Marilyn: What I'd like to do... ...that is what I would like to accomplish, I would like to be a good actress.

♪♪ Didn't you just love the picture?

I did, but I just felt so sorry for the creature at the end.

Man: Sorry for the creature?

Narrator: On a September night in 1954 in the streets of New York, Marilyn Monroe shot an outdoor scene for Billy Wilder's "The Seven Year Itch".

Ooh.

Do you feel the breeze from the subway?

Isn't it delicious?

Although it was 2:00 a.m., a crowd gathered.

They were mostly men.

Marilyn: At first, it was all innocent and fun.

But when Billy Wilder kept shooting the scene over and over, the crowd of men kept on applauding and shouting, "More!

More, Marilyn!

Let's see more!

My body turned all these people on, like turning on an electric light.

And there was so rarely anything human in it.

Narrator: The pictures went around the world.

That night, Marilyn Monroe's status as a global fantasy was fixed forever.

She was 28 years old.

♪♪ Over half a century later, she's probably still, along with Mona Lisa, the most famous female face in the world.

♪♪ More than an icon, she has become the template, the actress of all actresses... ♪♪ ...the original form against which all women measure themselves.

♪♪ Her enigmatic smile and her peroxide-blonde hair continue to fascinate us, because her story echoes the diktats that still haunt the lives of women in a world dominated by the male gaze.

♪♪ Her genius intuition propelled her on a unique journey to the far reaches of femininity, leading her to become a sex symbol.

♪♪ She has often testified to this journey.

In her interviews, her notebooks, and her autobiography, she revealed the story behind her metamorphosis.

Her words are unadorned.

They tell of the painful ambiguity of her ascent all the way up to the famous subway station.

♪♪ ♪♪ It all started in 1938 on a beach in California.

When Marilyn was 12 years old and still went by the name Norma Jean, she discovered the unsuspected power of her body.

Marilyn: At 12, I looked like a girl of 17.

I may still have been a baby on the inside, but on the outside I had the body of a woman.

♪♪ I didn't think of my body as having anything to do with sex.

It was more like a friend who had mysteriously appeared in my life, a sort of magic friend.

♪♪ I stood in front of the mirror one morning and put lipstick on my lips.

I darkened my blonde eyebrows.

My arrival at school with a tight sweater a friend had loaned me started everybody buzzing.

Man: [ Whistles ] ♪♪ I was full of a strange feeling, as if I were two people.

One of them was Norma Jean from the orphanage who belonged to nobody.

♪♪ The other was someone whose name I didn't know.

But I knew where she belonged.

She belonged to the ocean and the sky and the whole world.

[ Birds chirping ] Narrator: Norma Jean was born in 1926, on the wrong side of Hollywood in the poor district of Los Angeles.

She had no capable mother to speak of, nor was her father willing to acknowledge her.

So she spent her childhood going from one foster home to the next, like an orphan.

♪♪ Possibilities were quite limited for an ambitious young girl who had inherited nothing but her body.

♪♪ Marilyn: Then I found out that a girl could make $5 an hour modeling, which was different from working 10 hours a day for the kind of money I'd been making at the plant.

♪♪ Narrator: In 1940's America, Pin-up girls embodied the fashionable female model, a cross between a sex bomb and the girl next door.

Man: These are the dream girls, the Pin-ups.

Voluptuous, ever-smiling, all-American, and each with a gimmick.

There's Betty Grable with her celebrated legs, Jane Russell, the outlaw girl, Ann Sheridan, the oomph girl.

According to Hollywood publicity, Pin-ups are as essential to the war effort as the Flying Fortress or the Sherman tank.

Narrator: So Norma Jean took her first steps in post-war Hollywood as a Pin-up girl.

♪♪ ♪♪ Marilyn: The Hollywood I knew was the Hollywood of failure.

The drugstores and cheap cafes were full of managers ready to put you over if you enrolled under their banner.

