Marilyn's First Modeling Job example essay topic

2,594 words
... Many people said that Marilyn Monroe was a great inspiration in their lives, but through my research, I found out that she was everything but an inspiration. Throughout my report, I will give you many facts about marilyn's rough life and what she did to handle them. Marilyn Monroe, AKA Norma Jean Mortenson / Baker, was born at Los Angeles General Hospital at 9: 39 am on June 1st, 1926. The hospital in which she was born is now the County University of Southern California Medical Center. Marilyn was born an illegitimate child whose father (Edward Mortenson) had deserted her mother (Gladys Baker).

However, her real father was Stanley Gifford who left Gladys when he found out she was pregnant. Her mother worked at the Consolidated Film Industries lab as a cutter of negative film. She worked long hours, at low pay, at a boring and tedious eyes training job. Since she was at her job most of the time, she had to pay others to look after Marilyn. Sometimes she would only get to see her mother only early in the morning or at night. It was enough for any mom to have a nervous breakdown.

All Marilyn remembered was her mother being in and out of hospitals. Marilyn's mother was working long hours at the film lab just to make ends meet. She became very tired and nervous; life became difficult for her. She had been sent to the Norwalk State hospital for Mental Diseases for a rest when Marilyn was only five years old. That was what caused her to have a nervous breakdown and that is what caused Marilyn to spend her childhood in and out of foster homes.

When Gladys first went to the hospital, Marilyn moved in with her mother's best friend. When her mom's best friend remarried, she told Marilyn that her house was too small and someone had to go. Marilynwas only nine years old then. So one day, she packed Marilyn's clothes in a suitcase and they got in her car. They drove and drove for a long time without telling Marilyn where she was going. They finally arrived at a three-story red-brick building.

Marilyn looked up at the sign and it said LOS ANGELES ORPHANS HOME. Marilyn told her, "Pleasedon't let me stay here. I'm not an orphan, my mother's not dead". Her mom's friend had to drag her inside the orphanage.

Her mother's girlfriend had promised her that she would take good care of her. She promised Marilyn that she would come back often and visit her. She also promised her that she would get her out of the orphanage as soon as she was able to. Marilyn didn't believe her though. She later found out that her mom's best friend was Grace Goddard.

She was her aunt Grace. While in the orphanage, Marilyn was sexually abused. Two years later, her Aunt Grace finally took her out of the orphanage. When they returned from the orphanage, Aunt Grace took Marilyn to live with her aunt. She lived in Van Nuys, a very poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Her name was Edith Ana Atchison Lower, a sixty-two-year-old spinster.

Her home was a rundown bungalow, and the people in the neighborhood were mostly poor and on relief. Although she was poor, "Aunt Ana became the greatest influence in Marilyn's life. She said she was such an influence because she taught Marilyn to appreciate the simple things in life. She taught Marilyn what was important in life.

Marilyn commented about her Aunt Ana, "She didn't believe in sickness, disease, or death. She didn't believe in a person being a failure, either. She did believe the mind could achieve anything it wished to achieve". Marilyn had problems with her diction when she went to High School. She also stuttered a lot.

No one really knew, but her mother bought her a piano that belonged to the famous actor Fredric March. Marilyn Monroe always looked older than her age. When she was only ten, she shot up to her full height 5'5", except she was skinny and looked boyish. At thirteen everyone said that she looked eighteen, and the boys in their twenties were trying to date her. Just three weeks after her sixteenth birthday, she was married to the boy next door, Jim Dougherty. He -one going on twenty-two.

They dated for several months to get to know each other better. And just three weeks after her birthday, they had their double-ring ceremony. In those days, she would be considered a child bride. Wouldn't she be considered a child bride now? Marilyn's Aunt Ana designed her wedding gown. Marilynwas listed as her niece on the marriage certificate.

At this wedding she had six mothers claim her and all she marched down the aisle. The mothers all considered her their daughter because they were her fostermother's at one time or another. In 1944, during World War II, Jim listed in the U.S. Merchant Marine. After his boot training he was stationed at Catalina Island, not far from where we had been living in Los Angeles.

He was a physical training instructor there, and Marilyn enjoyed the fact that she was able to join him there. marilyn remembered it as being a world of men, all sailors with their wives and families. She said that Jim became jealous because all of the men would whistle at her as she passed by. He would lecture her on the type of clothes she would wear. Marilyn told him that he didn't have to worry because she would always stay faithful to him. Not many people believed her though- especially him. When Jim was shipped to Shanghai, Marilyn went back to Van Nuys to live with his family.

She got a job at the Radio Plane plant in Burbank {a defense plant}. They started her there as a parachute inspector, and later she was promoted to the "dope room", where she would spray this liquid dope, which is made by mixing banana oil and glue, on the planes' fuselages. These were miniature planes used for target practice. The dope was sprayed on to give it strength. She worked in overalls and kept her head covered most of the time so that the dope wouldn't get into her hair, since it was messy and difficult to wash out. One day and army photographer came to the plant.

Hew as from the army's pictorial center in Hollywood. His assignment was to take pictures for the army newspapers and magazines of people working in defense plants, showing them doing their share in the war effort. He called them morale-booster photos. Marilyn was later told that these were photos of pretty girls at work. So when this army photographer, David Conover, passed by where Marilyn was working, he told her that she was a real morale booster and told her that he wanted to take a picture of her for the boys in the army to keep their morale high. Those pictures that he took were the first that ever appeared in a publication.

