Original subtitles

HAYDN GWYNNE: Marilyn Monroe was the golden girl

of Hollywood's golden age.

# Men grow cold As girls grow old... #

Star of over 30 films, classics like The Seven Year Itch...

# Running wild, lost control... #

- ..and Some Like It Hot. - # Mighty bold... #

She was cast as the dumb blonde over and over.

She walks in, and the men are going...

HE GASPS

In this programme, we reveal that behind the stereotype...

..was a witty, intelligent trailblazer...

There has been a shift towards considering her more as a feminist.

..who stood up for racial and gender equality...

Marilyn Monroe was ahead of her time,

but she didn't even know it.

..single-handedly took on the big guns...

Marilyn Monroe was the first woman of real power

to stand against the studio system in Hollywood.

..and won.

In the 1950s, women simply did not do production companies.

But Marilyn destroyed the system.

With incredible access to Marilyn's surviving co-stars and friends,

we learn how she behaved on set...

She cared deeply,

and what she delivered was extraordinary.

..intimate revelations...

Marilyn was in the earliest stage of pregnancy.

..and a different Marilyn to the one we think we know.

All they see is this fragile creature, and it just wasn't true.

In rarely broadcast interviews, she voices her frustrations.

MARILYN:

With a first-hand account of her darkest hours.

I saw her crawling on the floor at three o'clock in the morning,

smelling from drugs and alcohol.

And for the first time on British television,

an outtake from her last movie reveals strains on the production.

- Can we start again? - Yeah.

This is the true, untold story of Marilyn Monroe.

May 19th, 1962...

..Madison Square Garden, New York.

JFK's inner circle decided that they would throw a birthday gala.

And who better to headline than Marilyn Monroe?

She tiptoes onto stage,

and she's announced, rather poignantly

given that she didn't have that long to live after this occasion.

Mr President... the "late" Marilyn Monroe.

APPLAUSE

And she flicks the microphone...

..in a very cool and sexy action.

The performance that would go down in history is remembered as much

for Marilyn slurring as for her tongue-in-cheek rendition.

# Happy birthday to you

# Happy birthday to you

# Happy birthday, Mr President... #

At 35 years old,

Marilyn Monroe was the most famous film star in the world.

Eleven weeks later... she was dead.

But how did this pioneering star of 30 films

with the strength to fight the Hollywood system come to this?

Marilyn was born Norma Jeane Mortenson

on 1 June, 1926.

Her mother, Gladys Monroe Baker, was diagnosed as schizophrenic,

and she was put in a state hospital in an asylum.

She really wasn't the ideal person to be a mother.

Nobody knows for sure who her father was.

Marilyn Monroe herself never knew.

Without a father, and a mother who couldn't cope,

Norma Jeane spent most of her childhood in foster care.

It was a childhood where she never really could hang on to a family

for very long and feel that she really belonged,

because before she knew it, she was going somewhere else again.

These were not necessarily warm and caring foster homes.

Throughout Norma Jeane's troubled childhood,

there was one constant...

..her mother's close friend Grace McKee.

Grace took on this role of unofficial guardian.

She would come along and take her out for the day,

take her out to get her nails done, take her to the movies.

And she was drawn to one particular star.

Grace was obsessed with Jean Harlow.

She was a huge sex symbol.

The original platinum blonde.

Well, for the love of mud,

where am I sleeping, on a racetrack?

Come on, let's have it. Who are you? Where'd you come from?

Don't rush me, brother.

I'm Pollyanna The Glad Girl.

These cinema trips with Grace had a huge impact on Marilyn,

as she revealed to the broadcaster Dave Garroway.

MARILYN:

The movies were a million miles

from the reality of growing up largely in foster care.

But when Norma Jeane was 15, she was offered an escape

as she revealed to the writer Georges Belmont.

MARILYN:

At just 16, she married 21-year-old Jim Dougherty.

- GREG SCHREINER: - They set up a little household.

However, Jim was called in to serve for the World War.

We will gain the inevitable triumph,

- so help us God. - APPLAUSE

With Jim posted to the Merchant Marines,

Norma Jeane joined the war effort on the home front.

She joined a munitions factory called Radioplane Munitions.

And it was at this factory that she was discovered

by an Army photographer.

A photographer was looking around

for images to promote the war effort.

At that point, she looked very different.

Her hair was a light brown type colour.

She looked very much like a California girl-next-door.

And that started getting her her first recognition.

Norma Jeane was an instant hit,

and her face was splashed across Army magazines and pamphlets.

She was perfect as a morale-boosting image.

When the war ended and her husband returned,

the pressure was on to stay at home and raise a family.

Marilyn decided that housewife was not gonna be her career,

and she did not want to be married any more.

So in 1945, aged just 19,

a determined Norma Jeane signed up to the Blue Book modelling agency

and soon after left her husband, and she was no ordinary model.

The head of her modelling agency,

she said, "I never saw anybody work so hard."

She needed to understand lighting and lenses and angles

and how to move her body.

She was tireless...

..and unbelievably ambitious.

By the summer of 1946,

she was gracing magazine covers by the dozen,

and her growing profile attracted the attention of a Hollywood studio.

It had come to the knowledge of 20th Century Fox

that there was a woman out there that's quite beautiful,

and so they decided to set up a screen test.

She had terrible stage fright from the beginning.

As it turned out, they just did a silent screen test,

so she was in effect able to just use the modelling skills

that she had been developing over recent years.

They liked her, and they actually signed her on a six-month contract.

Before long, she would be starring in a string of hits

and, as witty as ever, making clever additions to the scripts.

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

She came up with it herself.

