Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in 1961 film, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Actress Audrey Hepburn hated Danish pastries. However, as Holly Golightly in the 1962 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Audrey was required to nibble one outside the New York jewelry store Tiffany’s. She asked director Blake Edwards if she could lick an ice cream cone instead, but he said no.
Author Truman Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe to play the part of Holly Golightly. Marilyn wanted the role, too, but her dramatic advisor refused to allow her to play a “lady of the evening.” Capote was busily rewriting the script to suit Monroe, but she was eliminated. Capote was bitter when “Paramount doubled-crossed me in every way and cast Audrey. She was just wrong for that part.”
Audrey considered the film her best work. When she watched it, however, she couldn’t help thinking about why her character would have abandoned her cat and that Capote really wanted Marilyn Monroe for the part.
Next month, Kate Middleton makes the cover of the UK magazine “Tatler. ” This February 2011 issue is a royal special, commemorating the engagement of Ms. Middleton to Prince William.
The cover montage of four brilliantly-colored photos of Ms. Middleton are reminiscent of American pop artist Andy Warhol‘s 1962 silkscreen prints of movie star Marilyn Monroe.
Warhol began experimenting with making mass-produced images of famous people in August 1962 when Marilyn Monroe committed suicide. This method became Warhol’s signature style and made him very rich and famous.
This publicity shot of Marilyn Monroe by Gene Korman for the film “Niagara,” made in 1953 was used by Pop Artist Andy Warhol to create his famous 1962 silkscreen prints of the actress, following her suicide by overdose.
This 1962 silkscreen print by Andy Warhol shows the repetitive image of Marilyn Monroe in bright shades of canary yellow, aqua blue, and shocking pink. These tiny prints are still worth millions of dollars.
Princess Diana (1961-1997) was often featured on the cover of "Tatler." This is from 1990.
Readers: For more on Kate Middleton and Princess Diana on this blog, click here.
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Elizabeth Taylor with husband #2: Michael Wilding: Married 21 February 1952, Divorced 30 January 1957
On May 12, 1956, Anglo-American film actress Elizabeth Taylor and her second husband Michael Wilding threw a dinner party at their Beverly Hills home. It was a bad night for a party. For the first thing, it was foggy and the Wildings lived up a long and winding road in Benedict Canyon. For the second thing, the Wildings’ marriage was on the rocks. Elizabeth was having an affair and Michael’s out-of-control drinking had led to several indiscretions with other women.
The guest of honor was to be Father George Long, a hip priest who ran with the Hollywood set. Rock Hudson and his new wife Phyllis Gates were invited. So was Kevin McCarthy, who was then making “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
Montgomery Clift was another actor on the guest list. That spring, he and Elizabeth were shooting the MGM Civil War melodrama, “Raintree County.”
Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor in "Raintree County" (1957)
(Elizabeth had just finished filming “Giant” which would be released in October of that same year.)
Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson in "Giant" (1956)
Monty and Elizabeth had become best friends in 1951 during the filming of “A Place in the Sun.” Monty affectionately referred to Elizabeth as “Bessie Mae.” She was his confidante. Monty Clift was a rising star, known for his sensitive and brooding portrayals of troubled young men. He was very intense and deeply serious about acting.
"A Place in the Sun" (1951) with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor
At first Monty declined the invitation at Liz’s. He was awkward being around the Wildings while their marriage was so bad. But he changed his mind and agreed to join the group for dinner, leasing a car and driving up the mountain road to the Wildings’ house.
The party turned out to be a terrific bore. The guest of honor didn’t even show. Michael Wilding wasn’t feeling well and spent the evening lounging on the couch, saying virtually nothing to the company and acting aloof. That made Elizabeth nervous so she was unusually chatty. Monty grumbled about the way the MGM director Edward Dmytryk was shooting everything in “Raintree County” in giant close-ups. He was depressed and angry. He sensed the film would be a colossal disaster.
The party broke up about midnight with Monty and Kevin bidding each other goodbye in the driveway and taking off down the road Elizabeth called a “cork twister.” Kevin was in the lead. Within minutes, Kevin was back at Elizabeth’s house, ringing the bell. Monty Clift had had a serious car accident. His car had struck a utility pole as he rounded one of the hairpin turns in the fog. Elizabeth shrieked and demanded that Kevin immediately take her to the scene.
Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Eva Marie Saint in "Raintree County" (1957)
Since the 1950, many unflattering things have been written about Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor who is now a Dame of the British Empire, and much of it was justified. (She tended to steal people’s husbands.) But what was to happen next on that foggy stretch of midnight road below her house was to be Elizabeth’s finest hour.
