When stars collide,1984

In 1983, an upcoming singer had just scored her first international hit, ‘Holiday’. Determined to be more than a one-hit wonder, she contacted Freddy DeMann, manager of the world’s most successful pop star – Michael Jackson. In fact, Jackson had recently hired a new manager, which left DeMann free to devote his attention to the lesser-known, but fiercely ambitious Madonna.

Madonna Ciccone and Michael Jackson were born just weeks apart in the summer of 1958, to large immigrant families in America’s Midwest. And in Minnesota, another superstar entered the world – Prince Rogers Nelson. Both Prince and Michael came from musical backgrounds. Madonna’s father, on the other hand, was an upwardly mobile civil engineer. When Madonna was just five years old, her mother (also named Madonna) died of breast cancer.

By the age of eight, Michael was singing lead vocals in the Jackson Five, with his older brothers. Managed by their father, Joseph, the boys quickly became veterans of the black club circuit, and were signed by Motown Records in 1968. The family moved to Detroit, just miles from where Madonna Ciccone lived.

Michael Jackson has credited his father’s strict discipline with the band’s rapid rise to fame. However, he later admitted that Joe had constantly bullied him and his brothers, both mentally and physically. Michael also regretted the loneliness of his childhood, saying that he never had time to play with friends.

Meanwhile, Madonna and her siblings were struggling to come to terms with the loss of her mother. Madonna has said that the tragedy sent her on a lifelong ‘search for love’, and speculated that she might not have taken on her father’s aggressive, go-getter work ethic quite so wholeheartedly if her mother had been alive. But Madonna wilfully ignored her new stepmother’s authority and became the ‘queen bee’ of the family.

The Jackson Five’s string of hits began with ‘I Want You Back’ in 1969, followed by ‘ABC’, ‘Rockin’ Robin’, ‘One Day In Your Life’, ‘Got To Be There’, ‘I’ll Be There’ and ‘Ben’. Michael was already emerging as the band’s star, pulling off funky dance numbers and poignant ballads with aplomb. If his life offstage was less than perfect, in the spotlight Michael was a whirlwind with the voice of an angel and a cheeky grin.

The Jackson children worked constantly, and were given little choice of material. In 1975 they left Motown for CBS. Michael became their main songwriter, penning dancefloor hits like ‘Shake Your Body Down To The Ground’ and ‘Can You Feel It’. He starred as the Straw Man in The Wiz, an all-black, musical remake of The Wizard Of Oz, alongside Diana Ross, whom he had befriended at the start of his career.

While Michael conquered Hollywood, 20 year-old Madonna was a promising dance student at the University of Michigan. Spurred on by her mentor, dance teacher Christopher Flynn, Madonna dropped out barely a year into her course and moved to New York, where she won a place in the legendary Pearl Lang’s modern dance company. By 1979 Madonna had decided that the opportunities within the dance world were too limited, and was instead pursuing a career in music.

With his good looks, charisma and talent for song and dance, Michael seemed a natural for the movies. In fact, he would appear in only one more. In 1979, Michael’s first solo album, Off The Wall, was released. Along with the brilliant producer, Quincy Jones, Michael created one of the true masterpieces of the disco era. In an early, rudimentary promotional video, Michael donned a tuxedo and performed his hit song, ‘Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’. It was now evident that Michael was simply the most talented, exciting entertainer of his time. He also filmed a video for the mellower ‘Rock With You’, clad in silver and blending seamlessly with all the glitz that surrounded him.

In 1982, Michael’s next album, Thriller, was released. Once again he collaborated with Quincy Jones on what is still the biggest selling album of all time. With Thriller, Michael became the most famous rock star since Elvis Presley, appealing to all ages and races. His mood was darker than Off The Wall had been, but his exuberant talent and Jones’ production made Thriller a modern classic. Its success paved the way for other ‘crossover’ black artists, including Prince, whose album and self-directed film, Purple Rain, made him a superstar.

‘Billie Jean’, Michael’s own composition, told the story of a young man stalked by a seductive woman, hungry for fame. Jackson’s haunting vocal, accompanied by an innovative strings arrangement, builds an almost operatic atmosphere from a simple pop song. When Michael performed on a TV special, Motown 25, audiences were wowed by a new dance – the Moonwalk – in which he appeared to step forward, while actually moving backward, as if on a conveyor belt. Variations of this routine date back to the 1950s, but Michael made it his trademark.

Jackson proved his musical versatility, incorporating an African chant into ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’’, a razor-sharp dance track in which he railed against the rumour-mongering press. Eddie Van Halen contributed a stunning guitar solo to ‘Beat It’. Incredibly, some were surprised by the inclusion of a white, heavy rocker on a black artist’s song – seemingly oblivious to the fact that rock ‘n’ roll has its roots in R&B.

MTV, the music video channel, was fast becoming a force to be reckoned with, but tended to ignore black artists. For the showstopping album finale, ‘Thriller’, Michael spared no expense. Sound effects were used on the track, including a monologue from actor Vincent Price. For the video, Michael hired John Landis, director of An American Werewolf In London. With obvious glee, Michael transforms himself from wholesome boy next door to monster.

While Thriller ruled the charts, Madonna hit the mainstream with her second album, Like A Virgin. Like Jackson, she instinctively understood the importance of image. Her style at the time – with mussed hair, crop-tops, rubber bracelets and crucifixes – inspired a generation of teenage girls, dubbed the ‘wannabees’.  She combined a wedding dress and ‘Boy-Toy’ belt in the video for ‘Like A Virgin’, and parodied the stereotypical gold-digger in ‘Material Girl’. Michael also had perfected a signature look – military jacket, dark glasses, fedora hat and a single white, sequinned glove. But unlike Madonna, who has been called the ‘mother of reinvention’, Michael made only minor changes to his image in later years.