# No. #

And nearly 70 years after they danced together on set,

her Oscar-winning dance partner sheds light on Marilyn,

the working girl.

She cared deeply,

and what she delivered was extraordinary.

CHEERING

HAYDN: On August the 24th, 1946,

already a successful model,

Norma Jeane signed her first contract with 20th Century Fox,

but the studio didn't approve of her name.

Norma Jeane was not considered to be a particularly film-star-like name,

and there was an actress around at the time, Marilyn Miller,

and one of the studio executives said, "Oh, you remind me of her."

So she went with Marilyn.

And Marilyn, once again showing her determined character,

wanted to choose her own new surname,

as she revealed to the writer George Belmont.

MARILYN:

So they combined the Marilyn with the Monroe,

and Norma Jeane was said goodbye to.

Marilyn's next task

was to get herself that all-important first role.

In one of the early surviving screen tests that she did...

- You can't take such a chance. - You dumb broad.

..the man opposite her refers to her just as a dumb broad.

- I oughta... - Go ahead.

It won't be the first time I've been worked over today.

I'm getting used to it.

This idea that a pretty girl

was also always going to have to be a dumb broad,

that was something that was going to chase her throughout her career.

In her first six months,

all she landed was this bit part

in little-known comedy Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!

Oh, hush up and go wait in the car.

- Hi, Rad. - Hi, Betty.

She got an extension, but then Fox cancelled her contract,

as Marilyn shared with broadcaster Dave Garroway.

MARILYN:

But Marilyn never gave up easily...

..and enlisted celebrated agent Johnny Hyde

to help put her career back on track.

Johnny Hyde fell in love with Marilyn,

and because of him having such influence in Hollywood,

he was able to get her some very big auditions.

KNOCKING

And thanks to him, she landed a breakthrough role,

a walk-on part in the 1949 Marx Brothers film Love Happy.

Essentially, she's used as a blonde bombshell.

At one point, a monocle pops out of someone's eye.

Smoke comes out of a pipe.

Is there anything I can do for you? What a ridiculous statement.

Mr Grunion, I want you to help me.

I have a little sand left. What seems to be the trouble?

Some men are following me.

Really? I can't understand why.

This short scene was the spark that would ignite her career...

..leading to a series of similar roles.

Realising that her looks were where her power lay,

Marilyn set to work perfecting her image.

That gradually emerges through a series of screen roles...

Haven't you bothered me enough, you big banana head?

..over the course of about a three-year period.

Happy any way you want me to be.

Her hair got shorter and it also got blonder.

It went from sort of light brown,

and eventually through to the platinum blonde

that we know her for.

Mr McKinley, control yourself.

- Go fry an egg. - Well!

There were rumours that she also had some work done on her chin.

She also had her nose taken care of.

She worked with the make-up artist Whitey Snyder.

They created a look that entailed emphasising her lips

using many different shades of red lipstick.

But her transformation was more than skin deep.

And she also created a health and beauty regime...

..that created the Monroe look.

Marilyn had nailed a distinctive image.

Her career started to take off.

All set.

- Is your motor running? - Is yours?

Fox offered her a new seven-year contract

with a starting salary of $500 a week,

more than £3,500 in today's money.

And soon came her first starring role

in the film noir thriller Niagara.

With Niagara, the look of Marilyn had been established.

I'm awfully sorry about the cabin,

but my husband hasn't been feeling too well.

Please, don't make me move him right now.

He's finally fallen asleep.

Marilyn's sexuality is on show. throughout the movie.

You see a scene where she changes the record

out in a public dancing area.

- One of the men looks and says... - "Hey, get out the fire hose."

She has the same kind of impact that she had in the Marx Brothers film.

It's designed to, again, make everybody look at her.

What about it, lady?

Better not.

Niagara grossed $6 million

and catapulted Marilyn into stardom,

but the raw sexuality she exuded on screen led to precious off screen,

as Marilyn confided to journalist Richard Meryman.

MARILYN:

The casting couch is well known.

It's certainly legendary that people were expected

to perform sexual favours.

There were always rumours that Marilyn did have sex

with a lot of studio executives in order to advance her career.

I don't know if that's true or not.

She most certainly will have had to deal with

the kind of things that now, finally,

with the MeToo movement is being held up

for the abuse that it actually is.

Despite working in an often toxic and sexist culture,

Marilyn was now fearlessly forging a path

to the top of the Hollywood system.

Production was underway on her next film,

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,

when a scandal broke that had the potential

to destroy her burgeoning career.

Back in 1949, Marilyn had starred in a nude photo shoot.

She told writer Georges Belmont the story.

MARILYN:

MARILYN LAUGHS

But despite his promise, she was recognised

and the scandalous shots had resurfaced.

They made a nude calendar,

and they were seen a lot in places around the country.

20th Century Fox were furious and challenged Marilyn,

as she told writer Georges Belmont.

MARILYN:

This was a risky admission.

Admitting that she was the girl in the nude calendars

could have ended Marilyn Monroe's career.

Whenever she was confronted with her past,

she would say, "Yep, nothing to be ashamed of.

"Nudity is nothing to be ashamed of."

And she was actually quite progressive and bold in that way.

And she told the whole story about being broke and needing the money,

and people embraced her for that

and said, "OK, we understand. We feel sorry for you."

And I think she was very smart that way.

She won the country over,

and she shifted attitudes toward more acceptance

of open female sexuality.

Marilyn was relaxed about nudity, but wary about being a sex symbol,

as she told journalist Richard Meryman.

MARILYN:

MARILYN LAUGHS

Which sadly is exactly what happened

because there was a further twist to this tale.

