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