Where Jackson had reached out to white fans with his music, Madonna was strongly influenced by R&B. Her career had begun in the New York club scene, and she chose Nile Rodgers (of Chic) to produce Like A Virgin. ‘Material Girl’ has a bassline similar to the old Jacksons hit, ‘Can You Feel It’. She sang the chorus from ‘Billie Jean’ on her ‘Virgin Tour’, and also used strings to dramatic effect on ‘Papa Don’t Preach’, a number one hit in 1986.

One of Madonna’s most enduring hits, ‘La Isla Bonita’, was originally rejected by Jackson. Madonna rewrote the lyrics with Bruce Gaitsch, who described her as the ‘most present person you can imagine.’ Michael, by contrast, was ‘a ghost of a person’ in Gaitsch’s words.

If Madonna found her sudden fame hard to cope with, she declined to show it. She is tough-minded, with a gift for self-promotion, frequently beating the press at their own game. She could never be referred to as a ‘victim’ in any shape or form. But behind his carefully constructed, ‘King of Pop’ persona, Michael Jackson was painfully shy and insecure. ‘I hate the attention,’ he told his biographer, J. Randy Taraborrelli, after the success of Thriller. ‘I’m not the kind of person who likes all of this scrutiny…And I have a bad feeling that it’s only going to get worse.’

Michael became increasingly reclusive, filling his ‘Neverland’ ranch with fairground rides and climbing trees, in an attempt to relive the childhood he felt he had lost. He threw lavish parties for his pet chimpanzee, Bubbles, and soon the press were calling him ‘Wacko Jacko’. All of this served to increase his legend, and was initially seen as harmless, endearing eccentricity. More troubling was his growing addiction to plastic surgery, and the paling of his skin – which he attributed to a rare disorder, Vitiligo.

One of Madonna’s backing singers, Siedah Garrett, duetted with Michael on ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’, lead single from his 1987 album, Bad. Michael was now writing most of his own material, and this would be his last collaboration with Quincy Jones. Bad included some of his biggest hits yet – ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, ‘Man In The Mirror’, and ‘Smooth Criminal’, also featured in his 1988 movie, Moonwalker.

Jackson was intrigued by Madonna’s success, initially judging her as only modestly talented. But as Madonna’s career progressed, it became clear that she was much more than just another novelty act. Her girlish voice was perfectly suited to pop, and she had a knack for writing simple, catchy songs with an irresistible hook. Whereas Michael generally worked with established names, Madonna chose little-known producers and directors, and many of her collaborators got their big break through working with her.

Madonna was the accomplished video artist of her time, rivalled only by Jackson. She courted controversy, addressing race and religion in ‘Like A Prayer’, and sex in ‘Justify My Love’ (the first video to be banned by MTV.)  In 1990, Madonna picked up on an underground, gay dance craze known as ‘vogueing’ and made it her own just as Jackson had popularised the Moonwalk. ‘Vogue’ was a beautifully choreographed homage to the glamour of old Hollywood, and one of her best videos.

Michael and Madonna had first met in 1984, when she watched his Victory Tour at Madison Square Garden, New York. By 1991, rumours abounded that the two stars were planning a duet. Madonna contributed some lyrics and suggested they make a video in drag. Michael rejected her ideas as too provocative. Madonna told him she was not interested in recording ‘a silly love song’ and backed out of the project. Jackson’s version, ‘In The Closet’, was included on his next album, Dangerous, with guest vocals from Princess Stephanie of Monaco. The video was filmed by one of Madonna’s favourite photographers, Herb Ritts, but it was a much tamer affair than Madonna had originally envisioned.

Though their duet never materialised, Michael and Madonna’s brief association was seized upon by the world’s media, and the two stars were more than happy to play along. Michael accompanied Madonna to the Academy Awards in 1991, making headlines around the globe. That night Madonna performed ‘Sooner Or Later’, a song from her film Dick Tracy, which won an Oscar for legendary songwriter Stephen Sondheim. When Madonna and Michael arrived for a post-Oscars party at Spago’s restaurant, Madonna spent most of her time canoodling with Warren Beatty, leaving Michael alone to be gawked at by the other guests, before being rescued by an old friend, Diana Ross.

Perhaps Madonna found Michael too introverted and nervous to keep in conversation, and it seems likely that he was intimidated by her brash self-confidence. ‘I had my sunglasses on,’ he told J. Randy Taraborrelli, recalling their first ‘date’. ‘And I’m sitting there, you know, trying to be nice. And the next thing I know, she reaches over and takes my glasses off. Nobody has ever taken my glasses off…And, then, she throws them across the room and breaks them. I was shocked. ‘I’m your date now,’ she told me, ‘and I hate it when I can’t see a man’s eyes.’ I didn’t much like that.’

Some years later, Madonna said of Jackson, and Prince, ‘I could never say that either of them were friends. I’ve spent a great deal of time with both of them. They’re very different people, but I felt the same with both. I felt like a peasant next to them, like this big clumsy farm girl. Like, when I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m thirsty, I drink. When I feel like saying something, I say it…’

There are some intriguing parallels between their later works. The video for Madonna’s ‘Bedtime Story’, released in April 1995, was directed by Mark Romanek and showed Madonna alternating between a computerised, ‘conscious’ world and an inner life of fantasy, inspired by surrealist art. Romanek then directed Michael and Janet Jackson’s ‘Scream’, in which they are trapped inside a computer.

The video for another track from 1995, ‘Earth Song’, shows Michael and various tribal peoples grabbing the soil in their hands, in a gesture of despair. (He also performed this song at the BRIT awards , where his Messianic appearance was famously mocked by Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker.) Madonna makes a similar gesture in her 2000 hit, ‘Don’t Tell Me’, but its symbolic meaning is one of optimism and spiritual growth as she revisits the Midwest of her childhood.