Eventually, those photos were utilised

for the very first Playboy magazine.

Hugh Hefner bought them,

and she was the very first Centrefold ever.

Marilyn wasn't consulted and wasn't paid a dime from the deal.

Seventy years on, the full frontal still has the power to shock.

Hefner published it reckless to its impact on her.

So I find that's kind of ironic

that she also gave a kick start to Hugh Hefner.

But having turned the nude calendar scandal to her advantage,

she was now free to continue making Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Marilyn is a gold-digger who is observed closely

by a private investigator hired by the father of her intended.

I don't want this character to get hurt on the way.

If you've nothing more to say, pray, scat.

The dumb blonde isn't as dumb as she seems.

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.

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

She came up with it herself.

If you wanted to, you could interpret that line

as a subtle dig to the studios.

And being portrayed as a dumb blonde wasn't her only gripe

with the studio.

Marilyn also felt undervalued and frustrated on set,

as she explained to the journalist Richard Merryman.

MARILYN:

RICHARD LAUGHS

RICHARD AND MARILYN LAUGH

The studio denied she was a star, but they were wrong.

Her performance in the film is legendary.

# Grow cold as girls grow old

# And we all lose our charms In the end

# But square cut or pear shaped

# These rocks Don't lose their shape

# Diamonds are A girl's best friend... #

The dress, the dance sequence, the song,

it is Marilyn par excellence.

# But diamonds are a girl's... #

And Oscar-winning dance star George Chakiris

was by Marilyn's side.

If anybody mentions that movie, what comes to mind?

That beautiful red background and her pink dress against it.

No!

It's visually really striking.

And what was also striking in this early stage of her career

was Marilyn's dedication.

We rehearsed for, I think, two or three weeks,

and it took three days to film.

She's a perfectionist.

During the breaks, we get up and play around and try to do the steps.

She just went right back to her starting position

to start the take again.

She never looked at herself in the mirror.

She never did any of that, and I love that about her.

She cared deeply, and what she delivered was extraordinary.

At 86 years old, George's toes are still twinkling.

Still remember some of the moves,

the very last step that Marilyn does cos she's singing, "Diamonds."

- # Diamonds - Diamonds... #

Guys were all behind her, walking on knees toward her.

# Diamonds

# Are a girl's best... #

And then we jump up in the air, so it's, "Diamonds..."

- Jump up. - # Best friend. #

It's fun to talk about these things...

because it's movie history.

But the pink dress now synonymous with Marilyn

wasn't the costume intended for this scene.

Originally, they wanted to dress up Marilyn as a diamond,

as a necklace.

After the nude scandal broke, the studio decided

they simply could not have Marilyn Monroe

in this incredibly scanty costume.

One day, I hope to see the actual outfit itself,

because it must be a sight to behold.

And a sight to behold it is.

The current owner,

leading Marilyn Monroe collector Greg Schreiner,

has preserved the bottom half of the costume.

Here we have the front, quite elaborate,

and was made entirely of rhinestones.

And in the back, we have a tail.

It makes me feel like I'm a little bit closer to Marilyn.

Somehow, her spirit's in it a little bit.

I dunno, just feels good.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was one of the biggest movies of 1953.

After dancing and singing on screen,

it was time for an ambitious Marilyn to prove her versatile talent

and make her mark by tackling a comedy.

And she stole the show

in her next smash How To Marry A Millionaire.

So Marilyn Monroe stars alongside Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall.

They play three women who are determined to marry millionaires,

and comedy ensues.

Essentially, this movie is known

for our Marilyn being able to play a slightly different twist

on the dumb blonde role.

Because she's playing this woman who's very short sighted,

whenever she takes her glasses off,

she actually sort of just bumps into things.

It's a simple joke. It's a dumb joke,

but her delivery of it is absolutely priceless.

All right, put 'em on. No men here yet.

You certainly got here in a hurry. Did you take a taxi?

No, I didn't have enough money for a taxi.

Had to get the Chrysler people

to demonstrate their new show boat for me again.

She's actually playing with her own image of Marilyn Monroe

- and making fun of it. - Did you see this fella I'm with?

- I saw him. - What's he look like?

- Very nice for a one-eyed man. - Is that all he's got?

What do you think he's got that patch on for?

I didn't know it was a patch.

I thought somebody might have belted him.

She isn't just that person on the calendar

or on the front of your magazine.

I love seeing her in this role.

How To Marry A Millionaire was a huge commercial success,

earning eight million dollars at the box office.

Marilyn Monroe was fast becoming Hollywood's leading comic actress.

- PRESENTER: - Here comes the young lady who has created a real sensation

of the picture business, Miss Marilyn Monroe.

Come on out here, darling.

And the following year,

she would shoot one of the most iconic scenes

in movie history.

It is, for many,

that image you think of when you think of Marilyn.

The lipstick just so, the blonde hair, it's all perfect.

HAYDN GWYNNE: After appearing

in some of the most successful movies of 1953,

Marilyn Monroe is now the biggest female star in Hollywood.

- NEWS: - You know them well, of course. Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell.

Fan mail was pouring in,

and Marilyn's stardom was becoming very real and powerful.

Between Beverly Hills and the ocean is the 20th Century Fox studio.

But the studio failed to recognise her extraordinary versatility,

pushing her into the same empty-headed roles

time and time again.

Marilyn had had enough.

She suddenly saw what the deal was,

and she realised, "They just wanted me for boobs

"and hair and lips and skin, and I'm so much more than that."

There was actually several movies she turned down,

including The Girl In The Pink Tights,

which I think just going by the name alone,

you can guess that was probably not a great script.

She thought it was garbage.

