Page 47 - All About History - Issue 28-15

Gladys ended up changing her
daughter’s name to Baker, the
surname of her first husband

to be dragged away by force. She was placed in
a state asylum, just like her parents, and Norma
was told her mother was ‘in hospital’. She wouldn’t
understand what this meant until she became
a woman herself. Now Norma had nothing – no
father, no mother to visit her on Saturday, no quiet
suburban home and no identity. For the next
two years she was carted between two couples
– an English family forced to return home when
depression hit, and neighbours who became fond
The first photo of
Monroe taken for Yank, of the girl and requested to adopt her. From the
The Army Weekly asylum, Gladys still had a voice, and she said no.
Now a ward of the state, Norma was sent to an
orphanage. When the young girl realised where she
Saturday. There, in the strict and was, she kicked and screamed: “I’m not an orphan!”
sheltered home, Gladys would sit with Her days of endless boredom in the institution were
the child she barely knew, before broken up by visits from Grace McKee, her mother’s
leaving again to be back in time for friend and now her legal guardian. The glamorous
her weekly date. lady would whisk her away, buy her soda and take
Norma was a quiet child, her to see a movie. This is likely where Norma’s
remarkably quiet. When her mother love affair with the screen began, but McKee also
occasionally took her to the film provided another of Norma’s enduring loves – she
lab, she would sit there quietly for allowed her to try on makeup.
hours. As a child, these qualities were Aged 11, Norma left the orphanage and flittered
congratulated, but later in life she would be between foster homes until eventually Grace took
criticised as seeming totally detached from her in. It wasn’t an easy situation – Grace had
reality. Scriptwriter Nunnally Johnson described recently married a man ten years her junior who
her as “ten feet under water… a wall of thick had three children of his own and liked to drink.
cotton… she reminds me of a sloth. You stick a pin Although home life was anything but stable, Norma
in her and eight days later it says ‘ouch’.” was finally able to pursue her love of acting. She
For seven years Norma lived in this relatively was rejected by her high school dramatic society, so
stable home. The Bolenders were not wealthy, instead she played the parts in films she watched,
but they were moral, hardworking and decent reciting lines over and over in her bedroom. But in
people. Norma grew into a lively child with tough public she was silent and incredibly timid, earning
features. In school she was timid and ordinary, the nickname ’the mouse’. Her time with Grace
but at home she was strong, bold and bossed came to a bitter end when her husband stumbled
around her brother. This domination of men would drunkenly into Norma’s room one too many times.
later become one of Marilyn’s defining features. She was on the move again.
However, as Norma turned seven, her mother had Norma finally found a loving and stable home
finally earned enough money to buy a house, and with Ana Lower, Grace’s aunt. Lower absolutely
the young Norma moved to Hollywood 13 years adored Norma and Marilyn would later comment
before her career there would begin. that she “changed my whole life. She was the first
Unfortunately, Gladys was a ticking time bomb person in the world I ever really loved and she
of inherited insanity. In less than three months loved me. She showed me the path to the higher
she had an extreme psychotic episode and had things of life and she gave me more confidence in
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