They appeared in hundreds of army camp newspapers, including the army's famous Yank magazine and Stars and Stripes. When David phoned Marilyn a few weeks later, he said he had shown her pictures to a commercial photographer friend in Los Angeles and told her that if she was interested in modeling he would like to see her. She soon called the photographer, Potter Huet h, and made an appointment to see him. At his studio he explained to Marilyn that he couldn't pay for modeling right now, but if she wanted to speculate with him he would take pictures of her and when he sold them to the magazines he would pay her. He told her that the fee was usually five to ten dollars an hour, which was a lot of money in those days. She agreed to model for him, but only at night because she did not want to put her other job in jeopardy.

Marilyn's modeling career started when Potter Huethshowed the pictures he took of her to Miss Snively, who then ran the largest model agency in Los Angeles. Marilynwas quite excited when she agreed to see her. When her appointment was made, she couldn't sleep that night. If she didn't like her, that would be the end of her modeling career-before it started. Marilyn, calling in sick, took the day off to go see Mi nively. She was then nineteen, her marriage was strained, and she was thinking of divorce.

When she wrote to her husband, she explained that she didn't love him anymore, that she had a chance for a career as a model, and that she wanted freedom to pursue her career. She wanted a divorce. When Jim received the letter, he asked her if she would wait until he returned from overseas to see if they could patch things up and make a go for their marriage. But Marilyn knew the marriage was over. A career was more important to her. She wanted to become an actress more than ever.

She figured that modeling would give her a break. At the appointed hour-11: 00 am-Marilyn entered Mi nively's office. In there, she told Marilyn that she would need to go through some modeling classes and that the tuition was $100.00. Marilyn told her that she didn't have any money and Miss Snively told her that she could just pay her with the money she makes working for her. Marilyn's first modeling job was being a hostess at an aluminum exhibit at the Los Angeles Home Show in the Pan Pacific Auditorium. She received $10.00 a day for ten days, which all went to paying for her modeling lessons.

Marilyn's second modeling job didn't go so well. Shew as fired because she wasn't sexy enough. Right after they told her that, she quit her job at the plant and devoted all her time to modeling. She wasn't going to let anything or anyone else stand in her way.

They then started putting her in bathing suits, and all of the sudden she became popular. In those days, she was a brunette. Miss Snively kept insisting that she become a blonde. But, Marilyn refused to bleach her hair.

Miss Snively then told her. "Norma Jean, if you expect to go places, you " ve got to be a blonde". She finally agreed to bleach her hair. Photographer Raphael Wolff agreed to pay for the bleaching. Marilyn had longhair and they cut it short and styled it in an upsweep. Shedidn't really like the look at first-but she knew it got the attention she needed.

Her first screen test at Fox was a silent test. There was no dialogue. Mr. Leon Shamroy was the motion picture cameraman who they said was the best in the business. He would photograph her screen test. Secretly one morning around 5: 30, Mr. Shamroy and Marilyn sneaked on the set. She made up in a portable dressing room that Mr. Lyon sneaked out of wardrobe.

The dress was lovely, a sequined evening gown for her wear for her big scene. They rehearsed Marilyn's first big scene and then she began the scene and prayed silently that this washer big start, the beginning of becoming a motion picture actress. Mr. Zanuck saw her screening and loved it! Mr. Lyon gave her a contract to take home for her legal guardian Aunt Grace to sign. Mr. Lyon suggested that her first name be Marilyn and her Aunt Grace told her to use her mother's maiden name-Monroe.

So that is how she got her name. Later that year, Jim and Marilyn finally divorced in Reno, Nevada. This occurred just six weeks before she signed her movie contracts with one of the largest motion picture studios, Twentieth Century-Fox. And she was only twenty years old.

After this, Marilyn's life would only just begin to get better-or so she thought. The money kept pouring in, but her marriages weren't lasting. Marilyn began to throw herself to men. She slept with every producer she had ever had. She starred in thirty movies (one uncompleted). She married Joe DiMaggio in 1953 and they divorced in 1954.

Then, she married Arthur Miller in 1956 then later divorced. This is what made her further prey to alcohol and pills. Marilyn then moved to 12305 Fifth Elena Drive, Brentwood. The house is in a cut-de-sac.

Frank Sinatra gave marilyn Monroe a white poodle. His name was Maf. From this point on, Marilyn down sided. She became very depressed.

She wanted children or a man to live with. When she would go on her photo shoots, she would become very down on herself. She had thirteen abortions. Marilyn had affairs with John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Marlon Brando, Jose Bolanos, and Frank Sinatra are just some of the men. In 1961, she received a Golden Globe Award for "Some Like It Hot".

She sang "Happy Birthday" to John F. Kennedy in 1962. Marilyn Monroe loved posing on the Santa Monica beach. She was late for one of her last photo shoots, but George Barris rescheduled for the next day. That next day, around 7: 30 PM on July 13, 1962, was the day that the last picture of her on Santa Monica beach was taken, and was to be her last. Her good friend and photographer George Barris, lost his shoe on the beach right before their departure from there, so Marilyn told him that the ocean apparently needed it more than he did, so they both threw their shoes in the ocean and left Santa Monica beach forever. Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Brentwood home, on August 5, 1962 officially a victim of barbiturate overdose.

Marilyn was 36. At 36, she made a statement-"I'm thirty-six and I'm just getting started". She overdosed on sleeping pills. Marilyn was in the process of making a movie "Something's Got to Give", but was dropped from the movie because of chronic lateness and drug dependency.

She died four months after she was fired. Marilyn's funeral was on Wednesday, August 8, 1962. Marilyn's coffin is in a marble wall-crypt to which a bronze plaque is attached: Marilyn Monroe 1926-1962 May she rest in peace. She should have turned to Godfather than drugs. Popularity is no excuse to throw your life away.

What was the priority in Marilyn Monroe's life? How could she even begin to inspire a living person?? ?