Candle in the Wind

In celebration of the late screen legend's 88th Birthday! 

At exactly 88 years old today, Marilyn's legend still lives on as vibrantly as ever! In fact, Marilyn remains one of the most iconic movie stars of all time, and after all these years too! So, on the 1st of June, we'll commemorate the birth of one of America's most legendary film-stars. In honor of her special day, I have compiled a list of ten unknown facts about the legend. 

But first, a tribute I found for her on YouTube. 

(1.) Marilyn was said to have stuttered throughout her childhood as well as her teen years. She was also quoted in a latter interview "I don't know how it happened... sometimes if I was very nervous or excited, I would stutter." Her stutter was noted to have returned during the production of her final film, "Something's Got to Give"- due to stress. 

(2.) It's often said that Marilyn Monroe was a size 16, however, according to a fashion editor for The Times of London, these notions were immediately dismissed upon the fashion editor's being given the opportunity to try on one of the bombshell's pieces of clothing. "Quite the opposite," recorded Sara Buys. "While she was undeniably voluptuous- for most of the early part of her career, she was a size 8 and even in her plumper stages, was no mare than a 10."

(3.) Marilyn spent a great deal of her childhood under the care of various foster homes including the Los Angeles Orphans Home (later renamed Hollygrove), despite the fact that she was never an orphan. A tomboy, Norma Jean was in fact, the top player on the Hollygrove softball team.

(4.) Marilyn was paid relatively very poorly and her co-star, Jane Russell had in fact been paid approximately 10 times as much as Marilyn as the two co-starred in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". 

Her salary for her final and unfinished film "Something's Got to Give" at $100,000. U.S. dollars was comparatively low as well, especially in comparison to the lavish 1 million  dollars that Elizabeth Taylor was being paid for her role in "Cleopatra". 

Liz shown above as Cleopatra in the (1963) blockbuster hit "Cleopatra".

Marilyn shown above in her final and uncompleted film "Something's Got to Give"

(5.) Found it nearing the impossible to learn and memorize lines and had in fact required around 60 takes to deliver the line "It's me, Sugar" in the (1959) film "Some Like it Hot". 

(6.) Before her marriages to both Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, Marilyn had been prematurely married to James Dougherty. She was in fact, merely 16 years old when they tied the knot. Dougherty, who later became a detective in the LAPD, was forbidden by his second wife from going to see any of Marilyn's films.

(7.) Marilyn's adoration for Ella Fitzgerald as well as her to intervention in the formation of Ella's career had in fact, won Ella  her first major engagement at a Los Angeles nightclub. In 1955 the colour bar was still in force, but Marilyn convinced the management to let Fitzgerald play by promising to sit in the front row for a week.

(8.) Her weight was recorded to have fluctuated up and down so dramatically during the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl that the costume designer, Beatrice Dawson, had to create facsimile dresses in different sizes. ''I have two ulcers from this film,'' she was noted in having expressed, ''and they're both monogrammed MM."

(9.) Marilyn had, since her childhood bore a fixation on Clark Gable, and had in fact, as a child imagined that he was her father. Clark Gable would later star beside her in the (1961) film, "The Misfits", a film that would in fact, be the last  finished film of both stars.  Gable passed not long before the film's release, and upon the news of Gable's death, Marilyn had reportedly wept  for at least 2 days.  

(10.) 20 years after Marilyn's death, Joe DiMaggio arranged to have roses sent to her crypt at least three times a week.

The two had also been reportedly planning to remarry shortly before Marilyn's death. This letter had in fact been discovered in Marilyn's desk not long after her decease.

It reads: "Dear Joe, If I can only succeed in making you happy- I will have succeeded in the biggest and most difficult thing there is- that is to make one person completely happy. Your happiness means my happiness." ~Marilyn 

And there you have it! 10 facts that a lot of you were probably unaware of in regards to the screen legend's brief, yet legendary and incredible life until just now! One of Hollywood's most iconically beautiful and charismatic personalities of all time.

And although it's been 50 years since Marilyn died, her legend and onscreen presence remains as mesmerizing as it had been all those years before. 

So, with all this said... "Happy Birthday 88th Birthday, Marilyn!" 

