Original subtitles

It's hard to know where to start if you don't start with the truth.

I was in debt.

I got so far behind on the rent.

Four weeks.

Tom Kelley asked me to pose.

It was an offer for "artistic" shots,

which was a euphemism for nude photographs.

Modelling in the nude will pay double what regular modelling will.

Our world is a business of women's bodies,

and she realised this is a transaction.

Phew...

Magnificent.

SHE CHUCKLES

The female power that she's harnessed is phenomenal.

She's arching her back

and her arm is up to create beautiful lines, beautiful angles.

They look like 19th-century nudes.

She wasn't afraid of showing off her body,

which was a great body.

But it's easy to forget what a conservative country America was.

Nude modelling was not considered respectable.

It could have ended her career.

MARILYN: I said, "Are you sure they won't recognise me?"

He said, "I promise."

This is Hollywood.

It is a symbol for magic, entertainment, and make-believe.

After Love Happy, Marilyn thought she was on the brink of stardom.

She's done it, she's there.

CINEMATIC FANFARE PLAYS

But it doesn't happen.

It's like Marilyn is just another blonde girl.

But one thing that all the great movie stars shared

was determination.

So of course she went back and tried again.

A savvy 23-year-old Marilyn is preparing for a photoshoot.

Marilyn was out of contract,

and so she decided that she needed strategy to get her noticed.

I love this picture of her in a two-piece bathing suit

and this funky little dog.

She's looking down and going, "OK!"

But she looks fantastic.

She was just freewheeling,

you know, in every sense. Just letting rip and having fun.

The shoot is taking place at the home of Marilyn's first major

movie agent, Johnny Hyde.

Johnny Hyde was one of the most powerful agents in Hollywood.

Marilyn wanted respect.

She wanted somebody to say, "You can be a star."

And Johnny Hyde gave her that affirmation.

She loves to be in front of the camera.

It's all coming from up here.

She's staging it, and the photographer, he's clicking it.

I can't imagine him saying, "Oh, hang on to that tree.

"Put your legs up."

It's just like, "Follow the Yellow Brick Road."

Follow Marilyn, and you'll get the shot.

She seemed to really have an intimate understanding

of what the camera needed from her.

She used whatever she could to try to get herself

in the best position possible to be hired by these studios.

Not only is Johnny her agent -

he fell for Marilyn hook, line, and sinker.

Moving into his mansion while she was in her 20s and he was in his 50s

was...convenient for her, and shrewd.

But she did seem to also genuinely really care for him.

They were both taking things from it professionally as well

as personally.

Johnny had a heart condition.

He wanted to marry her.

He wanted to give her his money.

But she would not take it.

She doesn't want to be seen as this gold-digger.

She's determined to become a star.

Johnny secures Marilyn an audition at 20th Century Fox

for director Joseph Mankiewicz's new film, All About Eve.

There's about a dozen other aspiring starlets for this tiny walk-on role,

and Mankiewicz later claims that Marilyn

just blows everyone out of the water.

Here is Marilyn Monroe in a magnificent line-up of

big-name stars, and she's given a very small but key role.

Mankiewicz shoots her coming up the stairs.

Bette Davis is in the shot.

I distinctly remember, Addison, crossing you off my guest list.

What are you doing here?

Bette Davis. That's why we're in the movie house,

that's why we bought the popcorn.

But he's got the camera directed right at Marilyn.

You remember Miss Casswell? I do not. How do you do?

We've never met. Maybe that's why.

Miss Casswell is an actress.

Now, who the hell is she?

He shoots her coming into our life.

You see that man? That's Max Fabian...

She's given a showcase moment.

Why do they always look like unhappy rabbits?

Cos that's what they are.

The question is, when you get in there, can you do it?

And right in that star-studded cast, she delivers it.

Oh, waiter?

That isn't a waiter, my dear. That's a butler.

Well, I can't yell, "Oh, butler," can I?

Maybe somebody's name is Butler.

I think her role in All About Eve,

that's the beginning, really, of her.

She looks and talks like the Monroe we would come to know.

Now THERE'S something a girl could make sacrifices for.

There's something about Marilyn that makes you feel as

if you can reach out to the screen and actually touch flesh.

I don't want to make trouble. All I want is a drink.