She also found out that her co-star, Frank Sinatra,

was on a fee that was three times what she would have got,

so she dug her heels in and said no.

Marilyn simply failed to turn up on set.

The studio's response was to suspend her.

Marilyn's fallout with the studio made newspaper headlines,

which she then replaced with even bigger ones

when she married a popular sporting legend.

- COMMENTATOR: - Joe DiMaggio slams what looks like a sure homer.

Joe DiMaggio was one of the most famous sportsmen in the country.

He was a national hero.

They had met over dinner after he'd asked a friend to introduce them,

as Marilyn explained to writer Georges Belmont.

Bowing to her now even greater star power,

Fox lifted Marilyn's suspension,

but she ignored their pleas

and jetted off to Tokyo on her honeymoon.

DiMaggio was invited to Japan,

which was a huge nation of baseball fans.

He was the big baseball star.

However, Marilyn is the one that got all the attention.

- REPORTER: - And Joe, he's the forgotten man,

which is something in Japan, where baseball is so popular.

And I'm sure that he probably was, underneath, seething a little.

But enough's enough. His patience is exhausted, and Joe says, "Go!"

And while they were there, Marilyn got the invitation

to go entertain American troops in Korea.

Seizing the opportunity to keep her name in lights,

an ever-ambitious Marilyn left Joe behind in Tokyo.

- REPORTER: - Marilyn Monroe invades frozen Korea,

and the GIs come a runnin' -

vowing unconditional surrender.

Everything was very put together the last minute.

A tiny little portable stage.

13,000 marines whoop it up

as a now glamorous Marilyn steps front and centre.

She insisted on wearing a beautiful dress in freezing cold weather

because that was what they expected.

And her performance was electrifying,

as you can see in this rare footage.

# But square-cut or pear shaped These rocks don't lose their shape

# Diamonds are a girl's best friend

# Tiffany's

# Cartier

# Cartier... #

The men had not seen a woman for quite a long time, really.

So they were, as I can say, very excited to see her.

This overwhelming reception had a profound impact on Marilyn.

That was the first time when she got an inkling

of what a big star she was.

That was when she began to understand it in real terms.

She had become a global sensation.

But husband Joe was far from thrilled.

He just can't stand that she's so famous.

He can't stand all the other fans around her.

The way these sort of men follow her around and leer at her.

And Joe's jealousy would only intensify

when she took on the role of the Girl,

a sex siren in The Seven Year Itch.

Tom Ewell plays a man living in his New York family apartment.

I'm afraid I'm coming down with what you and Doctor Steichel call

the seven-year itch.

What am I going to do?

He's starting to be distracted by other women.

And in moves a new neighbour upstairs

who just happens to be Marilyn Monroe.

- Do you live in our building? - Yes, in the Kaufman's apartment.

I took it for the summer while they were away in Europe.

Well, isn't that nice?

She is a fantasy figure in this.

I mean, she is the girl next door, the girl upstairs.

And on one baking September night,

she would shoot one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history.

Tom Ewell's character and the girl are walking out

of a movie they've watched together.

It's a very hot night.

And as she walks over a subway grate...

Oh, do you feel the breeze from the subway? Isn't it delicious?

..a train passes underneath, and her white dress billows up.

Sort of cools the ankles, doesn't it?

Well, what do you think would be fun to do now?

I don't know, it's getting pretty late.

It's not that late.

The thing is, I have this big day tomorrow.

I really have to get to sleep.

It's just extraordinary how impactful that one scene has had.

Oh, here comes another one.

Not only on her career, but actually on popular culture.

Marilyn's friend and photographer, Sam Shaw, took the famous shot.

Well, my father came up with the skirt-blowing scene

after reading the script.

In 1941, he had done a cover for Friday Magazine,

where a model was going through,

like, a wind tunnel, and her skirt was blowing.

He'd put it in the back of his mind

that if he ever had the opportunity to use that concept again, he would.

The scene took place in New York outside the Lux Theatre,

September 15th, 1954, at 2am in the morning.

Underneath the grating, there was a wind machine going

to make the skirt blow up.

Thousands of people were clamouring around.

Let's be honest, it was mainly men screaming her name.

The white dress was designed by William Travilla,

and we see his trademark sunburst pleating.

And it's also what creates the fullness

that allow it to really billow in the subway breeze.

Her hair was perfectly coiffed.

Her make-up was exactly right.

Marilyn was exuding 100% of her sexuality.

And it was between one of the takes

when Sam Shaw captured the iconic moment.

Marilyn turns to him,

her skirt goes up, and she goes, "Hi, Sam."

It was called the shot seen round the world.

It is, for many, that image you think of when you think of Marilyn.

The lipstick just so, the blonde hair. It's all perfect.

This scene worked wonders for Marilyn,

but not for husband Joe, who you can see here hanging around the shoot.

- SARAH: - Somebody told Joe DiMaggio that it was happening.

And he became more and more incensed the more times they did the takes.

Marilyn actually wore two pairs of panties

to make sure that she protected her own modesty.

To him, it was a kind of shocking display of her sexuality.

To her, it was just part of the job.

- GREG: - There are rumours that Joe got very angry afterwards

in their hotel room.

People reported that they heard screaming,

and most people believe that Joe was physically violent

to Marilyn that night.

And certainly, not long after that, Marilyn was filing for a divorce.

After only nine months, the marriage was over.

And this wasn't the only relationship under strain.

Exasperated with the studio's treatment of her,

she decided to break her Fox contract.

She wanted out.

She left DiMaggio.

She left Hollywood, and she moved to New York.

She bought a plane ticket under the name Zelda Zonk

so that nobody would know it was actually her.

