More Monroe

Further to last night’s post on the Marilyn Monroe/shrink transcripts published by the LATimes…. No, I do not know if they are real, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they were, because I will now write something that, on first glance, may seem yet more incredible: I am typing these words from the very spot where Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe slept for most of their brief marrige. Yes, my office was once their bedroom and my desk is exactly where their bed would have been.

No joke.

I bought this house in 1989 and when the realtor told me of its earlier inhabitants…. no, it’s not a particularly big movie star place…. I just thought it was the usual realtor yadda-yadda. George Washington slept here, etc., etc. But years later… for reasons I will detail in the memoir I am writing for Encounter Books [You’re still doing that?-ed. How can you write this blog, help start Pajamas Media and write a book all at the same time? Just call me “Snuppy“.]… I found out that it really was true and that, as a previous owner told me, “the studio” had saved her from bankruptcy by “renting the house for Joe and Marilyn.”

Of course the vibe of that short marriage wasn’t particularly good (Marilyn talks about it sadly in the transcripts), with Joe even rumored to have been a batterer, so I do my best not to think about it while working. And, in fact, I rarely do. But having read those passages in the LAT late yesterday, I couldn’t keep it out of my mind and woke up early this morning with those immortal words ringing in my ears: Happy Birthday, Mr. President… Happy Birthday to you!

Those were indeed different times.