by Some celebrities fame is so great that they only require one name to identify them and Marilyn Monroe is surely one of them. I first became a fan of hers in the late 1970s after seeing this picture in Parade magazine.
Pretty hot stuff for a 12-year-old from Nowheresville, Indiana!
Marilyn’s been dead for over 45 years but her name was back in print today because an X-rated video shot during her pre-fame days was sold for a cool $1.5M to an unnamed New York businessman who vowed to lock the film up "out of respect."
Hopefully the video’s new owner will keep his word and keep the movie out of public view. Most of Marilyn’s fans would, I think, prefer it that way.
I can’t help but wonder whether the film, possessed by members of the mob and then by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, had anything to do with her death. It surely wasn’t something the famous actress could have been proud of and might have contributed to her suicide, if that’s what it was. Or someone who was aware of it could have used it for leverage against her, perhaps in regard to her husband, straight-arrow Joe Dimaggio or even John or Robert Kennedy. Or perhaps it meant nothing at all to her.
We will probably never know the answers to those questions and that’s probably for the best, too. Whatever the origins of the film – the "casting couch" comes to mind immediately – they point backward to a time in which women like Marilyn had to "use their assets" to get what they wanted.
That’s just sad, and all the more so because it’s still prevalent in Follywood today. But we’re still lining up to see the movies they’re pumping out, so it must be OK.
Marilyn’s troubled life and premature death are America’s somewhat naughtier version of Princess Diana. This latest revelation reinforces the tragedy of Marilyn’s stardom and the price it cost her to attain and maintain it.
