Marilyn Monroe: The Final Years [Hardcover]

An intense scrutiny detailing in the affairs of Marilyn Monroe's last year of life is not the type of book every Marilyn fan is interested in reading. On the other hand many of us that have been reading one account after another; some far reaching in believability to many that seem downright bizarre; MARILYN MONROE THE FINAL YEARS seems to have the key to straightening out all the loose ends, complications, & accusations of the subject into a story that tends to be quite acceptable as the truth of what really happened to Marilyn.

Badman disproves theories that have been long upheld as truth in his exhaustive search into information, files, & proven facts from the past. Once incorrect notions have been dismissed, he continues on with his narrative towards resolution. In the past I have always been bothered by books that relied on quotes or interviews with marginal characters such as Robert Slatzer or Jeanne Carmen. If these people were just using Marilyn to spin a tale of their own importance (as is suspected in BOTH cases;) how can one then depend that the rest of a book is accurately researched? This author rids himself of such speculation from the start.

Most disturbing is the description of the activities & degradation Marilyn suffered during what has been known as "the lost weekend" at the Cal-Neva Lodge in July 1962. The timeline of that weekend and other falsehoods have been cleared up but it's really not pleasant to read about the details of what supposedly went on. However, on the whole this book was indeed riveting & enjoyable as Badman also introduced many new tidbits of information never revealed in other books on Marilyn.

Well, here we are,another British twit author. The first chapter he should have skipped. It tried to sum up Marilyn s childhood and family situation in 9 pages and skips her rise as superstar and starts in 1961. It would have been better to simply start with 1961 and skip the inaccuracies previously. He catalogs Marilyns extended family history as all suffering from mental illness. Marilyn s grandfather actually died of syphilis which can mimic symptoms of mental illness in later stages of disease. Her grandmother had untreated congential heart failure and died very rapidly having been misdiagnosed as mentally ill. Science and medicine were more primitve in the earlier part of the 20th century and I dont think you can characterized Marilyn s entire family as crazy. The mother, Gladys, yes. I would suggest reading the secret life of Marilyn Monroe which has a much better researched book for Marilyn s early years. This author has made many mistakes. He says marilyn was paying her first psychiatrist $200 a visit. That was probably about her entire take home pay. Maybe 20 dollars a visit????.........this was 1951....61 years ago, $200 could have bought you a decent used car back then. Where do they get this stuff? If they get that wrong, what else is wrong? Is it that the pound versus dollar conversion is too difficult for these Brits? Doesnt he use fact checkers? Irritating. He should know with Marilyn fans you dont get your facts wrong. The author describes eunice murray, Marilyn s housekeeper as a pyschiatric nurse. He lists Mrs Murray s biography as a source. In that book I read, written by Murray in 1975 and long since out of print, Murray poo poos the idea she was a nurse. I dont believe she ever went to college. She was barely making ends meet when Marilyn came along and lived in poverty most of her life. Not exactly what one would expect of a prof. psychiatric nurse? She was present the nite Marilyn died, if she was a nurse why didnt she try and revive Marilyn? The authors info that Marilyn s house was bugged in feb of 62 is pure bunk. He claims veronica Hammel the actress purchased the house in 1972 and later when remodeling, found the bugging.First of all, Marilyn did not take possession of the house until March 1962, secondly the buyer of the house after Marilyn s death lived there from 1963 to 1977 and then sold the house. Veronica never owned the house then, if ever.This is rubbish he picked up in some other fbi/mafia/kennedy lunatic suspect book. I will give the author credit for not going on too much about the Kennedy brothers, and correctly getting that it was a one nite stand with President Kennedy and no wild affair with either brother.He also goes on to state John Kennedy was really horrible in the sack, something Ive read elsewhere a couple of times. Bobby being somewhat shortchanged,if you get my drift, gleened from other biographies, I imagine would have been worse. Marilyn rightly steered clear of him and wouldnt have had a long term thing with either one simply due to there being duds in the sack, to put it bluntly . However the author still claims Bobby Kennedy was at marilyns house the afternoon of her death. His source was Eunice Murray and all the other quacks that keep repeating it. Eunice has given so many different stories about what happened you cant believe any of it. She has good reason to give conflicting answers, to take away suspicion from herself and Greenson (see Donald Spotos book). I dont believe any of the garbage the author writes about Marilyn s infamous Cal Neva trip shortly before her death. The author does touch on Dr Greenson, and discussed the fact he struck Marilyn June 2 1962 in a heated moment. He really fails to carry forward on that with much explanation at all. Obviously if your shrink hits you and caused bruises to your face, he has issues with you and is somewhat unstable. You would think the author would have pursued this. Why didnt Marilyn fire him immediately? Report him to the police? Etc? Nope states the face slapping instant and moves on. His murder theory isnt too bad, but he really gives little if any evidence from the autopsy and just gives his opinion. He believes it was a mixture of nembutal and chloral hydrate but insists marilyn DRANK the choloral hydrate.You take choloral hydrate by pill form (which isnt all that effective) or you take it rectally either by suppository or enema. He has marilyn drinking the choloral hydrate in a mad fit of rage at being unable to fall asleep. Gulping it down. You can mix it with a juice but you cannot take it simply by drinking it in unadulterated form. He mentions the purple discoloration of Marilyn colon in the autopsy, but dismisses it as a result of her gallbladder problem and a side effect of chronic drug useage.She had a gallbladder operation 15 months prior and was no longer suffering from this problem. Also, the pathologist commented on the autopsy that he had NEVER seen a drug overdose victim with a disolored inflamed colon like this. He doesnt go on to explain why Murray gave so many conflicting versions of events over the years and why both she and the dr just didnt come out and say, Marilyn took a drug overdose by accident. In fact, Greenson gave up seeing patients soon after 1962, and taught and lectured, and developed congestive heart problems early on, suffered a nervous breakdown in subsequent years and in pictures of him Ive seen when he was older, he had a haunted very very morose look. I think Marilyn s death and his part in it (see author Donald Spoto) eventually got the best of him. He was unstable and so was the companion Eunice Murray. Marilyn was not careful enuf with the people around her closest, and she was very careless with her drug usage. A combination drug taking during her last day (not in lethal amts), combined with what the dr prescribed that nite, given by Murray, was what ended Marilyn s life, and was a careless accident mostly the drs fault. Basically this book has a few interesting tid bits in it, it seems apparent the author has read most of the biographies, and did very little research and no interviews with anyone that was involved with Marilyn that I see.He obviously spent some time tracking down Marilyn s limo rental companies in new york and los angeles and this smartly gave him some time line for marilyn s day to day activiity. He seems very smug, the author that he can state how much she paid for such and such a trip in the limo. Not really much research on his part. Its also apparent he did some research in the 20th century archives............I would say enuf to string a 3rd rate book together. Marilyn had $ problems and she was always close to the edge. But the author paints an inaccurate picture of Marilyns finances. As part of her 1955 fox contract not only was she getting 100k a picture from fox but she was getting a yearly salary of $100,000 paid in monthly installments. The outside movies for other studios for the last 6 years were more lucrative. She owned part of some like it hot and got $300k up front and it was highly lucrative in the long run. SHe owned part of the misfits and had recieved in 1960 $300k in salary as well. She chose to take payments from prior movies in Jan of each year and spread out the payments over several years for tax reasons. The author indicates in 1962 when she went to buy a house she had to borrow $5000 from Dimaggio to make the downpayment. She had received $300,000 that month in installment payments.Why did she need to borrow $ then? She didnt, the authors timeline is wrong, it was the summer before she borrowed the $ Subsequent massive remodeling of the house, furniture buying, clothes buying, ALOT of people on her staff(at least 8), well paid, constant first class air travel,it would be impossible for Marilyn to live with the kind of limited funds the author paints, all minor points but just paints the author as not very accomplished. My conclusion, a waste of time and not a very good effort on the authors part.

Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926-August 4, 1962) lived a life of tragic intensity. Norma Jean was born in Los Angeles; her mother was insane; she spent time in foster homes and in an orphanage and became the most famous movie star in the world. Keith Badman, an English chronicler of the rich and famous, devotes 332 pages to ferreting out fact from fiction in the amazing life of Marilyn Monroe. Badman spent five years researching the life and career of the star of such smash hits as
"The Asphalt Jungle"; "The River of No Return"; "How to Marry a Millionaire"; "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"; "Some Like it Hot";
"The Seven Year Itch"; "The Misfits" and "Bus Stop." Among facts learned from Baman's well document biography:
a. Marilyn Monroe slept with President John F. Kennedy one time-in Marc, 1962. She had no sexual relationship with Robert F. Kennedy the president's younger brother
b. Joe Dimaggio who was MM's husband for nine months wanted to remarry Marilyn near the end of her life but she refused to say yes to his proposal.
c. Robert Kennedy and Peter Lawford where in the Monroe household on the day of her death. They wanted to remove incriminating itmes which would reveal her relationship with the Kennedys.
d. Marilyn was sexually abused by mobsters at the Cal-Nev Lodge on the last weekend in July, 1962.
e. Monroe had patched up her differences with 20th Century Fox and had been rehired following her firing from the studio after the debacle of "Something's Got to Give.'
f. Monroe had several abortions and miscarriages
g. Monroe, says Badman, died of an accidental death to her misuse of drugs especially Nembutal.
h. Monroe was exploited by Dr. Ralph Greenso, movie moguls and the Kennedy family.
i. Monroe suffered from alcoholism, drug abuse and mental problems.
Badman's writing style is somewhat dry as when he goes into great detail about Monroe's business affairs but this material is essential for a complete portrait of the noted icon. If you like a detailed and painstaking account of Monroe's life this will be a book to savor. There are over 700 books devoted to the life and career of Marilyn Monroe with more on the way as we observe the fiftieth anniversay of her death. This one is wort ready and eschews shallow reporting and sensationalism.