Impossibly Blonde: The Genesis of a Play in the Death and Funeral of Marilyn Monroe

By Gene Anthony and Maggy Anthony

Hollywood icon, sex goddess, glamour queen, complex, scared and vulnerable young woman, Marilyn Monroe offered a variety of faces to the world before she died. To imagine how Marilyn might have matured into wise, graceful and gorgeous old age, author and playwright Maggy Anthony wrote Impossibly Blonde.

"Just as her life had cast its spell over my life, her death and the subsequent surrealism of her funeral, which I attended, and the aftermath of conspiracy theories, hints of murder and intrigue in high places, cast its shadow.

"I am attempting to show how even an event of the utmost tragedy can give birth to a creative project and perhaps offer some understanding of this complex woman who has become a symbol of the Eternal Feminine, and who was also very much a woman of her time.

"My play is my prose poem to her, of love, appreciation and regret."
-Maggy Anthony, playwright and author

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 17, 2004
• ISBN: 9780595774036

Gene Anthony

Maggy Anthony was born in Hollywood and is a playwright now residing in Northern Nevada. A lifelong fan of Marilyn Monroe, she was at Monroe?s home on assignment for an international magazine with her photojournalist husband Gene Anthony, the day after Monroe?s death. Anthony has written a one-woman play, Impossibly Blonde, in which she portrays an older Monroe. She studied at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and is the author of several books, including JUNG?S CIRCLE OF WOMEN, and LANDSCAPE OF DESIRE.

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All Rights Reserved © 2004 by Maggy Anthony

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

THE FUNERAL AND A VISIT TO MARILYN’S HOME

PHOTOGRAPHS

MARILYN AS ICON

THE COLLECTORS, or STALKING THE DEAD

WRITING THE PLAY

THE JOURNAL

IMPOSSIBLY BLONDE: MARILYN AT 77

FULL CIRCLE

To Anna and Joshua whose births began

the creative flow for me. Your love and

support are priceless.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Since my play, Impossibly Blonde: Marilyn at 77 is, in many ways, a culmination of my life experience and my creative life, my acknowledgements could go on for several pages. For the purpose of brevity, I shall thank those in my life most directly responsible for my being able to finish the play, choose to play Marilyn myself, and bring it to the stage. My heartfelt thanks, therefore, to:

Gene Anthony and his enthusiasm for the Impossibly Blonde project, both book and play, since its beginnings, extending to bankrolling and producing it.

Andrea Turman, who at every turn of the road has been there to encourage me and egg me on in all my creative endeavors, and who has labored in every way to promote my career as a playwright and writer.

Jeanmarie Simpson and Cameron Crain who got me very excited about theatre through my affiliation with their Nevada Shakespeare Company as Playwright in Residence for a couple of years. Their immense talents and professionalism continue to be my beacons.

Charles Ponce who has acted as editor, enthusiast, friend and mentor since the first play was written and contributed much to Impossibly Blonde: Marilyn at 77 from its very beginnings, as can be seen in the section of this book taken from my journal.

Lou O’Leary, older brother and friend, who instilled a sense of worth in me early on, and who contributed a pair of dazzling golden slippers for the premiere at the perfect moment.

Stephen Kathriner, who triggered ideas,and bought Marilyn some flashy red shoes for a new costume. And for his great performance as Auctioneer at a particularly pleasurable presentation in San Francisco.

John Roth who inundated me with books, videos and other research materials on Marilyn right along.

Bob McClay artist extraordinaire for his continuing support and his wonderful performances as Auctioneer.

Paul Krave, my son-in-law, master craftsman and friend.

INTRODUCTION

Hollywood icon, sex Goddess, glamour queen, complex, scared and vulnerable young woman, Marilyn Monroe offered a variety of faces to the world before she died in 1962 at the age of 36. To imagine how Marilyn might have matured into wise, graceful and gorgeous old age, author and playwright Maggy Anthony wrote Impossibly Blonde: Marilyn at 76 in 2002.

Drawn from a vast body of research and historical documents of Monroe’s life, this one—woman play, and now this book, also features material from Anthony’s own experiences including a tour of Monroe’s home just hours after her death, and attendance at her funeral.

Over the years, Marilyn’s life and death have haunted Anthony. I’ve continued to think about Marilyn and the culture that formed her and ultimately destroyed her.

Just as her life had cast its spell over my life, her death and the subsequent surrealism of her funeral, which I attended, and the aftermath of conspiracy theories, hints of murder and intrigue in high places, cast its shadow. My play is my prose poem to her, of love, appreciation and regret.

Impossibly Blonde: Marilyn at 76 premiered to rave reviews in February 2003 as part of the Nevada Shakespeare Company’s New Works Initiative, In Reno, Nevada. It was performed again in Reno in December of 2003 at the newly built Nevada Museum of Art, and in the spring of 2004, in San Francisco at the Noh Theater of the Project Artaud. There are scheduled performances nationwide in the remainder of 2004 and into 2005.

In this book, I am attempting to show how even an event of the utmost tragedy, can give birth to a creative project, and perhaps offer some understanding of this complex woman who has become a symbol of the Eternal Feminine, and who was also very much a woman of her time

Andrea Turman

Marilyn, it must be said, traveled always with a dark companion by her side. Astronomers explain the erratic and unpredictable behavior of certain brilliant stars by telling us that they are accompanied in their journey by an invisible ‘dark companion’ which exerts a strong gravitational pull on its more brilliant peer.

Clifford Odets

Quotation from Cornell by Dore Ashton

THE FUNERAL AND A VISIT TO MARILYN’S HOME

The call came in the early hours of Sunday morning, August 5th, 1962. We had been asleep when the telephone awakened us. Years later, I was to wonder how the German magazine, Der Stern, had found out so early that Marilyn Monroe was dead.

My husband, Gene Anthony, was a photojournalist who worked regularly for many of the top magazines of the day: Time, Life, Look, Newsweek and Playboy, as well as some European magazines. Three times in that last year alone, he had been called to photograph at the funerals of the famous: Gary Cooper, Ernest Hemingway, and now, Marilyn Monroe.

The funeral was special for me. I had loved her from the earliest movies of hers that I had seen, growing up in the early ‘50s. I wanted to go with Gene this time. I told him I would make myself useful by writing captions and interviewing anyone I could. The one drawback to my going was my terror of flying. Even the forty-five minute flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles was impossible for me. So we left almost immediately after the call, in our car, driving from our apartment in San Francisco to Los Angeles. Brentwood and Marilyn’s bungalow to be exact.

As we arrived, we saw little activity underway. There was a middle-aged woman, walking around, looking a little lost, I thought. Since this was the early 60s, there was none of the heavy security one would expect now, in the 21st Century. No forbidding gate, no guards wandering around. Even the police presence was small, so I imagined the woman was somehow part of the household staff. I was shortly to learn that she was the entire household staff, Eunice Murray, Marilyn’s housekeeper. Years later, it came out she had formerly been a psychiatric nurse, and had been hand-picked for this job to keep an eye on Marilyn by her psychiatrist, Dr. Greenson. In those last few weeks of her life, it had seemed