Marilyn Monroe

What does this name strike you when it is mention? Sex symbols, actress, singer? But did you know that all she ever wanted is just to be loved? She was just a girl that just like you. Who just believe in love and knowingly love is the only thing she wasn't able to hold on. Well, like many actors and actresses nowadays. Many of them are really great artists. But tabloids make them into such jokes and fools. This post was inspire by the recent hit musical television series I am on to SMASH. And getting to know more about an icon like her. I guess I wanna do my part to give her a heads up on her career and life.

Actress. Born Norma Jeane Mortenson (later baptized as Norma Jeane Baker) on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. During her all-too-brief life, Marilyn Monroe overcame a difficult childhood to become of the world's biggest and most enduring sex symbols. She never knew her father, and her mother Gladys, developed psychiatric problems and was eventually placed in a mental institution. Growing up, Monroe spent much of her time in foster care and in an orphanage. In 1937, a family friend and her husband, Grace and Doc Goddard, took care of her for a few years. But when Doc's job was transferred in 1942 to the East Coast, the couple could not afford to bring Monroe with them.

During her growing up part of her life. She was living I would say fear. The whole society doesn't believe what she had. That burning passion to be a star. She was afraid to be crazy like her mother. People thinks she is crazy because she want things. But we all do want things in life too. But how many of us are able to be as courageous as she? Against all odds. Making to the silver screen. Monroe had a successful career as a model when she just started. She dreamt of becoming an actress like Jean Harlow and Lana Turner.

Her small part in John Huston's crime drama The Asphalt Jungle (1950) garnered her a lot of attention. That same year she impressed audiences and critics alike as Claudia Caswell in All About Eve. In 1953, Monroe made a star-making turn in Niagara, starring as a young married woman out to kill her husband with help from her lover. The emerging sex symbol was paired with another bombshell, Jane Russell, for the musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes(1953). The film was a hit and Monroe continued to find success in a string of light comedic fare, such as How to Marry a Millionaire with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall, There's No Business like Show Business (1954) with Ethel Merman and Donald O'Connor, and The Seven Year Itch (1955). With her breathy voice and hourglass figure, Monroe became a much-admired international star.

Ok, I will make that history part a brief one. But what and how she really inspire me. Or I shall put it us?

Marilyn, We Hardly Knew You
She revealed many facets of her character that few people were privy to. Growing up, she was introverted and shy - a far cry from the woman whose character quickly captured everyone’s attention. “You know, most people don’t really know me,” 

Many assumed that Marilyn craved the attention, but she blatantly confessed the extent of her fears and insecurities, which were significant for someone in the spotlight. She stated, “I’m trying to prove to myself that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll convince myself that I’m an actress.” she looked great but was clearly troubled. She left her fans with the impression that she was a complicated person with a somewhat child-like view of the world.

“Fame has a special burden.”
Even though Marilyn Monroe made a number of successful movies, her studio had once said to her “you’re not a star”. However, while driving to the airport, she saw her name in bright lights at a movie house and deduced that she was indeed famous since her name was up there for all to see.

This newly found fame introduced many problems in her life. “An actor is not a machine, no matter how much they want… everyone is always tugging at you. They’d all like sort of a chunk of you,” with regard to what people expected from her (perhaps more than was possible from one person). Her reaction to fame was clearly defined in this comment: “It's nice to be included in people's fantasies but you also like to be accepted for your own sake. I don't look at myself as a commodity, but I'm sure a lot of people have.”

Marilyn believed that people judged actors by what they read about them in tabloids, or by watching them in one of their movies, but according to her, some things should be kept personal and private. In fact, Monroe refused to let Life Magazine take any pictures of her home saying, “I don’t want everybody to see exactly where I live, what my sofa or my fireplace looks like. Do you know the book Everyman? Well, I want to stay just in the fantasy of everyone.” While she was surrounded by people all the time, there were a certain few who were closer than the rest, and she remarked that those friends would “accept you the way you are.”

Farewell Marilyn
"The least I can do is give them the best they can get from me. What's the good of drawing in the next breath if all you do is let it out and draw in another?" Indeed, Marilyn gave her best during a very short career. What really hit me was the interview with Life Magazine. Quote :  “Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one ... I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity.”

On August 3, 1962, two days before the actress died at the young age of 36. We should keep in mind this particularly memorable line from Marilyn: “…you can read about yourself but what’s important is how you feel about yourself.”

I somehow will end this post here. To those who knows me. I guess this set in perfectly. Thank you for always being there for me. Especially those who truly didn't judge me and kept on loving me. You know who I am talking about. And I know this will lead me to wonderful things to come in life. It is just where it starts right at the very end. With love.