It's the blonde hair, it's the beautiful mouth,

the yield in her body.

Thank you, Mr Fabian.

Well done.

I can see your career rising in the East like the sun.

I am happy to announce that the winner is...

..All About Eve. APPLAUSE

Despite All About Eve's Best Picture win at the Oscars,

the head of 20th Century Fox, Darryl Zanuck,

still doesn't see Marilyn's potential.

Zanuck never likes her.

He never thinks she's much of an actress.

Sometimes the way that women look overpowers our ability to see

they are very gifted with a lot to offer beyond that.

He simply couldn't see that Marilyn could be anything

other than a pretty face.

But Johnny Hyde persuades Zanuck to give her another shot.

It's the final thing Johnny Hyde does for Marilyn.

Days later, he died from his heart problems.

Marilyn was extremely upset.

He was the only person who had believed in her

for her whole career.

All of a sudden, she was on her own again

and wondering what's going to happen next.

Oh, good morning, Mr McKinley. Good morning, Harriet.

Bring in your book and the mail. Yes, Mr McKinley.

As Young As You Feel is not a very good movie by any standard, and

Marilyn has very little to do in it except stand around and look pretty.

I'd like some coffee, dear.

Yes, Mr McKinley.

This could be Marilyn's last chance to impress Darryl Zanuck

and prove her worth to the studio.

Well, anyhow, Mr Cleveland, I want you to know

I think your speech was grand. I felt real honour just to hear it.

She's memorable. She's given a notice in, I believe,

the New York Times calling her superb.

It's really just kind of the patriarchy praising

the patriarchy, you know?

"Yes, this is how we like our women.

"We like them objectified."

And she was excellent at being objectified.

Darryl Zanuck said,

"When I look at her, I don't see star."

But he was a shrewd businessman, and he saw the potential to make money.

At the start of the '50s, around 80% of moviegoers are women,

and Zanuck wants to draw in the men.

You'll sneak a thousand wolf whistles at Harriet.

You know, as a rule, I never mix business and pleasure.

The new obsession in the '50s is very much with

the hourglass-shaped woman.

Marilyn speaks to fantasy, and a big part of that is her bust size,

her waist size, her - as they called it often in magazines of the time -

her chassis.

Zanuck signs Marilyn up to a seven-year contract with Fox.

Everybody in the business at that time wanted a studio contract.

It meant you were in the door.

You had a chance.

But the bad thing about the contract was you really were owned,

in a sense, by the studio.

You had to play the roles they wanted.

So, you know, you were in a box.

Marilyn Monroe, Miss Cheesecake herself...

In the first year of her new contract,

Marilyn appears in seven films.

What do you say we have dinner together? Wonderful. Where?

Oh, someplace where we don't have to dress, like...

..your apartment.

She was doing a lot of bikini shots and small roles as gold-diggers.

Marilyn's swimsuits are changing, but the roles are not.

Honey, you're not even human, you're just a living doll.

Nice to have met you, Mrs Denham.

Hollywood is packaging her as T'n'A.

Accessible, nonthreatening.

The sexism of Hollywood is

so appalling and disgusting.

And it's a very scary thing to think about,

because we still see it to this day.

One time, a very wonderful director

said I had no ambition, that was my problem.

But I would like very much to be a fine actress.

She wanted to get ahead,

she was determined, and she had to have strategy to do that.

She hangs out with the publicists

to learn how to do publicity and then becomes better than they are.

Marilyn develops her sexy on-screen persona to become an even

larger-than-life celebrity.

She would arrive at a party late to make people notice her,

in some impossibly tight dress that she could barely walk in,

and she would cause a stir.

She realised, "People want to come snap pictures of me.

"People want to know about me." She was sort of an

original Kardashian in that way.

She created a narrative that was visual.

She would have been huge on Instagram.

Like, the biggest influencer of all time.

She could look even beautiful in a potato sack.

She had a wonderful sense of humour.

She held up a mirror to the viewer, saying,

"This is what you consider sexy, huh?

"OK, here it is.

"How am I doing?"

CROWD CHEERS

Even though she was playing these small roles on screen,

there was a lot of interest in her,

so it was a stepping stone towards stardom.

Marilyn's fame explodes after the press is tipped off that

she's dating a Major League star...

..Joe DiMaggio.