Michael was still making hit records and selling out tours, but something had changed. His old vitality and charm was now shadowed by an undercurrent of bitterness, and he was fast becoming a prisoner of his own fame. His 1991 song, ‘Black Or White’, was perhaps the swansong of that younger, happier Michael.

Madonna faced a backlash from the press over her explicit 1992 book, Sex, and her new album, Erotica. Many critics felt she had finally gone too far, though fans saw her latest work as revolutionary. Other female artists would follow Madonna’s path of sexual liberation, among them Michael’s sister, Janet Jackson, whose later albums explored similar themes.

But the scandal that Michael would face in 1993 was ultimately far more damaging. His friendships with celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, herself a former child star, were common knowledge. But a when a 13 year-old boy and his father accused Michael of child abuse, the whole world was profoundly shocked. Michael was never arrested – instead, the Chandler family chose to file a lawsuit against him. Michael vigorously protested his innocence, and the case was eventually settled out of court for millions of dollars.

In 1994, Michael married Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley. Cynics dismissed the wedding as a publicity stunt, but Lisa Marie insisted their relationship was genuine. ‘Our relationship was not “a sham” as is being reported in the press,’ she has written. ‘It was an unusual relationship yes, where two unusual people who did not live or know a ‘Normal life’ found a connection, perhaps with some suspect timing on his part. Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much.’

The marriage lasted two years. In 1997, Michael remarried, to Debbie Rowe, a nurse and longterm friend. Rowe bore two of Michael’s three children, and when the couple split in 1999, she awarded him full custody. Michael made two more successful albums – HIStory (1995) and Invincible (2001), and toured in 1997. Unfortunately, his bizarre personal life was now more talked about than his music.

Madonna survived the fallout from Sex, to star in Evita (1996) and record Ray Of Light (1998), a groundbreaking ambient album co-produced with William Orbit, that won her five Grammy awards. She moved to England with her second husband, film director Guy Ritchie, and began to raise a family. If this new, ‘spiritual’ Madonna seemed a little safe and dull to some of her fans, it was not to last. With a series of spectacular world tours, she maintained her status as one of the world’s most exciting live acts. Her adoption of two Malawian children has caused some controversy, as has her involvement with Kabbalah, a mystical branch of Judaism.

Jackson, like Madonna, has long been interested in humanitarian causes. His ‘Heal The World’ foundation was formed in 1992, and Jackson spent millions of his own fortune in helping children worldwide affected by poverty, war and disease. He also opened his Neverland home as a theme park for underprivileged children. A brilliant businessman at the start of his solo career, Michael was deeply in debt at the end of his life.

In 2003, Michael agreed to be filmed at home for a documentary to be made by a British journalist, Martin Bashir. It was a decision he would soon regret. Bashir discovered that Michael’s friendships with young boys had not been curtailed by the scandal of 1993, and that one of them, Gavin Arvizo, was a frequent guest for ‘sleepovers’ at Neverland. Within months of the documentary’s screening, Arvizo and his mother accused Michael of child abuse. He was charged, tried and acquitted on all counts in 2005.

Asked for her opinion on the case, Madonna admitted that she had lost touch with Michael several years before. But she did comment, rather obliquely, ‘God will have his revenge on those who humiliate others for personal gain.’

In 2005, Madonna released Confessions On A Dancefloor. One of the tracks, ‘Sorry’, included a sample from the Jacksons’ ‘Can You Feel It’, and generated some much-needed income for Michael at a difficult time. (Echoes of that track can also be heard in ‘Material Girl’, and even in one of Madonna’s most recent hits, ‘4 Minutes’.)

After the trial, Michael closed Neverland and went into hiding in Bahrain. His rare public appearances showed a frail, hobbling figure – a far cry from the ‘Moonwalker’ of the 1980s. But the public remained fascinated, and soon he began working on new material. 25 years after its first release, Thriller was reissued with remixes and guest appearances from  Akon and Kanye West.

Prince, Madonna and Michael all celebrated their 50th birthdays in 2008. Madonna was in the middle of another tour and a messy divorce; and after some years in the wilderness, Prince had re-established himself as the consummate musician of his generation. His acclaimed, 21-night residency at London’s 02 Arena in 2007 may have galvanised Michael into announcing a staggering 50 dates at the same venue, to take place in the summer of 2009.

Though many now considered Jackson a ‘has-been’, his ‘This Is It’ tour quickly sold out. Rehearsal footage shows Michael looking fit, like the star of yore. But on June 2^5th, he suffered a cardiac arrest at home while being treated by his physician, and died.

Madonna paid tribute to Michael barely a week later on her Sticky And Sweet Tour, in the same arena where he was to stage his comeback, dancing along with a Moonwalking impersonator. ’Let’s give it up for one of the greatest artists the world has ever known,’ she told the crowd, who then roared their approval.

Madonna has also said she is ‘terribly sad’ about Jackson’s death. ’To be able to do what he did at such an early age was unearthly, everybody grew up in awe of him,’ she told reporters. ‘To work with him and become friends, and hang out with him, was exciting for me. I used to love picking his brains about musical stuff.’ Madonna also mentioned that, before Michael’s death, she had offered to duet with him at one of his shows. ‘I don’t know what I could have done,’ she joked. ‘Probably carried his bags or something.’

Whatever the truth of Michael’s life and death, his influence on music was immense. With Thriller, he brought black artists to the forefront of entertainment, and Madonna would break similar ground for young women. While Prince is perhaps more gifted artistically, and Madonna a pioneer in her own way, Michael remains one of the greatest entertainers of all time. His loss has been deeply felt by fans and observers, and despite his tragic fall from grace, it is hard to imagine a world without him.

Ten To One is a new series in which I’ll be interviewing writers I admire. First up is David Marshall, author of The DD Group, an investigation into the death of Marilyn Monroe, and Life Among The Cannibals, which imagines how Marilyn’s life might have progressed had she survived beyond 1962.

