Hero's: Norma Jean

8/18/20

Modified

Michael Easterling

Norma Jean Baker got what she wanted…or…

she got what she thought she wanted.

But how many could survive 

the painful, grueling road she took to get there.

Fatherless.

A schizophrenic mother.

Bouncing from foster home to foster home,

sexually abused,

abandoned to an orphanage.

(Did she know the feeling 

she started to feel in those nights in the dark

was a broken heart?)

Marrying in her mid teens

then divorced,

struggling as a young model and as a starlet.

Auditions, acting classes, dancing lessons and bit parts,   

auditions, acting classes, dance lessons and bit parts.

Changing her name to Marilyn Monroe,

used by advertising and movie predators,

using alcohol, barbiturates and sex

to help her get through the days and nights.

Irreversibly addicted,

unable to sustain relationships.

But Marilyn’s  became the most popular face and body in the world,

her nude photos the most famous.

Had contracts with Columbia, 20th Century Fox and Paramount and

formed her own production company, MMP.

Her movies made 200 million

equivalent to two billion today.

She married Jolting Joe Dimaggio.  

the most famous baseball player in the world,

then Arthur Miller the most famous Playwright. 

She dated the rich and the famous,

Brando, Bryner, Kazan, Montand, Lawford,

and maybe had affairs with JFK and Bobby Kennedy.

Sadly her marriage to Joe ended quickly. 

Her marriage to Miller ended when he lost affection for her and fell in love with someone else.

It was too late when she finally realized 

what she really longed for wasn’t 

beauty or fame or great wealth,

it was simple love and respect.

And it was too late when she finally met 

two real father and mother figures, Lee and Paula Strasburg.

Too late.

Too many miles in her short life.

Too much damage.

So, alone in the dark on August 4, 1962,

nude under the covers,

after a bottle of Makers Mark and God knows what else and

two bottles of barbiturates and God knows what else,

Norma Jean closed her beautiful eyes for the last time.

The shooting star was gone.

Jolting Joe organized her private memorial service.

She left her estate to Lee and Paula Strasburg.

She left movie goers with indelible, iconic films.

And she left the world something she had

since she was a little girl.

Her broken heart.