Joe hits safely in 56 consecutive ballgames.

The Yankee Clipper was a magician with a 40-ounce bat.

A lot of people said it was a publicity stunt.

It very possibly was a publicity stunt.

You leverage somebody else's stardom to add to your own.

Dating Joe DiMaggio was a very smart thing to do.

He was one of the most famous heroes in the United States.

Marilyn is flooded with thousands of fan letters every week.

But as her fame grows, the past comes back to haunt her.

Early on in 1952,

the nude photographs Marilyn took as an anonymous model

gained popularity

and started popping up in gas stations and all over the place.

Soon people began to make the connection -

"Is this the actress Marilyn Monroe?"

Everyone said to Marilyn, "You've got an up-and-coming career.

"If this is true, it will absolutely ruin you."

I remember in 1952, I was just out of high school

and Marilyn Monroe was famous.

Everybody was like, "Uh-oh, her career's over."

Reports of Marilyn's nude photos reach Fox studio head Darryl Zanuck.

Marilyn was hauled into Zanuck's office to account for herself.

And she was put in front of, you know,

all of the powerful male studio heads.

They said, "Did you pose for a calendar?"

And I said, "Yes, anything wrong?"

For 20th Century Fox, it wasn't about, "We really think sin is bad."

It was like, "Wait a minute, sin might be bad for business."

Posing nude was such an explosive thing.

There was great anxiety.

Everyone said, "Say you didn't."

I said, "But I did," you know? "I should say that I did."

And they were very unhappy.

The studios thought her career would be over.

But Marilyn devises a high-stakes plan -

to let the public decide her fate.

Aline Mosby is a very big journalist at that point in time,

and a lot of people read her.

It's my understanding she was

already somewhat sympathetic to Marilyn.

Marilyn seeks out Mosby in the powder room and confides in her.

I was in debt.

I always supported myself.

No-one else ever supported me in my life.

I had no family, and, um...

..and I had no place to go.

Crucially, what she also says is, "I have nothing to be ashamed of.

"I've done nothing wrong."

Mosby publishes their private conversation,

and the news is picked up by every wire service in the country.

Everybody was waiting to hear

what she was going to say when it was exposed.

Marilyn's decision to own her nude photoshoot calendar is brave,

it's bold, it's very modern.

It was her taking ownership of her own body back, right?

And it was her saying, "This actually doesn't belong to you.

"It belongs to me."

It was a genuinely risky move,

and Marilyn didn't know how it would play out.

She was rolling the dice with her career in very real terms.

She gave an honest, forthright response....

..and it was embraced by the public.

CROWD CHEERS

Once people learned more about her life, anything that might have been

considered questionable was almost wiped clean.

What are you going to do if she's not showing any shame?

You can't go, "How dare you?!"

Marilyn's honesty pays off,

and Life magazine features her on the cover.

Life magazine - it's a true publishing empire.

I mean, we're talking seriously pre-eminent magazine.

And so to put her on the cover, it is giving the stamp of approval.

A nude calendar scandal really put Marilyn in the vanguard

of the sexual revolution.

Marilyn is now a household name,

and Darryl Zanuck casts her in her biggest role yet.

Niagara was really a breakthrough role for Marilyn.

It was her first bona fide lead in an A-list film.

In Niagara, they stressed her sexuality.

I mean, that's what people went to the cinema to see.

They wanted to see the low-cut dresses,

the parted lips and smouldering eyes.

Hey. Get out the fire hose.

When she comes out in that shocking pink deal,

it's like, "This is a creature that is quite spectacular."

When we see her today,

that's Marilyn Monroe as we imagine her, the full sexuality.

What about it, lady?

Better not.

She walked away, swinging back and forth in that suggestive way.

It was like, "Wow! What's going on?"

It was a shift in the consciousness. I remember feeling that.

She goes to the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City

and wears this very, very low-cut dress down to her navel.

It's JLo before there was JLo.

We are all born special creatures. Thank God.

To see a woman that is so in charge of her sexuality

is extremely empowering.

Marilyn is owning her sexuality.

But soon, others will exploit it.

My name is Hugh Hefner,

and I'm editor-publisher of Playboy magazine.

In December 1953, Marilyn inadvertently makes history.

She ended up being the first cover and centrefold of Playboy.