Hello David, welcome. Can you tell me a little about your life and work?

DM: For starters I’m one of those who is old enough to clearly remember Marilyn Monroe as a very much alive celebrity as well as the pure shock when the news came that she had passed away. I grew up in Los Angeles and I think that probably has something to do with the fact that I have always been interested in film. I worked for 20^th Century-Fox for a brief period before I moved to Northern California to finish college and have lived in San Francisco since the Seventies. I was an art major in college with a minor in writing. Somewhere along the line the art fell to the wayside and my main preoccupation has become writing. That’s where my heart truly lies.

Why does Marilyn Monroe inspire you, and what do you think is the secret of her enduring appeal?

DM: This is a question most every Monroe fan has to give thought to at some point. There’s her stunning beauty of course – I think that’s always been the starting off point for everyone. A face like that catches your attention – be it in still photography or the first time you see her in a movie. It’s very true that it is nearly impossible to notice anything else once she’s on the screen. But the inspiration and the continuous hold, that comes from reading about her life and starting to get an idea of the type of person she was, her actual character beyond the physical attraction. Unfortunately, even today, so very many people get stuck at the physical and haven’t any idea of the woman behind the famous face. Mention Monroe as a role model and most people will look at you as if you had a screw loose. But hers is a story of an incredibly strong will overcoming exceptional obstacles – and not only persevering but reaching the very pinnacle of her profession. Add in basic human kindness, compassion and empathy, an insatiable curiosity, and quest for self-improvement, and you’ll just start to understand why this woman should be held up for emulation. Of course she was also very human and far from a saint. Yet there is always the feeling that even at her worse moments, at her core she had a kind heart and reached out to the disenfranchised. Her continuing appeal, even for those who know nothing of the person or her life story, I think, comes from the simple fact that she is incredibly fun. You can’t help but smile when seeing her image. Even though you are looking at a movie that is over fifty years old, the appeal is timeless and she somehow seems contemporary. Fun, beautiful, and timeless. But that’s just scratching at the very surface of her appeal.

What inspired the title of your new book, ‘Life Among The Cannibals’?

DM: Although I am writing about Marilyn’s life post-1962, I think the title pretty much applies to every phase of her story. She discussed the feeling in the Meryman interview, that somehow being famous gives people the idea that they have a right to take a chunk out of you. She was referring to the concept of fame and her experiences of it, how the very idea of fame somehow makes people treat the celebrity as a thing, an object to be consumed. When I read the interview that was the image I came away with – the near cannibalism all of us are guilty of, the way we gleefully devour celebrities, eagerly ingesting every crumb we can get our hands on.  Got me to wondering just what that life must be like for the celebrity, what life among the cannibals must be like.

In ‘Cannibals’, you imagine how Marilyn Monroe’s life might have progressed had she survived to old age. What made you decide to tackle this subject and how did your idea develop?

DM: I guess this was an idea that I’ve toyed with for a long time, as most fans have. In part it comes from a deep connection I feel with Marilyn. I know it sounds ridiculous but I think most fans have had the feeling, that somehow Marilyn, in their hearts, has gone from a famous movie star to more like someone they actually know in their day to day life. A friend. And when a friend dies, especially someone with such potential, there’s always that What If thing going on – what if she had lived, what would her life had been like? The book is my own “shoulda/coulda.” What Marilyn’s life could have been like, what it should have been like had she not overdosed. One thing though I was certain of, I wanted the work to be realistic. There is no grand revenge played out. She does not become president or a superhero. What I have attempted to do here is to present a very realistic look at what might have been. The world went on after Marilyn’s death. Movies were made. Political changes occurred. History went right on without her. But had she lived, how would she have fared as the summer of love evolved, what would her reaction have been to see people she knew assassinated and the world of 1962 evolved to the world of 2001? What film roles would she take on, which would she want but lose? Everything in the book, (with the exception of two friends I have created for her), did take place. The movies she appears in were real and the roles would have been age appropriate for her. This isn’t how Marilyn’s survival changes history, but simply how she herself would have experienced things that happened after she left us. Like any actress she would have been in a few dogs. Her life would have highs and lows. It’s simply the biography of a celebrity who had a career that stretched from the Fifties and on into the 21^st century. The book developed pretty much by researching and studying the years since 1962 and how Marilyn Monroe would have fit into the events of the last part of the 20^th century. And as I worked, I tried hard to keep my focus on the Marilyn Monroe that I had come to feel I knew – the woman as well as the actress. Hopefully the result will ring true to those who know her work or have read biographies of her.

How did your experience of writing ‘Life Among The Cannibals’ compare to your previous book about Monroe, ‘The DD Group’?

DM: It was a very different process although I have to admit that working on a book about the circumstances surrounding her death did make me think of what may have happened had her death taken place long after the summer of 1962. I imagine that spending so much time researching her death made me want to write about her survival. The difference though is the fact that ‘The DD Group’ was very much a collaborative effort. ‘The DD Group’ is basically the sharing of a year long, very intense, discussion among several individuals, each of which provided their unique opinions and individual research. ‘Life Among the Cannibals’ is the work of one person, one set of opinions and imagination. I am certain that there will be a great many people who will disagree with my idea of a post-1962 Marilyn and that’s how it should be. We all have our own ideas and opinions. ‘Life Among the Cannibals’ are mine. Another maybe not so obvious difference is that the first book is non-fiction and the second is not. Although written as if it is a straight forward biography, a work of non-fiction, ‘Cannibals’ is a work of the imagination. To be honest, I think I enjoyed working on ‘Cannibals’ even more than ‘DD’ if only that it allowed me to create a pretend world, to have fun with it even when writing of serious situations. There were more than a few times though, I admit, when that pretend world seemed very real to me and I would lose track of the idea that Marilyn really did die all those years ago.