[ Indistinct chatter ] Their banner was usually a bed sheet.

But they were as near to the movies as you could get.

[ Indistinct chatter continues ] And you saw Hollywood with their eyes -- an overcrowded brothel, a merry-go-round with beds for horses.

♪♪ ♪♪ When I started modeling, it... ...was part of the job.

♪♪ The agency's guys weren't taking all these sexy pictures for peanut butter ads or magazines only.

They wanted to try out the goods themselves.

And if you didn't go along, there were 25 girls who would.

♪♪ Narrator: Amongst Norma Jean's early talents was her astonishing lucidity.

And she intuitively understood power dynamics.

♪♪ In front of the camera, she responded to the desires of the photographers, and she stood out by repeatedly asking them what made a good or bad picture.

She studied the most favorable angles with them, the lighting, and the poses that worked to her advantage.

♪♪ She bought a book of anatomy in order to master every muscle, every posture.

Patiently, she transformed under their eyes, playing her body like an ace in a card game.

Once more.

♪♪ Marilyn: When the photographers come, it's like looking in a mirror.

They think they arrange me to suit themselves.

But I use them to put over myself.

♪♪ Narrator: Word got around that it was practically impossible to get a photo wrong with Norma Jean.

In less than two years, she became one of the most sought after models by photographers on the West Coast, and she was noticed by a modeling agency in Los Angeles.

Well, she was a clean, shining, pleasant, expressive-faced little girl.

I have a picture here that you might be interested in seeing.

She had what I call California-blonde hair, which is darker in the winter and lighter in the summer because it's bleached on top, and it was really too curly.

Now, girls, we're going to try and divide you into three color groups -- blondes, medium browns, and brunettes.

Snively: She had to be talked into lightning it.

And we had it straightened, and I talked her into it.

And believe me, I had to talk her into anything that was not just natural.

Woman: We can go blonder than blonde.

Man: Transforms dull, mousy hair into beautiful, silky blonde.

♪ Is it true blondes have more fun?

♪ ♪ Is it true blondes... ♪ Marilyn: I finally agreed to it.

When I saw myself in the mirror, it just wasn't the real me.

They had converted me to a golden blonde.

At first I couldn't get used to myself.

But then I saw it worked.

In 1946 I was 20, and I had appeared on several magazine covers, mostly men's magazines.

And the talk came back to what photographers were saying about me -- "That Norma Jean, she's a sex machine.

She could turn it on and off."

♪♪ Narrator: But her ultimate dream was the beautiful Hollywood of the cinema she went to as a child.

♪♪ These films made her believe in a life other than that of a factory worker or a housewife.

[ Film playing indistinctly ] Little did she know, in the studio's golden years, the actresses who look so glamorous and sovereign on screen were terribly exploited on set.

Amphetamines helped them sustain the rhythm of long days, and they popped sleeping pills to get some rest at night.

♪♪ 1940's Hollywood was a club ruled exclusively by men -- oligarchs at the head of five empires with names that are still well-known today.

Five all mighty bosses dominated everything from the production of pictures to distribution.

They decided on everything from storylines to aesthetic norms.

They alone determined the dreams that would nourish generations to come.

♪♪ For an aspiring actress, the key to having any sort of career was being hired by one of the five.

♪♪ Marilyn: And there were so many of us -- beauty contest winners... flashy college girls... homegrown sirens from every state in the Union.

♪♪ From cities to farms, from factories, vaudeville circuits... dramatic schools, and one from an orphan asylum.

♪♪ Narrator: Marilyn's success caught Ben Lyon's attention.

He was a casting director for 20th Century Fox and invited her for some trials.

Alright, let's take it.

Marilyn: They put me under contract for a year.

For the first six months, I worked very hard.

Man: Hit everything else.

Marilyn: I sneaked scripts off the set and sat up alone in my room, reading them out loud in front of the mirror.

She would take dramatic lessons for three hours.

She'd have lunch.