Marilyn had been paid 50 bucks for the photoshoot four years earlier.

And on the back of those nude photographs,

Hugh Hefner launched an empire.

Technically, Hugh Hefner did nothing wrong,

since she had signed away her rights to that image.

Ethically, not consulting her, it's really problematic.

I mean, it is... It's exploitation, in my mind.

Putting those pictures in the centrefold put

a layer of shame back onto the photos that Marilyn had

insisted she was not going to be ashamed of.

Every copy of Playboy sells out.

Marilyn has become a sensation.

Marilyn Monroe is filming her biggest-budget movie to date,

the musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Look! Did you ever? Anywhere? Anything like it?

She plays gold-digger Lorelei Lee.

May I just hold it for a minute? Of course.

The performance of Lorelei is a really important milestone.

How do you put it around your neck?

You don't, lovey, it goes on your head.

It was crucial in the evolution of Marilyn's career

and her star persona, because Lorelei's the dumb blonde

who's not as dumb as you think she is.

Say, they told me you were stupid.

You don't sound stupid to me.

I can be smart when it's important, but most men don't like it.

That line was Marilyn's line.

She insisted on using it.

She's like, "Here's what this stereotypical dumb blonde is

"really able to do, and doing."

And so, she's riffing on it.

I'm too old for this sort of thing.

If you are able to not only be in on the joke of it but to control it,

that, to me, is the mark of a genius.

continental

best friend...

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

is Lorelei's defence against the accusation of gold digging.

It is simply laying out sexual economics.

If men can look at me and want me for my looks,

why can't I want men for their money?

It's the same thing, really.

This is Marilyn Monroe at her peak.

It's still one of the most imitated moments in film history.

continental...

best friend...

friend...

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes tops the box office.

With the success of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,

there is definitely a connection between Lorelei Lee on screen

and Marilyn as a star.

If you happen to have blonde hair, you're considered dumb.

I don't know why that is. It's very...

I think it's a very limited view.

Marilyn! APPLAUSE

People thought Marilyn wasn't acting because she was a great actor,

but also she's playing a stupid, dumb blonde woman.

So it can't be an act because that's how women are, aren't they?

Well, there isn't much difference, Marilyn. You're 25, and...

..I'm 39. LAUGHTER

Yes, but what about 25 years from now,

when I'm 50 and you're 39?

LAUGHTER

Gee.

It suited men to believe that she was dumb, because it's unchallenging.

Because I can't trust myself with you.

And the supremacy of male intelligence

and male capability, at that time, was huge.

You're so strong, and I'm so weak.

She's subverting our expectations and showing you,

"Oh, I know what you think about me,

"and I'm going to use that against you to get what I want."

Men's assumptions about women are challenged in 1953

when Dr Alfred Kinsey published his results

from the largest-ever sex survey.

The Kinsey Report revolutionised

how people understood women's sexuality...

..and made more and more people realise that women were

sexual beings in a way that they had not realised before.

That women were having extramarital affairs,

that about 40% of women had had sex before marriage.

And people were shocked about this.

Women had orgasms.

"Really? Oh, my God!

"We didn't know they enjoyed it!"

Kinsey came along and made scientific what Marilyn was

kind of demonstrating on the movie screen every week.

So Marilyn is a rebel.

She is a forerunner to the very sexual decades

of the '60s and into the '70s.

Whatever anybody else thought,

Marilyn Monroe knew that she was more than just a pretty face.

She knew that she had all of these other gifts that she could offer.

She knew that she was funny.

And so she took every opportunity that she could get to show that.

You've got the most peculiar vision I ever saw. Why do you say that?

Because you're reading that book upside down.

But I'm no such thing.

Not you, the book.

You see that she really was a brilliant all-around actress.

Oh.

You know, her eyes would just do something,

and she was just so comedically gifted.

This way, please.

She began to understand that comedy could be one of her powers...

This way, my dear. I'm so sorry.

..and that the way she could fuse it with sex would be her unique brand.

There are not many Hollywood actresses of that era that

combined clear physical attractiveness

and physical comedy of a slapstick style

like she does in How To Marry A Millionaire,

where she's a bit blind and keeps running into walls.

The movie is Marilyn's third hit of 1953,

earning Fox a total of $15 million -

the equivalent of 150 million today.