What aspect of ‘Cannibals’ are you most proud of, and why?

DM: I think the main thing I am proud of is the realism of the book. By that I mean the life I create is one of both ups and downs. Marilyn makes a few movies that are not all that great. Her problems do not magically disappear, her relationships are not always smooth sailing. I could have written something where she goes on to one triumph after another but that isn’t reality, that’s just wishful thinking – and not a very interesting read after awhile. I’m also proud, (and this is my opinion, of course), that I was able to keep true to Marilyn’s character. Even as one ages, one’s core values will remain the same. I would like to think that the experiences my Marilyn encounters in say 1990 and her reactions to them would be in character with the woman we know prior to 1962. She retains her empathy for her fellow man, her basic goodness at heart. So yes, I am proud of the book and the way I portray Marilyn as the world changes from 1962 to 2003.

Much of your book is set in San Francisco. What does that city mean to you?

DM: San Francisco is home for me. I’ve lived here now for over thirty years and the things I love about this city I am sure Marilyn would have appreciated as well. It is also a city of incredible history, a place where everyone from Fatty Arbuckle to Danielle Steel and Alan Ginsberg have left their mark. Somehow San Francisco seemed a logical spot for Marilyn to live out the second half of her story. It’s amazingly beautiful and has a much stronger sense of respect for its famous citizens than Los Angeles. I hadn’t set out planning on setting so much of the book here, that just came about logically as the story of her life unfolded. And it was a good fit, I think. Far enough removed form the unrelenting pressures of LA and yet close enough to be a part of the film industry. Besides, as I researched the years 1962 through 2003, there were so many things that happened in San Francisco that I wanted Marilyn to experience. She seems a natural for this wonderful town, sharing with it, I think, a great appreciation for diversity, political awareness, and compassion.

Has your perception of Marilyn changed at all since writing about her?

DM: I don’t think so, no. I admit that during the time I worked on ‘Cannibals’, and again when I read it after its release, I would lose track of reality and forget that her life did come to an end over forty years ago. But my appreciation of her as a person and my knowledge of those things she spoke out about during her lifetime, those things that interested her, I tried to make sure that all of that held true regardless if she were thirty-six or fifty-six.

What are your current writing projects and goals? Do you plan to feature Marilyn Monroe in any of your future works?

DM: After back to back books on Marilyn, I’m currently working on something new and believe it or not, it has nothing to do with her. Well, that’s not completely true. It’s based on the last month before my family moved to a new home in 1963. And a part of it has to do with the boy based on me having an imaginary friend who helped him get through a rough period – Marilyn Monroe. I can’t say that she won’t show up in things I do in the future but I think my work with Marilyn is at an end. But then, who knows?

Who or what inspires your writing, and how do you stay motivated?

DM: Good question. Tough question, but good. One of the things that inspires me is a love of history, particularly the later half of the 20^th century. Could be because that was the period that formed and fascinated me even as it unfolded. My fascination with the year 1962 plays into it – I mean, all the cultural icons who were at the top of their game during that period – not only Marilyn but Garland, Sinatra, Fitzgerald, the Rat Pack boys with Jack Kennedy in the White House as a kind of icing on the popular culture of the period. I do find myself going back to that period whenever a story or a project is forming in my mind. So curiosity and a love of research is a very big part of those things that inspire me. The trick, as you know, is to stay inspired. There are so many projects that I’ve started and somewhere along the line lose interest. The human heart, compassion, emotions – all of that has to be present to keep me inspired. Human frailty as well as strength interests me and if I can work on a project where that comes through, the inspiration will hold. That’s probably one of the reasons that Marilyn has so inspired me – that vulnerability juxtaposed with amazing strength and perseverance. I believe that that is the reason she has inspired so very many artists – her incredible strength, her ability to just dive right back in no matter what the obstacles. All while retaining a sense of humanity and compassion. Now that’s inspirational, wouldn’t you say?

Definitely – and thanks for talking to me, David! It’s been a pleasure.

Welcome to the website for Tara Hanks, author of The Mmm Girl and Wicked Baby.

Photo by Sergio Serrano

‘Let’s talk straight,’ Jenna Glatzer writes in her new, illustrated biography. ‘Marilyn Monroe was a fibber.’  This is certainly debatable, and The Marilyn Monroe Treasures adds generously to that legend with a lavish design, classic and rare photographs, and most significantly a collection of memorabilia, in facsimile – all officially endorsed by Monroe’s estate.

In reviewing the myth, Glatzer refers to a Time magazine feature from 1956, which portrayed Marilyn’s childhood as ‘just short of a life of slavery.’ This was an exaggeration, of course – though whether on Marilyn’s part, or the reporter’s, is unclear.  But Glatzer tempers her scepticism with sympathy, adding, ‘ ‘unwanted’ was a feeling she’d spend the rest of her life trying to overcome.’ And Marilyn herself once observed, ‘When you grow up as an orphan, as I did, when you have to do without many of the things other kids enjoy as a matter of course – including love and affection – you feel a little different from others.’

In a visually-oriented, coffee-table book like The Marilyn Monroe Treasures, pictures will inevitably say more than words ever could. A photo of her mother Gladys as a happy teenager, is contrasted with the unsmiling, self-conscious woman holding her third baby, Norma Jeane, just eight years later.

And a letter from the Los Angeles Orphans Home, where Norma Jeane lived for a time, is reprinted. ‘Norma is not the same since Mrs B. (her foster mother for several years prior) visited her,’ writes Mrs Dewey, supervisor of the home, to another family friend. ‘She doesn’t look as happy. When she is naughty she says – “Mrs Dewey, I wouldn’t ever want my aunt Grace to know I was naughty.” She loves you very much.’

