Icon: The Life, Times, and Films of Marilyn Monroe Volume 1 1926 to 1956 by Gary Vitacco-Robles

Author:Gary Vitacco-Robles [Vitacco-Robles, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BearManor Media
Published: 2015-04-24T21:00:00+00:00

Part V

Mrs. Joe DiMaggio

Chapter Twenty-Five

January-May 1954

The Christmas and New Year’s holidays with the extended DiMaggio family were the best of Marilyn’s life. The house was filled with laughter, warmth, food, gifts, and happy children. The experience provided a taste of what life might be like if she married into this Italian-American family. Joe had been talking about marriage for months. She and Joe acknowledged their challenges as a couple but could not give each other up. They could not go on living apart in parallel lives in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and believed marriage was the only solution to their problem. In Marilyn’s version of the proposal, Joe queried, “You’re having all this trouble with the studio and not working so why don’t we get married now?” It made sense to her, and she said yes.

Joe planned to take Marilyn with him to Japan, where he was scheduled to a twenty-four day promotional tour to train the six teams in the Japan Central League for the 1954 season. The event, organized by Yomiuri Shimbun (a leading Japanese newspaper), could also serve as their overseas honeymoon. Joe was practical, Marilyn thought. He possibly hoped Marilyn’s battle with the studio might signal the end of her career, and perhaps if she were married, she would be less motivated to salvage it. Moreover, being a wife and mother might fulfill her more than the caliber of work Fox was offering. Being chosen as a wife by a national hero provided validation to Marilyn. She had never imagined being the wife of a great man, and she also recognized Joe had never imagined marrying a woman who was “eighty per cent publicity.” Their New Year’s Eve kiss sealed the plan.

On New Year’s Day, the Motion Picture Herald named Marilyn as recipient of the Award of Achievement for her high-ranking position as one of the “Top Ten Money-making Stars of 1953.” Three days later, Fox placed her on suspension for not reporting to the set of Pink Tights. “I take pride in my work, and I’m a human being…” Marilyn told Marie Torre of New York Herald-Tribune Television and Radio. “If I keep on with parts like the ones [the studio] has been giving me, the public will soon tire of me.” Fox turned to Judy Garland, a star not under contract, as Marilyn’s replacement, but even she declined the role.

At Tom DiMaggio’s birthday party on January 12, Joe stole some of the spotlight from his brother by announcing his plans to wed Marilyn. Everyone was overjoyed. Marilyn was embraced, kissed, and welcomed into the fold. The next day, UCLA graduate Doreen Provost, an assistant buyer in the bridal department at I. Magnin Company in San Francisco, was called to assist a couple getting married at City Hall in San Francisco. She entered the designer salon and found Marilyn and DiMaggio waiting for her. America’s most famous engaged couple explained plans for a traditional wedding, even though Archbishop John Mitty refused their request to

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