After lunch, she would take dancing lessons for an hour, singing lessons for an hour, fencing lessons for an hour, and then go on the back lot and ride horseback.

And I said to her one day, "Why do you work so hard?"

She said, "I work hard because one day maybe opportunity will knock and I want to be prepared."

♪♪ Narrator: In 1946, 20th Century Fox was an industrial giant, with 4,000 employees, 16 shooting studios, 75 films in production, and a pool of 80 young actors and actresses under contract... ...all spread out over 120 hectares with sets, restaurants, make up artists, writing rooms, and prop guys.

♪♪ [ Gun firing rapidly ] Yet in her first year, Norma Jean only got two small parts.

One of these ended up being edited out, and in the other she played a waitress.

I got money tonight.

AM I going to see you later?

If I'm not too tired.

But, Evie, I thought we had a date.

Look, this tray weighs a ton.

The rest of the time, most of the young budding actress' work consisted in developing her modeling talents in cheesecake pictures.

♪♪ These were basically nude pictures that looked as tasty as pastry.

The studios offered them freely to gossip and film star magazines.

Lyon: I said, "What's your ambition?"

She said, "To be a film star."

I said, "I don't think you can use a name, Norma Jean Dougherty, if you're going to be a star.

We've got to change your name.

By the contract, we have a right to change the name."

And then I remembered a girl I knew in New York, a stage star by the name of Marilyn Miller.

And I said, "To me, you're a Marilyn."

And she said, "That's a lovely name."

I said, "Alright, that's your first name."

We couldn't find a second name, but she suddenly turned to me and said, "Mr.

Lyon, could I use my grandmother's name?"

I said, "What was that?"

Said, "Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe."

Marilyn: Now I'm Marilyn Monroe.

♪♪ Narrator: Marilyn Monroe -- a perfect name.

whose M's and R's give it a ring that sounds like a sensual American dream.

With it, the young orphan was adopted by her new Hollywood family.

♪♪ The metamorphosis didn't stop there.

After having worked for a modeling agency, she painstakingly practiced in front of the mirror, lowering her upper lip when she spoke, for someone once complained that her smile revealed her gums too much.

♪♪ So now, she could fine tune the choreography of her face and body and rid herself of the slightest false note of spontaneity.

♪♪ Do you really mean that?

Marilyn: I learned to talk huskily like Marlene Dietrich and to walk a little wantonly.

And a 10 cent tip.

[ Coin clatters ] Thank you, Danny.

And to bring emotion into my eyes when I wanted to.

♪♪ The formation of my lids must make them look heavy, or else I'm thinking of something.

♪♪ Sometimes I am thinking of men.

As for my mouth being open all the time, I even sleep with it open.

♪♪ And an odd thing happened to me.

♪♪ I fell in love with myself.

Not how I was, but how I was going to be.

♪♪ Narrator: The laws of the Hollywood jungle were ruthless, and Marilyn's efforts were still found lacking.

♪♪ Darryl Zanuck, the all-powerful head of Fox, canceled her contract.

She was no longer to his taste.

Marilyn: What a blow to my ego.

I was back where I had started.

♪♪ It was horrible.

I was looking at myself with Mr.

Zanuck's eyes and I saw a coarse, crude-looking blonde.

I wasn't attractive.

♪♪ ♪♪ And Los Angeles was my home, too.

So when they said, "Go home," I said, "I am home."

♪♪ ♪♪ As soon as I could afford an evening gown, I bought the loudest one I could find.

♪♪ I was sorry, in a way, to do this, but I had a long way to go.

And I needed a lot of advertising to get there.

And then six months later... ♪♪ Narrator: In 1948, she got a part.

This time it was with Columbia.

Marilyn: [ Singing ] Boy, was I in heaven.

My second picture was what they called a quickie film.

♪ That's the gentleman ♪ It was filmed in only 11 days.

My role in this film was that of a stripteaser in a burlesque show.

