The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn’s Fascination with the President

It’s safe to say that Marilyn’s mind wasn’t really on Something’s Got to Give, even though she tried to do her best. Since her weekend in Palm Springs with him, Marilyn Monroe seemed to have only one preoccupation—President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. On the basis of newly assembled information it’s clear that she wanted to see him again. Rupert Allan recalled, “All I know is that she seemed fixated on the president. It started to become unclear as to what was going on between them, even though I thought it wasn’t much. She was acting like she wanted more, though.” One Secret Service agent working for the Kennedy administration added, “She was calling, or trying to call him. A lot. She wanted to see him. She made that clear. Everyone knew it.”

It’s certainly not difficult to understand why Marilyn invested so quickly in President Kennedy. Suffering from borderline paranoid schizophrenia, she obviously had severe bouts of paranoia. We know she was being followed by the FBI. There may have been other political eccentrics after her too, just based on her affiliation with Arthur Miller. How could she not be concerned? In JFK, perhaps she thought she had found the ultimate of protectors. After all, he was a man who was in control of the entire nation’s defense department. If there was anyone in the world who could protect her from real or imagined enemies, it had to be John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was, bar none, the most powerful man she had ever met. The other noted men in her life—DiMaggio and Miller—had personal presence. Their power was in how they ruled a room—how people would react to them in a social situation. However, Kennedy was powerful on a global scale. He didn’t command a room—he commanded the world.

In understanding Marilyn Monroe’s overnight obsession with JFK, one has to also remember that she was a woman who was, above all things, scared when she was alone. Unfortunately, the circumstances of her life had arranged themselves so that she was, for the most part, by herself. There’s little doubt that by 1962, the choices she was making were out of fear. They were made when she was by herself, alone in the dark, scared of what was to happen to her, what new ordeal she would face with the rising of the morning sun. If Dr. Greenson felt she would trust Eunice Murray, he was wrong. Years later, even Murray herself would have to admit that she didn’t know a thing about the Kennedys in Marilyn’s life, even though she was living right there in the house with her and snooping about trying to gather information. The people Marilyn trusted were people such as Pat Newcomb, her publicist—and she wasn’t always sure about her, either—Joe DiMaggio; Pat Kennedy Lawford; maybe Pat’s husband, Peter; Ralph Roberts; and a few others. She’d kept a tight circle and her world was becoming even smaller in 1962. Even her half sister, Berniece, was on the outside looking in at this point. Lately, when the two talked on the phone, it was superficial. There’s little doubt that Marilyn felt she needed help—maybe on some level she felt JFK could be her savior. Also, there was obviously a certain level of respect that could be achieved by such an association. Unfortunately, she would be the least of President Kennedy’s concerns. He wasn’t even returning her calls to the White House.

Frank Sinatra’s friend and valet George Jacobs enjoyed many conversations with JFK back when the president felt comfortable at the Sinatra home. “I spent enough time with the man to know that no woman, not even his wife, was sacred to him. His need was like that of Alexander the Great, to conquer the world. To him Marilyn was one more conquest, a trophy—maybe the Great White Shark of Hollywood, but still a record, not a romance.”

“Jack was pretty much done with her after Palm Springs,” said Senator George Smathers [Democrat of Florida], Kennedy’s good friend. “I think he only saw her one more time, and that was when she came into Washington unexpectedly and we—he, I, and a few others—including Hubert Humphrey, if you can imagine it, took her sailing on a motorboat down the Potomac River. Marilyn and Hubert Humphrey—now that was funny. The two of them didn’t have much to say to each other. We got back at 11:30 at night. She didn’t stay at the White House, she stayed somewhere else. There was no hanky-panky between her and JFK that night, I know because I asked him the next day and he would have happily said so. But, anyway, Jackie knew about that trip. In fact, we were dancing at a White House ball and she said to me, ‘Don’t think I’m naïve to what you and Jack are doing with all those pretty girls—like Marilyn—sailing on the Potomac under the moonlight. It’s all so sophomoric, George.’

“Jackie was accustomed to Kennedy’s indiscretions, but this one bothered her. She knew from what she’d heard and read that Marilyn was a troubled woman. ‘Have some pity’ on her, she said, according to what he later told me. It wasn’t so much that she was angry as it was that she was just disgusted. So, Jack told me, ‘It’s not worth it, George. I have a free ride here with Jackie. She gives me great latitude. So, if this one is going to be an issue for her and cause me other problems with respect to her dealing with the other women I am interested in, then, fine, I can live without this one. I can live without Marilyn Monroe. No problem. So, look, let’s just end it with Marilyn before it’s too late.’

“I was surprised. I knew Jackie had influence but not that much influence, not so much that she could cause the end of the president’s relationship with a movie star. But, apparently, she did. So I called someone I knew, a friend of Marilyn’s I could trust, and I said, ‘Look, I need you to put a bridle on Marilyn’s mouth and stop her from talking so much about what’s going on with Jack. It’s starting to get around too much.’ That’s all I did to end things, my little contribution. But I know what Jack did. He stopped taking her calls, if he ever took any. As far as he was concerned, he was done with her. But, Marilyn… well, she wouldn’t be so easily rid of, let’s put it that way.”

“If Kennedy had handled Marilyn differently, things might not have turned out so badly,” said Rupert Allan. “But just ducking her as he did. Not good.”

Moreover, JFK had apparently issued somewhat of a challenge to Marilyn in Palm Springs. George Smathers recalled: “JFK told me that they were talking about one thing or another and he happened to say something to her like, ‘You’re not really First Lady material, anyway, Marilyn.’ He said it really stuck in her craw. She didn’t like hearing that.”

Kennedy never actually told Marilyn that he was finished with her and that whatever he shared with her in Palm Springs would be the extent of their relationship. As sources now indicate, he simply did not return her calls to the White House. It should also be noted, in his defense, that the man was running the country. He had other things on his mind. Marilyn, however, had him on her mind. “Marilyn was a very obsessive and neurotic person,” said Diane Stevens. “She was mentally ill, let’s face it. She was on drugs and not thinking clearly and just went over the edge when it came to this man and, truly, I do not know why. It had just been a weekend, after all. But for some reason, it became, looking back on it now, the catalyst to her total ruination. The fact that he would not return her calls drove her mad.”