She would just disappear on them. And what were they gonna do?

They couldn't force her to work if she wasn't there.

For a determined Marilyn,

New York held the key to the development of her career.

So she was devoted to her work and to improving her craft.

She really wanted to be remembered as an actress with integrity.

Savvy Marilyn enrolled at The Actors Studio,

the most prestigious acting school of its time,

run by Lee and Paula Strasberg.

My father was the artistic director of the Actors Studio.

No matter how famous you were, no matter how rich you were,

you came in there, and it was your work

that was being looked at, not who you were.

The Actors Studios were the real serious people,

were Marlon Brando, Paul Newman

and people who really doing real stuff in the movies.

What set the Actors Studio apart

was a technique known as "the method".

It was based on your ability

to recall experiences that you have had,

from simple sensations to traumatic emotional experiences,

and to be able to reproduce them on cue.

Marilyn shared the techniques with Georges Belmont.

Strasberg also encouraged her to undergo a period of psychoanalysis.

I think it was probably one of the worst things

that could have happened to her at the time,

because it kept her locked with all that pain

that she'd experienced as a child,

rather than freeing her to move on and cope better with life.

Some years earlier, Marilyn had revealed to a journalist

details of childhood abuse.

She did say that she had suffered molestation,

sexual abuse as a child.

She was vulnerable.

She was passed around from home to home at a time

when society discounted those kinds of allegations.

And she had been dismissed as a fantasist.

Both as a child and as a woman, kind of two counts against her.

It was a culture that simply disbelieved

victims of sexual assault.

Now through psychoanalysis,

Marilyn revisited all her past traumas,

including the neglect and abandonment

she had experienced from birth.

To cope with the gruelling hours on film sets,

she had been taking a cocktail of pills since she started at Fox.

Pills were just handed out like candy.

There were doctors on every studio set,

and all the actors had them, and the dancers had them,

and the choreographers had them, and you could just get them.

In New York, while in therapy,

she began taking even more pills, and as her drug use spiralled,

the towering strength Marilyn had shown till now began to crumble.

The psychiatrists, in prescribing these drugs,

were thinking they were doing her good.

I don't think that they were as aware as we are today

of how addictive they are and how dangerous they are.

She would prick capsules of barbiturates

and dissolve them in champagne to make them work faster.

She didn't know how much she was taking. She wasn't even tracking it.

I saw her crawling on the floor at three o'clock in the morning,

smelling from drugs and alcohol,

saying, "Do you think I can wake up your parents?"

I saw her as much more vulnerable.

It's just terrible. That's terrible stuff.

Thankfully, the Strasbergs gave Marilyn

the support she needed to survive.

I don't think anyone expected

that she would end up as a member of the family.

Marilyn was more like between a sister...

..and a wounded animal.

When I saw Marilyn happy,

it was when she was with the family just having a good time.

And despite her growing troubles, as the next chapter dawned,

Marilyn would once again show her inner strength,

this time, to help others.

Battling prejudice and standing up for equality to change the life

of a struggling musician known as Ella Fitzgerald.

Ella is on record saying that she owed a lot to Marilyn Monroe,

that Marilyn Monroe was ahead of her time,

but she didn't even know it.

HAYDN GWYNNE: By the summer of 1955,

Marilyn Monroe was settled into her new life in New York,

attending classes at the prestigious Actors Studio.

She took her studies seriously.

Marilyn Monroe was acutely aware

that she had had a very poor education.

And she was determined to improve herself.

She was a voracious reader.

She read political history. She read political biographies.

She wanted to fill up her mind and give herself a bit of substance.

There are photographs of her reading Ulysses.

People said, "Oh, it's just a prop

"cos she wants to look intellectual."

Because she was a dumb blonde in the eyes of everybody else,

once again, her efforts at self-improvement

were just met with mockery.

But Marilyn's inner circle

were fully aware of her true intelligence.

And whilst in New York, she met an old friend.

In the 1950s, Arthur Miller was America's most famous playwright.

Marilyn had met Arthur Miller in Hollywood a few years before,

and they'd had a flirtation at a party.

Nothing came of it. He was married.

But when Marilyn moved to New York,

it deepened into something more serious.

They swapped book recommendations. They wrote letters to each other.

They didn't just have dirty weekends away.

It was quite a literary courtship.

And the feeling was mutual,

as Arthur Miller revealed in his interview with presenter Alan Yentob

for the BBC's Omnibus.

The circles she was in with Arthur Miller,

the Actors Studio, New York City,

all of that would have brought her in contact

with a more liberal wing of American society.

She was forward thinking.

She was outraged by many elements

of sexism and racism in society,

and of colour prejudice.

In America, the class that was most oppressed was African Americans,

Black people.

To be a Black person in America in the '50s,

you could only sit at the back of the bus,

you could only use certain toilets,

you could only go into certain clubs and restaurants.

It was very much a segregated society.

Marilyn did not ever respect

those kinds of social barriers.

There are pictures of her that were taken at the time

with Black friends,

and magazines would often crop those pictures

to show Marilyn only with the white people.

She was friends with the people she wanted to be friends with,

and nobody was gonna tell her otherwise.

# I have mixed emotions... #

And that included the legendary jazz singer, Ella Fitzgerald.

# I know I shouldn't cos you've got me. #

She met Ella and discovered that they had something in common.

They both had abusive childhoods, both kind of put into boxes.

And they really gelled, and they really became friends.

Marilyn really considered her an important artist,

and she wanted to get Ella into Hollywood

to really do a big Hollywood gig.

At the time, Ella was struggling to get a headline booking.

One of the places that turned her down

was LA's glitziest venue.