♪ ...needs a da, da, daddy to keep her worry-free ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Every baby needs da, da, daddy ♪ ♪ But where's the one for me?

♪ Narrator: When she passed through Colombia, she refined her photogenic quality.

♪ I don't care who ♪ Narrator: Marilyn's boyfriend advised her to get her teeth straightened, which she did.

Then she underwent a painful electrolysis to redraw her hairline like resident star Rita Hayworth.

♪♪ This was also to the liking of her infamous boss, Harry Cohn.

♪♪ For nightmares lurked in the backstage of the Dream Machine.

[ Inhales deeply ] Marilyn: A door at the back of the office opened and a man came in.

He was as great a man as Mr.

Zanuck.

He held all the cards.

All good.

Everybody came to him.

Marilyn: "Hello, Miss Monroe," he said.

You look like a nice girl.

Stand up and give me a twirl.

Now?

Yeah.

[ Chuckles nervously ] Woman: The director wanted me to pull down my top so that he could see my cleavage.

Marilyn: "You look alright," he grinned.

"Nicely put together."

"Sit down," he said.

I want to show you something.

Sure.

He brought a large photograph to my chair.

It was a picture of a yacht.

"How do you like it?

", he asked.

It was kind of a horrible kept secret in Hollywood.

"You're invited."

That he had this type of behavior.

He put his hand on my neck.

Tomorrow night after the show... "I've never been to a party on a yacht."

"Who said anything about a party?

I'm inviting you.

Nobody else."

Come on.

"I'll be glad to join you and your wife on your yacht, Mister."

"Leave my wife out of this."

♪♪ There was no such word as "no."

I wish I'd been born lucky instead of beautiful and hungry.

Marilyn: "There'll be nobody on the yacht except you and me."

That's fine, Kayla.

Why don't you sit down?

"I'm very grateful to you for the invitation, Mister, but I'm busy this week, and so I shall have to refuse it."

"This is your last chance."

Narrator: When the time came to renew her contract, Columbia got rid of her.

♪♪ Marilyn: Why do I feel this torture?

♪♪ Why do I feel less of a human being than others?

♪♪ I've always sort of felt, in a way, that I'm subhuman.

♪♪ They say you soon forget the bad things in your life.

♪♪ Maybe for others, but not for me.

♪♪ I guess I was about 8 years old.

I was living in this foster home that took boarders besides me.

I remember there was this old man they would cater to, but one day he called me, motioned for me to come into his room.

I went in and immediately he bolted the door.

♪♪ He asked me to sit on his lap.

He kissed me and started doing other things to me.

♪♪ He said it's only a game.

He let me go when his game was over.

♪♪ I ran to my foster mother and, crying, told her what he had done to me.

She slapped me across the mouth.

♪♪ I was so hurt.

I began to stammer.

This was the first time I remember ever stammering.

One day after that, I started to stutter out of the clear blue.

Then I'd do it again.

There were times when I would do it.

I couldn't get a word out.

♪♪ Narrator: There was nothing she could say.

So she kept quiet, just like the others.

[ Indistinct chatter ] Any confession would be punished.

So one had to learn to take blows without flinching.

♪♪ Marilyn was hanging on by a thread -- that of her ambition.

Marilyn: It's hard to become an actress.

It was the creative part that kept me going trying to be an actress.

Well, also, I had to eat.

♪ The way I hold your hand and smile in your direction ♪ ♪ Tells the world my heart is filled ♪ ♪ With nothing but affection ♪ ♪ Lock me in your arms forever ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Narrator: But in Hollywood's golden age, real ambition was the preserve of a certain type of hero.

[ Shouts indistinctly ] Narrator: All the different lives, storylines, and adventures went to him.

Top of the world!

[ Explosion ] Narrator: For everyone else, there was no other choice but to play caricatures, which were endlessly imprinted, 24 frames a second, on the eyes of the entire world.

Goodbye, baby.

[ Gunshots ] The rare opportunities afforded to Marilyn were as limited as the clichés themselves.

