Marilyn Monroe WWII pinup 1940s
I say ‘10 things you didn’t know about Marilyn Monroe‘ but obviously I have no idea how much of a Marilyn expert you are, so I guess these are really 10 things I didn’t know about Marilyn Monroe! Let me know if they’re all news to you too – I was amazed by some of these facts!
  1. The young Norma Jeane nearly chose the screen name of Jean Adair before she eventually decided to change her name to Marilyn Monroe in March 1956.
  2. For the movie ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ Jane Russell was paid about ten times more than Marilyn Monroe was.
  3. As a child Marilyn Monroe lived with 11 sets of foster parents as well as an orphanage after her mother was sent to a mental institution.
  4. In 2011 Authentic Brand Groups bought the licensing rights to Marilyn Monroe’s estate for $30 million. They now make around $5 million a year from products licensed to her name (like the new line of shoes coming out soon).
  5. Mariah Carey bought Marilyn Monroe’s baby grand piano at auction for $662.
  6. Marilyn Monroe was buried in an apple green Pucci sheath dress made of nylon jersey
  7. When she was 16 Marilyn married James Dougherty, their marriage only lasted a few years. Dougherty was forbidden by his second wife from going and seeing any of Marilyn’s movies.
  8. Despite the colour bar being in force, Marilyn Monroe got Ella Fitzgerald her first major engagement at a LA nightclub by promising the management that she would sit in the front row of Fitzgerald’s show for a week.
  9. Marilyn’s career as a model began when she was discovered working on the assembly line at a munitions factory. I think it might have been these photos which began her career, the timing is certainly right..
  10. Marilyn Monroe had plastic surgery: rhinoplasty and a chin implant in 1950. The surgery was paid for by her agent.
    The photo below is from the movie Dangerous Years in 1947 before the plastic surgery.

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Source and copyright:  This image is a work of a U.S. Army soldier or employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.