- REPORTER: - The Mocambo, one of Hollywood's best-known places

to dine and dance, is star-studded every night.

When Marilyn found out that Ella Fitzgerald

wasn't allowed to sing at the Mocambo club,

Marilyn was outraged.

She got on the phone to the manager of the club

and said that if he agreed to book Ella,

that she would be there, front and centre

at the main table for a week.

If Marilyn was there, other A-listers would come as well,

because you didn't get more A-list than Marilyn Monroe.

And they said yes.

The gig attracted some of Hollywood's biggest names,

with Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland spotted on the front row.

On Ella's opening night, she got rave reviews.

After playing at The Mocambo,

the white audience, the mainstream audience,

knew who Ella Fitzgerald was.

Ella is on record saying that she owed a lot to Marilyn Monroe,

that Marilyn Monroe was ahead of her time,

but she didn't even know it.

Marilyn was also winning her own battles.

Fox allowed her to renegotiate her contract on new terms,

and once again, ahead of her time,

she teamed up with old friend, photographer Milton Greene.

They would combine their resources and form a production company,

which they called Marilyn Monroe Productions.

Marilyn shared the plans in this rare interview

with broadcaster Edward R Murrow.

- MURROW: - Tell me, what's the basic reason

for this corporation?

Primarily to... contribute,

to help making good pictures.

Well, would it be fair to say that you got rather tired

of playing the same kind of roles all the time?

I would like to do also dramatic parts, too.

She was going to take control of her career...

..force Fox to let her make some films on the side,

and that she would be able then to have directorial control.

She was really determined to prove

that she could take up space in Hollywood

as a thinker and as a film maker,

so not just in front of the camera looking beautiful,

but behind the camera, having ideas.

But the studios openly mocked Marilyn

for wanting to set up her own company.

She was just laughed at. They said that she was above herself.

And this sense that she didn't know her own limits

and that she didn't understand that she was just a dumb blonde,

and, "Who does she think she is?"

In the 1950s, women simply did not do production companies.

That was the studio that did that.

But Marilyn destroyed the system.

By 1956, Marilyn's split with Fox was complete.

And any future work with them would now be on her terms.

She went back in and renegotiated her contract.

- SCHREINER: - She had the right to refuse

any films she did not wanna do.

She also had the right to make her own movies.

And Marilyn's first role created under this new contract,

came in the form of Cherie in a 1956 cowboy caper.

Bus Stop was the beginning of Marilyn Monroe stepping away from

those typical roles that she used to do, of the naive blonde.

It's a serious piece about a girl who works as a sort of hostess

in a terrible little bar,

who is courted by a very overenthusiastic cowboy,

when she has aspirations of her own.

And look, you can see by this just how straight my direction is.

River Gulch is where I started. This is where I am now.

- And look where I'm going. - Where?

Hollywood and Vine!

It's a role that let her act, and that is so rare for her.

We got to see her stretch her wings a bit.

Look, straight as an arrow.

River Gulch. Psheow! Hollywood and Vine!

What happens when you get there?

What happens? Honey, you get discovered,

you get tested, with options and everything.

I like seeing that little moment where she says...

And you get treated with a little respect, too.

She's saying, "I have power, I have control, I have agency,

"and maybe I'm aware of what you've been doing.

"I know you've been taking me for a ride.

"This is my movie. This is my chance to shine.

"I am behind the camera as well with this one."

By her side throughout filming was Paula Strasberg,

her acting coach from New York.

My mother was there all the time,

and she was the one who did a lot of the pragmatic work

when Marilyn was filming,

meaning the kind of choices that Marilyn made,

the kind of focus that she made.

Some directors resented that.

They said she was hanging around like a black spider

and they couldn't, you know, move without her,

and that they would give a direction,

and Paula would give her a different direction.

The male directors got incredibly angry about this.

Despite the tension on set, in Bus Stop,

Marilyn delivered an explosive performance.

- And goodbye forever. - Cherie, wait a sec. Cherie, wait!

CLOTH RIPS, SHE SCREAMS

MEN LAUGH

You ain't got the manners they give a monkey!

I hate you and I despise you!

Now give me back my tail!

She somehow manages to create,

behind those eyes, the feeling of real pain,

of past abuses,

a sort of haunting quality to it.

You can't deny it.

She is doing something different, and she's doing it really well.

On set, she was at the top of her game,

but sadly, away from it, she was struggling.

It's around about this point in Marilyn Monroe's career

where she started to become more dependent on drugs.

She would take something to help her sleep.

She would take something to help wake in the morning.

All the stories are that she would have plastic bags

filled with undifferentiated pills

and just kind of reach in and grab them out.

In that era, it was whatever worked.

And if this is what the star needed, this is what the star got.

Unaware that her drug use was an issue,

Marilyn was optimistically embarking

on her first fully independent production.

But there were rocks ahead.

The falling out between Monroe and Olivier is legendary.

It was her movie. She was producing it.

He worked for her. And he told her just to be sexy.

Of course she was angry. Of course she was outraged.

CROWD CHEER

HADYN GWYNNE: In 1956, Marilyn Monroe was ready

to take on the big boys of the Hollywood studio system.

Now installed as president of Marilyn Monroe Productions,

she shot her first independent film, The Prince And The Showgirl,

in London.

Marilyn's new lover, the recently divorced playwright Arthur Miller,

wanted to go with her, but politics stood in their way.

- REPORTER: - The growing menace of communism

arouses the House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee.

Miller was one of the many members of the New York,

and indeed the Hollywood scene,

who were hauled up before Congress

to name names, to identify people

that they had known who were communists.