She was a star then.

She got first billing in that movie.

So she made it.

A few weeks later, production is due to start on Marilyn's next

film for Fox, The Girl In Pink Tights.

Darryl Zanuck wanted to continue to place her

in light-hearted musical comedies.

Pink Tights was pretty one note,

and she didn't want to be stereotyped.

She literally labelled it "trash".

She also discovered that her co-star, Frank Sinatra,

was being paid more than three times as much as she was,

and she was furious.

The consciousness has been for centuries that men are

worth more than women.

She was the main attraction.

I mean, she was the reason that people flocked to the theatre.

So it was insane that she wasn't given a much more

power position in terms of salary.

It was time to put her foot in the ground and say, "No more."

And she decided just to not show up to work.

This was an early instance of Time's Up.

For anyone who thinks Monroe was a perpetual victim,

she walked off the set of Pink Tights.

Enough said.

Romance that thrills the world -

the marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio.

After two years of dating,

Marilyn and Joe's marriage captivates the nation.

Just because it began as a publicity stunt doesn't mean that they

couldn't have fallen in love and had a real relationship after that.

It does seem to have been what happened.

He has a very sensitive nature in many respects.

When he was young, he had a very difficult time.

So he understood some things about me,

and I understood some things about him.

NEWSREEL: There's no surprise in the fact that it attracted a record

crowd to the San Francisco Court where the ceremony was performed.

There were hundreds of reporters.

I think we can assume that Joe didn't tip them off

because he hated all that stuff.

The story was that actually it was Marilyn who called up the

journalists. She recognised that this was an opportunity.

She was very savvy about the media.

She knew she needed the media, and the media knew that she needed them.

NEWSREEL: And now, after congratulations, they were off on their honeymoon.

Marilyn refuses to work until 20th Century Fox improves her pay

and conditions.

And now she has more leverage.

Marilyn was now Mrs Joe DiMaggio.

She was suddenly on the front pages.

So it did her a lot of favours,

because the studios could not brush her under the carpet.

Joe was in Japan for the start of the baseball season.

NEWSREEL: Mrs Joe DiMaggio - Marilyn Monroe, that is -

arrives with Joe in Tokyo.

He was really supposed to be the star of this trip.

It's clear the Japanese people want to see her much more than DiMaggio.

Joe, he's the forgotten man, which is something in Japan,

where baseball is so popular.

Joe DiMaggio was quite old-fashioned in his beliefs.

He wanted a nice, old-fashioned wife.

And, you know, he didn't get one.

I was married when I was 18, stupidly.

And I said, "Well, I'm not going to do any cooking or cleaning.

"I'm working."

I got berated that I was not a "real woman".

It seems clear that Joe DiMaggio expected Marilyn to stop working.

It's less clear that Marilyn ever had any

intention of fulfilling that expectation.

On their second day in Tokyo, Marilyn gets an unexpected offer.

In 1954, the United States still has 330,000 troops in Korea...

..because they're concerned about containing

the spread of the Soviet sphere of influence.

She was asked to entertain the troops...

..and she jumped at the opportunity.

Servicemen were a big part of making her a star,

and she wanted to pay it back.

She goes to Korea, and DiMaggio gets angry.

The only thing that I have to complain about is

I haven't seen very much of Marilyn as she is touring through the camps.

And so maybe after that wait, we will be able to spend a little time.

He felt that once they were married, her sexual appeal belonged to him.

But it doesn't seem to have occurred to him that it

might have been Marilyn's.

She goes to something like ten locations

with 10,000 men at each location.

And the troops go crazy.

Watching the footage of Marilyn in Korea really

puts in the spotlight how much more

politically involved and aware and cognisant she was,

and also an immense sense of care for other human beings.

It just radiates out of her.

It was snowing, it was freezing cold.

She had this teeny-tiny spaghetti strap dress on.

But she was determined that she was going to entertain these GIs.

your humble...

She said, "Hey, guys, you've made me who and what I am,

"and here I am, doing this for you."

in the end...

It's her taking charge of her persona and using it in a deliberate

and generous way.

friend.

The highlight of my life was singing for the soldiers there.

I stood out on an open stage, and it was cold,

but I swear I didn't feel a thing except good.