Marilyn: One day, an actress I met mentioned they were filming a Marx Brothers film and were looking for a blonde.

Director: And action!

Come in.

Marilyn: Harpo and Groucho both smiled at me as if I were a piece of French pastry.

Is there anything I can do for you?

What a ridiculous statement.

My part consisted of walking into his office.

They told me that all the talking I would have to do was with my body.

Groucho asked me if I could walk in a way to make smoke come out of his head.

[ Pipe whistling ] I'd learned a few tricks from Mae West films.

Cigarette?

That impression of laughing at or mocking her own sexuality.

It's better to be looked over than overlooked.

Mr.

Grunion, I want you to help me.

Marilyn: In the film, When he asks what he can do for me, I answer... Some men are following me.

Really?

I can't understand why.

Then I walk out of the office.

That's all.

I advise you to leave.

I'll take you down to the bus station.

Oh... The scene couldn't have lasted more than 60 seconds on the screen, but it worked wonders for me.

Narrator: Using her wits, Marilyn responded to all the director's demands and gracefully melted into the blonde archetype.

Couldn't I just talk to you?

She tried to explore what little nuance her parts allowed whenever she could.

It's the only thing to do.

Come on.

[ Doorbell buzzing, knocking on door ] Who can that be this time of night?

[ Buzzing, knocking continue ] See who it is, Uncle Lon.

Why are they pounding so?

[ Knocking persistently ] I'm scared, Uncle Lon.

Marilyn: The director, Joseph Mankiewicz, on the strength of my role in "Asphalt Jungle", signed me for the part of the blonde called Miss Casswell in the picture "All about Eve".

Miss Casswell was a dumb blonde.

You remember Miss Casswell?

I do not.

How do you do?

We've never met.

Maybe that's why.

Miss Casswell is an actress.

Marilyn: The role was similar to the one I played in "Asphalt Jungle".

I didn't want to do the same thing, so I worked hard at developing the character the way I saw it.

Then you two must have a long talk.

I'm afraid Mr.

DeWitt would find me boring before too long.

You won't bore him, honey.

You won't even get a chance to talk.

Claudia, come here.

You see that man?

That's Max Fabian, the producer.

Now go and do yourself some good.

Why do they always look like unhappy rabbits?

Because that's what they are.

Now go and make him happy.

♪♪ Narrator: Marilyn had been star agent Johnny Hyde's mistress for two years when he asked her to marry him.

She declined.

He suggested to finance a rhinoplasty to thin out her nose and remodel her lower face.

She accepted.

He finally managed to convince Darryl Zanuck to take her back.

♪♪ Darryl Zanuck, the all-powerful boss of Fox, had never had anything but disdain for Marilyn, but he could no longer ignore her.

What's the matter with you, Benny?

You can't take such a chance.

You dumb broad.

You stupid -- What's the matter?

They followed you here... Narrator: You couldn't take your eyes off her.

Go ahead.

It won't be the first time I've been worked over today.

He was a mogul known for his fierce predilection for prey of all sorts.

He reintegrated Marilyn into Fox's prestigious stables and offered her a second contract, this time for seven years, for $750 a week, with no rights other than that of playing in the films of his choice.

♪♪ These are the personal letters, Mr.

Washburn.

Mr.

Washburn: Thank you, Iris.

Well, what have we got for today?

Narrator: She dreamed of major roles, but Zanuck used her as sexual decoration or to attract attention.

Yes, Mr.

McKinley.

Find someone to type this.

Oh, Mr.

Oxley, can't I try again?

No, it's very important.

Better find someone to type it for you.

Yes, sir.

Am I dumb or something?

Janis: She is one of the dumbest girls you will ever meet.

I was reading a book the other day.

Reading a book?

You're not smart enough, sweetie.

Man: Aren't you here early?

Oh, yes.

Mr.

Oxley's been complaining about my punctuation, so I'm careful to get here before 9:00.

