Page 48 - All About History - Issue 28-15

Becoming Marilyn

myself. She never hurt me, not once. She couldn’t. country. They eventually became lovers, but when
She was all kindness and all love.” This confidence he asked to photograph her in the nude, she leaped
began to pour outwards. Norma embraced her out of the car and ran away screaming “I won’t!
developing body, wearing tight sweaters and crop I won’t! Don’t you understand? I’m going to be a
tops. For the first time in her life people began to great movie star someday.”
take notice of her. “This is what my identity is,” she Norma soon began to make waves as a model,
must have thought. No longer Norma the orphan, and appeared on the cover of Laff, Peek and See.
she was Norma Jeane, the pretty girl. It is at this point that she finally gave into her
Norma’s time with Lower was idyllic but brief. agency’s demands to dye her brunette hair blonde.
By 1942, Lower was suffering with serious health She had been resistant to the change for a good
problems and Norma returned to Grace’s house, but few months – for a woman with so little identity to
by now she was a different woman. However, her begin with, it likely felt akin to cutting the few ties
life was to take an unexpected turn. When Grace’s she had. But now she was ready to wipe away the
husband received a lucrative job offer, the family past. She waved farewell to her brown curls and
had to move. With Gladys still rejecting offers from playful dungarees and stared back into the face of
anyone wanting to adopt Norma, this would have a blonde bombshell. “It wasn’t the real me,” Marilyn
seen her sent back to the orphanage. To avoid this, would later claim, but it was the version of her that
Grace came up with a plan and arranged someone everyone would remember.
else to look after her – a husband. Whether she liked it or not, the blonde worked.
Jim Dougherty was a well-built, pleasant and The success of her modelling career attracted the
sporty man. He was four years older than Norma attention of the 20th Century Fox executive and
and making a steady wage in a defence plant. former actor Ben Lyon, and he invited her for a
When Grace asked him to take the 15-year-old to screen test. Not only had Norma never acted
a dance, he fell for her instantly. Six weeks after in a film before, but she had horrendous
Norma’s 16th birthday, they were married. On her stage fright. She had to be coaxed and
wedding day, her demure mask fell away and she encouraged through her audition,
started a drunken conga line. Her husband angrily but her lack of experience paled in
remarked: “You made a monkey of yourself!” Many comparison to her presence. Lyon
years later Marilyn would describe this marriage as would say it was like “Jean Harlow
“like being retired to a zoo.” all over again” while the cameraman
The marriage wasn’t particularly painful, but it uttered: “This girl had something I
was dull. Dougherty joined the Maritime Service hadn’t seen since silent pictures.”
and in 1944 was shipped out to the Pacific.
Meanwhile, Norma dutifully played the part of Norma (centre)
the loving, devoted wife. Her mother-in-law got became one of
her a job at a defence plant where she worked for Blue Book’s most
successful models
hours spraying fire retardant on planes. It was
an incredibly unlikely place for a starlet to be
discovered, but one day an army photographer
visited looking for an attractive young woman
doing war work. He saw Norma’s potential
immediately, dressing her in a variety of outfits and
taking her telephone number. From the realms of
obscurity, Norma had finally been found.
Norma was quickly signed up with the Blue
Book Model Agency. She promptly passed their
course and began work immediately. She called in
sick at the plant, then spent her days earning $10
a day modelling as a hostess at an industrial show,
while her nights were dedicated to more modelling
lessons. She moved out of her in-laws and back
to where she had been happiest, with Ana Lower.
When Dougherty returned from the war, he found
an entirely different woman than the one he had
left. In just a couple of months, she would write to
him to ask for a divorce.
Norma had found work as a model, but it was
not steady, and she was not an overnight success.
However, with her newfound confidence in her
future, she quit her job at the factory. Eager to
expand her portfolio, she went away for a month
in the spring with photographer André de Dienes.
They travelled through the west – through the
desert sun, old mining towns and into the redwood
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