~ Erin <3 xoxoxo

Young and Beautiful

“Consider the fact that maybe…just maybe…beauty and worth aren’t found in a makeup bottle, or a salon-fresh hairstyle, or a fabulous outfit. Maybe our sparkle comes from somewhere deeper inside, somewhere so pure and authentic and REAL, it doesn’t need gloss or polish or glitter to shine.” 
~ Mandy Hale, The Single Woman: Life, Love and a Dash of Sass 

Sometimes I wonder why society places such an importance on looks... on outer beauty, the main acts of media-raves pertaining to humanitarian acts often credited to these plasticy, Hollywood-tainted celebrities with unachievable beauty who's acts of charity or whatever were most likely strategically planned primarily to instigate a rush of media attention. Who am I to judge though? I suppose not all celebrities, however tainted with egotistical point of views are quite as shallow... or are they. Sometimes I can't help but wonder though. Although, I most certainly don't mean to judge anyone... who am I to claim of knowing just what's in the heart of my fellow man? After all, I'm not God. But then. I just can't help but wonder... the money these idols of beauty and glamour dish out daily on their appearance especially. 

Why? Why do young women think that they have to look and be a certain way. I often sit and think about this... ponder on just why beauty has become such an infectious obsession with all of us women (me included). Why do we dish out thousands of dollars a year on cosmetics... some even indulge in surgeries to alter this and that. I'll never understand. My mom's always told me "Remember, all of the beauty you have... God has given you." and it's true. So, why do we take such pride in the glorification that we ourselves did not create? Why do we take credit for it like it's something we did? I think, the only beauty that we are truly capable of yielding comes from within us. It's the beauty of caring for and treating people with love... with acts of charity and yet, with all this obsession towards beauty, has become lost, buried by piles of powdery cosmetics, lipsticks, magazines, etc., that society has yielded our way. 

To me, it's like placing all of the focus on the cover of a book. It's like spending countless hours adorning a book cover, only to fill it with blankness. The soul is a beauty that has been, like the pages of a book, faded by the placements of importance on the outward appearance... a focus on the cover of a book that distracts one from the literary beauty within, the loveliness that bellows from within the heart of those dusty pages. 

“Boys think girls are like books, If the cover doesn't catch their eye they won't bother to read what's inside".” 

~ Marilyn Monroe

Ah! I recall the days of my youth... the days when I'd felt beyond certain that the only way one could merit love, in other words, find that perfect soulmate was if you were beautiful on the outside. I used to think I had to be so beautiful to deserve such a beautiful gift. A miscalculation on my part, that is... a miscalculation that steered me to forget the importance of being beautiful within as well. I think that perhaps I sought my self-worth between the aisles of drugstores, scoring the shelves for those perfect cosmetics.

I wish the importance of outer perfection weren't such an issue in today's society. Beauty ages... and my mom has always reminded me "you're skin's just going to rot in the end"... I suppose in that case outer beauty is far from mortal. After all, no matter how hard we try and fight it, we will grow old... we will become creased with lines of age, wrinkles, and we WILL in fact be laid to rest countless feet below the ground... only to disintegrate into nothing but bones. Inner beauty, however... that's something that will never fade. It will live on and on... kindness can affect so many hearts in such a positive manner, far more positive than most of us realize! Even the simplest act of kindness can leave an everlasting impression on one's fellow man... and too me, that's something far more important than the skin deep form of beauty that most sought for. 

And when the world begins to see the importance of inner beauty, of lovingness and kindness and it's vitality in opposition to that superficial beauty most desire, it'll be an incredibly beautiful place. So, let's start one at a time! Little by little. Each of us! One act of kindness a day. So, channel that beauty the glows from within, the true beauty that your person has to offer and depict an example of the love and kindness you are capable of giving! I suppose... in other words, let go of those cosmetics and reach out both hands to better the well-being of others. Don't allow yourself to become corrupt by the desire for superficial beauty, the beauty that fades with age, instead, strive to give love to those in need, after all... the beauty of love has far more substance than long eyelashes, pouty lips and the perfect measurements. 

Make it so your beauty still shines through, even despite the withering of old age.

“The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a Woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she knows.” 

~Audrey Hepburn

~ Erin <3 xoxoxo

vintageglitterbox (playlist)

To have loved and to have lost

"It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all."~ Alfred Lord Tennyson                   




       People... they come in all shapes and sizes. They come in all variations. There are some 
who'll bring exquisite joy to your life, and others who'll offer nothing but anguish. There are good and bad people. Funny and grim people. One undisputed fact surrounding humanity, however, is that we're all doomed to come and go. God gives us precious moments with certain people. Moments to cherish, to etch into one's heart permanently.