[ Band playing ] Marilyn: Success came to me in a rush.

[ Band playing continues ] Letters started flooding my studio.

They came at the rate of 3,500 a week and then 5,000 and 7,000 a week.

It surprised my employers much more than it did me.

Even when I had played only bit parts in a few films, all the movie magazines and newspapers started printing my picture and giving me write ups.

Cahn: Marilyn looks the part of the standard Hollywood blonde... ...traditionally equipped with automatic batting eyelashes and a head filled with sawdust.

Marilyn: Labels.

People love putting labels on each other.

Then they feel safe.

I sometimes felt they were trying to make me into a machine.

♪♪ Narrator: Marilyn's image froze as the gap with reality widened.

[ Yelps ] You jerk!

Narrator: Off set, she spent all her salary on books and records.

She wrote poetry.

She bought only few clothes and spent her free time in acting classes.

♪♪ Marilyn: I work day and night, now more so to prove that I wanted to be a serious dramatic actress, even though some of the roles I was put in, you could hardly believe at the time.

Honey, those pictures you were taking of me were just marve.

They're running one in the newspaper tomorrow.

They say the rest will surely be taken by the magazine.

Thanks a bucket.

Not at all, baby.

Might as well let the world know you're loaded with talent.

Oh, by the way, this is my daughter, Misses Denham.

Barbara, this is Joyce Mannering.

How do you do?

Honey, your father's been so divine with me that sometimes even I feel like calling him daddy.

Director: Cut!

Marilyn: In a movie you act in little bits and pieces.

You say two lines and they cut.

They relight, set up the camera in another place, and you act two more lines.

Huey, is it true that Victor Macfarland's coming here to the hotel?

I was in the beauty parlor when they -- Sure.

He's due at any moment.

Would you like to meet him?

Marilyn: The minute you get going good in your characterization, they cut.

Director: Cut!

Marilyn: Nothing must come between me and my part.

Concentration.

The feeling.

Only getting rid of everything else.

♪♪ No looks.

Body only.

Woman: [ Singing ] ♪ There's a lull in my life ♪ Marilyn: Letting go.

Face feeling.

Mind.

Spirit.

No attitude.

Listening to the body for the feeling.

Listen with the eyes.

♪♪ Narrator: And then in 1953 in Niagara, director Henry Hathaway gave her a part as diabolical Rose Loomis, a manipulative adulteress.

♪♪ She was radiant.

Men: [ Singing ] ♪ Hold me, hold me ♪ You kind of like that song, don't you, Misses Loomis?

There isn't any other song.

Narrator: It was in this film that the definitive outline of Marilyn's character was fixed.

[ Singing along ] ♪ ...a moment of thrill ♪ ♪ Thrill me, thrill me ♪ Narrator: The nuances of curls and blonde tones would come to vary along with the color of her lips sometimes, or the curve of her eyebrows.

But on that day, Marilyn found her face.

She would never stray from it again.

[ Humming ] ♪ Perfection ♪ ♪ We're just two little girls ♪ Narrator: She went from being a sexy actress to an accomplished star.

♪ ...on the wrong side of the track ♪ Narrator: She lined up box office successes.

♪ Then someone broke my heart in Little Rock ♪ The contours of her character took shape.

But she continued to refine her acting.

♪ Like a little lost lamb I roamed about ♪ Against the exuberant technicolor backdrops, she had to make do with the tedious conformism of the scripts of the day.

Didn't you notice?

His pocket was bulging.

Yeah, that could be a bag of gumdrops.

No, it was a square bulge.

Like a box for a ring.

I think he's got a present for me.

Marilyn maneuvered her roles towards an increasingly mastered extravagance.

You know what I mean?

She skillfully walked the tightrope of candor, sensuality, and idiocy without ever slipping into ridicule... This is like a room, isn't it?

Oh, look, round windows.

...while still trying to enrich her characters, like here... I can be smart when it's important, but most men don't like it.