Norma Jeane’s birth certificate is reproduced, along with adoption papers signed by Grace Goddard. Poignantly, an expenses sheet handwritten by Goddard is also attached, listing money spent on Norma Jeane. Then, all too soon, comes Norma’s first marriage certificate – she was just sixteen years old. Seeing these papers reminds the reader that she was no figment of our collective imagination, but a real woman in her own time and place. These apparently unremarkable documents help to chart the uncertain course of Norma Jeane’s early life.

During her teens, Norma Jeane discovered a half-sister, Berniece, from Gladys’s first marriage. The thrill Norma must have felt at finding a blood relative is obvious in the letter she wrote to Berniece.  ‘I was so surprised, I could hardly speak…Aunt Ana said that she could see a slight resemblance between you and I and that you looked more like my mother than I did.’ Norma Jeane’s handwriting is neat, if sloping – quite different from the large, loopy style seen in signatures from her later years.

Moving onto the years when Marilyn took her stage name, and was a struggling model and starlet, Glatzer addresses the endless rumours about Monroe’s sex life. ‘Over the years, the number of men who claimed to have slept with Marilyn grew to preposterous proportions,’ Glatzer concedes wryly. ‘She would have had no time to work, eat or sleep if all the tales were true. But those who knew her say that she did have many lovers, regardless of whether she was married or single.’ Glatzer is non-judgmental, arguing that ‘career dating’ was commonplace in Hollywood, and furthermore, that Marilyn was ahead of her time in her open-minded attitude towards sex.

There are numerous quotes from her early magazine interviews, and not the usual ones either. This gives a sharp insight into how Marilyn’s identity was shaped, though once again hyperbole may be at work. Marilyn’s words often ring true, and are perceptive, funny and wistful. However, occasionally these quotes sound more like B-movie dialogue than natural speech. It’s possible that some reporters took liberties with what she had actually said, trying to capture the ‘gist’ or perhaps to fit their own agendas.

This is perhaps the most uneven, albeit intriguing section of the book. Glatzer has conducted many interviews with people who have not spoken about Marilyn until now, and this has rewarded her with a wealth of anecdotes and opinions. But there are one or two sources who seem less than credible, and their stories are not really convincing.

The Marilyn Monroe Treasures is on safer ground when Glatzer debunks the notion of Marilyn as a ‘dumb blonde’, based on the characters that she was generally required to play. ‘Not a single person who knew Marilyn well reports that she was anything less than intelligent,’ Glatzer comments. ‘She lacked formal education, but she was sharp and quick-witted.’ Glatzer also praises Marilyn as ‘a savvy woman who knew just what she was doing with her image and career.’

A contact sheet by photographer Philippe Halsman, dated from 1949, shows the fledgling actress expressing a wide range of emotions, from laughter to fear. One of the many top-shelf magazines that chose Marilyn as their cover girl is reproduced as an insert. These disparate images show Marilyn at the peak of her beauty and sex appeal. Jane Russell, her co-star in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), was one of the few celebrities who grew close to Marilyn, and her charming sketch of Monroe is attached. Another drawing, by costume designer Travilla, envisions Marilyn in the cream silk dress she would immortalise in The Seven Year Itch (1955.)

Marilyn’s trip to the Far East to entertain US troops in 1954 was, in her own words, the most exciting time of her life. She later said, ‘I never felt like a star until I went to Korea,’ and her rapport with the soldiers is obvious in photographs. ‘She didn’t want to be with the brass,’ her band leader Don Obermeyer recalled. ‘She wanted to be with ‘the guys’.’

At this momentous point in her career, Marilyn was briefly married to baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. Their marriage certificate and air tickets from Tokyo are attached. Glatzer describes the dramatic breakdown of their two-year relationship, quoting from an interview with pianist and arranger Hal Schaefer, who worked with Marilyn on There’s No Business Like Show Business and, by his own admission, became her secret lover.

After her divorce, Marilyn left Hollywood for New York. She studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actor’s Studio, met regularly with a psychiatrist, and fell in love with playwright Arthur Miller. This was a time of self-discovery for Marilyn. Glatzer includes one of Marilyn’s rather beautiful, unpublished poems, ‘To The Weeping Willow’, and covers in pictures her visit to Bement, a small town in Illinois where her girlhood idol, Abraham Lincoln, once stayed.

Joshua Greene, son of photographer Milton Greene, told Glatzer, ‘(Marilyn) enjoyed being with people who had talent as opposed to money. Money for the sake of money or power for the sake of power didn’t impress her in quite the same way as people with talent and a gift.’

But the changes in Marilyn’s lifestyle were not all for the best, and this period of introspection may have unsettled her. ‘Marilyn’s mental state was shaky, however,’ Glatzer adds. ‘She grew more interested in pills and alcohol as loneliness crept in and as her insomnia worsened.’ Larry Shaw, son of photographer Sam Shaw, has said, ‘Eventually, there were so many phone calls coming into the house from Marilyn that my mother couldn’t take it anymore, two or three in the morning.’

In 1956, Marilyn married Arthur Miller. Her certificate of conversion to Judaism is reproduced, accompanied by joyous wedding photographs. Miller was not a practising Jew, but Marilyn’s devotion to him was intense. He was being targeted by the CIA, and would eventually go to court to defend his left-wing views. While Miller admitted to having briefly joined the Communist Party in his youth, he refused to name names and was finally acquitted. Marilyn supported him throughout the investigation, risking her own career. A copy of a rather sinister FBI file on Miller reveals the political climate of fear and suspicion he and his new wife had to face.

By 1960, Marilyn’s third marriage was over and her life was in turmoil. Her current therapist, Dr Marianne Kris, was so concerned that she had Marilyn committed to a psychiatric ward. Marilyn was terrified that, like her mother before her, she would lose her sanity. A heartrending letter to the Strasbergs is included, begging them to get her out. Ultimately it was Marilyn’s former love, Joe DiMaggio, who would rescue her.

