Joe and Marilyn by C. David Heymann

Author:C. David Heymann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Chapter 14

IN SEPTEMBER 1957 JOE DIMAGGIO Jr. transferred from Black-Foxe Military Institute in Los Angeles to Lawrenceville Prep School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. At the time a boys’ boarding school, Lawrenceville was fifty miles southwest of New York, five minutes south of Princeton, New Jersey, and forty miles north of Philadelphia. Sixteen-year-old Joey thrived in his new environment. At five foot eight and 165 pounds, he was still filling out, though he would never be as tall and as muscular as his father. Yet he became a shot-putter on the school’s winter track team and a javelin thrower on the spring team. Not big enough to play a position on the football team, he practiced for hours and became the team kicker. When asked by a member of the press why he hadn’t tried out for the varsity baseball squad, he said he wanted to concentrate on track. It was the old story. He knew he couldn’t compete with his father’s feats on the baseball diamond, so why try?

“I tried like hell to make the junior varsity football team,” Joey recalled. “The coach told me if I got good at it, he’d give me a spot as a placekicker. That’s all I needed to hear. Every afternoon after class I’d be out there with a dozen footballs, practicing field goals, extra points, and kickoffs. I’d practice kicking until the rest of the team went off for dinner. I’d be out there booting footballs half the night. I suppose I wanted to prove to my father that I was good at something.”

Joey developed a number of interests at Lawrenceville. He joined the staff of the school newspaper (the Lawrence), the science club, and the chess team. He became a chapel usher and appeared in a school play. He eventually became president of the Open Door Society, which arranged for prospective underprivileged students to visit the campus. He continued his childhood interest in aviation, taking flying lessons at a small airport outside Philadelphia. His father paid for the flight lessons as well as for the fees associated with school. And until his son turned twenty-one, DiMaggio had to keep up his child support payments to Joey’s mother.

Although Marilyn Monroe had endured more than her share of recent difficulties, she continued to remain in close contact with Joey, especially now that they were both on the East Coast. His connection to Monroe also ensured Joey a direct line to his father, who called regularly to find out about Marilyn.

“At first he made no effort to visit me at school,” said Joey, “but he did call. I’d hoped he’d come to our first football game. When we lost seven to six because I missed the extra point, I felt relieved he wasn’t there. When I told him the final score, he surprised me with his answer. ‘You’ll make it next time,’ he said.”

Joined by a classmate from Lawrenceville, Joe Jr. spent Thanksgiving break of 1957 with his father in New York. George Solotaire provided

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