the birth of "Marilyn Monroe"

(to page 217)

As you can tell from my other blogs, Marilyn Monroe was not always Marilyn Monroe. Nor was she always a famous movie star. After breaking up with Bucky and moving into her own place, Norma Jeane starts to look for work. Norma Jeane started out her career with a pin-up of her working at the Radio Plane Aircraft. She had been working her shift there, when someone had come in and taken a photo of her. Over time her career advances very slowly. She receives a small part in a movie, but her part is cut down to a mere 4 seconds which is hardly something to be proud of. But when her career starts to take off, her agent decides that she can't have a name so simple as Norma Jeane Baker. And so he sets up a meeting with her and another man to decide on a new name for her. They want to go for the "mmmmm" sound, and they start with names like Mavis, Mina, Miriam, Mona. They choose the last name of Miller and start to put it together, Marilyn Miller, Moira Miller, Mignon Miller. But Norma Jeane can't stand these names. She wants to hold onto something that was a part of her. She cries out that her grandmothers last name was Monroe, and they instantly fall in love with it. And there is the birth of Marilyn Monroe.

Norma Jeane Baker

Marilyn Monroe