The final chapters of The Marilyn Monroe Treasures are deeply moving, and she pulls no punches in depicting the dark cloud of sadness that was rapidly descending on Marilyn. Her fame showed no sign of fading, despite adverse publicity, and an invitation to join the board of directors for a proposed Hollywood Motion Picture Museum is attached, along with Marilyn’s enthusiastically scrawled approval. A delicate watercolour of a red rose, supposedly painted by Marilyn for President Kennedy, is a lovely addition. However it is quite unlike her other personal sketches, which were abstract and impressionistic.

Marilyn’s behaviour on film sets was increasingly erratic and while this had been tolerated in the past, the studio system was now ailing. According to some friends, Marilyn worried constantly about losing her looks.

James Gray-Gold, son of baseball manager ‘Lefty’ O’Doul, claims to have encountered Marilyn days before her death, at Frank Sinatra’s infamous Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe. ‘It made me very sad to see her so dishevelled and unhappy,’ he admitted. Of Sinatra and the ‘Rat Pack’, he added, ‘They were jaded men just using her.’ However, there are so many conflicting versions of this final trip to Lake Tahoe that it is very difficult, forty-seven years on, to separate facts from melodrama.

Glatzer concludes her narrative with an astute, if bittersweet observation. ‘Looking at Marilyn is like looking into a reflecting pool,’ she writes. ‘She represents qualities in each of us, and in people we love. And there’s something so heartbreaking about the knowledge that the world’s most everlasting star died alone, achieving so much yet not reaching the dreams she wanted most.’

Perhaps that other great star, Bette Davis, understood Marilyn’s plight better than most. Davis first met Marilyn on the set of All About Eve in 1950. ‘I felt a certain envy for what I assumed was Marilyn’s more-than-obvious popularity,’ Bette told a biographer. ‘Then, I noticed how shy she was, and I think now that she was as lonely as I was. Lonelier. It was something I felt, a deep well of loneliness she was trying to fill.’

The Marilyn Monroe Treasures was published in 2008 by Barnes and Noble and distributed in the US and Europe, though not in the UK. The first edition sold out soon after release, and currently just a few used copies are available, mostly through online sellers. With a few minor reservations, I can recommend this book as a great introduction to Marilyn’s life, and an essential compendium for collectors. Along with most of the ‘Monroe fan community’, I hope that Glatzer’s unique book will be reissued soon, so that it can reach the wider audience it most definitely deserves.

'Jean Genies' by Ken Martin

American Bombshells: Marilyn and Jean Harlow, my latest addition to the ‘Marilyn’s Heroes’ series, can now be read at Immortal Marilyn. While researching and writing the article, I was struck by the empathy Marilyn felt for Harlow and the string of coincidences and uncanny parallels between their lives.

Jean Harlow was the original ‘blonde bombshell’ and a gifted comedienne. Her films are quite hard to find but are worth tracking down on Amazon.com, and are regularly screened on TCM. For further reading, I can recommend David Stenn’s Bombshell (for his definitive text) and Eve Golden’s Platinum Girl (for the pictures.) And online, film historian Lisa Burks has created ‘The Platinum Page’, an excellent website and blog devoted to Harlow’s life and work.

In other news, I have decided to conduct a series of interviews with writers and other people who interest me. My first subject will be David Marshall, author of The DD Group and Life Among The Cannibals. So please do revisit soon or subscribe (see top of page) to keep up with future developments, and as always, thanks to my loyal readers for your support.

Radio Reverb is Brighton’s alternative, a community radio station where people can express themselves, open up dialogues and set their own agendas about what’s important, interesting, funny, cool or arty in the city.

Today marked the launch of Writers’ Hub, a new hour-long literary programme devised, produced and presented by Amy Lynn Riley.  The first show included interviews with local author Sue Eckstein and a feature on the City Reads project, as well as an extract from my novel, The Mmm Girl, read by Shannon Magness, and a new poem by me on the subject of festival, Music Reminds Us.

You can download my segment of the show here – hope you enjoy it!

Questions snagged from Faye L. Booth

1. Are you a “pantser” or a “plotter?” I plan ahead to a degree – I write outlines, chapter and scene breakdowns – but how I get there is up to how I feel as I write, and subject to change.

2. Detailed character sketches or “their character will be revealed to me as a I write”? Quite detailed, I write character profiles but I discover more when I get down to writing scenes.

3. Do you know your characters’ goals, motivations, and conflicts before you start writing or is that something else you discover only after you start writing? My books are fact-based, but in my current novel the information I have is more about the background, time and place. The people I’m writing about now are real but I know very little about them – sometimes just when they were born, married, died. So despite being densely researched, the mainstay of my work is instinct and imagination.

4. Books on plotting – useful or harmful? Quality varies enormously. Can be useful but sometimes rules are there to be broken. It’s always interesting to compare techniques and habits with other writers, even if their process isn’t right for me.

5. Are you a procrastinator or does the itch to write keep at you until you sit down and work? I’m a terrible procrastinator, but I also have an over-developed guilt complex.

6. Do you write in short bursts of creative energy, or can you sit down and write for hours at a time? Short bursts – a few hundred words in an hour or two. I envy people who can trot out a thousand words a day, even if they discard most of it. I’m constantly self-editing, which means I take ages to complete a draft but it’s usually pretty much how I want it to be.

7. Are you a morning or afternoon writer? A nocturnal writer, desperately trying to write in the day. I wrote my last novel when my children were still very young, mainly during the evenings. Now they’re both at school and I expected to have more writing time, but it hasn’t quite worked out yet. I tend to do more mundane tasks in daytime, and my creative side usually kicks in around teatime – afternoons can be quite rewarding.

8. Do you write with music/the noise of children/in a cafe or other public setting, or do you need complete silence to concentrate? I used to write in the living room of a shared house, surrounded by flatmates watching Star Trek and chain-smoking. So I’m quite skilled at tuning out noise. However I do find that I’m less easily distracted when I sit quietly at a desk, alone. I may not have a room of my own yet, or money, but it’s a start.