Narrator: She was the one who insisted on this famous line.

♪ The French are glad to die for love ♪ ♪ They delight in fighting ♪ Narrator: She also sang in all her films herself.

♪ But I prefer a man who lives and gives ♪ ♪ Expensive jewels ♪ Narrator: Historical irony met studio cynicism.

Fox only gave her parts as gold digging women.

♪ ...are a girl's best friend ♪ Narrator: They paid her a mere $1,700 per week, which was nothing compared to the $25 million grossed by the three films she shot that year.

Do you know who I'd like to marry?

Who?

Rockefeller.

Which one?

I don't care.

I wouldn't mind marrying a Vanderbilt.

Or Mr.

Cadillac.

Narrator: Divine Marilyn, the timeless maneater and diamond digger, was mistreated behind the scenes.

The majestic woman displayed on screen bore no resemblance to the woman scorned by Zanuck.

The studio boss refused to see her whenever she wanted to discuss more ambitious, weightier roles.

♪♪ ♪♪ In January 1954, new footage was shot, far from the studios this time.

♪♪ Spotlights turned to San Francisco Town Hall, where Marilyn was wedded to Joe DiMaggio.

The movie star and the legendary sportsman made up a perfect duo of American aristocracy.

♪♪ Like his fellow Americans, Joe fell in love with an image.

Two years earlier, the retired baseball champion had invited Marilyn for dinner simply after having seen her pose for this photo.

The rest is just the story of a misunderstanding.

She loved the poor child who made his own fortune by the sheer force of his talent.

She failed to see that behind the hero was a man of his time who expected a woman to stay at home.

♪♪ Reporter: When a well-known honeymoon couple arrives at Tokyo airport, a throng of 4,000 baseball and movie fans surge out of control.

Marilyn: I have to be careful in writing about my husband, Joe DiMaggio, because he winces easily.

He dislikes being photographed or interviewed.

If he's even so much asked to participate in some publicity stunt, he registers a big explosion.

Reporter: Did you and Misses DiMaggio enjoy your trip to Japan?

Joe: The only thing that I have to complain about is I haven't seen very much of Marilyn.

She is making a trip to Korea, touring through the camps.

And so maybe after that we will be able to spend a little time together.

[ Indistinct chatter ] [ Cheering ] Marilyn: From the age of 13, I knew I belonged to the public and to the world.

Not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.

The public was the only family, the only Prince Charming, and the only home I had ever dreamed of.

It was amazing.

Everywhere I looked, a man was smiling at me.

I've never felt that much of a star before.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ I wanted a husband and a career.

I guess no husband wants to live in the shadow of his wife's fame.

♪♪ I would never have imagined that a scene in the film "The Seven Year Itch", would be the cause of our breakup.

♪♪ Flight Attendant: The consumption of alcohol is not permitted on this flight.

Smoking in any kind in the aircraft is an offense under Australian law.

Failure to comply with this may result in substantial fines.

As I said before, if there's anything myself or any of the crew can do for you throughout the flight, please don't hesitate... Marilyn: A few weeks before my marriage to Joe DiMaggio, I was put on suspension by Fox for refusing to make a film called "The Girl in Pink Tights".

It was a remake of an old Betty Grable film.

I realized that just as I had once fought to get into the movies and become an actress, I would now have to fight to be able to use my talents.

If I didn't fight, I would become a piece of merchandise.

I wanted to be treated as a human being who had earned a few rights since her orphanage days.

Narrator: In the late summer of 1954, Marilyn arrived in New York.

She dreamed of a new life, far from her husband's jealousy and the frivolity of Hollywood.

[ Indistinct chatter ] She confided in Milton Greene, one of the young staff photographers for LIFE magazine, whom she had met during a shoot a few months earlier.

She told him about her low wages, about Darryl Zanuck's refusal to consider her for serious parts, the general brutality of the studios and their contempt.

You're a singer.

I could have sworn you were a dramatic actress.