Going onstage in front of 100,000 screaming fans is a different

kind of affirmation of your popularity.

She gets incredible publicity over the Korean tour.

NEWSREEL: The blonde movie star wows them

and the candid cameras go into action.

And at that point, I think Zanuck just gives up. He can't stop her.

20th Century Fox relents and gives Marilyn a significant pay raise.

But as famous and wealthy and beautiful as she was,

respect really is the one thing that she's craving.

When Marilyn arrived in New York to film with Billy Wilder on

The Seven Year Itch, there was a huge reaction.

You could see how loved she was by people

because of the size of the crowds that followed her wherever she went.

I understand there's some fabulous location shots going to be

made next Saturday night, walking over the subway grating

and a gust of wind catches you and so forth.

I imagine you'll stop traffic on Saturday night.

Well, I'm looking forward to working in it very much.

This wasn't about filming a movie.

This was about publicising an event.

I was there.

All of us went.

It was late at night, and there were photographers all around.

300, 400, they're on the roofs, upper windows of the buildings.

She and her co-star Tom Ewell walk out of the movie theatre,

and she approaches a subway grating.

Oh, do you feel the breeze from the subway?

Isn't it delicious?

Marilyn's friend, the photographer Sam Shaw, is in the crowd.

His photos create history.

It's almost like she's saying, "This one's for you, Sam."

She's playing to the photographer, and she's really turning it on.

That is the image that most people remember.

It's just an exhilarating moment because you feel

it's something that's happening accidentally, and yet it isn't.

It's a woman having fun with her own body

and having a laugh to the camera.

And I think that's why it's lasted the test of time.

Ooh, here comes another one!

We thought it would be over in a minute and a half.

It was...two hours of craziness.

Billy Wilder shot the scene 80 times to get one shot.

There's more and more cheering, and reporters, gawkers,

and Marilyn at the centre of this spectacle.

It's hard to separate the image of self-possession and beauty from

feeling like she was getting eaten alive by the press.

And that is the pain of our business.

You become a commodity to the world.

I was standing next to Joe.

After about the tenth...

..the skirt going up, he began to tremble.

And I put my hand on his arm and said, "Joe, it's just a movie.

"It's not real."

And he said, "I realise that,

"but it's MY wife showing off her panties."

Joe turned around and left.

We don't know what happened.

No-one was in her hotel room.

It was just Joe and Marilyn that night.

There are stories that DiMaggio beat her.

Those charges have never been proven one way or the other,

and it's important to say that.

But the stories that were told are certainly plausible.

Three weeks later, their marriage is over.

Let me know, fellas, when you gut the speed up.

Miss Monroe will have nothing to say this morning.

All I can say as her attorney is that this is what

we would say was the conflict of careers.

The tears are just streaming down her face.

Now somebody says, "Oh, she's a good actress."

No, no, no, that was... Those are real tears.

If domestic violence played a part in the ending of her marriage,

that was not something that Marilyn Monroe had the option of saying.

This is during an era in which

it was still seen as a husband's prerogative to hit his wife.

Women are always considered responsible.

So Marilyn is very brave to go through with the divorce.

Our marriage wasn't a happy one.

It ended in nine months, unfortunately.

And I don't know what else to say.

Marilyn returns to work at Fox Studios.

But she just felt, under Zanuck's leadership, her career was

going to flounder because the films weren't going to be good.

She could not get away from the typecasting.

She could see that the act was starting to exploit her.

She needed to deconstruct what she was doing

so that it wouldn't eat her alive.

At the pinnacle of her success,

Marilyn Monroe walks away from Hollywood.

It's astonishing that she would do that.

She was flying without a net.

She was feeling her power,

and I think she wanted to see how far she could push herself.

She had created Marilyn Monroe.

She had made Marilyn Monroe a star.

It was time to take Marilyn Monroe on the next step of her journey.

Next, on Reframed: Marilyn Monroe...

She wanted control of her own destiny.

People said she's David against Goliath.

She was entering a new ring.

Bus Stop, it was very brave.

Marilyn had a fear of being called a home-wrecker.

Arthur Miller is a risky proposition,

romantically and professionally, for Marilyn.

He is a married man who was subpoenaed by the US government.

Are you a member of the Communist Party?

She doesn't realise she's heading into a storm.