9. Computer or longhand? (Or typewriter?) Laptop. I’m already a slow writer, and if I had to type up longhand I’d never finish anything. But I keep notebooks to jot down ideas, and occasionally I start by writing longhand if typing isn’t inspiring me.

10. Do you know the ending before you type Chapter One? Yes, but I don’t know how I’ll get there.

11. Does what’s selling in the market influence how and what you write? No, not really. I’m not quite in the mainstream, but I’m not exactly underground either. My aim is to write the kind of books I’d like to read, and to reach as many like-minded readers as I possibly can.

12. Editing – love it or hate it? I wouldn’t say I love editing but I do appreciate the results. Some writers say their first draft is the most powerful, but I usually see it as just a beginning. Rewriting, or time away to reflect, can bring out the best in any writer.

The DiMaggios, Boston, January 1955

Dom DiMaggio, former centre fielder for the Boston Red Sox, has died aged 92. Known as the ‘little professor’ because of his bespectacled appearance and short, skinny build, Dom played major league baseball for ten seasons.

Dominic Paul DiMaggio was born in San Francisco, the youngest of nine children of Sicilian immigrants. His two oldest brothers, Mike and Tom, worked on fishing boats with their father, Giuseppe. But his brothers Vince and Joe starred in the outfield for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. Dom was signed by the Seals for the 1937 season, when Joe was in his second year with the Yankees and Vince was a rookie outfielder for the Boston Braves.

Inevitably, Dom’s considerable achievements have sometimes been overshadowed by those of his legendary older brother, Joe DiMaggio. He didn’t make the Hall of Fame, partly because, like many other players of his generation, he spent three of his prime years in the military during World War II.

But Dom DiMaggio was an intense, aggressive player and a superb fielder, possessing great range and a powerful throwing arm. He led the American League twice in runs scored and once in triples, batted .300 four times and had a career average of .298 over 11 seasons, all with the Red Sox. He was a seven-time All-Star.

After he retired in 1953, Dom became a successful businessman in the Boston area and was a founding partner of the Boston Patriots, now the NFL’s New England Patriots. He used his mathematical abilities to play the stock market. “He’d watch the stock ticker all day and the Red Sox all night,” his son said.

Dom was one of the first to learn of the romance between Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, which led to their brief marriage in 1954 and a  friendship which lasted until Marilyn’s death. Marilyn quickly grew close to Joe’s relatives, and was considered part of the family. Joe arranged Marilyn’s funeral in 1962, and had a dozen red roses delivered to her grave each week for another twenty years.

Joe died in 1999. Vince DiMaggio, who played 10 seasons in the major leagues and was twice an All-Star, died in 1986. Dom DiMaggio is survived by his wife, Emily; his sons Dominic Jr., of Atkinson, N.H., and Peter, of Westford, Mass.; his daughter, Emily DiMaggio of Wayland, Mass.; and six grandchildren.

Just a quick note to let you know that you can read my review of Ted Schwarz’s Marilyn Revealed in the latest issue of the Mad About Marilyn fanzine. You can also find it here.

And many thanks to all of you who read and comment on my articles – long may it continue!

Marilyn Monroe by Jack Cardiff

Jack Cardiff, the renowned cinematographer, has died aged 94. The son of music hall entertainers, he acted in silent movies as a child. His earliest credits behind the camera were on Wings Of The Morning (1937), the first Technicolor film made in Britain, and a series of public information films during World War II.

Cardiff’s breakthrough came as second cameraman on the Powell and Pressburger masterpiece, The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943), and he became their chief cinematographer, winning an Oscar for Black Narcissus (1947), and a Golden Globe for The Red Shoes (1948.) In 1951 he worked with director John Huston on The African Queen.

In 1956, Cardiff photographed Marilyn Monroe for The Prince And The Showgirl, also starring, and directed by, Laurence Olivier. Monroe and Olivier did not get along, but she declared Cardiff  ‘the best in the business.’ They became good friends, and created a series of portraits in the style of Renoir that revealed Marilyn’s timeless beauty.

They never collaborated again, though Cardiff later visited Marilyn on the set of Let’s Make Love, two years before her death. She once gave him a signed photo of herself, writing, ‘Dear Jack, if only I could be the way you have created me.’

Cardiff went on to direct several films, including Sons And Lovers (1960), an adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s classic novel, and the cultish Girl On A Motorcycle (1968) with Marianne Faithfull, and he also shot Hollywood blockbusters ranging from Death On The Nile (1978) to Rambo (1985).

In his autobiography, Magic Hour, Cardiff recalled his first meeting with Marilyn and her husband, Arthur Miller:

A door opened behind me; there was a blur of soft material as Marilyn sped swiftly into Miller’s arms, not looking at me until she was hugged in his bear-like embrace. Then she slanted a shy, sleepy smile at me. I had never seen this Marilyn before, in any film or photo. This was no hot sex symbol; this was a little girl, with her face pressed into Daddy’s chest, shyly curious of a visitor.

Her face was still rosy, flushed from sleep, and her buttercup-gold hair tangled like a Botticelli cherub. Her eyes had the unreal clarity of the porcelain eyes in a doll; large, wondering, wide apart and slightly turned down at the outsides; and the mouth, timorously half-parted lips; the saucy turned-up nose – here indeed was a delightful evocation of Renoir.

She didn’t say anything to me at all – not even ‘hello’. She just looked at me with a kind of possessiveness, like a child showing Daddy her prize handiwork from school, and Daddy cuddled his baby with proud tenderness. Still no word to me. Only a soft murmur to Miller, as she gazed at me in cosy triumph.

‘Isn’t it wonderful, darling? He’s the greatest, and I’ve got him!’