When Marilyn Met the Queen by Michelle Morgan

Author:Michelle Morgan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2022-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

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On Wednesday 19 September, Arthur Miller received a telegram from producer Kermit Bloomgarden, asking if Marilyn would like to play the role of Athena in Paul Osborn’s play Maiden Voyage. The production would be staged in New York during the winter of 1956–7, with Bloomgarden as producer.

Marilyn read the telegram when she returned home from Pinewood, and though she was honoured to be asked, she was too exhausted to think about work after the gruelling hours spent on The Sleeping Prince. Added to that, she and Miller were still looking for a base in New York, and if they had any hope of settling into married life, they would need some time to decompress. Miller explained the situation and apologised on her behalf.

Undeterred, Bloomgarden wrote back, and this time he enclosed the script and explained that he had wanted Marilyn for the role as soon as she had walked into his house during a visit earlier that year. Although the actress would never act in the play, she did read the script, and rather liked the part of Hera, the wife of Zeus. She scribbled notes in the margins, and kept the text in her possession for the rest of her life.

Someone else with Marilyn in mind for a project was Dennis Vance, head of drama at the Associated British Corporation, which was part of the ITV television network. Since the beginning of 1955, the actress had made no secret of her desire to play Grushenka from the Dostoevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov. However, critics and journalists alike wasted no time in ridiculing her dreams and accusing her of having ideas beyond her grasp. ‘It didn’t bother me,’ Marilyn said in November 1955. ‘I knew they hadn’t read the book. Or if they had, they had forgotten it. Actually, it would make a wonderful movie. Samuel Goldwyn himself told me that. I’ll take his word for it.’

In August 1956, director King Vidor revealed that he and producer Dino De Laurentiis were interested in Marilyn playing Grushenka in their planned version of The Brothers Karamazov. Possibly prompted by this news, Dennis Vance made contact with the Monroe camp in late September. He informed Marilyn that he too was planning to make the book into a movie, and the part was hers, ‘Anywhere, anytime… Plenty of time after the filming of The Sleeping Prince is finished.’

It was reported that Marilyn was thinking it over but, ultimately, she turned down the role. ‘So sorry,’ she said, ‘but I only have one week in England after finishing The Sleeping Prince and there just wouldn’t be time.’

In hindsight, there was simply no way an exhausted Marilyn could have stepped straight out of The Sleeping Prince and onto the set of The Brothers Karamazov. Still, it is poignant that the offer she had coveted was to come her way while in England, when all she could think about was heading back to New York. In the end, Marilyn would never be destined to play the role of Grushenka in The Brothers Karamazov.

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