While the persona of “Marilyn Monroe” has never been lost in the celebrity shuffle, the actual person behind her carefully delivered lines and perfectly crafted smiles has always been overlooked. The true story of the real woman is often buried beneath the glitz and glamour of 1950’s American celebrity culture, assisted by the mass consumption of books and movies about her, usually written and starred in by those who never knew her.
For this reason, it can be easy to pull random facts about Marilyn Monroe out of thin air—everyone’s an expert. Her image is so ingrained in the American psyche, her cultural influence such a bedrock of Americana, that it can sometimes feel as though we really did all know her.
Born Norma Jean Mortenson on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, Cal., to a single mother who suffered with mental health issues, Marilyn Monroe was raised by a series of orphanages and foster home families. Her professional alias was derived from her mother’s maiden name of Monroe and former Broadway star Marilyn Miller. To those closest to her, Monroe was known to be an avid reader with an IQ higher than Albert Einstein.
Everyone is aware of the Kennedy affair, her undetermined cause of death, missing diary, and most of the basic, intimate details of her last moments—but what of the woman who fought for civil rights? What of the woman who, when seeing an injustice, did not turn away as so many others did, but instead took action to evoke change?
Marilyn Monroe—Activist?
Growing up poor and often at the mercy of others’ kindness, Monroe understood early how hard life can be for some. She knew how the sting of rejection feels on a soul level.
To escape another orphanage stint, Monroe agreed to an arranged marriage at the age of 16. Most know that while her husband was away at war, Monroe, like many women of her time, served by taking on the factory work left behind by American men. After participating in a photoshoot, Monroe was discovered, and the rest is history.
Often lost in that history are the relationships Monroe formed within the American Civil Rights Movement, such as with greats likes Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, her friendships with entertainment legends Ella Fitzgerald and Dorothy Danbury, and her involvement in the Democrat party and communist sympathies.
After marrying the famed playwright Arthur Miller, Monroe’s latent activism blossomed, intensifying her efforts to use her celebrity platform to influence change. Under his influence, Monroe openly voiced her opposition to racism and anti-communist persecution. She joined and publicly attended events held by the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE), promoting peace and equality for all.
Monroe and Danbury
Monroe was often quoted comparing the Hollywood machine to slavery, citing it as the reason for her staunch support of the African American community, saying it’s “easy to understand the slave system when you’ve been through the star system.”
She said breaking into the industry, her struggles to stay in the industry, and encounters with the media, all helped her to understand the plight and enduring scars caused by slavery, indicating that she felt she had experienced just a taste of the subjugation and inequality excused by power and position in the South’s antebellum hierarchy structure.
In the talented Dorothy Danbury, often referred to as the “Black Marilyn Monroe,” Monroe found a kindred spirit.
Unlike Monroe, Danbury started her career as a child performer in the 1930s. She honed her craft through patience and time, cutting her teeth singing in nightclubs across the country. Despite being successful in her own right, and nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award, Danbury was still widely known as “The Black Marilyn Monroe,” simply because she also happened to be pretty.
It was a backhanded compliment.
Monroe could clearly see the dubious title sanctioned using her beauty to replace or diminish Danbury’s; why didn’t the press call her “The White Dorothy Danbury?” She uniquely understood Danbury’s challenges in the entertainment industry because she had suffered her own as they portrayed to her looks—specifically being typecast as a useless, “dumb blonde.”
Acting, Monroe began promoting Danbury in interviews, attended her performances at the Mocambo nightclub, and rushed to greet her at social events while other celebrities typically ran in the opposite direction.
Danbury later said of Monroe, “She was a warm person, but very shy. And she was one of the few stars who was always kind to me. We had a bond, both being lonely in spite of the attention we got.”
Monroe and Fitzgerald
A fan of jazz and of Ella Fitzgerald, Marilyn Monroe again used her celebrity status to ensure the latter received a slot at the popular Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood when the owners were discriminating against her—not because of her talent, but because of the color of her skin.
Yes, it’s true, before being crowned the undisputed “Queen of Jazz,” Fitzgerald’s talent was turned away because it burst from between black lips.
When discussing the incident during an August 1972 interview for Ms. Magazine, Fitzgerald is quoted as saying, “I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt…she personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him – and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status – that the press would go wild.”
The owner agreed and Monroe, true to her word, sat up front every night. Fitzgerald added in the same article, “After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again.”
In 1958, she would go on to be the first African American artist to receive a Grammy Award.
Of Marilyn Monroe, Fitzgerald is quoted as saying,“She was an unusual woman, a little ahead of her time.” She added: “And she didn’t know it.”
Choosing Monroe
At first glance, choosing Marilyn Monroe as an influential woman may seem questionable. However, it’s the unseen side of her, the person whose concern for others shaped her life—that endures. Monroe’s reputation for championing other women when it would have been easier not to makes her legacy especially worth celebrating.