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A letter from actor Tom Ewell. The key line reads from the top: “[Marilyn’s] mother was not around at the time of filming – she had died when Marilyn was four” |
Letters reveal extent of Monroe ‘cover-up’
Updated book reveals 'lies' told to maintain sex symbol's image
UNSEEN letters revealing a “cover-up” surrounding the biggest sex symbol of the 20th century have been published by a Covent Garden tour guide.
Former Hollywood columnist Sandra Shevey interviewed hundreds of superstars – including Dustin Hoffman, John Lennon and Alfred Hitchcock – during the 1970s
Now conducting history walks around the West End, she recently realised the significance of a series of letters sent to her when she was researching her best-selling biography of Marylin Monroe.
One letter, from the Monroe’s confidant and Golden Globe-winning actor Tom Ewell, reveals the lengths that Tinsel Town’s producers went to preserve the blonde bombshell’s “whiter-than-white” image.
Ms Shevey said: “Tom’s letter says that Marilyn’s mother was unavailable for interview because she died when she was young. We now know this is untrue – and that she was actually sectioned in a sanitorium with psychiatric problems. She lived until 1984.
“There had been a rumour that Marilyn’s producers forced her to tell people her mother had died when she was a child. They did not want their number one star to have a ‘mad mum’. We thought this was just a rumour but this letter shows it was true.”
She added: “Tom’s letter says how Marilyn used to phone up around two in the morning. They worked together on the film The Seven Year Itch – they were very close.
“It’s strange that she would not have told him the truth, that is why it is so interesting, it shows how deep it all went.”
The fervour surrounding the Tom Ewell letter has been spotted by The National Portrait Gallery, who invited Ms Shevey to speak about her find last week. She attracted a capacity 500-strong audience, and her book has been republished.
Ms Shevey, who hit the big time after scoring a regular feature column for the New York Times in the 1970s, is adamant Monroe and Kennedy had a relationship – and maybe even a child – and that her first husband Arthur Miller split with her because he “leaned the other way”.
She said: “I also discovered that when Monroe and Arthur Miller came over [to England] for their honeymoon they stayed in separate parts of London. Now that’s pretty strange. Monroe was staying in a hotel in Surrey and Miller was in Maida Vale.”
Two years later the couple would split, following a miscarriage during the filming of Some Like It Hot.
Alongside the correspondence sent to Ms Shevey from Monroe’s close Hollywood pals, is a letter from her first husband James Dougherty expressing his personal thanks that Ms Shevey was the one writing the biography.
“The Marilyn Scandal sets the record straight,” she says.
You can order the book at www.createworld wide.co.uk/sandrashevey |
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