History - Marilyn Monroe: A Life From Beginning to End

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Marilyn Monroe was born into this world as Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother Gladys was not yet ready to be a parent when Norma Jeane was conceived and had her placed in the care of two foster parents named Albert and Ida Bolender.

Residing in the small town of Hawthorne, Southern California, the Bolenders were a family of Christian fundamentalists who sought to instill these values on the young Norma Jeane. Her mother in the meantime was soon relegated to just visiting on the weekends, during which she would take her daughter back to Los Angeles to shop and treat her to the occasional movie. Some say that it was those weekend trips to the cinema that sparked Norma Jeanes lifelong interest in the arts.

The Bolenders eventually wished to make the young girl a permanent part of their family, but Norma Jeanes mother Gladys had regained her feet enough by that time and was granted custody of Norma Jeane in 1933. Gladys had bought a small house in Hollywood, and for a short period, things were well. Just a little over a year later, however, Norma Jeanes mother was institutionalized and diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

She would go on to spend the rest of her life in and out of state-run institutions, and her daughter would be shifted back and forth between state institutions as well; becoming a complete ward of the state at the tender age of nine. A friend of Norma Jeanes mother, a woman named Grace Goddard, eventually assumed a guardianship role over the girl and oversaw her placement in various foster homes.

Grace would bring Norma Jeane into her own home when she was 15, but soon realized she couldnt handle the burden, so she arranged to have the teenager married off instead. Luckily, she had a friend whose son was a young, single man by the name James Dougherty. Although their relationship was conceived as a marriage of necessity more than anything else, the two seemed to enjoy each others company, and James Dougherty would later insist that they were in love at the time.

A couple of months after her sixteenth birthday, James and Norma Jeane were married. But just as World War II was drawing to a close, James took up a position with the Merchant Marines and was stationed overseas. According to James, Norma Jeane hated to see him go and was at first quite saddened at this interruption of what had been a relatively idyllic domestic life. James was her first real piece of security, and now he was going to be shipped off thousands of miles away. James recalls that before he left, Norma Jeane practically begged him to get her pregnant so that she could have a little piece of him to remember him by in case he was lost at sea.

While Dougherty no doubt was flattered by some of the melodrama that had erupted in his honor, he insisted that the time wasnt right; she was too young, and furthermore, if he was lost at sea, it wouldnt make any sense for her to have the burden of being a single mother. Norma Jeane who recalled her own mothers struggles with being an unprepared parent soon agreed with his argument. As fate would have it, after declining the opportunity to have a baby with her first husband, she would never be a mother during her sojourn on this Earth and would die childless.

Accepting her role as the lonely newlywed, Norma Jeane moved in with her mother-in-law, and not long after James left to fill his post with the Merchant Marines, she began her first nine-to-five job, working at a local radio plane factory. Here she was one of many women trying to do their part for the war relief effort during World War II. Norma Jeane worked hard, spraying airplane parts with fire retardant and examining military parachutes as part of a quality control team. It was here that she would encounter her first rendezvous with fate when she was discovered by photographer David Conover who was on the site doing a piece on the female contributions to the war.

After Conover introduced Norma Jeane to a modeling agency, she received her first official contract in the industry. And it wasnt long after signing on as a model that Norma Jeane would begin to craft the image that would make her famous; sheering her long hair and bleaching it blonde. She soon became the agencys most successful model and appeared on the cover of several magazines.

Norma Jeane made such an impression that her husband James claims he first saw her on the cover of a magazine when he was still overseas in Buenos Aires. According to James, after he got over his shock of seeing his wifes picture printed on the front page, he pointed out as much to his comrades in arms, and they wouldnt believe she was his spouse.

This extra exposure as a model soon landed Norma Jeane a screen testing with the film company 20th Century Fox. The aspiring actress was initially given a six-month contract and a weekly salary of $125, and in more ways than one, it was here that Marilyn Monroe was conceived. The suggestion to give up the name of Norma Jeane Dougherty came from a talent scout named Ben Lyon. After accepting the first name of Marilyn which Lyon had suggested, Norma took on her mothers maiden name of Monroe, and thus, Marilyn Monroe was born.

Shortly after signing the contract with 20th Century Fox, Marilyn Monroe served her husband with divorce papers. According to James, there was no real malice involved in the separation; it was more or less a mutual understanding since they both knew she couldnt remain his adoring housewife and vigorously pursue her career in Hollywood at the same time.

During her first six months with 20th Century Fox, Marilyn was hopeful that she would be able to land her first big break. Unfortunately, she was mainly relegated to small walk-on roles such as the minute part she played in the lackluster Scudda Hoo Scudda Hay in 1947. After final editing, her time on this film had been reduced to just one clip, in which she walked on screen for a few moments to say hello to one of the main characters of the film.

Adding insult to injury, shortly after the final release, 20th Century Fox let Marilyn know that they did not intend to renew her contract. She was devastated, but she wasnt about to give up, and simply returned to her successful career in modeling while she relentlessly sought to make new connections in the movie world.

Her determination paid off when she was assigned another six-month contract, this time with Columbia Pictures. In this deal, she was promiseda starring role in what turned out to be a rather low-budget musical called Ladies of the Chorus.

Marilyn was indeed cast in a leading role, but the film was not the box office success she had hoped and quickly faded from memory. After this latest stint in Hollywood, her contract came to an end again and was, to her disappointment, not renewed. For the rest of the late 1940s, Marilyn got by through filming some of the very first commercials for television, famously starring in a Royal Triton gasoline advertisement.