You think that's impossible?

No, no.

I can just see it now.

You as Lady Macbeth.

What a sleepwalking scene.

Milton Greene confided that he wanted to start a production company.

Together, they decided to take the leap.

But first she had to finish shooting "The Seven Year Itch".

[ Indistinct chatter ] Director: Action!

♪♪ Marilyn: The scene was for Tom Ewell and me to come out of the Trans-Lux movie house on Lexington Avenue.

This was a night scene.

Didn't you just love the picture?

I did, but I just felt so sorry for the creature at the end.

Sorry for the creature?

What, did you want him to marry the girl?

He was kind of scary looking, but he wasn't really all bad.

I think he just craved a little affection.

You know, a sense of being loved and needed and wanted.

That's a very interesting point of view.

Ooh.

Do you feel the breeze from the subway?

Isn't it delicious?

[ Train rumbling below ] Marilyn: The crowd of men kept on applauding and shouting, "More!

More, Marilyn!

Let's see more!"

Among the crowd was my husband, Joe.

Joe became upset, especially when the director's camera kept coming in, focusing only on my vagina.

Ooh, here comes another one.

[ Train rumbling below ] Marilyn: Luckily, I'd been wearing two pairs of panties.

The whistles and the yelling from the male audience became too much for my husband.

Joe, angry as could be, shouted, "I've had it!," and took off.

I turned to Billy Wilder and said, "I hope all these extra takes are not for your Hollywood friends to enjoy at a private party."

I couldn't imagine them showing such a scene in a comedy film made for the family audience.

I was right.

When we returned to Hollywood, the scene was reshot at the studio in a more refined way.

[ Piano playing ] Chopsticks.

I can play that, too.

Shove over.

Both: [ Scatting ] Narrator: "The Seven Year Itch" was a huge success.

Money flowed into the coffers of Fox, and Zanuck couldn't afford to see Marilyn leave.

[ Scatting continues ] The studio gave in to her demands and gave her nearly everything she was asking for.

Both: [ Laugh ] [ Indistinct chatter ] ♪♪ Narrator: During the film's promotional tour, a giant photo of Marilyn was put up in many U.S.

cities.

♪♪ The metamorphosis was complete.

As a teenager and then as a young woman, she had understood and integrated the gaze of those she called wolves to such an extent that she herself turned into a creature.

A creature who was to embark on an adventure of fame and idolatry as yet unequaled in the history of cinema.

♪♪ ♪♪ In 1956, Marilyn was at the height of her fame.

She had settled in New York, spent time with the East Coast intellectual elite, and signed up for the Actors Studio, where the first scene she presented caught people's attention.

♪♪ Barely 10 years after Norma Jean started out as a Pin-up girl, she managed to get Fox to pay her $100,000 per film.

She could choose her directors and could read the scripts before the shoots.

Above all, she and her friend Milton Greene created Marilyn Monroe Productions, of which she was the president.

[ Chuckles ] Reporter: So it's true that you understand the business aspects of your company?

Do you run it?

Does Mr.

Greene run it?

We're all confused on this.

We hear so many... Well, I'm aware of what's going on with the company.

You are.

Do you make the decisions?

Are you the boss lady?

Oh, no.

Well, I'm the president.

But Mr.

Greene is the vice president.

And then there are other members in our company.

Man: The major decisions are referred to you... Marilyn: I always see that in interviews.

The questions often tell more about the interviewer than the answers do about me.

Um, I'd rather not answer that.

It's fine.

♪♪ Narrator: Her transformation was complete that year.

As she turned 30, Marilyn legally abandoned all the names she had once had -- Norma, Jean, Baker, Doherty, DiMaggio -- to officially become her character, Marilyn Monroe.

♪♪ Marilyn: The truth is, I've never fooled anyone.

I've let men sometimes fool themselves.

Men sometimes didn't bother to find out who and what I was.

Instead, they would invent a character for me.

They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