His play The Crucible had in effect criticised the investigation,

which had already made him a suspect.

So when he applied for a passport for this trip,

he was summoned before the committee.

When asked why he wanted to travel,

his answer was a proposal of marriage.

Eight days later, Marilyn and Arthur were married.

Their wedding breakfast was shot in this rarely-seen home video,

filmed by her business partner, Milton Green.

A few weeks later, the newlyweds headed to England

for Marilyn's next movie.

- REPORTER: - "She's here," said the headlines,

and everyone knew they meant the American film star

with the famous shape and the wiggly walk.

Her Majesty, talking with Miss Monroe,

remarked that they were neighbours at Windsor.

For The Prince And The Showgirl, Marilyn had secured acting royalty.

She went into production on The Prince And The Showgirl

with Laurence Olivier, the great actor,

as the director and a kind of co-star.

You know what's going to happen.

I'm gonna fall in love with you,

because I always, always do.

Always?

Mm-hm. Both times.

But far from falling in love,

relations between the two were strained.

She walked on set, and Olivier began just by patronising her.

And she asked him how they were going to play a certain scene,

and instead of taking that question seriously,

he said, "Oh, don't bother acting, Marilyn, just be sexy."

It was her movie. She was producing it.

He worked for her. And he told her just to be sexy.

Of course she was angry, of course she was outraged.

The falling out between Monroe and Olivier is legendary.

- HE SIGHS. - The tensions were incredible.

And he had no time for the methods

she had learned at the Actors Studio,

as he made clear in interviews afterwards.

She had got her little head filled with all sorts of ideas

I don't think she could cope with about realism.

She was marvellous

at just saying a very simple little line of about seven words,

and she could do it as nobody else could do that.

Olivier was guilty of absolutely blatant sexism,

and I think that he was jealous of her fame.

There are moments in the movie where THE Sir Laurence Olivier

is outshone by Marilyn Monroe.

What are words where deeds can say so much more?

That's just terrible!

Olivier seems almost sort of to disappear

when he's on screen with her.

You made a pass, and I turned it down.

Filming done, Marilyn and Arthur Miller -

who was still under investigation -

headed back to the States

to stay with his lawyer Joseph Ruah's family.

My father offered to have them stay at our house

cos everyone was concerned that Marilyn would be mobbed

if she had to stay in a hotel.

At this time, she particularly craved privacy.

Marilyn was in the earliest stage of pregnancy.

She wanted to have a family

and to get away from the horror show that is Hollywood.

Marilyn was ready to settle into family life

as soon as Miller's trial came to an end.

Very last day, she agreed to meet the press.

This was the scene in the front of our house.

I would like to say that I'm fully confident

that in the end, my husband will win this case.

That's me.

It certainly was a 16-year-old's dream

to be around Marilyn Monroe for a couple of weeks,

no doubt about that.

The trial ended and Miller was given a suspended sentence.

Expecting their first child together,

they moved into a charming old farmhouse.

You just know that she would have been

an absolutely doting, wonderful mother,

because she had a lot of love to give.

But on 1 August 1957...

..Marilyn was rushed to hospital.

Unfortunately, she had a miscarriage.

I think it's absolutely a shame

that she didn't get the daughter or the son

that she would have wanted.

She lost at least two,

and on some accounts, three pregnancies.

After her run of miscarriages in the late '50s,

she wanted something to numb the... the pain

and the depression and the sense of failure.

She overcame a lot of those problems with the help of drugs.

To what degree she would have thought in terms of addiction

is harder to know.

She knew she was unhappy,

and she was in that cycle where she felt like the pills helped.

Now totally dependent on prescription drugs...

..Marilyn went reluctantly back to work,

starring in the legendary comedy Some Like It Hot.

She plays Sugar Cane,

who is a member of an all-female band.

# Runnin' wild, mighty bold

# Feelin' gay, reckless too

# Carefree mind all the time Never blue. #

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon have to dress up as women

to escape being shot by gangsters,

and so they join this all female band.

And of course, they both sort of fall

head over heels in love with Marilyn.

Marilyn's big on entrances, and she really enhanced this one

as she's sort of wiggling her way down the train station.

STEAM BLASTS

Look at that!

The problem for Marilyn

was that although it was a superlative script,

it was still yet another dumb blonde.

Good night, sugar.

Good night, honey.

Arthur Miller hadn't worked since they had married,

and was keen for her to take on the role.

Arthur Miller helped talk her into it,

and so she just resented it.

Relax.

She's doing it, but she's not well.

She really isn't well.

And Marilyn's off-screen problems meant filming did not run smoothly,

as her co-star, Tony Curtis, later revealed

to the interviewer Michael Parkinson.

We'd get in our trusses, get in our silk stockings,

get in all the undergarments.

By the time we got done, it was two and a half hours.

We'd get on the set, ready to shoot at nine,

and she wouldn't show up till 11:30, 12:00.

You know, we had to stay like that all day long.

And then finally, Marilyn would show up.

During filming, Marilyn's drug-taking intensified.

She took so many drugs to sleep that they couldn't wake her up.

So they used to make her up in bed while she was asleep...

..before then getting her up and onto the set.

Her marriage to Miller lasted barely two more years.

By then, the troubled and addicted actor was in freefall.

She just couldn't wrestle with her own demons.

It was just awful to be Marilyn Monroe at this point.

Her final appearance should have acted as a warning...

She'd had a fair amount of champagne.

We don't know what other pills and chemicals she had taken,

but she was pretty clearly inebriated.

..of the tragedy that lay ahead.

I cannot believe this incredible, fabulous woman is gone.

