MM@M: Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962)

You may have noticed I'm Mad Men crazy this week. I'm just trying to cram it in before Sunday's premiere. I'll calm down Monday.

<-- Betty's terrible advice to Sally! I never fail to get a kick out of what a horrible mother she really is.

I'm so excited I'm about to grab one of the T-Shirts from the Mad Men shop on CafePress. I'm already having trouble choosing but they made it easier for me by denying me some of the designs in men's sizes. Excuse me but what if I want a "Mark Your Man" t-shirt with lipstick prints all over it? I mean, I might. I have been known to embrace the girlie. I think I might go for the "Who's For Dinner?" shirt because I love Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton). Nobody else loves Ken but I do not care. I will read any short story he wants me to.

Anyway CafePress is very excited about the premiere on Sunday as evidenced by this Mad Men blog post with Season 4 conjecture and trivia questions and new merchandise. And no, I'm not getting a commission on sales just a T-shirt. I am a firm firm believer in Ts.

Where were we... oh yes...

The final MARILYN MONROE themed episode.


Episode 2.9 "Six Month Leave"
Bad news... this episode of Mad Men opens with it. Marilyn has been found dead. The upsetting morning headlines disrupt the mood and particulars to such a degree that the usually silent elevator operator Hollis (La Monde Byrd, doing fine background work), speaks without being spoken to.

Hollis: You hear about Marilyn? Poor thing.
Don Draper: I can't say I'm surprised, the few things I know about her.
Peggy: You just don't imagine her ever being alone. She was so famous.
Hollis: Some people just hide in plain sight.
Peggy: My mother and sister keep calling.
Don: Suicide is disturbing.
Hollis: I keep thinking about Joe DiMaggio...

As soon as their conversation begins, it splinters into three, none of them responding to each other but lost in their own specific Marilyn opinions and thoughts. Celebrity culture may be a unifier with co-workers, strangers and loved ones, but our personal feelings about each celebrity can just as easily divide us again. The elevator opens, ending the disjointed conversation. Peggy isn't much ruffled, though several other women in the office are shown crying, and is immediately back to business, expressing relief that Playtex didn't pick up the Marilyn campaign.

George Barris (left pic) and Allan Grant (right pics) were reportedly the
last photographers to shoot the screen icon (both in summer '62)

Marilyn's grave in Westwood, CA

Marilyn photographed by Lawrence Schiller in May '62 on the set
of the unfinished film Something's Got To Give. She was fired in June.
Though rehired before her death, filming never resumed. The movie
was a remake of the Irene Dunne movie My Favorite Wife (1940) and
was eventually reworked with new script, director and cast as Move
Over Darling (1963) with Doris Day.

Marilyn's death in August 1962 has long been the subject of conspiracy theories and speculation: Accident? Suicide? Murder? Just about everything involving Marilyn gets disputed, even her talent. I didn't know this myself but apparently Monroe was vocal with the press about her unhappiness with the powers that be. We overhear a radio broadcast in the episode.

"In an interview just weeks before her death, Miss Monroe angrily protested to a reporter about attacks on stars. "We're what's okay with the movie business," she said. "Management is what's wrong with the business."

No MM themed episode of MM would be complete without commentary from their resident Marilyn, Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) who is discovered crying on the couch in her boss (and former lover's) office.

Sterling: What's wrong Red? Do you miss me?
Joan: She was so young.
Sterling: Not you too.
Joan: Yes, I'm just another frivolous secretary.
Sterling: It's a terrible tragedy but that woman is a stranger. Roosevelt. I hated him but I felt like I knew him.
Joan: A lot of people felt like they knew her. You should be sensitive to that.
Sterling: [Grabs her arm intimately]
Hey... you're not like her.
[Attempts to lighten the mood.]
Physically a little but don't tell me that makes you sad.
Joan: It's not a joke. This world destroyed her.
Sterling: Really? She was a movie star who had everything... and everybody. And she threw it away. But hey... if you want to be sad.
Joan: One day you'll lose someone who is important to you. You'll see. It's very painful.

Just as in their Season 1 fight over The Apartment (1960), this conversation is not exactly about what it's about. This Marilyn farewell doubles as an obit for their own broken romance. Too many narrative artforms use doubling too literally but this writing team tends to handle these things with some delicacy, rarely forcing the parallels into absolute mirrors. The episode's self-destructive A plot (Freddy Rumsen's alcoholism and forced exit), for instance, plays superbly within the context of the Marilyn's self-medicated ending. It's not an obvious mirror, but a foggy distorted reflection.

True story: I had this Marilyn poster on my bedroom wall growing up
(baby film buff!) and my Mom thought it was "obscene"

Other references in this episode: (Music) Mitch Miller | (Literature) Katherine Anne Porter's Ship of Fools |(Unspecific Entertainment References) Gypsy, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit | (Celebrities) "The Champ"