Marilyn and Ulysses

A few days ago I posted this picture on Gone Elsewhere, and I'm still fixated on it. It's on the cover of the latest issue of Poets & Writers, and I picked up a copy of the magazine at the newsstand (it was a good bit of marketing, as I ended up reading it from cover to cover and ordering a subscription).

The photo of Marilyn Monroe was taken in 1955 by Eve Arnold. According to the editor's note, Arnold wanted to get a shot of Monroe doing something she did in her spare time. The actress had a copy of Ulysses in her car, which she read from time to time. She didn't fully understand it, but she enjoyed the beauty of the language.

The photo is fun because it is greatly suggestive of a different era in both the film and book worlds. When I visited the Hollywood History museum in Hollywood I was more fascinated than I expected to be by the large display of Monroe memorabilia. I'm never considered myself a fan of hers, but she interests me as an icon. She was certainly the dominant sex symbol of the twentieth century, as well as the first centerfold for Playboy.

Of course, she was also the classic victim of her attractiveness, used by men and ultimately chewed up and spit out. From the biographical material I've read about her she led a profoundly unhappy life that came to a staggeringly sad end. It's almost impossible to watch her in films today without feeling sympathy towards her.

She was also an underrated actress who took her craft seriously, studying with Lee Strasberg, At the same time, she became a problem for those who worked with her. I popped in my copy of Some Like It Hot and watched it for the umpteenth time, marveling at how good her performance was, in a role that wasn't as easy as it looks. She had to be drop-dead sexy as well as projecting innocence, a quality that is rare. In the supplemental materials, Tony Curtis recalls how difficult it was to work with her. She was frequently hours late to filming, and Billy Wilder told Curtis and Jack Lemmon to be at their best, because if she got it right, Wilder was going to print it.

Monroe has been the subject of elegies from Norman Mailer to Bernie Taupin, so it's difficult to imagine anyone could write anything new about her. I do find it disheartening that so many young women look up to her as some sort of hero, when instead she should be a cautionary tale. One of her most prominent fans was Anna Nicole Smith, who took her hero worship to dangerous levels.