-ups ended up being cut.

While sales of her famous nude calender photo grossed an estimated $750,000, Marilyn netted only her $50 modeling fee.

Two different studios, Fox and Columbia, let starlet Marilyn’s option lapse without casting her in a single featured role (Fox later re-signed her and within a few years she became a star).

Marilyn’s marriage to baseball star Joe DiMaggio lasted nine months.

When Marilyn married playwright Arthur Miller in 1956, one headline read “Egghead Weds Hourglass.”

And then there’s this: Marilyn Monroe is set to become the first person honored by the U.S. Postal Service in its new line of stamps titled “Hollywood Legends.”

In honor of the stamp’s inauguration, the main branch of Spokane’s post office is sponsoring a series of events, including a free screening of the film “Some Like It Hot” at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Magic Lantern Cinemas. A 2 p.m. dedication ceremony will precede the screening, and special Marilyn stamp pins and other prizes will be given to the first 200 film fans through the door.

“There’s a lot of human interest with Marilyn Monroe,” says Kathy Hamilton, the post office’s customer relations coordinator. “The Marilyn Monroe stamp was the second-most requested stamp ever.”

The first? Elvis Presley, of course.

Last September, Hamilton’s office oversaw a series of events in honor of the Bing Crosby stamp (which was part of the “Legends of Music” series).

“That was a little bit different,” Hamilton says. “We did it with Gonzaga University. And because the school was his alma mater and everything, it took on a more serious aspect.”

Seriousness is not the first attitude that we tend to apply to the career of Marilyn Monroe. Yes, the sad reality of her death - an overdose in 1962 at age 36 - has to be taken seriously. As do the rumors of her affairs with the Kennedy brothers, along with the attendant murder rumors.

And even her career has to be taken seriously in that she was serious about it.

But Marilyn was … well, Marilyn was fun. Maybe not always in real life (ask DiMaggio or Arthur Miller), and maybe not always on the set (ask Tony Curtis). But on screen, yes, that is where Marilyn still exudes fun.

Marilyn quoted: As Loreilei Lee in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (1953), Monroe tells Charles Coburn, “I always say a kiss on the hand might feel very good, but a diamond tiara lasts forever.”

Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926. Her unstable mother, Gladys Pearl Baker, was unmarried. To this day, it’s not clear who Marilyn’s father was, though the name on her birth certificate reads Edward Mortenson.

While her mother drifted in and out of various mental institutions, Marilyn spent her childhood moving in and out of various foster homes. By age 16, she had quit school to marry a factory worker.

Discovered by an Army photographer, she began her pinup career. By 1946, a now-divorced Marilyn had been put under contract by 20th Century-Fox and given her alliterative screen name (the Monroe was her mother’s maiden name). It was two years before she made her film debut, in “Scudda-Hoo! ScuddaHay!” Then Fox dropped her.

After a short stay at Columbia, she was again signed by Fox. This time, thanks to a publicity campaign, she began attracting attention and decent roles. When she married DiMaggio in 1954, she was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.

Marilyn quoted: “To put it bluntly, I seem to be a whole superstructure with no foundation. But I’m working on that foundation.”

What was the secret of Marilyn’s appeal? The late film historian Ephraim Katz put it this way: “Her wiggle, her pout, her husky voice, were becoming the object of women’s imitation and men’s dreams. She exuded breathless sensuality that was at once erotic and wholesome, invitingly real and appealingly funny.

That about describes it: erotic wholesomeness.

Unlike other sex goddesses past and present, from Mae West to Madonna, there was nothing crass about Marilyn Monroe. She was someone both to cuddle and make love to, someone to picnic and party with, someone who is both sweet and seductive.

The Marilyn of “Some Like It Hot,” especially, may be a challenge. But she’s hardly a threat.

Marilyn quoted: A reporter: “Did you have anything on?” Marilyn: “I had the radio on. Sex is part of nature, and I go along with nature.” A reporter: “Do you wear falsies?” Marilyn: “Those who know me better, know better.”

As an actress, Marilyn had her limitations. Hollywood snickered when, in the mid-‘50s, she began studying acting with Lee Strasberg and spoke of playing such dramas as “The Brothers Karamazov.” And some of her more serious attempts did fall flat.

But in light comedy, she had a delicate touch. She was everything that Madonna dreams of being. And though the reports from those who worked with her were mixed, most did recognize - or at least benefited from - her inherent talent.

Tony Curtis, Marilyn’s “Some Like It Hot” co-star, said acting with her was like acting “with Hitler.” Yet he did some of his most memorable work with her.

Josh Logan, who directed her in “Bus Stop” (1956), said Marilyn was “as near genius as any actress I ever knew.”

Even hard-nosed Billy Wilder, who directed her in “The Seven Year Itch” (1955) and “Some Like It Hot” (1959), had mixed feelings. “I have never met anybody as mean as Marilyn Monroe,” he said. “Nor as utterly fabulous on the screen, and that includes Garbo.”

And, Billy Wilder again: “Anyone can remember lines, but it takes a real artist to come on the set and not know her lines and give the performance she did.”

Marilyn quoted: “I don’t mind living in a man’s world as long as I can be a woman in it.”

Blame for what happened to Marilyn in real life - three marriages, troubles on the set, alcoholism, death at age 36 - has been spread between everyone from her crazy mother to the movie executives who used her to her own self-destructive emotions.

Laurence Olivier, who starred with her in the 1957 film “The Prince and the Showgirl,” may have put it best. “Popular opinion, and all that goes to promote it, is a horrible unsteady conveyance for life,” he said, “and she was exploited beyond anyone’s means.”

What, then, is the price of fame? A listing in The Film Encyclopedia? A handful of funny films? An image on a stamp? For someone as vulnerable as Marilyn, the price was everything. And we who flock to see her on screen are the ones who benefit from her purchase.

In “Some Like It Hot,” especially, Marilyn gave about as good a performance as she was capable of creating. Kathy Hamilton of the post office hopes that Spokane movie fans agree.

“We’re gonna show the movie for free for as many as the theater will hold,” she says. “I hope we’ll have a theater full.”

You can see the headline now: “Eggheads Honor Hourglass.”