Some people are capable of even changing one's attitude, their perception and outlook on life. Sometimes I wish people didn't have to just come and go, like stepping onto a movie screen to offer a brief escapade of beauty, only to gracefully fade from the screen, to dissolve into an ocean of blackness. I hate goodbyes. I hate losing people... whether through death or through the varying obstacles that life throws one's way. It's hard. Letting beautiful moments and persons disappear from one's life... it's somewhat like being forced as a child to, after several months of caring for and loving a precious sparrow after having rescued it and mending it's tattered wing, let it go... to watch it fade off into the tangerine horizon. 

It's like having had a presence that radiated so much beauty into one's life, one who'd in fact taken a paintbrush to my once grim and colorless world and added a rainbow of beauty to my entire world and then watching as the color became drained, my world back to it's original state. But then, whoever said that one must be rid of all of the beauty that that person had at one time penetrated into my life? Although my moments with that person may now be over... I can still say that we had at one time been granted those priceless moments with one that person and that that person had in fact transformed my life for good. After all, there's no escaping the mark they may have left in my life. I suppose you could say, they left it beautiful for my next step in life. But then, it's also very hard to admit that the person that we now hate so much for leaving may have had such an impact on our lives. We get sad. Try and rid ourselves of anything that may remind us of that person. And what for? Their memory can still in fact live on inside of us. The memory of who they WERE, the beautiful person that we had at one time been granted the opportunity of knowing, whether or not they may have dispersed and faded into the next life, or been changed, tainted by some of life's bitter poisons, their beauty stolen from us. We can still look back to the times we had with that person. The good times, that is. We can still think back to those moments God allowed us to have in one another's presence... elated at just the sight of one another and nothing more. We all need to learn that it's Ok if times have changed and that person has beens stolen from our lives, that it's in fact Ok to cling onto their memory, to gleam at the thought of their beauty, the life of the person that we had at one time fallen in love with. 

 "He was 25 years my senior and eternally young. I could hardly keep up with him. He was the most energetic man I've ever known and he made our short 18 months together one of the most intensely glorious times of my life. ... I have had two great loves in my life. Mike Todd was the first."

Elizabeth, broken-hearted and devastated, pictured above attending her late husband, Mike Todd's funeral, after his tragic death in a plane crash.

"When love is lost, do not bow your head in sadness; instead keep your head up high and gaze into heaven for that is where your broken heart has been sent to heal."~Unkown

Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier, pictured above, sharing a tender moment together days preceding their marriage (1956) 

Prince Rainier above (with daughter, Princess Stephanie) and below, rolling Grace's casket, decades later, as he bids farewell to his beloved bride after her tragic car crash (1982)

"Lost love is still love. It takes a different form, that’s all. You can’t see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it."Mitch Albom

"Though lovers be lost love shall not."Dylan Thomas

Joe and Marilyn pictured above on their wedding day in 1954.

Joe pictured above, attending Marilyn's funeral nearly a decade later. (1962)

People breezed in and out, some pushed away others jumping – but from their first meeting in 1952 Joe was steadfast. Many different sources claim that Joe and Marilyn had planned to remarry – that the wedding date was set for 8^th August 1962 – the day that became Marilyn’s funeral date. How honest and reliable these sources were we are unlikely to know now, but some things we do know for sure, some things are documented, some things can be visually seen. For example during 1961 and up to Marilyn’s death – Joe had begun to take a higher profile in her life. Often taking up the position of surrogate husband – he was the only person there for her when she was placed into a mental institution by her then psychiatrist Dr Marianne Kris – her pleas for help to the Strasberg’s fell on deaf ears – for whatever reasons they might have had – but Joe heard her and he claimed her – interestingly enough as his ‘wife’. Joe did as she asked and removed her from the place that distressed her.  ~ Loving Marilyn  http://www.lovingmarilyn.com/dimaggio.html

“We were sitting together in the patio one night, talking about his illness, and he said, ‘I don’t feel bad about dying. At least, I’ll be with Marilyn again.’”

Joe Dimaggio died with Marilyn Monroe's name on his lips.

Despite their premature separation, his love and devotion for her followed him to his grave.

In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing.Mignon McLaughlin

John F. Kennedy and Jackie Onassis pictured above on wedding day (1953) and less then a decade later below.

"Now, I think that I should have known that he was magic all along. I did know it - but I should have guessed that it would be too much to ask to grow old with and see our children grow up together. So now, he is a legend when he would have preferred to be a man."

