Dr. Marcus Morris, a practicing clinical psychologist in the UK, writes a Substack blog about the psychology of celebrity and stardom. He uses the biographies of the iconically famous to illustrate how certain kinds of trauma can play a role in their success – and in some cases their downfall.
The ‘flying dress’ scene for the film, The Seven Year Itch (1955),was shot on September 15, 1954, between 1 am and 3 am. In these first few hours of that day, Marilyn Monroe created an image that has become an archetypal representation of glamour. Sadly, other events of that same day illustrate how fame, glamour, and powerful partners, repeatedly failed Marilyn as strategies for dealing with trauma.
Beginnings
If we were to go back to when Marilyn was three years old – when she was known as Norma Jeanne Mortensen – we would find her with a foster family and a mother figure called Ida Bolender. She had been left at the house in East Rhode Island Street, Hollywood, by her biological mother Gladys Baker. This was when she was just two weeks old. Gladys, haunted by paranoid schizophrenia, could not look after the child.
One day, when Norma was three, Gladys returned unannounced to the house. In a paranoid state, she demanded to have Norma back. She pushed her way through to the backyard where Norma was playing with the dog. Gladys said, “You’re coming with Mommy, sweetheart” and picked up Norma. The foster mother protested: “This is her home!”
Gladys, having taken the child inside, had pushed Ida into the back garden and locked the back door. After failing to break in from outside, Ida had run around to the front. When Gladys emerged from the front door with a large military duffle bag over her shoulder, Ida heard muffled screams. Norma was in the bag. There was a struggle between the two women until the bag split, and the child fell to the ground. After a moment’s silence, the three-year-old cried out, “Mommy!!” with arms stretched out – towards Ida her foster mother. Ida managed to grab Norma and lock herself in the house.
Gladys Baker and baby Norma Jeane spend some time together on the beach in 1929.
Norma’s early life was scattered with various kinds of traumatic experiences including emotional neglect, harsh judgments at times of vulnerability, and sexual abuse. Marilyn’s relentless hunt for glamour, fame, and idealization can be seen as a flight away from these emotionally unmanageable experiences. The extent of her fame and adoration was the extent of the distance she could achieve from feelings of being worthless and condemned. As Marilyn herself put it:
“I just want to forget about all the misery…I can’t forget it, but I’d like to try. When I am Marilyn Monroe and don’t think about Norma Jeanne, then sometimes it works”
– Marilyn Monroe
Glamour and Fame
Marilyn Monroe didn’t just find glamour. She pursued it with urgency. And over time, she “created and became a woman more fascinating than even she believed possible.” What she sought more than anything else, was “to be wonderful.”
“I used to think…there must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest.”
– Marilyn Monroe
Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe at El Morocco nightclub in 1954.
Marilyn had other strategies for distancing herself from emotional danger. She surrounded herself with famous and admired people with social, or even political power. Her best male friend was Frank Sinatra. Her best female friend was the US President’s sister, Pat Kennedy. Even her analyst was recommended by Sigmund Freud’s daughter, Anna – herself a famous analyst. When she first met her second husband, Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn knew he was an American baseball icon. On the restaurant date, she found him physically underwhelming but, “power personified.”
Whilst being idealized perhaps created, for Marilyn, distance from feelings of being worthless and condemned, being with powerful partners perhaps also made her feel safe. But as a strategy, it was flawed. The tragedy of Marilyn’s life is that the more glamorous she became, and the more powerful her partners were, the more events appeared to conspire to bring her back to trauma. Her tragic death at the age of thirty-six occurred less than three months after she sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to the US president; a man who had stopped returning her calls after the end of their affair. She had apparently asked him about marriage.
The Seven-Year Itch
The day of the shooting of the ‘flying dress’ scene, for The Seven Year Itch (1955), Marilyn’s twenty-fourth film, could be seen as the very pinnacle of an iconic career. The images we see of that day leave us with a sense of Marilyn’s joyous and breathtaking command of a persona she had crafted for herself over a number of years. But this day would somehow end as another sad example of trauma catching up with her.
Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe in a scene from “The Seven Year Itch” (1955).
In the story of The Seven Year Itch, Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) is separated from his family in New York during a hot Summer, when he meets a gorgeous blonde model (Monroe) who has moved into the apartment upstairs. In the ‘flying dress’ scene, Marilyn is wearing a Travilla-designed ecru halter-top dress (no underskirt or half-slip). She finds herself standing over an air vent which causes her dress to suddenly fly up.
Fox could easily have mocked up the New York scene in their studios. But the shoot was intentionally a promotional event. It took place outside the Trans-Lux Theatre, on Lexington Avenue at Fifty-second Street, Manhattan, on a chilly September night. Fans and the press had been tipped off, and by the end of the shoot, nearly three thousand people had gathered to watch and take pictures. During take after take, over two hours, Marilyn stood over the grating, beneath which was a huge fan.
This cinematic event – initially a promotion for the film – would over the coming weeks, start to grow in its significance. It would become the logo for the film. It would become the most iconic photo of Marilyn’s career. For some, it would become an archetypal image – recognized globally of glamour itself. More than any other scene, it embodied the exuberant charisma and sex appeal that this actress could conjure on demand. Marilyn – the exhibitionist – loved the experience of smiling, giggling, waving to the crowds, and exuding her classic Marilyn aura. And the crowds responded. Only those who were closer could see that she was shivering.
On the set of “The Seven Year Itch” (1955) for one of the most iconic scenes in film history.
Chaos and Immortality
Joe DiMaggio, eight months into his marriage to Marilyn, was not in New York in the week leading up to September 15, But his friend, journalist Walter Winchell, called him to say that something big was about to happen, and so Joe flew over from Beverley Hills. After initially saying no to Winchell’s suggestion that they go down to Lexington Avenue, Joe was persuaded to join the media circus. It wasn’t a good idea. Angered by the spectacle he saw, Joe returned to the hotel and waited for Marilyn.
Next door to Marilyn and Joe’s hotel suite that night, were Natasha Lytess, Marilyn’s acting coach, and her hairdresser, Gladys Whitten. They heard the fight that went on into the morning as the sun rose. Later, when Marilyn emerged, they took her into their room and helped to conceal the bruises on her shoulders with makeup. No doubt she was in a terrible state emotionally. Within two hours of the shoot, Marilyn’s jealous husband had beaten her up – for the very same performance that, more than any other, was set to immortalize and idealize her.
It should be clear that Joe DiMaggio alone is responsible for his violence. Later in Marilyn’s life, it seems that he expressed remorse for his actions on that day. But two weeks after the ‘flying dress’ shoot and the violence that followed, Marilyn Monroe filed for divorce.
The image that lives on from September 15, 1954, is one so full of charisma and glamour, that it may never fade. It might be, though, that the quality of this performance actually reflected the energy with which Marilyn fled pain. So, perhaps even this image – the most idolized of her career, represents the tragedy of her life. As urgent and as relentless as Marilyn’s flight from pain was, trauma always, somehow, seemed to catch up.
