The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

By 1962, Marilyn had done everything she could to see to it that her mother—seen here at Rock Haven Sanitarium—received the proper medical attention for paranoid schizophrenia. However, because her religious beliefs restricted the use of most medications, Gladys’s mental illness was never under control. (Courtesy of Maryanne Reed Collection)

Not at all well. In these two rare photographs, taken on January 20, 1962, Marilyn is seen at a party hosted by Harvey Weinstein, producer of her movie Something’s Got to Give. In the first, she sips on a cocktail while talking to poet Carl Sandburg. In the second—published here for the first time—she is seen dancing while still holding a drink. (Note how thin she is in this picture.) (Getty Images)

Marilyn first met Bobby Kennedy on February 1, 1962, at a dinner party at Pat and Peter Lawford’s home. This receipt disproves the long-reported story that Marilyn became so drunk that night she couldn’t drive herself back home and had to be driven by RFK and a friend. That maybe happened some other time, but on this evening she was definitely driven to and from the Lawford home by Carey Cadillac. (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection.)

Certainly Kenneth O’Donnell, special assistant to JFK, couldn’t have known the sensation that would be caused by extending this invitation to Marilyn! (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection)

Another photo that has never before appeared in a Marilyn Monroe biography, of Marilyn and her publicist, Pat Newcomb, arriving at Madison Square Garden for JFK’s birthday party in May 1962. (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection)

Taken at a party following her performance, this is the only known photograph of Marilyn with both Bobby (left) and President John F. Kennedy. (Cecil Stoughton/Life Magazine, Time-Warner Inc.)

Marilyn performed for JFK wearing what she described as “a dress only Marilyn Monroe could wear.” (Photofest)

Marilyn sent this telegram to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kennedy, declining an invitation to attend a party in honor of Pat and Peter Lawford in June 1962. Some have speculated that Marilyn declined because she was having an affair with Bobby. Others have wondered if Ethel would have invited her at all had she thought Marilyn was involved with her husband. In fact, it doesn’t seem as if Marilyn and Bobby were anything more than friends. (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection.)

This fascinating photo hasn’t been seen in decades and has never before been published in any Marilyn Monroe biography. It, too, was taken at the after party following the Madison Square Garden event. Marilyn—on the right, watching Diahann Carroll perform—is holding a glass of champagne, her arm dangling carelessly over a railing. Seated on the far left is President John F. Kennedy. Against the wall, under the stairs, one can spot Ethel Kennedy and Pat Kennedy Lawford, Marilyn’s close friend. Peter Lawford is directly behind Marilyn, leaning against the wall. (The Kennedy Library)

The Lost Weekend: Marilyn and Peter Lawford at the Cal-Neva Lodge in July 1962, the weekend Marilyn was perhaps at her worst—the weekend that changed the lives of just about everyone involved: Peter, his wife, Pat, Frank Sinatra, and, of course, Marilyn. (MPTV)

It’s difficult to believe that one of the greatest movie stars of all time died in this sparse, disheveled bedroom. It’s been said that she hadn’t had time for interior decorating, even though she’d moved into the house almost six months earlier. (Retro Photo)

Berniece Miracle leaves the funeral home after having made final arrangements for her half sister. (Retro Photo)

A sad—and shocking—headline. (Retro Photo)

Marilyn’s final resting place, at Westwood Memorial Park. (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection)

A never-before-published letter from Gladys Baker Eley to Marilyn’s business manager, Inez Melson, written after Marilyn’s death in 1962. “She is at peace and at rest now,” Gladys wrote of her daughter, “and may God help her always.” Gladys affixed to the letter a newspaper notice of the probate of Marilyn’s will. (Shaan Kokin/Julien’s Auctions)

Gladys lived another twenty-two largely unhappy years after the death of her famous daughter. (Photofest)

“She should have been made of iron or steel, but she was only made of flesh and blood.” Like many of the photographs in this book, this one is so rare it may never have been published before, and certainly not in any previous Marilyn Monroe biography. (Frank Worth Estate and International Images, Inc.)