Jackie Kennedy

   Jackie O attending the funeral of her late husband, John F. Kennedy (1963)

"Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart" ~Washington Irving

       “When my marriage broke up, it was terrible,” ~ Audrey Hepburn on divorce with Mel Ferrer 

“More than that, it was a keen disappointment. I thought a marriage between two good, loving people had to last until one of them died. I can’t tell you how dis­illusioned I was. I’d tried and tried. I knew how difficult it had to be to be married to a world celebrity, recognised everywhere, second billed on the screen and in real life. How Mel suffered. But believe me, I put my career second.” 

"I was enchanted by meeting him, very interested to meet him. I’d loved his performance in Lili. The thing I remember most about that first meeting was that I thought he was so serious. He didn’t smile. I liked him… but that was all. He’d seen me in Gigi and we talked about doing a play together, the way actors and actresses do. And we said that if either of us found a play that would suit us, we’d send it to the other."~ Audrey Hepburn

“People would ask in years to come: ‘What on earth did Audrey see in Mel?’” wrote her biographer, the late film critic Alexander Walker.

Kinder to Ferrer than posterity threatened to be, he insisted that the answer was not so hard to find. “They had a great deal in common. Like Audrey, Mel Ferrer had begun his stage career as a dancer.

Like Audrey, he had suffered a serious physical drawback: he contracted polio, spent three years in what he called a “sort of non-alcoholic Lost Weekend” and was left with a semi-paralysed arm which he nursed back to flexibility by punishing exercises. Audrey always admired people with the strength of will to overcome their troubles. She had suffered respiratory problems and severe malnutrition as a child.

"What the heart has once owned and had, it shall never lose."

Henry Ward Beecher

Lauren Bacall and late husband Humphrey Bogart pictured above.

"Losing Bogey was horrible, obviously. Because he was young. And because he gave me my life. I wouldn't have had a — I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't met him — I would have had a completely different kind of life. He changed me, he gave me everything. And he was an extraordinary man." ~ Lauren Bacall on Humphrey's passing, quoted in 2005.

You will never know true happiness until you have truly loved, and you will never understand what pain really is until you have lost it.Anonymous

"I know that’s what people say– you’ll get over it. I’d say it, too. But I know it’s not true. Oh, you’ll be happy again, never fear. But you won’t forget. Every time you fall in love it will be because something in the man reminds you of him."Betty Smith

Lauren Bacall pictured above while attending the funeral of her late husband, Humphrey Bogart (1957). 

“This is not a goodbye, my darling, this is a thank you. Thank you for coming into my life and giving me joy, thank you for loving me and receiving my love in return. Thank you for the memories I will cherish forever. But most of all, thank you for showing me that there will come a time when I can eventually let you go.
I love you, T.” 

― Nicholas Sparks, Message in a Bottle

Despite, how common it may be, however... it certainly doesn't help cushion the pain. In most other instances, however, it helps to hear that someone else is going through or have gone through the same painful experience as you... not when it comes to love though. It hurts far too much, it's a pain that can't be padded, it's blow can't be softened. And I suppose the only thing that can aid such an excruciating experience is nothing more than time. "Time will heal"... we all hear it and hate to hear it, for that matter. For, in the back of our minds, we feel that the only thing that could heal such a scorching loss would be the return of that person into our lives. To hold them in our arms again, to hear their voices... to see their faces. However, in most instances, that isn't going to happen, and as painful as it may be to realize, the only cure remaining is nothing more than "time"... it's the only solution left. 

So, despite the pain, the fact that the suffering will become extinguished at times, there's no forgetting or letting go of those little whispers of beauty that those who've dispersed from our lives had at one time penetrated. And as much he may have hurt me... I still miss him. I miss him so much.

And I've excepted the fact that, although things have passed between us... I'll never forget you. I'll never forget the beauty you once brought into my life. You guided me to a whole new world, a world filled with ecstasy... I'll never forget that. 

and I hope he never does either.

He was charismatic, magnetic, electric and everybody knew it. When he walked in every woman’s head turned, everyone stood up to talk to him. He was like this hybrid, this mix of a man who couldn’t contain himself. I always got the sense that he became torn between being a good person and missing out on all of the opportunities that life could offer a man as magnificent as him. And in that way, I understood him and I loved him.

I loved him, I loved him, I loved him.

And I still love him. I love him.

~ Lana Del Rey in "National Anthem"

"Take it from me: love has all the lasting permanence of a rainbow- beautiful while it’s there, and just as likely to have disappeared by the time you blink."~ Jodi Picoult

Love, Erin <3 xoxoxo