She and Kevin arrived at the wreck:
“Monty’s car was demolished, an ‘accordion-pleated mess,’ Elizabeth said. A 4,800 transformer, knocked off the pole by the impact, had narrowly missed hitting the car. McCarthy thought his friend was dead. ‘The doors were so jammed that we couldn’t get to him,’ he said.” (1)
Broken glass was everywhere – but that didn’t faze Elizabeth. She climbed in the car through a back window.
“‘Adrenaline does something to you,’ she remembered.”
Elizabeth hauled herself over the bloody seat. Monty’s motionless body lay beneath the steering wheel. His face was barely recognizable.
“‘It was like pulp,’ she remembered.”
Elizabeth called out to Monty. He reacted to her voice and indicated to her that he was choking. Several of his teeth had broken off and had lodged in the back of his throat. Reaching inside his mouth, Elizabeth pulled the teeth out, one by one. Elizabeth saved his life. Monty could once again breathe.
It was nearly an hour before an ambulance arrived and, with it, a handful of frenzied photographers. Elizabeth positioned herself between the stretcher carrying Monty and the photographers’ cameras. “She was remarkable,” said McCarthy. She told the photographers that if they so much as snapped one photo of Monty’s bloodied face, she’d never allow her to take another photo of her. (That would never do. Elizabeth Taylor was one of Hollywood’s top actresses and would become one of the most photographed women in the world.) The photographers backed off.
The car accident left Elizabeth with persistent nightmares. She couldn’t get Monty’s bloody face out of her mind.
“It would come up like a balloon in front of me at night.”
"The Misfits" (1961) stars Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift
Understandably, filming on “Raintree County” was put on hold as Monty underwent a long hospitalization and painful facial reconstruction. Despite these efforts, Monty never looked as beautiful as before. His face remained scarred and partially paralyzed. This was the beginning of Monty’s long and deadly slide into alcohol and drug addiction. He became a wrecked man.
Marilyn Monroe, who appeared alongside Monty in the 1961 film, “The Misfits,” described him as
“the only person I know who is in worse shape than I am.”
Monty’s post-accident career has been called “the longest suicide in Hollywood history.” In 1966, ten years after his car accident, Montgomery Clift died alone in his New York apartment while watching “The Misfits” on TV. He was only 45.
(1) Mann, William J. How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers, 2009.
American Royalty: President John and Jackie Kennedy stroll the White House grounds.
It was a star-studded event. It was Saturday, May 19, 1962, and the young, dashing, and popular U.S. President John F. Kennedy was turning 45. The Democratic Party held a huge fundraiser at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The birthday salute was televised before a national audience and 15,000 people had paid for seats to catch the show live at the Garden. The cream of American show business turned out to pay homage to Kennedy – Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Jack Benny, Henry Fonda, Harry Belafonte. Greek opera diva Maria Callas was also there. Actor Peter Lawford, the president’s brother-in-law, served as master-of-ceremonies. But the pièce de résistance – the showstopper – was the performer who sang the finale – sexpot and film star Marilyn Monroe.
First Lady Jackie Kennedy riding horses with her children at their Middleburg, Virginia, retreat "Glen Ora." Jackie grew up surrounded by horses and was an accomplished equestrian. President John Kennedy did not share her passion for horse shows and riding. He was allergic to horse hair. November 19, 1962.
It seemed that everyone was there – except the honoree’s wife – Jackie Kennedy. The president attended the ceremony without the First Lady at his side. When Jackie had learned that Marilyn was to be performing at the benefit, she decided she was not about to attend. She instead became a last-minute participant in the Loudoun Hunt Horse Show at Glen Ora, her weekend home. Jackie knew that her husband and Marilyn Monroe were lovers – and Jackie was not about to have her nose rubbed into it in front of a national audience.
Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) was wild for Jack Kennedy. She accepted the invitation to appear in New York in violation of her contract with Twentieth-Century Fox – and their relationship was already at its breaking point. Production on her latest film, “Something’s Got to Give,” had been on start/stop for months due to Marilyn’s chronic tardiness and absence. Marilyn was in a narcotics and booze nosedive and living on impulse. She was in hot pursuit of Jack Kennedy and nothing would get in her way. She was scheduled to sing “Happy Birthday” to the president.
Marilyn Monroe in "Gentleman Prefer Blondes" (1953)
“A manic energy propelled her….” wrote Barbara Leaming in Marilyn Monroe:
“All weekend, the white-carpeted, unfurnished rooms at Fifth Helena echoed with Marilyn’s whispery voice. She lay in the tub singing “Happy Birthday.” She sat on the living room floor, endlessly tape recording and listening to herself….” (1)
Then, ignoring the studio’s stern warning, Marilyn flew from Hollywood to New York with Peter Lawford, singing on the airplane. She continued to practice once in her New York apartment. Those who listened said her interpretation grew sexier, more and more outrageous. Friend Paula Strasberg warned that it verged on self-parody.