CHEERING

HADYN GWYNNE: In 1962, 18 months after her marriage had broken down

and reliant on medication,

Marilyn screen tested, as seen here,

for the romantic comedy Something's Got To Give.

But as soon as production began, there was trouble.

It was an absolute nightmare to make.

Marilyn was repeatedly phoning in sick

and missed so much work.

Other people said that it was her ongoing problem with drug addiction.

When Marilyn did make it onto the set,

strains began to show, as seen in this rare outtake.

Would you like it any better if I knew him?

And it slips her mind?

Er...

- Er... Can we start again? - Yeah.

The one scene that they did shoot was a swimming pool scene.

SHE CHUCKLES

She was asked to swim in a suit, pretending to be nude,

but she opted to do it completely naked.

It was around this time, she's believed to have embarked

on an affair with the American President,

John F Kennedy.

Ask not what your country can do for you.

Ask what you can do for your country.

APPLAUSE

The rumours are that they had sex, yes.

How many times, and whether it counted as an affair,

I don't know.

She was getting a kick out of having an affair...

..with the most powerful man in the world.

On 19 May 1962, Marilyn travelled to New York

to sing Happy Birthday very publicly to JFK.

She shared the experience with Richard Meryman.

And she kind of tiptoes onto stage,

and she's announced, rather poignantly,

given that she didn't have that long to live after this occasion...

Mr President, the late Marilyn Monroe.

..and she flicks the microphone.

She'd had a fair amount of champagne.

We don't know what other pills and chemicals she had taken,

but she was pretty clearly inebriated.

# Happy birthday to you

# Happy birthday to you

# Happy birthday, Mr President

# Happy birthday to you. #

APPLAUSE

It's probably one of the most sensual performances she ever gave.

She sang it very tongue-in-cheek,

and they loved it.

BAND PLAY "HAPPY BIRTHDAY"

Afterwards, Marilyn flew back to Hollywood,

but the studio, claiming they had forbidden the trip, fired her.

JFK stopped taking her calls.

Marilyn was now vulnerable and very alone.

Five weeks before her death,

she took part in a photo shoot for Vogue,

now known as The Last Sitting.

And at the end of the shoot, she grabbed a black wig

and she spoofed Jackie Kennedy.

It's a really wicked thing to have done,

but I kind of love that she did it.

These images would prove to be

some of the very last taken of the troubled star.

FILM HISSES.

The last day of Marilyn's life, which was 4 August 1962,

was a fairly uneventful day for Marilyn.

She spent the whole day at home.

She saw her psychotherapist, Dr Greenson, at midday,

and then she was at home.

She retired to bed early that night.

She did what she often did, which is phone round some of her friends.

They did not notice anything in particular wrong with her.

Later that evening, the alarm was raised.

The housekeeper saw that her light was still on

and that the door was locked.

She called Dr Greenson, her psychiatrist.

He came over, broke a window...

- GLASS SHATTERING - ..into her bedroom.

And discovered her dead on the bed.

There's a bottle of prescription pills next to her.

- REPORTER: - One of the most famous stars in Hollywood history

is dead at 36 - Marilyn Monroe was found dead in bed

under circumstances that were in tragic contrast

to her glamorous career as a comic talent.

On the surface, she seemed to have such a zest for life.

The coroner's verdict was probable suicide.

The word's "probable",

and that's what opened up the floodgates

to a million conspiracy theories.

There are all of these complicated ideas

about how she died and why she died.

It's been seen as probably, like, an accidental overdose

and therefore a tragic end.

There was a period of several hours before the police were called.

What the hell were they covering up?

Well, I've heard everything from the Mafia did her in,

to her doctor did her in,

to the Kennedys came by and injected her.

What remains consistent is the idea that a powerful man

had to be involved in the story.

Keep the men out of the story.

She died alone.

And let us at least speak of that

with the dignity and respect that it deserves.

- REPORTER: - The curtain falls.

Brief and simple rites marked the funeral of Marilyn Monroe.

Her ex-husband, Joe DiMaggio,

arranged a small funeral service for friends and family.

Only 25 persons were invited to the services,

and no screen stars were in attendance.

Marilyn had fought all her life,

against a troubled childhood and exploitative studio system,

and men who loved her but let her down.

And on 8 August 1962,

Marilyn Monroe, finally at peace, was laid to rest.

I cannot believe this incredible, fabulous woman is gone.

Marilyn was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park.

Jack Lemmon, her co-star from Some Like It Hot, is also there.

So too is the man who nearly ended her career before it began.

Hugh Hefner bought the burial plot next to her.

To me, that just exemplifies all of the misogyny of her life

and of her afterlife.

All of these men who felt like they owned her.

Despite them all, her legacy is triumphant.

Come in.

HIGH-PITCHED WHISTLE

- Is your motor running? - Is yours?

- Takes a while to warm up. - Yes, me too.

Marilyn Monroe is undoubtedly

the most recognisable Hollywood movie star of all time.

She had so much talent that when she was on screen,

you couldn't look at anything else.

She's immortal.

She works in every age. She'll never go out of style.

You should not think of her as being this dumb blonde.

I hate you and I despise you!

She was so much more than that.

Now give me back my tail!

We still have made so little progress

in thinking about her in different terms.

All they see is this fragile creature,

and it just wasn't true.

She changed her life. She got what she wanted.

Marilyn Monroe was the first woman of real power

to stand against the studio system in Hollywood.

She deserves to be remembered as more of a force to be reckoned with,

more of a trailblazer.

I think if she was alive today,

they'd go, "Well, yeah, Marilyn, that's the way it ought to be."

# And diamonds are a girl's

# Diamonds are

# A girl's best friend. #