Finally, the night of the performance arrived. Backstage, Marilyn got into her costume – a flesh-toned slip of a dress by Jean-Louis sewn with 2500 rhinestones. The gown was so snug Marilyn had to be sewn into it. Paralyzed with stage fright, Marilyn kept ignoring her cue to appear on stage. She hung back, drowning her fears in alcohol, before Milt Ebbins shoved her onto the stage.
“She walked like a geisha….” (1)
“The figure was famous and, for one breathless moment, the 15,000 people in Madison Square Garden thought they were going to see all of it. Onto the stage sashayed Marilyn Monroe, attired in a great bundle of white mink. Arriving at the lectern, she turned and swept the furs from her shoulders. A slight gasp rose from the audience before it was realized that she was really wearing a skintight flesh-toned gown.” (2)
Marilyn Monroe at the microphone singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President," at President John F. Kennedy's birthday bash, May 19, 1962.
“When she came down in that flesh-colored dress, without any underwear on…” said Hugh Sidey of Time, “you could just smell lust. I mean, Kennedy went limp or something. We all were just stunned to see this woman.”
“What an ass…what an ass,” whispered Kennedy.
“Happy…Birthday…to you,” Marilyn began to sing [whisper]. (3)
Her rendition of “Happy Birthday, Mister President” – was soft, seductive, and pathetic. The 35-year-old Marilyn was high as a kite (and wearing a wig that was slipping). Columnist Dorothy Kilgallen called it nothing less than:
“…making love to the President in the direct view of forty million Americans.”
President John F. Kennedy speaks to the audience at Madison Square Garden at his 45th birthday bash, May 19, 1962.
At the end of the performance, a noticeably-embarrassed President Kennedy took to the stage and announced disingenuously:
“I can now retire from politics after having had Happy Birthday sung to me in such a sweet wholesome way.” (2)
At an after-party, a photographer caught President Kennedy and brother Robert Kennedy hovering over Marilyn in the library, still wearing the see-through dress Marilyn called “skin and beads.”
Bobby Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, and President John Kennedy gather following Monroe's iconic performance of "Happy Birthday, Mr. President," at Madison Square Garden, May 19, 1962. Marilyn is still wearing the gown she wore in the performance which she referred to as "skin and beads." The auction house Christie's later sold this dress for $1.2 million, the most money ever paid for a dress.
Kennedy’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, was at the party and saw Marilyn’s “skin and beads” dress. He later wrote to Mary Lasker:
“I didn’t see the beads!”
Greek opera diva Maria Callas (1923-1977) laughs it up with blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe at President Kennedy's 45th birthday bash at Madison Square Garden, May 19, 1962. First Lady Jackie Kennedy did not attend the celebration. Marilyn Monroe was President Kennedy's lover when Jackie was Mrs. Kennedy. Maria Callas was the clandestine lover of Aristotle Onassis when Jackie was Mrs. Onassis.
Jackie Kennedy watched Marilyn’s performance on TV the next day. She was livid. The rumors about Jack and Marilyn were flying. Jackie called up sister-in-law Ethel Kennedy and complained that she just knew Bobby had staged the prank. Jackie ordered Jack to stop seeing Marilyn. (4) Jack also sent word to the press that there was nothing to the rumors of an extramarital affair between him and Marilyn Monroe, which, we know, was a lie.
President Kennedy broke off the relationship with Marilyn. Her performance at Madison Square Garden became her last public appearance. Marilyn became profoundly affected by the break-up with the President and her loss of other men, including ex-husband Arthur Miller, who had recently remarried.
As a result, the summer following the Madison Square Garden show, Marilyn dove deeper and deeper into a downward spiral of drugs and alcohol, storm and stress, and depressed isolation. Out of necessity, the production of her film, “Something’s Got to Give” came to a halt, because the star was a “no-show” on the set.
The movie was never finished. On August 5, Marilyn Monroe – born Norma Jeane Baker – was found dead in her home from a drug overdose – an apparent suicide – and the world was shocked.
Goodbye, Norma Jeane
(1) Leaming, Barbara. Marilyn Monroe. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.
(2) Smith, Sally Bedell.Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House. New York: Random House, Inc., 2004. (excerpted from a Time magazine article)
(3) Klein, Edward. All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy. New York: Pocket Books, 1996.
(4) Taraborrelli, J. Randy. Jackie Ethel Joan. New York: Warner Books, Inc., 2000.
*Readers: I’ve written many posts on Jackie O and the Kennedys. Please look in the right sidebar – Categories – People – the Kennedys. Enjoy!
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